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“Calm down, will you? He doesn’t have rabies.”
Mat drew her toward the front of the Winnebago, then let her go so suddenly she nearly fell. She knew he’d just remembered he was manhandling Cornelia Case and not Nell Kelly. She rounded on Lucy. “Get that dog off the couch.”
“I’m going to keep him!”
“Put him in the back!” Mat jammed himself behind the wheel and pulled back onto the highway. “First it was just me. Exactly the way I wanted it! Then I got stuck with two kids. The next thing I know—”
A Greyhound flew past from the opposite direction and water thwacked the windshield. He made a disgusted sound, then flicked on the radio.
“. . . reports from citizens across the country who believe they’ve seen First Lady Cornelia Case—”
Nealy leaned over and snapped it off.
Every surface of the room was covered with knick-knacks. Glass candy dishes sat next to figurines of animals with bows on their heads, which nestled next to ceramic plaques printed with Bible verses. Where was a good earthquake when you needed one? Toni wondered.
“You sure you don’t want some coffee?” The woman that Toni and Jason had driven across two states to question regarded Jason apprehensively. She wore a short-sleeved blue knit pant suit with a rhinestone umbrella pin and white spiked heels.
Jason shook his head, anxious as usual to cut to the chase, and gestured toward a blue velour couch that sat underneath the window in the small second-floor apartment. “Do you mind if we sit down and ask you a few questions?”
“Oh . . . yes . . . no. I mean . . .” She twisted her hands. She’d just returned from church when they’d arrived, and having members of the FBI and Secret Service in her home had clearly undone her. The woman was in her early forties. She had a pudgy moon face, overly permed brown hair, and exquisite porcelain skin.
Toni smiled at her. “I’d appreciate a glass of water, Miss Shields, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble. I get a little carsick when I ride too long, and water settles my stomach.”
“Oh, no trouble at all.” She scurried toward the kitchen.
Jason shot Toni an irritated glance. “Since when do you get carsick?”
“It comes and goes at my convenience. Listen, pal, you and your steely-eyed stare are making her so nervous that she’s starting to worry about rubber hoses and bamboo slivers.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
“Witnesses who get too nervous either forget important details or make them up to please the person asking the questions.”
Jason frowned at a ceramic statue of a clown. “I want to get this over with.”
He wasn’t the only one. Special teams all over the country were tracking down tips that had been phoned in from citizens who were sure they’d seen Cornelia Case getting out of a limousine at an airport or lazing on the beach at Malibu. But the tip from Barbara Shields, a grocery store clerk in Vincennes, Indiana, was the one that had caught Toni and Jason’s attention.
Shields had reported seeing a woman who looked like Cornelia Case shopping in the Kroger’s where she worked. The woman had been traveling with a dark-haired man, a teenager, and a baby in a pink cap. The cursory description matched the description of the woman in the celebrity lookalike contest, right down to the short light brown hair.
Toni and Jason had discussed it. They both considered it unlikely that a woman traveling with three other people, two of whom were children, could be Cornelia Case. But they still wanted to talk with her in person, and their boss, Ken Braddock, had agreed.
Shields came out of the kitchen with a frosted blue water glass. Toni was ninety percent convinced they were on a fool’s errand, but she managed a smile. “Do you mind if we sit down?”
“Mind? No, no. Go ahead.” She rubbed her palms on her blue slacks, then perched on the edge of an armchair across from the couch. “I’m just a little nervous. I never met real government agents before.”
“Perfectly understandable.” Toni took a seat next to Jason. He opened his notebook, but Toni left hers in her purse. “Why don’t you just tell us what you saw?”
More palm-rubbing. “Well, it was Friday, two days ago. It was my first day back at work since my surgery.” She indicated her wrist. “I got carpal tunnel from scanning groceries. Repetitive stress injury, they call it. Everybody talks about helping office workers who get it from using computers, but nobody thinks about cashiers. I guess we’re not important enough.” Her expression indicated she was used to coming out on the short end of the checkout line.
“Anyway, this woman came through my line with a really good-looking man and these two kids, and I was so surprised when I saw her that I ran a can of baby food through the scanner twice.”
“Why were you surprised?” Toni asked.
“Because she looked so much like the First Lady.”
“A lot of women resemble the First Lady.”
“Not like this. I’ve always admired Mrs. Case, ever since the campaign, so I started keeping a scrapbook of pictures and articles about her. I know her face nearly as good as I know mine.”
