Page 32 of Fixer
“Do we steal the file?’Wade asked.
“Hell, no, we take pictures.Once we have the evidence, we put everything back the way it was.Hopefully they’ll never realize we were here.In three days, the video cameras in the hallway begin recording over their own tape.If no one bothers to check before then, we disappear.”I passed him my stronger light and unslung the camera from around my neck.“Shine that on the page.”
My first try with just the flashlight was such a long exposure even my steady hand probably would create blurs.“Take off your jacket.Screen me from the window.I need to use the flash.”
I got photos of all the pages as quickly as I could, including some financial documents I didn’t take the time to read through.Then we reconstructed the file, replaced it in the drawer, and relocked both cabinets.I wrapped my blackout cloth under my jacket, eased the venetian blind back to the half-open position it’d started in.
“Cover your mouth again,” I reminded Wade.As we retreated, I relocked doors, then keyed off the alarm for our escape.One last sequence punched into the keypad to reactivate the system, a brief scurry behind the hedge, and we took off our scarves, straightened, and strolled toward the sidewalk.We were still on the grass, close to the bushes, when a cop car rolled toward us down the street.In a moment, their headlights would reach us.
Wade gulped something that sounded like, “Eep!”
I murmured, “Go with this,” and hauled him against the bush, pressed myself close to his body, and kissed him.A second later the light swept over us, kept going… paused.
The car came to a stop at the curb.I let go of Wade and turned to face the cops, tucking him behind me and hoping my loose jacket covered all my gear.
The cop on our side of the car rolled down his window.“Hey, you two.None of that!Take it inside your house, you hear me?”
I waved to him.“Sorry.I didn’t think there was anyone around.”
“This is city hall, not a public park.Get out of here before I haul you both in for indecency.”
“Yes, sir.”I hustled Wade off the grass and turned us in the opposite direction from the cop car.They’d have to get out on foot or pull a U-turn to come after us.For several breathless seconds, their reaction hung in the balance, the car idling at the roadside as we walked away— not too fast, not too slow—down the sidewalk.Then the engine revved and they drove off.
Wade heaved a sigh of relief.
I murmured, “Short stroll to the car, cool and calm, nothing suspicious.”We turned the corner, continued a few blocks, and doubled back the other way, sauntering side by side, two men with nothing to hide.We reached my car, got in, started the engine.I drove five blocks deeper into the sleeping neighborhood, pulled over, and banged my forehead on the steering wheel.
Wade laughed, a touch of hysteria in his tone.“That was too close.I can’t believe you did that.”
“Yep.But we survived.I wouldn’t have tried to pull that ‘we’re just here making out’ game ten years ago.They’d have run us in for being queer in their presence, probably with a punch and kick to remember them by, but it’s 1974 and times have changed.I took a gamble.”
“I don’t understand, why?”
“Two guys off the sidewalk over by the bushes?Must be up to no good of some sort.So I gave them a differentno goodthey could believe.”
“Sure.Right.”Wade whipped the scarf from around his neck and tossed it over the back of the seat, followed by his jacket.“I sweated like a pig.How did you have the code for the door?”
“A little advance planning after checking the blueprints.That was a fire exit door.You know, ‘Push in emergency, the alarm will sound?’I went to City Hall shortly before closing and brought this teen kid with me.I’d paid him twenty bucks to go through the emergency exit and beat it as fast as he could.Security came running, and one of them entered the code to turn off the alarm.I was watching from down the hall with little opera glasses.”I smirked.“They called that kid a lot of names for that stupid prank.”
“Oh.”Wade grinned back at me.
“I do this for a living, you know.Ninety-five percent is preparation and research.Five percent is luck.The cops not arriving two minutes sooner was luck.”
“Now what?”
“Now we go home and get some shut-eye.In the morning, I’ll run the film down to my Chicago office where I have a darkroom.”I wasn’t about to let my negatives and images pass through someone else’s hands on cases.Particularly since a number of them featured naked people.I developed all my own stuff.“Then I’m going to snoop around Rosswurn and Quentin, who both live in Chicago.See what I can dig up on that unholy duo.People who are sleazy about money often have other sins they hide.We need leverage.”
“Leverage for what?”
“Whatever it takes to shut this down.”
“Going to the press, you mean?”
“Potentially, yes.Downside is, if we bring the press in, we shine a light on the building, the residents, you.Attention, stories.”
Wade flinched, as any werewolf would.“What’s the alternative, though?”
“Blackmail?Quid pro quo?We keep quiet, they give up this scam and keep the extension where it belongs.”
