"Fine! We'll give it twenty minutes—"
"Half an hour," Eleanor interjected. "I need to be home forJeopardywith Bill by seven."
Lorraine growled at both of us. "At least you havepriorities."
I poked her shoulder. "Half an hour. Then we're going home."
She sighed. "Fine. Whatever."
"Promise, or I'm done, and I'll call Andy right now."
She grumbled out a promise. The three of us climbed out of the car and, staying in the darker shadows, raced down the sidewalk to the clinic.
Okay, we toddled down the sidewalk to the clinic. Orthopedic shoes or not, Lorraine was past her racing days.
Eleanor touched my arm. "Where is Jack, anyway?"
He'd tried to get onto the UltraShopMart site that afternoon, but the armed guards deterred him. I wasn't going to tell herthat.
"At his place, meeting Jed's professor lady friend. He thinks I'm home wrapping secret presents. Which Ishouldbe doing."
Lorraine snorted. "Shoulda, coulda, woulda. We need to save the day, Tess. What could be more important than that?"
"Oh, I don't know. Staying out of jail? Not getting beaten up or shot by the real criminals?"
"Shh! We're almost there."
"Thirty minutes," I reminded her.
It only took ten.
36
Tess
Since we hid in the bushes next to the small parking lot, Phin never even looked our way when he drove up, jumped out of his car, and raced into the clinic. My heart sank.
"If he's back here to retrieve his stolen goods, he's going to be in for a surprise," Eleanor whispered, looking disappointed.
"He's not! He can't be," I said staunchly. "He might trespass on the UltraShopMart site for environmental protection reasons, but he's not a criminal."
"Maybe there's a sick animal," Lorraine pointed out. "He is a vet tech, after all. Maybe—"
"Shh!" I pointed and then ducked behind the bushes, pulling them down with me. "There's another car pulling in. What is going on?"
"I don't recognize that car," Lorraine said, sounding puzzled. "I know everybody's car, and I've never seen that ugly gray Toyota before."
"Toyota?" I raised my head just enough to see it.
Itwasa Toyota. An ugly, matte-gray one. And whoever was driving it had parked at an angle that allowed me to see the license plate … which was covered in mud.
So much for coincidence.
I hated to even think it, but what if Phin was in league with some of the UltraShopMart people? Or—worse—they were here to hurt him?
Time to pull in the big guns.
I quickly texted Jack and Andy, shoved my phone in my pocket, and grabbed Eleanor and Lorraine by the arms.
