Leanne Banks - Hot Stuff

“I suppose we’re waiting for Kitty,” Cate said.

“I suppose we are. Saturday night. She probably got called out of some high-society dinner party. She won’t be pleased about that.” Marty smiled. “That’s a little heartwarming.”

They could hear the very faint sound of a door opening and closing downstairs. Muffled conversation. Footsteps on the stairs.

The bedroom door opened and one of the men looked in. “She wants to talk to you downstairs.”

Cate and Marty filed down the stairs and met Kitty in the center hall. She was dressed in a white Armani suit with black trim, and she had a classic Chanel bag hung on her shoulder.

“This is fun,” Kitty said to Marty. “I’ll get to throw you off a bridge for a second time. I think this time we’ll attach something to your ankle… like a Volkswagen.”

“Why do you want to throw me off a bridge?” Marty asked. “What’s the big deal?”

“I don’t trust you.”

“If I go to the police, they’ll lock me up and throw the key away.”

“Yes, but you could go to my husband.”

“Oh,” Marty said. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Now,” Kitty said, turning to Cate. “I need the dog. How are we going to go about solving this dilemma?”

“I could call and ask my friend to bring the dog to the condo,” Cate said. “Or I could go get Beast and bring him myself.”

“I like option number one,” Kitty said. “Call your friend.”

“I don’t have my phone,” Cate said. “Your man took my purse.”

The purse appeared, and Cate rummaged around in it, looking for her phone, her hands still cuffed. She found the phone and punched Kellen’s number in, and had the phone to her ear when both the front and back doors crashed open.

Kellen was at the front door, gun drawn, and Julie and Pugg burst through the kitchen. Julie had a gun in her hand, and Pugg was wielding a meat mallet that Cate assumed he had picked up en route. One of Kitty’s men pulled a gun, and Kitty ripped it out of his hands and grabbed Cate.

“Freeze,” Kitty said. “Everyone back off because I’ll kill her, I swear I will. I’ve worked too hard to let it all slip away from me now. I started out licking envelopes for the hospital silent auction, and now I’m just inches from being elected to the board. The board! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get elected to the board? Do you know what that means? It means I chair the Twinkle Ball. I get to do the seating chart. Kitty Bergman from Quincy gets to do the seating chart for the Twinkle Ball! Two years ago that bitch Patty Fuch did the chart and gave me balcony seating. I was wearing Herrara, and no one saw me. No one saw the Harry Winston necklace. No one saw the Valentino shoes. Now I’m going to be elected to the board, and I’m going to kick that cow to the curb. Patty Fuch will get the table next to the frigging men’s room.”

“Kitty,” Marty said, “can you spell nutsy cuckoo?”

“Shut up, you traitor. You’re just a common thief in ladies panties.”

“Actually I don’t wear ladies panties. I wear briefs that are designed to minimize the male contour.”

“As soon as I get my hands on that dog and the jewelry you stole from me, I’m going to minimize your entire contour,” Kitty said.

Beast had been standing behind Kellen. He gave a low growl, pushed Kellen aside, and lunged at Kitty. He clamped his teeth onto Kitty’s purse strap, ripping it off her shoulder and sending the gun flying.

“That’s a Chanel bag!” Kitty cried. “For heaven’s sake, someone do something. He’s slobbering on vintage Chanel.”

Beast shook the bag until he was convinced it was dead and then he turned on Kitty. He gave a loud woof, put his two front paws on her chest, knocked her over, and sat on her.

“Help,” Kitty said.

“What a good ol’ dawg,” Julie said. “My neighbor Jimmy Spence had a guard dog once, and anyone talked cross-eyed to Jimmy that dog would rip you to shreds and then he’d knock you down and hump on you. It wasn’t pretty.”

“See, Kitty. Things could be worse. Beast could be a humper,” Cate said.

Kellen looked at Cate. “Are you okay?”

“Yep. Are you?”

“No. I’m a mess. I’ve never been so scared in my life. Pugg called and said you were kidnapped and my heart stopped.”

“I would have rescued you myself,” Pugg said to Cate, “but I was temporarily unconscious.”

“Poor little Pugg,” Julie said. “Soon’s we get this cleaned up I’m gonna take you home and make you real comfy. You’re my hero.”

Pugg looked like he would begin purring at any moment.

Kellen got the handcuff key from one of the men and took the cuffs off Cate.

“The numbers from Beast’s microchip open a safe in the condo,” Cate said to Kellen.

