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“Call me later,” Pari said to me before tossing a wave to Garrett and hurrying out of my apartment.
“Okay. Don’t be a stranger.”
I realized Reyes was watching me when I stood to show Pari out, but the girl was fast, so I turned my attention back to the problem at hand. The wall thing. Seriously, who did crap like that?
Pinching Garrett’s ribs as I passed, I walked up to Reyes and stood with my arms crossed.
“Yes?” he asked playfully.
“This wall thing is not over.”
He hooked a finger in the top of my jeans and pulled. “We have a wall thing?”
My hands instinctively rose to his chest, the hard expanse smooth under my fingers. “We have a wall thing.”
“Charley!” Cookie called out.
“In here,” I called back, mesmerized by the dimples at either side of Reyes’s mouth.
She rushed in, winded with flushed cheeks. “What do you think of this outfit?” she asked, spi
“Cookie,” he said with a nod.
She’d been getting ready for the third and final date in Operation Punk Ubie. If this didn’t work tonight, she might have to do something drastic, like—gasp!—ask the man out herself. But she was a knockout. If this didn’t work, he was an idiot who didn’t deserve her.
“I was just getting ready for a date. Thing. Not really a date, but—” She frowned. “Where’s your wall?”
I jammed my fists onto my hips and glared at her. “That’s what I’d like to know, missy. Speaking of which,” I said, turning back to the wall thief, “why on earth would you tear down my wall?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “You live next door.”
“Yes,” I said, acknowledging that tidbit of info, “but why did you tear down my wall?”
He grew serious, studying me from beneath hooded lids. “You live next door.”
“Oh.” His meaning sank in at last.
Cookie sighed. “That’s what I want, damn it.” She pointed to us and questioned Garrett. “Is that asking too much?”
Garrett looked horrified by the thought.
“Okay,” I said, walking to her and straightening her scarf, “I found this guy in an ad in the back of the
Weekly Alibi.
”
“Wait, you don’t know him?” she asked, appalled.
“No, but he’s an actor. We need an actor for this one. Someone who can, you know, act.”
She groaned. “This could backfire in so many ways,” she said, and she was right, naturally, but I had to see the coffee cup half full. We were doing this for a reason. It would work. And unicorns sparkle in moonlight.
18
Remember, it’s all fun and games
until somebody loses an eyeball,
and then it’s, “Hey! free eyeball!”
—T-SHIRT
As I busied myself putting all my numbers in the phone Pari had loaned me, Cookie’s date showed up. Right on time. We ran through the script and told him that the whole thing was being taped for a new hidden-camera show that could be picked up by HBO. “If you want it to air,” we told him, “you really have to sell it.”
He was tall and well built if a bit too young and too clean-cut for what we were asking of him, but he’d agreed to our little skit and to the fact that we were more or less punking the man we were setting up.
“I wish you were going to be there,” Cookie said to me.
“Me, too, but if he sees me there, he’ll know something is up.”
By the time they left for the date, Cookie looked a little green in the gills.
“Chin up, hon. This is our last try.”
“But is all this really necessary?” she asked, clearly wanting to back out. “Again, if he wanted to ask me out, he would have, right?”
“Do you even know my uncle Bob?”
“Okay, you’re right.”
She took her date by the arm and let him lead her down the stairs to a waiting limo. This would be good.
* * *
Minutes later, it seemed, my new phone rang. Reyes and Garrett and I had been discussing the prophecies and the Dealer. Garrett agreed to meet with him, to try to figure out what on earth was going on. But for now, I had an untraceable phone calling my name.
I slid my finger across the screen to answer. “Hey, Cook, how’s it going?”
“Charley,” she said, almost screaming at me, “get down here, now! Robert’s going to kill him!”
I scrambled to my feet. “What? Where are you? What happened?”
“They’re fighting. Robert confronted us, and your actor guy thinks it’s all part of the script. Robert’s going to kill him! Get down here!”
I was ru
“We’ll take my truck,” Garrett said, heading in that direction.
We followed him and hurried inside as he started the engine.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“They’re behind that little Italian place by the theater.”
“Which theater?” he asked as he pulled out. I sat in the middle between Garrett and Reyes, trying to calm Cookie down.
“Put Uncle Bob on the phone,” I said to her.
“I tried. He won’t listen. He’s furious, Charley. He thinks this guy is some kind of stalker or something.”
“Did you tell him what we talked about?”
“Yes! I did everything just like we discussed. I called Robert and told him I was on a date from that online service, but that my date was making me very uncomfortable. I told him I didn’t feel safe and asked if he would come pick me up. That was it! I didn’t say anything else, but Robert stormed in when he got here, put the guy in a choke hold, and dragged him out. They’re arguing now. Just hurry, Charley. Please!”
“We’re almost there,” I said, thanking the creator for giving Garrett a lead foot. “Just try to get Uncle Bob on the phone. Tell him it’s me.”
“O-okay, I’ll try.” I heard arguing in the background, then Cookie trying to talk to an insane man who went by the name of Robert Davidson.
“Just stay back, Cookie,” he growled at her.
Then I heard scuffling and Cookie screamed and I buried my head in my hands. What had I done?
“Charley!” Cookie cried into the phone, “He has a gun!”
“What?” I couldn’t believe this was happening. “No! No, no, no, no, no! Cookie you have to tell Uncle Bob it was all an act. Cookie?”
In the next instant, a sharp crack splintered the air, and the phone went dead.
* * *
I scrambled over Reyes before Garrett came to a complete stop, but Reyes grabbed my arm and held me until he could get out, too, and run over to the melee with me. Cookie stood in the lamplight behind a shopping strip by the theater complex. A crowd had gathered, and I heard sirens in the distance as I came to a screeching halt beside her.
She was in tears, her head down, her shoulders shaking.
Then I saw Uncle Bob. He was covered in blood, and Cookie’s date was unconscious on the ground. I threw my hands over my mouth to stop a scream from escaping.
Cookie must’ve really sold it. She must’ve convinced Uncle Bob she was scared of this guy, and Uncle Bob reacted. I never dreamed in a million years he would react so blindly, with so much rage.
I stumbled forward to check the guy’s pulse. His heart raced beneath my fingers and I almost passed out from relief. I immediately tore open his shirt to look for the wound. Perfect, unmarred skin gleamed in the lamplight. I saw no wound. No gushing blood. No sign that a near-fatal struggle had just occurred.
I heard Uncle Bob’s voice in my ear. He’d leaned down, his mouth at my ear, and whispered, “Is he dead, or do I need to put another bullet in him?”
The words faded as I sensed a more salient emotion. Something wasn’t right.