Notes: Many thanks to Kaze for plot help! The store is still based on a real-life place, but I had to use my imagination for the room beyond the red room.
Chapter Five
In complete irritation, Sephiroth started down the steps into the red room. At the bottom and to his right was a kimono on a dressform display. A parasol was cocked over the right shoulder. Seated on doll furniture around it were very old and worn dolls from the fifties or earlier. To its left, at the very back, was a case with more glasswares. No one was hiding back there.
Sephiroth turned to face the front. The rows of bookshelves stretched before him. Just to the side of the old dolls was the doorway leading into the main room. It also looked vacant, but it would be foolish to take chances.
"We'll split up," he directed. "Someone should search the main room as well as right outside."
"I'll go to the main room," Cloud volunteered, starting to move past Sephiroth.
"I'll go with you," Angeal said, moving to follow.
The brunette woman hesitated. "I should get back upstairs," she said slowly. "There's other customers. . . ."
"Right now, catching the troublemaker should be first priority," Sephiroth told her. He walked forward, keeping in the center of the row. Over against the wall to his left, near the corner, was a door he had not previously noticed. He increased his pace. "Where does that door lead?" he demanded.
Thorton blinked. "Just to some offices," he said, "such as mine. There is a way to get downstairs from there, but it's for employee use only. It should be locked unless you have a key."
Sephiroth weaved his way through the rows anyway. Arriving at the door, he grasped the handle and turned it. It clicked, swinging open to reveal the hallway beyond. Green eyes narrowed. Either the door had been left unlocked, the intruder had picked the lock . . . or the intruder had a key. But . . . did that mean it had been an attack from the inside?
"This is preposterous!" Thorton exclaimed, horrified as he peered from behind Sephiroth at the office doors. "Look, they're all wide open. I know the doors were closed when I left my office this morning."
Zack blinked. "So the guy came in here looking for something?"
Sephiroth was already advancing into the corridor. "Or he wanted to make it look that way to distract from his real purpose," he mused, glancing briefly into each room. There was not a place to hide in any of them. Nor was there a door to a staircase.
"Where's the entrance to the basement?" he asked.
"O-over here," the shaken Thorton replied, turning to the left and walking around a piece of wall that jutted into the aisle. His eyes widened as he grabbed at the doorknob on the other side. "Why, it's locked!" he exclaimed.
"Then the creep must've come this way!" Zack said. "But what the heck?! Why lock it up?"
Thorton fumbled with the items in his pockets. "I don't have my keys!" he cried in disbelief.
Sephiroth gave him a sharp look. "And you know they were in your pocket?" he asked.
Thorton started to nod, then stopped. "I . . . I don't know!" he said in mystification. "I was sure they were here, but now they aren't, and . . ." He ran a hand over his face. "Linda!" he said, addressing the young woman. "Do you have your keys?"
"Yes, sir," she confirmed, pulling out a keychain. Quickly she walked to the door, inserting a specific key and turning the lock. Pushing the door open, she frowned into the darkened stairwell. She reached inside, flipping on the light before beginning to descend. Sephiroth and the others followed suit.
"The light is supposed to be on all the time people are here," Thorton frowned. "Was it turned off to try to make us trip?!"
Sephiroth grunted in response. Anything was possible, he supposed--though he hoped that each of them would be smart enough to turn on the light before trying to go downstairs.
At the bottom was an empty office, the desk crowded with papers, books, and other assorted items. More books were on the floor in boxes. The office opened into a small room featuring what looked like children's volumes and serials, and through the open doorway beyond that, another desk was visible. A girl with straight, short brown hair had kicked back in a chair, involved in a novel.
"Well, she doesn't look like she just saw a weirdo go past," Zack blinked.
"In fact, she looks quite the opposite," Sephiroth said as he walked forward into the children's room.
At last the brown-haired girl started and looked up. "Hey!" she exclaimed, pushing her wide-rimmed glasses up on her nose. "How did you get in that way? It's for employees only."
"I let them come down here, Carol," Thorton said, stepping out from behind Sephiroth. "We've been having a terrible time upstairs! A strange man has been wandering all over the store, leaving confusion and destruction in his wake! And he keeps vanishing into thin air." He gestured wildly with his hands. Sephiroth merely crossed his arms, ignoring the over-dramatic display.
