Two hours later, the door opened and Lee came into the room wearing FBI sweats and a plastic cast on his arm. He carried his clothes in a plastic bag identical to Bai’s. His smile said he was happy. Behind him came Agent Carrey. She looked considerably less happy.
Bai nodded a curt greeting at the female agent then turned her attention to Lee.
“How bad is it?” she asked while gesturing at his arm.
“I feel great. I can’t remember the last time I felt this good.”
She looked at his eyes. They were dilated. He was stoned.
Carrey interrupted. “You’re both free to leave. I’ll escort you out.”
The offer was delivered tersely, her expression sour. Obviously, questioning Lee had proved futile. From the look of him, Bai was pretty sure it had been entertaining.
The agent walked with them to the security desk where their weapons and phones were returned. She stuffed her gun back into its holster then tucked it into the waistband of her sweatpants. Her knife went into the plastic bag, wrapped up in her wet jeans. She flipped her phone open to find she didn’t have a signal inside the building.
“You’ll have cell access in the lobby,” Carrey informed her as she gestured toward the elevator, a pointed indication it was time for them to leave.
The agent followed them into the elevator.
“We can see ourselves out,” Bai suggested.
“My orders are to escort you to the lobby.”
They rode in silence to the ground floor. Agent Carrey waited until they’d stepped out of the elevator to punch the button for her return trip. She stared at them wordlessly as the doors slowly closed.
“Nice woman,” Lee remarked. “I think she might have a thing for me.”
“That ‘thing’ is probably an arrest warrant.”
She flipped open her phone and was grateful to see it had a signal. She called a cab, providing their location to the dispatcher as she walked toward the glass doors in the front of the lobby. While they waited for the cab to arrive, she dug her muddy leather jacket out of her bag and used her tee-shirt to clean it off.
She slipped the jacket on and transferred her identification and credit cards into pockets, surreptitiously sliding her knife back into the sleeve sheath.
“What’s the stuff in ditches that makes them smell?” she asked, sniffing diffidently at the sleeve of her jacket.
He looked at her and grinned.
“They gave you more meds in the emergency room, didn’t they?” she guessed, looking at his happy face.
“Yes, they did,” he replied triumphantly. “But to answer your question, the technical term for the stinky stuff is muck. Muck, muck, muck, muck . . . muck. I really like the sound of that word.”
“So what’s in muck?”
“You really don’t want to know the specifics. Suffice it to say, everything on God’s green earth poops, even slimy things that live in mud.”
“That’s a little disturbing. And you’re right. I really didn’t want to know.”
A cab pulled to the curb in front of the building. She took off her heavy socks and ran barefoot out the door to clamber into the backseat of the taxi. Lee piled in on top of her, laughing as he tossed his bag of dirty clothes on the floor and sat with his legs crossed, Indian-style, on the seat.
The cabbie’s grizzled face turned around at the commotion with a surprised look. In a strong Southern accent he asked, “Y’all FBI?”
She lied. “Yes, we are. We’re special agents on assignment. Take us to the nearest BMW dealership. We need to requisition a car. And step on it. We’re in a hurry.”
She dismissed the man with an imperious wave of her hand. It seemed like the kind of thing a Fed would do.
“Why?” Lee’s query caused the cabbie to turn around again, a witness to their conversation.
“Two reasons,” she replied, looking back to glare at the cabbie. He ignored her as she slipped her socks back on her cold feet. “One, we need a car, and two, I don’t want to have to explain to Elizabeth what happened to her BMW. Would you like to be the one to tell her how it got blown up while I was inside the car?”
The cabbie’s face continued to show surprise. “Y’all’s car got blown up?”
Lee lost focus and looked at the cabbie. “Who are you?”
She looked at the cabbie in exasperation. “If you don’t turn around and drive I’m going to run you for warrants. What do you want to bet I don’t get a hit?”
The cabbie turned around and hit the gas. The momentum jerked her back into the seat as he accelerated around the corner. She could see his eyes nervously checking the rearview mirror and decided it was kind of fun being a special agent.
When she turned back to Lee, he was sound asleep, his head pillowed against the glass of the side window.
“That can’t be comfortable.” She grabbed him by the shoulder of his sweatshirt to pull him toward her and let his head settle in her lap.
It took fifteen minutes to reach the dealership. They stopped under a large portico where customers dropped off cars for service. She paid the cabbie and woke a reluctant Lee, who seemed disoriented by the drugs. She pushed him out of the car and grabbed their garbage bags before following him. It was cold outside as evening approached. The rain had subsided, but the wind had picked up to bite at exposed flesh. She herded Lee through the service door entrance to get out of the wind.
She stopped to stand just inside the doorway of the dealership to get her bearings. They stood, wearing soiled socks and blue sweats with their plastic bags full of smelly clothes. She looked at Lee and laughed. He laughed too, though she suspected he didn’t know why he was laughing, an assumption that made her laugh even more.
No one approached. Several people stared. They continued to wait while minutes passed. Bai’s merriment eventually turned to anger. She folded her arms across her chest and tightened her jaw. Lee rocked in place, fighting sleep.
