The Hitwoman and the Mother Load

by JB Lynn

  “My fault,” Zeke said, stepping slightly in front of me as though he was ready to protect me from a physical assault.

  DeeDee and Piss joined my defense taking their places at his sides.

  Even though I couldn’t see his face, I heard the smile Zeke offered when he said, “I wanted to surprise her since I was back in town.”

  As usual, his charm worked wonders on my aunt. The animosity faded from her features.

  Neither of the Griswalds seemed particularly impressed with him though.

  “Come here,” Armani demanded imperiously. “Pull.”

  Usually I would have resisted, especially in front of the seemingly sane Griswalds, but I was desperate to find my niece, so I stepped forward, closed my eyes, and put the question out into the universe, “Where can I find Katie?” and chose seven tiles from the bag Armani held out.

  I put them on the table. Everyone leaned close to see what they spelled.

  “A C E N S T T,” Marlene read aloud.

  “Accents?” Armani guessed. “Does that make any sense to you?"

  “It would if there were two “c”s in it,” God drawled sarcastically.

  Clearing my throat to disguise his tell-tale squeaking, I shook my head, focusing on the letters. “I don’t think it’s accents.”

  “Ten acts?” Brian suggested.

  His uncle gave him a sharp look.

  Brian shrugged. “What can I say? Without Armani’s predictions I wouldn’t have Stephanie in my life. I’m a believer.”

  Armani fist-pumped the air. “Yes! Validation with a capital V, baby!”

  “I know, I know,” Leslie interjected, “At cents.”

  “At cents?” Susan shrieked. “That doesn’t even mean anything. It’s just nonsense.”

  “Like believing in a psychic isn’t nonsense?” God mocked from my shoulder.

  “Ascent?” Doc offered.

  “Some of you people can’t even spell,” Susan raged.

  “Ant sect,” Marlene added. “Maybe some kind of anthill."

  “Ten cats,” Zeke said.

  “Where do you think we’re going to find an anthill, Marlene?” Susan snapped. “That’s almost as ridiculous as at cents.”

  “Perhaps you should make some tea,” U.S. Marshal Griswald suggested, trying to calm her.

  “Perhaps you should find my grandniece,” she sniped in return.

  I grabbed Zeke’s hand, trying to focus on him in the midst of all the voices. “What did you say?”

  “Ten cats,” he replied. “Does that mean something to you?”

  “Ten cats,” I repeated, moving the letters so that they spelled out CAT. I moved the other four tiles around to spell NEST. “It can’t be,” I murmured.

  “What?” Armani asked excitedly. “What does it mean?”

  I didn’t answer. I took off running.

  DeeDee and Piss followed closely behind.

  I flew through the house and ran into the backyard. “Katie! Katie?”

  I raced toward the rear of the property, heading for the biggest tree.

  “We looked back here already,” Susan yelled.

  I was sure they had, but I doubted they’d searched upward.

  “Katie?” I started to climb the tree.

  “What the hell is she doing?” Susan yelled.

  “Maggie?” Zeke called. “What are you doing?”

  “Cat Nest!” I panted, hauling myself upward.

  “The child can barely walk,” Leslie reminded me from the ground.

  I didn’t tell her that climbing a tree didn’t need all that much lower body strength, it was the upper body that did the work. “Katie?” I whispered, as I looked up at the platform nailed into the upper branches of the tree.

  Her little face popped over the edge. She was yawning.

  I was almost knocked sideways by the relief that buffeted me. “She’s here,” I yelled down to the crowd gathered at the base of the tree.

  A cry of joy went up.

  “You found me,” Katie pouted.

  “Of course I did.” I leaned on a branch, trying to catch my breath. “Your mommy and I used to spend a lot of time up here.”

  “In the Cat Nest?” she asked curiously.

  I smiled. My dad had built the platform and called it his ‘captain’s nest’ where he could survey his kingdom, but Teresa had always called it the Cat Nest. “Did she show it to you?”

  Katie nodded.

  “She loved it up here,” I remembered.

  “It’s quiet.”

  I nodded. “I understand.” Sometimes an escape from the often noisy chaos of the B&B was necessary.

  “Aunt Maggie?”

  “Yes?”

  “I can’t remember how to get down. Can you show me?”

  “Let me just catch my breath first,” I said. What I really meant was, let me figure out how the hell to get you down from here safely.

  “I’m ready now,” she declared, swinging her leg over the platform. “It’s cold.”

  “No!” I shouted. “Stay there! Stay right there!”