Carol frowned, setting her book on the desk. "Was he supposed to have come down here?" she asked. "Because I haven't seen anyone, not even the other staff."
"He unlocked the door to the offices and locked the door to the basement!" Thorton declared. "And he must have stolen my keys!"
"And he should have came down here within the last five minutes," Linda frowned. "Are you sure no one went past you? You get so wrapped up in your books that you usually end up ignoring everything else."
"Well, I didn't this time," Carol retorted. "I was paying attention."
Zack slapped his forehead. "So the guy just went poof?! How can he keep doing that?" He walked ahead, peering into a room on the other side of the desk. It was vacant.
"Are there any secret entrances or exits in the building?" Sephiroth asked, looking to Thorton.
The man looked bewildered. "Secret . . . of course not!" he declared. "I'd know if there were any."
Linda walked past them, turning to the right to look in the rooms accessible from the other end of the room they were in. When she was certain no one was looking, she placed her hand on the wall. With swift and silent precision, she removed what looked like a Post-It note.
"What's that?" Sephiroth immediately asked.
She froze. "It's . . ." She looked at it, as if seeing it for the first time. "Just a notice to call one of our dealers about something."
"That's an odd place for it," Sephiroth said.
She shrugged. "Yes, well . . . sometimes Carol sticks these in odd places," she said. Crumpling it, she slipped it into her pocket.
Sephiroth's eyes narrowed. For such a random note, she was going to great lengths to conceal it. Was she telling the truth about its contents?
Actually, when he thought about it, all that they had been going on for the mysterious man's second appearance was Linda's report. There had never been any sign of him since, save for the unlocked and locked doors that they had believed were indications of his presence. But there could be another explanation for those. And what if Linda had made up the story about the intruder upstairs? She might have been able to knock over at least one empty shelf, which could then in turn knock down all the rest. Then she could scream and pretend that someone had been there.
Of course, the problem was motive. Why would Linda make up such a thing?
Maybe he was completely incorrect with this line of thinking. But to solve any mystery, one had to consider every possible option. Later, he would need to find a way to get Thorton to give him more information on his employees. The man liked to chat, so it should not be such a difficult task. Thorton would probably not even realize that Sephiroth was counting them as suspects. He would be much more likely to give information if he did not realize those intentions.
Cloud and Angeal were having their own problems. As they entered the main room, no one was in sight except Vivalene, who was leaning against the glass counter and watching them. With her free hand, she flipped her red curls over her shoulder.
"Well," she purred, "so at last some of the men are coming back. It really was hard to concentrate on anything upstairs after all that dreadful racket."
"Did you see the guy?" Cloud asked.
She sighed. "No, I was over in the far corner, admiring the old jukebox. Quaint little thing that it was, it seemed to have selections from the sixties right on through to today. I was lamenting over it not being plugged in when I heard all those shelves collide and that woman scream. And I did hear footsteps running away."
Angeal frowned. "The jukebox was where we could see it when we arrived," he said. "I didn't see anyone standing by it."
"Well, as soon as I heard the footsteps, I hurried in their general direction," Vivalene smiled. "But I got distracted by some lovely old jewelry one of the vendors had. I was quite out of sight when you came upstairs. I heard you and your friends running down those other steps, and then I turned and went back down the front way to see if I could catch the disrupter coming into the main room. Unfortunately, I didn't see anyone." She pushed herself away from the counter. "But that doesn't matter now that you lovely men are here. Tell me, are you taken?" she purred at Cloud.
Poor Cloud immediately flamed red. "That's none of your business," he mumbled.
Vivalene was only further amused. "Oh darling, you're so cute when you're blushing," she declared.
"I'm not blushing," Cloud retorted.
In spite of himself, Angeal was a bit amused. But at the same time, he could scarcely comprehend the woman's brazen behavior. It was understandable why Thorton had said it was embarrassing for her to flirt with all the male customers.
At that moment the front doors opened as Sephiroth, Zack, and Thorton entered. Cloud whirled to look in astonishment.
"How did you guys get over there?" he demanded, walking over to the center aisle to meet them. "I thought you were in the red room."
"It's a long story," Zack sighed. "Basically, we went through a door at the back that led to some offices and also downstairs. It's an employees only thing."
"And no one was down there!" Thorton moaned. "Well, except for Carol. . . . But she didn't see anyone go past!"
