The Bogus Biker

by Judy Nickles

  “If they’re still out there somewhere, especially if Sam’s one of them, they know you’re not dead, and they still want their money.” Penelope touched Travis’s arm. “And I’ve got the money.”

  Travis took her arm as they stepped out of the elevator. “We’re getting out of here.”

  Penelope opened the door of the hotel room and poked her head inside. “Are you decent? Travis is with me.”

  “Yes. Come on in.”

  Travis put the deadbolt on the door, shoved a chair against it, and sat down before he said, “Hello, Shana.”

  She nodded at him.

  “I want you to know I came after you that night, but I got taken out before I could get to you.”

  “Oh.”

  “I’m glad you’re all right.”

  “I’m fine, thanks.”

  Penelope sat down on the foot of her bed. “Do you want to tell her what we think is going on?”

  “Sure.”

  Shana’s face was a study in sheer terror when Travis finished his story. “We can’t lose our heads,” he said, looking from one woman to the other.

  “It’s my life I’m concerned about losing,” Penelope snapped. “And Shana’s.”

  “Let’s take this one step at a time.” The old Travis, firmly in charge, was back. “How much cash do you have on you?”

  “About nine hundred dollars. Most things have gone on the credit card.”

  “He gave you a credit card?”

  “Under the name of Ann Taliaferro, so it can be traced pretty quickly, I guess.”

  “Whoever grabbed me left me with five thousand, and I had a thousand in my wallet. I owe the hotel about seven hundred.”

  “Which one?”

  “This one.”

  “Sam said you weren’t staying here.”

  Travis frowned. “I’ve been here since day one.”

  “What were you doing at the Crescent?”

  “You saw me there?”

  “The other night. We’d been on the Ghost Tour. You were coming across the parking lot as we were leaving.” Penelope watched him think that over.

  “The truth of the matter is, as strange as it seems, I got spooked sitting here and decided to go out that night. Then I decided to see if I could find another hotel, but they were full up, and it was late, so I came on back. I wonder why he—Bart—would tell you I wasn’t here?”

  “I wonder why he’s done a lot of things,” Shana said. “Like not press Mrs. Pembroke to tell him where she hid the money in the B&B.”

  “He’s probably torn the place apart,” Penelope said. “I just hope he fed Abijah.”

  “We’ve got about six thousand plus between us,” Travis said. “I can make some phone calls. I have a friend in Florida with a couple of beach houses.”

  “Our room phones are probably bugged,” Penelope said. She fished her cell from her purse. “Take this one. That’s the first thing I did—buy two of these so Shana and I could keep in touch if we got separated.”

  “Good thinking. When I woke up in that hotel in Little Rock, I didn’t have mine, but I could’ve left it in the study that night. I just don’t really remember the last time I had it.”

  “Poor Abijah.” Penelope’s voice trembled.

  Travis reached over and patted her hand. “Cats can get by better than we think.” Then he stood up. “If Sam—or Bart—is with the government, he’s not out to kill us. We’re all prime witnesses. Or at least, I am. But if he’s with a drug cartel, that’s another story.”

  Shana shivered. “I feel like somebody just walked on my grave, as my granny used to say.” Then she brightened. “Granny! When she died, she left me her house way back in the hills of West Virginia. Nobody would ever think of looking for us there.”

  “That depends on who’s looking for us.” Travis looked around as if expecting to see the answer. “Prime witnesses or pawns, I vote we don’t wait around to find out.”

  “I’m with you,” Shana said.

  “We’d have to show ID to fly,” Travis said, coming back to sit down again. “We’ll take one of the rental cars.

  “That can be tracked, too,” Penelope reminded him.

  “It’s a chance we’ll have to take. Look, I’ll go upstairs and pack, and you two do the same. Check out, put your luggage in your car, and I’ll meet you in the parking garage.”

  “Why check out?” Penelope said. “They’ve got the credit card information. They’ll get their money when they realize we’re gone.”

  “I have to pay cash though. Well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll check out and meet you. Say thirty minutes?”

  He started to hand the cell phone back to Penelope, but she shook her head. “Keep it. Shana’s number is the only one programmed in there, so you can call us in an emergency.” She stopped. “What about Daddy? I can’t go off and leave Daddy.”

  “I don’t like the idea any more than you do, Opie, but you can’t do him any good from six feet under. Look, we’ll hole up in the hills for a while. I’ve got some contacts here and there. I’ll find somebody to nose around and see what’s going on…maybe even contact Brad without giving away where we are.”

  “Do you think Bradley’s in any danger?”

  Travis didn’t answer immediately. “I think he’s too visible, if you know what I mean. Nobody’s going to go after him, not as long as he stays in Amaryllis, and there’s no reason for him to leave. As soon as we get settled, I’ll contact him one way or the other.” He walked to the door and moved the chair. “Lock this behind me.”

  “Do you trust him?” Shana asked when he’d gone.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I don’t know either, but we’ve got to get out of here.” Penelope pushed herself up. “Let’s get cracking.”

  ****

  The women shoved their luggage into the elevator. “The parking garage is a pretty dark place,” Shana said. “Travis could be setting us up.”

  “When I said I didn’t know if I trusted him, I just meant there might be more he wasn’t telling us. But I know he’s not trying to get us killed, Shana. I do know that much about the man.”

  “Well, you knew him longer. He did say he came after me that night.”

  “I believe that. It’s a long-standing southern thing—a real man doesn’t leave a woman in danger, no matter what.”

  Shana shrugged. “I guess I wouldn’t know that, being a Yankee and all.”

