Designer Detective (A Fiona Marlowe Mystery) by Marjorie Thelen Page A

yourself. You
want to be in a witness protection program the rest of your life?”
    “Depends where it is. South Pacific Island I could go for.”
    “Get serious.”
    “I am.”
    “Fiona, we need to distance ourselves from the
scene of the crime. Our fingerprints are on the door to the weapons room. Have
you thought about that? What do you think Cody is going to do when he comes
around?”
    “What?”
    “Come after us. Or have someone unpleasant come
after us.”
    “I hadn’t thought about that. I guess I could
take a vacation.   Damnation, I never did
get a check for work done.”
    “Don’t think you’re going to.”
    “What will you do?”
    “Can’t go back to the ranch. My career there is over.”
    “This might be a good time to visit my friends
in Australia. That might be far enough away.”
    Jake nodded his head thoughtfully. “Mind if I
join you?”
    “That’s a possibility. By the way that was an
impressive hand chop you delivered to poor Cody. Where’d you learn that?”
    “High school.”
    “Must have been some school.”
    Jake grunted. No more details were forthcoming.
    “Jake,” I said, “you haven’t leveled with me
about what you know. If we’re going on a extended trip
together, we should be honest with each other.”
    We stopped at a light in a long line of
traffic. Someone kept tooting the horn. I hadn’t paid attention to it, except
that now the annoying motorist was right beside us in traffic. I caught a hand
wave out of the corner of my eye and turned to give the guy a dirty look.
    It was Hudson, red-faced and yelling. I
couldn’t make out what he was saying with the window up. I debated about
putting it down. What if he had a gun?
    “Jake, look. It’s Hudson
in the car aside of us.”
    Traffic was moving again, and Jake stole a
glance in my direction. He kept with the flow of traffic.
      “He’s
yelling for us to stop and pull over. Do you think we should?”
    Jake sped up and kept looking in the mirror. “He’s
behind us now. Right on our tail. He doesn’t strike me
as the type to be tailing us for no good reason. If he were following with some
malicious purpose, he would have kept out of sight and maybe run us off the
road into a ditch. I wonder what he wants.”
    I looked back. Hudson kept throwing his hands
up off the wheel. I became concerned that he’d have a wreck.
    “Maybe we should look for a convenience store or
somewhere public to pull in and see what he wants. He can’t do too much damage
in a public place.”
    “You hope.”
    “Do you think he’s involved in the weapon’s
business?”
    Jake shook his head like maybe he was, maybe he
wasn’t. “Hudson doesn’t strike me as the kind to want to get involved in much
of anything. He’s a butler and that’s it. Though he may be caught inadvertently
in something he can’t extract himself from.”
    We continued on. An Exxon sign appeared on the
horizon.
    “Jake, up ahead. A service station. Pull in.”
    Jake put on the right turn signal, eased into
the right lane. Hudson followed. He was driving the huge Rolls Royce I had seen
in the Lodge multi-car garage. Odd that he would be driving the Rolls which alone
attracted stares and glances. He wasn’t worried about being seen. Maybe he had
a message for us.
    Jake pulled to the side of the station, dodging
impatient Washington commuters intent on filling up. He
came to a stop in front of the air pump. Hudson pulled in on my side.
    “We stay in the car,” Jake said.
    I pressed the electric window button. A brisk
fall breeze poured in. Hudson rolled down his window with less caution than we
exhibited.
    “Hello, Miss Marlowe,” he said. “I’m sorry to
disturb you, but I wanted to give you the check for your services. You left in
such a hurry I didn’t have a chance to give it to you.”
    Since I hadn’t given them a bill, I was curious.
He reached inside his coat and brought out an envelope. “I hope this is
appropriate. We appreciate what you did.