“RUN!”
Ed yelled to the two guys in jeans to grab us, but we were already out of the room, rounding the bar. Potts stumbled into a waitress, carrying a tray full of food, and everything flew off the tray and crashed onto the floor.
“Oh jeez,” Potts said to the waitress. “I’m so sorry.”
“No time,” I said, grabbing him and shoving him through the room and out the door.
I stuffed Grandma and Potts into the Buick, jumped behind the wheel, and stomped on the gas pedal. The two suits stood squinting in the sun, watching us chug down the street.
“Did I save you?” Potts asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Absolutely.”
“Were those real guns?”
“Yes, again.”
“That caught me by surprise,” Grandma said. “I know I’m in a dangerous situation being that everyone thinks I hold the key to the treasure, but I wasn’t expecting to be kidnapped by two men in suits. They looked so respectable.”
“They looked like thugs to me,” Potts said. “Of course, they already had their guns out when I came in, so that might have something to do with my first impression. I thought they looked like mob guys in those old Al Capone movies.”
“You could be right,” Grandma said. “I wasn’t thinking about Al Capone. I was thinking about the La-Z-Boys. They wore more comfortable clothes that had some elastic in the waistband.”
“Elastic waistbands are excellent, especially if you have intestinal issues,” Potts said.
“Who are you?” Grandma asked Potts.
“I’m Potts,” Potts said.
I brought Grandma home and suggested she not share this adventure with my mother.
“No problem,” Grandma said. “I have enough problems getting out of the house as it is.”
I returned to the office and left Potts outside, guarding the door.
“I stopped in at the Mole Hole,” I told Connie. “The back room was getting a makeover. New chairs, new rug, and a poker table. New goons.”
“Who ordered the makeover?”
“I don’t know. I was hoping you knew.”
“I haven’t heard anything.”
I set my messenger bag on the floor and sat in one of the chairs in front of her desk. “There were two young guys moving furniture around. Looked like wiseguy wannabes. And there were two guys in suits. Ed and Chick. They were in their forties. Chunky. Looked like muscle. They said someone wanted to see me and Grandma, and the two morons pulled guns on us.”
“Grandma was with you?”
“I caught up with her there. Anyway, Potts came bumbling in and created enough chaos that we were able to get out.”
“It sounds like someone is reorganizing the La-Z-Boys,” Connie said.
“Or someone is taking over the La-Z-Boy territory.”
“I’ll call Mom,” Connie said. “She’ll find out what’s going on. We haven’t got as much inside pull since Uncle Jimmy died, but we’re still in the network.”
I looked toward the front of the office. I could see Potts standing at attention, super alert.
“I can’t get rid of him,” I said. “He won’t go away.”