"We went up the steps leading to the outside entrance," Sephiroth said. "No one was outside or in the alley."
Angeal crossed his arms. "What happened to the girl that was with you?" he asked.
"She went back up the way we came down," Zack said. "She was worried about getting to the top floor to see to any customers there."
"Hmm," Vivalene mused. "She certainly didn't seem in a hurry to assist me when I was there."
Thorton stared at her. "Linda always tries to make sure the customers' needs are seen to," he said. "Right now she was probably especially worried about those shelves . . . oh goodness!" he exclaimed. "Those shelves are heavy. It usually takes two men to get them up. Maybe she's planning to pick them up all by herself!"
"I'll go up and help," Zack volunteered.
"And you still need to investigate things in the storeroom," Sephiroth said, looking to Thorton.
Was it more than coincidence that the crash upstairs had come as soon as Thorton had been going to look through the storeroom? What if the spy had wanted to keep them away from there until something could be taken that Thorton would be able to identify? It was a possibility that would have to be seriously considered.
"I'll see you in a bit!" Zack now called with a wave, turning to hurry up the stairs.
"Yeah," Cloud answered, a bit distracted as he followed Thorton and the others to the storeroom. "See you."
Mainly he was distracted because Vivalene was inviting herself along. The coquettish redhead sashayed through their midst, staying close to Sephiroth as they made their way into the second room and then the third.
"You didn't ever mention your current status, darling," she purred.
"Unavailable," Sephiroth responded without hesitation. "That is not only my current status, but past and future as well."
"Oh darling," Vivalene moaned, "you crush me!"
Cloud exchanged a bemused look with Angeal. Until Vivalene left, or unless they could figure out if there was some deeper reason for her hounding them, time was going to crawl past.
Zack hopped up the last remaining steps to the top, landing with a satisfied thump on his feet. His hands flew to his hips as he surveyed the upstairs. It really was a neat room. He had not been able to properly admire it when they had come up a few minutes ago. To his right were a couple of couches, an end table, and some kind of old bookcase. In front of him to his left were the shelves filled with all sorts of interesting Earth memorabilia. And directly in front of him were the toppled shelves. Linda was indeed struggling to lift one on her own; one was already upright, but teetering dangerously as the second one stubbornly bumped against it.
"Whoa! Need some help?" Zack chirped, hurrying over to assist in sliding the second set of shelves away from the first.
Linda gave him a grateful look. "Thank you," she said. "I really should have waited for someone to help, I guess. I just don't like imposing on anyone. And Mr. Thorton's really not strong enough to lift these things."
Zack gripped it tight. "Well, with two of us working we should be able to get done pretty quick!" he chirped. "Ready?"
She nodded.
Together they were able to raise the heavy set of shelves. Placing it next to the one in front of it, they went to work on the third one. Before long all the shelves had been righted without incident.
"Thank goodness nothing was on them," Linda sighed. She gave a shudder as she looked towards the filled shelves along the wall. "So many valuables, in existence for decades, could have been broken just in a few seconds."
Zack gave a low whistle. "That wouldn't be easy to explain to your dealers," he said.
"To put it mildly." Linda ran a hand through her short hair. "And it wouldn't be cheap for us, either."
She gave Zack a curious look. "You said the man who did this sounded like someone who had been bothering you and your friends downstairs," she said. "Why did he find what you were saying to be so interesting?"
Zack gave a nonchalant shrug. "Dunno," he said. "If we ever catch up to the guy, I wanna ask him."
She reached out to straighten a shelf that was ajar. "I hope it doesn't sound like I'm prying, but what were you talking about?" she asked. "Since that man disrupted things all over the shop, including up here, I'd really like to know."
The problem was that Zack was not sure he should say, especially in light of Seph's suspicions about her. But on the other hand, Thorton would probably make some mention of the reason for the visit, and the police would be arriving soon--if they were not already downstairs by now. So maybe a partial truth would suffice.
"We came to tell him about his niece," he said at last. "Seph found her hurt last night, and today she disappeared from the hospital."
Linda frowned. "Why didn't the police tell Mr. Thorton last night?" she demanded. She sounded genuinely angry.
"They couldn't," Zack hurried to say. "She didn't have any ID on her! We just found some business card for this place when we went to poke around the hospital today, so we came here to see if anyone could tell us anything. And Thorton talked about his niece Jessie. She sure matches the description of the girl Seph found, at any rate. It'd be too much of a coincidence if it wasn't her."
