by Rita Lakin
Past the Target store. Wait. I need a new potato-peeler, maybe I should go in … No, are you crazy? Okay, now we’re on the ball – here’s the rich stores. Saks Fifth Avenue and Ralph Lauren. They’d make sure there are toilets for their rich lady shoppers. And high enough so they can get out of them. But I look a sweaty mess by now. They probably would stick up their noses and ignore me. I pass.
Three more right and left turns. I give up. So, mind over bladder. I’ve told my bladder it just has to wait.
I race for the exit and I hope I can find it before I grow another year older.
Gladdy and Tori must be so annoyed waiting outside in that hot sun.
THIRTY-FOUR
Something Wicked this way Comes
When we arrive out on the street I locate my Chevy wagon. I’m ahead of Tori. She’s stopped to listen to messages on her phone. I’m sure she’s keeping her distance, so I won’t know who she’s talking to. Still Ms Secretive.
I reach my car, open the door, and climb inside quickly for a minute to turn on the air. The seats are too hot for us to get in just yet. I need to cool the car. Leaving the keys in the ignition, I get back out quickly.
Then, I look around, perturbed. I’m aware that there’s another car, double-parked, blocking me. It’s a black SUV with tinted-glass windows. I can’t tell who is inside. Surely they’ll move, now that they see I need to pull out.
I leave the sidewalk and stand in the gutter for a moment, sending hand signals to the car that is blocking us. But they don’t seem to notice.
I squeeze in between my vehicle and the car in front, then head for the driver’s side of the offending auto to suggest politely that they move on.
I hear Tori catching up to me. As I reach the SUV, I hear her shout. ‘No! Get back! Get back! Get away from them!’
For a moment, I think I’m imagining things. But, no, she is suddenly running toward me and yelling. She drops her packages; they land in the gutter.
The things I notice, even under stress; something odd is happening; a man jumps out of the passenger-side front seat of the SUV. To my amazement, he’s holding a gun, which he’s holding low, so it won’t be seen by others. It’s not a very big gun, but a gun is a gun. He’s a bulky man wearing a three-piece suit – in this heat!
Where is that guy with the iPhone camera when we need him? He could get this for the police. Tori is waving her arms now. What on earth is going on?
The man grabs me around my waist. I try to pull away, but he grips me harder. Despite my shock, my mind is racing; I try to think of what to do, but there’s no time. In a moment I’m forced into the back seat of the SUV, where another man waits to grab me and slap duct tape over my mouth. Duct tape? Really? Like in the movies? What madness is this?
From inside the car, I look out to see Tori hesitating. Don’t do it, I say to her in my mind. Forget about me. Get away. Save yourself! What to do? She foolishly wants to come to help me. But whoever these men are, they are serious and fast. In seconds, two men are already at her side. Tori is kicking as one of the men grabs her and the other one holds his hand over her mouth. They are doing this low down, to keep from being seen.
Tori is tossed into the car, landing almost on top of me.
She has only one moment to shout, ‘Dix, you bastard,’ before her mouth is clamped shut with duct tape, too. I look at Tori and her eyes reflect terror.
The man called Dix answers, ‘Told you we’d meet again, honey bunch.’
In moments, blindfolds cover our eyes, and in seconds, we are being driven away from the mall. Surely someone heard Tori scream. And witnessed us being pulled into the SUV? Is anyone dialing 911? I hope so.
I get it right away. Tori hadn’t been lying. She knows these men. There were men who were coming after her. Men threatening to kill her. Why didn’t she let us know this was serious? Why? I suddenly feel chilled and it isn’t just from the air-conditioning.
Ida exits the mall and heads directly to Gladdy’s car. She feels guilty that she took so long. Wait till she tells them her frustrating bathroom adventure. They’ll laugh. She reaches the car where it is parked, but Gladdy and Tori are nowhere in sight. Looking around, she is puzzled. Where could they be in this heat? Surely they didn’t go back to the mall. But if they had, Gladdy would have phoned to tell her. It’s unlike Gladdy not to be where she said she would be.
