Welcome to Paths Not Taken, the thirteenth Operation Quickline story. When a sting operation is set up on the resort owned by Lisa Wycherly’s father, she and Sid Hackbirn find themselves revisiting their high school jobs. And hoping their covers don’t get blown. You can read the first chapter here.
When Nick, Daddy, and I got back to the resort, Sid met us in my parents’ house. He didn’t say anything about his little adventure beyond letting me know that Yuri Voskoff had the disk. I found a moment and went down to the main lodge to let Hattie know. I invited her to dinner at my parents’ house, but she declined.
“Marge is back in town, and I’m going out with her.” She sighed. “Apparently, she has a package for me. Not related to the plans, though.” She shook her head. “It never ends.”
Sid told me what had happened with Yuri in the apartment when we went to bed that night. How the operative had known that we had a disk with the plans, we never found out, but didn’t really care, either.
The next morning, Hattie checked out, but waited for Sid and me to see her off.
“I got a message on my radio phone just now,” she told us. “Overnight, a Soviet transponder sent a message that the Valient plans were on their way. And it was mis-spelled.”
I sighed. “So he got away.”
“Well, yes.” Hattie looked at me. “That was the idea.”
“Oh, I know.” I looked at her. “He also murdered your brother. He had to have set up the trap in the TV set, probably to kill Dusty. He was right there in the hall when your brother set it up. It was just your brother’s bad luck that the trap got him instead.”
Hattie took a deep breath. “I know. It seems like we’re sorely lacking in justice in this case. But there’s not much we can do about it. Miles was just collateral damage, it seems.” She paused and blinked.
“I’m so sorry, Hattie,” Sid said, softly.
“Thank you,” she said. “Both of you. For everything.” She swallowed. “I’ve got to go get Miles’ ashes, then get my plane ready.”
“Your plane?” I asked.
“Yes. I have a Lear jet.”
I sighed in relief. “That’s how you got here so fast. Connecting flights always take forever. We were afraid you’d been here all along.”
“Well, I was in Wyoming on a different matter.” Hattie smiled. “We’ll be in contact soon.”
Sid and I hugged her and watched as she left. He slung his arm across my shoulders.
“I hate seeing the bad guy get away, too,” he said. “But that’s the business sometimes. At least he didn’t spot us as operatives.”
Sid went back to the restaurant for the morning rush and to oversee Janine interview a couple new bussers. Janine hired them both. Nick and Sid showed them their process, but the two guys already had some experience and Nick promptly quit.
Sid also found time to make a couple phone calls. Stella called the apartment late that afternoon.
“It’s all arranged,” Stella told me. “They didn’t mind a last-minute registration at all. I’ll see to getting him there and home, and he can stay with me and Sy until you get back.”
Sy was Stella’s lover, but he lived in New York during the school year and only spent summers in L.A. with Stella.
I let Sid tell Nick that he’d be going to science camp starting that Monday. Our ears rang with the whoop of joy that Nick let out.
“I love you, Dad!” Nick squeezed him, then pulled back. “When are you guys coming home?”
“I’ve probably got another week here,” Sid said.
Nick’s face grew worried. “You’re still working?”
“Not a case, son.” Sid squeezed him again. “If it was, I’d want to keep you here. You’re good and I need that.”
“Thanks, Dad.” Nick stood tall.
I gasped. They looked at me.
“Sid, he’s grown again,” I said. “He’s got to be almost six feet tall.”
They laughed. And as it turned out, Nick was five-eleven, but only for the time being.
Saturday, the Fosters checked out and left, as did Kathy and Jesse and the Delgados. Lita and Pedro promised to return. They’d had a really good time there, and the kids loved the place.
Sunday, we took Nick to the airport earlier than we needed to. Mama and Grandma arrived, and we decided to let Grandma get a hug from Nick before he had to go. Grandma was happy to see him, but it was clear by the time Nick’s plane left the gate that she was quite out of temper. Mama had mentioned several times that the packing up had not gone easily. We found out why when we got back to the house.
“Her doctor thinks she might have some neurological problem or the beginning of dementia,” Mama told me. “I’ll be taking her to San Francisco next week for tests.” She sighed. “She’s being difficult about it, though. I’m not sure if it’s the dementia or her normal orneriness.”
