Changing Fortune Cookies

by P. D. Workman

  Eventually, the figure stood over him. He couldn’t estimate his captor’s height or weight, lying down as he was. His captor wore a dark, shapeless hoodie, and Josh could see a greenish glint of glasses or goggles under the hood. Night vision? A disguise? Just some weird costume or affectation?

  It was a struggle to keep from saying anything. Eventually, he heard the hoarse whisper again. It sent a shiver of terror down his spine.

  “You’re quiet and still this time. That’s good. Maybe you’re learning.”

  Joshua’s head quirked slightly in a nod, even though he hadn’t intended to make any acknowledgment or response. He didn’t want the blindfold and gag again.

  He wanted to earn his captor’s appreciation.

  He wanted to live.

  “Good,” the shadow repeated.

  There was a scrape of metal somewhere close. Joshua didn’t turn his head to look at it. The figure reached toward him, and Josh turned his head away slightly, worried about being gagged again. Something hard banged against his lips and teeth, drawing an unintentional yelp of pain. Warm fluid flooded over his lip and chin.

  “Drink. Open your mouth.”

  He obediently opened his mouth. Whatever sedative he’d been given was messing with his depth perception. He didn’t realize the water flask was right in front of his mouth until it touched his lip again. He tried to purse his lips to drink from it, but his lips were so dry and swollen that he couldn’t mold his mouth against the bottle. The shadowy figure spilled water into his mouth anyway. Joshua choked trying to get it down, but he persisted, and managed to get a few swallows down. The bottle was withdrawn.

  “More,” Joshua croaked. “Please.”

  “That’s enough for now.”

  “So dry.”

  “Well, I don’t want to clean you up any more than I have to.”

  Joshua’s face burned. It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t tend to his own bodily functions. But it still embarrassed him to think of someone else doing it. He swallowed a few times and tried to speak.

  “Who are you? Why am I here?” The words came out in a croak, but his captor could apparently still understand him.

  “Some people just can’t mind their own business,” the whisperer hissed sharply. “Some people just have to keep digging into stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with them.”

  Joshua swallowed. He wanted to protest that he hadn’t done anything wrong, that if he’d happened to step over the line and breach someone’s privacy by accident, he was sorry. He wouldn’t let it happen again. But what could he say when he didn’t even know what the problem was?

  “Can I… are you ever going to let me go?”

  “Haven’t really learned your lesson, have you?”

  “I… don’t know. I’ll try to do better.”

  “A little late for that now.”

  The hooded figure looked around, light glinting off the goggles. Then, he withdrew again, leaving Josh there to stew and wonder what he had done to deserve such a punishment.

  Chapter 16

  They didn’t get anywhere. Not really. Erin made a few notes about who might want to kidnap Joshua or might have been able to entice him away, but she didn’t really believe any of them. None of them felt right. The motives were thin and, even if she was right, there was no way they could prove anything. They didn’t have any evidence to show to the police to help pinpoint Joshua’s location.

  She was in a fog as she went through her usual procedures to close the bakery for the day and make sure that everything was set for the next morning.

  It was strange how life just kept going on as usual, even after such a tragedy.

  She kept making bread and cake and cookies and selling them to people as if nothing had happened.

  “I’m meeting Willie at the Chinese restaurant,” Vic reminded Erin. “Do you want me to walk home with you first?”

  “No, no.” Erin waved a hand at her. “I’m perfectly fine walking home.”

  “I can walk with you, Willie will wait.”

  “No. Go have dinner. I’m fine.”

  Vic hesitated for a moment. “If you needed something, you would ask, right? If you want a ride?”

  “I’m going to get a car soon,” Erin promised, though that wasn’t what Vic had asked. “I don’t know why it’s taken me so long. I’ll do it soon.”

  “You don’t need a ride home? We could call Willie.”

  “No. I need the exercise. Go,” Erin insisted.

  Vic sighed and shrugged, then did as she was told. Erin chuckled to herself and started to head toward her house. It wasn’t like it was a hardship to walk a few blocks from the bakery to the house. Clementine had done it for many years until her health had started to deteriorate. She had only used the yellow Volkswagen for occasional errands. Erin knew she should either get the car fixed up or get rid of it. What good was it doing taking up her garage space?

  She needed a car, so she should either start driving the Volkswagen or find something else she could use.

  Erin’s thoughts were far away. She wasn’t paying much attention to anything going on around her. Bald Eagle Falls was a sleepy little place. Despite everything that had happened since Erin had arrived to claim her inheritance, it was still a quiet town. Not the kind of place where you expected to find murder or kidnapping. And certainly not more than once.

  “Miss Erin.”

  Erin looked up to see who was calling her. She saw the figure waving, and her heart skipped a beat. She almost ran to him. Then she realized it wasn’t Joshua. His face was too old. It was his brother, Campbell.

  They had similar builds and features. Erin often had to look twice before she was sure which of them she was seeing. She took a deep breath to calm herself and then walked toward Campbell, trying to smile.

  “Cam, it’s good to see you.”

  He swallowed hard and also managed to dredge up a smile.

  “You too, Miss Erin.” He hovered there for a moment, trying to think of what to say. “I guess… you heard about Josh.”