Then Ida notices the car door is open. She moves to it slowly, getting a bad feeling about it. She looks inside and sees, to her shock, the keys are turned on in the ignition. The car is cold. Something’s wrong. Very wrong.
Ida glances again up and down the street, nervous now. Then her eye is caught by something else. In the gutter are Tori’s Bloomingdale’s packages! Now open, with the newly bought outfit half fallen out of its box. It takes a moment for it to register.
Then, Ida screams.
THIRTY-FIVE
Kidnapped
Jack and Morrie try to calm Ida. But she just keeps blubbering. ‘I was only gone a little while. Where could they be? What could have happened?’ She tugs at Morrie’s arm. ‘Look at her clothes in the gutter! I left them there for you to see. You’re a policeman, do something!’
The streets are full of shoppers and shoppers-to-be. Mall shopping always brings a big crowd. Jack and Morrie look around, stopping and talking to people in the vicinity, as to whether they saw or heard anything. No luck.
A car pulls up to where they are standing in the middle of the street. A young female shopper rolls down her window. They can see her back seat is full of packages with mall-store labels. ‘Is there a problem?’
While Ida continues to moan, Jack briefly describes what Gladdy and Tori look like. The shopper says, ‘I might have seen something, though at the time I didn’t think anything about it. An older woman and a young girl came along and it seemed like there was one car and another one double-parked parallel to it. They headed for the double-parked car and two men came out of the car to help them in, so I guessed that these were husbands or boyfriends waiting who couldn’t find anyplace to park. They were in a rush, it seemed, and they sort of hurried the women in and drove away quickly. I assumed they didn’t want to be ticketed. Is it possible, these are the people you are looking for?’
Jack asks, ‘Can you describe the men?’
She shakes her head. ‘Just guys, maybe in their forties, but, honestly, I didn’t really look at them. I was busy trying to extricate my car from a way-too-tight parking space. It took me a sweaty while.’ She smiles.
Morrie asks, ‘What kind of car was it?’
‘It was an SUV like mine.’ She indicates her dark forest green vehicle. ‘Only theirs was black.’
Ida looks terrified at that.
Jack cautiously asks, ‘Did you happen to notice the license number?’
‘Well, why would I? It seemed harmless.’ She gasps, suddenly realizing. ‘Oh, my God, no I didn’t. Are they in trouble?’
They don’t answer her question. Morrie thanks her for stopping and giving them her information. Jack and Morrie exchange worried glances. Ida is moaning.
The woman starts to drive away, than backs up. ‘I did notice one thing. The license plate wasn’t Florida. They were California’s colors. I once lived there and I recognized that.’
They thank her again.
Jack swears angrily, and meets his son’s agreeing eyes. ‘A black SUV: where have we heard that before?’
Ida is beside herself. ‘Somebody kidnapped them! It’s the killers she told us about. They’ll murder them!’ Ida is about to faint and Morrie catches her in time.
Ida cries, ‘If I only hadn’t gone back to find a bathroom. And then I got lost and couldn’t find the exit again. I was away such a long time. Maybe if we had stayed together, we might have been gone before these men came.’
Jack tries to comfort her. ‘You don’t know that. You might have been taken, too.’ He doesn’t mention how it might have been worse. If these men felt threatened by her, h
e shudders to think what they might have done. He knew his Gladdy would have kept calm. This woman turns easily hysterical. But there’s no sense her feeling guilty. Gladdy wouldn’t want that.
Jack senses he’s kidding himself, trying to hide his own guilt. He’s ashamed now that he made fun of them going shopping. If only he had come along, as Gladdy had asked. He smiles grimly at the irony. He needs to give himself the same advice he gave Ida. Feeling guilty doesn’t help anything.
He will find those men and when he does …
THIRTY-SIX
The Hideout
The two guys (not the driver) shove us out of the SUV. We are in some garage; I can tell by the smell of gasoline. I hear a door being unlocked into some room. Once they bring us inside the room, blindfolds and duct tape are removed. And immediately Tori gives them hell. ‘Where’s that piece of crap Dix? That coward!’
