She stared at him for a long moment. Surely, he had to know this wasn’t working. Surely. But no. The infuriating man was actually nodding! Nodding! Then he gazed at her with that superior look in his eyes and Laurie felt her anger drain away. What was she missing? Why was everything falling apart right around her head and she could not seem to get a grip on any of it?
“Laurie,” Josh said in a harsh yet reasonable tone of voice.
People had gathered in the sunken courtyard at lake level to watch the show. The first cannon erupted and a burst of fire and a one hundred and twenty foot stream of water shot into the sky with the first notes of “The Star Spangled Banner.”
“Laurie, you need to have faith in me, all right? You said you trusted me. Remember? And things are getting better. They are. It’s just one of those things that takes time.”
“Time,” she repeated dully. “I’m afraid we’ve run out of that, Josh.”
A frown creased his forehead. “What? What do you mean? Things are going well. We’re on their case. We have made contact. We’ve chased them off at multiple locations at multiple times. I extracted a promise from one of the little buggers never to be seen around here again. It’s all good, Laurie.”
But Laurie was shaking her head. “No. It’s not all good. That’s what you don’t seem to understand. There are complaints coming in now. Someone called that horrible reporter down at the Branson Register. I have an appointment tomorrow to speak with Hilary Allenwood.”
“Allenwood?” For some reason this got more of a reaction from Josh than the actual incidents themselves. “Don’t you dare talk to that witch.”
Laurie snorted and tightened her arms around her middle. As if she wanted to have that conversation. “At this point, I don’t have a choice. I have to talk to her. I’ve gotten orders from the corporate managers that they want us to downplay these recent bouts of vandalism so we don’t ruin what’s left of the season.”
“Chicken shits,” Josh muttered beneath his breath. “Those corporate flunkies don’t understand a thing about fighting a war.”
Laurie blinked. The lights of the courtyard were always dimmed automatically when the fire and water show was going on. But in the reflected light of the flames shooting into the sky she could absolutely see Josh’s arrogant set jaw. She swallowed back the fear that was threatening to drive her over the edge and tried to remember what rational thought felt like.
“Josh, this isn’t a war,” Laurie quietly reminded him. “This is retail.”
“Retail war then,” Josh harrumphed. “Either way. It doesn’t matter. Like I told you, it takes time to totally squash a band of guerillas like these kids. They’re unorganized and that makes them more difficult to deal with.”
Laurie frowned. That didn’t actually make sense. She exhaled a long breath and wished she had more patience and understanding. Why was it that she was constantly doubting herself? “Josh, it doesn’t actually seem like these kids are disorganized. They know to hit us in three spots at once. They seem to know exactly when you and your men are going to be in a particular area and they avoid that and hit somewhere else. Don’t you think that sounds rather organized?”
“You’ve got it all wrong.” Josh slashed his hand through the air as though he were sweeping her opinion right off the side of the promenade and into Lake Taneycomo. “You know you don’t know anything about how these things work. You’ve got no experience with this stuff. That’s why you have me around. I’m the one who has experience dealing with criminals and terrorists. Do you realize that’s what’s going on here? Domestic terrorism. That’s what.”
The words “domestic terrorism” seemed a bit of a stretch to Laurie. But he was right. She didn’t know anything about this sort of problem. She could deal with retail issues that came from disruptive customers or regular shoplifters. That was easy. You called the police and managed the situation. In truth, Laurie was a glorified public relations officer.
“The Star Spangled Banner” was drawing to a close and “Rocky Mountain Way” was cued up as a new burst of fire and water caused the crowd to ooh and ah in unison. They were all enjoying the show. That much was obvious. Laurie tried to calm herself. Josh was right. Laurie didn’t have experience dealing with terrorists. That wasn’t exactly part of getting a business degree and she had only taken some minimal self-defense classes to try to beef up her ability to personally handle physical conflicts. And look how that had gone! She was a disaster.
