Ding Dong!! Is She Dead?

by Alathia Morgan

  Since, it was Saturday; they didn’t have to worry about Sally being in school. With both being in the same place it made protection duty a little easier. They were given permission to go to Chuck E Cheese and have a fun day of activities with Officer Karen.

  There were no sightings of Mike for either Saturday or Sunday. It was unnerving to always be wondering who was watching and if Mike would show up. Sally was completely unaware of the worried tension of the two adults concerned that he could be planning anything, at any moment, to cause more harm to this precious family.

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  Monday, they travelled back to see Megan at the hospital. She was feeling much better and could talk with a slight rasp to her voice.

  Sally spent an hour telling Megan everything that they had done and where they had been. Sally finally calmed down enough to be distracted by watching cartoons while Allie talked to Megan so they could make a decision on what to do for the rest of the week.

  Megan had had plenty of time to think while she laid there. Not being able to talk for several days did wonders for her brains ability to rethink through every situation. She was glad to be able to bounce ideas off Allie and hear the advice she had to offer.

  “I have considered that this situation could go on for a while. If we try to leave town or disappear, that will only make him more upset because he will follow us and we won’t have the extra protection that we have now.”

  “I am going to take Sally out of school for a while; her teachers are going to give her homework so there will be no risk to the school. At the moment they are looking at about two weeks’ worth of protection details to see what he comes up with next. Since patience is not his strong suit, we are figuring that he will show up again in the next few days.”

  “I will be able to leave the hospital by Friday to finish recovering at home. I know that you need to go back to work, so this will free you up to get back to your life. Sally can stay here with me during the day and then go back to the hotel with you during the nights until I get out.” Megan couldn’t wait to be somewhere she could relax and have Sally with her.

  “They are going to keep us in the hotel when I get out, but they think that you should be able to work at the bar Friday night and go home afterwards. They have your apartment under surveillance and we won’t be with you, so Mike shouldn’t cause any problems. What do you think?”

  “Sounds good to me. While I love Sally, I was not ready to become an instant mommy. I have already watched enough princess movies this week to last me an entire lifetime. Especially since my childhood didn’t have any princess stories in it, I think that I am caught up to the present.” Allie smiled at Megan.

  “I would love to have five minutes of silence. I had no idea that a first grader could have so many questions that needed immediate answering.” Allie looked over at Sally curled up watching the Disney Channel.

  “I really like the feeling of someone else depending on me. I haven’t had too many people that have just assumed that I would protect them no matter what. You have certainly taught her what love is. Sally makes the words ‘I love you’ not just an idea, but a reality.”

  Allie had gotten quite attached to Sally and was looking forward to the next few days, even more, since she would be giving Sally back to Megan in the near future. Hopefully Megan would be able to take care of herself and Sally again.

  Leaving to head to her apartment, Allie passed the lawyer who was headed to Megan’s room; she wondered what else he could need that hadn’t been taken care of already.

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  At Allie’s apartment there was no one inside and the security alarm was still set when she got there. After locking the front door and resetting the alarm, she sat down to work on her emails and see what her team had accomplished over the weekend.

  Her team’s orders were good, but there were a few ladies who needed to be called to see why they had missed putting an order in. Taking care of that and setting a few appointments for the afternoon, Allie felt like a new woman by being able to work on her business. She had felt really lazy not having done anything for the past weekend. While she knew that she really had accomplished something, it was so different from her normal activities. Watching Sally would take some getting used to since she was used to working all the time. Knowing that her time this week would be limited, she went ahead and got things prepped for the rest of the week so that it would be easier to run back and forth as Megan and Sally needed her. Normally she got ready for the week on Sunday nights, but since she was gone it took longer for everything to come together on Monday morning. She put all the labels on her books and printed up the inventories for the orders that would be delivered that afternoon. Making sure that she had everything set, she went to her first appointment with a sigh of relief that everything was caught up again.

  She met with a lady named Janet that had discussed wanting to join Nova last week. They met at the local McDonald’s since they had a WIFI connection, it allowed Allie to show Janet how to log in and navigate the website.

  Most people were certain that something like Nova was just a pyramid scheme to make you pay out a bunch of money with little to no return. While this could be true, Allie always tried to explain to new representatives that the work that you put into your business was what you would get out of it. Most people simply didn’t want to work hard enough to see any profits. They thought that it would simply happen if they signed up. Allie tried to make sure that she not only explained how to make money, but practical ways that they could find customers and grow their business.

  Janet was so excited and already had several ladies that were simply waiting on her to bring them books. This was always wonderful to hear, but Allie reminded Janet that passing out the books was only part of the process, she would need to go back and follow up to see what they had decided to order. Otherwise, they would forget how wonderful their wish list was and then it would be a missed opportunity.

