I see you. You need to get off the phone and call Ernie. I’ll call you back in a bit with my plan.”
“Ay, ay, Captain,” he joked as he hung up.
“Maggie, I need to drop you at home.”
“No, I want to come. This sounds like it’s just gettin’ good,” Maggie exclaimed, rubbing her hands together. “Please let me stay, Em...please. I deserve to know.”
“That would save some time. All right, but you’ll need to stay out of the way, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Do you have Fiona’s cell phone number?” Emily asked.
“I do, right here in my phone. Just a second and I’ll have it for ya. See, I can be helpful to y’all.” Maggie smiled as she searched her phone, probably the first time she’d smiled in days.
“All right, Maggie, don’t get full of yourself now.”
Maggie turned her phone screen to Emily and Emily punched the numbers into her own phone.
“Hello?” Fiona answered and Emily swore she heard a hint of suspicion in her voice.
“Fiona, this is Emily.” Emily worked to keep her own tone casual and upbeat.
“Hello, Emily. I’m surprised to hear from you.”
“I was at the hospital earlier and one of the nurses found Gloria’s purse. Isn’t that great?”
“Yes, Mrs. Wakefield will be thrilled.”
“The nurse said Gloria had already checked out and you were taking her home.”
“That’s right. I’ll let her know you have it.”
“I can drop it by your place, if you like, but it won’t be for a while, I have to go somewhere first. But then I can come by,” Emily offered.
“Hold on, let me ask Mrs. Wakefield what she wants to do. I’m sure she’ll want to get it back.”
There was a silent pause for a couple of minutes. Emily put her hand over the phone and whispered to Maggie that she was on hold. Fiona returned to the phone.
“We’re leaving for the airport shortly. Mrs. Wakefield wants to go home to recuperate in her own bed.”
“I don’t blame her. After what she’s been through, she probably wants to get out of here as soon as she can.” Emily tried to act natural and sympathetic, avoiding any sense that either woman was under suspicion.
Emily wondered how the woman could get a plane ticket and get on the flight without her driver’s license and credit cards that were still in the purse she’d lost. Then she realized Gloria and Lucas must have had someone who provided their fake IDs before and could easily have done it again over the last few days. If Gloria, or whoever she was, got on that plane with a new identity, the authorities may never find her again.
Perhaps Fiona bought the plane ticket. Maybe she bought two.
“Like I said, I have to make a stop first, but then I’d be happy to meet you somewhere.”
“Near the airport?” Fiona asked. “Mrs. Wakefield doesn’t have much time before her flight.”
“Sure.” Emily realized she only had a short window to catch them. “There’s a Copper Kettle Restaurant not far from the airport. Why don’t I meet you there in an hour, in the parking lot?”
Emily overheard Fiona whisper to Gloria. “In an hour at the Copper Kettle parking lot near the airport?” Then Fiona came back on the line with Emily. “Yes, that would be fine. We’ll see you in an hour.”
CHAPTER 26
Emily and Maggie rushed into Ernie’s office, finding Colin already there, perched on the corner of Ernie’s desk with his arms and ankles crossed. Emily had phoned Colin after speaking to Fiona and had alerted him to the time crunch and shared her plan to ensnare the killer, whichever one it turned out to be.
“We don’t have much time.” Emily breezed through the door first, carrying both her purse and Gloria’s handbag. “Here’s the murder weapon.” She dug the bloody crystal paperweight out of the older woman’s handbag, still wrapped in a white cotton handkerchief, and she slid it into a plastic evidence bag Ernie held open for her.
“I guess luck was on our side.” Ernie sealed the bag and marked it with black permanent marker, laying it in a drawer in his desk.
“We still don’t know for sure who put it in the purse, but when I reveal the paperweight, the reaction of these women should tell us if it was one of them. Have you got it for me, Ernie?”
He reached into the same drawer where he had placed the other one and pulled Maggie’s out. “Sorry about having to take it, Emily. You understand, I was—”