Laurie wasn’t entirely sure how long she’d been standing there with Josh before she became aware of something going on down in the far corner of the courtyard near the River walk. There was a gaggle of folks all dressed in identical T-shirts with a family reunion logo on their backs. They were obviously together and had been enjoying the show while eating a dinner purchased from one of the sandwich shops along the promenade. At some point, something down there had taken a turn for the worst however because suddenly there were multiple babies screaming at the tops of their lungs.
“Stop it!” A woman’s shout drew Laurie out of her self-imposed prison of thought. “Stop it right now! Dwayne, do something!”
Laurie had already started running. She assumed that Josh was with her, but when she looked around she could not see him at all. Soon her attention was completely riveted to the family reunion group because there was a lot of water flying and yet none of it was coming from the water cannons included in the show.
As Laurie ducked down a short flight of stairs from the upper level to the lower one, she spotted a young man on a skateboard, a familiar young man, this time with a water gun in his arms.
It was a huge water gun with a big plastic reservoir and pump action that sent a stream of water spraying from his spot on his skateboard right into the center of the family group. The family was now closing ranks around their youngsters, most of whom were dripping water.
“Stop that!” Laurie shouted at the top of her lungs. She injected every bit of authority into her words and hoped for the best. “Security! Stop right now and hand over the water gun!”
Laurie sprinted toward the young man and lunged in his direction only to have him leap backwards off of his skateboard. A hand shoved Laurie from behind and she lurched forward. Her foot caught on the board, her toes skidding along in her sneakers and catching on the cement with enough force to send her plummeting to the sidewalk.
Throwing out her hands at the last minute, Laurie groaned in pain as her wrists took the full brunt of her fall. She struggled not to cry. She could not give in right now. She had to remember what little self-defense training she had. That meant she needed to take a licking and keep on going. That was what Josh had taught her. How to keep going.
“Enough!” Laurie shoved herself to her feet and grabbed the skateboard off the ground. “This time I’m keeping it!”
The kid laughed at her. “Whatever. The old man will give it back and you know it, lady. You’re nothing but a wimpy bitch!”
One of the men in the group, presumably Dwayne, stomped over to the kid. Without his skateboard, the kid was a bit more vulnerable. He shouted and three of his buddies erupted from nowhere. They also had water guns. They sprayed Dwayne and anyone else that they could. A stream pelted Laurie in the eye and she felt as though she had been scalded.
Dwayne leapt blindly for the young man and wrapped his big arms around the kid. The teen howled in distress when Dwayne gave him a big bear hug and then pivoted, flinging the kid away from himself and his family.
The teenaged vandal twirled away with enough speed to do himself damage. He crashed into another group of onlookers and they shoved him to the ground. His cries of pain and outrage were drowned out though by Dwayne’s roar as the teenaged vandals renewed their assault.
Laurie bit her lip in horror as she realized the kids had managed to fill some of their weapons with hot water. The steam was coming off of it, the red welts left behind on Dwayne’s bare legs and arms a testament to the intentional cruelty of hi
s attackers.
This could not go on! Laurie looked wildly around for Josh, but he was nowhere to be found. She could only assume they had been once again hit from multiple points and were having to fight on all fronts once again. War, indeed!
A burst of adrenaline caused Laurie to swing her skateboard weapon at the water guns. She heard the thwack, thwack, thwack as she connected with three different weapons on one big swing. She kept using that skateboard like a bat, aiming at anything that moved and looked like a skateboarder. Unfortunately, that only drew their attention back to Laurie.
They came en masse. Four of them. Maybe even five of them. All zooming wildly about on their skateboards with such speed and skill that Laurie could not begin to track their movements. She felt frantic and harried. Spinning around, she struggled to defend herself and knew it was hopeless. Then a shove between her shoulder blades sent her staggering to the left. Someone else shoved her right. She spun around and felt the skateboard in her hands make contact with something else. There was a bellow of pain. Someone hit the ground. Laurie was so disoriented that she kept swinging.
