Gloria began to protest but Gladys would hear nothing of it, pulling her up to her feet and pushing her up the stairs and to her room. Gloria complained, but was thankful for the care; sometimes it helped to have someone strong around to whom you could abandon yourself to every once in a while especially when life got tough or when you bungled up an investigation, and got yourself kidnapped by karate savvy sexagenarians. Despite the coffee, Gloria floated off to sleep with a smile on her face.
Chapter 7
He stood outside, in the soft early morning sun, observing the sign that hung over the door that read ‘Patton and Patton’. He did not know why, but he had expected bigger. It was just after seven in the morning; very few people about, and his grey overcoat hung steadily over his frame in the windless day. The available hours on the complimentary card in his pocket read 8am to 5pm, and as expected the office was empty when he picked the lock. He cast a long shadow into the golden swathe of light that spilled into the office through the opened door. He stepped into a tiny reception area containing two medium-sized cushion benches placed astride each other on opposite walls; the type you see outside a doctor’s office. At the other end lay a door with a translucent glass on which was a placard: Patton and Patton.
He picked this as well. He did not know what he was looking for, but he felt he would recognize it when he saw it. He was in an ante-room now, which clearly served as a secretary’s office. He headed for the desk first, and rummaged through its drawers. It was mostly empty, except for a few magazines. He headed for the filing cabinet located in the corner behind the desk. It was locked, and there were no keys in sight. His watched showed twenty minutes had gone since he broke in. He did expect the door to the inner office to be locked, and it opened, without a sound when he turned the knob, into a neat little working area with a bare desk up at the front. There was no filing cabinet here, but there was a laptop placed askew on the desk. He rummaged through the rummaged through the drawers, hoping to find duplicates of active files whose originals would be in the filing cabinet in the ante-room. He soon found what he was looking for, on a file labelled ‘Cowling’. It was not a thick file, and contained mainly photos of Jewel magnate, invoices, detailed schedules of his usual work day. He was flipping through this when Gladys burst through the door.
“Okay step aside from the files, nice and slow.” She ordered calmly. She had a lady pistol, aimed straight at him. The man could see that her hands did not waver in the least.
He stepped aside slowly from the table, but could not help being amused by the pistol itself, which was a deep shape of red, and fitted nicely in her hand. It looked like a scene involving Agent 99 of the Get Smart series in the seventies.
“Try me.” Gladys said, realizing the source of his amusement, and pointing the gun straighter. “You know you look familiar-like I know you from somewhere.”
“That’s because you do.” Gloria chipped, finding space to squeeze past Gladys who occupied the doorway. “He was at the party over at Viktor’s place a few days ago. Cool gun!”
“I know right?! Very Agent 99 like. I had lost hope about ever having to use it though.” Gladys remarked with a smile. “Where is your gun?”
Gloria was embarrassed that she did not have one, and quickly veered the topic back towards the man in the room; the flushed face man, who was looking much less flushy every time she met him.
“What are you doing here? Who sent you?” she asked, standing astride Gladys with the gun pointed at the intruder gave an intoxicating sense of power- the reason she was shy about guns.
“I could ask you the same thing- you ladies are not supposed to be opening shop for another twenty-five minutes!” The flushed face man said with a twinkle in his eyes. “Plus, I was invited-you said call me.”
“Yeah! But I meant call like everyone else; not breaking and entering!” Gloria interjected.
“Well, when I saw you being lifted away and placed in a limousine by the old geezer, quite frankly, I thought that changed things a little.” The man replied calmly.
“Wait he is the guy from the hotel? The one who saw you spying on Cowling?” Gladys asked, cutting into the exchange.