Chapter 18
Maggie ignored the exhaustion that was creating a throbbing headache over her right eye. Pushing through the pain, she smiled as she delivered the scotch and bourbon to two club members. “Enjoy, gentlemen,” she said, then turned and walked towards the wall where she’d stand until she noticed someone needed her. She was working the pool room tonight. Someone had called in sick, so Emily had shuffled everyone around.
“Do you have the…trophies?” a man asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
Maggie heard the question, but didn’t turn her head, didn’t flinch, blink, or move in any way to indicate that she’d heard something that wasn’t meant for her ears. It always amazed her and her friends how much these men revealed when they thought no one was listening. Idiots! As a waitress, Maggie knew she was invisible to these men.
“Yeah,” a second voice replied. “I have them here.”
“Can I see them?”
Todras chuckled. “Not a chance. You haven’t bought into the project.” He snickered. “These trophies are for members only.”
“Come on, dude!” the voice whined. “Just a peek!”
“Nope!” Todras replied. “You don’t have enough money in your trust fund for a peek.”
Maggie couldn’t help herself. She turned her head, pretending to survey the room. She noticed two men sitting in brown leather club chairs to the right of her post. They had their heads close together and they were looking around warily, as if trying to ensure that their conversation was not overheard. Quickly, Maggie looked away, but not before she noticed that the man had tapped his jacket pocket over his heart. That was Humphrey Todras, she realized. Humphrey had been with Barney several weeks ago. That miserable night that Barney had attacked her was still painfully vivid in her mind.
Because it was also the night that Ramit had seen her and done nothing to help her!
Reminding herself that Ramit was no longer in her life, and shouldn’t be allowed to take up space in her thoughts, she focused on the present. She’d read the news and discovered that he’d gone back to his country.
Shifting slightly, she angled her body so that she could see the two men more easily in her peripheral vision. The idiot rubbed his chest again, as if he needed to feel the object hidden in his pocket to assure himself that it was still there.
Interesting! So…the man had something in his jacket pocket. Because it was Humphrey, she wondered if the hidden object had something to do with what he and Barney had been talking to Ramit about on the darkened patio on that fateful night.
“You keep the…trophies…with you?” the other man asked. Maggie didn’t recognize him, and assumed he must be Humphrey’s guest.
Humphrey laughed and Maggie kept her body as relaxed as possible. Obviously, they weren’t talking about actual trophies. At least, not the plastic kind handed out to kids after they won a soccer tournament.
Maggie looked around as Emily walked through the room. Maggie drifted slowly away from her place on the wall and intercepted Emily at the far end of the bar.
“What’s up?” Emily asked quietly, looking down at the papers attached to the clipboard she carried.
In a low voice, Maggie explained, “There’s something in Humphrey’s pocket. I think we should get a look at whatever he’s hiding.”
Emily looked up and smiled, also pretending to scan the room. “Why do you think so?”
Maggie grinned. “Because he’s calling it a trophy and, I know him too well. He was with what’s-his-name, Barney Mathis, that night that…well, the other night.” She shuddered at the memory.
“Wasn’t Barney the guy you had to knee a couple weeks ago?”
“One and the same,” Maggie confirmed.
Emily nodded. “If you suspect Todras of conspiring with someone for nefarious purposes, that’s good enough for me.” She carefully surveyed the room. “I’ll get Ann to help out. Standby. She’ll be through in a few minutes. We’ll do the coat-switch.” She looked down at her clipboard. “Any idea how large the item is?”
“Nope. It’s in his right front pocket and it’s not creating a bulge.”
Emily grinned, a shimmer of excitement sparkling in her eyes. “No worries. We’re on it.”
Maggie nearly laughed as endorphins surged through her. Or was it adrenaline? She wasn’t sure, but knew that the excitement caused by these kinds of “raids” was always a little thrilling.
Maggie returned to her place beside the wall when Ann rushed into the room. She looked around as if searching for a particular person, her eyes looking a bit frantic, and her tray held a single drink.
The woman was a good actress! Maggie smothered her smile as she pretended to look inquiringly at Ann.
