Trading Places Read online

  A twenty-dollar tip brought a smile to the porter’s face as he stowed her bags in the trunk of the limousine.

  The twenty-five-minute ride to the Ritz-Carlton was made in silence. She’d closed her eyes the minute she’d settled herself inside the limo. Closed eyes meant no conversation. She didn’t open her eyes again until the driver said, “We’re here, miss.”

  The game plan was for her to register as Patricia Newfeld, pay cash in advance, then go to her suite of rooms and wait for Aggie. She could handle that with no problem. She held out a fifty-dollar bill to the driver, whose eyes popped wide. Among other things, Lizzie Jade was a big tipper.

  Lizzie followed the three pieces of crocodile luggage to the check-in counter, where she announced herself, plunked down twenty crisp hundred-dollar bills, signed in, accepted her keys, and made her way to the elevator. She wanted to look around to see if she could spot Aggie, but she didn’t. She knew how to follow instructions.

  Her bags arrived, by way of the service elevator on the twenty-seventh floor, at the same time she did. Money changed hands again before she felt comfortable enough to lock the door. She unlocked it ten minutes later to admit her sister and a tall, muscular-looking man.

  Lizzie ignored the man, focusing on her twin sister. “Aggie? Oh, my God, what happened to you? Are you all right? You’re sick, aren’t you? You have some incurable disease and your days are numbered and that’s why you called me. Is it contagious?”

  “Shut up, Lizzie. I’m not sick, and I don’t have an incurable disease.”

  “That’s a relief. I’d hug you, but you look like you’ll snap in two. What’s wrong with you? Don’t tell me you went on some stupid diet and this is the result. I don’t want to hear that, Aggie.”

  “This is Alex Rossiter, a friend of mine.”

  “Yeah, hi,” Lizzie said as she led her sister over to the king-size bed and plopped her down. She herself dropped to her knees, the spandex dress hiking halfway up her rear end. Alex grinned at the view, hoping to get a glimpse of the tattoo Aggie had told him about.

  “Tell me everything.” She yanked at the blond wig and tossed it across the room. She finger-combed her short, silky, brown hair until she was satisfied that it felt right. “Everything means everything, Aggie.”

  Aggie was like a runaway train as she spit out the happenings of the last six months. When she wound down, she heaved a great sigh.

  Lizzie was outraged as well as almost speechless. “And you’re just now letting me know all this. What if you had died, Aggie? How would I ever have known?” Fat tears rolled down her cheeks, smearing her mascara as she hugged her fragile-looking twin.

  “Alex would have told you. I never listed you on my application as next of kin or kin of any kind. No one knows about you.”

  “Why? I tell my friends my sister is a cop. Are you ashamed of me?”

  “Embarrassed is more like it. You lead an exceptionally colorful life, Lizzie.”

  “I do, don’t I? Organic carrots. For God’s sake, why?”

  “Why do you want to open a dive shop? I like organic carrots. They’re good for your eyesight. They’re really good if you add brown sugar and make it kind of syrupy. That’s what you got out of everything I just said?”

  “I heard everything you said. I committed it to memory. It was the organic carrots that threw me. I have to wear a shoulder holster? And your clothes. When was the last time you updated that skimpy wardrobe of yours? What am I supposed to do with those?” she said, pointing to the three suitcases. “I don’t know about the dog. I never had a dog. What if it doesn’t like me? They poop. All right, all right. I’ll make the dog love me. Does it talk?” she asked, jerking her head in Alex’s direction.

  “Yes, he talks. So, do you think you can handle it?”

  “Of course I can handle it. There’s nothing I can’t handle except maybe your clothes. I’m assuming you are going to get a haircut like mine. How am I supposed to cover up my fifteen extra pounds?”

  “By going on a starvation diet for a week while I eat everything under the sun. By the end of the week we should be in sync. I’ll put on weight, and you’ll take off weight. It’s simple.”

  “I could go to jail for impersonating a police officer.”

  “Only if you get caught. It’s up to you to see that you don’t get caught. This is your chance to prove what you’ve always said, that you’re smarter than I am. Right now I have limitations, and I’m not so stupid that I don’t know what they are. My partner was killed. I was almost killed. My dog almost died. As much as I hate to admit it, I can’t cut it. I have this gut feeling that time is of the essence. I don’t know why. Know this, though: If you go to jail, so do I, and I do not want to spend even one day in jail. Do you understand that, Lizzie? I have to leave now. I don’t like leaving Gus alone too long after all he’s been through. I want you to read through everything in this envelope I’m leaving for you. Alex cut out all the articles pertaining to that night. There are pictures of the Big Three in there, so study them carefully. I’ll be back tomorrow, and we’ll talk it all to death. I’ll take you through a day in the life of a cop. Listen, Lizzie, all the bull aside, this could be dangerous for you. So many things can go wrong. Maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all. I’ll be so worried about you.”

  “Stop it, Aggie. It’s a good plan. I wish you had called me earlier. I would have been here in a heartbeat. You know that, don’t you? I can do it. I know I can. You can go off to plant your organic carrots knowing you left your case in capable hands. Do I really embarrass you?”

