Marshmallow S'More Murder (Merry Wrath Mysteries Book 3) (17 page)

Ignoring the twist of envy, I addressed them. "No name—they haven't decided yet. We should know before we go home tomorrow."

Betty frowned. "But we don't go home tomorrow. We go home Friday." The other girls nodded and looked at me.

"I have some business here I need to take care of," I said. "So we're cutting this trip short." I flinched inwardly, waiting for the cries and pleas.

"She must have spy stuff to do." Hannah nodded.

What?

"Are you going to kill somebody, Mrs. Wrath?" Another of the Kaitlins asked.

I felt my whole body go hot. How did they know? I looked at Maria and Rex, but they looked as startled as I was. I decided to play stupid.

"I don't know what you guys are talking about," I lied.

"You know…" Inez said. "The CIA stuff you do."

"She can't tell us, idiot!" Betty shouted. "It's a secret mission!"

A third Kaitlin said, "We totally understand, Mrs. Wrath."

A sea of tiny faces looked at me expectantly. Evelyn's jaw had dropped open. Apparently, she was the only one who didn't know my background.

"Ladies, please." I held my hands up. "It's nothing like that. I just have some paperwork to do. Boring stuff."

"Right…" Hannah winked at me.

"Okay, guys!" Maria stood up. "Time to go back to the room and order dinner! Who wants Vulcan pizza?"

The girls cheered unanimously and filed out the door. Evelyn grudgingly followed, giving Riley one last glance before the door closed behind her.

"That didn't exactly go as expected," I said, staring at the door.

"How did they figure it out?" Riley ran his fingers through his hair. "You sure you didn't tell them?"

I threw my arms up in the air "No idea! Honestly! Maria and I never talked in front of them. There's no way they should know!" I slumped onto the tribble sofa. "Now what?"

Riley picked up the hotel phone. "First, I'm going to call a buddy I have at the airlines to switch the girls' flight. Then, we're going to take care of Leiko Ito once and for all."

Something popped up in my mind. "Rex! What did you do with Philby and the kittens?" Somehow in this whole mess, I'd completely forgotten about my cat.

Rex fidgeted nervously with his belt. "Oh. Well, I didn't have a lot of time. I had to call in a favor." He was avoiding eye contact.

"Who?" I asked, not at all sure I wanted to know the answer.

"Just an old friend, Merry. It's no big deal."

I folded my arms across my chest. "Who? They're my cats. I'd like to know who has them."

Rex sighed heavily. "Okay. But like I said, I had very little time to find someone. And I know you don't want to board them. So I called the first person I could think of who liked cats."

"Rex? Are you going to tell me who?" I was using my angry-spy voice.

"Juliette Dowd. She has the cats."

"That crazy psycho? You let the one person who hates me more than anything on the planet watch my cats?" It felt like my head exploded.

Juliette Dowd was my nemesis. Maybe my worst.

"If she hurts Philby and the babies, I'm going to break out the thumbscrews and work her over like a pit bull on 'roid rage!"

"She likes cats." Rex defended himself. "And she likes me. She wouldn't hurt them. I swear she wouldn't."

I wasn't so sure. True, she still carried a torch—a great big torch—for Rex. But she hated me in a way people usually reserved for political pundits. I pictured her tormenting the cats just to get back at me.

"Look." Rex took out his cell and dialed. "I'm going to call her now to make sure they're okay."

He paused, waiting for the flame-haired Satan to pick up. "Juliette! Just thought I'd check in to let you know I made it okay."

Rex blushed, and it was all I could do not to grab the phone and let out a series of expletives that would destroy a crusty sailor.

"Um, that's very nice of you," Rex said. He seemed uncomfortable. That made me feel a little better. "No, that's really not necessary. No really, you don't need to. Okay, we'll talk about it when I get back." He hung up and looked at me like a television evangelist about to be indicted on prostitution charges.

"What's really nice of her?" I asked.

"She said the cats are doing well. They're eating and fine." He avoided eye contact.

"Rex? Please answer the question, or I will torture you with a pair of pliers."

"It's really nothing…" he stammered. "She's just making my favorite casserole and wants to have me over for dinner."

"That is not happening," I said.

"And she might've done all my laundry and made me a red velvet cake…" His voice drifted off.

"Hey!" Riley said. "Is that the cute redhead?"

"She's not cute," I said through my teeth. "And we will discuss this later!"

Maria came back in and sank onto the sofa. She looked from me to Rex and asked, "What did I miss?"

After glaring at my boyfriend a few more seconds, I shook my head. "It's nothing. How are the girls?"

"Fine. They're eating pizza and watching the old
Star Trek
series on TV—which appears to be this place's answer to HBO. I think Evelyn is in shock, but oh well."

The girls I was sure I could handle, now that they knew. Evelyn was another thing altogether. I wasn't sure I wanted the parents to know that I used to kill people for a living. Hey…maybe I could use that to my advantage as motivation for next year's cookie sale…

"If we're all done with whatever the hell is going on, I think we should start putting a plan together to stop Leiko Ito in her tracks, because I do not want to go through all that again," Riley said.

