Best Laid Plans

"You met Clara at a party?," Ed probed.

"Yes," Rachel took another drag on her cigarette and let the smoke curl up past her dark eyes. "Her man for the evening wanted to see her whipped. They usually use me in those circumstances since I'm experienced with whips. Practice can make them sound way worse than they actually are. Turns out Clara liked the scene and chatted me up once her date blew his load and fucked off. We spent a few weeks meeting every few nights, then I asked her to move in last weekend. Here we are." Rachel's hand was still stroking Ed's thigh while her face looked out the window with feigned indifference.

"I could see it, back there," Ed said. "The look of power in your eyes when you bit Clara's nipple and sent her crashing through her orgasm. You're good at it." Ed took a drag on his cigarette. "Clara and you are a good fit."

Rachel stood up and walked over to the wireless sitting on a sideboard by the door to the bedroom. She flipped on the power and spun the dial until she found a station playing a quiet and slow ballad. Her back to Ed, Rachel started swaying in time to the beat before she turned around and sauntered back to the couch. This time, she sat in Ed's lap with her legs laying along the couch. "We are a good fit. But we're not possessive of one another."

Ed moved to put his arm around her. The dark haired beauty rested her head on Ed's shoulder. The music played soft and low, drowning out the noise of the cars drifting up from the street below. Ed took one last, long pull on his smoke and then flicked it out the window. "You lover her, don't you?"

Rachel choked on smoke and Ed laughed. "You don't have to say it." His hand on her shoulder pulled her closer to him and he kissed the side of Rachel's head. Her hand moved up to the side of his face. It was one of the most intimate moments Ed had ever shared with another person. The two of them sitting, smoking in a darkened apartment. Rachel kissed Ed on the lips, a long kiss that left the lingering taste of lipstick.

Both Ed and Rachel were blinded by Clara turning on the light as she walked into the room wearing a pink silk dressing gown. She flopped gracefully down on the couch on the other side of Ed, pulling a cigarette out of his pack and holding it out for a light. She took a drag and blew the smoke up toward the ceiling, then kissed Ed on cheek.

"I don't know how to thank you, hon. That was spectacular. Rachel has a fake dick she likes to use on me, but it feels so much better with a real one." Rachel's hand pulled off of Ed's cheek as she moved off his lap and on his opposite side, hugging her knees up against her chest, still casually smoking, head turned away to look out the open window. "I'm free tonight if you want to stay for dinner," Clara offered. Her free hand reached across the back of the couch and stroked Rachel's shoulder.

Just as Ed was about to accept the invitation, and maybe suggest that Rachel would like some attention this time, a yellow envelope slid under the door of the apartment and stopped a few feet from the end of the sofa. Before anyone could move, Ed was up and peering through the keyhole to see if he could make out who had slipped the envelope into the room. A quickly receding bell hop uniform was all he could make out. He picked up the envelope and saw Clara's name typed across the face. Ed handed it to her.

As he hoped, she opened it right away.

"It's from the agency," Clara announced. "The Masters want me to reach out to them right away. Is this connected with your investigation, Ed?" She handed the letter over without his having to ask for it. It read:

Wednesday - Clara - Contact me right away. The tip my husband gave you was not enough and I want to exchange the bill with a new $100 bill right away. I need the old bill back for sentimental reasons. Call me and we can discuss. A.M.

"What does she mean by "tip"?," Ed asked. And why is this letter headlined with yesterday's day, he added to himself.

"Oh, they gave me a $50 bill just the other night! I'll go and get it." Clara rushed into the bedroom leaving Rachel and Ed alone for a moment.

"Does anyone else know Clara is staying here?," Ed asked as casually as possible. Alarm bells were ringing in the back of his head, faintly but clanging away.

"The agency called me at work today and asked if I had seen Clara. They pay us with cash delivered every Friday. I told them Clara could be reached at my address." Rachel took another drag and flicked the butt out the window. "They're the only people to ask that I know of."

Clara returned from the other room with her wallet in her hand. She pulled out the crisp $50 bill and Ed felt a rising panic. All his instincts told him that they were in trouble. Clara, Rachel, Archie, and he himself were in trouble. He did not know exactly why yet, but Archie trained him never to ignore an instinct. Ed took a deep breath and slowly exhaled as both women looked at him.