  “Nah. I just said that to get a rise out of you. Hell, I admire your…illustrious career. You even made me a millionaire in the bargain. Remember to wear that wig when you go out and about. You can hang out at the two malls across the street during the day to pass time if you get bored. You’re gonna love Phipps Mall.”

  “Aggie, are you really all right?”

  “I’m really all right, Lizzie. Right now, I’m not all right enough to do what I’m asking you to do. Even I know I need the downtime. Like I said, my partner was killed. That’s hard to take. The shrink is going to dwell on that, especially since we had a personal relationship for a while. I haven’t told him I’d already called it off before Tom got killed. Some instinct told me not to tell. I still have some bad moments. Oh, I forgot to tell you that you have to check in with that shrink twice a month. It’s a piece of cake. We’ll go over that tomorrow, too. Thanks for coming, Lizzie.” Aggie threw her arms around her sister and hugged her fiercely.

  “For you, anything. Any good-looking guys around here? Besides him,” Lizzie said, pointing to Alex. Alex’s chest puffed out at the compliment.

  Aggie could feel herself start to bristle. “I’m going to pave the way for you to meet Nathan Hawk. You two deserve each other.”

  “Oooh, I like the way that sounds.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Bye.”

  In the hallway waiting for the elevator, Aggie looked up at Alex, and said, “Wipe that sappy look off your face. She’d chew you up and spit you out inside of five minutes. I saw you looking at her butt.”

  “I was hoping to get a glimpse of her tattoo.” He did his best to wipe the grin off his face. She sounded jealous. Maybe she even cared about him. Other than in a friendly way. He rather thought that was a good thing.

  “It’s a damn purple-and-yellow butterfly,” she snapped. “I’ll draw you a picture of it when we get home.”

  “Testy, aren’t we?” Alex asked with a smile.

  She was on her knees in the garden planting a bed of bright pink impatiens. Gus was lying in the shade under an oak tree. The old oak dripping with moss was the main reason she’d bought the house years ago. It sat in the middle of the yard like a giant umbrella and shaded the back end of the house during the brutally hot Atlanta summers. She’d envisioned herself sitting under it with a glass of lemonade. It had never happened.

  She half turned
when she sensed Gus getting to his feet. His growl was low and deep. Scary-sounding to anyone but her. He was looking at her, waiting for a command. She shook her head, her hand motioning for him to stay. Trowel in hand, she walked over to the fence in time to see Will Fargo, the evidence clerk, walking around to the back of the house. From where she was standing, she could see that the double padlock on the stockade gate was in the locked position.

  “Aggie! It’s me, Will. The department asked me to bring this by. Dutch said he rode by the other day and saw that you were putting flowers on your porch. You’re on a twenty-four-hour cruise patrol. We took up a collection. Everyone signed the card.”

  “That was nice of you…them.” She reached up to take a large basket of mixed flowers that could be planted in the ground. “I don’t even know where the key is to unlock the gate,” she lied.

  “No problem. I have to get back to the station. How’re you doing, Aggie?”

  “Good, Will. I think I’ll go back to work week after next. I’m going to call the chief later today. They offered me ninety days, but I don’t need it. I can handle a desk job now.”

  He looked just like a ferret, all sharp angles and points. He was tall, pencil-skinny. Bony with sparse hair over an exceptionally high and wide forehead. His jaw jutted down to a point that somehow seemed to meet the middle of his sharp-ended nose. His teeth were of the canine variety, narrow and pointy at the ends. The clothes hanging on his skinny frame were like the ones hanging on her own body. Maybe that’s what happened to a person when he spent ten hours a day in a windowless room guarding other people’s property. Will usually worked nights and slept the better part of the day. His sallow complexion was a testament to his rarely seeing the sun. He looked startled at her news.

  “Do you think that’s wise, Aggie?”

  “Wise or not, I’m not going to sit around for ninety days twiddling my thumbs. I want to find out what happened to Tom. He was on to something. He was a good cop. And a good partner. I’m having a real hard time accepting the fact that the force can’t find the guys who did this. Cop killers are…You should have found them by now.” Her voice was so vehement, it surprised her.

  “Yeah. The whole department is in a funk. No clues, no nothing. We’ve been on it twenty-four/seven. It’s a real mind bender. You were the only one there. You and that dog!”

  “You’re right, Will. We weren’t supposed to live either, but we did. Miracle of miracles. I’ll work on it myself on my own time. Tom was my partner. I owe him that.”

  “Did you see or hear something, Aggie? What do you think you could possibly find out that the whole department couldn’t find?”

  Aggie shrugged. “You know how it is when you’re shot up that bad. You aren’t sure what’s real and what isn’t. I’ll…ah…ferret it out. I have Gus to help me.” She almost laughed out loud at Will’s expression. “Gus was all over the place that night before they shot him down. He’s never going to forget how those guys smelled.”

  Aggie watched as a small brown wren settled itself on the fence. He appeared to be listening to their conversation.

  “I don’t know what you think you can do that the whole department couldn’t do,” Fargo grumbled.

