The B Girls (16 page)

"I don't have it. If you have Belle you know
that."

"I know that Belle was close to having it in
her hands. I think you and your two friends know where to find it."

"And if we don't?"

"That would be a very bad thing for your
beloved Aunt Belle."

Lucy bit her lip to keep from screaming. "If
you'll just let her go now, we'll give you all the notes and clues we have.
You'll be able to find the Declaration yourself."

"Don't insult my intelligence. I'm going to be
generous and give you until Thursday night. Let's say ten o'clock. That gives
you two full days. I'll call with instructions."

The phone went dead before Lucy could make further
pleas. Belle's life now depended on them finding something in two days that had
been missing for two hundred years.

###

"Okay, if Ranger Rick's truck, or any other
truck for that matter, is in the parking lot, we just turn around and
leave," Jane said. "Agreed?"

"Maybe if he's there we should just ask if we
can make a copy," Mae said.

Lucy shook her head. "He doesn't want us
treasure hunting. He's not going to give us a copy of the map. It's not too
late to change your mind."

"I'm not changing my mind. It was just a
thought," Mae said.

"You left the gun at the cabin right?"
Lucy asked.

"Yes. I'm not sure I should have but I did."

"Getting caught would be bad. Being armed and
getting caught would be a disaster," Jane said.

"Okay, I get it. Let's just hope no one's
there."

They shouldn't have worried. The Forest Service lot
was empty. The office was dark.

Mae parked the van in the darkest corner of the
lot.

"Last chance to call this off." Lucy was
going through with the break-in no matter what, but there really wasn't any
need for Mae and Jane to be involved. She could always come back in Belle's
car.

"I'll be right here when you get back,"
Mae said.

"We're not really breaking in you know,"
Jane said.

So much for cooler heads prevailing. "We're
planning to open a locked door and enter without permission. What else would
you call it?"

"Sneaking in. If you're not stealing and
you're not breaking anything, I think you call it sneaking in."

"I'll be sure to try out that logic on the
police if I get caught. Are you sure you don't want to wait here with
Mae?"

"I'm sure. Just make sure you have your cell
phone on vibrate. If I have to warn you someone's coming, I don't want your
phone to give you away."

The truth of the matter was that Lucy was scared.
Not scared enough to be the one to call a halt to the madness but scared enough
for her palms to sweat and her eyebrow to start twitching.

She'd be the hero who saved Belle or die trying.

Yeah right. It sounded good anyway.

Lucy checked her phone setting. "Okay, the
phone's set." And opened the van door. "Here goes nothing." Or
everything, depending on your point of view.

Jane followed her out of the van and they walked
across the lot to the front porch of the office.

The building reminded Lucy of the sort of cheap
wood construction found at scout camps all over the country. The paint was the
generic gray-green apparently purchased in massive quantities by the US
Government, but the place was well-maintained despite its age and ugliness.

She looked at the door and breathed a sigh of
relief at the absence of a dead bolt. Just as she'd hoped, the lock was a cheap
knob model. She pulled the credit card she'd chosen out of her back pocket. It
was Gary's business AMEX so she wouldn't miss it if it was damaged.

"Have you ever done this before?" Jane
asked.

"Only on the bathroom door at home." Lucy
slipped the card between the door and the frame above the knob. "Keep your
fingers crossed."

Jane held up crossed fingers as Lucy moved the card
down toward the lock.

It didn't slide smoothly. She had to wiggle and
jiggle it. When she hit the latch, she pushed a little harder.

It was ridiculously easy. The door popped open with
a little creak.

She'd committed a federal crime in less than a
minute.

"Make it quick," Jane said. "I'll
keep watch."

Lucy managed to make a little sound in the back of
her throat that could have been agreement. Her heart slammed against her ribs,
sweat broke out around her hairline and her mouth went dry as dust.

She was terrified, but stepped across the threshold
into the office and closed the door behind her.

She had a flashlight in her pocket but the light
from the parking lot was enough to navigate by as she made her way through the
outer room and into Ranger Leonard's office.

There was the cookie tin sitting in the middle of
his desk.

"Just stay calm," Lucy ordered herself.
She could make the copy and be out of here in under two minutes if she kept her
head and didn't panic.

Not panicking was much harder than it sounded.

Her fingers didn't want to cooperate when she tried
to pry the lid off the tin. There were a couple of clanks and bangs that kicked
her heart rate up so high she was afraid she'd have a fatal heart attack.

After what seemed like an hour but was probably
less than thirty seconds, the lid popped off. Lucy reached in and closed her
hand around the map. Almost home free.

Another thirty seconds to make the copy and she'd
be out the door.

She looked around the room in the dim light for the
copy machine.

The non-existent copy machine.

The one thing that had not occurred to her in
planning this misbegotten crime was that the office wouldn't have a freaking
copy machine. How could she have missed that fact when they were in here being
grilled by Ranger Leonard?

Because copy machines were one of those things that
exist in the background and don't draw attention to themselves. And of course
there was the fact that they were more worried about being arrested than how
well the office was appointed.

As she stood there contemplating the disaster,
something tried to crawl out of her pocket. She jumped, let out a high-pitched
squeak of alarm and dropped the map.

Shit! It was just her phone vibrating.

She froze. Every muscle in her body, including her
heart, locked up and refused to obey her commands.