"I think...we'd all better get cleaned up and go out to dinner tonight," Ed said as evenly as possible. "I will buy you dinner anywhere you want to eat, but we need to get ready and leave quickly. Do you have a telephone so I can call home and let my folks know I'll be out late?"

Both Rachel and Clara pointed toward the kitchen and went back to the bedroom to get changed. Ed went over to the telephone and dialed the office. The phone rang once and Lenore answered breathlessly as if she had sprinted to the desk to answer it.

"Hey, mom. Just wanted to let you know I'll be out a little late tonight."

"Thank God, Ed. I've been waiting for you to call all evening. Something is wrong. Archie dropped off the face of the earth this afternoon. The hotel he was checking out confirmed he'd been there and that he'd left with Mrs. Masters around 1. My contacts with the police department found his car parked outside the hotel. I need you back here, Ed."

"No problem, I'll bring the girls with me before we go out for dinner. We'll swing by and make sure everything is alright."

"Ed, I don't know what's going on, but I have a bad feeling about this one."

"Same here, see you in about half and hour."

Ed hung up, his mind reeling. Archie was missing. In a daze he walked back through the apartment and gathered up his clothing, dressing in a stupor while the girls applied makeup in front of a large mirror he had not noticed in the bedroom. Ed took three tries to get his tie right before he gave up and stuffed it in his pants pocket while walking out to the living room. He looked at the two women, so different from one another, but each perfect in her own way, standing expectantly by the door. Ed took a deep breath and launched into what he hoped was an intelligible explanation of the situation. Archie would have cautioned him against it, but Ed was in charge from here on out. Ed would decide what was right and wrong.

"I just called the office. My partner is missing. Clara, the Masters have been turning Baltimore upside-down to find you, and now I think I know why. I would like to take you to the office. It's safe there. I'm not sure exactly what is going on, but if that $50 bill is what the Masters are after...Well, I think we'd all be safer at the office." Ed pointed to the newspaper sitting on top of Rachel's purse with the headline "BOYANT THIEVES TIED TO ROBBERY". "If the Masters don't know this address, they soon will. We need to get both of you somewhere no one knows you. I'm going to take lead, I want both of you behind me at all times. If anything happens, both of you run and try and get to a policeman or a police station. I don't want to scare you, but you have a right to know what you're mixed up in. We need to leave now. Take your purses and lock the door behind us."

Rachel and Clara looked at each other, picked up their purses, and grabbed Ed's offered elbows as they left the apartment. No one was in the hallway and they did not meet anyone coming up the stairs on their way to the lobby. Ed left the girls behind a marble column and arranged for a taxi cab with the front desk. Five minutes dragged by slowly with Ed keeping one eye on the door and another on his watch. At long last the taxi arrived and Ed herded the girls into the back seat giving directions to the cabbie. Soon they pulled up in the alley behind Ed's office building and entered through a side door. Ed was sure their agency was being watched, but with any luck they'd be able to sneak in without alerting anyone.

Chapter 6: The Night Has A Thousand Eyes

Lenore almost shot them coming through the office door. Archie had trained both her and Ed in the finer points of self defense. Lenore was a lousy shot so Archie gave her a sawed off shotgun to hide in the office. Lenore called it the worst Christmas present she ever received, but she dutifully hung it under her desk all the same. Archie's wife just had to aim in the right cardinal direction, and the wide disbursal of pellets would take care of the rest. Fortunately, Ed remembered to knock before unlocking the door.

Ed made the introductions and the two younger women were given comfortable chairs and some tea to sooth their nerves. Ed caught Lenore up on his movements during the day, leaving out his personal activities and their details, and found out that Archie had been hiding in Mrs. Masters' hotel room when she met a mystery man. The hotel dick clocked Archie and Mrs. Masters hightailing it out of the hotel and jumping into a black sedan parked outside. The mystery man remained a mystery and Archie was twisting in the wind.

"At least you found Clara. She's a pretty thing. What do you think her part is in all this?"

Ed shrugged. "At this point, she seems to be holding a $50 bill that the Masters, specifically Alice Masters, wants back more than anything else in the world. This has to do with the robbery, I just know it does, but we're missing the piece that connects the two. Clara and the bill are two puzzle pieces." Ed looked into the other room and saw Rachel and Clara holding hands and looking back at him.