One of the men tries for a leer; I note he’s not very good at playing tough guy. The other one is also uncomfortable. That’s interesting, something to remember. ‘Don’t worry, babe,’ he says weakly, ‘you’ll be seeing him plenty. You better have some answers for him. Or else.’
‘Or else, what, you moron?’
She knows these men. She met them on the road. But she knew them even before that. Where? What in her past could be so dangerous, that we are possibly about to lose our lives? One thing I’m sure of – I’d better focus. We have to find our way out of this mess. Oh, Jack, my darling. He will be so worried for me. He’ll try to find us. But will he be in time?
Tori turns to me, pointing. ‘Say hello to Dockson and Hicks. These dumb apes work for Chaz Dix.’
Dix? Why does that name sound familiar? I keep hoping this is some sick joke.
Hicks tries to play tough guy. ‘Okay, gimme your purses, and both of you empty your pockets.’ He looks through them, checks each item off, tossing every bit of equipment into a paper bag. ‘iPhone. Check.’ He looks at me, holding another phone up. ‘What’s this old thing? Some toy?’
I get huffy. ‘It’s my phone. My flip-top phone. It works just fine. Like to see how I use it?’ I reach out. He pulls away, grinning.
Both guys chortle at my antique. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Shucks,’ I say.
Tori empties her denim jacket pockets and Hy’s racetrack program falls out onto the floor. Hicks picks it up and smiles. ‘You a gambler, like to lose money at the track, girly?’
Tori grabs for it, but he holds it out of reach, then turns the first page.
‘Won the first two races, lucky girl. Temple Star and Glory Girl.’ He shoves it in the bag holding all our personal belongings.
Tori grabs at his arm. ‘Give that back to me!’
‘What for?’ Dockson says. ‘That program is long over.’
‘A friend gave it to me. I want it back!’
They are leaving. I act goofy and play at funny. ‘Be nice, guys, her boyfriend gave it to her. Hey, counting horses at night is better than counting sheep, right?’ I force myself into a silly grin.
A moment as they think about it, then Hicks tosses it back to her. ‘Happy dreams,’ he says. They start out.
‘Hey, wait one damn minute!’ Tori quickly looks around; she yells out at them, ‘Where are we supposed to pee!’
But she’s talking to a wall. A metal wall. The whole room is metal. They’re gone and we can hear the bolt closing us off from the other side.
I shake my head, impressed. ‘You millennials are tough.’
Now defeated, Tori says, ‘Yeah, me and my big mouth have got us into a load of crap. Sorry.’ She laughs. ‘My boyfriend? Dorky old Hy? An old racetrack program? That was really funny. How come you pulled that?’
‘Because you wanted it and I wanted to test how tough they really are.’ Tori puts the useless program back in her pocket. ‘Maybe we can tear the pages and make paper guns to attack them with.’ We both manage to laugh.
‘So Dix is the leader; the others are soft. It may help us later.’
We walk the room.
‘We’re doomed. Dix won’t get anything he wants from me and we’re dead meat.’
‘Okay, shove the panic aside and let’s use our brains and see what we can do for ourselves, until we are rescued.’
‘Yeah, right. Rescued. By your husband, the cop, where he’ll find two dead bodies.’
‘Stop that! It’s not constructive. Here’s what we know so far. We rode in the car for twenty minutes, and we are not that far from where I live. I guess that because I heard fire trucks go by and I know the street where the station is. We are in a residential area; at least they didn’t take us out of town. I heard children playing. An ice-cream truck rang its bells. Finally we were driven up what I thought at first was a hill, but it was too short for that. The ground under it was gravel or concrete so I assumed it’s a driveway. For a moment, I smelled something, from out the window – some kind of plant in a garden, maybe? The aroma is familiar, but I can’t place it.
‘We then entered what I’m sure is a garage, where we were pulled out of the car. Then, immediately, we were taken into this room, so I’m guessing, since we didn’t feel any weather change, this room is attached to the garage.’
