Authors: Arlene Sachitano
Connie was speaking in rapidfire Spanish to Jorge when Harriet came into Tico's Tacos a few minutes later.
"Hola, chiquita,” Connie said and pulled Harriet into a bear hug. “I filled Jorge in on the plan. He can't leave here, but he's preparing snacks for each team."
"Thanks, Jorge."
Jorge tipped his ball cap to her in acknowledgment. She took a deep breath. He was roasting peppers, and the smell permeated the room.
"I'll have to have a snack after smelling the wonderful aroma in here."
"I pulled a couple of tables together in the back room,” he said, and indicated a doorway near the kitchen. “And I packed a container of guacamole with roasted peppers for you."
Harriet thanked him and crossed to the door he was now holding open for her.
She had never been in that part of the restaurant. Woven serapes in pinks, greens and yellows were draped on the walls with ornately embellished sombreros in complimentary colors positioned between each pair. Two square wooden picnic-style tables had been pushed together. Robin and DeAnn sat on benches opposite each other, sipping icy glasses of lemonade, a pitcher and additional glasses between them on the table.
Robin was dressed in her usual capri-length black yoga pants, but this time her customary pastel sleeveless top had been replaced by its black counterpart. DeAnn had on black shorts and a black T-shirt.
"We're ready,” Robin said.
"Well, we think we're ready,” DeAnn amended. “We haven't heard the plan yet."
"Did I miss a memo?” Lauren asked as she entered the back room and poured a glass of lemonade. She indicated her khaki shorts and pale blue T-shirt.
"We don't have a dress code, if that's what you're asking,” Harriet said. “We're going to be in cars."
"Oh, my gosh,” Lauren said as a realization hit her. “Did you think we were going to be skulking around in the bushes?” she asked DeAnn. “Did you think black shorts would make up for your fluorescent white legs?"
"Okay, Lauren, we're all a little nervous. You don't need to settle yours by picking on DeAnn or anyone else,” Connie said in her teacher voice, which was less accented than her casual one.
Lauren took her glass and sat down at the end of the table. Jorge opened the door and held it for Jenny, who had also come dressed in black—knee-length shorts and a sleeveless hooded tunic. Her silver hair was pulled back in a low ponytail.
"Here is another conspirator.” He laughed and went back to work in the kitchen.
A few minutes later, Sarah let herself in.
"This better be good,” she announced. “I canceled a hot date for this.” She was dressed in a creased navy blue cotton blazer and gray slacks. Harriet hoped she'd been planning on changing before her date.
When everyone was seated and had drinks, Harriet cleared her throat, then waited until everyone stopped speaking.
"Thanks for coming on such short notice."
Sarah started to reply, but Connie clamped a hand on her wrist and she closed her mouth.
"I'm sorry I was so mysterious on the phone, but I decided it would be better to talk about this in person. As you all know, Carla's been seeing a new fellow. He's a stranger in town, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. He's been very kind and attentive, and he's a natural with Wendy."
"That all sounds good,” Jenny said. “What's the problem?"
"I'm not sure there is a problem, but that's what I want your help to find out. All of a sudden, Carla's friend Terry is unavailable at night."
Several started to talk at once, and she held up her good hand to silence them.
"There could be any number of valid reasons for Terry to be otherwise occupied at night."
"But you don't think so,” DeAnn said.
"I don't know. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but there's something off about his whole story. He's supposed to be here finding people who knew his dad, who he says worked at Foggy Point Foggy Fire Protection when Terry was little. The trouble is, I've talked to Carlton and looked in their employee picture book, and there are no Jansen's. He looks like he's military, but Carla said he was in the SEALs and
he
said he was an army paramedic in Iraq. Those are two very different things."
"If he's not looking for his dad's past, why is he here?” Connie asked.
"That's what I'm hoping we're going to find out. Listen, Terry's been going somewhere every evening, and I intend to find out where."
"What do you want us to do?” Jenny asked.
"First, I'd like to say that if anyone is uncomfortable with the idea of following someone or, for that matter, meddling in Carla's business, feel free to exclude yourself. No hard feelings."
