As Jackie had laid out in the plan, Megan was carrying a magazine.
“It doesn’t matter which magazine,” Jackie had answered when Megan asked. “Just something that Andersona and Ethan would believe you’d be reading.”
She chose Entertainment Weekly. Megan was smart enough to know how people saw her, and she knew this fit with their image. Plus, she liked looking at the pictures of the celebrities, especially the women. Sometimes, after carefully studying their every detail, she adjusted her own fashion choices to be more “Hollywood.”
“Andersona,” she asked, “are you okay?”
Andersona looked up. It took her a moment to comprehend that Megan was standing there.
“What do you want?”
“You just look sad is all.”
“Sad?” Andersona barked. “Why would I be sad? You, your mother, and your sister disappear, and I get blamed. I’m going to lose my job. Just like Jo Garvin. Just like lots of people.” She turned back to her coffee.
“I’m sorry,” Megan said, even though she really wasn’t. “But I think maybe I have something that can make you feel better.”
Andersona glanced at Megan. “I doubt it.”
“Well”—Megan paused, like she had rehearsed in the car—“what if I told you that my mom and sister had kidnapped me and forced me to leave the house with them?”
“I’m sorry,” Andersona said, the fog of self-pity starting to lift. “Can you say that again?”
“I can do better. I can say it on camera.”
***
Jackie waited for Megan in one of the blind spots identified by the team in Azeroth. It was a corner of the dining room that lay adjacent to the kitchen. Her palms were sweaty and her teeth were starting to chatter with anticipation. She didn’t have a good reason to be just standing there against the wall; someone was bound to walk by sooner or later and ask what she was doing. She would either have to make up an excuse on the fly, or go back to her room.
She was holding a book in her hand, Moby-Dick, with the insides partially hollowed out. She had used a different blind spot, one in the unfinished basement where hardly anyone ever went, to carve out the pages. It was a receptacle waiting for a hidden treasure.
Finally, after what felt like a week and a half, Jackie heard Megan approaching. She listened as her sister stopped and exchanged a pleasantry with some member of the crew.
C’mon, Jackie thought, just hurry up and get here.
Her wish was granted a moment later when Megan rounded the corner with methodical and deliberate purpose. She casually held her magazine out, like she had practiced, and let the iPhone slide into Jackie’s outstretched hand. If they’d done it right, the camera would have missed the entire thing. Jackie waited a full two minutes before stepping back into the frame, clutching the book to her chest.
She had to force her feet to move, one after the other, toward her father’s office. She couldn’t believe their luck. Stealing Andersona’s phone was by far the riskiest part of the entire scheme, and Megan had executed it perfectly.
The plan was pretty straightforward. Lay the magazine on top of the phone before the interview, and take both the magazine and the phone on the way out of the room. They all knew that Andersona would spend another few minutes filming reaction shots to edit into the interview later, leaving plenty of time to give Megan a head start.
Jackie entered Jared’s office/hospital room, nodding at Sister Benedict and one of the nurses as she did.
“Okay if I read to my father?” she asked.
Jackie did a double take when she saw the Sister talk into her wrist as if she were a Secret Service agent. The nun was also, Jackie noticed, wearing an earpiece. The Sister spoke again and held her finger to her ear, listening to a response. She nodded to herself and then turned her attention back to Jackie.
“It would be better if you read him the Bible,” the Sister answered.
“This was his favorite book,” Jackie said, holding it up for inspection. Hiding the contraband in plain sight was a specific suggestion from the Azeroth guild. No one ever thinks that they can be harmed by what they can easily see, they had told her.
The Sister squinted at the title and grunted. She turned back to a conversation she was having with the nurse, only now they spoke in hushed tones so Jackie couldn’t hear. Jackie tuned them out and set her mind to the task at hand.