Smooth Operator (Teddy Fay) by Stuart Woods, Parnell Hall Page B

put the sandwich on the plate. She knew she should eat it, or the big man would wonder why, might think she was sick. Then the Arab would come back with his doctor bag and try to cure her. She shivered at the thought.
    It didn’t matter that she had no appetite. She had to choke down the sandwich.
    Karen blinked.
    The cheese and mayonnaise sandwich.
    Mayonnaise.
    —
    IT WORKED. The mayonnaise held. The two pages passed the tug test. Cursing herself for wasting so much time with the paint, Karen pasted pages together into a single sheet. It was a rectangle, three pages wide by two pages deep. It should be enough. If only the key didn’t bounce sideways, or too far away from the door.
    Karen knelt down and started to slide her makeshift sheet of paper under the door, just below the key.
    The key turned in the lock!
    Karen whisked the paper away from the door, thrust it under the mattress, and threw herself facedown on the cot.
    The door opened and he came in. She snuck a peek. To her relief, it was the big man. He scowled at her uneaten mangled sandwich, but he didn’t say anything, he just picked up the plate and went out.
    She waited a minute to make sure he was gone. Then she retrieved the paper from under the mattress. It was crushed and torn. All the pages were separated. And the big man had taken the sandwich, so there was no mayonnaise to fix it.
    It wouldn’t have mattered.
    He’d also taken the key.

30
    M illie Martindale had no problem recognizing Karen Blaine’s boyfriend from the pictures on her Facebook page. According to several girls in the dorm with whom she’d spoken earlier, Karen had just broken up with the young man, and he wasn’t taking it well. Millie found him slumped over a beer in the college bar. She slid in next to him and said, “Hi.”
    He took no notice. He might not have heard her.
    “Are you Jason?”
    He looked up then. “Who are you?”
    “I’m a friend of Karen’s.”
    He winced as if her name hurt. “Oh, come on.”
    “We were supposed to go away for the weekend. She didn’t show.”
    “So?”
    “I haven’t seen her since. I’m worried about her.”
    He shrugged, and took a sip of his beer.
    “I’m sorry to bother you. I know you guys broke up.”
    “Who told you that?”
    “The girls at the dorm. Look, I know how you feel. Believe me, I’ve been there. But it’s not the end of the world. And it doesn’t mean she won’t change her mind.”
    “There’s another guy!”
    He said it loud. Heads turned. The bartender looked over. Millie waited for him to look away and said, “How do you know?”
    Jason said nothing, stared at his glass.
    “Did she tell you there’s another guy?”
    “I saw him!”
    He said it loud again. This time the bartender said, “You wanna keep it down?”
    Millie put up her hand and nodded compliance to the bartender. She turned back to Jason. “You saw him?” she said. She tried not to appear too eager. “What did he look like?”
    “I didn’t get a good look. But he was way too old for her, with his fancy clothes and big SUV.”
    “You saw them together?”
    “He picked her up at the dorm.”
    “Did he bring her back?”
    “What, you think I waited there all night? She went out with him, I haven’t seen her since. Some long date.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “When she comes back she’ll lie about it. Right to my face, she’ll lie about it. But I’ve got pictures.”
    Millie’s pulse leaped. “Pictures?”
    “I took pictures with my cell phone.”
    “You got pictures of her with the guy?”
    “That’s right.”
    “That’s smart. Let me see.”
    Jason was wearing blue jeans and a sports shirt. He fished in his pockets and came out with a cell phone. In his drunken state he had trouble switching it on.
    Jason’s photos weren’t great. He’d apparently taken care not to let Karen’s boyfriend see him. As a result, they were shot from a distance and tended to feature the couple’s backs. And the man was mostly in the