  While sharing this business opportunity with Janet, Allie had not even thought about Mike or Megan. Being so caught up with showing her how to succeed made everything else disappear.

  When Allie asked people to join her business, it wasn’t simply so she could benefit from the money that they would make for her. It was for what she could help them accomplish in their life goals to success.

  Some might take her up on the offer, then never do anything. There are others that with a little encouragement would be able to do more than they had ever thought possible. It was like putting on different hats, this one was teacher or mentor. The ability to be able to show them how to make this work so they could support their families was something that Allie enjoyed.

  She loved meeting new people, just like with Megan; someone could change your life just by meeting them.

  Allie had two more appointments set up, so when Janet left she refilled her cup of soda and got the next kit ready. The hour passed and no one showed up, so she texted the new girl.

  Allie: “It’s the Nova lady r u still meeting me today?”

  Girl: “Sorry, forgot. Next time?”

  Allie: “Let’s try for Wednesday. Same time ok?”

  Girl: “No, I don’t think I want to do it after all.”

  Allie: “Let me know if you change your mind. Thanks.”

  It was always disappointing when someone stood you up, but Allie was certainly familiar with people that disappointed you in life.

  Allie settled in on her laptop and sent out e-mails. She also updated the group Facebook page so that her team would be able to stay updated on where the meetings and events were for the next week.

  The next appointment did show up, so Allie was able to get Betty started on her Nova journey. Her goal was to earn enough money to take the family on vacation and with the amount of names that she keep writing down, it would take her no time to have enough saved up for her vacation.

  Since she could easily reach that goal, Allie asked her what she would do with twice t
hat much money and she answered that their car was older with a lot of miles on it. They were going to need a new one in the next year and had no extra money for the payments since her car had been paid off for quite a while. Allie worked with her to make a step by step goal. She could accomplish it if she kept on track. She would be the proud owner of a new car by the first of next year. Helping others allowed Allie to feel a sense of accomplishment.

  Finishing up with her day by leaving books in a few new places, Allie went home to collect her order that had arrived while she was gone. She bagged it up so that the next day all she had to do was deliver it. Not knowing how early she would be able to get started tomorrow, this was the best she could do to prepare for the next day.

  Grabbing a bag of clothes, Allie reset the alarm and headed up to the hospital to collect Sally. This time they were going to ride in an empty coroner’s vehicle so that there wasn’t an established pattern that Mike could follow.

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  Officer Grayson was there playing cards with Sally when Allie walked into the room. They ate dinner with Megan so that they had a healthy meal after all the junk food the past week. Allie was grateful for hot food that was semi- tasty.

  Megan informed Sally that there would be homework for her to do the next day. Sally was okay with that adjustment since there had been so many different things to deal with lately. Homework would give her something constructive to do during the next few days while the waiting game continued.

  They had just finished dinner and were getting ready to leave when the lawyer came in, dressed in casual clothes. Mr. Jones looked like he was going to stay for a while and he didn’t look too terrible in his comfy clothes. Turning toward Megan, Allie raised an eyebrow inquiring what was up with this look.

  “David is keeping me company tonight since I found out that he is a fan of Castle. He thought that we could watch it together since I’m not going anywhere for a while.” Megan felt the need to explain.

  Allie turned toward, David Jones, “I am glad that you are keeping her mind off of all that has been going on. The worst thing that someone can do is sit around and wonder about what ifs. Thank you for keeping her company and from being able to worry all evening.”

  “Now, you two have good evening and I will see you tomorrow morning, so don’t stay up too late.” Allie walked over to the door as Sally gave her mom a kiss.

  Megan knew that there would be questions about what Mr. David Jones was doing by hanging out with her. She knew that he was just being nice and she wasn’t taking it personally because she wasn’t all that pretty. He was definitely not interested in her.

  Now, with all of her bruises she must look like something out of a horror film. She had been lucky to find Mike in the first place. There were not many men that would have married such a homely woman to begin with. Although, Megan knew he was just trying to keep her safe in case Mike snuck back in, she was sure that Allie would give her the first degree in the morning.

  Chapter 8

  After, another uneventful night, Allie took Sally back up to the hospital to spend the day. Officer Grayson took Sally over to see the baby that had been born the night before to give Megan some time to catch Allie up on the search for Mike.

  The entire police department and the state troopers had been searching for Mike for almost a week and there was no sign of him. This really worried Allie and Megan since that could only meant that he was planning something to get even with them for all the trouble that they had caused him.

  “They are looking into who he was close friends with and where his favorite camping sites were. I told them that he never was gone overnight because he didn’t want to leave me at home by myself. There were a few of the guys that he would spend a Saturday or Sunday evening with on the occasional poker night, but so far they haven’t found anything to lead them to him.”

