Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 05 - Till Death Do Us Part (16 page)

Kenny took my arm and led me quickly from the room before I went into teacher-mode and started rounding up the kids. Where were their parents?

“Why didn’t we stay and look around in the Touch the Bay section?” Art asked.

“Didn’t you see it in her eyes?” Kenny asked.

Art looked at me and said, “What?”

“She was just about to use her fingers to blow a whistle, get the kids to go back to their parents and give a lecture about watching your children when you take them to a public place.”

I nodded.

“What was all that silliness about the sardines?” Art asked.

“Kenny brings out the adolescent in me,” I chuckled.

Art frowned.

Kenny patted him on the shoulder and said, “Stretch and I loved drama in high school. We were in all the productions. Our favorite class was the Improvisation Class. We were great at it. Give us any topic and we could make up lines and sell it.”

I thought about my previous adventures and how I had often pretended to be something I wasn’t. Maybe my high school drama classes had finally come in handy.

“And grabbing my arm?” Art asked.

“Stretch was the best at weaving in another person. She could get them to play along, even if they had no idea what we were talking about. What do we want to do next?” Kenny asked as we left the aquarium.

“If we go down to the end of Pier 39, there are a bunch of sea lions,” Art said. He really was a great tour guide.

“Great idea,” I said. Maybe I could combine the aquarium and a trip to see the sea lions. It would make a great field trip.

We walked down the pier where there were over thirty people watching eighty or so sea lions fight for their spots on their docks, bite each other, throw each other off, and generally be rude to each other. It’s an etiquette nightmare, but so much fun to watch.

Several teenage boys were barking at the sea lions, who barked back. The crowd cheered. Again, there were children running around without their parents’ supervision.

“Just watch the sea lions, Stretch,” Kenny said as we leaned on the railing to the left of the wooden benches set up for people to sit and watch the sea lions. Most people stood on the benches. It was enough to give a teacher nightmares.

Art leaned on the railing next to me and smiled as a large sea lions sat by himself in the middle of a dock and stared at the other sea lions, as if to dare them to try and get on. When they tried, he slid toward them and shoved them off and then he went back to the middle and lay down again.

What seemed like a busload of people came walking down the pier and joined the people on the benches. The overflow came and stood by us at the railing. Another sea lion jumped onto the dock with the large sea lion and they started fighting over who would keep the dock. The crowd was cheering, each rooting for one or the other sea lion.

“Get him off Big Daddy,” someone yelled.

“You can take that big guy, push him off,” another tourist yelled.

“If I was a betting man, I’d start collecting money about this time,” Kenny said.

“I’ve got five on Little Guy,” Art said.

Kenny reached over, shook his hand and said, “You’re on.”

Both men began to lean over the railing and yell for their sea lion. Big Daddy versus Little Guy. It was hilarious and I laughed so hard I didn’t feel the two hands until they pulled me away from the railing.

When I tried to yell, someone clapped a hand over my mouth and whispered in my ear. “Say one little word and I’ll put a bullet in back of your bodyguard and anyone else who gets in my way.”

Chapter 19

I turned my head and saw Carlos; no, it must be his twin brother, Santana. He continued to back me away from Kenny and Art, pulled out a gun and said, “There isn’t a safety on this gun.”

He yanked me back further putting thirty or so tourists between me and the railing.

Art was the first to notice I was gone. I saw him whip his head around quickly and scan the crowd. Kenny’s head snapped up and our eyes locked. I’m sure mine showed the panic I felt.

Santana saw it too and he turned me around so that his back was to the railing and he was hiding me from Art.

“My bodyguard saw you,” I said.

“No, he didn’t. The idiot was too busy urging on his little sea lion than to keep his eye on you.”

“Walk forward, up those stairs and through that archway,” Santana said, pulling me closer to his body.

“Now, that would be stupid. I might as well scream and have you kill me, right here and now.”

“I’m not supposed to
kill
you, just take you and have someone contact your dad.”

“Well, Dad and I don’t get along. In fact, we hate each other. He won’t care what you do to me.”

“Really?” Santana’s eyebrows shot up; clearly this information didn’t work into his plan.

I nodded. “It’s Jordan that he likes, not me. That’s the other sister.”

“The one in New York?”

“Yes,” I told him. I hoped I hadn’t just thrown my sister under a bus, but it was the only thing I could think of to do.

“According to the boss, she’s got three FBI bodyguards.”

She got three and I only got one? I guess an assistant district attorney in New York is more important than a teacher. More likely, the FBI thought that it would be easier for them to get to her in New York than in San Ramon, so they assigned more bodyguards. Boy, am I proving them wrong.

“Who is your boss?”

Santana stared at me. “Do I look stupid?”

I didn’t answer his question.

“I’m not some idiot, like in the movies, where they tell you everything thinking you’ll not get away and tell anyone.”