  “You’re not the boss of me,” she yelled back.

  “No, I’m not,” I said through gritted teeth. “But I’m the adult and that means you have to listen to me.”

  Below me I heard worried whispers, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

  “You’re not my mommy,” Katie shouted.

  “This again?” God grumbled. “Let me see if I can go distract her.” He quickly climbed toward her.

  “Look, Katie!” I said with false cheer, that I hoped masked my panic. “Godzilla’s here to see you.”

  She paused and looked over at the lizard. “Why are you here?”

  “Maybe he wanted to see the Cat Nest too,” I suggested.

  “Well, he can have it all to himself.” She pushed herself away.

  “Don’t,” I warned.

  But it was too late.

  “Catch her!” God yelled as Katie’s hands slipped from the branch she was holding.

  Katie screamed.

  I screamed.

  People on the ground screamed.

  I dove toward Katie and miraculously latched on to her wrist. The move upset my balance and I wobbled precariously on my perch.

  “Hold on!” God shouted.

  “You’re hurting me!” Katie cried.

  Locking my legs around the tree branch, ignoring the way the bark and knobs scratched and poked through my jeans. I strained to grab her with my other hand, but couldn’t reach.

  “Ow!” Katie whined. “Ow!”

  I didn’t know what she was complaining about, I was the one whose shoulder was about to be dislocated by over forty pounds of dead weight.

  Closing my eyes, I gritted my teeth and tried to lift her up to the branch.

  But I couldn’t do it. My arm screamed in protest and my whole body began to shake from the exertion.

  “I don’t know what to do,” I wheezed.

  “Hold on,” God whispered in my ear. “They’re coming. Just focus on holding on. You love her. You can do this.”

  So that’s what I did. I focused every ounce of energy I had on not dropping my niece, despite her pitiful cries and my agony.

  But despite my best efforts she was slipping from my grasp.

  And suddenly her weight was gone.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  “No!” I gasped.

  “I’ve got her.” Zeke smiled up at me from a branch just a few inches below me.

  Katie wriggled in his arms.

  “We’ve formed a chain. We’ll get her down. You hang on and I’ll be back for you in a minute,” Zeke said.

  I watched in awe as he maneuvered himself to lower Katie to Brian Griswald who was waiting with open arms. He in turn passed her to Doc. Who handed her off to the Marshal on the ground.

  A great cry of relief went up as she was delivered safely.

  I swallowed a sob of relief.

  “You doing okay, Maggie
?” Zeke asked from below me.

  “I just need to catch my breath.” This time I meant it. Holding on to Katie like that had left me breathless and a little dizzy.

  “We can get you down the same way,” Zeke offered.

  “I weigh a lot more than she does,” I replied.

  “Well then, we’ll call the fire department. They can send a ladder like they do when cats are stuck in trees.”

  “Cats never get stuck in trees,” Piss hissed from below. “They just don’t like being told to get down.”

  “I can get myself down,” I told Zeke. Slowly and carefully I climbed down out of the tree, every muscle protesting.

  I was weak and shaky by the time my feet hit the ground. Luckily, Zeke wrapped an arm around my waist to steady me, because my legs felt like jelly.

  “Now you must all be believers,” Armani crowed victoriously, shaking her Scrabble tile bag like a maraca.

  “Everyone’s staying for dinner,” Aunt Susan declared, leading the way back to the house.

  Zeke and I remained at the tree while everyone else headed inside.

  “Thank you,” I said. “Thank you for catching her.”

  “Right place at the right time,” he said dismissively. “But,” he added slowly, “I hope it reminded you that you can count on me. Trust me.”

  “How can I?” I whispered, remembering his betrayal regarding Darlene.

  “By understanding that what I did, the choices I made, were not made lightly and they weren’t made to hurt you. I was trying to protect you. Protect you, and Katie, and Darlene, and everyone else.”

  He spoke with such sincere intensity that I found myself believing him. “Okay,” I said tiredly, “I believe you.”

  He hugged me tightly and kissed my cheek. “That’s my girl.”

  “But you still owe me an explanation,” I warned him.

  “And you’ll get it as soon as the all clear is given,” he promised. “Now can we go eat? I’m starving.”

  As we passed through the kitchen, Aunt Susan caught my eye.

  “You go on in,” I said to Zeke. “I’ll be right there.”

  “And wash your hands, young man,” Aunt Susan admonished, just as she had when he’d been a boy living under this same roof.