"Rachel's her roommate?"

"Yes, they're...close." Ed regretted the pause, but Lenore just seemed amused. Before she could say anything else, the phone on her desk rang. Lenore practically sprinted to the desk and picked up the receiver.

"Oh, Archie! Thank God! We were beginning...," Lenore's face fell as she held the phone out to Ed. He held the phone away from his ear so Lenore could listen.

"Ed? Ed? I don't have much time. They..." Archie's voice faded and was replaced by one full of broken glass and murderous tones.

"The girl and the cash then I hand this sick fuck back to you in one piece."

"Alright, you have a deal. I tracked down the girl, but it's going to take me some time to get the right bill. I can get it, but it will take time."

"There's an expiration date on this transaction. I have to have both by 7 AM. I don't have to tell you what happens if I don't get what I want."

"You don't. Where do you want to complete our deal?"

A laugh like sandpaper on bricks flooded the line. "I'll call you at this number tomorrow at 6 AM. You find out then. At 7 sharp I float this fucker." The line went dead.

Clara and Rachel stood in the doorway from the office, both looked more worried than frightened.

"They want Clara and the $50 bill tomorrow morning or they're going to kill Archie," Ed informed the women. Lenore thumped her fist on the desk. Now Rachel and Clara looked more frightened than worried.

"We can't give them an innocent girl! Ed, you know we can't?"

"We aren't giving them anything if I can help it." Ed spun to Lenore, the beginnings of a plan forming in his head. "Are they watching the building?"

"Not that I could see. If they are, they're professionals."

Ed rubbed his chin. He needed an edge. Something to throw the kidnappers off enough that he could take them out before anyone else got hurt.

"They could be following you by sense of smell alone," Lenore quipped. "You changed your jacket, but those pants are still loaded with perfume."

Unamused, Ed grabbed the phone and called his buddy in the police force. Had it only been last night that they were working security at a boxing match? It felt like lifetimes ago.

"Danny! I need to know some information you may not be releasing to the press about the bank robbery two weeks ago. Yes. Yes. I don't care about your orders, I might have a lead for you. I'm asking so I can vet the information before I toss it your way. Right. Two things. One: How many robbers were there? Two: Is Mr. Masters a suspect?"

Ed looked up at Lenore. She was as good at field craft as anyone with a license and she'd need to play her part if they were to get Archie out of this.

"Great. Perfect. You're the best, Danny. Give my love to...Yes, I was going to say Jennifer. No, Susan! I'll call back once I know my guy is legit." Ed slammed down the phone. Cops and their insistence on remembering details like names.

Ed picked up the phone and called his apartment. It wasn't too late, and luckily his mother answered. Lenore, Clara, and Rachel listened as Ed asked a string of questions in German, nodding when his mother answered back and writing down an address on a pad of paper on the desk. A quick thanks and Ed turned back to the women.

"I have a plan. It's a good plan, but each of us is going to have a part to play. Don't worry, Clara, you're staying here until this whole situation is resolved. But I need the $50 bill. I have some errands to run and I'll be back late. Lenore, get out the cots and get these girls comfortable. No one leaves, keep that shotgun pointed the right way. I'll call once..."

Ed was interrupted by the phone. He picked up the receiver and laid it on the desk so everyone could hear.

"Hello? This is Mr. Masters. Is this Chase and Zeit?"

"Yes, Mr. Masters. How can we help you?" Ed motioned for Clara to stay silent, her face had broken into a smile when she heard her lover's voice.

"Well, it's very strange. Mrs. Masters did not return from a lunch meeting with one of her friends this afternoon, and I'm beginning to worry as no one seems to have seen her."

"That does sound strange, Mr. Masters. I thought you were calling for an update on Ms. Weiss' whereabouts. Have you reported Mrs. Masters missing to the police yet?" Ed sounded calmer than he felt.

"I'm not worried about Ms. Weiss at the moment, I'm sure she'll turn up eventually. I'm more worried about Mrs. Masters. It's...unlike her to disappear."

"Don't worry, Mr. Masters. We'll get right on it. I'm sure she'll either turn up later this evening from a party she forgot to tell you about or we'll find her tomorrow. Where was the lunch she attended?"