  “They weren’t there. I was. Internal Affairs cleared me. I’m still a tad upset that I had to go through all that. You know, the suspicions, the veiled accusations. Even when you die in the line of duty you have to put up with that garbage, and that’s what it was, garbage. You guys should have been out there busting your humps to find the people who killed Tom and wounded me and Gus. It’s been six months, Will, and you have squat.”

  “I can see you’re the old Aggie. Dutch said you were like the Lone Ranger, Buck Rogers, and Tom Mix all rolled into one.”

  Aggie’s face wore a fierce scowl. “Is that what old Dutch said?”

  “Aggie, if you plan on going back to work, you might as well know now. You’re going to hear it sooner or later anyway. Once you get off desk duty, none of the guys want to partner with you.”

  Aggie wondered if what Will said was true or if he made it up on the spur of the moment to hurt her. “That doesn’t surprise me. Guess what, I don’t need a partner. I have Gus. You can go back and tell them for me that I’d rather pick poop with the chickens than work with any of them ever again. When your own can’t find cop killers, there’s something dirty somewhere. I’ll figure it out. You can take that to the bank.”

  The brown wren moved farther down the fence and was joined by two other birds who looked just like him. Now, all three appeared to be listening to the conversation, which was starting to sound ugly.

  “Aggie, what the hell are you saying?” He didn’t bother to wait for a response. “Are you saying the department is dirty?” His sallow complexion had turned as white as some of the flowers in the basket Aggie was holding.

  Aggie turned away. “IAD cleared me. How many guys in the department do you think could get a clean bill of health the way I did? Well, Will, how many? You know what, on second thought, take these damn flowers. I don’t want anything from any of you.” Before Fargo could react, she lifted the basket over the fence and jammed it into his hands. “You can go now, Will.”

  Gus squirmed, but he didn’t move as Will Fargo walked away, shaking his head. “I know, you want to chase his skinny butt all the way down the street. Not yet, big guy. Come on, time for a break. How about some root beer. You deserve it for sitting tight.” The K-9’s reaction to Will and Dutch’s drive-bys was all the corroboration she needed that the two of them were somewhere in the alley that night.

  The shepherd followed her up the steps to her small back porch. He waited patiently while Aggie opened two cans of root beer. She poured his into a bowl and swigged at her own.

  She needed a cigarette. Neither she nor Alex was a smoker, but on occasion they did smoke. Alex had left some on the kitchen counter the other day. She remembered seeing them. She walked back into the house, found them, and carried them out to the back porch. She lit up. Gus finished his root beer and walked away. He didn’t like cigarette smoke. That was the main reason she didn’t smoke.

  Aggie puffed on her cigarette and swigged at the root beer as her mind raced. Will Fargo was probably already on the phone to his buddies Dutch and Joe. Maybe she was going about this all wrong. Maybe she should be concentrating on Tom Madsen instead of Dutch, Joe, and Will. She could hop in the car right now and go to visit Tom’s parents. Yes, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Right now. “C’mon, Gus, we’re going visiting.”

  Four blocks south of Peachtree, she spotted the tail. She smiled. She drove steadily in stop-and-go traffic before she turned into a side street, made a left, two rights, and finally slowed down on Exeter. The senior Madsens lived in a yellow house with brown trim. They had a swing on the front porch and a statue of the Virgin Mary in their flower garden. There were two cars in the driveway, so that meant both Virginia and Gray Madsen were home. Mr. Madsen had retired last year. She’d attended the retirement party with Tom. She’d even had a good time as she recalled.

  Gus at her side, she walked up the driveway to the kitchen door and rang the bell. She could see the neatly-kept kitchen through the screen door.

  Virginia Madsen covered her heart with her hands when she saw Aggie. Even through the screen, Aggie could see her eyes flood with tears. “I have Gus with me, Mrs. Madsen. We can talk out here if you don’t want him in the house.”

  “Nonsense. Tom loved that dog. Oh, honey, Gray and I were just sick over what happened to you and your dog. After…after the funeral, we wanted to visit with you, but the department said it wasn’t a good idea. When I read in the paper the other day that you were being discharged, I said to Gray, you watch, the minute she’s settled in, she’ll come to see us. Can I get you a soft drink or some coffee? Does the dog need anything?”

  “A soda pop would be nice. Gus is fine, don’t worry about him. It’s so hot, and it isn’t even summer yet. I wanted to tell you how sorry
I am about Tom. I went out to the cemetery yesterday. It was so hard.”

  “I know, dear. Gray and I go on Sunday afternoons.”

  Virginia Madsen was a soccer ball of a woman. Even her face was plump. Aggie loved her gray topknot and wire-rimmed granny glasses. She exuded motherhood. She was wearing a loose lavender-flowered dress and house slippers.

  “Mrs. Madsen, did you hound the department about Tom? I can’t understand why they haven’t found the people who shot him. You know what happens when a cop is killed. They never give up. But it appears to me they have given up. It’s been six months and they still don’t have any leads.”

  Virginia dabbed at the corners of her eyes. “We went down to the station every day, sometimes twice. It was always the same response, ‘we’re doing everything we can.’”