  When we were alone in the kitchen she said, “Doctor Donna returned your call here when she couldn’t reach you on your cell phone.” She left the unspoken accusation that I’d been unreachable during a crisis hang between us.

  I stared at the floor. It wasn’t like I could tell her that I’d been reuniting with my sister she believed to be dead and had been involved in a life-or-death situation. I silently accepted her condemnation, making no effort to defend myself.

  “I took the first appointment she had available,” Susan said finally. “Nine tomorrow morning. Will you be able to bring Katie?”

  I nodded.

  “We’ve got a full house and I don’t have a spare bedroom to give Zeke.”

  “He can stay with me,” I replied.

  I heard her sharp intake of breath.

  I raised my head and arched my eyebrows. “You’re not really going to give me a hard time about propriety with Griswald staying in your room, are you?”

  A rueful excuse for a smile stretched her lips. “I guess I can’t.”

  “Nope.”

  “Wash up before you eat,” she reminded me, turning around to rummage in the fridge.

  “Hungry,” DeeDee whined softly.

  I chuckled, realizing she’d been waiting in the corner for us to finish our conversation.

  “Thank you for not interrupting,” I told her. “I appreciate the courtesy.” I moved toward the cabinet where her food was stored.

  “You talk to those animals like they understand you,” Susan murmured.

  “Sometimes,” I admitted, “I’m pretty sure they’re the only ones who do.”

  Susan shook her head. “Oh, there’s something else you should know.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Angel’s cousin is missing. That’s why he’s not here. He’s worried sick about her.”

  “I’m sure she’s just fine,” I soothed.

  “And what about your mother? Do you think she’s fine too?” Her tone was laced with fear and anger.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted softly.

  “He’s got her robbing banks now.” Her voice shook with disgust. “I know he’s your father, but…”

  “He’s gone too far,” I finished.

  She nodded, tears glittering in her eyes. “He’s putting her in danger.”

  “I’ll look for her tomorrow,” I promised. “After the meeting with Doctor Donna.”

  “It’s a nice gesture,” she replied with a weak smile, “but we both know they won’t be found until they’re ready.”

  “Probably not, but I have to do something.”

  She nodded.

  I pitched my voice lower. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Not if it’s about my relationship with Lawrence,” she warned, obviously not ready to discuss his marriage proposal.

  “It’s not.”

  “Okay, then. Ask away.”

  “What do you know about my brother?”

  I’ve never seen the blood drain from someone’s face so quickly.

  Afraid she was going to pass out, I jumped toward her and grabbed her arm.

  Her eyes were unfocused, she was deathly pale, and she was starting to sway.

  “Help!” I yelled. “I need help!”

  I tried to hold her up as she slumped toward me, but my arms, exhausted from the tree ordeal, wouldn’t cooperate.

  Zeke was the first one through the door. He grabbed us both as we fell, slowing our descent.

  Brian came in right behind him and helped to gently lower Susan the rest of the way to the ground.

  “Elevate her feet,” Doc, EMT to the rescue, said, pushing his way through the scrum of us surrounding her to check on his patient. “And get me something to put under her head.”

  The man was in his professional element, dispensing first aid, so I backed up a few steps.

  Susan’s would-be fiancé stepped into the kitchen. “What happened?”

  I shrugged. It wasn’t like I could tell him that she’d fainted because of a question I’d asked her.

  Griswald knelt beside Susan, taking her hand in his. “It’s okay, darling. I’m here. You’re okay.”

  Leslie was one of the last to enter the kitchen. When she saw her sister lying on the floor, she let out a wail that could have woken the dead.

  Even Susan stirred a little.

  “Easy,” Doc urged, holding her shoulders to prevent her from moving. “Just take it easy.”

  “What happened?” Griswald asked again.

  “I think she passed out,” I said. I knew she’d passed out, I just didn’t understand why. “It’s been a pretty exhausting couple of days.”

  Zeke shot me a look. As one of my oldest friends and a professional con man, he knew I was lying.

  I knew from the questioning expression in his eyes that he thought I’d revealed that Darlene was alive.

  I shook my head slowly, trying to assure him, I’d kept that secret.

  It was another secret that Susan had reacted to that had landed us in the current predicament.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  The next morning, despite Katie’s protestations, I dragged her to our meeting with Doctor Donna.

  Zeke came along. I wasn’t sure whether it was to lend moral support or to keep an eye on me. Either way, it was nice to have the company sitting in the waiting room while Katie met with the therapist.

  Zeke sat close and our knees touched. When he spoke, it was in a whisper. “What do you think she meant by stop mom?”