"Thought you said that was dumb," Vicki said, excited, and Reheema popped up and switched on the ignition.

"It's dumb when you do it, not when I do it." Reheema maneuvered the Sunbird quickly out of the space.

"Go!" Vicki said, needlessly, because they were already driving down the block, taking a right at the corner. "We gotta stay with him. We can't lose him."

"We won't lose him," Reheema said, bearing down. "I never lost a man I wanted to keep."

Later, after having followed the white Neon through noontime rush hour into the city, past buses and cop cars and snow plows and salt trucks, then finally out to South Philly, Vicki and Reheema sat parked at the drug dealer's first stop. A Toys "R" Us.

"I can't believe this!' Vicki said, edging up in her seat. Five minutes ago, Browning and his pal had left the Neon, grabbed one of the shopping carts, and wheeled it into the store. "What kind of drug dealer goes shopping? At Toys ‘R' Us?"

"Prices are good." Reheema laughed. "Maybe he needs a board game."

"He's supposed to be a drug dealer!" Vicki fairly shouted, then caught herself before she cursed. She had been raised better than to use profanity. But not better than to have three orgasms. Her frustration boiled over. "Could this man's day be more boring?"

Reheema was laughing. "I don't know, the wife's at yoga class and he's at Toys ‘R' Us, doin' the shoppin'. You ask me, that boy needs a marriage counselor. He's whipped."

"This would be funny if it weren't such a waste of time." Vicki sat watching the entrance. The Toys "R" Us anchored the huge strip mall, which drew customers from everywhere in the city. The parking lot, two city blocks long, was crowded with cars and minivans looking for spaces. Women and kids walked this way and that with strollers and shopping carts. Vicki sighed. "How will we ever learn something about Browning? His supplier, or even his connection to you?"

Reheema stopped laughing. "What do you think is the connection to me?"

"If you don't recognize Browning, I don't know. Unless he knows you and you don't know him."

"Only one way to find out." Reheema slipped off her sunglasses. "I'm goin' shoppin'."

"What do you mean?" Vicki felt panicky. This wasn't in the Master Plan or the New Master Plan. "What are you gonna do?"

"Walk by the man, see if he knows me, see if he says anything to me." Reheema opened the door, and a cold blast of air blew inside the car. "You're not the only one gettin' impatient here."

"I don't know." Vicki couldn't process it fast enough. "He might be dangerous."

"In a toy store?" Reheema climbed out of the driver's seat and shut the door.

"Wait, be careful," Vicki called after her, opening her passenger-side window, but Reheema was already striding away from the Sunbird, making a beeline for the Toys "R" Us entrance. She made a tall, dark silhouette with the knit cap, pea coat, and jeans, and in the clunky Timberlands looked almost like a man from the back, but for the sexy swing of her walk. She waded through the moms and kids, grabbed a shopping cart, and wheeled it inside the store. Vicki reached for the camera, to watch her better through the telephoto lens.

Rring! Rring! Vicki jumped at the sound. Her cell phone. She reached quickly into her backpack, resting on the Sun-bird's blue shag, and pulled out the cell. The electronic display read DAN. Good and bad. She had to get it or he'd be suspicious. Also, she was crazy about him. She juggled the camera to flip the phone open. "Dan, I'm crazy about you but I can't talk now." "What are you wearing?" "No time for that. I have to go." "Listen, last night was-" "The best night of my life, but I have to go." Vicki kept watching through the camera, in close-up. "Hold on, I have a question. Did you take your clothes off the kitchen floor and wear them again?"

Uh. "No, I took them to the dry cleaners." Shoppers with their kids in hand moved in and out of the glass entrance doors of the Toys "R" Us. No Reheema.

"You dry-clean your jeans?" "Sometimes, and I have to go." "Where are you?" "Shopping." "Where?" "Neiman Marcus." "In the suburbs?" Dan hmmmed. "But your car is still in the garage." "A friend picked me up." "I don't believe you, my sweet. What are you really up to?" Busted. "Okay, it's a surprise. A surprise for you. Now tell me you're okay so I can hang up." "I'm better than okay. I'm getting divorced." "Already?" Vicki watched the store entrance through the camera. An old man in a walker went in, but no sign of Reheema.

"I signed the papers and messengered them to her lawyer, and she's agreed to give me Zoe. She's having his maid drop the cat off. Also, that meeting is today, at five, with the FBI and ATF, about Morty's investigation."

The meeting. Vicki had forgotten, with all that was going on. "I wish I could be there."

"I'll tell you what happens. I may get to go."

"Really?" Vicki eyed the Toys "R" Us entrance, distracted. Two little boys were having a tug-of-war with a new scooter. "Then you have to tell me everything."

"Of course. Be home after, okay?"

It had a nice ring. "Light a fire under 'em." Vicki figured it sounded like what she would say if she were at Neiman Marcus. "I have to go. Call you later. Bye."

She flipped the phone closed, set it down, and focused her attention on the store entrance, through the telephoto. Her heart was thumping again, but she didn't know if it was true love or true anxiety. If Browning knew Reheema, would he hurt her? Vicki put a hand on the door handle, tempted to go after her, but stopped herself. Vicki's picture had been all over the news, and she could be recognized, even in the sunglasses and Phillies hat. And Browning wouldn't hurt Reheema in a public place, would he? Still, if Reheema wasn't out of the store in five more minutes, Vicki was going in.

She kept her attention on the entrance, taking a few photos of the scene. A salesclerk in a blue apron collected shopping carts from the lot. A white work van slowed near the entrance, waiting for a parking space. A man and his wife, huddled together against the cold, entered the store with two kids, followed by a woman with three kids, holding hands in a daisy chain. And in the next minute, through the telephoto, Vicki recognized Reheema, mostly because of her distinctive walk.

"Yay!" Vicki yelled in the car, and then she couldn't believe her eyes: Reheema was leaving the store with Browning!

What? Vicki kept her eye plastered to the camera and took a series of photos, in amazement. As they walked, Reheema was putting on her cap against the cold, smiling, and Browning was smiling, too, carrying a plastic bag of red-and-white Huggies. The two of them were talking like old friends, and on Browning's other side walked his driver, also carrying a bag of Huggies.

Reheema was not only safe, she had scored! Vicki didn't understand it, but shot another picture. Did Browning know Reheema or had she struck up a conversation with him inside the store? How did they get to be friends so fast? What the hell was going on? This wasn't in any Plan at all.

Suddenly Vicki heard an earsplitting pop pop pop from the store entrance. She blinked, uncomprehending. She knew that sound. It was unmistakable.

Gunfire.