California Schemin' - Kate George [50]
“Not mine.” I frowned and tried to hand it back to him.
“No. It’s yours. I saw it fall out of the bag you’re carrying.”
I didn’t even wear lipstick. I shoved the thing in my pocket and focused on finding a phone.
I looked for the public restrooms and hit the jackpot. The trouble was that it was the kind of pay phone that required a calling card to call long distance. Great.
I walked back down the mall until I found a Walgreens, where I bought a long distance card from the check out and waited while they activated it. I turned to go back to the phone bank and nearly ran smack into the back of Hammie and Madison. They were facing away from me, still arguing. I backed away, turned and ran. I took the escalator stairs two at a time and looked over the railing to check on them. They were walking down to the lower level looking at something Hammie held in his hand.
I backed away from the rail and jogged down to the upper floor restrooms, also sporting a bank of phones. But no phone books. I dialed information and got the number for the Placer County Sheriff’s Department. I was punching in the number when I caught a glimpse of pink from the corner of my eye as Madison came around the corner. I dropped the phone and hightailed it out the opposite end of the bathroom corridor. I turned right, spotted Hammie coming, did a quick u-turn and ran smack into Moose’s arms.
“Crap, crap, crap.” I struggled to get free of Moose’s embrace, but I wasn’t strong enough. I went to stomp on Moose’s instep, but he lifted me off the ground, effectively disarming me.
Madison appeared beside us, reached into her handbag and pulled out a set of metal cuffs, one of which she slapped on my wrist. She went to put the other on her wrist, but Hammie reached out to stop her.
“Cuff her to me. You’re not heavy enough to control her if she gets out of hand.”
“I’ve got a gun. She won’t get out of hand.” She clicked the cuff on her wrist.
“Gosh,” I said. “Madison must be a real cop. She’s got real metal cuffs and a gun. She’s not using those el cheapo nylon things.”
“I’ve got nylon cuffs, I just think it’s easier to cuff two people together with metal ones.”
I contemplated throwing a fit and causing a scene but discarded it as an option because it was probably fruitless. Madison had me out-gunned and out-badged, and it wasn’t likely that anyone would take me seriously. I didn’t know what Moose or Hammie had, but it didn’t matter. I was screwed.
“Come on.” Madison tugged on the cuff, and Moose released me to the ground. I wanted to kick him in the ankle, but he’d been nice to me before, so I didn’t. We walked three abreast with me in the middle and Hammie right behind me.
“Is Moose FBI, too?”
“Moose and Hambecker go way back. They’re practically joined at the hip. Were in the service together. May even have gone to high school together. Wallace hired Moose as a driver on Richard’s recommendation.”
“I don’t understand why Hammie pulled me off that plane like a fugitive when he could have just explained the situation to Fogel. What was that all about?”
“Would you stop talking about me like I’m not here? I didn’t want to blow my cover. Did you notice that no one made a serious attempt to go after you? There were people in the know at a higher level.”
“Seems theatrical,” I said.
“Hambecker has a penchant for dramatics. It suits his personality.”
“Humph.”
They walked me back to where we’d left the car.
“We’ll stay here,” Hambecker said. “Moose, go get the limo.”
Moose jogged away down the row of cars, and Hammie faced Madison again.
“I need to take her back to Wallace. He trusts me. If Ms. MacGowan is gone when he gets back I’ll have lost my effectiveness.”
“She’s not safe with Wallace. What if he decides she’s a liability and puts a bullet in her head like he did Lily?”
“Ms. MacGowan was out in public with the Senator, so he won’t risk killing her. First his wife and then some woman he was seen with are found shot to death? The publicity