elevator. Claude smiled sexily at the lady on the bench ahead of us. “Have a pleasant afternoon, female.”
As the doors closed, the woman dropped her cup of melted ice cream all over the floor.
“Maybe we should hitch a ride home with Shepherd,” Claude suggested as he looked out the glass wall behind us. “Viktor’s probably lost.”
“No, he just sent a message to wait near the entrance where we came in.” Wyatt tucked his phone back in his pocket. “He’s buying a watch. You know, watches will become obsolete one day. Phones do everything. I still remember my first pocket watch. It was a dandy. That was before batteries came along. You had to wind them up.”
The elevator doors opened, and I stepped out. “What happened to it?”
“My horse ate it.”
I turned to see if he was joking.
Wyatt’s boot heels knocked against the shiny floor. “Billy was a nuisance.”
“You had a horse named Billy?”
He stopped by a palm tree. “He’d eat everything in sight… like a billy goat.”
Claude turned in a circle and scoped the long hall. “What happened to Billy?”
Wyatt stood on top of a bench. “Billy dropped dead at a hitching rail. Cause of death unknown.”
“I guess his time was up. Maybe it was your pocket watch.” I set my bags down when a thought came to mind. “Do you see animal ghosts?”
He shook his head. “Who do I look like? Doctor Dolittle?”
“You sure do little to share your snacks with friends,” Claude quipped.
Wyatt jumped off the bench and gave a winsome smile to a short-haired brunette. “Hey, buttercup. May I have the pleasure of escorting you to your destination?” Without asking, he followed her.
Hunter and Shepherd were taking a quick trip down the escalator. Hunter nervously held on to the side as he peered over the edge.
Claude’s nostrils flared as he pulled in my emotional scent. “You’re nervous.”
“I’m just thinking about the assignment.” I lifted my bags and watched Hunter trying to walk up the down escalator. “Christian can’t come, and we work well together.”
Claude put his hand on my shoulder. “I’ll be there, and I won’t let any harm come to you, female. And I’ll do everything I can to weed out any suspects.”
“What makes Viktor think his plan will work?”
“He’s very skilled at setting traps, and I’m certain that he’s not only worked out the odds but also has a backup plan. Criminals are stupid. They stick to the same routine.”
Claude had a point. Criminals were creatures of habit. Even I had developed a routine when I lived on the streets. Recognizing my own habits made trapping my targets that much easier.
When Shepherd and Hunter finally made it off the escalator, Hunter scampered toward us, blue lights blinking on the soles of his new shoes.
“Hey, little monkey.” Wyatt entered the scene, tucking a slip of paper into his pocket. “Those are some snappy shoes.”
Hunter beamed, oblivious to an older woman walking by who was gawking at him. We’d gotten so used to his facial scar that it wasn’t until he garnered public stares that we were reminded of it.
Shepherd mussed Hunter’s hair from behind him. “Show them your socks.”
Hunter obligingly lifted his pant leg and showed off his pink socks. The horizontal black stripes went all the way up to his knees.
Shepherd lit up a cigarette and tossed the match on the floor. “I think he likes them better than the shoes. Kinda like having a secret under his pants.”
Wyatt stretched. “Yup. I know exactly what that’s like.”
Claude frowned, and lines bunched up between his eyebrows. “You shouldn’t make innuendos around a child.”
“That kid has no idea what we’re talking about,” Wyatt said dismissively. “Besides, you shouldn’t get worked up over a little innuendo considering what we do for a living. You think that’s not gonna traumatize him?”
Shepherd exhaled and stared down the long hall. He abruptly waved the smoke away from his face and squinted. “Is that who I think it is?”
I craned my neck to see around a kiosk. Heading in our direction at breakneck speed was Gem on a pogo stick. Her shoulder-length hair bounced up and down like butterfly wings as people cleared the way. Some laughed, and a few others pulled out their phones to take video, but she would be nothing but a blur of movement. The purple pogo stick tilted forward, and the sound of the spring made heads turn. If that wasn’t enough of a spectacle, a flustered man in a blue work shirt was chasing after her.