"So, Baron Charm is convinced the vampires did it, but the vampires claim they didn't," Mariah said skeptically into her phone. "Do you really believe that?"
"Well, Claudette... I mean Etta... believes it," Miranda replied.
"And you believe her?" Mariah asked, trying to hide her surprise. "We're trusting Claudette... or, I guess, Etta... now?"
"Genie trusts her. I trust Genie, so... yeah," Miranda sighed. "Convincing Baron Charm of that is another matter entirely. Are you and Demarco managing to get along? Were you able to learn anything more?"
"In order, yes and not a lot," Mariah admitted. "We had a little luck tracking down the hotel the woman in black and the grey-haired man stayed in..."
"Are you sure the desk clerk told you the right room?" Demarco asked.
"For a twenty, I'm pretty sure that guy would sell out his own mother," Mariah said. "Room 201, registered to M. Rider and A. White, who match the descriptions you gave... such as they are. He said they checked out late last night. Housekeeping hasn't had a chance to clean yet."
"Someone has. This place stinks of cleaner. Pine-y cleaner," Demarco said with a small grin. "You're right though... I can just barely catch their scents under that."
"They scrubbed the room," Mariah mused. "Erased all traces of themselves. I bet you wouldn't find a usable fingerprint on any surface. Probably nothing in the trashcans, or the bathroom either. Feels like tradecraft."
"You sound like Etta, with that spy-talk," Demarco said with a snort.
"Different sides, same skills," Mariah shrugged. "We should look around anyway. They might have missed something."
"They hadn't," Mariah said into the phone. "The room was probably the cleanest it's been in years."
"So, in addition to being a sinister mystery couple, they're neat," Miranda said.
"You say neat, I still say tradecraft," Mariah replied. "There's just something about it that screams covert training."
"So, by leaving no clues, they left a clue," Miranda said. Mariah could hear her smile. "Did you find anything else out watching Cletus?"
Mariah sighed. "Well..."
"Stakeouts are boring,"
They had been sitting there for hours, watching Cletus's house. Nothing was happening.
"Rory says a big part of hunting is watching and waiting for your prey to reveal itself," Demarco said.
"Being bored," Mariah sighed.
"So very bored," Demarco agreed.
The waiting dragged on.
"Yellow car," Mariah said at last.
"What?" Demarco blinked. "Why did you say that?"
"A yellow car drove by," Mariah shrugged. "That's how you play Yellow Car. It's a game."
After too much silence, Demarco groaned. "I know I'm going to regret this, but how do you play Yellow Car?"
"You wait and watch and when you see a yellow car, you say 'yellow car,'" Mariah explained.
"Ok," Demarco said hesitantly. "How do you win? I mean, how does the game end?"
"It never ends," Mariah replied with mock seriousness.
"That's idiotic," Demarco pointed out.
"Si," Mariah chuckled. "Passes the time though."
The waiting silence settled over them again.
"Yellow car," Demarco said at last.
"Si," Mariah chuckled. "She's pretty good at it."
"You are evil and must be stopped," Miranda laughed. "Have you heard anything from Knox and Clay?"
"Not yet," Mariah said. "We're going to meet them today, after Clay gets off work. After another fun-filled day of watching Cletus's house."
"We should be back by then," Miranda said. "Hey, don't go crazy and try to get Demarco to play Traveling Lemon or something."
"How that one would work on a stakeout, I wonder," Mariah grinned. "Anyway, I've got to go and meet her for another fun day of waiting and watching. Ti amo."
"I love you too," Miranda said. "Stay safe."
----------------
"Hey Bess, you got a minute?" Clay asked.
It was almost the end of the day, and the Evergreen Development offices were uncharacteristically quiet, except for the hum of the central air and the clack of a keyboard. Over by the breakroom, Clay could hear a couple of the guys talking about synergies and investment portfolios. Knowing those two, he wasn't sure if it was company business or just small talk.
"What can I do for you, Clay?" Bess said warmly, despite not looking up from her tablet.
Clay took a deep breath and hoped he wasn't about to do something stupid. "I have some questions about Crossing," he said carefully.
Bess hesitated a moment, then, setting her tablet aside, she turned her thousand-watt, confident smile on Clay.
"Our biggest project," she said brightly. "It's a huge opportunity, completely revitalizing the mountain community. We're all so lucky to be part of it."