  She put her hand over his, worried. “The last I heard was that he’s missing.”

  Campbell nodded, allaying Erin’s fears that something worse had happened.

  “Yeah.” He sighed. “I wish… I wish I could say that he just decided he’d had enough. Like I did. But Josh isn’t that sort. We’ve always had… different perspectives.”

  Erin nodded. They walked slowly together, toward Erin’s house.

  “Have you seen your mother?” she asked him.

  “Of course.” Campbell nodded firmly. “As soon as I could get here… I did. And stopped by to see her.”

  “Are you going to stay with her until Josh comes back?”

  Campbell chewed on a fingernail. “Uh… I don’t know. I didn’t really plan on staying.”

  “She needs someone.”

  “So you say.” He looked up at the sky, avoiding Erin’s eyes. “But it seems more like… she’s pushing everyone away.”

  “No, don’t think that,” Erin protested. “She’s had a lot of difficult stuff to get through lately, and not everybody has stood by her…”

  “I know. I’ve been through all that stuff too. I know it’s different for Mom, because she’s Mom… but people who helped—You…”

  “I understand why she’s upset with me. She felt like I’d put Joshua in danger… or into a bad situation. She already thought that before Joshua disappeared. And then with that note…”

  “She knows it’s not because of anything you’ve done.”

  “Did she tell you that? Because that’s not what she said to me.”

  “Well…” He tilted his head uncomfortably. “No. That’s not what she said. But she should trust the people who have stood by her. You helped her when I was in trouble. You were the one who was there.”

  “And the one who went along with Josh in the city,” Erin said, not sure whether Campbell even knew that part. “When… I should have talked him ou
t of it. Or called her. I just… I told them that they shouldn’t, but everyone else said it was okay.”

  “You went with him to the city?” Cam repeated, frowning. “What do you mean?”

  “When you were… when you had to be here. And Joshua wanted to help you. He wanted to find Brianna and get the real story. So he could get you off.”

  Joshua and Mary Lou had apparently not told Campbell anything about it. So many family secrets. Even from each other. Erin took a deep breath, looking up the street toward her house.

  “It wasn’t a good idea,” Erin repeated. “But the others insisted on going, so I went along… to try to keep them out of trouble and keep anything from happening.”

  Campbell looked down at Erin’s compact figure. “How could you keep anything from happening?”

  “I thought… I could give them advice and they would listen to me. I was the oldest one, so I thought that maybe they would listen.” Erin shook her head. She had been wrong. They hadn’t listened when it counted.

  “So… what happened?” Cam asked. “You couldn’t find Brianna, right? Because she was already…”

  Erin nodded. “We, uh… went places that Josh said you’d talked about. A couple of… friends. And then this hotel suite. We met Mikhail.”

  Cam’s face grew pale. “What? Mikhail? Not…?”

  Erin shrugged. “Mikhail. Mickey. You… didn’t know that? Joshua never said anything?”

  “No. He probably knows I woulda beat the crap out of him for something like that. He hasn’t got a clue what a guy like Mickey could do to him, or order to be done. He’s not someone you play games with!”

  “Well, he’s off the street now. He can’t do anything.”

  Campbell shook his head. “You really believe that?”

  “I know he’s in jail.”

  “But there’s no way he’s going to stay there for long. And even if he does, he can still order or hire guys on the outside. He’s not neutralized just because he’s ‘off the street.’”

  “Well… I don’t think any of this is because of him, do you?”

  Campbell stared off. “I don’t know,” he said in a distant voice. “No way to tell. Whoever wrote the note mentioned you. And you met Mikhail. He could have blamed you. Sometimes those guys do. They just obsess over something. It gets under their skin, and they think that it’s your fault, even though it’s not.”

  “He was arrested when he came after me. It wasn’t exactly… unconnected.”

  “Sheesh. Has Beaver talked to him? She’s got a good relationship with him. He would tell her, I think.”

  “He would tell her if he put some kind of order out on Joshua?” Erin couldn’t keep the incredulity out of her voice. “He wouldn’t do that.”

  “These mobsters follow a different set of rules. He’d probably be proud of the fact. Be glad that she asked.” Campbell had picked up his pace. Erin ran behind him, trying to keep up with his long-legged stride. “Do you know where she is?” Campbell asked. He worked his phone out of his pocket and tapped in a number. “Is she in town? At your house? She hangs out with…” Campbell’s anxiety was making him flustered.

  “I don’t know if she’s around. You can try her on the phone.”

  “She hangs out with…”

  “Jeremy,” Erin filled in. “Vic’s older brother.”

  Campbell snapped his fingers, nodding. “Yeah. That’s right.” He shook his head. “I can’t imagine her with him. He’s so much younger.”

  “I know.” Erin agreed. “But it seems to work.”

  Vic, Erin knew, was not quite so philosophical about it. She was protective of her brother and didn’t like the fact that he was spending so much time with a much-older woman, and a federal agent at that. Erin thought Beaver was good for Jeremy. She seemed to keep him out of trouble. For someone who had previously been working for one of the Tennessee syndicates, that was a pretty big deal.