“Do you know where…oh my gosh!” Ann gasped as the drink tumbled from her tray onto the shoulder of the man in question.
“What the hell?” Humphrey yelled, standing up and looking down at the liquid dripping down over his jacket. With his arms held out by his side, the man glared at Ann. “What kind of idiot are you?”
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Todras!” Ann gasped, doing a great impression of a flighty woman. Emily and Maggie knew that Ann was extremely intelligent!
Maggie hurried over with a rag that she’d grabbed from the bar. Dabbing at the man’s sports coat, she tried in vain to mop up the liquid.
Maggie stepped back, shaking her head at the mess and tsking her co-worker. Ann was standing a few feet away, looking appropriately chastised. “My apologies for my co-worker’s clumsiness, sir,” she said. “If you give me your coat, I’ll procure another one for you for the evening. While you finish your game of pool, we’ll have this one cleaned and pressed so that it will be perfect before you leave for the evening.”
The man shrugged his shoulders, still trying to avoid having the droplets spill onto the rest of his clothes. Humphrey shot Ann a malevolent glare, then slipped off the sopping jacket. “What an idiot!” he snapped.
“I’m so sorry, sir!” Ann repeated, clutching the tray against her chest and pretending to look worried.
“I’ll get this fixed up for you right away, Mr. Todras,” Maggie replied.
Emily walked into the room and pretended to take in the scene. She hurried over to the man and took his drink. “I’m sorry, Mr. Todras. Drinks for tonight are on the house.”
They wouldn’t be “on the house”. Ann, Emily, and Maggie had a slush fund for adventures like this. They knew that sometimes it took resources to figure out what these rich guys were up to. So the drinks would be paid for out of that money.
“Damn straight!” Humphrey grumbled, then accepted the other sports jacket that Maggie whipped out of one of the many secret supply closets hidden throughout the club.
“Here you go, sir. We’ll get your jacket cleaned up right away.”
“See that you do!” he spat out, jerking the new jacket on before he turned to his “friend”. The two of them chuckled over the stupidity of the working class, then resumed their seats on the leather chairs.
Emily already had a fresh drink ready for the man and set it down on the table. “Here you go, Mr. Todras. My apologies again.”
The three of them turned, Maggie clutching the other coat as she hurried to the back of the room where she disappeared through the employee doorway. Emily and Ann left through separate doorways, but all three met up in the room they always used for these kinds of missions.
“What’s in there?” Ann asked, peering over Maggie’s shoulder as she pulled the envelope out of the man’s pocket. Inside were pictures of two nude people in various compromising positions. “Wow!” Ann gasped.
Emily hummed. “Beautiful woman.” She tilted her head, eyes narrowed. “I’ve seen her face somewhere before.”
Maggie turned to look at her boss. “Where?”
Emily tapped her finger thoughtfully against her chin. “I’m not sure, exactly. But it will come to me.”
Maggie stared at the images, not sure if…? Shaking her head, she stuffed the pictures back into the envelope. But as she was trying to fit them all back in, she noticed some writing on the back.
“This is a phone number,” she noted, glancing at the digits. “And…!” She gasped, looking at the numbers. “I…recognize this number.” Her heart ached as she flipped the pictures over again. Suddenly, the penny dropped.
“What?” Emily prompted.
“She knows something,” Ann blurted out. “What do you know?”
Maggie blinked back sudden tears. She wasn’t sure if she was just emotional because of her pregnancy, or if the ache in her heart was because she recognized the phone number. “This is Sheik al Quadar’s personal cell number,” she whispered to her friends. There was a second number under the first. But this wasn’t a phone number. It was…? “Is this an amount?”
Emily took the photo, her eyes narrowing. “No, not an amount.” She tapped the information with her finger. “That looks like a land site’s plot number. It’s the kind that a municipal government uses to identify various plots of land.” She turned to Ann. “We know that Todras and Mathis had purchased a piece of land in Annapolis, Maryland. Could this be the plot number for that land?”
