Chapter 31
The plan was simple. At least until I added Tilly to the mix. I couldn’t have asked for a more loyal, trustworthy, or enthusiastic helper. But whenever my aunt is involved, there’s always the potential for disaster. The plan was for her to go into Third Eye and say she was thinking of hiring the security firm for her business, but first she wanted a tour of their monitoring center. On my first visit there with Elise, I‘d taken a couple of minutes to do some reconnoitering. I was mainly interested in the configuration of the monitoring center. Rather than one large, open space with all the monitors, it was divided into cubicles. Each cubicle held one person and a small bank of monitors. The setup made it easier for a worker to hide inappropriate behavior on the job. But it also cut down on too much chitchat among colleagues, a definite bonus when it came to the bottom line of a business.
“I think you should walk with a limp,” I told Tilly. “It’s a good excuse to go slowly. That way you’ll have time to find the Harkens monitor.”
“With my poor feet, I was made for this assignment,” she giggled. In preparation, I’d taken her back to Jim’s office building. We stood beneath the camera for her to get a good view of what she would see when she found the correct monitor.
“Once you find it, be sure to take a good look at the person at that console,” I said.
“What if their back is to me?”
“Make an excuse to walk up to him or her to get a better look.”
“I know. I’ll pretend to recognize the person and go over to say hello. Then, when I’m closer, I’ll apologize for the mistake.”
“Perfect.”
“I told you, dear, no worries.”
If only. “When you’re done, come back to the car, and we’ll wait for lunchtime. With any luck, the person at that monitor will leave the building, you’ll point them out to me, and I’ll try to convince them to answer a couple of questions.”
“If they’re not willing, I can always try rummaging around in their heads a bit,” Tilly said with a hopeful twinkle in her eyes.
Although I wasn’t thrilled about letting her take advantage of anyone that way, the potential good it could do far outweighed the bad. It seemed like everything in life boiled down to an equation in the end. And Merlin was right. Most things fell in the vast gray areas between black and white.
* * *
The next morning I drove to my aunt’s house for our visit to Third Eye. It was a beautiful day. Thunderstorms had swept through overnight, taking the heat and humidity with them. The air was dry, the sky a crisp, cloudless blue. If the person we were after didn’t go out for lunch on such a day, he had to be related to a mole.
Merlin glared at me from the doorstep, while I maneuvered Tilly and her lavender muumuu into the passenger seat of my car. When he’d heard where we were going, he’d offered to help us and was greatly offended when I’d nixed the idea. There were only so many variables I could handle at one time. I’d make it up to him at dinner with pizza, extra mushrooms, and for dessert, an ice cream sundae at the Confection Connection. Ice cream had nearly unseated pizza as his favorite food.
Tilly and I arrived at Third Eye at ten o’clock. I helped her out of the car at the main entrance in deference to both her real foot woes and her supposed limp. She’d brought along a cane that once belonged to her late husband, claiming it was hard to limp convincingly without something to lean on. After she went inside, I parked in the second row of the lot, a location we’d agreed upon. I didn’t want to leave the engine running for however long Tilly would be gone. Instead I opened all the windows to let the fresh breeze waft through. Time dragged. I’d never realized how difficult waiting could be without a distraction. Especially when it was coupled with anxiety for my aunt’s well-being. I told myself that everything must be going okay, because I hadn’t received any panicked phone calls from her or heard police sirens heading this way. When was I going to learn not to count those unhatched chickens?
Five minutes later the main doors opened and out came Tilly, suspended between two beefy security guards. They each had her by an arm and, being so much taller than she, were carrying her so neither her feet nor the cane touched the ground. She was struggling wildly to get away, wielding the cane like a weapon, but only managing to swat at the air. It took a lot to make my aunt angry. Compared to fire-breathing dragons like Morgana and Bronwen, she was an absolute lamb and usually assumed the role of peacekeeper when they had their backs up. But if you pushed Tilly to the limits of her patience, you were not going to get off unscathed.
When I saw the three of them emerge from the building, I chose my feet over the car as the most direct route to them. I jumped out, sprinted across the lot and the near side of the circular driveway, through the grass island in the center and then across the far side of the driveway to the walk where they were standing. During the fifteen seconds I was racing to her aid, I tried unsuccessfully to imagine what she could have done to deserve such ignominious treatment. As I drew closer, I could hear her demanding to be put down and threatening retribution of epic proportions. What the guards didn’t know, couldn’t know, was that she actually could wreak real havoc in their lives. Plus I had no doubt Merlin would be glad to lend his efforts to her cause.
I’d almost reached them when they set her down on the pavement. My heart lurched into my throat as I watched her sway precariously back and forth, before finding her balance. At least the guards had the decency to stay beside her, until she appeared to be steady on her feet. They were turning to go back inside when I ran up to her.
“Are you okay, Tilly?” I asked. Her face was beet red with anger and indignation. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see steam venting from her ears.
“I’m fine, in spite of those two oafs,” she said loudly enough for them to hear. “If they had half a brain between them, they’d realize what I could do to them.” Thankfully the guards didn’t bother to turn around. They shook their heads and shared a laugh as they disappeared inside. I would have loved to give them a proverbial piece of my mind too, but I knew I had to be the reasonable one, the calmer of stormy seas. I asked Tilly if she wanted to wait for me to come around with the car.