The woman crossed her arms. "Why would she disappear from the hospital?" she exclaimed.
Well, Zack was certainly ending up spilling stuff he had not meant to say. But, he reflected, maybe this was good. He could keep monitoring her reactions. So far, she was a great actress if she was not really as concerned as she appeared.
"Somebody beat her up," he said, his voice and expression completely serious. "They wanted to make it look like a mugging, but it wasn't. See, Jessie found out some stuff that she wasn't supposed to know. And they didn't like it."
By all indications, Linda was shocked by what she was being told. Her eyes widened. "And now they've taken her to make sure they kill her?!" she cried. "What was it she found out?"
"Some . . . internal problems at our company," Zack said, proud of himself for the professional way of speaking. "We run Jenova Corp."
Her eyes flickered with surprise. "You do?" she said. "And you have time to go chasing down missing employees?"
Zack rubbed the back of his neck. "Well . . . not all the time," he admitted. "Actually, we've never had this problem before. But we've gotta do everything we can to find her, in case it's not too late!"
"So you can solve the problems at your company, I guess." Her voice had hardened. "Not because you're worried about her safety."
Lavender eyes flashed. Now she had hit a nerve. "Of course we're worried about her safety!" he snapped. "What kinda monsters do you think we are?"
She frowned further. ". . . I'm sorry," she acknowledged then. "I've . . . had some bad experiences with businessmen before. I just automatically think of big-name CEOs being concerned only for themselves and their neat little nest eggs. It isn't fair of me, I know, but old habits are hard to break."
Zack sighed, the fury fading. "Nah, it's okay," he said. "We've had our share of crummy business people too."
He blinked as a crumpled paper on the floor caught his eye. Was that the same one Seph had seen her putting into her pocket? He reached down with a casual air, glancing at the writing as he picked it up.
The diamond rose glass will have to wait.
The thing made no sense whatsoever. He looked over to Linda, waving the paper as he held it out. "Did you drop this?" he asked.
She looked over to him. Immediately her eyes widened. "I did!" she asserted. Somehow she managed to stay outwardly calm as she took it from him, though her eyes showed that she would rather have snatched it away.
Zack hooked his thumbs through his belt loops. "Is that important?" he asked, his voice still casual. "It looks more like something for the trashbin, being scrunched up like that."
She shrugged, replacing it in her pocket. "It's just something silly," she said. "I'll throw it away later."
"What's a diamond rose glass, anyway?" Zack asked, deciding to take a chance and be more bold. "It sounds kinda pretty."
"I don't know what it is," Linda answered. "I've never heard of one before."
"Yeah?" Zack blinked innocently. "I thought maybe it was something like what you've got here on display. There's all kinds of glasses." He looked to the goblets cut in blue, green, and violet tints.
"A diamond rose glass would probably be very expensive," Linda said in a noncommittal tone. "Anyway . . ." She gestured around the room. "You're welcome to explore, if you want. You might find something of interest, even without the rose glass."
Was she saying it like that to be facetious? It was hard to know. But Zack gave no indication that he wondered. "Sounds good to me!" he said. "Hey, do any of these dealers have any action figures? Uh . . . Cloud's adopted son really likes them," he hurried on. And it was true enough; Denzel was a big fan of action figures, especially very articulated and detailed ones. But Zack was a big fan too. Over the past few months, he had been fixing up a room to showcase his growing collection of Star Wars, superhero, and other figures. The others, especially Angeal, were amused by Zack's fascination. But Zack always insisted that he had never had anything like that at Gongaga and he was now experiencing his second childhood.
Linda smirked in amusement, seeming to understand Zack's quick cover-up. "One of our dealers has nothing but G.I. Joes," she said, "many of them still new and sealed in their packages. They're over in that corner." She gestured to the far right of the room.
Zack's eyes lit up. "Great!" he chirped, heading in that direction.
"And a lot of collectors are adults like you," Linda went on, still smirking. "You don't have to hide it. I think you're the first big businessman here who's been interested, though."
"Good for me, then!" Zack declared.
