Bingo!
I pulled out the file and found a set of notes but no legal documents. I took pictures of the pages for reading later, then put the file up and hurried back out, leaving everything as it had been before I came in. The office door could only be locked from the outside, so I just left it unlocked, figuring the last person out would assume they forgot to do it or it didn’t catch properly. Then I crept down the hall to the balcony to peer over.
Gertie had discarded the robe and was now standing in the water feature below me, dipping her brush into the water and scrubbing her back. She was singing something about rub-a-dub-dub. The security guard was attempting to entice her out. I sent a text to Ida Belle, letting her know I was ready to escape so she could make her move. It was a good thing I found what I was looking for quickly because the guard kept swapping glances between Gertie and his cell phone.
“Ma’am, I’m going to have to call the police,” the guard said.
Crap! If the police showed up, I was cornered and Gertie was off for a twenty-four-hour psych hold. The guard lifted his phone to dial when Ida Belle started banging on the doors and yelling.
“Margaret!” Ida Belle exclaimed as the guard let her inside. She hurried over to the fountain. “Thank goodness I found you.”
The guard clearly wanted to be relieved but was still apprehensive, his arm still hovering up with the phone.
“Do you know this woman?” he asked Ida Belle.
“She’s my sister,” Ida Belle said. “She’s gotten a bit confused lately. An age thing. She’s my older sister.”
“I’m not old,” Gertie protested, and shook her head, flinging shampoo everywhere. “If Billy didn’t take so long in the bathroom, I would have been ready on time. And where is Martin? I keep asking for him but this man won’t call his office. We’re going to be late for our lunch reservation.”
“I don’t know a Martin,” the guard explained. “And no one is here right now. I’ve tried to tell her that.”
Ida Belle nodded. “Her son used to work in this building and they did lunch once a week. He passed a year ago. Things have been downhill from there.”
“Okay, look,” the guard said. “I’m sorry about her son and her issues and all of that, but you can’t be in here. I’m going to call for an ambulance. She needs a doctor.”
“She’s fine,” Ida Belle said.
“No, she’s not,” the guard insisted. “And if you won’t do a better job keeping sight of her, then she needs to be somewhere that she can be watched. My grandma went this direction. Your sister could have walked into traffic because you’re not taking proper care of her.”
“Yeah!” Gertie said. “See. I told you Billy would have a problem if you didn’t put whipped cream on my pancakes.”
“She’s got a doctor’s appointment tomorrow,” Ida Belle assured the man, but I could tell he was itching to call, if for no other reason than to cover his butt if anything came up later on.
“I don’t care,” the guard said and dialed. “Hello? I have an elderly woman who needs medical attention. I think she has dementia and is lost.” The guard gave the address.
Double crap!
Gertie looked up toward the balcony and I waved from behind the plant I was crouched behind. There was no way I could get away. One glance up or at the opposite staircase and the guard would see me. I needed him out of the lobby or focused on something so hard that he didn’t notice me getting away.
Suddenly, Gertie threw the scrub brush across the lobby, climbed out of the fountain, and took off running for the staircase on the opposite side of the room.
“Look!” she yelled as she ran. “It’s the Cinderella staircase! I love Disney World!”
“She’ll break a hip!” Ida Belle yelled, and took off after her, the panicked guard close behind.
Chapter Seventeen
As soon as the guard turned his back to me to sprint after Gertie, I hopped on the railing and slid silently down, then fled the building. Then I crept over to the edge so I could peek in and watch the rest of the show and since everyone was yelling, I could still hear what was going on as well.
Ida Belle managed to partially block the guard going up the stairs, so he was unable to catch Gertie before she reached the balcony. When she got to the top, she yanked off her top, revealing a lime green sports bra that matched her shorts, and threw it off the balcony. Then she went running for the staircase on the opposite side.
“It’s the waterslide!” Gertie yelled as she threw a leg over the stair railing as I had done.
Good. God.
I watched in horror as Gertie, slicked up from all the shampoo, went flying down the railing at double the sped I’d managed, then flew off the end and crashed into a plant, splitting the vase in two. Ida Belle and the guard ran down to help her up while Gertie kept trying to wave them away. The guard looked at the broken vase, and I thought for a moment that he was going to cry. Ida Belle grabbed his shoulders and shook him and I could see her giving him a stern talking-to, but since her back was to me, I couldn’t make out what she was saying.
Finally the guard nodded and hurried over to the desk where I saw him access a computer. I could hear sirens in the distance and silently urged them to hurry.
“You got it?” Ida Belle yelled.
“Yes,” he said. “Just go!”
Ida Belle grabbed Gertie’s shirt and the robe and they hurried out. Then we all took off at a dead run until we rounded the corner and jumped into the SUV. Ida Belle fired it right up and pulled away without turning on her headlights. When we were several blocks away, she looked back at Gertie.
“Do you know how close you were to being arrested?” she asked. “They would have put you on a twenty-four-hour hold.”
Gertie shrugged. “So?”
“So I’m not so sure they would have released you after,” Ida Belle said.
“Fortune needed a distraction. The cops were coming. I did what I had to do. And I didn’t even blow anything up this time.”
“That’s because you blew up everything in your purse earlier today,” Ida Belle said.
“Technicalities,” Gertie said.
“What did you say to the guard?” I asked Ida Belle.
“I told him that we were both in big trouble when the cops showed up because he’d let Gertie in to begin with and hadn’t called for help right away. I said he could probably glue the vase back together and gave him the name of the glue. Then I suggested he delete the last hour or so of security footage and if anyone asked, claim no knowledge of a problem and deny that he ever let the crazy woman in the building.”
“See,” Gertie said. “No evidence of our existence there. Things went perfectly.”
“You’re a wet, slimy mess, dripping in my SUV,” Ida Belle said. “That cover is only water-resistant, not waterproof.”
“It’s shampoo,” Gertie said. “I’m just giving it a wash.”
She started shifting her butt back and forth across the seat and for a minute, I wondered if Ida Belle was going to pull over and take action.
Ida Belle looked over at me. “Please tell me you got something so that I don’t have to shoot her.”