He told us how he came to be kidnapped. A few days ago, he'd gone out for coffee at his favorite organic cafe. Spies usually avoided having favorite restaurants or routes to work. Even a favorite color could get you in trouble. But Riley, the health nut, really liked this place and made sure he went different routes every time and at different times of day to throw off anyone following him.

Getting into a routine should've made a secret agent far more aware of their surroundings. In these circumstances, Riley should've kept a careful eye on everything going on around him.

He hadn't.

As he'd walked out the back entrance in a weak attempt to avoid being followed, someone had thrown a bag over his head and injected him with the same cocktail I'd been given. They had kept him in the cell where I'd found him, beating him to get him to confess to Midori's murder and to get him to name me as coconspirator.

"I never gave you up," he said, running his hands through his thick, wavy blond hair.

"Somehow they figured it out. Probably because you called me." I showed him the record of his calls on my cell.

"I didn't know I'd called you," he said sadly. "They must've drugged me. I would never implicate you. Not willingly."

Rex studied him for a moment before looking at me. "I believe him."

Truth was, I did too. I just didn't want to let him off the hook yet.

"Anyway," Riley continued. "They gave me food and water and a thin blanket and left me alone after that. I didn't see Ito again until in that conference room."

Maria said, "They thought Merry had killed Midori. That's why they gave up on you."

I nodded. "And they took me and let me find you in hopes I'd say something admitting I killed her."

"I think so," Riley said.

"So let me get this straight," Rex said slowly. "Besides you guys covering up a murder and tampering with the body, which I'm still pissed about by the way, now you might have created an international incident at an embassy without the knowledge or blessing of the CIA."

"That sounds about right," I said. "But I don't think the embassy will do anything about it. They'd look bad for having yakuza on staff, let alone torturing American citizens in the basement."

"Ito's not dead," Riley said. "She's probably sent for reinforcements from Tokyo, but it will take a day or so for them to get here. I think we've got her right where we want her."

I shook my head. "She's not the only yakuza in this country."

I told them about Elvinia and our trip there. Rex tried to control his anger at my running full tilt into such a dangerous situation.

"But you said Elvinia is part of the Okinawa family and hates the Tokyo branch," Maria said.

Riley shook his head. "In the grand scheme of things, that doesn't matter. If Ito calls for Elvinia's aid, she'll have no choice but to come. They have an elaborate code that relies heavily on a sense of familial duty."

I sighed and reached for the room's landline.

"What are you doing?" Maria asked.

"Ordering room service. This is going to take a while, and I'm starving."

An hour later, as we were munching on Klingon Fries and Mr. Sulu Burgers, we were no further along in planning. The food helped though. And I got a kick out of seeing diet-conscious Riley react to the cheddar and bacon Scotty Sauce drizzled over the fries. When I dipped them in ranch dressing he almost had a heart attack.

"We can't invade the Japanese Embassy," Maria said. "That's the equivalent to invading another country."

"So, we lure her out somehow," I said.

"And just how are we going to do that?" Riley asked. "She's pretty embedded there. She just has to wait for more troops to come."

I thought for a moment. "We'll just have to promise her something she can't refuse."

Rex asked, "And what exactly would that be?"

"The truth about who murdered her mother," I said.

"How can we do that when we don't know?" Maria asked.

I shrugged. "She doesn't know that. She's always assumed Riley and I are guilty. So let's pretend we're going to confess in an attempt to end this feud."

"When?" Rex asked.

"After we're sure the girls are on their flight tomorrow. Then we launch this plan and hope we can pull it off."

"What plan? We don't have a plan, unless I've been asleep during this conversation," Riley asked.

"The one we're going to make right now, duh!" I said. "But first, I need to make a quick phone call."

I excused myself to the other room and dialed. Maybe, just maybe, I could pull this off. If not, we were probably going to our deaths. I figured we had about a sixty/forty chance of survival. Okay, maybe it was more like forty/sixty. I just wasn't going to tell my team that.

Riley had gotten the girls on a six a.m. flight back home. Evelyn didn't look very happy about being the only adult, but I promised her she'd never have to go with us again, and she grudgingly agreed.

"Mrs. Wrath?" Lauren asked as the girls lined up to go through security.

I knelt before the girl and waited.

She pulled a small baggie filled with shortbread cookies out of her pocket and handed it to me.

"What's this for?" The bag was warm. I wasn't sure I wanted to know if she'd had it anywhere else.

"For a snack. In case you get hungry." Lauren hugged me and then ran to catch up with everyone else—who were now going through security.

I tucked the baggie into my back pocket and shook my head. Those kids were so awesome. I'd have to tell them that when I got home.

We waited at the airport until we saw on the monitors that the plane had taken off and then made our way back to the hotel to launch
Operation Avoid Dying at All Costs
. Sure, we could've come up with a sexier name, but all our creative energy went into making the plan in the first place.

Riley called the Japanese Embassy and asked for Ms. Ito. To his surprise, he was connected. He gave her some instructions and an address, indicating that he would tell her the whole story of Midori's death. She agreed, probably because in her psychopathic mind she believed him. We still had no idea what had happened, but she didn't need to know that.

