Lily ran through her reasoning to Cassie, who agreed with her. They climbed into the car and drove a couple of miles down the road to where Officer Nancy Douglas lived. Lily let Cassie drive, and had called Nancy on the ride over. She was relieved to find the officer in, and quickly told her they had news about Grace, and wanted to ask her for a favor. She was happy to have them stop by.
When they pulled in, Nancy was at the door to let them in. She had a modest home with a similar layout to Lily's, but set down the ridge closer to the ocean, giving it a lovely view across the bay through her living room windows. Once they were seated, Lily started telling their story. She skipped over a lot, but she was starting to feel concern over the time, and wanted to get things moving.
"I'm sorry I can't get into everything right now, Nancy, but its all happening too quickly," Lily began once the basics were set. "We were going out to follow up on a lead Grace left for us. It may not lead to anything, but it might tell us who is behind the burglary and give us a hint about where she is. But when we got home, I found this note."
Lily handed the note over to Nancy. She was feeling pangs of guilt over not being completely honest with her friend, but she was also afraid that if she was, Detective Richards would be called and everything would go wildly out of hand. When Nancy finished reading the note, she handed it back to Lily.
"This is serious," she said. "You should turn this over to the police. Detective Richards could probably get the FBI or at least the State Police involved with this. Possible kidnapping, extortion, there's a lot going on here."
"I get all that, but there isn't time to wait for all of them," Lily insisted. "We need to act on the information that Grace left us tonight, before this meeting. There isn't time to coordinate with so many departments and agencies and still be where we need to be."
"Then what are you suggesting?" Nancy asked. "I am local police, you know. I have certain responsibilities to my job and the department, not to mention a limited jurisdiction that doesn't apply to Tanner's Corner."
Lily fought back a rising smile, she felt she had Nancy on their side now.
"I actually agree with you that this is a police matter," Lily stated. "But again, its the time factor that is affecting this. What I was hoping is that Cassie and I could go track down the lead we have, and that you would take this other information to Detective Richards for us. He could start getting everything in motion so that when whoever sent this shows up at Tanner's Corner they meet with Johnny Law.
"But I had an added thought that might help all of us out." Lily was near her real thought now, and struggled not to rush and blurt things out without them making any sense. She took a deep breath and continued speaking.
"Perhaps Richards can arrange it that you will go to Tanner's Corners at 10 pm for the rendezvous pretending to be me. Take my car, wear my clothes, or whatever, and make it look like I'm there keeping the appointment. He can have the State Police or whoever takes jurisdiction waiting in squad cars around the area to pounce on whoever shows up looking for you." Lily paused to let it sink in with Nancy, then continued.
"It will put you at risk, and I hate to do that, but it will also give us the most time to find what Grace wanted us to find, and Richards the most time and best opportunity to pull an official response together. And if time works against him, you are properly trained to act in that situation."
"That's not a bad plan, but it will take some time to pull together," Nancy admitted. "Using me as bait allows maximum time for those efforts as well. Are they expecting just you, or both of you?" She asked.
They studied the note again, but it wasn't clear. Lily thought a minute, then spoke up.
"If they've been paying enough attention to me lately to know my connection with Grace well enough to break into my house and leave this note, then they know Cassie and I have been almost inseparable for several days now. I've got to think they'll be expecting both of us to be there."