Someone must be coming. At this very second Ranger
Rick might be putting a key in the lock she'd jimmied only minutes before.

One thought took up every ounce of brainpower she
possessed, "I'm going to federal prison."

She heard footsteps coming closer but couldn't make
herself move. Her brain unlocked enough to allow thoughts of diving under the
desk to come in but her body still wouldn't cooperate.

"Why didn't you answer your phone?"

Jane's voice shocked Lucy into action.

She stooped to pick up the map. Maybe she wasn't
going to prison for breaking and entering but there was a good chance she might
be looking at a murder rap soon.

"Lucy?"

Jane sounded worried but not particularly afraid or
frantic.

"I'm going to kill you for scaring me. Is
Ranger Rick on his way in here?"

"No. What's taking so long?"

Lucy put a lid on her homicidal thoughts. "No
copy machine."

Jane made an exasperated sound. "Of course
there's a copy machine. Every office has a copy machine."

"This one doesn't."

Jane turned a circle then went into the reception area.
She was back in seconds. "You're right. No copy machine. Let's just take
the map."

"And have the ranger come to arrest me? No
thanks." Lucy started opening desk drawers. Where the hell was a good
piece of scratch paper when you needed one?

"What are you doing?" Jane asked.

"I'm going to draw a copy of the map,"
Lucy said. "Aha. Here we go." She pulled several sheets of plain
white paper out of the large lower desk drawer. "Who the hell has copy
paper when they don't have a copy machine?" Lucy didn't expect an answer
and she didn't get one.

At least Ranger Rick kept sharpened pencils in a
cup on the desk. "This should only take me a few minutes."

"You're crazy you know that?" Jane said.

Lucy didn't respond.

"Fine. Just hurry up."

Lucy spread the map out on the desk and put a piece
of the blank paper over the first section. "Come over here and hold the
flashlight. I'm going to see if I can trace instead of sketch."

Jane went to the desk and took the flashlight from
Lucy. "I still say we should just take the damn map."

"Hold that light steady."

Jane focused the flashlight beam on the blank
paper.

Lucy could just make out the map. She started to
trace.

"Hurry up," Jane said when Lucy put the
first section aside and laid the next blank paper on the map.

"I'm going as fast as--"

Lights blazed. "What the hell are you
doing?" A calm male voice echoed through the office.

Lucy wondered if federal prisoners had to wear
those ugly orange jumpsuits. Maybe the feds provided something a little more
stylish.

Jane opted for bravado. She dropped the flashlight,
put her left hand on her hip, gave her sleek blond hair a pat with her right,
and pumped lot's of attitude into her voice. "You're not going to be a
Nazi about this are you?"

Ranger Leonard blinked in surprise and stared at
Jane for several seconds.

"I wasn't trying to steal anything. I just
wanted a copy of my map." Lucy sucked in a shuddering breath and willed
herself not to cry. "I plead temporary insanity. My aunt's missing. My son
left for college. My husband left for good. I shot up his fish. I think I'm
having some sort of breakdown."

"You're both nuts."

"Not me," Jane said. "But I do think
Lucy's on the edge. She might be capable of anything."

When Lucy made a protesting noise, Jane turned to
her. "What? I was just agreeing with you."

"Hey, you're the one who told one of your
biggest clients to make a real estate deal in exchange for a few blow
jobs."

Ranger Leonard's eyes bulged.

"From his wife, not from me," Jane said. "I
was just trying to cut through the BS so Bambi could have her house near the
governor's mansion and I could have my commission."

The ranger's shoulders lost their stiff set and the
scowl lines disappeared from his face. He looked from Jane to Lucy and back
again. "Hell, arresting you two and your friend out there in the minivan
would be like clubbing baby seals."

Hope bloomed in Lucy's chest. "You're not
going to arrest us?"

He shook his head. "I shouldn't have taken the
tin to begin with, but I was hoping to keep you three out of trouble. I should
have known better."

Jane's eyes blazed. "You what? You're not our
keeper!"

Lucy wanted to smack her. Couldn't she leave well
enough alone?

"I'm the one who'll have to lead the search
party when you get your pretty suburban necks lost on my turf." The scowl
was back on his face and he looked like he was reconsidering arresting them.

Jane's eyes blazed. "I don't see you leading a
search party for Belle!"

Ranger Leonard bristled right back at Jane.
"If there was any reason to suspect foul play every cop in the county
would be out looking for her." He stared Jane down. "Is there any
reason to suspect foul play?"

Lucy shook her head.

"Any evidence she's anywhere in Cohutta? Car
abandoned in a parking lot? On the side of the road?"

Lucy and Jane both hung their heads and wobbled a
no.

"So, there's not much I can do is there?"

"Jane's just a little upset that Belle would
take off when I'm already upset." She put a hand on Jane's shoulder.
"We should go now."

Jane nodded. "As soon as we get the tin and
the map."

"Take it," he said. "If I catch you
disturbing any archaeological sites in Cohutta, I will arrest you with
pleasure. Keep it in mind if you decide to come back."

###

"Can you believe the nerve of that man?"
Jane asked after she finished relating events to Mae.

"Him? What about you? You could have gotten us
all arrested," Mae said.

Jane snorted. "He couldn't arrest us without
admitting he took the map illegally."

"Do you still believe in Santa Clause too? He
could have created any story he wanted to cover himself.
We
were the ones who broke into a US Government facility,"
Lucy said.