“All right,” Sable said. “Moment of truth.”
Cairo picked up the hotel phone, flipped the yellowed calling card over, and dialed the number she’d jotted down ten years ago. Sable leaned in close to hear since they weren’t going to risk putting the call on speaker and being overheard.
The phone rang once. Then again. Then the click of connection.
“Good morning, Miss Laurendeau’s residence,” a woman’s voice answered. Cairo knew this woman was definitely not Bijou. Bijou had a comically affected transatlantic accent. There was still a remote possibility that Bijou still lived there, if this woman was just answering her phone.
“Hello. May I speak to Bijou please?” Cairo chanced.
The woman on the other end was silent for a moment, then said, “May I ask who’s calling?”
“Oh, my apologies,” Cairo said, having forgotten to introduce herself before . “This is Cleo.”
“Cleo…?” the woman trailed, prompting for a last name.
“Just Cleo.”
“I see. May I put you on hold?” the woman asked.
“Yes, of course.”
They waited. A moment later, an older woman’s voice asked, “Hello? Bijou speaking.”
Sable nearly choked in surprise at how this woman just answered so readily to her codename, not knowing who was on the other end of the line.
“Uh, hello,” Cairo said, a bit startled herself. But this was Bijou. One did not forget a fake accent like that. “You may not remember me, but we met several years ago on a job. You gave me your calling card-”
“Oh, I never forget a face, darling,” Bijou said.
“It was pretty dark at the time,” Cairo said, positive that Bijou couldn’t possibly remember her.
“We met at Mimi Vanderhausen’s, correct? In 2009? We were… admiring her collection of Fabergé?”
Cairo leaned back and stared at the phone for a second. “You remember that?”
“Darling, you scared the hell out of me!” Bijou explained. “It’s not often I meet colleagues while I’m working. Let alone someone quite so imposing. I thought you were on Mimi’s security team until I saw you had a mask on too. So how have you been, dear? Are you still working with the Syndicate?”
“Actually, that’s why I called,” Cairo said. “My partner and I were thinking about leaving, striking out on our own. But we don’t really know anyone outside of the Syndicate. We were hoping you might be able to help us.”
“Oh dear,” Bijou sighed.
“Oh dear?” Cairo asked.
“I’ll help as much as I can, of course, but I definitely think you’re in for an uphill battle. There’s not a lot of unsigned talent left anymore.”
“Surely we can scare up two crewmates,” Cairo said. “We’re really more worried about finding a launderer for now. We’re sitting on a pretty big pile of dirty clothes and we don’t have anything to wear, if you understand me.”
“Hmmm. I don’t know any launderers personally, but perhaps my fence does- Actually, a marvelous thought has just occurred to me,” Bijou cooed. “Yesterday, he told me about this friend of his who’s just come off a long-term engagement too and is looking for work. You should see about meeting him.”
“Oh, uh, we’re really doing more of a feasibility study at this point, not conducting interviews,” Cairo tried to defer.
“Oh darling, you really must,” Bijou said. “You’re going to find that the world outside the Syndicate is very small. You’ll want to have as many options as possible if you want to have any hope of making this work.”
“I don’t know. I really would rather discuss the logistics before we get anyone else involved.”
“Trust me, you’ll want to meet him. He’s in Las Vegas right now for a car show. Go! You’ll have fun, take a nice little vacation before you start this new crew.” Sable perked up at the idea of going to Las Vegas. “In the meantime, I’ll speak with my fence and we’ll see who we can find with availability. After you speak with his friend, come up to New York and we’ll figure the rest out.”
Cairo didn’t think now was a good time for a vacation and she didn’t want to involve any more people in this conspiracy than was necessary. Sable watched Cairo’s face to see what she was thinking and didn’t like the conclusions she seemed to be reaching. Sable grabbed the notepad and the pen off the nightstand and scribbled out a note.
It’s my birthday next week.
She held the note up and did a seated we’re-going-to-Vegas shimmy because how could one argue with that?
One couldn’t and so Cairo relented, giving an annoyed nod, but she smirked when Sable hopped up from the bed and did a silent celebratory happy dance. At the very least, they’d be able to launder a little of the cash themselves through the casinos to fund a decent time.
“All right, we’ll go to meet this guy,” Cairo said into the phone.
“Fabulous!” Bijou said. “I’ll get the details and call you back.”
“Thank you so much for all your help, Bijou,” Cairo said.
“Think nothing of it, darling. I’m always happy to help someone get out of a bad contract.”
Cairo hung up the phone.
“Vegas, vegas, veeegas!” Sable sang as she did her Vegas dance.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Cairo said in mock-annoyance. It was convenient though. She hadn’t actually known it was Sable’s birthday. They’d never exchanged gifts or acknowledged birthdays the whole time they’d been working together. Now that Cairo thought about it, it was sort of strange.
“How come you’ve never mentioned your birthday before?” Cairo asked.
Sable stopped dancing and stared at Cairo for a second before letting out a dismissive “pfft”.
“It wasn’t that big a deal in my family, that’s all,” Sable said. “Grew up poor, you know? We’d have cake and all, but it just wasn’t that different from any other day so I don’t think about it, I guess.”
“Well, what do you wanna do on your Las Vegas birthday vacation then?” Cairo said, getting out her cellphone. She ran a search for Las Vegas attractions. “Look, we could see some sort of male revue called Thunder Down Under. Oooh! Or – well, I know it’s your birthday, but maybe we could see The Titanic Exhibit too.”
“Hey, it’s a vacation for both of us,” Sable said. “If you wanna see something boring, we can see something boring.”
This story was part of my 2019 TRL event.
Either Cleo or Dixie suddenly discover that it is the other’s birthday. Maybe they make a ahem subtle mention of it because they’re expecting a gift, or maybe the info is gleaned accidentally. Regardless, a scramble ensues to throw something suitable together.
-Kit-Cat Clock
Comment