But as Maggie turned to look up at him, she saw he was gazing at Liza with what could only be described as total and undeniable love.
Chapter 18
The alarm went off. Mr. Oddley had opened the back door without entering the proper code and the entire shop went into a sensory overload of flashing lights and a mind-numbing siren. The good news was the system worked, but the bad news was they couldn’t turn it off. Bernie and the cats ran frantically around in a panic, while the kids covered their ears with their hands to shut out the racket. Finally, Mr. Oddley disarmed the system. Silence.
Everyone was on edge for the next few days, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. So after a while, fear gave way to apprehension, which gave way to slight concern, which finally gave way to a renewed confidence. Perhaps that rabid limo man had been merely spouting angry but empty threats? Yeah, that was probably it. So, life returned to normal.
Anyway, there were lots of other things to think about. Because as the holidays grew closer, the demand for toys grew greater. So much so that Liza was now helping at the shop, manning the register and schmoozing with the customers. And much to Maggie’s chagrin, she had to admit Liza was doing a great job.
Still, Maggie was all eyes and ears, watching and listening to everything Liza said. And it seemed to her that Liza was particularly interested in the wall safe that held the crystals; and interestingly enough, that safe was the only part of the security system those shady looking installers could not manipulate, for Mr. Oddley himself was the one who set the combination. And he had shared that information with no one.
“Oh, please Oscar,” twinkled Liza. “Just give me a teensy weensy little hint. Please?”
And with that twinkle, Mr. Oddley’s determination melted. He sighed and decided he would give her that hint. He thought for a moment and smiled. “OK,” he said. “Listen carefully. What does a slow bike and a fast car have in common? And it’s not wheels or seats or even a horn.”
Liza paused. What a strange riddle, she thought. What else then do they have in common? But try as she might, she could not come up with the answer. An hour late she realized she was stumped, so...
“Oscar, how about just one more tiny clue?” she murmured.
But this time Mr. Oddley merely shook his head from side to side. “Liza, I’ve already given you the answer,” he said. “You just need to think about it.” And with that, he refused to discuss it further.
***
Getting past the alarm was a piece of cake. She and Rob merely entered what was called a back-door code. This was normally used by the security manufacturer to help trouble-shoot installation problems, but in this case was being used to override the system and break into the toy shop.
Getting into the wall safe was another matter. Liza repeated Mr. Oddley’s riddle to Rob. He wrinkled his brow as if in deep thought, and after several seconds of silence said, “I dunno.” Liza sighed, her hopes dashed of Rob being an idiot savant instead of just your average everyday idiot.
Liza paced around the room, fuming. She had been given the answer, albeit in code, and she couldn’t decipher it. “Damn!” she said out loud. “Come on brain, think, what is it?” She found a slip of paper and jotted down:
slow bike
fast car
Suddenly, she thought she saw something. The letter S was the only letter the two phrases had in common. OK, but how would that translate into code? S is the nineteenth letter in the alphabet, which would be a ridiculously simple code... but she punched in a 1 and a 9 anyway. Nothing. OK, maybe it’s 1+9? She punched in a 1 and a 0. Still nothing. She screamed in frustration.
Then Rob looked at the keypad. He looked at the keypad and smiled. He looked at the keypad, smiled, and keyed in the letter S by punching in... 3-2-4-5-6-8-7. It worked!
Liza gasped. Rob did it. He cracked the code. Unbelievable. He really is an idiot savant after all, she thought. Perhaps, there is more to him than meets the eye? Nah, no way.
They carefully removed the box of crystals, locked up, cleaned up, rearmed the alarm, and after a round of high-fives, left for Universi-Toy.
***
Hugh Merless once again drooled over the box of crystals sitting before him. And I literally do mean drooled, as one of his lackeys wiped the box clean.
“Take it to the lab and start testing,” he barked. Another lackey picked up the box, but Liza intercepted him.
“Mr. Merless, wait,” warned Liza. “Oddley told me these crystals can be extremely dangerous if not handled properly. Someone could get seriously hurt. Your people should be careful to use only tiny...”