"Yeah! Yeah, I'm... I'm thrilled. You know... to be part of it," Clay stammered. "Really, thrilled... but... umm... you know Knox Greenburg, right?"
"How is he?" Bess said, her voice positively dripping sympathy. "I was so sorry to hear about his loss. The poor guy. You know, we should send flowers. Why don't you take some money out of petty cash and take care of that, OK?"
"Yeah... yeah, I'll... I'll do that," Clay nodded.
"Anyway," he continued. "You know Knox. He gets these ideas in his head. I guess he heard this... this rumor that some of the property owners, you know on the mountain, were being threatened if they didn't agree to sell. I told him that... that couldn't be true."
"Of course not," Bess said. "What a thing to think. Just the idea that there might be holdouts. I mean, why wouldn't someone take a fair price for their land and a chance to move someplace better."
"Yeah, right, of course," Clay nodded. "And the investors certainly wouldn't stand for anything like that."
"No, they would not," Bess nodded seriously.
"Yeah, those investors. Like...?" Clay said, utterly failing to sound casual.
"You know, Knox can be a bit of a conspiracy nut, can't he?" Bess said, ignoring his probing. "I'm just glad he isn't saying something really crazy, like we knocked off his girlfriend to stop the protests."
"Yeah, that would be crazy," Clay chucked weakly. "I mean, who would think that? So, I'll take care of those flowers and I'll reassure Knox about the... the whole 'no holdouts' thing. Maybe fill him in a little on... you know... the truth about Crossing and... and our investors."
"Well, don't say too much, Clay," Bess said with a smile. "Remember, the deal is still confidential. Don't go breaking your NDA now... but you can certainly tell him there's nothing untoward going on. You have a good evening now."
"Right, well, good evening," Clay said.
Watching him go, Bess pulled out her phone and hit speed dial.
"It's me," she said coldly. "You told me to call you if anyone starting asking questions. Well, someone's asking questions..."
----------------
"Oh, no! No!" Missy gasped, shocked. "Stop! Help!"
The two guys had come up suddenly, leaping from a beat-up old pickup and rushing at Clay and Knox.
"Clay, look out!" she shouted. "Oh, Knox... No! Stop it! Stop hitting them!"
The beating was swift and brutal. Clay was no fighter and was quickly outmatched. Knox, despite having been in a couple of rough spots in his life, was no match for Jeb.
"Stop it! Oh God! Stop it!" Missy screamed. "Someone! Please! Help! Help!"
"Damn it, I told you they were getting too far ahead!" Demarco snarled.
"Oh, like you could have driven faster," Mariah snapped back at her as the pair of them raced toward the fight.
"Help! Oh, please someone help!" Missy cried.
"I could have run here faster!" Demarco yelled, blocking Cletus's punch.
"Fine! Next time, go ahead and run!" Mariah panted, slamming her foot into Jeb's gut.
"Demarco and Mary to the rescue!" Knox cheered weakly. "Hulk smash!"
Cletus recognized quickly that the tables had turned. Beating up a chubby office worker and a scrawny tree-hugger was one thing. Taking on the likes of Demarco and her tough friend was something else.
"Come on, Jeb," he called, making a hasty retreat.
"Oh no, you don't!" Demarco snarled, racing after them.
"Demarco! Proco Cane! Get back here," Mariah called, dropping to her knees to check on Knox's injuries.
"Hey, Mary," Knox groaned weakly. "You kick ass. Are you going to kiss me? Shannon probably wouldn't like it if you kissed me. Missy's kissing Clay."
"Missy kisses everybody," Mariah muttered. "Let me see your eyes. I think you have a concussion."
"They got away," Demarco huffed as she came trotting back. "Cars are cheating."
"I thought you'd like chasing cars," Mariah quipped.
"I'm a Wolf, not a golden retriever," she snorted.
"I'm calling emergency services," Mariah said, pulling out her phone. "Both of these guys need an ambulance. I hate to say it, but I'm guessing this means Clay got onto something important."
"Damn it, I didn't want either of them doing anything dangerous," Demarco snarled. "We need to take a closer look at Evergreen Development."
----------------
Author's Note: Both Yellow Car and Traveling Lemon are brought to you by way of the BBC radio series Cabin Pressure by John Finnemore. If you're look for some good laughs, you could do worse than looking it up. Be warned though, once you start playing Yellow Car, you will never stop.
Action poses by Simmerianne93.