It was heaven upon arriving at the G.I. Joe corner. Boxes upon boxes of fairly recent Joes, mostly out of print, lined the shelves. Using his genuine desire to browse as a partial cover, Zack kept an eye on Linda as he searched through the toys. For a moment Linda observed him, still amused as she did so, but then she half-turned away. Of all things, she was gazing at the glass display. And the note had found its way out of her pocket. She fingered it absently without looking at it, staring off at the wall beyond the glasses. Then she shook her head, slipping the crumpled Post-It note back into her pocket.
Zack frowned, looking down at the figure that had found its way into his hands. Something was up with that girl and her note. If only it would be easier to figure out what.
The police, meanwhile, had indeed arrived downstairs. But questioning Thorton and Carol did not help them learn anything new, and Vivalene insisted she knew nothing more than "what the nice boys had said." After journeying upstairs and speaking to Linda and Zack, the officers opted to leave--though they did have one possible, worthwhile clue. Thorton had provided them with a picture of Jessie, hoping that it would help them find her. He also gave one to Sephiroth.
The storeroom had also been examined, but as expected, Thorton had not found anything strange or out of place. The half-filled boxes of books, he had explained, were because some of them seemed defective and he was still trying to decide on their reduced price. It sounded logical enough, so Sephiroth and the others had not queried further.
"Where on earth is Dave?" the man fretted as Sephiroth and the others prepared to leave shortly afterwards. "I thought for certain he would be back before you left."
"You said he was just picking up an order?" Zack blinked, shifting the bag of G.I. Joe purchases in his hand.
"That's right," Thorton nodded. "What if he's gone missing now too?!"
"Did you try calling his cellphone?" Angeal asked.
"I did, but it's just on voicemail," Thorton sighed. "He always does that when he's going to get something. He doesn't think the meetings should be interrupted by phone calls."
"He's got a point, but what if it's important?" Cloud frowned.
Zack nodded. "Yeah, like needing him to get something else?"
Thorton ran a hand through his hair. "He's supposed to check his voicemail before he leaves to come back," he said. "So I guess all I can do is keep waiting."
"Do you honestly think something may have happened to him?" Sephiroth asked.
"I don't know anything anymore!" Thorton exclaimed. "Burt always overreacts and I tell him not to, but now after all this, I'm the one feeling hysterical!"
"Hey, you've got good reason," Zack said.
Sephiroth folded his arms, looking to Thorton. "You also said that Jessie didn't get along well with Dave," he said. "She wouldn't have told him about her problems, would she?"
Thorton looked bewildered. "I don't think so," he said. "Not unless he caught her in the act of talking to Marcel or something and she felt forced to tell him."
"Or unless she actually felt that he would be an ally, in spite of their disagreements," Sephiroth said.
"That seems so strange to think about," Thorton frowned.
"Where was he going to pick up the order?" Cloud asked.
"It was . . . oh, I don't remember that either," Thorton sighed. "If he doesn't come soon, and I can ever remember where he was going, maybe I'll drive out and see. I might even find Jessie there, too."
"Don't do anything foolish," Sephiroth retorted. "If there is trouble, and you walk into it, you wouldn't stand a chance."
"Call us if he doesn't come back!" Zack put in.
Thorton blinked. "Are you sure?" he wondered. "I don't like to get you into danger."
"We're already in it!" Zack said. "And we're good at fighting!" He exchanged glances with the others, who nodded. They needed to follow up every lead possible to solve this mystery. If Dave really did disappear, it would seem too much of a coincidence.
"Do you trust all of your employees?" Sephiroth asked now. It was a very blunt question, but he did not care. His original plan had been to be more subtle, but by now he had gotten fed up with all that was happening. And he had decided that Thorton should be aware of any possibility that his employees were up to something, even if he did not want to consider it. There was also the chance that if Dave had vanished, it was not because he had been caught by their enemies. He might be one of them. And Linda's behavior had been odd too, especially about that note.
When Sephiroth thought about it, there was also how Carol had insisted she had not seen anyone. That still seemed preposterous. Someone surely must have gone past, even if it had been an inside job. Possibly it could have been Carol herself. Linda could have knocked down the shelves while Carol had unlocked and locked doors, safely retreating to her desk before anyone came down to investigate.
Then there was the problem of the missing keys. They could have really been taken by an outside source, but on the other hand, an employee could have taken them to give that illusion.
