I put both hands over my ears and began to hum. Loudly.
Liam just laughed. He pulled one hand away from my head. “I’m gone,” he said. “If ‘Dad’ needs me for anything, let me know.” With that he headed for his truck.
I walked over to the others. “Where’s Liam going?” Rose asked. “I have a coffee cake in the staff room.”
“He had some things he needed to do. He asked me to tell you that he’s available if you need him again.”
“Your brother is a very nice young man,” Mr. P. said.
I nodded. “Yeah, I got lucky.”
We went inside.
“How did it go?” Mac asked.
“Good,” I said. “I learned that both my brother and Mr. P. are very good at pretending to be someone else.” I looked around. “How were things here?”
“One customer,” Mac said, swiping a hand over the back of his neck. “He bought that old fiddle.”
“Good,” I said. “I’d about given up on selling the thing.”
“And the trestle table and six chairs,” he said with a grin.
I blinked at him. “You’re kidding me?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not. The table sold itself, but it was Avery who sold him on the six chairs.”
I looked over at the teenager, who was clearly getting all the details of our afternoon from the others. She held up a hand and high-fived Mr. P. “I think I should give her a raise.”
Mac nodded. “I agree. She’s really been working hard.”
“I have to make a couple of calls,” I said. “I’ll just be a few minutes.” I smiled at him. “There’s going to be cake.”
“I like it when you all go on a quest,” Mac said. “We always have cake.”
I laughed and started for the stairs.
After some discussion Mr. P. had asked me if I would call Michelle, once we located Thorne Logan. I wasn’t sure she’d be interested in talking to the man, but I’d promised both her and Nick that I’d keep them up-to-date, so I’d said yes.
I’d expected I’d have to leave a message, but she answered on the fourth ring.
“Hi,” I said. “Do you have a couple of minutes?”
“Sure. What is it?”
“Well.” I wasn’t sure how to start. “I’m, uh, I guess you could say I’m acting as the spokesperson for the Angels.”
“All right,” she said. It seemed to me that I could hear just a little amusement in her voice.
I explained what had happened, leaving out some of the details like Liam masquerading as Mr. P.’s son. “So Mr. P. has a meeting with this broker, tomorrow afternoon at Glenn McNamara’s.”
Michelle laughed and I felt my heart sink. She wasn’t taking this seriously. Then to my surprise she said, “They’re good.”
I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly. “Excuse me?” I said.
“I’ve been looking for Mr. Logan for the past couple of days. He’s a difficult man to track down. How did they find him?”
The knot in my stomach unclenched and I leaned back in my chair. “Old-fashioned, senior word of mouth. It’s faster than the information superhighway.”
“I’m assuming you’ll be there tomorrow afternoon,” Michelle said.
“I will,” I said. “Maybe I could buy you a cup of coffee.”
“Coffee’s on me,” she said. “I don’t suppose there’s any way to convince the rest of them to stay home, is there?”
It was my turn to laugh. “Only if you intend to use handcuffs.”
“I was afraid you’d say that.” She exhaled softly. “Please, use whatever influence you have with them. No grandstanding, no theatrics.”
“I’m not sure how much influence I have,” I said. “They all changed my diapers and they’re not afraid to point that out, but I’ll do what I can.”
We set up a time to meet at Glenn’s and I hung up.
“I’m going to close up early,” I said to Mac at lunchtime the next day.
“Then maybe I’ll come with you, if that’s okay,” he said.
“Please.”
I’d been awake half the night, having second, third and fourth thoughts about this whole enterprise. Mr. P. could be walking into a meeting with two murderers. They could be armed. Backed into a corner, they could take hostages.
“Rose is as wired as a five-year-old on Christmas Eve,” I said. “I caught her looking up how to make a citizen’s arrest when Mr. P. was upstairs changing.” I slid a hand back over my hair. “And short of duct-taping her to a chair, there’s no way she’s going to stay out of this. I promised Michelle I’d try to rein them in, but I think they’re more likely to listen to reason if the voice of reason is yours, not mine.”
“They’ve been pretty restrained so far,” Mac pointed out.
I nodded. “I know, that’s what worries me. We’re due for something a little over-the-top.”
We were all in our places by quarter after four. Liz and Charlotte at one table, Mac and Rose at another and Michelle and I at a third. Michelle also had an officer in the kitchen and another working behind the counter with Glenn. Plus, ex–football player Glenn was, by himself, perfectly capable of popping your head off like the cap off a soda bottle.
Michelle propped her elbows on the table and bent her head over her coffee. “See the car diagonally across the street?” she asked. “I think that’s them. The woman is using the last name Flaherty.”
I pulled a hand back through my hair and looked out the front window of the sandwich shop. There was a silver Lexus parked on the street and I could see Leila in the passenger seat. “It is,” I said. “I recognize the woman who’s working with him.”
Mr. P. was on his way up the sidewalk. He was wired again, this time just for sound with a tiny police-issue microphone attached under the edge of his sweater vest. He came inside, smiled at us all and sat at a table in the corner to the left of the door. Glenn took him a cup of coffee.
Michelle looked around. “We got lucky,” she said. “This place could have been filled with people.”
“That’s why Mr. P. decided on this time of day,” I said, picking up my cup and setting it down again. Across the street Leila got out of the passenger side of the Lexus.
“They’re on the move,” I said softly to Michelle.
She in turn looked over at Mr. P. and nodded.
Leila and Thorne Logan stepped into the sandwich shop. I noticed that she was carrying the Burberry purse. She looked around. At his table Mr. P. stood up. “Hello, Leila,” I heard him say.
“Hello, Harold,” she replied. “I’d like you to meet Thornton Logan.”
The two men shook hands and they all sat down.
“I like your hair like that,” Michelle said.
For a moment I looked blankly at her, and then I remembered we were supposed to be having a conversation. “I’ve been thinking about shaving my head. What do you think?” It was the first thing that popped into my mind. I was not good at this, I realized.
“Don’t you think that’s a little extreme?”
I wasn’t sure if she was serious with her question or if it was just part of making conversation.
“I’m thinking of training for a marathon,” I said. “It would just be easier, you know, showering so much.”
“Well, you could have some kind of design cut into the stubble,” Michelle offered with just a hint of a smile. Now I knew she wasn’t serious.
The officer working with Glenn approached the table. Both Logan and Leila ordered coffee.
The door to the little shop opened and Avery walked in. My breath caught in my chest. I should have known she had agreed far too easily to being left out.
“What is she doing here?” Michelle asked, her voice low.
“I can get her out,” I said. I started to get to my feet.
Michelle caught my arm. “Sit,” she said. “I don’t want to do anything to draw their attention.” She tipped her head, ever so slightly, in the direction of Mr. P.’s table.
Liz was shooting daggers in her granddaughter’s direction.
Avery ignored the look. “Hi, Gram,” she said, walking over to the table. “Sorry I’m late.”