“What are these?”
“Molly and Larkins’ phone numbers. I told them to be ready by ten.”
“Can’t they just show up at my house?”
“I told them you’d call and get directions. Make Larkins come to your palace, I don’t care, but you need to pick Molly up at her house.”
“Why?” he asked, perplexed. He hadn’t reacted to my terms. Figured.
“Just because.”
“Nice.” He sighed.
“Whatever.” I shut my door and glared one last time at him, of which he answered with a earth-shattering grin. That annoyed me even more so I gunned the engine and shot into traffic.
Driving myself to Pedlam’s police headquarters.
*
Parking my car in the parking ramp, across from the hospital, which was just a block down from the police headquarters, I rounded to my trunk. Grabbing my theft pack, I took what smaller items I’d probably need. I’d love to go in with my rope, pulley, well—everything. But I couldn’t.
So I needed to improvise, and that meant only taking the barest essentials.
I hated it.
I pulled on a blonde wig and added a sweatshirt underneath my jacket. It had to be enough. They couldn’t recognize me when they’d look over their surveillance videos later.
Walking in through the front-door, I spotted the cameras first. I approached the front desk, and positioned my back to the cameras, a put a wide smile on my face. “Hi. I heard you guys have an opening for a secretary here? Could I get an application?”
“Sure,” the officer replied, sliding an application from underneath the counter. “Here you go. Pencils, pens, clipboard. You can sit there to fill it out.”
“Uh.” More help than I expected. “Thanks.”
“Yep.” Then he was back to chatting with his buddy.
Fuck. This place was busy for a Friday afternoon.
So I sat—hunching over so my face wasn’t visible—and filled out the paperwork. I did it as slowly as I could, reminding myself that some people could take up to hours to fill out paperwork.
Every few seconds, I’d glance up and watch. Just to observe what was going on around me. I noticed the cops who loitered around the pop machines, around the kitchen area in the back. I saw the one who remained in a group in the back, laughing. Then I noticed a lot people in plain clothes were wandering in and through the back hallway.
Shift change.
Or at least I was hoping.
I hated this. I had to go in blind. And in a freaking police headquarters at that. To make matters worse, they’ve rebuilt it since the last time I was here.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Good news, the cop behind the counter had apparently taken pity on me—probably thought I was too stupid to get the job anyway—and stopped watching me like a hawk about an hour ago.
Another hour later, I noticed a routine. Every twenty minutes, the counter-guy would disappear for a moment. A bunch of females would slip around the second left corner, disappear for a few minutes, and then come back, splitting into their respective directions.
Female bathroom.
Bingo.
So I waited. And the second the counter-guy took off again, I slipped around the counter and walked, as if I purposely knew where I was going—and was rewarded with a bathroom sign. I slipped inside and into a stall.