Page 90 of Smoke Screen
Cruz shoved a monster-sized spoonful of food in his mouth, chewed once and swallowed. Lord, the man ate like a dinosaur.
He pointed his spoon at Phin. “Little brother here is gonna wear a camera so you’ll be able to see what he sees.”
As fascinating as this whole James Bond mission sounded, without seeing the pieces, she couldn’t be sure of anything. “That won’t work. I need to see the actual jewels. Pictures might be Photoshopped.”
Phin shook his head. “The real thing isn’t an option. If you want to come, you’ll stay in the car with Zeke. You’ll be able to watch on a tablet. All we need you to do is tell us if the photos he has look like the actual pieces. If so, we’ll figure out our next move.”
At 11:53 Sunday morning,Maddy sat in the passenger seat of the same black SUV she’d driven in with Phin on Friday. This time, Zeke sat behind the wheel. After dropping Phin off a block away, they’d parked in a lot behind a place Zeke called the Triple B. From what Maddy could see, it appeared to be a bar and grill with an adjoining coffee shop.
So far, Maddy had seen little of Steele Ridge—only what she’d glimpsed on its quaint side streets on the drive in. Something about the old-fashioned, small-town charm left Maddy, the one who hated shopping, daydreaming of wandering the stores, grabbing a coffee, and chatting with locals.
“Shit,” Zeke said.
Maddy glanced at Zeke, who was studying the tablet propped between them.
If things went according to plan, Phin would meet with whoever this person was, be shown evidence that he knew where the jewels were, and Maddy and Zeke would witness all of it, seeing what Phin saw so Maddy could identify the pieces.
On screen, Phin—according to the funky camera embedded in his sunglasses—spoke to an older woman with gray hair teased to perfection and straight out of the seventies.
Why Zeke would be worried about her, Maddy hadn’t a clue. She certainly didn’t look like an art thief. “Who is it?”
“Mrs. Royce. The town battle-ax. It’s not her, so to speak. Should have anticipated this.”
What in the heck was he babbling about? “I don’t understand.”
That made him laugh. One of those huffing, sarcastic ones. “Most times, I don’t understand either.” He waved it off. “We don’t come into town much. It’s not our thing.”
She considered that for a moment, then glanced at the screen where a second person clapped Phin on the shoulder and moved on. Ah.Charlie Charm.“He draws attention just by being here.”
“Yep.” He grabbed his phone from the cupholder, tapped the screen and a ringing sound filled the vehicle.
“What’s up?”
Male voice. Sounded like Cruz.
Zeke glanced around the parking lot, then went back to the tablet’s screen, where Phin continued chatting with the town battle-ax. “You seeing this?”
“You betcha. Guess we should have chosen another location. Brother, we just made a rookie mistake.”
“Someone needs to save him.”
Just that fast, the solution came to her and Maddy reached for the door handle, ready to jump out. Before she got the door open, Zeke clasped her arm, his fingers firm, but not squeezing.
“Hold on there,” he said. “Where areyougoing?”
“You just said someone needs to save him. It can’t be a Blackwell.” She gestured to the screen with her free hand. “Case in point. If one of you shows up, you’ll both be sucked into the vortex. I’m a stranger. I’ll pretend I’m his date and pull him away.”
“Eh,” Cruz said. “Not a bad idea.”
As complements went, it wasn’t a doozie, but she’d take it. “Why, thank you, Cruz.”
“But—”
“No buts. I have sunglasses on. No one will recognize me. And I doubt reporters are expecting me to be here.”
Counting on Zeke not wanting to cause a scene, Maddy grabbed her purse from the floor, yanked on the door handle and hopped out, hurrying across the parking lot toward the side street.
Zeke wouldn’t follow. Would he? She glanced back to where he still sat in the SUV. Drawing any attention wouldn’t help their mission, so chances of him yelling for her or running after her were nil.
