Russell Andrews - Aphrodite

"What's this?" Deena asked.

"Our new car," he said. When her eyes widened, he pointed to the shattered window on his battered Civic and said, "This is not what you'd call traveling incognito."

He opened the door to the Buick and as she stepped inside, Deena said, "You can afford to just buy a new car?"

"It's amazing what a cop ID can do," he said. "It not only lowers the price, it gives you good value on a trade-in."

"I'll try it next time I'm in the market," she said.

He pulled back onto the main road, and three blocks away from their final destination he found a perfectly acceptable-looking but non-descript motel, a Hampton Inn. He checked in-into two adjoining rooms-and took the keys. He didn't bother to put their small bags in the rooms. He didn't even bother to look at the rooms. He just got back in the Buick, where Deena and Kendall were waiting, and drove away.

Justin's next stop was the mall, where he hit a men's clothing store and bought himself a long-sleeved dress shirt and a sport jacket. Deena made a face at the tie he picked out for himself, so he let her put it back on the table and make another selection. He had to admit-actually, she made him admit-that she had superior taste in ties. He told her what he had in mind and they decided his jeans and running shoes would suffice.

Two stores down from the clothing store was a place called the Ultimate Wireless Connection. Justin popped in and twenty minutes later popped out carrying two new cell phones. He got another questioning look from Deena and said, "Anything that makes us harder to trace, that's the idea."

The third stop was a liquor store where Justin bought a bottle of scotch.

Then it was on to Growth Industries.

As they stood in the parking lot, twenty feet or so away from the building, Justin hoped desperately that the same dullard of a security guard would be on duty, then he told Deena exactly what he wanted her to do and say. She nodded dubiously. They both looked at Kendall, who nodded solemnly and said to both of them, "Don't worry. It sounds like a good plan."

Then Justin headed off to another part of the mall. Deena and Kendall waited exactly fifteen minutes, as instructed, then Kendall reached out, took her mother's hand, and they started walking. As Deena and Kendall strode past the security guard, Deena gave him a big smile and said, "Hi, Elron." He smiled familiarly, nodding as if he recognized her. Elron rarely recognized anyone; there were too many people who came in and out. He knew the really fat guy who worked on the second floor and always wore a bright yellow tie. And there was an old guy he remembered because he was always complaining about something, usually Elron. Other than that, he was fairly oblivious. But he always liked it when someone said hello to him, and he always made it a point to respond in kind with a friendly nod or even a "How-de-do." He had no memory of ever seeing this one before, but he'd never let her know that. He was a professional, after all.

"Can you believe it?" Deena said, lingering by Elron's podium. "Mr. Hemmings is making me work tonight. He just called me, told me to meet him here. I was supposed to have the day off. Now I'm supposed to come, just like that, at six o'clock. My guess is he won't even stay. He'll just dump everything on me and head off. I'll probably be here till nine or ten! I mean, what could be so important that it couldn't wait until tomorrow?"

"Doesn't seem fair, does it?" Elron said.

"It's not fair. I couldn't even get a sitter. Now my daughter's got to spend her evening in the office!"

"Cute little one," Elron said. "What's her name?"

"Lucy," Kendall piped up. "Nice to meet you."

"Well, try not to work too hard," Elron said, as Deena and Kendall headed toward the elevators. "Either one of you."

As the elevator door closed behind them, Deena looked at her daughter and said, "Lucy?"

"I always wanted to be named Lucy."

"You did?"

"See?" Kendall said with a smirk, just as the elevator door opened and let them out on three. "You don't know everything about me."

Five minutes later, they were both back in the lobby, in front of Elron. Deena was looking as miserable as possible.

"Mr. Hemmings is going to kill me," she said. "I'm supposed to open up the office for him and I don't have my key. I can't believe it. This has never happened to me before. He is really going to be furious."

"Uh…" Elron said. He didn't have much more to contribute, since he didn't have any decent solution to the problem. Then he suddenly thought of something. "Maybe he'll bring his key."

"Oh, right," Deena said. "Like Hemmings has actually got a key. The guy makes me turn on the lights for him, for God's sake." She glanced over toward the front door, as if fearful that her boss would arrive before she'd solved the problem. "No, I just called Mr. Fromm at the management office." She held up her cell phone, as if to verify that she'd made the call. "It was the only thing I could think of. He said I should come back down here, that you had a passkey and could let me in."

"Well…" Elron said, and didn't say anything else for a moment because he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"You can wait up there with me until Mr. Hemmings comes in. I mean, if that'll make you feel more secure about letting me in."

"I can't really do that. Somebody's got to be down here in the lobby."

"If you give me the key, I can let myself in and then run it right back down to you."

"Maybe I should call Mr. Fromm, just to double-check."

"He was on his way out, so I don't know if you'll get him. But here." She held up her cell phone. She wondered if Justin had gotten to the building manager and managed to keep him away from the phone. She remembered the final detail that Justin had told her to add. It had a fifty-fifty chance of working, he'd said. "Just press Redial," Deena told the security guard. "It's the last number I called."

"No need," Elron said, waving the phone away decisively, then reaching for his key ring and handing it to her. "It's not like you're gonna lie to me, are you? A regular tenant like yourself."

"Not me," Deena said. And looking down at her little girl, she added, "And certainly not Lucy." Ten minutes later, Justin strode by Elron. It was six-thirty now, time when anyone coming into the building had to sign in. Justin wrote down the time and the name Ward Hemmings. Kendall had come up with the first name. Elron glanced at the signature, then up at the man. This one he recognized, he thought. He had definitely seen this Hemmings guy before, so he took the initiative and said, "Your secretary's already up there, Mr. Hemmings. Nice lady. Very professional."

"Glad you think so," Justin replied. "She can be pretty damn forgetful sometimes."

"Not tonight," Elron said. "She's got everything under control. You can count on her."

"That's good to know," Justin said. "That's really good to know." When Justin walked into room 301, he saw that Deena had an expression on her face as if to say: What the hell is this? When he looked around the office, he understood the expression. He had the same one on his face.

The Growth Industries office was one fairly large room, maybe twenty feet by twenty feet. There was one chair in the room, which was set in front of a small desk. The desk had no paperwork on it. There was nothing on it-or in it; Justin immediately opened up all three drawers to check-except a blank yellow legal pad and three ballpoint pens. Other than that the only items in the room were nine small tables. On each table were two telephone/answering-machine combinations. Eighteen phones and each one was connected to a separate jack in the wall. Justin walked slowly to one of the phones, picked it up, and dialed a number. A recording immediately came on and he hung up.