We didn't tell her to come alone or unarmed because that was just something they did in the movies. It was unrealistic to think that spies or crime bosses wouldn't bring weapons and would show up on their own. Past experience had shown this to be a naïve suggestion and quite a few spooks had lost their lives in the field by truly believing the bad guy would honor the request.

Maria called in a couple of favors from Ahmed and Jenkins. Zeb Jenkins jumped at the chance to finally see some action, and Ahmed was bribed with a lifetime supply of cookies. Everyone, and I mean
everyone
, had a price.

We set up the rendezvous point to be at an abandoned warehouse that used to be an Agency safe house in the Maryland countryside. The huge, steel-sided building was the only structure in the middle of a barren field. We'd be able to see anyone coming miles before they arrived. If we were lucky, we could get out of this alive and get home in time to rescue my cats from the evil clutches of Juliette Dowd.

"I can't believe we're doing this," Rex grumbled as he checked his .45 one more time.

"I'm so sorry," I apologized. Not only was this completely illegal, I'd dragged my boyfriend, a police officer, into it. And it wasn't his jurisdiction. He could end up fired or imprisoned.

"Maybe you shouldn't be here," I said finally. "You could go back to the hotel and wait until it's over."

Rex shook his head. "I don't see how I could do that. There's no way I could live with myself if you got hurt."

My heart went all squishy inside. How lucky was I to have a man like this?

"But Rex," I argued, "you could lose your job or go to jail if this turns south. I don't want that to happen to you. Especially when this is all my fault."

His mouth hardened into a stubborn line. "I'm doing this whether you like it or not."

Yeesh! Fine! So touchy. Okay, I was reacting out of guilt. If Rex wanted to stay, there wasn't much I could do to change his mind. I walked over to Maria to check on her.

"Are we all set?" I asked. Ahmed and Zeb were in the corner, loading magazines and practically trembling with excitement. "Are those two going to be able to handle this?"

Maria rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah. Their part isn't very big, just backup. I just hope they remember that and don't do anything stupid."

"Yeah," I said, "because I'm the only one who gets that distinction."

Maria laughed. "I wouldn't say that. You did really well with snagging Rex. He's wonderful. How'd you find a guy like that?"

I shrugged. "You just have to change your name and appearance, move to a small town in Iowa, and have a hottie detective move across the street from you. It's easy."

"Go check on Riley." Maria smiled.

Riley was fifty feet away in the back corner surrounded with monitors that watched the approach to the warehouse in every direction. We gave him that duty as punishment for getting us all into this in the first place. He didn't argue. I was sure he felt bad about it.

"Hey," I said as I walked up behind him. Four monitors—one for each direction—sat in front of him in a horseshoe formation. "All set?"

Riley turned toward me, and I started watching the monitors for him. "I'm so sorry, Merry. This really got out of hand. And I ruined your trip."

"Normally, the nice, Midwestern girl in me would argue with you to make you feel better. Unfortunately, she's armed and dangerous right now, so that's not gonna happen."

Yes, it was harsh. And it was tough to see Riley flinch at my words, but he needed to know that I was upset about it.

"I deserve that," he said. "I had no idea I'd called you. I was under some serious drugs, but that's not much of an excuse."

"Wow," I said drily. "Who are you? Where's Riley?" The old Riley was more selfish than that. Maybe he'd learned a little something here.

"I shouldn't have gone to the coffee house more than once." He looked duly chastened. A look I'd never seen on him before. "It was stupid and sloppy."

"Now you know why we have those rules in our line of work," I said, my eyes scanning the monitors every few seconds. "But there's nothing we can do about that now. I'm grateful for the apology though."

Riley looked into my eyes, like he had more to say. I waited, but no words came out. I got that. Sometimes you just felt like nothing you said would make a difference. And it wouldn't. The yakuza believed Riley and I were involved in the murder of their leader. Chances were, they'd have come to Who's There, Iowa, looking for me anyway. At least this way, my hometown was safe.

"Forget about it," I finally said to break the uneasy silence. "We're good. And as long as this works, we all get out of this alive." Always look on the bright side when attempting a dangerous plan.

"I should also apologize for what happened in Japan," Riley said quietly. I took my eyes off the monitor and looked back at Rex, who was now deep in conversation with Maria.

"Forget about it," I said, but there was a hard edge in my voice. I guess I was still mad at myself for screwing around with Chlotilde.

Riley shook his head. "I'm not sure you understand…
"

I nodded. "Yes, you shouldn't have been holding another woman in your arms when I walked in on you. But that's water under the bridge. Besides, if I hadn't caught you snuggling up to that German bimbo, I would've found you with someone else later."

I guess I wasn't over it. The image of walking in to see Riley holding Chlotilde against him still hurt. But a snake couldn't change its stripes, so better then than later.

Riley stared at me with his mouth open. He probably didn't think I'd actually say it out loud. Oh, well. This was a learning experience for him. And I was kind of proud of myself for saying what I should've a long, long time ago.

"Merry, I don't—" he started.

I held my hand up to silence him. "Save it." I pointed at the monitors. A black sedan was rocketing toward the south end of the warehouse. The yakuza had arrived.