I shrugged but didn’t move.

He pushed on my back. “Come on, lady. I’m not supposed to kill you, but I can hurt you.”

Kenny staggered through the archway with a beer in one hand and a stuffed sea lion in the other. He was yelling, “I won! My big guy one!”

Santana laughed.

Kenny tripped on the steps and plowed into Santana, spilling his entire beer on his shirt, saying, “Oh, so sorry man.”

“What the hell?” Santana pushed Kenny. “Go sober up someplace.”

That’s when Art came up behind me and I felt Santana stiffen.

“Give the gun to Liza and don’t move. There are four other FBI agents on this pier and we won’t hesitate to kill you.”

Santana didn’t hand over the gun but stiffened again. I assume Art had his gun in Santana’s back. Finally, he sighed and handed me the gun.

Four other agents came up quickly, one grabbed the gun from my hand and the others threw Santana down on the ground, cuffed him and took him away. It took only about a minute.

Kenny came up, wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in close, just as the panic attack began. My body started to shake, as my heart rate and breathing accelerated. Why is it that during the event I am fine, but as soon as it is over, I fall apart?

Kenny whispered into my ear, “Count and breathe, Stretch. Count and breathe.”

We had never done the calming procedure with Kenny’s arms wrapped tightly around me. I had to start over counting three times but eventually I was calm.

“Is she okay?” I heard Art asking.

I turned my head and said, “Where did all those other agents come from? I didn’t see them on the ferry and there was only one when you went on the Frequent Flyer.”

“They met us here. I thought this would be the perfect place for Santana to make his move.”

I hit Art on the shoulder and Kenny hit him on his other one.

“What?” Art rubbed both of his shoulders

“You made us bait and,” I began.

“You could have told us,” Kenny finished, his voice elevating with each word. A clear indication of how he was feeling – and it matched my own.

Art shrugged. “Then you both wouldn’t have acted spontaneously the way you did. If this trip had looked orchestrated then Santana would have backed away and tried again. He’s the smarter of the two brothers and the more dangerous one. I couldn’t risk either of you actually getting hurt. It was perfect when we rode the Frequent Flyers, it totally made this trip just look like a fun outing.”

“It is a fun outing and I haven’t got to play a drunk in a long time,” Kenny insisted.

“Yes, I am having a great time,” Art agreed.

“Minus the enforcer trying to kidnap me,” I added.

Art laughed. It looked good on him.

One of the agents came up to Art and said, “We’ve got Santana in custody, do you all want a ride back to San Ramon?”

“No,” Kenny, Art and I said together and then we all laughed. The agent looked totally confused.

“What do you want to do next, Liza?” Art asked.

“Shopping on the pier?” I said.

Art turned to the agent. “You stay with one other agent. I don’t expect any more attempts to kidnap Liza today, but I won’t take any chances. We won’t need the rest.”

The agent nodded and disappeared into the crowd again.

“Shopping?” Kenny’s eyebrows were raised in confusion.

“It was the only thing I could think of. I didn’t want to make the trip over here and just turn around and go home so soon.” I shrugged.

“You don’t want to go shopping?” Art asked.

“She hates shopping.” Kenny told him.

“Then what are we going to do?” Art asked.

“We could rent a bike and ride around the city?” I suggested.

“Too much work, how about a bay cruise or the rocket boat?” Kenny countered.

“Too cold.” I shivered.

“The Mirror Maze,” Kenny’s eyes gleamed with delight.

“No,” I said, firmly.

“Brock-brock-brock,” Kenny made chicken noises.

“What’s the Mirror Maze?” Art asked.

“It’s a maze made up of entirely of mirrors. It’s a fun place,” Kenny told him.

“No, it’s not,” I insisted. The last time we went, Kenny scared the hell out of me so many times I thought I’d have a full scale panic attack that would never end.

Kenny made his chicken noises again, then put his arm around me and squeezed. “You’re older and so much more even tempered now, Stretch. You can walk through that maze, smooth as the woman you’ve become.”

I
was
a different person than that seventeen-year-old girl he had scared practically to death in that mirror maze.

I glared at him as Kenny’s face morphed into a huge grin.

Art’s eyes went quickly around scanning the crowd for a threat.

I put my hand on Art’s arm and said, “No, the only threat here is Kenny.”

Art looked at Kenny, narrowing his eyes. “What’s going on?”

Kenny chuckled low. “We haven’t been to the mirror maze since we were juniors in high school.”

I smacked Kenny on the shoulder and Art jumped.

“If you scare me in there, I’ll have Art shoot you for real this time.”

Art’s body relaxed, sensing this was an issue between Kenny and me and not a threat.

“I promise to be good.” Kenny put up his hand in a mock swear.