“I don’t want to spend another second at this godforsaken place,” she said, still projecting her voice for the benefit of anyone in the zip code.
“All right, that’s fine.” I offered her my arm to lean on, but she stalked off ahead of me, clearly angry with the whole world.
“I’m perfectly capable of moving under my own steam,” she said, her chin thrust upward in a petulant, so-there manner.
I knew Tilly needed to recover from her rage at her own pace. The best thing I could do was give her the time and space. I followed her back to the car without another word. I slid under the steering wheel, and she more or less fell into the passenger seat. We sat there beside each other in unhappy silence. I glanced at my watch. A quarter past eleven. Lunchtime was quickly approaching. In planning this little adventure, I’d taken into account the probability that the staff took their lunch hour in shifts. Otherwise the monitors would go unmanned for a period of time. The first lunch hour might begin as early as eleven thirty. If Tilly had fulfilled her mission before the debacle, I’d need her to point out that individual. I gave her another five minutes to sulk, and when she still hadn’t said anything, I dove in.
“Aunt Tilly, the first lunch shift could be leaving any minute. If you found the person at the Harkens monitor, I need you to point him or her out to me.” Tilly was staring out the windshield, eyes glazed over. If I knew my aunt at all, she was busy planning her revenge. First things first, I told myself. I’d tackle the revenge issue later. I reached over the center console and gave her arm a firm but gentle shake. “Tilly.”
She exhaled a long sigh and turned to me, her eyes finding their focus and her face relaxing into a much more Tilly expression. “I’m fine, dear,” she said, “and I got a good look at our mark. In fact, from the moment I walked in there, I sold my act like a pro.” Her chest puffed up with pride. “I had no trouble recognizing the view from the Harkenses’ building on the screen. There was a man at the console, his back to me as I’d feared. I used my little mistaken identity ploy to get a closer look and was into my apology when a mouse scurried out from beneath his desk, headed straight for me. Well, you know how it is with me and mice.” I did. Only too well. “I screamed and ran like the dickens. Avery called for security and after they caught me, he accused me of industrial espionage. But the important thing is that I shouldn’t have any trouble pointing the guy out to you. His name’s Todd Spivak, going by the name plaque on his desk. I noticed it right before the mouse . . .” She shuddered at the memory.
I was having a hard time not laughing at the image she painted. A giggle escaped my efforts, which made her start giggling too. From there it was a runaway train. We were doubled over, until tears were rolling down our faces and my stomach ached. I had trouble catching my breath. “What would I do without you?” I said, keenly aware that we were the sum total of family in this world.
“Did you bring along something to nibble on while we wait?” Tilly asked hopefully. “It seems acting and doing the fifty-yard dash can work up an appetite.” I apologized for not thinking to bring refreshments. “That’s okay,” she said, opening her purse. “I think I have a muffin somewhere in here.” Before she was able to find it, the doors to Third Eye opened, and employees started trickling out and heading for their cars.
We’d almost given up on our guy being part of this first wave, when he came through the door a few minutes after the rest of his colleagues, moving like a man on a mission. “There he is,” Tilly said. “In the blue shirt and black pants.” An unnecessary description, since he was the only one leaving the building at that point.
He’d already reached the first row of cars by the time I climbed out. I had to run to intercept him. “Excuse me,” I called out.
He slowed his pace, but didn’t stop. “Yes?”
“I wonder if you can help me out?” He looked more annoyed than curious, but he stopped. Tilly had clambered out of the car and was making her way toward us, no doubt ready to steal the answer if need be.
He glanced in her direction, frowning as if he knew something was up, but couldn’t put it together. “I’m late for an appointment,” he snapped, “I don’t have time for this.”
“One question,” I begged. If I’d known how to bat my eyelashes, I swear I would have. “Please, if you could answer one question.”
Suspicion narrowed his eyes. “You a reporter?”
“No, I have a small business in New Camel.”
“All right. What is it?”
Since I couldn’t ask outright if he’d helped the killer, I asked the one question he might answer. “Do you know why you were targeted with that phony emergency call?
“You sure sound like a reporter,” he grumbled, starting to walk away. Although Tilly had reached us, she looked as if she was running out of steam.
“I swear to you, I’m not a reporter. I’m here trying to keep my friend from being arrested for murder.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, quickening his pace.
I fell into a trot to keep up. “Why were you targeted?” I don’t know if it was the desperation in my voice, but he stopped and turned to me, so abruptly that I almost plowed into him.
“I have no idea,” he said, his words clipped with anger. “For all I know she pulled the number out of a hat. And if you don’t leave me alone this instant, I’m calling the cops.” He plucked his phone from his shirt pocket to back up the threat. Tilly must have put on her after-burners, because she caught up to us at that moment, wheezing and sputtering.
“Okay, okay,” I said, backing away from him. “Sorry to have bothered you. I didn’t mean you any harm.” Of course I couldn’t speak for Tilly. She was concentrating on the man with such intensity, I was worried she might give herself, or him, a stroke in the process.
“Stay away from me,” he said, wincing as though in sudden pain. He stumbled away from us and down the next row of cars.
“He’s definitely trying to hide something,” Tilly said between labored breaths. “He’s built the equivalent of a moat with alligators to thwart any intrusion. Did he tell you anything useful?”
I put my arm around her shoulders and we headed slowly back to my car. “Not as much as I would have liked, but more than he thinks he did.”