Ann examined the writing, then nodded. “It’s the right length, but what are the odds that someone would be stupid enough to write that kind of information on the back of a picture of a naked woman?”
“And why?” Maggie asked. “What’s the connection between the woman and the land number?”
Ann crossed her arms over her chest, leaning one shoulder against the wall. “Maybe there’s no connection between the two. The guy could just have pictures of a naked woman and he wrote some information on the back of one of the pictures.”
Emily shook her head. “I doubt it. But it’s curious that the pictures have been printed out. In this world, photos are digitized and stored on hard drives. So the fact that these are printed and with information written on the back…I think both are significant.” She turned to Maggie. “And I suspect that these images are somehow connected to your man.”
Maggie’s heart ached, but she pushed aside that pain. “He’s not my man,” she asserted firmly. “But whatever the cause, if these are Sheik al Qadar’s pictures, we should return them to him.”
Ann and Emily agreed. “But what are we going to say to Todras? He’ll be suspicious if we hand him back his jacket without the envelope of photos.”
Emily bit her lip, trying to figure something out. “What if we replace the photos? Then we could…?”
A male voice sounded behind them. Hendrix stepped into the loose circle, his eyes narrowing on the photos. “I’ll get one of my men to create some new pictures and we’ll change the numbers on the back. We can switch out the pictures for fake ones.” He looked at the printed images. “I can also go through the guy’s computer. If he’s using these photos to blackmail someone, then I can delete the photos.”
Hendrix must have seen Ann and Maggie switch out the jackets and realized something was going on.
Maggie noticed Emily’s reaction first. Her face turned bright red and there was a strange mix of anger and…hope?...on her features. But…Emily and Hendrix hated each other! Didn’t they? Yes, Maggie had heard Emily grumble about Hendrix on several occasions. In fact, now that she thought about it, Hendrix and Emily sat as far away from each other as possible during staff meetings. And during those meetings, they rarely looked at each other.
Maggie glanced at Ann, wondering if she was seeing the same thing. Sure enough, Ann’s gaze was curious as she watched the scene unfold.
Intriguing, Maggie thought. Perhaps she wasn’t the only one struggling with romantic issues lately.
However, there was no time to ponder the issue. They had to get back out to Todras. “Whatever we’re going to do, we need to act fast,” Maggie announced.
“I’ll clean up the coat.” Ann grabbed the still-damp jacket and headed out of the room right behind Maggie. They heard Hendrix snarl, “You should have come to me about this!” as they closed the door.
Outside, Maggie and Ann paused, staring at each other. “What’s going on?” Ann whispered.
“No clue!” she hissed back. “I’ll get this one out to Todras.”
Ann grabbed Maggie’s arm right as Maggie turned to head down the hallway. “What are you going to tell him if he asks about the contents of the pockets?”
Maggie bit her lip, pondering the question. Then she perked up and said, “I’ll just tell him that we don’t go through pockets. And the jacket will be back with him by the end of the evening. Can you work miracles on that spot?”
Ann looked down at the jacket, then nodded. “Yeah. It’s mostly just damp. I’ll dry it up and put some of the dry cleaning spray on it. The stuff that makes everything smell like it just came out of the dryer.”
“Good plan,” Maggie replied. “See you later.”
The two women moved off in opposite directions. Maggie walked out to the room and gave Humphrey Todras a professional smile as she held out another drink. “Here you go, sir.”
The man grumbled as he took the drink. “Make sure she doesn’t steal anything from me.” He grumbled the comment as he adjusted his temporary jacket. It was actually a better quality wool and Maggie suspected that the man was contemplating how he could walk out with both sports jackets at the end of the night.
However, Maggie’s heart was aching too much for her to stand there. What was Ramit’s phone number doing on the back of naked photos? And why did Todras even have Ramit’s private phone number in the first place? They hadn’t looked happy with each other when they’d appeared to be arguing out on the patio.
None of this made sense. But she was going to send a message to the Annapolis land development commission and suggest that they investigate the land purchase and proposed development. Something wasn’t right.
Beyond that, she wasn’t sure what else she could do.