Christmas at Timberwoods - Fern Michaels [98]
“Of course,” Carol murmured.
“I tell you what,” Tina said. “Your mother can call me as soon as you’re well, and I’ll give you your first lessons. Would you like that?”
Maria’s eyes were wide as saucers. “Oh yes!”
Their semiprivate conversation faded into the background noise as Angela noticed Charlie stumble forward. Was he drunk? Or lost in an unhappy world of his own?
She barely noticed Tina giving Maria her autograph and jotting a number on a piece of paper for Carol. The figure skater bent down to kiss the ecstatic little girl on the cheek and went back to the float, followed by her handler carrying the folded-up chair. She stepped up and remounted her throne, and the float began to move again at a stately pace, inch by inch.
The crowd began to disperse the second it passed, creating gaps. Charlie would have a chance to escape. Angela had to stop him. She squeezed through, glad for once that she was so skinny, heading for her father, standing firm. Angela reached him.
“Daddy—your key ring. Do you still have that little knife you used to keep on it?” she whispered urgently.
“What? I mean, yes, but—what do you want it for?” Murray fumbled in his pockets for the key ring.
“I’m not going to hurt anybody,” she hissed. “Just give it to me!”
With one click, he detached the metal sheath and gave it to her. “Now what?”
“Stay here!”
Murray folded his arms over his chest and watched her anxiously.
Angela moved back alongside the float, waiting until it paused to let children cross its path. She could hear their laughing shouts as the handlers shooed them away. If she could stop it—create a barrier—she took a deep breath and stabbed the tire nearest her in the sidewall, feeling a slow whoosh of air when she pulled the tiny knife out. No one seemed to have seen. The immense weight of the float did the rest. It was less than a minute before the corner of it dropped several inches. The wheel’s rim grated against the mall flooring and someone ahead called a time-out when the teenagers on the float squealed in alarm.
Angela edged away in the commotion, around the back of the float and forward along the other side. She hoped and prayed that Charlie hadn’t disappeared.
There he was, still standing in the same spot. His face was flushed and his eyes were dull. He had taken off the fur-trimmed hat and unbuttoned the red velour jacket. As she watched, he slid that off his shoulders, revealing a nondescript, heavy jacket beneath. The red velour pants stayed on, wrinkled and wadded. He must have pulled them on over his pants. No one besides her seemed to notice his removal of the costume.
She didn’t bother to wonder why he had taken off the hat and jacket but kept on the black gloves if he was warm. But maybe it was a good thing. If the mayhem he planned came to pass, at least he could be identified as Charlie Roman in his own clothes. Not effectively invisible as just one of many hired Santas.
The thought that little children might look to him for help in that getup if anything happened made her shudder. But the following thought—that he might get away with it—put steel in her spine.
Charlie stuffed the red jacket and hat into the greenery around the angels. Then he pushed past a group of older boys who had seized the opportunity to ogle the skating queen and the teenagers. They kept their voices low, but their interest was obvious. Tina Twinkles and her court regally ignored them while the handlers inspected the flat tire.
Angela followed Charlie.
Two levels above, Heather and Lex watched the ebb and flow of the crowds around the float.
“What the hell just happened?” he asked her. “Can you zoom in? Right there.” He pointed.
“Of course.” She tapped on a computer key and a section of the display on the monitor enlarged. But it took a few seconds for the zoomed image to come into sharp focus.
One of the handlers was kneeling by the tire, his fingers framing a spot on its side. Another man leaned in for a better look at a barely visible gash. “Someone slashed the tire. What the hell is going on?” Lex asked