A young woman wearing a tailored suit and stilettos minced across the showroom with a look of obvious disdain.
“Are you lost?” she asked.
Bai took a fast step toward the woman, who correctly read the anger on her face and immediately retreated. The young woman took three quicksteps back, high heels clacking noisily against the tiled floor as she fought for balance. Nearly complete silence blanketed the large vaulted room as everyone watched—some with interest, some with shock, and one with amusement.
“I’m here to buy a car!” Bai made the declaration loud enough for everyone in the showroom to hear. She turned away from the frightened saleswoman to the man who smiled at her from across the room. “I think I’ll buy it from him.”
She grabbed Lee’s arm and walked swiftly across the room. He waved his index finger in the saleswoman’s face to mock her as he was dragged away.
The smiling man, a middle-aged gentleman with graying hair, stood at their approach. He wore a gray suit, worn open to show a sizable paunch. He put out his hand and smiled. “I see you’ve met Charlotte. My name’s Doug Hathaway. How may I be of service?”
She took his hand, her fury melting away as quickly as it had taken shape. “My name’s Bai,” she said, “and this is my friend Lee.” She steered Lee into a seat in front of Doug’s desk. “He broke his arm today, but he doesn’t care because he’s full of codeine and I don’t know what else. The story is, Doug, we need a fully loaded five-series four-door, in black with a black interior. Do you have one on the lot? We’re in a hurry.”
He seemed a little taken aback by her request but recovered quickly. “Let me take a look in inventory. I’m sure we have something to suit you.”
He sat and turned to his computer console while motioning her to take a seat next to Lee. He punched some numbers and looked up. “We have eight black sedans in stock in the five series—a 528i, 535i, and a 550i. Which are you interested in?”
She looked at Lee. He stared back, but she could see his eyes didn’t focus.
She turned back to Doug. “Could you bring one of each up front for me to see? I’m sure I’ll know it when I see it.”
He looked at her, chewing his lower lip while he studied her. “I know it’s terribly rude, but before I start pulling cars from inventory, I need to know that you have the means to pay for a seventy-thousand-dollar luxury automobile.”
“I understand,” she replied. She took her American Express Black Card out of her pocket along with her identification and handed it over the desk.
He studied the card, his eyebrows raised in appreciation, before looking at her picture ID. “We don’t see many of these,” he said, handing her back her card and identification. “Now let’s get those cars up here for you to look over.”
He picked up his phone and started ordering cars to be brought to the front. In less than ten minutes, three cars were lined up under the portico for inspection.
To Bai, they all looked pretty much the same. She finally decided the most likely candidate was the 535i. “I’ll take this one, Doug. Have them fill the tank while we’re doing the paperwork.”
“You don’t want to barter on the price?”
“I’m in a hurry. I want to be back in San Francisco as quickly as possible. How fast can you get us out of here?”
He thought about it for a moment. “I’ll do everything I can to get you out of here in thirty minutes, Bai.” He was starting to get into the spirit of things. “And I’ll knock five thousand off the sticker as a sign of good faith. I’d like your return business.”
She walked inside to sit at his desk while he ran her card and the people in finance worked on registering and licensing the car. Charlotte brought coffee and cookies. The treats brought a smile to Lee’s face. Bai glanced at Doug; she was surprised that a saleswoman would be drafted to serve refreshments.
Hurrying to finish up the paperwork on the new car, Doug responded to her unasked question without looking up. “Charlotte’s doing penance.” A smile appeared on his face. “I saw how she treated you when you came in the door. Besides selling cars, I also manage this store.” He looked up and met Bai’s gaze. “She’s learning it pays to be nice to everybody.”
Suppressing the smile that would have been unkind, Bai sipped her coffee. “‘Do not insult the crocodile until you’ve crossed the river.’”
“What’s that?”
“It’s an old proverb, like saying ‘Don’t burn your bridges.’”
He smiled warmly. “I’ll have to remember that. As a matter of fact, I might suggest Charlotte put it on her business card as a reminder.”
By the time Bai’s coffee cup was empty, Doug had the papers ready for her to sign. She walked with him to the portico. He assisted Lee into the passenger seat then shook her hand. She dumped the garbage bags into the backseat of the car and drove away. As luck would have it, just in time for rush hour traffic.
“Are you hungry?” asked Lee. The car sat in stand-still traffic on a main thoroughfare that the GPS system insisted was a direct route back to the freeway.
“I hadn’t thought about it.” She suddenly realized she was famished.
He pointed across the street. “There’s an IHOP. I like pancakes. I don’t know why. I just do.”
His confession sounded heartfelt.
“I didn’t know you liked pancakes.”
“I didn’t either.” He sounded surprised.
“Well, pancakes sound good to me. And we’re certainly dressed for IHOP.” She turned to him with a grin. “Maybe we can get them to make whipped-cream faces on our pancakes.”
“Now you’re talking,” asserted Lee, his face beaming with pleasure.