Page 60 of Bedroom Therapy

“Okay I guess.”

“Let’s do it together. It will only take an hour. Then I promise to stay in this nice cozy little hideout—with no contacts besides you and the ducks out there.”

He sighed. “Okay. We get in and out of the store quickly. Do you have a hat you can pull down over your face?”

“I’ve got a sun hat.”

He thought for a moment. “You usually wear shorts and a tee shirt. Wear something different, like a sundress. Tuck your hair up under the hat. Wear sunglasses. And more makeup.”.

She nodded and hurried back to her room to follow directions. Her wardrobe was limited, but she pulled on a simple knit dress and topped it with a camp shirt; she dug her straw sun hat out of the closet. Then she slathered on some makeup and made her lips twice their normal size. She completed the outfit with a pair of sandals that matched her hat.

When she returned to the living room, Zach was wearing an outfit she hadn’t seen—worn jeans, a jeans jacket, cowboy boots, and a hat.

She did a double take, then grinned. “Are you going for the country and western look?”

“Something like that,” he answered as he studied her choice of clothing. “Do you have sunglasses?”

“Yes.”

“Wear them, and keep them on in the store.” He shifted from one foot to the other. “Let’s get this over with. The sooner you’re tucked back home, the better I’ll like it.”

“You can go on record as opposing the expedition.”

“Yeah. Right.” He led her outside, then hesitated.

“What are you waiting for?” she asked, hoping she hadn’t made him change his mind.

“I’m thinking about which vehicle to take. I don’t like either choice, but I guess mine is better, since yours was parked at the old house the whole time you were there.”

###

St. Stephens was a small town, Tony thought. If O’Neal and her boyfriend were still here, he had a decent chance of running into them.

Although he’d cruised the shopping center parking lots and the discount mall, he hadn’t seen either O’Neal’s little Toyota or the guy’s Honda, and he was wondering if they had access to another vehicle.

He’d done that himself. He’d found an isolated house where newspapers were piling up next to the mailbox.

He’d come back that night, let himself in, and found an itinerary from a travel agency telling him that the couple who lived there wouldn’t be back from Italy for a week. After parking the van in the woods nearby, he borrowed their old Mustang. The guy probably kept it around because it was a classic model. Tony liked it because it didn’t have a modern ignition or alarm system.

He was planning to put it back in a couple of days, well before the owners returned home. For now it was the perfect option.

As he pulled into the parking lot outside the Acme, he was thinking he was getting low on groceries. He might as well kill two birds with one stone and go in to pick up some food. Easy stuff that he could eat while he was driving around looking for Dr. O’Neal and Mr. Buttinsky.

###

Amanda watched Zach as he did a slow tour of the shopping center parking lot. When he stopped beside a white van, she felt a little shiver go over her skin. “Is that him?” she whispered.

“No. This van’s got a ladder rack on the top.”

“Oh,” she answered, thinking that was the kind of detail she wouldn’t have spotted in a million years, since vehicles were just a means of transportation, as far as she was concerned.

There were other vans in the lot, but none of them was white. Zach pulled into a space near the entrance to the grocery store, then turned to her.

“We’re going to play a very friendly couple. I’ll have my arm around you. And you can say cute little twitty things that are completely out of character.”

She gaped at him. “Is that necessary?”

“Yeah. Because it’s not something you’d do in public.”

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