“Oh, no!” I held Mama. “Are you okay?”
“It’s hard, honey. She is my mama. But she is seventy-eight years old and we’re going to lose her sometime.” Mama sighed. “That’s also why she’s so anxious to see you have babies.”
Grandma chose that moment to waddle up. She’s as short as my mother is, but much rounder.
“Well?” she demanded of me.
“Nothing, Grandma. I’m sorry.”
“Mama,” my mother cut in. “Will you please leave Lisle alone about that? She’s not going to be blessed that way, and that’s that.”
Grandma waddled off, muttering.
Esther and Desmond came up with a new computer system for the resort, but decided not to install it until that fall. As it was, Desmond was going to take on the installation. Esther had her own security business to work on.
“I don’t have any deadlines until winter,” she told me. “But I need to think about it.”
We did find out that Dusty got sent into the Witness Protection Plan, but didn’t find out any more. Ty Larson was seriously annoyed that Dusty was gone. Ty had really liked the kid and had been hoping that Dusty would take over for him so that he could retire. Daddy set to work trying to find a replacement. He offered the spot to Judy Osbourne, who turned it down. She was actually quite content with her little business, although she offered to look around for another facilities person.
Donna and Marina both went back to school, but Donna changed her major from business to hospitality. Lee Whitney faded away, moving from Tahoe within a month. The DiNovos, the Winslows, and Ms. Sanchez eventually checked out, as well, and we never found out what happened to them. But that’s the way of it at the resort. Guests go home and live their lives without us. Even if they come back, they seldom tell us what’s been happening with them.
Liz Warner drove up for a day in the middle of that last week there. She was a delight and I’m pretty sure she liked me, too. [Oh, she did. – SEH]
Dale continued to be Dale, but it was generally agreed that getting taken down a peg helped keep him from going off on his own so much.
With Mama back, I didn’t need to work so much, and, truth be told, things were pretty well running on their own. Daddy decided to hire Irene as the resort manager and offered her the apartment in the staff lodge as soon as Sid and I vacated.
Which we didn’t do until a week after the warehouse explosion. The cops had dealt with that and didn’t connect it to the resort, which was fine with us. Sid wanted to be sure everything was in place at the restaurant. Both Janine and Bracha insisted that it was, and I didn’t really pay attention to which positions needed to be filled.
That Friday morning, I was packing the final suitcase when Daddy came into the apartment bedroom. Sid was taking the boxes and suitcases that had already been packed to his car, then getting Bowser and Motley ready to go. We were driving back to Los Angeles.
“Hi, Daddy,” I said.
“You guys almost ready?”
“Just about.” I folded up yet another Wycherly polo shirt.
“Sid says you two are going to Cancun on Sunday.”
“Yeah. We’re meeting Frank and Esther and Kathy and Jesse there.” I stuck the shirt into the suitcase. “It’s strictly a vacation. We set it up last spring, but had to put it off when things got set up here. Sid figures we’ve got the time, and he wants to do some serious sunbathing.” I chuckled. “He can’t here. You know he doesn’t believe in tan lines.”
Daddy laughed. Sid is a nudist at heart.
“Anyway, Kathy was able to get her sister to watch Keshon, and Esther figures she’d better take a vacation now before things heat up with her new business.”
“Now, you’ve checked all the drawers and everything?”
“Yes, Daddy. I’ve just got this last bit of clothing here.” I reached over and picked up my toy sword. “And this. Unless you want to keep it.”
Daddy laughed softly. “Oh, no, honey. That’s yours.”
“Thanks.” I grinned at him.
“Looks to me like you got one of your first career choices, after all.”
“Which one?” I asked.
“Superhero.”
I laughed. “I’m not a superhero, Daddy.”
“Well, you’re pretty damned amazing.” He pulled me into his arms and squeezed. “I am so very proud of you, Lisle.”
“Thanks, Daddy. I love you so much.”
“I love you, sweetheart.”
He went to help Sid with the rest of the luggage. I giggled as I packed the sword in the suitcase and shut it.
I’m not a superhero by any means. But I’m close enough.
Thank you for reading. For more information about the Operation Quickline series, click here.
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