“By the way, just as an aside to all this, Miss Petrie passed the security check the Medical Registry did on her when she signed on with them. She has a clean record as far as their records go. Not even one complaint. I checked her driving record, no tickets, no points against her license.”

Pearl took a page from Kathryn’s playbook and banged her fist down on the table. “That little sneak!” she bellowed. “Now what?” she demanded.

“You tell me,” Abner shot back. “I’m just a hacker. What you do with the information is up to you. I laid it all on your doorstep.”

“This might sound like a stupid question, but what does she buy on her credit cards?” Alexis asked.

Abner laughed. “The same thing all women buy. Clothes, shoes, handbags, cosmetics, and she buys a lot of La Natural products. At six hundred dollars a pop for some kind of magic eye cream that will reduce fine lines and wrinkles.” Isabelle pelted him with a spitball. He laughed out loud.

“Send that all to Charles, and when he comes back, he can print us all a copy for our files,” Annie said.

“Next!” Myra said.

“I think we should pay a visit to In the Know and see what we can pick up there,” Maggie said. “How about if Nikki and Kathryn show up and say they have a sighting and are there to claim the prize. Its headquarters are in Alexandria. They can be there and back in a few hours, depending on how talkative the editor in chief is. If they don’t get anywhere, then Ted, Espinosa, Dennis, and I can take a crack at them. Hey, you could do it right after lunch.”

Nikki looked at Kathryn, who grinned. “Let’s do it!” Kathryn laughed out loud as she bobbed her head up and down.

“Someone call Mr. Snowden. We should have heard something by now. Unless he called Charles personally,” Myra said.

“I’ll call him. He hates me,” Jack said. “I won’t let him slough me off either.” The others sat back and listened to the one-sided dialogue that made some of them titter. The end result was Miss Petrie, according to Avery Snowden, left for Europe last night. And the reason he knows this is because he ran into Miss Petrie’s neighbor, a studly young man who works out religiously at Gold’s Gym who said he was house sitting until she got back. He said it was an arrangement they’ve had for a few years. He also said she moved her trip up early this summer because she normally didn’t go till September. Said she needed a break from the horrible humidity and foul weather. Whatever the reason, she’s gone. At least for now.”

“Abner, dear, is it possible for you to . . . um . . . freeze Ms. Petrie’s brokerage account?”

Abner smiled. “Is that a question or a suggestion?”

“Both!” Myra snapped, before Annie could get her tongue to work.