Thirty-Five and a Half Conspiracies
Page 68

Neely Kate took one last photo, then started stuffing the pictures back into the envelope. “Lock the front door.”
I rushed over it and threw the deadbolt as she adjusted a few papers. “Okay, let’s go.”
“Go? Where?”
“Out the window.”
“What?” But she was already moving toward a back window. It was then I noticed the fire escape.
She grabbed the window and tried to lift it. “Karma Chameleon!” she cursed. “It’s painted shut!”
I tried to tug it open with her, but it refused to budge. “Try the one next to it, and we’ll climb over.”
She moved on to the next window without questioning me. This one was stuck too, but she gave it one last tug and it scooted up, sending Neely Kate flying backward onto her backside.
I gasped in alarm. “Are you okay?” She was still supposed to be taking it easy after her surgery. So much for that.
Her face contorted in pain, but she grabbed my outstretched hand. “I’ll whine about it later. We have to go.”
I climbed out the window first. It was a couple of feet away from the fire escape, the top railing of which was a little higher than the bottom of the window. I leaned out the window and reached for the railing, resting my knees on the windowsill. When I had a good grip, I climbed to my feet and swung first one leg over and then the other, landing with a thud.
“Shh!” Neely Kate was already climbing out behind me, but she was moving with more grace. She landed on the fire escape floor with barely a thud. “You have longer arms. You shut the window, and I’ll lower the ladder.”
I leaned over and grabbed the side of the window, precariously unbalanced as I leaned my body over the open space, trying to push it shut. “It’s stuck again! I need to get more in the center of it,” I whispered in a panicked voice. I heard the soft moan of metal from the fire escape ladder.
“Push harder!”
I leaned over more and pushed all my weight into the bottom of the window. The window gave way and jerked down with a soft thud just as the apartment door opened. The panel hid the tenant from me. Or, more aptly in this case, me from her. But I had a millisecond to register this as my body’s downward momentum started to pull me over the railing.
Neely Kate grabbed my jacket and pulled me up and back, then immediately guided me down to the grate floor. I stared up into her terrified face.
“You’re stronger than you look,” I whispered, trying to catch my breath and recover from my near-death experience.
“They say adrenaline does funny things.”
I heard the click of heels on the wood floor inside. “What are we gonna do?” Both of us were crouching now, but if Kate happened to look out one of the windows near us, she would probably see us.
“Let’s wait a minute to see if we can hear anything,” she whispered. “If not, we’ll slide over to the steps and carefully make our way down.”
“Okay.” But I really didn’t want to stick around. I felt liable to jump out of my skin. But staying was a good idea, my feelings aside. We might hear something useful.
After about thirty seconds, it was apparent we weren’t going to hear anything helpful—Kate wasn’t rushing to call anyone, and she didn’t seem to have a habit of talking to herself—so Neely Kate started scooting toward the ladder.
If anyone had been watching from below, we would have looked a sight, but the alley was blessedly empty. When we reached the bottom, Neely Kate frowned. “We need to get the ladder back up, but it’s gonna creak.”
“Maybe we can create a diversion out front.”
Her face lit up. “Good idea. You wait here, and when you hear a commotion, push the stairs up. Then head to the landscaping office, and I’ll meet you there.”
“Okay.” The antique store was the next to last store on the street, so Neely Kate walked down the alley and around the corner. About thirty seconds later, I heard yelling and banging.
“I’m gonna sue!” Neely Kate hollered. “How can they just put a trash can there!”
I pushed the ladder up as carefully as I could, cringing when I heard a soft clanging noise. Then I took off for the landscaping office like Miss Mildred after a door-to-door salesman.
As soon as I unlocked the back door and stumbled inside, someone bumped into me. I screamed, imagining the worst.
“Rose!” Bruce Wayne shouted. “It’s me. What on earth is goin’ on?”
I took a deep breath and braced my hands on my thighs, trying to catch my breath. “Neely Kate’s coming. I’ll tell you everything when she gets here.”
My legs were shaky as I made my way to my office chair. Neely Kate burst through the front door seconds later, a blast of cold air coming in with her.
“Did you get the ladder up?” she asked as she shut the door behind her.
“Yeah.”
“Good, because Kate was watching me make a spectacle of myself.”
I cringed. “That can’t be good.”
“No. If she figures out someone was in her apartment, she’s gonna tie it back to us.” She shook her head and held her lower abdomen, looking pale as she took a seat in her own chair. “Not my finest moment.”
“Are you okay?”
“I will be. I just need to rest a minute.”
“You’ve had an eventful couple of days.”
“I’ll say,” Bruce Wayne said dryly as he stared out the window and down the street. “What with the two of you becoming criminal masterminds and causing public disturbances left and right.”