“Be careful, Ms. Shiftly?” winced Merless, clearly taken aback. “No, no, no,” he said, as he pointed to a little plague on his desk that read:
Caution never wins the race...
Caution comes in second place
“Careful gets the silver or bronze medals, not the gold. And, Ms. Shiftly, I always go for the gold.”
Liza nodded and stepped aside.
Rob took the opportunity to pipe in. “It was me that cracked the code to the safe,” he bragged.
“Is that so?” smiled Merless, looking happily at Rob, and working his eyes to Liza for confirmation.
“Yes,” acknowledged Liza. “He did do that.” But she did not feel it necessary to mention it was she who had weaseled the riddle from Oddley, and that it was she who had mostly solved the riddle. Half of it, anyway. Rob could get all the glory. She was OK with that. She just wanted to be finished with this whole affair and move on. Maybe leave town and start fresh. Maybe open a pottery shop. She had loved working with clay when she was younger. She needed a change. She needed...
“Ms. Shiftly?” snapped Merless. “Are you listening to me? I asked you if you’d take a check or would you prefer cash?”
It took a moment for Liza to rejoin the world. “Oh, what? Uh, cash,” she finally replied.
“Very well. Here it is. Payment in full. Now I believe that concludes our business here.” And before Liza could speak, Merless had spun around and was walking away.
Liza smiled wryly, realized she was being unceremoniously dismissed; and with just a passing glance at Rob, she let herself out.
Chapter 19
Mr. Oddley stood by his wall safe talking to the sheriff, his face a kaleidoscope of anger, hurt, and fear. He had been robbed. The crystals were gone. Was that crazed man in the Limo responsible? If so, how could he have gotten the combination? If not, who else could have done this? The answer pressed in at the edge of his awareness, as he struggled in vain to drive it away. But in the end, the answer prevailed. It had to be Liza. Liza, who had begged for a clue. Liza, who Maggie had been suspicious of from the very start. Liza, whose affection for him was a mystery. But maybe now, not so much of one, because maybe she had been planning this all along. His heart hurt.
After he had phoned the sheriff, he had phoned the alarm company that had installed his security system. His call was answered by a Pizzeria in the next town. That did not fill him with confidence.
The sheriff took his statement and left, promising to see what he could do. But there wasn’t much he could do and he knew it. There were no clues. And Mr. Oddley did not offer up any possible suspects. He kept his suspicions of Liza to himself.
And he did have suspicions, so he decided to call her. To let her explain. But his suspicions took a grave turn to fact when her phone was answered by a recording saying the number was no longer in service. What could that mean?
It was then that Maggie and her friends walked in. They immediately knew something was wrong. Mr. Oddley filled them in.
Maggie asked the big question, “How are we going to make new toys now?” But the answer was simpler than she had imagined.
“We will make the toys with the Incredimite particle pieces I have in the workshop cabinet. Only the large crystals were stolen. I have enough of the small filings to make toys for ten or more years. But I am concerned that whoever st
ole the crystals does not appreciate their incredible power, and therefore might injure themselves or others around them.”
“Who cares if those crooks hurt themselves?” fumed Molly.
“I do, child, I do,” said Mr. Oddley. “But there is nothing I can do about it at the moment. So for now, let’s get to work. Today promises to be one of our busiest sales days, and I do not want to disappoint.”
***
Hugh Merless was furious. Testing had not gone well, to say the least. Three of his technicians had to be rushed to the E.R. with burns, lacerations, and in one case, an inability to unbutton. The poor guy stood there in tears, fumbling at his coat’s fasteners. The lab had almost burned down, and because of the lasers some lame-brained assistant had thought to use, the crystals had grown ten-fold in size. They pulsed and hummed, and they glowed a menacing maroon. A slap in the face to their former shade of purple.
Merless quickly convened an emergency meeting. The usual clowns were in attendance. But it was probably the shortest meeting in Universi-Toy history. Bang, went his fist on the table. And again, bang, bang, bang. “Get me Oddley,” he roared as he strutted from the room. And before the door slammed behind him, he bellowed, “And that means now!”
