Chapter Seventeen
The strip mall was dark, and Jim was idling with lights off at the entrance to the parking lot. He was dressed in black, including a black hoodie. Rafer and Gabriela were also wearing hoodies. It was the outfit of choice for illegal entry.
“What should we do now?” Jim asked.
“At the far end of the buildings there’s an area reserved for trash.
Drop Rafer there. He can do lookout for us.
We’ll park the car behind the mall and go in through the back door.
Once we’re in we can use the penlights. Keep them low and focused on papers and files.
I’ll do the desk and you’re going to go through the file cabinets, looking for information on Fooze.
You don’t need to read everything. Just scan for his name.
When you find something that might be helpful give it to me and I’ll take a photo. ”
Minutes later, Gabriela and Jim were at the back door to the office. Gabriela inserted her pick, the lock tumbled, and she opened the door.
“This is not your first time opening a lock,” Jim said.
“I learned how to do this when I was in high school and kept forgetting to take my house key. It’s better than kicking in a door or breaking a window.”
“Yes, indeed,” Jim said.
They switched their penlights on, and Jim went to the first of four file cabinets.
Gabriela went into Rocky’s office. The first left-hand desk drawer was filled with candy.
The second drawer held office supplies. The bottom drawer was a file drawer.
She’d have Jim take a look at it. Nothing interesting in the right-hand drawers or the middle drawer.
There were a bunch of yellow sticky notes stuck on the top of the desk.
She took photos of them all. She rifled through a stack of spreadsheets.
She went through his trash basket. His computer was missing.
Probably took it home with him. She went into the hallway to see how Jim was doing.
“I have two drawers open that have things to photograph,” he said. “I’m not finding much to be interested in. No mention of Fooze but there were some employee files from the New York office and a file on the Merrick shipment.”
Gabriela photographed everything. They went into Rocky’s office, and Jim rifled through the bottom file drawer.
“This one,” he said. “It is employees. One of them is Horus Foozeph. I have never heard of such a name as Foozeph.”
“Good catch,” Gabriela said. “Anything else?”
“There is a file labeled Open Jobs. There are six items in it and one of them has a Luxor address.”
Gabriela photographed the entire employee file and the six items in the Open Jobs file.
A text message from Rafer buzzed on her phone. Car is approaching. Kill the lights. A second message buzzed. Looks like police. Don’t try to leave.
“My heart is beating very fast,” Jim said. “Do you know how to perform CPR if I have a heart attack?”
“You aren’t going to have a heart attack. And yes, I know how to administer CPR.”
There were no windows in Rocky’s office. Gabriela stepped into the dark hall and watched the police car through the front windows and glass door. The car slowly cruised the length of the mall and left the lot.
All clear, Rafer texted.
We’re done, Gabriela texted back. We’re exiting the building.
Jim opened the back door, and three cats rushed in.
“Ya lahwi!” Jim said, slamming the door shut. “I let kitties inside. How will we catch them? They will do kitty peepee everywhere.”
Gabriela approached one. “Nice kitty, kitty,” she crooned.
The cat hissed and tried to claw her.
“He does not want to leave,” Jim said. “We need kitty food to entice him to go to the door.”
“I don’t travel with kitty food,” Gabriela said. “The cats are going to get treated to a night at the Mausud Cat Resort.”
The back door opened, and Rafer stepped in, followed by two more cats.
“Close the door,” Jim shouted. “It is a kitty takeover.”
Gabriela shoved Jim toward the door. “Everyone out.”
Jim pulled up to the Ritz-Carlton. “Are we done for the night?” he asked.
“No,” Gabriela said. “Park the cab and come to my room. We need to get the photos up on my computer so we can read them.”
“I am glad to hear that,” Jim said. “I’m feeling very James Bond. I am Jim Bond. We escaped arrest by the police, and we completed our mission.”
Two hours later, they’d laid waste to a room service buffet and Gabriela had pages of handwritten notes in her doodle pad.
“Let’s recap this before we call it a night,” Gabriela said. “Fooze is short for Horus Foozeph. Thirty-seven years old. Grew up in Brooklyn and Cairo. Served in the Egyptian army. Work history after the army is solely with Mausud. Not married. Has an apartment in Heliopolis.
“We found a file on a job in Luxor that started yesterday. Packing of household items to be shipped to London. We can assume that Fooze is on this job.
“We have some other miscellaneous information that doesn’t tie into anything now but might in the future. I have the names of Mausud employees in London, New York, and Egypt. And I have messages that I got from crumpled papers in Rocky’s wastebasket and sticky notes on his desk.
“I believe that someone from Mausud removed the golden coffin from the Merrick crate. Possibly Fooze.”
“It is a shame that there were no secret notes saying where the golden coffin is hiding,” Jim said. “In the movies there are frequently secret notes written in code.”
Gabriela thought that there might be a coded note or a careless scribble in the information she had in front of her.
Jim had done a good verbal translation, but she would like to see the translation in writing.
When everyone left, she would forward the photographs to Marcella.
She had a trusted source in New York who would translate all the bits and pieces.
And then she would get in touch with Ahmed. He had something she wanted.
“That’s it for tonight,” Gabriela said. “Marcella has us on a ten o’clock flight to Luxor.”
“I will pick you up at eight thirty,” Jim said. “There will be morning traffic.”
“It’s going to be lonely in my room without Harley,” Rafer said to Gabriela.
He was trying to get into her bed, she thought, but there was also some truth to what he said. And it would be comforting to have him next to her tonight. Unfortunately, it ultimately wouldn’t be in her best interest.
“Deal with it,” she said to Rafer.
“You were more fun when you were in high school.”
He’s right, she thought. She had no real responsibilities in high school. Getting a passing grade in algebra didn’t weigh as heavy on her as saving a life.
Rafer grinned down at her. “You were easy. You were all over me.”
“That is so not true,” Gabriela said.
“It’s true,” Rafer said.
He’s right again, Gabriela thought. And the attraction was still there.
Maybe just one night wouldn’t be a terrible idea.
She warmed to the idea for a beat. And in the next beat she pulled herself away from the edge of the cliff.
Stupid, stupid, she told herself. Remember the marriage?
Remember the divorce? It was a nightmare.
“I know that look,” Rafer said.
“What look?”
“Your eyes narrow a little and you press your lips together and then you kick me out of the car, your dorm room, the coat closet when we were in second grade.”
“And that was back when I was more fun,” Gabriela said.