"For crying out loud,” Lauren said. “We're all here, aren't we? Let's get on with it."
"Okay, I've broken us up into teams. Most of us won't start until later, but I'd like one group to sit down the street from his motel—he's at Pine Villa over at Smuggler's Cove. I dialed for dollars among the cheap motels and got lucky on the third try.
"The rest of us will wait for a call from that team.” She took a sip from her glass of lemonade. “There aren't that many routes he could take and still be in Foggy Point, and until I learn different, I'm going to assume his target is here."
"So, one of us will pick him up when he commits to a route?” DeAnn asked.
"That's the idea. Then the other teams will circle around to the next forks in the road. Each time he turns onto a road, the other cars will position themselves along his possible routes and pick him up. That way, he won't see a particular car following him."
Jorge came into the room again. He carried a stack of folded maps.
"Here, you can have these,” he said, and handed them to Harriet. “The Business Association had these printed up for the tourists. They have all the streets in Foggy Point."
She looked at him with amazement. He laughed and pointed to a speaker mounted near the ceiling in a corner of the room.
"Intercom,” he said, and left the room with a laugh.
"You didn't sweep the room for bugs before we started?” Lauren asked in disbelief.
Harriet laughed. “Somehow, I never guessed Jorge had the place bugged for his own purposes."
"Don't forget I can hear you,” said a disembodied voice, followed by a maniacal cackle.
"Now, one more thing,” Harriet said. “Does everyone know how to use conference call and speaker phone on your cell phone?"
She waited while everyone pulled out their phones.
"I'm not sure I know how to do conference calls,” Connie said.
"Me, either,” Jenny said.
"Okay, let's see what kind of phone we all have."
Lauren and Jenny both had the style with a segment that flipped up and spun around. Connie had an iPhone. Robin and DeAnn had the same brand of smartphone, and Sarah had one that was similar.
"Come on, Jenny,” Lauren said. “I can see where this is going. Let me show you how to make a conference call."
They divided up by phone style and began making calls to each other, practicing until each one could quickly initiate a conference call and add in the rest of the members, using speaker phone or not at will.
"Okay,” Harriet said finally. “Is everyone comfortable with our communication plan?"
"We get the phones,” Lauren said, “but let's run over the plan."
"Who wants to sit outside the motel until he moves?” Harriet asked. “I would, but I'm supposed to eat at Carla's first. I told her I needed to eat early, so we should be done well before dark. I'm making an assumption about him waiting until dark, based on when he's visited Carla, but I could be wrong, so I'd like to have someone there pretty much as soon as we're finished here. We can take one- or two-hour shifts. It doesn't have to be the same person the whole time."
"I took the rest of the day off,” Sarah said. “I can go sit there. I don't need a copilot until close to dark when we think he's going to move. I have a new Carola Dunn novel to read."
"That's good,” Connie said. “I can join her around seven."
"Everyone needs to keep their phones close to them and turned on. If he moves early, we'll have to react quickly,” Harriet cautioned. “Let's get our maps out and mark the intersections where we'll place the follow cars."
They spent the next half-hour marking their maps and deciding who would do each part of the plan. When they finished, Jorge came in with bags marked with each of their names. Sarah's was the fullest, and in addition, Jorge instructed her to choose the drinks of her choice to go along with it. He had packed Harriet's guacamole in a plastic bag with ice.
"Thank you so much,” Harriet told him as the women filed out.
"De nada,” Jorge said. He hugged her, being careful of her shoulder, and sent her on her way.
Mavis and Aunt Beth had moved into the kitchen and were sitting at the island bar with mugs of hot tea in front of them.
"What have you been up to?” Aunt Beth demanded.
"Oh, just checking up on Carla's new boyfriend,” she said, trying to maintain a casual tone in her voice.
"What did you find out?” Beth asked.
"Nothing yet,” Harriet said. “I'm just having trouble believing his story about why he's here. I'm not going to give up until I find out the truth, either.” She reached between the two women and grabbed a cookie from the plate on the bar. “Mmm, these are good."
