Flying Solo by Linda Holmes

Author:Linda Holmes [Holmes, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2022-06-14T00:00:00+00:00

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“Oh, I know Rocky,” Daisy said over breakfast the next morning at the Compass Café, known for its fluffy pancakes and blistering local gossip. “Rocky is one of his dirtbag friends. He looks kind of like the Green Goblin from Spider-Man.”

“Willem Dafoe?”

“Yeah, yeah. Rocky looks like that, with the gap in his front teeth. I always assumed he was, like, one of those guys who sends out twenty emails a day about cryptocurrency. I’m pretty sure he’s shady, but I don’t know for certain. Matt is probably trying to get the duck sold ASAP in case he gets caught. And he would probably rather sell it to somebody he knows, who won’t ask too many questions, just in case it’s not real. For all I know, they could be faking up some kind of documentation. I mean, he already forged your appraisal.”

“What do we do?” Laurie couldn’t stop remembering the feel of the painted wood under her fingers, the sharp tail feathers and the smooth green crown. “At least it seems like he still has it. It’s not gone yet.”

“Right,” Daisy said. Just then, their waitress, Marnie, walked past with a huge tray that held an omelette and a stack of blueberry pancakes and signaled that she’d be right back. “Man, I’m over here planning to order the veggie scramble, but I can’t lie, I want that,” she said, pointing to the pancakes. She shook off her carbohydrate lust. “If they’re meeting at the store, they’ll meet in Matt’s office, which is at the back, through the little door behind the counter.”

“I think I need to know what happens at that meeting.”

Daisy tapped her fingers on the table. “Right, right. Well, there’s a closet back there. In the office. You could hide in there. It’s tight, but you’d hear them.”

“You think I should hide in the closet?”

“In for a penny of spying, in for a pound,” Daisy said, adding cream to her coffee.

“I guess you’re right. How would I get in?”

“There’s a door in the back,” Daisy said, “that leads out into this tiny little parking area we have off the alley that holds like two cars. The bigger problem is figuring out how to get you in there without Matt seeing you, and I have no idea how we would do that.” She picked up her cup of coffee. “How did this all end up being your problem anyway?” she asked. “Don’t you have a bunch of brothers? Didn’t Dot have friends?”

Laurie smiled. “Everybody does what they can.”

Daisy nodded. “It’s like you’re at the bottom of the funnel. Everything swirls down, down, down, and then at the bottom, there’s you. I mean, it’s not so bad. Somebody has to do it. I think every family has somebody. I do it in my family, too. But they should say thank you. I mean, damn. You’re really going to the mat for this duck.”

Laurie laughed. “I just can’t help thinking…if it was my mom’s, there would be five of

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