She didn’t know how long she had been at it when someone shouted at her to stop. She was dazed and confused and sank to the sidewalk feeling dizzy and sick. She wanted to vomit. But there was no way she was going to sit there like an imbecile trying to figure out what was going on and struggling to see which way was up and which was down. She needed to get back up on her feet. But when she lurched up, someone else pushed her down. She flailed wildly, assuming that it was the skateboarders. Her vision was spotty. The fire and water cannons left brilliant stains on the back of her eyelids. The rest of the world was tilting wildly in all directions. When she finally stared down at her hands, she realized the skateboard had blood smeared on it.
What had she done?
“Laurie!” Someone shouted her name. No. Not someone. It was Josh. “Laurie, can you hear me? She’s totally out of it. I don’t know what happened. She lost it, I guess. We’ll have to send her to the hospital. That’s all there is to it.”
What? Why would they send her to a hospital? She was fine. Laurie lifted her head to tell them—whoever they were—just that, but when she tried to lift her chin a wave of nausea took over. She struggled to say it out loud. No. Hospital. She wanted to know what had happened to the Dwayne guy. Was he all right? The boys had hit him with scalding hot water. Some of it had splashed onto Laurie’s arms and legs. It hurt like hell. She could feel her skin starting to blister. Maybe it was acid. That would be just typical. Wouldn’t it? The little rats would use acid or some other caustic cleaning product they’d gotten from the hardware store.
“Laurie, it’s Josh. Can you hear me?” Josh’s voice seemed to come from the end of a tunnel.
Laurie lifted her face again. Slower this time. She managed to focus on his face. His face looked as though it were at the end of a tunnel as well. She could not speak. Her tongue was too large for her mouth and she felt as though she were honestly going to pass out. The adrenaline was gone and it had left behind nothing but glue in her veins. Glue. That was what she had to work with. Great. This was all going to hell. Right. Now.
Chapter Thirteen
Younger was sitting in his new Adirondack chair down by the water when his phone buzzed against his hip. He didn’t usually keep his cell phone on him. When he was at home, it stayed in the house on a charger where there was actual service.
It was dark, and pretty late at night actually. For him anyway. It was after ten o’clock. When he was home alone, he tended to go to bed fairly early, except in the last few nights he’d been unable to sleep when he went inside his small two bedroom shack of a house. Even the steady hum of the central air didn’t help him drift off like usual. He had just felt restless and off ever since the incident at the Branson Landing with Laurie Talcott.
His phone buzzed again. Younger ignored it. He didn’t know what they wanted. The ambiguous they that always seemed to go with the demands of the modern mobile phone. But they could just leave a message and he would get to it eventually.
Time seemed to spool by again. It could have been an hour. It could have been a minute. It might have been twenty-four hours for all he knew. He thought about his chair. Brown, like that woman had suggested in order to mitigate the dust and sun fading that was inevitable. He liked the new chair. The ergonomic shape made it comfy to sit back and have a beer. He’d even had the craftsman cut a hole and put a small net under each arm of the Adirondack chair that was the perfect size for a beverage. Beer bottle on the right, beer can on the left—just in case. Yes, this was the perfect chair. And he’d only purchased one. On purpose. No visitors. That was the best way to live your life.
“Hey!”
Younger spun his head so quickly towards the hill and his house that he felt his neck give a painful crackle. His eyes had difficulty adjusting at first. The lights from across the lake reflected so strongly on the water that it actually took a bit of adjustment to see Titus Holbrook walking down the hill towards him as though Titus had parked up on the street and walked down to the lake.
“What are you doing here?” Younger wasn’t in the mood to be friendly or personable. Not even to his boss.
Titus made a low noise of irritation. “What am I doing here? Try what are you doing here? You didn’t get my message?”
“I might have gotten a text. I don’t know. I usually keep the phone up at the house,” Younger reminded Titus by way of an excuse. “I figured I’d forgotten it in my pocket, but that didn’t require me to answer. You obviously know that because here you are.”