We continue to walk around, inspecting every corner, including the ceiling. ‘Now look around with me. We are in a structure not too much larger than the average garage. It is totally made of metal and there is no exit except for that small door in the back, which of course is now locked.’
‘Wow,’ says Tori. ‘You’re like some power PI. I’m impressed.’
‘You forget we are private investigators and that includes your grandmother.’
‘Grandma Ida, also?’
‘Yes, she’s an important member. Pay attention; we need to figure out what, if anything, we can do to get out of here. And speaking of Ida, these men are assuming I am your grandmother. Do not tell them who I am.’
‘Why not?’ This amuses Tori. She says, kindly teasing, ‘You want to snivel every minute?’
‘Their not knowing may be useful.’
Tori frowns, gloomy now. ‘We’ll never get out of here alive.’
‘Let’s not go there again. Pay attention. This is an empty kind of work shed. You can see where they tore down any shelving that was once here. There are plug outlets, so lamps or machinery were here once. Alas, no windows. So, I guess we are in a metal shed connected to a garage behind someone’s house.’
‘Maybe if we yell someone will hear us.’
‘I doubt it. There isn’t anything we can use to bang on the metal walls.’
‘It’s hopeless.’ Tori strides from wall to wall, hitting the metal with her fists.
‘Don’t bother. I imagine that the real owners are away. Banging will only irritate your “Dicks or Dix”, as you call him, and we don’t need that. We have one advantage and you hit on it.’
‘I did?’
‘There’s no bathroom in here. No porta-potty, which means they didn’t think this through to provide everything. Maybe because they arrived here only days ago, the men who followed you from California. They’ll have to take us to a bathroom in the house.’
‘I hope they’re civilized enough to do that,’ Tori says, still negative.
‘They were civilized enough to give us two sleeping bags to sit and sleep on, so let’s hope for the best.’
There is also a disadvantage. It’s stuffy in here, with no fresh air. The shed holds the heat and it’s uncomfortably warm. I’m sweating already. It’s late afternoon and it will start to cool down by evening. But what will it be like at high noon? Worry about it tomorrow.
With that, I slide downward and seat myself on one of the sleeping bags. ‘And don’t forget we have my husband and his son who will find us. Yes, they will. But first sit down and tell me everything you know about these guys and what they want and why they grabbed you. Tori, it’s about time for the truth.’
Tori drops down onto her sleeping bag to join me, and, with no
hope, finally starts to tell me the whole story.
‘I came here to find my father,’ she begins …
THIRTY-SEVEN
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
Jack is holding court in his and Gladdy’s apartment. Morrie has called in to his precinct an APB to find a black SUV with California plates.
It’s quite a collection as they are seated on couches, chairs and the floor of the living room. The four girls – Sophie and Bella just recently returned from feeding the goldfish. Ida, still in a frenzy; and Evvie, the only sane one in a motley group of hysterical hand-wringers. And, of course, Evvie’s husband, Joe. Plus Hy, who insists he wants to help; he’s already become attached to Tori. Which means, also in attendance, his shadow wife, Lola. Hy defers to Jack, the professional. So, unlike his usual self-serving self, he stays quiet, for the most part. Others wanted in, but Jack held them down to these seven.
They’ve already heard Ida tell the kidnap story at least seven times. With accompanying tears and cries of dismay. They’ve also had tea (with cookies), another necessity, and now, frightened and wide-eyed, they pay attention. Jack must marshal his troops. ‘So far, what we can guess is that three men followed Tori from California to here. Joe remembers that Tori spoke about running into these men when she was in New Mexico.’
Ida sobs out, ‘Those men want to kill her. That’s what she said when we met her at the deli!’ She shudders, ‘And poor Gladdy …’
Joe adds, ‘But Tori didn’t tell us why these men were chasing her. She obviously knew them.’
Jack sighs, points at the girls. ‘Promise – no more frantic outbursts. We have to put our heads together and think clearly. We have to figure out why she came here and why she was in danger from these men. We found out she was looking for a couple named Harvey and Lila Woodley. Why them? We know she had a photo of the Woodleys with her mother and dad at their wedding thirty years ago.’