"And you should be snacking on fruit,” Aunt Beth scolded.
"What have you two been up to?"
Mavis sighed. “Ilsa and I met with Pastor Hafer and planned a funeral for Gerard. He's an amazing preacher.
"The service will be divided to address the two parts of Gerard's life, then he'll talk about how we may never know how or why this one man had two lives, but that both parts were, in fact, one man fulfilling God's plan for him."
Her tone of voice let Harriet know she wasn't fully buying it yet, and she couldn't help but notice she was calling him Gerard instead of Gerald now.
"When will it be?"
"We have to wait until the police release his body, but they told Ilsa they expect to be able to do that in another day or so. Given a day or two to notify people, it will probably be early next week."
"If there's anything I can do, just say it,” Harriet said.
"I wish there
was
something you could do. I need to know what happened twenty years ago and what happened this last week. Until I know that, there's nothing anyone can do."
Harriet grabbed a second cookie and retreated to her bedroom, where she called Aiden's cell phone and left him a message, letting him know there had been a change in her as-yet-unrevealed-to-him plan and he would now be required to pick her up. When she'd finished, she called Carla to see if she needed them to bring anything to dinner. Carla said she thought she had everything and was anxiously awaiting their arrival.
"Where is everybody?” Aiden asked an hour later when he came into the studio. Harriet was sitting alone at her computer.
"Aunt Beth finished the show quilt she was working on and went home. The Willis group is having a family dinner later at Mama Theresa's. They've all scattered to points unknown in the meantime, so me and Fred are all you get."
"I'll take it,” he said and crossed the room quickly, scooping her into his arms and kissing her. He kept his arms around her as he looked into her eyes. He sighed. “Something tells me we aren't going to be late to dinner because we're taking advantage of your empty house and making out."
"That would be a good guess,” Harriet said and stepped away from him. “Not because I don't want to, but we've got a mission tonight and we need to get started."
"Okay, the suspense is going to kill me before dinner's over. What's the plan?"
"Actually, the plan is already in motion. We're following Terry to see where he's going at night."
"We who? We you and me? What have we already started?"
"I realized Foggy Point's too small for the two of us to follow Terry without him noticing, so I called the Loose Threads.” She started pacing between her desk and the long arm machine.
"I knew I wasn't going to like this."
"Wait until you hear the plan,” Harriet said, and explained how the Threads would position themselves at successive intersections, the last cars leapfrogging ahead based on Terry's moves and the lead car dropping off as he turned onto new roads. “He won't have a single car following him more than a few blocks at a time. We'll communicate with our cell phones."
"Okay, I hate to admit it, but that could work, and I like that you're working in teams. But say you follow him and you find him...” He paused. “...somewhere. What then?"
"I don't know, I'll have to see where he goes. If he meets up with other people, we could follow them, or if he's obviously dealing drugs or some other criminal activity, I'll call nine-one-one. I really don't know what the next step is. I just have to do something, and this is all I can think of."
Aiden grabbed her good hand as she came back toward her desk. He pulled her into his arms again.
"You know what I like about you?” he said. “Your loyalty to your friends—even the ones you don't like, you still defend."
"You're going to make me blush, talking that way,” Harriet said. “But seriously, Carla's life has been so hard. I can't stand the idea that this guy is just using her. She deserves better. And who knows—there's always the chance that I'm wrong."
"But you don't think so, and like I said before, I'm starting to think you're right."
"So, what are we hanging around here for? Let's go eat with Carla so we can get on with tailing Terry."
"Your chariot awaits, madam.” Aiden bowed low at the waist and ushered her out.
Carla's dinner went
by in a blur. Her baked chicken was moist and her corn on the cob was tender and sweet. Wendy climbed into Harriet's lap with her book about a bunny that lived in a tree right after they arrived. No matter how distracted Harriet was by the upcoming events, her heart melted a little when the toddler put her arms around her neck and hugged her when they'd finished reading.