“I’m here,” Titus began irritably, “because I got a phone call from some bozo at your Branson Landing security job telling me that the manager—your client—Laurie Talcott had just been taken to the hospital down in Branson after she had assaulted some customers on the Landing tonight.”
It took a moment for the words to really sink into Younger’s brain. When they did, he found himself very confused. “I’m sorry. You said Laurie Talcott assaulted some customers?” Younger was pretty sure he’d just heard totally wrong. That wasn’t possible. He could not actually think of anyone less likely to do such a thing.
“Yep. That’s correct. Laurie assaulted a customer,” Titus confirmed. He glared down at Younger. “And you’re going to go down to the hospital and you’re going to take her statement and try to find out what in the hell is going on with this mall security job that was supposed to be such a no-brainer.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I’m up to that this evening.” Younger swung his beer bottle in the air before slugging the rest of the contents down. “I’ve been drinking, boss. I don’t think I’m fit to drive.”
“Great. I’ll drive you.”
Younger made a face. “I don’t care to deal with Laurie Talcott after I’ve had a few beers. I’m too relaxed. You know? Being around her would ruin it.”
“Then we need to just withdraw from the case and be done with it. She violated our terms anyway. I don’t think anyone would be surprised. Least of all her.” Titus gave a nod of his head and started to turn around. “I’ll draft an email, since you’re obviously too drunk to handle it properly.”
“Hey!” Younger protested. He glared at Titus. “I didn’t say I wanted to withdraw from the case.”
“You have to,” Titus said flatly. “You cannot just let that woman sit in the hospital waiting to go to jail for assault. That’s not right and you know it. Do you think her capable of assault?”
The answer to that was no. An obvious no actually. Younger huffed out a little sigh. He could not help but wonder what exactly was going on at the Landing. How on earth had Laurie Talcott managed to assault anyone? Not even the kids on the skateboards should have been in any danger from her. The woman was altogether too nice and too agreeable to run about hitting or kicking people. And she was far too urbane also. The woman didn’t seem to have an aggressive bone in her body.
Which meant that in a mome
nt or two, Younger was lurching up off his seat and doing his level best to stand. “Fine. I’ll go into town and have a chat with her in the hospital. I want to talk to her before I fire her.”
“Oh,” Titus said with no small note of amusement. “So, you want to make sure you fire her in person. Is that it?”
“Something like that.” Younger made a face. “Are you going to drive me or not? If you don’t, I will tell the cops you made me drive even though I was likely over the limit. It wouldn’t look very good for you if I did that.”
Titus shot Younger a dirty look. “I already said I would. You don’t have to be rude about it.”
The two men staggered off into the darkness. Well, that wasn’t true. Younger staggered and Titus walked as though he was some kind of wild animal. No noise. Not a single leaf disturbed. In his slightly—very slightly—inebriated state, Younger could not help but mention it.
“What is your deal, Titus?” Younger grunted as his boot caught on a tree root and he nearly pitched forward onto his face. “You walk around like a cat. You know that?”
“I don’t like cats,” Titus said blithely. “I don’t think I would take that as a compliment. How about a wolf? Can we just say I walk around like a wolf?”
Younger shrugged. “Whatever you want, dude. You’ve got some weird wolf fetish. Next thing we know, you’ll be trying to get yourself bitten by a werewolf so you can become one.”
“There are certainly worse things out there,” Titus agreed.
Younger laughed at this joke but stopped when he realized Titus wasn’t actually laughing. The two of them managed to get into Titus’s truck without incident. After that, there was a short ride to the hospital over in Branson. The tall building was actually very close to the Landing. Younger could not help but wonder how long Laurie Talcott had been in there and how they were treating her, like a patient or like a criminal. It was hard to decide which one he would rather see the hospital staff choosing at this point. Younger was still pretty irritated with Laurie Talcott and in his current state of mind, it was hard to be objective about anything.
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 57
