False Pretenses

Part 27

Chapter 26

George winced as I stared at him with a blank expression on my face.  “What do you mean; he went after the real Dorothy?”

“Exactly what I said,” he mumbled with only a small amount of apology in his voice.  “He knows that she’s creating trouble where you shouldn’t have any. If we don’t find her now, they’ll be a chance that Dorothy’s father will send you away.  If that happens, we’ll never be able to find out exactly what Mitch is up to.”

Turning my back on him, I walked towards the dresser.  “Where did you send him?”

I could hear him moving around behind me, grabbing the plate he had tossed on the chair earlier and then walking towards Dorothy’s closet.  “Places nearby the club they took pictures of her at.  Someone else must have seen her, and until dark, going to the club would be a little suspicious.”

“A little suspicious is a man walking around asking about a missing girl who hasn’t been reported missing.”

A small chuckle sounded behind me, and even though I was meant to be angry with him, I let a small laugh of my own escape.  “I’m not that stupid.”

Turning back towards him, I rose an eyebrow at the dress he held in his hands.  “The level of your stupidity is debatable.”

“For when you go to the club,” he answered, while tossing the dress in my direction.  “But, if you plan on helping us track down the real Dorothy, it’ll be better if you don’t look like her.”

I caught the dress in my hands, before glancing down at the nice warm outfit I had pulled out only moments before.  “You think by showing more skin, they won’t think I’m Dorothy?”

“No, I think nobody could mistake you for that woman.  I’m surprised you’ve been able to stay undercover for this long.”  He shook his head at me with a slightly confused look on his face.  “Mitch has never done something like this.  We start as a new person.  Sure, we might have a fabricated background that makes us someone else, but we never try to take someone else’s place.”

“Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” I asked as I set the dress down and put the other clothes back into the dresser.  “Turn your back.”  He sent me a half smile, and I knew what he was thinking.  “I don’t care if you’ve seen it all.  I’m still pissed at you.”

A dramatic sigh escaped his lips as he turned around.  “I don’t understand while you’re mad to begin with.  I’m letting you help.”

“Letting me help?”  Balling up my shirt, I threw it at the back of his head, but before it could hit him, he turned at caught it.  His eyes stayed connected with mine, but by the smile on his face, I knew he had expected my actions.  “You’re a perve.”

He shrugged, not denying my words.  “I still don’t understand why you’re angry.”

Shifting on my feet, I eased the pants down my hips.  “You weren’t here last night, George.  There’s something else going on, and I have a feeling that Mitch knows more than what I’m telling him.”

“You think he has someone else on the inside besides you?”

“Maybe,” I answered with a shrug as I stepped into the dress.  Pulling it up my body, I turned my back while lifting my hair.  “Or maybe he’s known something from the beginning.  The longer that I’m here, the more that I realize Mitch knew way more than he briefed me on.”

The dress tightened around my body before he tapped my shoulder. “Done,” he said before handing me something over my shoulder.  “You think he sent you in to what?”