Page 56 of Holding On to a Hero
His cast was a work of art. Or covered in one at least. Near his ankle a beautifully detailed pink unicorn spewed a rainbow from its horn. The rainbow dissolved into stars and smaller, multicolored unicorns as it went up his leg. It was glorious, but it did not seem to be something a guy who dressed like an accountant would choose for himself.
Ochoa must have felt the same, because when I walked over he was razzing Malcolm about missing the unicorn when his cast was removed. I felt reassured that the detectives seemed to know him. Ochoa introduced me and I shook Malcolm’s hand.
He turned to Ochoa. “Did you search his clothes for trackers?”
Ochoa raised his eyebrows and said, “No. We’ll be going over his truck though.”
Malcolm nodded. “That’s a much more likely place for one. But,” he looked at me significantly. “It’s still possible the guy got one on you. We need to be extremely cautious, so I’d like to search your clothes.”
Well, at least I could tell Ally I’d taken my clothes off for a guy after my date. Except, I realized with a hitch, I couldn’t tell her, because I couldn’t call her until all this was over. I’d already texted her I was leaving town for an unknown destination.
“Okay, let’s go.” I motioned Malcolm toward the men’s room. He crutched along behind me and it occurred to me to wonder what Brian thought a man on crutches could do if the shooter showed up. But this guy had been available to come get me so I decided not to look a gift unicorn in the mouth.
I opened the door to the men’s room. Luckily all the stalls were empty. Malcolm set his bag on the counter and pulled out some plastic zip bags and a pair of nitrile gloves.
“Put your phone and everything else from your pockets on the counter and then strip down to your underwear.”
He powered my phone off and removed the battery, then he went through my wallet. All of my credit cards were removed. “RFID chips,” he grunted, putting everything into the plastic bags. “You’ll get them back.”
I was feeling self-conscious about being the only one taking my clothes off, so I debated asking Malcolm about the unicorn but based on his face I decided on another topic. “What happened to your leg?”
He sighed but didn’t stop his examination of my left shoe. “You know how on cop shows you see them chasing a suspect down a stairwell, and to get ahead they jump over the railing to the next landing below?”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t recommend it.” Ouch.
When I was down to my boxer briefs Malcolm talked me through running my fingers over all of the seams.Allof the seams. I tried to focus on how funny Ally would find this, and whether I could get her to snort wine out of her nose if she was drunk when I told her about it.
Neither Malcolm nor I found a tracking device. He handed me back my jeans, socks and shoes, but not my shirt. “This is too noticeable. I brought you something else.”
He came prepared with another shirt? I was impressed. Malcolm seemed to know what he was doing.
He handed me a black polo that had a blue and green logo on the left side of the chest. “Bent Oak Bark and Purr Pet Resort”, it said. A cat and dog played above the letters. Huh.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “Brian said you wouldn’t be able to wear my shirts, so I had to dig through some stuff my, er, someone left behind and that’s the best I could come up with.”
“Uh, it’s fine.” It should fit at least.
He gave me back my wallet, empty now except for my driver license and cash. He then pulled a small phone out of his bag and handed it over with a charging cable. “Burner phone. I programmed my number and Brian’s in there.” Then he produced a thick envelope and gave me that too. “Cash.”
I looked through the envelope. It was mostly twenties and some hundreds. “This must be a couple thousand dollars,” I protested.
“Five. It’s not just for you. The people who will meet you on the other end will need it too.”
“Okaay.”The other end?I stuffed the envelope in the right front pocket of my jeans. The phone and charging cable were in the left, and my wallet in the back. I’d need to get a backpack or something if I wanted to sit down.
And then I could get some breakfast. I was starving.
When I was ready to go, Malcolm led me out of the restroom. Ochoa and Callahan were talking to a tall black-haired man and a shorter blond guy who happened to be wearing the exact same polo I was. They both greeted Malcolm in a surprised way, then the blond guy noticed me and narrowed his eyes.
“Is that my polo?”
“Uh,” I froze.
“You left it in the bedroom. He needed something to wear.”
The guy took a breath like he was going to yell at Malcolm, glanced at me, and then let it out without saying anything. He nodded. “Okay.” Whew.