"She wrote 'The Admiral' on her date book, but the restaurant manager doesn't remember seeing her there this afternoon."

"I would call some of her friends to see if they know anything," Ed suggested. "In the meantime, I have some irons in the fire that might turn up Mrs. Masters and Ms. Weiss."

The cough on the other end of the line told Ed all he needed to know. Mrs. Masters was as much Clara's customer as Guy Masters was. Rachel's half smile was back, too. "I'll call you at 8 tomorrow morning to let you know what I found. Please let me know if you locate her in the meantime."

"Yes, yes, of course. Thank you, Mr. Zeit." The line went dead.

Ed shed his jacket and pulled an old beat-up Humboldt from a closet in the back of the office. Clara was almost his height, or was much nearer to it than Rachel or Lenore, so he hung his jacket from her shoulders and steered her over to the window sill overlooking the main street below. With the lights off in the office, Clara would be back-lit, just a silhouette against the window. The Humboldt completed the look. From the street, anyone would think it was a man smoking in their office window. Clara caught on at once and took to smoking a cigarette in a more masculine fashion while Rachel looked on, half smile firmly in place.

Clara, cigarette held between her thumb and middle finger, approached Ed as he rummaged in Archie's desk for another box of shells.

"My hero," she said in a fake baritone. "Do you really think this will all turn out alright in the end?," she added in a much quieter and serious voice.

"I do," Ed answered. "I'm not as young as I look and I've learned a few tricks. Archie's a tough old man, this time tomorrow Rachel will be teaching us some new knots." He leaned in and kissed her on the lips, long and slow. When he came up for air, Clara handed him the $50 bill and hugged him close. Rachel did her best to study the street below through the window.

Ed backed away and pulled Lenore back into the reception room. He left a few more instructions, but told her not to worry. Signs pointed to a happy ending. Entreating her to keep the shotgun aimed at the door, Ed slipped out to gather the items he needed to bring Archie home whole.

Chapter 7: Good Bait

"At least it isn't low tide," Ed quipped as he helped Rachel out of the taxi in front of the large warehouses. Ed had arrived back at the office around 4 AM with fresh coffee for everyone. Once he had walked everyone through the plan, and spent a good half hour convincing them that it would work, the mysterious kidnapper called back to give them an address down on the waterfront. The taxi dropped Ed and Rachel off a block from where they needed to be, it was easier to spot tails if you travelled the last bit on foot.

"There's a cannery not far from here," answered Rachel. "Low tide, high tide. It always smells like rotting fish in this part of town. Not that it matters to us this morning." The sun was just coming up and the streetlights were still providing all the light despite a sky transitioning from black to steel gray. The wooden warehouses lining the south side of the street were mirrored by brick warehouses on the north side. Ed and Rachel walked as slowly as they could between the pools of light created by the streetlights keeping an eye over their shoulders for anyone following them to their meeting. Rachel's arm shook ever so slightly but the morning air was humid and not too cold for the light jacket she wore.

At first Ed had questioned the warehouses as a place to meet. The morning shift would be well underway by the time he and Rachel arrived, too many people to make a hostage exchange. But now that they were down at the waterfront warehouses, Ed realized that it was an ideal place - especially inside one of the empty warehouses. Most of the activity was out on the waterfront, if no ship was docked at that specific warehouse everything was pretty quiet. Rachel and Ed could clearly tell from a distance if a warehouse was a hive of activity or an abandoned hulk. Ed could tell that they were headed to a quiet warehouse, one with no prying eyes or stevedores shifting loads from ship to shore. The wooden loading doors were open on the active warehouses, filling the street with the noise of men's shouting and wooden crates being dropped into place. No one inside a busy warehouse would notice gunshots. Or screams.

"Remember the plan," Ed kept repeating. "Stick to the plan, and we'll all walk out of this no worse the wear." He felt like Archie, always repeating the importance of sticking to a plan. It had dawned on him in the cab on the way there Archie might be saying it for same reasons he was saying it now: to steady his own nerves not necessarily Rachel's. Finally they arrived at their destination, a hulking warehouse not much different from any of the others. Two large anchors were painted on the street door and an old, chipped sign reading "Steamers and Sons, Export and Import" in crude black lettering. Two large trucks rumbled down the street, turning away from the warehouses just beyond the end of the Steamer's warehouse.