#scenebreak
A short time later Farmer-C, Juicy and I parked in the town square. We hurried to the side of the station and a little known door Juicy had used to (la, la, la my fingers in my ears) when she dated Warren.
Everyone at the station was so intent on the front doors, we slipped unnoticed across the grass. Juicy went in first, then waved us through. Farmer-C and I waited in the entryway while she slunk around the corner, into the main office. Her voice carried to us. “Hey there, Officer Warren.”
“Gertie?” Officer Friendly asked. “What are you. . . Hwup!”
Their silence told me they were kissing.
“What are. . .?” Warren asked. “Why are. . .?”
“Shut up, Warren,” Juicy demanded. “Where’s Pal?”
“Sent. . . him. . . off. . .”
“Good. . . I can’t get your fly open. This belt’s in the way.”
Our cue was the loud and pronounced clunk of a gun belt hitting the desk followed by the sound of chairs pushed out of the way while bodies fell to the floor together.
Corey and I peered around the corner secret agent style, him above, me below.
He looked down at me.
I nodded and pointed with two fingers at the door leading to the cells.
He scuttled to it, while I crept to the desk where the belt lay.
On the opposite side of the desk, Juicy made more noise than necessary, muttering loudly to cover any noises from Farmer-C and me.
My fingers were inches from Warren’s belt.
“What?” Juicy cried out.
I abandoned the belt and dropped to my ass, back against the desk between us.
Farmer-C jumped behind a potted tree that wouldn’t hide him at all if Officer Friendly looked that way.
In the reflection of a glass door, I watched Warren’s back as he rose to his knees, dragging Juicy with him. “What’s going on, Gertie?”
She pulled his shirt out of his pants. “I’m trying to have sex with you.”
“Well, yeah. . . but we broke up.”
Even with her, he couldn’t admit she’d dumped him. Pathetic.
She oozed closer and wrapped her arms around him. “I know, but all this police work you’ve been doing? Sexy.” She kissed him. “I don’t know. . . I just can’t keep off you now.”
“Yeah?” His tone said he bought it hook, line, sinker and net. “See, I knew you’d come around if I. . .” He kissed her. “Everyone’ll see I deserve some respect around here once I solve this case.”
Before I knew what I was doing, I was on my feet, fists up. He’d all but admitted he did it, that he’d kidnapped Tango, knocked me unconscious, thrown my friends in jail. . . and all to have a chance to play the big, bad cop.
Juicy’s eyes opened wide. She waved a hand to move me along, but Warren noticed. “What are you doing?”
The wave turned into a flutter fanning her face. “Ai, chu make me sumamente caliente, War-r-ren.”
The telenovela accent was so hokey, Farmer-C clamped a hand over his mouth. Juicy opened her blouse a button or two, then pushed Warren’s shirt off his shoulders. “Chu look so. . . macho.”
“Yeah?”
She flashed me a face that told me to get on with my job before she had to take one for the team. She nodded in the direction of the keys on the belt, on the table, turning the movement into a nuzzle against Warren’s neck and drawing him to the floor.
Deep breath.
I nabbed the keys and Farmer-C led the way deeper into the building to a heavy door with a small sliding window in it.
What if she wasn’t there?
I opened the slide.
Tango looked up, but she was blindfolded. She was also gagged and tied to a chair. I kept quiet, afraid that if she heard me and called out in relief, she’d blow our cover. Farmer-C pushed his face close to mine, and I wrapped my hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. Once he nodded understanding, I released him and started working keys into the lock.
“Come on, come on,” he murmured.
I elbowed him and kept trying keys.
Success! We hurried to Tango’s side. Her hands were tied behind her and her feet duct-taped to the chair legs. I wanted to slam a fist into Warren’s face again and again.
I knelt beside her. “Don’t make a sound. It’s Foxtrot. You’re safe.”
She sucked in a quick breath that set her coughing.
I pulled the gag from her mouth.
Farmer-C knelt behind her and worked on the ropes. “I’m here, too, Katy. We won’t let anything happen to you.”
When I pulled the blindfold off, she blinked a lot and focused. She kissed me hard. “Where are we?”
“We’re at the police station.” I started on the tape around her ankles. “It was Officer Friendly trying to make himself important.”
Anger replaced the confusion.
“We just need to get outside,” I explained. “There’s folks out front.”
I’d just finished with her legs when she threw her arms around me and held me tight. “Thank you.”
I brought us to our feet. Everything felt right again.
“You, too,” she told Farmer-C.
Farmer-C’s smile was wistful.
A string of loud Spanish interrupted the moment and startled me so much I didn’t move when Juicy stumbled into the cell, cursing.
The door slammed with a loud, definitive crash.
The lock clanked home.
Shit.
No. . . really. . . shit!
Warren glared at us through the sliding window. Anger, fear and frustration waged war in his eyes. Kinda scary. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Seriously? That was his definitive one-liner?
Deep breath.
“Warren,” I said, “there are a dozen people outside.”
“But they’re not in here!”
“My dad and Ms. Delacroix both know we’re in here,” I lied. “And they know why.” I let him process that. “They heard the 9-1-1 call. They know it was you.”
He disappeared from the window. “Shit.” He reappeared. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Tango started to say something, but I grabbed her arm. The goal was to get him to open the door before he realized that four hostages might get him out of town.
“No matter how this plays out you’re in trouble,” I said, “But if you let us out of here and give yourself up, I personally guarantee that Ms. Delacroix will take your case. She got my dad off a murder charge.”
He hesitated a moment, then he moved away again and cursed some more.
While he was gone, I turned to my friends. “Please let me handle this. More than one of us and we’ll lose him.”
They nodded. Unbelievably, they trusted me.
Warren reappeared. “Why would she help me?”
“She owes me one. Long story. She will take the case.”
“I don’t have the money for a fancy lawyer.”
“She will take the case.”
Warren tapped his fingers on the door, and his eyes darted from face to face. “This wasn’t supposed to go this way,” he said. “I wasn’t going to hurt you, Katy. I figured I’d take you out to Corey’s barn and then find you there myself. I’d be a hero.”
“My barn?”
“No one’d believe it was you,” Warren whined. “Once I knew who the stalker was, I figured it’d be easy to pin it on that piece of shit. There was no way anyone’d believe he didn’t kidnap Katy, too.”
“Wait. . . you know who the stalker is?” I asked.
“Du-u-uh.” All I could see was his eyes, but they glowed with smarmy self-importance. “You think you’re so damn smart, Fox, and you didn’t figure it out?” He opened the cell door, probably so I could see his smug face. “It’s Palatino.”
Pal? No way. Everyone crowded around Warren. From the muttered curses, they were just as surprised.
“
Pal?” Tango shook her head. “I know he had a crush on me back in junior high, but. . .”
“Still does, freaky little shit.” Suddenly, Warren acted all cozy with us, as if he thought we’d forget about the assaults and abduction. “When he found out I had Katy here, he freaked out, started spouting all this bullshit about magic spells and tarot cards. Said he had me on video grabbing her at the studio.” He shook his head. “I told him if he was spying, no one’d believe he wasn’t the kidnapper, too. He’d better get his freaky ass out of town before I arrested him myself.” He puffed himself up. “No one would seriously believe I’d do something like this.”
“Warren?” Tango went nose to nose with him. “You did do it.”
She decked him. Knocked him out with one punch.
That’s my girl.