Page 61 of Savannah Heat
She wore a short black wig with silver streaks running through it, a conservative black dress, and was wearing large, round, black-framed glasses—and she was on the arm of an elderly gentleman.
“Dan, look.” Jenna pointed discretely toward Harper and her date. “So now we know how she got her invitation, she has hooked onto some poor soul with no clue about who she really is. He looks familiar.”
“That’s the former mayor, Arthur Mason, I think. He just published a. book last year. He must be eighty now.”
Jenna couldn’t help but stare. “Wonder how she got hooked up with him?”
“Something we can ask him later maybe.” Dan said, as he kept his gaze on Harper as she and her date walked directly toward Marta Roseland. “Okay, show time. Be right back. Stay put.”
Jenna watched Dan go over to the bar, where he was immediately joined by a tall, black man who stood beside him.
They said a few words, then Dan returned with two drinks.
“What was that about with the guy at the bar?” Jenna asked.
“I told him who his target was, the real thief, and what she looked like today in her disguise.”
Jenna smiled. “You missed your calling. You should have been FBI or CIA. Maybe you should re-join New York’s finest.”
Dan shook his head. “No, they all work too hard for too little. Besides, I don’t think New York City Police Department would think I’m so fine anymore.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I could be a reference. Oh, no, Dan, look, there she goes trailing right behind Marta down the hallway! She’s headed toward the restroom. Where is Marta’s protection?
Before she and Dan could follow Marta Roseland, everything happened at once. Harper came rushing out of the ladies’ room and ran out through the emergency exit leading to the alley.
“Look, it’s the FBI.” Dan pointed to a tall man running hard out of the meeting room and into the main lobby of the hotel.
The agent Dan met earlier came over and was clearly agitated. “We have an agent with Mrs. Roseland now.”
The senator approached. “Hey, what’s going on?” The senator barely spoke the question before Mrs. Roseland and the FBI agent who found her in the ladies room came over.
Jenna could see Marta Roseland was beyond stress—she was furious. Her eyes blazed, and her fists clenched.
Marta looked at Jenna and then her husband. “My necklace—my necklace. She got it. That bitch really got it. She followed me into the bathroom.”
Then things went into warp speed, and it all happened in seconds.
Jenna ran to the front of the hotel and looked out the glass doors.
An FBI agent caught up with Harper outside.
But she didn’t have the necklace on her as far as Jenna could tell, and she was very upset about being stopped.
She was putting on a big show, slapping at the agent’s hands as he searched her, and then she broke into tears and sat on the sidewalk, head in hands.
Dan and the Roselands followed Jenna to the front of the hotel.
“You missed Harper’s big performance. As best I can tell, they found nothing,” Jenna put a hand on Marta’s. “I couldn’t hear all that was being said, and the FBI won’t let us in the area, but it was an Oscar-winning performance out there. Look, they found Gail, and she seems to be putting on her own show and resisting being searched. Does it mean she has handed it off? What the hell?”
“Why are they not searching her? They will not get away with this again,” Dan said.
“She’s stalling but it can’t last long. They will search her when they get through the legal stuff.” The senator put an arm around his wife. “Don’t worry, they will.”
“Surely, they handed it off somehow, if she doesn’t have it,” Jenna turned to say, but Dan was gone. Then she looked back outside and saw him going for Gail.
He pinned her on the ground in the parking lot and reached into her pocket, pulling out the necklace and holding it up.
And then, everything went quiet, and it was over—just like that. Dan handed Gail over to the FBI agent who took the necklace and then cuffed her. The other agent handcuffed Harper and put her in the backseat of his unmarked car.