The CCO (Chief Clown Officer) of the company, the number two guy, took charge immediately. “Get me Oddley,” he barked, as he too strutted from the room, now at ease for having hoisted the assignment onto someone else’s shoulders.
This scenario, more or less, played itself out several more times until only one person remained in the room. The low man on the totem pole. The poor sap whose job it now was to get Oddley. The fall guy. Ah, but also the ambitious guy, who welcomed the opportunity to show what he could do. He called Liza.
***
She ran from the car and up the snow topped stairs still wearing her slippers and clutching her sweater. She had tried calling, but he had not answered. Shivering from the cold, she rang the door bell.
Moments later, an eye appeared from behind the shade, and in another moment the door swung open. “Liza, what are you doing here?” he asked, then said, “Shop’s closed. Oh, good grief, come in, come in.”
“Oh, Oscar,” she wailed. “I’m so sorry. It was all my fault. I stole the crystals from you.”
“I came to that conclusion already,” sighed Mr. Oddley. “So then why are you here? Back for more?”
Liza closed her eyes and winced. “OK, Oscar, I guess I deserved that. And if I could take it all back I would, but I can’t. All I can do now is tell you I hate myself for what I’ve done, and hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”
Mr. Oddley frowned. “Liza, the slippers, the thin sweater, the frantic look in your eyes... tell me, what’s going on?”
Liza gulped. “Oh, Oscar,” she trembled, “They can’t get the crystals to work. So they’re coming after you now. They need you... in fact they wanted me to...”
“Who is they?” asked Oscar, just before he and Liza began to giggle uncontrollably for no reason in particular. And after a minute or so they both collapsed in a sleepy heap on the ground.
Then, still smiling and without a care in the world, they were led off. The laughing gas from a tube that had been slid under the door had done its work.
Chapter 20
Maggie walked cautiously through the front door calling out Mr. Oddley’s name in an absurdly whispered shout. The sign in the window was turned to read SORRY, WE’RE CLOSED, even though it was 3 o’clock. She swung the door open to a well lit but empty store, and their boss was nowhere to be found. That was not like him, especially in the light of recent events. He would not leave the shop with the door unlocked. And anyway, he was always there during store hours. Maggie insisted Molly and Tim wait by the curb, along with a growing crowd of shoppers, who by the way were growing increasingly angry at having to wait in the cold for the store to open.
There’s an old saying (implying someone is a nitwit) that goes: The door was open, the lights were on, but nobody was home. Well, nobody was home, but this was no joke, not in the least. What it was, at the moment, no pun intended, was alarming.
Very soon, it became very clear that the place was indeed empty. So Maggie went back outside, and after a couple of minutes of waving her arms and shouting Excuse me! Excuse me! she got everyone’s attention. The crowd lapsed into an spooky silence. “Sorry,” she said, “but Just Like Magic is closed today.” Then she, Molly, and Tim ran into the shop and locked the door behind them, followed by a chorus of boos and jeers, one well aimed tomato, and some language too colorful for this story.
“Now what?” gasped Molly.
“Now, we call the cops!” exclaimed Tim clearly.
“Hold on guys,” said Maggie. “We need to think this through. We don’t know that anything’s wrong other than the door was left open. Strange, yes, but does it mean something bad has happened? We don’t know, and if we call the cops we run the risk of them finding out about the Incredimite crystals, and I’m pretty sure Mr. Oddley would not want that to happen.”
“Maybe we can track them with Bernie?” offered Molly enthusiastically.
“Get real, Morgan,” snickered Tim. “That d-dog of yours couldn’t find a f-fish in an aquarium.”
“Oh yeah?
“Yeah!” Round one.
“Oh yeah?
“Yeah!” Round two.
