“Steven doesn’t have a daughter,” Diana said.
Araminta looked at her, bright bird eyes shining.“So your friend told me.”
“Mendoza said he stopped by earlier today to show you the drawing of the girl,” I said.“What did you think of the likeness?”
She smiled.“Oh, very good.That’s just what she looked like.”
Good to know.At least we had that going for us.A good likeness.If she was here, and came close enough to us that we could see her, we’d recognize her.
Probably.
“We should let you go,” I said.“It’s late, and you have a long drive home.”Had she driven here herself?Or maybe the retirement community had a shuttle that took the old people to where they needed to go when they needed to go there?“Oh, and if you happen to see Mendoza again, just pretend you don’t know him.”
Her eyes danced.“How exciting!Is this a sting?”
“Between you and me,” I said, “we’re hoping that the Russian girl will be here, and we can catch her.”
“Oh, dear!”She looked around, her brows furrowed.“I’d better get home, so I won’t be detained.”
Since there was no way on earth anyone—especially Mendoza—would mistake her for a tall, blond, twenty-year-old Russian stripper, I didn’t think she was in any danger.But if anything happened, I wanted her out of the way, too.So I nodded.“Good luck, Ms.Tucker.Drive carefully.”
She scurried off toward the exit, her yellow and navy team jersey blending with the crowd.
It was starting to thin out a little by now.Or at least the crush wasn’t such that I was afraid of being knocked to the ground and trampled underfoot if I lost my balance.It was also easier to see each individual face, now that there weren’t so many of them.Diana and I both scanned the lobby.The duffel bag still hung between us.I could feel it knocking against my leg occasionally, as someone bumped into it.
A minute passed.The lobby emptied out some more.I loosened my death grip on Diana’s arm and took a step to the side, to give us both some breathing room.
“I’m still holding the bag,” Diana said.
I nodded.“I don’t know what happened.I didn’t see her, did you?”
She shook her head.“I’d have told you if I had.”
And I hadn’t seen Steven, either.Not that I’d really thought he was behind this, but there had been the possibility.More likely that it was the girl, but not impossible that it was Steven.
“What do we do now?”
I looked around.“Wait for the lobby to clear out all the way, I guess.And wait for Mendoza to show up and tell us what to do.”
Diana nodded.We remained in place while the remnants of the crowd filed past on both sides.A few people gave us curious sideways looks, but nobody said anything.And nobody made a move toward the bag.
Finally Mendoza appeared in front of us.“Nothing?”
We both shook our heads.“I still have the bag,” Diana said, lifting it.
“Nobody tried to grab it,” I added.“Nobody slipped either of us a note telling us to put it down somewhere.And we didn’t see the girl.Or Steven.”
Mendoza put his hands on his hips.Like most of the crowd, he looked like a fan of our local hockey team.Yellow and blue jersey, faded jeans, sneakers.
It was only the second time in my life I’d seen him in anything but a suit—the other time was when he’d shown up in the middle of the night because the house in Hillwood was on fire—and he was just as appealing in casual civvies as in his usual designer suits.Maybe even a tiny bit more appealing.There’s something very nice about a good-looking man in a pair of faded jeans.
However, at the moment, this good-looking man was scowling.
“This might have been a diversionary tactic.”He glanced at Diana.“Maybe someone wanted you out of your house for a while.”
“But I was at work all day,” Diana protested.
“They may not have realized that,” Mendoza said.“With the note, maybe they thought you’d be home.Maybe they figured this would take you out of the house at a predetermined time, and they could get in.”
