Nolan put his hand over her mouth. “And we don’t want them to find us,” he whispered. “Not unless you’re prepared to give up that MacGuffin.”
Trudy shook her head, and he took his hand away and bent to her ear again. “Then we should hide it here. They’re going to find us, and we can tell them the box is here and let them spend the rest of their lives looking for it—”
Trudy shook her head again. “No.”
He slapped his hand over her mouth and whispered, “Listen. I’m not a toy collector, I’m an undercover cop.”
Trudy pulled back, trying to see him in the dark. “I don’t believe it,” she whispered back. “An undercover cop who teaches Chinese lit?”
“I’m a well-educated undercover cop.”
“This is your explanation.” She shook her head and started to move away, and he pulled her back.
“Look,” he whispered in her ear, “we knew the bad guys were operating from the university lit department, and I really do have a degree in Chinese. And some literature. Hey, I’m a good teacher.”
Actually, he was, Trudy remembered. That was another thing that had made her want to go out with him, competence. And now he was telling her that there was a toy-theft ring operating out of the lit department. “‘The bad guys.’ Is that really cop talk?”
“It’s too dark to show you my ID. Want to feel my badge?”
“You have to be kidding me.”
“Your buddy Reese—”
“He’s not my buddy,” Trudy said, and then she heard Reese call her name from the center space of the warehouse and stepped closer to Nolan.
“Listen to me,” Nolan said. “They’re toy hijackers and they want that doll. If things get bad, give it to them.”
Toy hijackers? “No.”
She heard him draw in his breath in exasperation, but she didn’t care.
“This is for Leroy,” she whispered. “His rat daddy ran off with the rat nanny, and his mother is in meltdown, but he knows Santa is bringing him a MacGuffin. He’s getting it.”
“Oh, Christ,” Nolan said under his breath. “I’ll get him another one, I swear. Just give them that one so we can walk out of here alive.”
“That’s not very heroic.”
“I’ll be heroic when you’re not here,” Nolan whispered. “Now I just want you out in one piece.”
“I’m not giving up Leroy’s Mac. What’s your Plan B?”
Nolan sighed his exasperation and then took her arm and drew her deeper into the shelves. “We hide.”
“Hide?” Trudy whispered back. “How—”
“Shut up,” he whispered, and she did, following him deeper into the darkness until they came to a wall. He took her hand and led her along the wall until he found a staircase, and then he took her slowly up the stairs, testing each tread to make sure it didn’t creak, which wasn’t really necessary since “The Little Drummer Boy” had given way to Brenda Lee singing “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” making her usual Christmas fortune in residuals.
When they reached the top, they were on a walkway, looking out over the warehouse beneath the windows of a darkened office. Nolan tugged her arm and she sank down with him on the metal platform as silently as possible, her shopping bags rustling.
“Now what?” she whispered.
“Now we wait for backup.”
“What backup?”
“The backup I sent the cabbie for. Shhhh.”
He was peering over the rail, but they were too far away to see into the lighted part of the warehouse.
“You’re really a cop?” Trudy whispered. “Why do I find that hard to believe?”
“I don’t know,” Nolan whispered back. “Why are you holding on to that damn doll when that could get us out of here?”
“What if you’re not a cop? What if Reese is your accomplice and you’re working together to get the Mac from me?”
“For our mutual nephew?” Nolan’s whisper sounded a lot tougher now, but that might just have been the exasperation in his voice. “Has it occurred to you that you’re trapped in a deserted warehouse with a bunch of thugs?”
“Yes,” Trudy whispered back. “Well, no. For all I know, that’s Reese’s glee club out there. Maybe it’s his bowling night. They’re all wearing the same jacket.”
“Be serious, Trudy. You’re risking your life for a doll so your nephew won’t be disappointed on Christmas Day in spite of the fact that his father is gone and his mother is in a gin coma.”
“Hey.”
“Shhhh. He’s already disappointed, Tru. His family’s gone. Give Reese the doll. When he makes a run for it, we’ll arrest him. He won’t get away with it.”
Trudy pushed him away. “First, my sister is not in a gin coma. Second, his family is not gone; he has me and his mother when she sobers up. Third, if I give Reese this doll and you arrest him, the doll becomes evidence and I never see it again. So no. Leroy is going to get this doll tomorrow morning. He is going to believe in Santa, since he can’t believe in men or nannies. When does your backup get here?”
“I don’t think you can indict all men because of one rat daddy.”