“Stop it, stop it, stop it!” screamed Maggie. She had heard enough. “You two are impossible. You’re standing here starting stupid little fights with each other for no reason at all when we’ve got a big problem. Hey, you know what, forget it. I’m outta here. I’ll figure this out on my own.” And with that, Maggie stormed out of the shop and set out into the fading light of the stark December day.
Molly and Tim were in shock. They stared sheepishly at the ground and finally at each other. Then they hugged, said they were sorry, and ran from the shop to rejoin their friend.
But outside, standing in the flickering colors of the toy shop sign, Maggie was nowhere to be seen. It was as if these cold, empty streets had simply gobbled her up.
***
Mr. Oddley’s brain reconnected to the world in fragments, as bits and pieces of the room began to take shape. A life size jigsaw puzzle was reassembling itself before his blurry eyes. But even when the picture was complete, he had no idea where he was. The room was dark and windowless. He tried to stand but could not, and, somewhat startled, realized he was tied to a chair. “Where am I?” he gasped, bewildered.
Across the room a shadow moved. It then formed itself into the shape of a man as it stood and floated into view. But with such poor lighting, Mr. Oddley still could not recognize who it was. That is until he spoke.
“So, how are we?” asked the shadow, lighting a large smelly cigar. It was undoubtedly the same horrible and threatening man from the limo. It was Hugh Merless.
Mr. Oddley stared blankly. “How are we?” he replied. “We are not tied to a chair. I am.”
“For your own safety, I assure you,” puffed Merless.
“Right. Whatever you say. Now, where is she?” demanded Mr. Oddley.
“She? And who might that she be?” simpered Merless.
“You know very well who. Liza, where is Liza?”
Merless merely shrugged, ignored the question and continued, “Let’s get down to business, shall we? I need something from you Oddley. Once I get it, you will be free to go.”
“And Liza?”
“Your help with the crystals... for your freedom.”
“You stole those Incredimite crystals from me.”
“They came into my possession from, uh, someone representing my interests.”
“I know it was Liza, OK. Where is she?”
“Yes, yes, yes. Liza, Liza, Liza... Interesting question, though. Do you mean where is she geographically? Or where is she in terms of impending danger?” Mr. Oddley’s eyes widened. “Any danger she might be in,” said Merless flatly, “is directly related
to the cooperation I receive from you. Your help for your freedom, and for hers.”
“Alright then, w-what is it you want from us?” croaked Mr. Oddly, now with a newly acquired sense of fear, as Merless had raised the stakes to include Liza.
“I want nothing from the woman. From you, though, I want your full cooperation in showing me how to use the crystals.”
“But I can’t...”
“STOP,” shouted Merless, as he slapped Mr. Oddley across the face. “No buts. Either you do as I say or you two will never see the light of...” He paused a moment to take a calming breath. “Do you fully appreciate your position?”
“Yes,” nodded Mr. Oddley. “I will do whatever you want. Just please don’t hurt Liza.”
“That, my dear sir,” warned Merless as he untied Mr. Oddley from the chair, “is entirely up to you. Shall we begin?”
***
Maggie stuffed her freezing ungloved hands as deep as she could into her pockets, but it didn’t help much. In her haste she had fled the shop without her hat, gloves, and scarf. At least she was wearing a nice warm coat. But alone and wandering the streets, she felt more than just physically cold; she felt the numbing chill of fear. And she didn’t know who to turn to for advice, because that had always been Molly and Tim. For now, though, she needed to stay far away from both of them.
Who then? Who could she confide in? But maybe confide was the wrong word, because how could she confide in anyone without giving away Mr. Oddley’s secret? She needed to think on that a bit. Maybe the skyscraper of a mountain that was expanding in her mind would just end up being a molehill after all.
Well, it was easy to see that nothing was going to be resolved tonight. Soon, her Mom would be wondering where she was and would call out the National Guard. She’d better hurry on home. But she kept wondering...
...and then, as she opened her front door and stepped into her delightfully warm home, it dawned on her. And she shouted, “Daphne!”
“Hi honey. Who’s Daphne?” asked her Mom.
“Uh, no one special,” lied Maggie. “Just a kid.”