Come along. We don’t want our American cousin to think we’re inhospitable.” Lydia was obviously the kinder of the two.
Gladys interjected, “We don’t have a lot of time, love, but we don’t want to leave you until we know you’re perfectly all right.”
“Oh, I don’t wanna put you out. I already took up too much of your time. And I’m really okay,” Eileen/Dorothy replied.
“We have about thirty minutes before we need to catch the Tube. Come along.” Lydia took Eileen by the elbow and guided her to the tea shop.
“This is really nice of you guys. I mean, you ladies.”
“First time in London?” Gladys asked.
“Yep. Can’t cha tell?” Eileen took a seat between the two women, hoping she could steer the conversation back to vitamins. “I couldn’t help notice the beautiful boxes. Are you saying those are vitamins?” She was trying to sound curious, but in a hokey way. “I never seen vitamins in boxes like that! Must be pretty special.” She sat back, pretending it was more of a rhetorical statement.
“They are indeed. So where are you staying?” Gladys quickly changed the subject.
“At a friend’s flat in Covent Garden.” Another lie, but it was part of the job.
“Lovely. How long will you be here?” Lydia asked.
“Only for another three days.” More lies. Well, maybe not. She really didn’t know how long she was going to be there. She looked across the courtyard and noticed a skinny, disheveled twentysomething man enter the doctor’s building. She couldn’t bolt, so she repositioned her fanny pack on the table to take a photo of the very out-of-place mangy-looking guy. He looked as if he hadn’t washed his hair in a week. What would someone who looked like that be doing at a place like the doctor’s?
Lydia had said something, but Eileen had been distracted. “Sorry. I thought I saw someone I knew. Wouldn’t that be a hoot? Imagine running into someone all the way across the ocean. How crazy is that? But it wasn’t him. Sorry. What were you sayin’?”
“I said it’s too bad you won’t be around for the cinema opening,” Lydia repeated.
“Oh yeah. Well, I’m just happy I was able to get away for a couple o’ days. I think I’ve taken up way too much of your time. You have been so, so nice. And, again, I am so, so sorry about falling on my butt in front of you.” Eileen reached into her pocket to pull out a few euros. “Will this cover it? Or are you not doing euros anymore? Hard to keep track.”
Both women chuckled at the all-too-familiar issue of Brexit. “Please. It’s our treat. After all, you fell on your bum in our country. The least we can do is give you tea,” Lydia said.
“You guys are so nice. Thank you again.” Eileen shook their hands and moved quickly toward the doctor’s office, bobbing and weaving among the people on the street in order not to be seen by the two women she had left sitting in the tea shop.
A few minutes later, the scraggly dude left the office. Another quandary—Follow him or stick with the doc? She took a photo of him and then she looked at her watch. It was only ten o’clock. Avery was in Aspen, where it was seven hours earlier. It would be 3:00 A.M. there. He could still be awake, considering he had changed time zones twice, which meant his body clock was still on 1:00 A.M. She took the chance and pressed the button on her fake Apple-watch phone.
“You okay?” Avery was wide awake and surprised to hear from Eileen at that hour.
“Yes. I’m fine. Two things. There is a guy who went into the office who looks extremely out of place. Should I tail him or stay in front of Marcus’s? I took a photo from a distance. The telephoto lens captured a good shot of him. Sending it over to you now.”
“Good. Stay on Marcus for now. Isabelle should have the blueprints for both his apartment and his office shortly. Probably late afternoon your time.”
“Will do. What about the wife?”
“See if there’s a pattern in Marcus’s day-to-day life for the next two days. Then you can tail the wife.”
“The other thing is I literally bumped into two women coming out of the office with very posh-looking shopping bags.”
“You bumped into them?” Avery sounded surprised.
“Well, not exactly bumped into them. I pretended to trip and fell on my ass in front of them. I was trying to get