Chapter 7

The limo stopped, and as the door was opened for me, I had to admit that I was a little surprised.  Instead of the massive shop I expected Hodge to take me to, we were stopped in front of a small boutique.  My heel hit the cement of the sidewalk, as Hodge helped me to my feet.

“Is she an unknown?”

Hodge shook his head at me as if I didn’t know a thing.  “Of course not.  This isn’t the place Dorothy usually visits, but she is our clothes expert, something that is needed quite often in our field, as you should know.”

“Have I met her?” I asked, waiting for Hodge to open the boutique’s door before walking in.

“No, dear,” a voice said from behind the counter.  “I do not think we have ever met.”

Looking at the woman as she slid from her stool and made her way towards me, a smile spread across my face.  “Or maybe, the last time I saw you, my hair was red.”

“A curly mess on top of your head,” she gasped, walking towards me and pulling me into a hug.  “Those freckles everywhere were ingenious.  They really kept the eye off your other features.  How have you been?”

“Good, Caroline, you?”

“You told her your name?” Hodge interrupted, a worried expression on his face.  The older woman stepped towards him, and it was then that I realized that the two of them must have been around the same age.  Caroline kept up with the latest fashions making her look a little younger than her years, but the woman had to be in her forties, just as Hodge.

Caroline reached up, grabbing the chauffeur’s cap from his head.  “Of course, I did, Hodge.  Just as you did the same.”

“She can be trusted,” he mumbled, looking over at me with a smile in his eyes.  “She turned into an amazing woman.”

I shifted uncomfortably under their eyes.  Whatever exchange they were having, I didn’t want to be a part of it.  It was obvious that they were together, something that was frowned upon by the bosses, something that I should report, but wouldn’t.  How could I when the two of them looked at each other with such love in their eyes?

“Do I know you from somewhere else?” I asked Hodge, confusion lining my words.

He shook his head, glancing away from me. “No.”

It was a lie.  I could tell that it was by the way his body tensed, and how he looked away from me as he said the words. Or maybe, he was trying to make me believe it was a lie?  He had to have gone through the same training as me, had to know the signs of telling a lie, which meant that he knew the major tells of a lie.  Was he trying to make me believe we have met, trying to throw me off my case?  Something like this could distract me if I let it, but I wouldn’t. 

“You have a dress for me?” I asked Caroline.

The woman smiled, glancing at Hodge before looking back towards me.  “You’re right,” she mumbled, a little sadness curling into her eyes.  “She grew into an amazing woman.  So very good at her job.”  She paused, taking a deep breath before letting a blank expression cross her face.  “Now come, let us find you the perfect dress.”

Dress after dress was flung over my head.  Some too short, showing off the knife I liked to keep on my thigh, others were just wrong.  Being Dorothy, I knew the woman wouldn’t wear something that I normally would, a nice black dress, something that would let you blend.  No, Dorothy was a flashy girl.  A person who wanted to stand out in a crowd, never blend.

The last dress was tugged over my head, and as Caroline took a step back and nodded, I knew this was the dress.  The woman was just as meticulous as I was when it came to which clothes I would wear, but as I was worried about my gun showing, she was worried that it didn’t show enough cleavage.

“I don’t know,” Caroline mumbled.  “I think you need more.  There is just something missing.  I can’t quite put my finger on it.”

Hodge cleared his throat, making us look towards him.  He tossed a bag at me.  Catching it without moving anything but my arm, I stared at it.  “What’s in it?”

“Open it, girl.  It’s something I put together. You know they don’t keep old agents on unless they have something else going for them.  Caroline’s is disguises, mine is in that bag.”

I stepped off the incline Caroline had me on, revealing the long slit up my right leg.  The slit showed off my leg, but it wasn’t the reason why we picked it.  Now, if needed, I could easily access the knife strapped to my left leg.  I had turned in every direction, did everything that I could think of to show off my left leg, but the knife never came into view.  The gold, clingy material kept it from being shown.

Sitting down on the stool Caroline had in her shop, I placed the bag on my lap.  As I opened it, I felt a little weary.  I had never heard of Hodge, never knew what he could do.  The first thing that came into view was a necklace.  Pulling it from the bag, I glanced at Hodge with questioning look.  “Emerald?”

“Real emerald,” he answered with a nod.  “It snaps off the gold plating, behind it is a very small button.  Push it if something goes wrong.  I’ll have back up whenever you need it.”

“Beautiful,” I mumbled, not only because the necklace itself was a work of art, but because his idea was too.  The age of watches was slowly slipping behind us, being replaced by emerald necklaces.  “What else?” I asked myself while pulling out the next item.  Black high heels, they were wonderful, but looked like nothing special.

“Flip them to the side,” he said walking towards me to do it himself.  He turned it, and as soon as he did, something slipped from the heel.  “Be careful with this,” he mumbled, running a hand over the small knife.  “The aspect is a lot like a level, actually has a mini version of one inside of the shoe. If it is turned, the level signals to the knife to release.  When you sit, be conscious of this.  The last person I gave these to stabbed the person sitting next to them.”

“It was an accident,” Caroline blurted, red covering her face. 

“It was, Caroline, but that didn’t keep it from hurting like hell.” He looked at the woman with a smile before turning back to me.  “One last thing in the bag, and I am finished.”

“One more?” Caroline huffed.  “You usually overload your people with them.”

Hodge shrugged.  “The others did not have the same skill as her.  They needed more weapons.”   He pulled something from the bag, holding it up for my view.  “They’re earrings, but take them off somewhere and they become a bug.  Make use of them when you go to this party.  The Morgenstern’s may know more than they let on about the case you are working on.  Plant it in their study, or drop the earrings somewhere near their daughter.  The woman will snatch them up in a heartbeat.”

I laughed, liking his description, but not being able to believe that the small emerald earrings he was holding were bugs.  It was plausible, I guess, but I had never been a technology person, had never been able to understand the gadgets they put together.  

“Thank you Hodge,” I said, rising to my feet to wrap my arms around him.

He hugged me back before pushing away.  “Let Caroline finish you up.  I know nothing about fashion.”

Turning his back on me, he walked towards the front of the store without saying another word.  Confusion flew through me as I wondered why he was acting that way, but I didn’t voice my question.  I couldn’t let other things distract me.  Turning towards Caroline, I held my arms out.  “Do what you have to.”

“With you, honey, there isn’t much I need to do,” she replied with a smile while motioning towards a small vanity she had. 

As I sat down, she didn’t say a word, simply worked on my hair, twirling it in a design at the back of my head.  As she slipped in some things that looked like golden chopsticks, she smiled.  “Hodge is not the only one who has some tricks up their sleeves.  They’re sharp.  If you need them, just pull them out of your hair.  They’re perfect for a last minute job.  No man ever thinks about the hair, simply knows that it’s being held up.”

“Thanks,” I replied a smile on my face.  “Thank you, Caroline.”

“It’s nothing,” the woman answered, waving off my thanks while handing me the shoes.  “Put them on; it’s about time you and Hodge left.”

Slipping them on my feet, I sat up only to have her hand me the earrings.  She reached around me, snapping the necklace into place before I had a chance to grab it from her.  Caroline patted me on the shoulder as I rose to my feet.  “Perfect,” she mumbled.  “You look amazing; you’re going to knock them all off their feet.”

“I hope not,” I mumbled with a smile.  It was the truth.  Tonight, I hoped that I wouldn’t have to knock anyone off their feet, wouldn’t have to do anything out of the norm.  If I did though, Hodge and Caroline had prepared me for whatever battle would come.