  Megan was able to talk quietly now that her throat was healing, but you could still hear the damage to her vocal cords from the week before.

  Allie hated to ask this question. She knew that since Mike had obviously gone farther than they had thought possible there might be something that Megan had not wanted to consider before.

  “Did Mike have a woman that he was seeing on the side? I know that you don’t think so, but I know that there were nights when he was working ‘overtime’.” Allie made the air quotes on the word.

  ”He could have been with someone and you wouldn’t have noticed because you weren’t going to check up on him.”

  Megan grimaced, “At this point anything is possible, but the guys that he hung out with haven’t come forward with any information so there is no telling if he did or not.”

  Mentally starting to berate herself, she almost missed the sly smile on Allie’s face when she asked, “So what is up with Mr. Davy Jones? Is he rescuing you from your thoughts again tonight?”

  “For your information, he is coming over. I really think that he feels guilty that he didn’t keep me safe. I know that there is no way it was his fault. I guess since Mike was able to get out on bail, he feels responsible that he wasn’t able to keep him in jail.”

  Megan looked embarrassed that Allie had brought up the subject so Allie decided to change the subject, but was saved by the door opening.

  Sally and Officer Grayson returned just then and they were able to get her started on her homework. Since this would be Megan’s last night in the hospital, Allie went ahead and called her other job at the bar. She let them know that she would be able to work this Friday since Megan would be watching Sally.

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  Allie was headed out to pick up the deliveries from her apartment. It was a smaller order this week since it was between pay checks.

  Kevin had assured Allie by phone that there had been no one in or around her apartment. It was looking like it might be safe to return by the end of the week if Mike continued to make himself scarce.

  She started a load of clothes at the apartment laundry room planning to change it out between deliveries. When she returned, she noticed that her clothes had already been moved over to the dryer. This was not unusual because of the small amount of washers and dryers available. While helpful, now all of her whites were a lovely shade of red.

  Looking a little closer, she noticed that there was red liquid streaking down the dryer door. She knew that one red item would not have dripped the color red. She called Kevin to come and investigate because she had a suspicion that it was blood.

  Yes, it was blood that had been poured on her clothes. There was also a dead rabbit thrown into the dryer. All the blood drained out of it. The blood had been sprinkled on top of the white clothes and they had started the dryer. He had only switched out one load and in the tops of all the other loads he had put different parts of the rabbit with blood poured on top.

  Allie took pictures with her phone so that she could file with her insurance. She then asked Kevin to take care of disposing of all of her clothes once the police were done with them. Thankfully she had only done a few loads, but some clothes were also Sally and Megan’s clothes as well.

  They called the police so that they could come and investigate it.

  Mike had left a disturbing message. He hadn’t forgotten his family; he was just waiting patiently until they let their guard down.

  Allie gathered a few extra things that she thought that they might need and went straight back to the hospital. There was no point in trying to get anything else done work wise for the day.

  Allie wouldn’t be able to concentrate on what would need to be done for work. It was still early afternoon and there wasn’t any reason to head to the hotel yet, so it looked like she would be spending a few hours with Sally in Megan’s room waiting for it to get dark enough so that they could leave.

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  On the other side of town out on a rural road that was dirt covered, a ford truck was making its way to the tree line. Kicking up quite a cloud of dust since there had been little
rain so far that spring, the man driving the truck kept on when the road ran out. There were only two ruts in the dirt to follow the seldom used path. The truck continued another mile until it was hard to see where the path turned. The trees started to close in, making the path become so narrow that the truck barely fit. Pulling up to a cabin the man got out and approached cautiously, announcing his presence by calling out.

  “Mike, I’m here. Don’t shoot.” He collected a few bags of groceries and a case of beer from the truck bed and started toward the cabin. There was no electricity or power line running to the cabin, but in the dusk of the forest a light showed inside when the door opened and Mike stepped out.

  “Well, did they get my little gift?” Mike asked the guy carrying all the groceries.

  “Yes, they did and you should have seen how scared they were that you were going to pop out and try to take them out. I got the pictures that you asked for. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be in a position to get them, but this morning she left the hospital and started moving around so it was really easy to see where she was going. It was simple to take pictures when she went to take her clothes out of the washers. She found the gift I left while she was at her meeting. She was terrified when she found the rabbit, but she didn’t call out or anything. The first thing that the girl did was to call the police and boy, did they come running.”

  “Did they wonder how I got in to put those in there?” Mike had grabbed the beer from him and started putting the other items in an older refrigerator. Opening a beer, Mike headed back out to the porch with his errand boy following like a little puppy.

  “Well, they have everything so staked out that it would be hard for you to do, but I was able to put that marker on her car so that I would know if she moved while I was taking care of her clothes. Evidently, she was at McDonald’s for about 3 hours so that left plenty of time for me to go take it out and come back on watch.”