"Of course I trust them!" Thorton exclaimed. "They've been nothing but loyal, hardworking people. I don't know where this shop would be without them." He tapped the edge of a trading card on the glass counter. "Carol was Jessie's friend from college. She was looking for a job a couple of years ago and Jessie recommended her to come here. Dave was an ex-boyfriend of Linda's sister."
Just as Sephiroth had hoped, Thorton was becoming chatty about them. "And he came here on Linda's advice?" he asked.
"Something like that," Thorton agreed.
"How did Linda get here?" Zack asked.
Thorton leaned back, his card-tapping actions growing more agitated. "Oh . . . she'd fallen on hard times," he said, his tone growing vague. "I've known her since she was a lot younger and offered her a job here."
"Hard times?" Zack repeated. Instantly he thought of what she had said about selfish businessmen. Could some past experience with an unkind company have had anything to do with her outlook?
"Yes," Thorton nodded. "But you'd really need to ask her about that. Suffice it to say that I trust her and the others completely!"
Sephiroth nodded as well. Outwardly it would be best to agree at this point. But inwardly he could not help thinking that none of them could be removed from the suspect list yet.
When they finally arrived at Jenova Corp, Sephiroth promptly went to work looking up Jessie Thorton on the supercomputer, while Cloud investigated Marcel. Zack and Angeal stood by, observing the results.
"She isn't here," Sephiroth grunted after a moment. "They have deleted her file."
"Here's a Marcel," Cloud announced. But then he stared in disbelief. "Now it's gone!" he exclaimed.
"Gone?!" Zack ran over to look. File not found flashed across the screen.
"Someone's in the database right now," Cloud frowned. "They must have deleted it right while I was looking at it."
"But why did it take them this long?" Angeal's eyes narrowed. "It's almost as if they know we learned about Marcel, whereas before they didn't think we would find out about him."
"The eavesdropper must have heard us talking to Thorton about it," Sephiroth said, highly irritated by this twist.
Cloud leaned back. "There's only one thing I caught before it went bye-bye," he said.
"'Bye-bye'?" Sephiroth inserted.
Cloud ignored him. "I saw his address," he said, grabbing a piece of paper to scribble it down.
"Yes!" Zack pumped the air with a fist. "So now what?" he wondered. "Are we going there to check it out?"
Sephiroth nodded, standing up from his desk. "It's our best lead at the moment," he said.
"And the adventure continues," Angeal said, getting up as well.
The address given was in a lower middle-class area of the city. The homes were pleasant and well-kept, with children playing down most of the streets. The block where Marcel was supposed to live was not an exception. Sephiroth swerved to avoid a group of children running across the middle of the road, the car's tires screeching in protest. His eyes narrowed as he watched the youth. They seemed to be heedless and uncaring of the danger, yelling to each other as they tossed a ball around.
Zack rolled down the window. "Hey!" he called. "You kids are gonna get hurt if you're not careful!"
One of them waved, but they were too occupied with their game to really listen. Zack sighed, slumping back against the seat.
"Their parents should teach them better," Sephiroth grunted.
"Sometimes not even that helps," Cloud commented, crossing his arms.
"They'll learn in time," Angeal said.
"Yeah, but what'll have to happen first?" Zack propped himself up on the inside of the door, idly staring out at the houses they were passing.
Suddenly he blinked, sitting up straight. "What happened to that place?!" he exclaimed, pointing to the skeleton of a building on the corner. "It looks like the whole place burned!"
"It does," Angeal said, his eyes narrowing. There was barely anything left of even the frame. The already dilapidated house had crumbled under the pressure of the hungry flames. And whereas the other yards had snow, this one had only the scorched and dead grass. Any snow had melted away during the course of the fire.
A sinking suspicion began to grow in Cloud's heart. He took out the piece of paper, looking at the scribbled address and then up at the surrounding houses.
"Great," he muttered.
Sephiroth grunted. "I'm guessing that was Marcel's house," he said.
Cloud nodded. "Another dead end." He slumped into the seat, staring at the wreckage. Helplessness and discouragement began to wash over him. Of course something had to go wrong again. They had been so close! His eyes narrowed in frustration.
"Hey," Zack spoke up then, "someone's over there!"
Instantly all eyes turned to look. Sure enough, a mysterious figure was disappearing around a sagging corner. And it looked like whoever it was had on a dark ski jacket and wool hat.
"The eavesdropper!" Zack exclaimed.