“I don’t believe you,” I walked away with Kenny and Art trailing behind me.

The mirror maze is on the second floor of Pier 39 and it is a fun place. It has pounding music, flashing lights and an entire maze that’s mirrored. The problem is that you don’t know which way is a mirror and which way is open. You see your reflection and you know that it’s a mirror but with someone else, it could be a mirror but it could also be them. Last time we were here I got so turned around that I came close to having a panic attack. Kenny didn’t help, he made it worse – jumping in and out of my vision to scare me. I didn’t talk to him for a week afterwards, even though he apologized every day. He just couldn’t come up with a good enough reason for scaring the hell out of me.

We paid the five dollar fee, quite cheap for anything on Pier 39, to a young boy. He couldn’t have been older than eighteen. His brown hair was cut short and his bronze skin denoted a Mexican or Spanish heritage. At least his jeans were pulled up and not hanging down to expose his boxer shorts. I never understood that attire.

The boy gave us clear plastic gloves so we wouldn’t smudge up the mirrors since you use your hands to figure out if you are looking at a mirror or not.

I put my gloves on, as did Kenny and Art. When I looked over at Kenny, he raised his hand in a silent promise, then leaned in and said, “I’ll scare Art instead.”

“He carries a gun,” I whispered back.

Kenny frowned, seeming to contemplate his chances of scaring Art and not getting shot, given the incident at my house.

As we walked into the colored archway of the mirror maze, Art said, “I want you to stay with me, okay?”

“Sure,” I shrugged. With my sense of direction I get lost around the corner from my house, so having a guide would be great.

I have to admit it was much more fun this time without Kenny popping in and out of my vision. True to his word, he always said my name quietly, so I’d know it was really him and not his reflection. He didn’t give Art the same warning. And I’m sure Art, on the other hand, didn’t have as good of a time. He didn’t shoot Kenny, but I think he came close several times.

When we all came out of the maze, I could see the tension in Art’s body.

“Have we had enough fun for the day?” Art asked.

I nodded and said, “Tom’s coming tonight, so I would like to get back.” Then I turned to Kenny. “When’s the next ferry?”

He looked up the schedule on his phone. “It’s two now, so we missed the latest one, but there is another one at 3:45. We’ll get back to Jack London Square around 4:40. We’ve got some time to kill.”

“That’s easy for us,” I told Kenny.

“So true, let’s get some dessert.”

“Great idea,” Art and I said together.

We all laughed. We stopped at the Waffle Cone shop. Kenny and I got chocolate ice cream with marshmallow topping, our favorite. Art got vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup – such a traditionalist.

“You need to get some chocolate?” Kenny asked me, as we stood to throw away our napkins and waffle cone holders.

“She just finished an entire chocolate ice cream waffle cone,” Art said.

I shrugged at Art and smiled at Kenny. The man knew me so well.

“You want Chocolate Heaven or Fudge Shop?” Kenny asked.

Oh man, what a choice. I could get my favorite truffles at Chocolate Heaven but prefer the fudge at Fudge House. Kenny preferred Fudge House – he said Chocolate Heaven was too touristy.

“Both?” I suggested.

Kenny laughed, put his arm around my shoulder and said, “That’s my girl.”

“I repeat, didn’t she just finish an entire chocolate ice cream waffle cone?” Art repeated his earlier question.

“Yes,” Kenny finally answered him. “This chocolate is for later. Stretch has a problem with chocolate.”

“Everyone needs an obsession,” I told both men.

I love Chocolate Heaven. It is an entire store of chocolate. They have bins of chocolate, displays of chocolate, and a huge long glass counter with every imaginable type of chocolate, truffles, nuts, chews, and fudge. I went directly to the glass counter in the back and ordered several Black Forest Truffles. The center is a cherry infused chocolate, then a layer of white chocolate, then the outer covering of milk chocolate. They are delicious. Then we walked to the end of Pier 39 and got fudge from Fudge House, Kenny’s favorite.

“It’s only 2:30. Let’s go to …,” I began.

“Houdini’s Magic Shop!” Kenny finished.

We both grabbed Art’s hands and dragged him into the exciting world of magic.

The magic shop is a fun place. They have one of the boxes in front with a life-size mannequin of Harry Houdini, like you might see at a carnival with a fortuneteller mannequin. There is always someone doing a magic show inside, so it’s a crowded place. Art took one look at the twenty or so people inside a shop that should probably only hold ten and frowned.

I put my hand on his arm and said, “There is only one way in and out of this place. If you stand at the door, I’ll be fine and Kenny won’t leave me.”

Kenny took my hand and linked our fingers together, then showed them to Art.

He nodded, but the frown was still on his face. Kenny and I wandered around the shop while Art held his post near the door.

As soon as we got by the crowd that was watching a magician perform card tricks, the store opened up.