“I searched everywhere,” Kellen said. “I didn’t see a safe.”

“It’s there,” Marty said. “You just didn’t recognize it.”

“Is there a closet in this house that can be locked from the outside and not opened from the inside?” Kellen asked Marty.

“There’s an owner’s closet upstairs.”

Kellen checked the two men and Kitty for extra keys and cell phones, cuffed the two men together with Cate’s shackles, marched them upstairs with Kitty, and locked the three of them in the closet.

“They’ll be okay here for a while, at least until I decide how to handle this,” Kellen said. “Let’s go back to the condo and see what we find there.”

Everyone trooped out to Kellen’s car and stood looking at the Mustang.

“We’re not all going to fit,” Kellen said.

“You go on ahead,” Julie said. “Pugg and I will find our way home.”

Marty, Kellen, and Beast stepped out of the elevator with Cate, hurried down the hall, and waited while Cate punched in the code to unlock Marty’s front door.

“Okay,” Kellen said to Marty when they were all inside. “Where is the safe?”

“I don’t think I should tell you,” Marty said. “I appreciate the rescue, but I’d prefer not to reveal the safe.” He gave Kellen his best Doris Day smile. “However, I’d be more than happy to reward you when I feel it’s time to move some of the merchandise.”

“Here’s more bad news,” Kellen said to Marty. “I’m a private recovery agent, and you have property belonging to at least one of my clients. You can open the safe now, or you can open the safe when the police get here.”

“But I’m Robin Hood,” Marty said. “We were using the money for charitable purposes.” He flicked his eyes to the Warhol on the wall. “Almost all of it.”

“And what about the dead agent?” Kellen asked.

“It was an accident. He was in a panic, and he slipped and fell down the stairs, I swear on my mother’s grave.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Cate said.

“Well, actually she isn’t dead,” Marty said. “I was swearing pre-mortem.”

Kellen didn’t show much, and Cate suspected he wasn’t buying it. For that matter, she wasn’t sure she bought the whole package, but she did feel a tug of compassion for Marty. He looked pathetic in his raggedy clothes. He had a gash on his forehead, and a large bruise and abrasion on his right cheekbone. His right eye was partially swollen. And he truly did need a manicure.

“Are you going to turn me over to the police?” Marty asked.

“I haven’t decided,” Kellen said. “I’m not in the fugitive apprehension business, but I have an obligation as a citizen to come forward when I have information about a crime.”

“Suppose I open the safe and give you all the jewelry and promise not to ever steal again.”

“Evian really does need him at the bar,” Cate said. “And even though Kitty’s motives weren’t great, she still did a lot of good for the community.”

Kellen looked at Cate. “Aside from the fact that the agent accident could be pure baloney, if we don’t inform the police about Marty we could become accomplices to multiple crimes.”

“I just have a hard time thinking about Marty sitting in jail. And it seems a shame that he can’t go on entertaining people.”

“Okay, here’s the deal,” Kellen said to Marty. “I’m going to give you a twenty-four-hour head start. You can leave the country, or you can go to the police yourself and confess. If you go to the police with a decent lawyer, you can probably plea bargain and rat out Kitty Bergman, and get a very reduced sentence.”

“I’ll take it,” Marty said.

“Now show us the safe.”

“You’re going to love this. It’s in the utility room.”

Marty led the way, and Kellen and Cate and Beast followed.

“I was worried about Kitty,” Marty said. “And I knew she’d hired those two goons who would do anything. And I mean anything. So I had this safe installed just in case things got nasty, and the goons got nosey. It opens with a fifteen-digit code, and I have no head for numbers. I can barely remember my phone number. I didn’t want to write the code down because I was afraid they’d find the paper. So I had it injected into the dog when I took him for a walk before I bought him. I figured even if someone wanded him they’d just think it was an ID number. What I didn’t count on was Kitty’s ability to inflict pain and my inability to tolerate it. The first time they hit me I blurted it all out.”

The utility room was nothing more than a closet off the hall. It contained a water heater, a furnace, and two fuse boxes. No safe that Cate could see.

“Have you ever had to flip a circuit breaker?” Marty asked Cate.

“No.”

Marty opened the doors to the two fuse boxes. Both looked identical. The circuit breakers on the top box were labeled. Bath, kitchen, bedrooms, and living areas. The circuit breakers on the bottom box weren’t labeled. Marty flipped one of the switches quickly three times and the panel popped open to reveal a wall safe behind it.

“Nice,” Kellen said. “I’d actually wondered about the second fuse box.”