My stomach dropped.
“Now smile,” she ordered, “and do as I say and no one will get hurt.”
Vera lifted her chin and to my amazement, she smiled as I shut the trunk, an obvious forced smile since she rarely smiled.
Lola stayed close, the gun never leaving Vera’s side.
Once inside the car, Lola ordered, “Start it and get us moving.”
Vera pressed the button, the engine turned over, and the SUV started moving toward the exit.
I glanced at the sideview mirror. Mo was bolting after us. He’d know whether to follow or get help. And in the distance, I caught a quick look at Thomas. He stood at the edge of the lot, his phone already raised to his ear. Between the two of them, I took hope that the cavalry would soon be on its way.
Lola leaned forward slightly between the seats. “You two are going to get me a notebook. So, take me to where it is and don’t think about pulling a fast one or I guarantee one of you will die today. Maybe both.”
Something didn’t set right about the whole thing. So, naturally I had to ask.
“I don’t understand something,” I said with a crease in my brow. “I assume you’re planning to disappear.”
“That’s a brilliant deduction, Sherlock,” Lola said.
Her extreme sarcasm didn’t surprise or disturb me, and I took her Sherlock as a compliment, not that she meant it that way.
“Why risk all this for a notebook when you could simply disappear?”
For the first time since we got into the car, Lola laughed. “You aren’t as clever with detective work as everyone claims you are.”
“What does that mean?” Vera demanded.
I answered, having realized what she meant. “It means that the notebook might contain something far more valuable than anyone realizes.”
Vera huffed. “All my observations are valuable.”
“That’s what worries me,” Lola said.
Vera went still.
“You saw me with a man,” Lola continued, “a few weeks ago.”
Vera’s eyes narrowed in thought. “You’re right, I did see you with someone.”
I groaned quietly, silently praying she didn’t write it down or at least not admit she did.
“And you recorded that meeting in your notebook,” Lola said.
“Of course I wrote it down,” Vera said briskly. “It was an unusual meeting. I detailed the entire scene in my notebook.”
I closed my eyes briefly. Sometimes Vera’s excellent memory was a blessing. This was not one of those times.
“Exactly what I was afraid of,” Lola said.
“Who is he?” I asked, figuring I had nothing to lose after Vera confirmed it.
“My partner,” Lola said. “We work together. Our North Carolina scam was one of our more… profitable ventures. And who would have thought I’d see someone from that scam in this backwater town? I made sure to stay away from the guy after he saw me, though he looked like he wasn’t sure he knew me. That was a while back, but I realized I couldn’t take the chance, my time here was limited.”
The investment scam Burke mentioned.
“We did a few more scams, then got close to getting caught on the last one, so we separated for a while, less chance of getting caught. We planned to lay low in different places with different names. But when that fellow spotted me, I got in touch with my partner. He arrived here a few weeks ago with a new scam we could work in another state we hadn’t been to.”
