Софи Райан - A Whisker Оf Trouble

“It’s a camera,” Rose said, reaching up to smooth down a couple of wisps of Mr. P.’s hair. “That way Liz and I will be able to see and hear what Alfred can.”

I turned to Mr. P. “Do I want to know where this came from?” I asked, thinking that I’d asked that question a lot in the last six months.

“I Spy With My Little Eye,” he said.

“I don’t think you play that game with cameras,” I said.

“What about that game with the young man with the striped shirt and glasses?” Rose asked.

“That’s not a game,” Liz said. “You mean Where’s Wally? . It’s a book and it’s all illustrations.”

Rose frowned. “ Where’s Wally? doesn’t sound right.”

Liz was walking around Liam, making a face, it seemed, at his hair. “I can’t help how it sounds,” she said. “That’s the name of the book.”

We were getting way off track. Before I could try to rein them in, Charlotte clapped her hands. We all automatically turned and looked at her. She could still command a roomful of people.

“You’re both right,” she said, looking from Liz to Rose. “It’s Where’s Waldo? here and Where’s Wally? in Britain.” She turned her head and looked at me. “Sarah, I Spy With My Little Eye is an electronics store in Portland. The camera is perfectly legal.” Finally she fixed her gaze on Liam. “Child, what did you wash your hair with?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Whatever Gram has in her shower.”

“Organic Burst Rosemary Mint shampoo,” I said.

“You smell too good,” Liz said, reaching up to run her fingers through Liam’s hair. “You smell like a girl, not a carpenter.”

“Nobody’s going to smell his head,” Rose said, hands on her hips.

“You don’t know that,” Liz retorted.

I turned to Mr. P. “I’m coming with you. I can run the computer.”

“You don’t have to do that,” he said.

I nodded. “I know.” I tipped my head toward Liam. The three women had surrounded him, debating what was the best way to make him not smell so good. “You’re not going to make me stay here and miss all the fun, are you?”

“Of course not,” he said, a smile playing around his mouth.

Mr. P. gave me a crash course on how to record and monitor the feed from his beaver cam. I had no idea whether what we were doing was completely legal or not, but I decided that was something I could ask Michelle or Nick later.

Liz and Charlotte solved the problem of Nick’s great-smelling hair with something they borrowed from Avery when she showed up at lunchtime. By a quarter to one we were in the workroom pretty much ready to leave.

“Can I come?” Avery asked. She was way more interested in the beaver cam than I liked.

“I need you here,” I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Mac can’t do everything by himself.”

“Is that just a line because you don’t want me to go because you think I’m a kid?” she asked, crossing her arms defiantly across her chest.

“No,” I said. “It’s because Mac really can’t do everything by himself.”

“Fine,” she said after a moment, “but you owe me a big hot chocolate from McNamara’s.”

“Deal,” I said.

Avery started back to the shop. “With extra whipped cream,” she called over her shoulder.

“Have I been had?” I said to Liz.

There was a gleam of amusement in her eyes. “I think the correct term is ‘well, duh.’”

Liam and Mr. P. left in Cleveland’s pickup. I followed in the SUV with Rose riding shotgun and Liz and Charlotte in the back. The plan was for us to park in a lot across the street from the community center where the money management seminar was being held. The tiny digital camera had a transmit range of about five thousand feet.

“What if this woman doesn’t show up?” Liz asked. “Do we have a plan B?”

“We don’t need a plan B,” Rose said, very confidently, it seemed to me.

“And that would be because?”

“Because she’ll be there,” Charlotte stated calmly.

I glanced in the rearview mirror. Liz was frowning at her friends. “What do you two know that I don’t?”

“Good question,” I said. “What do you two know that Liz—and I—don’t?”

“Our mystery woman has shown up at five financial seminars in this area aimed at senior citizens in the last six months,” Charlotte said. “Every time she talked about investing in things you can see and touch and every time she spent most of her time with someone who came to the seminar alone.”

“So she’ll only have to win over one person, not two or three,” I said.

“That’s what we think,” Rose said.

“She’s going to show up,” Charlotte said. “This is exactly the kind of setup she likes—small town, a presentation aimed at seniors who have some money saved but not enough that they’d already have a financial adviser.”

“It’s despicable,” Rose said. I glanced at her. Her mouth was pulled into a tight line.

“It is hard to accept that someone who is a senior citizen would be taking advantage of other people her age,” Charlotte agreed.

Ahead of us Liam put on his blinker and moved over into the exit lane. I did the same.

“Maybe it’s all she has,” Liz said.

Beside me Rose shifted so she could look at her friend in the backseat. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“Maybe she’s doing this because she doesn’t have any other choice.”

“There are always choices,” Rose said.

“True,” Liz said. “But there aren’t always good ones.”

Liz could be quick to judge, but the truth was she was probably the softest touch of all of us. No one said anything for a moment. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rose reach her hand over the seat toward Liz. “Elizabeth Emmerson Kiley French, I love you,” she said softly.

“Yeah, yeah, everybody does,” Liz said.

I looked in the rearview mirror and blew Liz a kiss. She never ceased to amaze me.

The community center was easy to find in Rockport. Liam actually found a place to pull in at the curb in front. We retreated to the back row of the parking lot across the street, according to plan.

I set Mr. P.’s laptop on my knees, turned it on and followed the instructions he’d given me. After a few moments we were looking at the dashboard of Cleveland’s old truck. Rose pulled out her cell phone.

Mr. P.’s cell played the first notes of “Ode to Joy” as his ring tone, the sound coming clearly through the computer as I turned up the volume.

“Sarah has everything working,” Rose said.

“Thank you, Sarah,” Mr. P. said.

I gave Rose a thumbs-up.

Everything went smoothly after that. Liam played the role of the good son, walking Alfred inside, standing awkwardly around for a couple of minutes and telling him, within earshot of others, that he didn’t need an inheritance and maybe they should just go home.

For his part Mr. P. was the epitome of a hardworking dad. He patted Liam on the arm and said he’d call if he needed a ride home.

Liam pulled the truck into the parking lot a row ahead of us and sprinted back to the SUV, sliding onto the backseat next to Liz.

“How was I?” he said with a grin.

“You were perfect,” Rose said, beaming. Charlotte nodded.

“Good job,” Liz agreed, giving him a fist bump.

He looked at me. “What do you think, Sarah?”

I smiled at him. “Good job, big brother.”

Mr. P. had chosen an aisle seat and he looked around a couple of times, which gave us a good view of the small meeting room. It was about five minutes before the start of the seminar when Mr. P. said softly, “She’s here. I’m going for a cup of coffee.”