  Campbell tapped his phone with his fingernail for a minute before pressing the wake up button and opening the phone app. “Doesn’t she know about Joshua and Mikhail? Why isn’t she already on top of this? He could have Josh stashed anywhere. He could be…” Cam broke off and shook his head hard. “If Josh was mixed up with Mikhail, then that should have been the first avenue of investigation!”

  “I just didn’t think… with him being in jail…” Erin protested.

  “Being in jail means nothing,” Campbell insisted. “That doesn’t mean anything to a guy with connections like Mikhail.”

  Erin didn’t say anything. They continued to walk toward her house. Cam made up his mind and put a call through to Beaver.

  Beaver had a naturally loud voice. Erin could hear her over the phone, even though Campbell didn’t have her on speakerphone.

  “Cam. What’s up?”

  “I want to see you. Where are you now?”

  There was a pause before Beaver responded. “I’m in Bald Eagle Falls. What’s up?”

  “Can we meet? Maybe at Erin Price’s house? I’m not that far away.”

  “You’re already in town?”

  “My brother’s gone missing, what do you think?”

  “I think it took you long enough. Why weren’t you here the first night he was gone?”

  Campbell’s face turned red. He looked over at Erin. She pretended that she wasn’t listening in on his call and hadn’t heard what Beaver had said.

  “I didn’t know if Mom would want me around. And I… had things I needed to take care of in the city before I left. I can’t just drop everything and go, you know.”

  “I think that you could have if you had been that worried about your brother.”

  “Okay… well, maybe the first day I wasn’t so worried. I thought maybe he just went out and didn’t make it home in time. But… he’s not the kind that would just take off and stay away this long.”

  There was another pause while Beaver considered. “If you want to go to Erin’s, I can meet you there. How long until you’ll be there?”

  “Five minutes.”

  “I’ll be longer than that. But I’ll be there within the hour.”

  “Okay,” Campbell said curtly. “I’ll see you there.”

  He tapped the phone to end the call and put it back away. He looked at Erin. “I hope you don’t mind, Miss Erin. I don’t think meeting her at Mom’s would be a good idea.”

  “No, of course not. I don’t mind.”

  It would allow her to listen in on the conversation. Like with Terry and Stayner, it gave her a way to keep track of the police investigation without being accused of stirring things up herself or asking too many questions.

  They walked the rest of the way in silence. It wasn’t until they got to the house that Cam appeared to notice the bags that Erin was carrying and offered to help her.

  “I’m an idiot. I let you carry everything the whole way by yourself.”

  “It’s fine,” Erin said, not passing anything over to him. “It’s not that much.” She juggled everything, trying to find her keys and to fit them into the lock.

  “My mom raised me to be a gentleman. She woulda tore a strip off of me if she saw me treating a lady like that.”

  He was still holding out his hands to take something from her, but Erin ignored him and opened the door. She hit the digits on the burglar alarm and jerked her head to invite him in.

  “Come on. I’ll just put these things away. Make yourself at home.”

  Campbell followed her into the house. “Is Officer Piper at work?” he asked. “Does that mean he’s doing better now?”

  Erin was surprised to hear that Campbell knew anything about Terry’s troubles. “He’s just off taking care of some other errands today. He worked too much the night that Mary Lou made the report on Joshua, so he’s had to take a few days off.” She stepped into the kitchen, trying not to trip over the insistent orange cat underfoot. “But yes, he’s starting to feel better.”

  She hoped that he would be able to get back to one
hundred percent, but dreaded that he would not. She didn’t tell Campbell that. She wouldn’t tell anyone that. And if Terry asked her, she would lie and tell him that he was going to get better and be able to go back to exactly the way he had been before the attack.

  Chapter 17

  Erin unloaded day-old bread and cookies into the freezer while she waited for Beaver to show up to talk to Campbell. She decided to keep a few out in case her guests wanted a snack, and arranged them on plates.

  Beaver didn’t take long to arrive. She didn’t wait for Erin to let her in, but knocked briskly on the door and walked in without an invitation. She looked around the front room, then nodded at Erin in the kitchen and Campbell, sitting uncomfortably on the couch.

  “Cam.” She looked him over. “You’re looking pretty good.”

  Cam rubbed his clean-shaven jaw. “Got cleaned up for Mom,” he admitted. “Didn’t want to have to listen to her fussing over me too. She’s got enough to worry about.”

  Beaver nodded. She looked at the easy chairs, then back into the kitchen at Erin.

  “There’s bread and cookies on the table,” Erin invited. She went to the fridge to get out butter and condiments.

  Beaver made an appreciative noise and motioned for Cam to join her in the kitchen. They both sat down at the kitchen table. Erin slid the butter dish and jam jars onto the table.

  “I’m afraid we’re all out of Jam Lady jam,” she apologized. “And I haven’t found a new supplier yet, so you’ll have to make do with store-bought.”

  Cam looked down at his hands, his mouth tightening. Erin realized her faux pas in mentioning the Jam Lady brand. The Jam Lady had, in fact, been Roger Cox. And his incarceration was the reason that there would be no more Jam Lady. Unless someone in his family decided to take it up.