“Not so old,” Frank said as he stepped toward Sara, his hand out to shake hers.
Sara didn’t take his hand. She wasn’t used to men who hit each other but were best friends.
“If it helps any, Mike’s done worse to me. In fact, a couple of times, he’s nearly killed me. I could show you some scars he’s put on me …” Frank tapered off, as he could tell that Sara wasn’t yet ready to see the humor in his words.
At Mike’s nod, Frank left the kitchen. “Sara, baby, it’s all right. Frank was working on another case when he heard someone mention the name ‘Edilean.’ He asked to be put on the Vandlo investigation because he knew my sister lived here. He went to prison for months so he’d have a good backstory when Stefan Vandlo was thrown in with him. And it was Frank who brought me into it. He worked hard to get info out of Stefan, but he wouldn’t tell him anything. The best Frank could do was to make Stefan believe he needed a bodyguard.”
“Was the other man I saw with Greg an agent too?”
“No,” Mike said. “He was from Mitzi. I think she was fed up with the way her son messed up whatever she tried to do.” Mike smoothed Sara’s hair back. “Frank is the only person I told about Tess and Edilean. When Captain Erickson told me that info was out, I knew it was from Frank, and for a while I didn’t know if I’d been betrayed or he was asking for my help.”
“When I saw you two fighting—”
“We were trying to make everything take as long as possible in the hope that Mitzi would show up and she’d be caught. No one thought that you would be the one to catch her.” He looked at her with such pride that Sara felt herself blushing. “When Frank contacted me at the fair we made a plan to put on a show to distract Vandlo for as long as we could.”
“It wasn’t a ‘show.’ You were really hurt.” When she touched his face, she could see that he was trying not to wince.
“Frank and I trained together, and we’ve done a lot of cage fighting and—”
“Like you plan to do in the gym you want to open?”
“Exactly. How about if I demonstrate tonight? You and I can wrestle.” Mike was grinning, but Sara wasn’t. Too much bad had happened in the last few hours for her to smile.
Mike changed the subject. “Want to know how I found the hidden room? Lang ran a cord in there so he could have electric lights. When you and I visited him, and while you two were talking about cookies, I was looking around and I saw the cord disappear into the wall. But I didn’t realize what I’d seen until the next day.”
She caressed his cheek and looked at him with love. “You are smart, beautiful, and talented.”
Mike laughed. “Then I must be a mirror image of you.” He put his fingertips under her chin. “Sara, I’m sorry you were left alone to have to deal with what you did. The FBI kid they left in front of the tapes was told Joce left, so he assumed the fortune-telling tent would be empty. He went to watch Anna and me jump rope. If it makes you feel any better, he’s now sporting two black eyes, one from me and one from Frank. I wanted to break his legs but Frank wouldn’t let me.” Mike shrugged. “Colin still thinks we should—”
He stopped when the door opened. A policewoman brought in Sara’s long fair costume, and as she put it on the kitchen table, she looked at Sara in admiration. “You did a good job,” she said, then left.
Mike smiled at Sara. “I haven’t seen the tapes yet, but I hear you were great with Mitzi. I guess she was used to no one knowing about her, and since she didn’t think you were her target victim, she blabbed to the wrong person. Whatever, the word is that you were magnificent.”
“Not quite,” Sara said, but she was pleased by his praise. “I think Mitzi was so excited about the tarot cards that she couldn’t think straight, and I was scared to death. But I had help.”
“Yeah, they talked to Ariel.”
“What happened with her? That man was chasing her.”
“When we heard the gunshots, Stefan and the other bodyguard ran out. Frank and I knew it was all over with. Mitzi would never show up if someone was shooting. Frank and I both called for help as we went after the others. Frank found the other bodyguard and brought him down.”
“You mean he shot him?”
“Yes, b
ut if Frank had arrived a minute later, I don’t think Ariel would be alive.” He hesitated. “But there was a problem.”
When Mike’s dimple showed, Sara looked at him in question.
“I guess you told Ariel that I swung out on a rope to keep you from running into the trip wire.”
“What did she do?”
“After Frank shot Vandlo’s bodyguard, Ariel tried to get away by swinging out on the rope. It was understandable, since she didn’t know who Frank was, but he had a hard time catching her.” Mike smiled. “But from what he told me, he liked it when he did latch on to her.”
Sara could visualize the ensuing wrestle, with Ariel in her black underwear, fighting with all her might. Yes, she could imagine that Ariel would almost enjoy something like that.
“I do believe they like each other,” Mike said as he leaned his head toward hers. “As for you … I think I’ve aged about ten years today. I was bombarded with Feds trying to talk to me and I wanted to know what had happened. If I’d even thought that you were here, I would have known just where to look.” He touched her hair. “When I was told you were missing from the fairgrounds, I felt real panic. I got Ariel, and when she said you had come together … Sara, you shouldn’t have—”