We began to walk back down the trail towards the car park with the two sisters. It wasn't long before Mike had one girl hanging off each arm. They were competing for his attention! I was a bit miffed as they were totally ignoring me and in the past I had a lot more success with the ladies than Mike did. Perhaps there was something about the elixir. The pixie woman had made her sale. There was no reason for the sisters to feign attraction to Mike any longer.
I looked at the small bottle of elixir I had placed in my pocket. It had a cork stopper in it. I removed the cork and had a sniff. There was a barely discernible smell. Not unpleasant but nothing extraordinary about it. The base of the cork was damp I touched it to my finger then touched my finger to my tongue. It had quite a tang. No wonder the woman had suggested I mix it with a drink. I stoppered the bottle once more and hurried to catch Mike and the girls.
Things changed. Suddenly the two girls regained awareness of my presence. The brunette Sabrina extracted herself from Mike's arm and entwined her arm with mine. She told me "I am so grateful that you are walking us back to our car. It is most considerate of you Officer Chad. Do you knock off duty at the same time as Mike?"
This girl was ridiculously attractive. Her only rival was her blonde sister. I truthfully told her "I do. We knock off at 5.30"
"In that case would you like to ask me out to dinner? We could go on a double date?"
Of course I did. "I most certainly would"
The girl just giggled with delight in response and gripped my arm tighter.
We were more than halfway back to the car park when I noticed a subtle change in attitude by both girls. Sabrina disengaged herself from my arm and had a vaguely puzzled look on her face. Cassandra the blonde was still walking beside Mike but her incessant giggling had stopped.
When we finally arrived at the car park, Cassandra stopped dead in her tracks. She turned to her sister with an alarmed look on her face and asked for a word in private. Was their car missing?