Never Trust a Woman in a Mask: Part 3

I turned, denting the wall with one of the chair legs. “Did you reconsider?”

He shook his head. “I was just going to validate your parking.”

“No need. I parked on the lawn.”

We stared at each other for a moment. Well, he stared at me. I was watching the beauty mark meander down the hallway.

“Look,” he finally said. “I know a Dame.”

“Congratulations. And I don’t think anyone calls them ‘dames’ anymore.”

“No, she’s a Dame. Like, when women get knighted, they’re not ‘Sirs,’ they’re Dames.”

“Like Dame Judy Dench?”

“Exactly.” He produced a pen and drew a picture of a frog slapping an elk on the side of my chair. “Turn it over,” he said, just as I was about to protest. It was an address. “You go talk to her. Tell her I sent you. And tell her I liked the gift basket, though brie gives me gas. And then, if you’ve got time, tell her about the situation in Prague.”

“What situation in Prague?”

“Exactly.” He nodded and turned to go back into the examination room.

I left the office, stepping carefully over the body outline and made my way back to my truck. I secured the chair into the bed with some bungie cords and took a look at the address. It was for an office on the third floor of the Palm Tree Office Plaza.

I turned around and looked at the sign on the wall behind me. I was at the Palm Tree Office Plaza. The office was directly upstairs from the one I just visited. I decided to just leave the chair there.

The door to the office was labeled ‘Mad Mongoose, Inc.’ There was a little drawing of an upset mongoose with a knife. I looked at it upside down, but I can’t read Chinese.

This waiting room was painted stark white and contained nothing but a small mobile hung from the ceiling featuring a walrus, a whale, and an albatross.

“So,” said a feminine voice. I looked over past the reception desk. A woman was there, mostly hidden in the shadows. A curl of smoke rose from her cigarette, the ember glowing brightly as she took a pull. “I hear you have a gall bladder you need taken care of,” she said.

Tomorrow: Part 4