  The door opened to the lobby, but Penelope said, “Wait,” as she scanned the buttons. “This one will take us to the parking garage.” The door slid shut. “Keeping out of sight seems like a good idea right now.”

  In the parking garage, only a few lights burned from atop the concrete girders. “Level C,” Penelope said. “We’ll have to go up.”

  Shana hoisted her duffle bag to her shoulder. “I’m sticking closer than a grassburr in summer.”

  “To me or to George?”

  Shana giggled. “Which do you think?”

  The sound of the wheels on Penelope’s suitcase echoed in the cavernous garage as they headed up the ramp. Penelope squinted through the gloom, trying to discern the rental she didn’t know nearly as well as her SUV. When she finally focused on it, a single figure stepped out of the shadows and stood with his arms folded in front of him.

  “Travis?” she called in a stage-whisper.

  “Going somewhere, Mrs. Pembroke?”

  Penelope stopped so abruptly that Shana ran into her. “Sam!”

  He stepped away from the car. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  Shana dissolved in tears. “Just shoot us, and get it over with! I don’t want to play this cat-and-mouse game any longer!”

  “It’s not a game, Miss Bayliss.”

  Sam took another step toward them. “I think it’s time you told me where you hid the money.”

  “You mean you haven’t found it?” The quaver in Penelope’s voice negated her bravado, but her hand crept toward the clasp of her pur
se with the intent of freeing George from his confines.

  “I haven’t been there.”

  “You let Abijah starve to death?”

  “Your friend Mrs. Hargrove has been feeding him.”

  “She hates him. And I hate you!”

  “Where is the money?”

  “If I tell you, will you let us go?”

  “No.”

  “Then why should I tell you?”

  “Opie?” Travis’s voice called from somewhere far away.

  At the same moment, Penelope sensed movement behind her, but before she could react, she was face down on the concrete floor with Sam on top of her. Gunfire exploded, first at a distance, then closer. Whimpering, Shana flopped beside her.

  “Travis, we’re up here!” Penelope thought she yelled, but her voice came out muffled.

  “Shut up!” She felt Sam’s mouth close to her ear. “Shut up, or we’re all going to die.”

  As his weight lifted, she heard running feet and Travis calling for her. Then, more gunfire, and finally silence and light flooded the area. She rolled over and saw four bodies littering the immediate vicinity. One of them was all too familiar.

  Scrambling to her knees, she began to crawl, crab-like, toward him and realized she was practically swimming in blood. Hands grasped her shoulders and jerked her upward. Her feet flailed to achieve a solid footing as someone shoved her along almost at running speed. The hands flung her into a dark-colored car which roared to life and spun away.

  Putting her face down on the leather seat, she began to pray the Rosary without benefit of beads and resigned herself to death.

  ****

  She didn’t open her eyes when the car slowed. But when the door opened, the antiseptic smell of a hospital encouraged her to turn her head slightly. A man wearing a flak jacket held out his hand. “It’s all right, Mrs. Pembroke.”

  Inside, a nurse escorted her to a small curtained cubicle. She noticed the man followed them inside. “I’m not going to undress in front of him,” she said. Then she noticed the blood soaking her jeans and pullover. “On second thought…” Without warning, she retched with a violence that toppled her body from the examining table on which she sat.

  Then man stepped outside while the nurse cleaned her up and brought her some scrubs. When she began to shake like a wet dog, the nurse helped her lie down and covered her with a blanket. The man came back. “You son will be here in a few minutes.”

  She closed her eyes. “Where’s Shana?”

  “In the next room. She’s all right.”

  “Travis?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She didn’t ask about Sam, but she wasn’t sure if she didn’t want to know or was afraid to know.

  “Mother.”

  Penelope’s eyes flew open, and she realized she’d drifted off. “Are you all right?”

  Bradley rested a hand on her arm. “I’m fine, and so are you. Shana, too. She’s scared to death, but she’s okay.”

  “Daddy…”

  “On his way home, though I hear he was disappointed to cut his vacation short.” His humorless smile brought back the horror of the parking garage.

  “Your daddy’s dead.”

  “I know.”

  “None of it was his fault.”

  “I know that, too.”

  “He loved you. He wanted to save Pembroke Point for you.”

  “He did it.” Bradley turned his head for a moment.

  “I guess you can’t tell me anything.”

  “Not now.”

  “When can I go home?”

  “Tonight, I think. Are you up to answering a few questions?”

  Penelope realized the other man still stood at the foot of the gurney. “If I have to.”

  The questions were mercifully few. Whoever the man was, he already seemed to know everything and was only verifying the facts. “I think that’s all, Sgt. Pembroke,” he said formally. “You can drive your mother and Miss Bayliss home. We’ll send their luggage on tomorrow.”

  Penelope sat up. “My purse. It has my mother’s Rosary in it.”

  “And Pawpaw’s gun,” Bradley finished for her. “They’ll send it on, Mother.”

  “We’ll need to get the money tomorrow,” the man said.

  Penelope didn’t ask how the man knew about the money or how Bradley knew about the gun.

  “Where is it?” Bradley asked. “The money.”

  “In Nan’s No-No.”

  He startled, then smiled again, this time with more humor. “Nan’s No-No.”

  “I left you a note on the whiteboard in the utility room.”

  “I haven’t been to the house. Aunt Mary said she’d take care of Abijah.”

  “Are you sure he hasn’t fanged her to death?”

  “I don’t think so. Are you ready to go home?”

  “I never wanted to leave.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  (Monday)

  Penelope poured two cups of coffee and set one in front of Mary Lynn. “I can’t talk about anything that happened.” As soon as she sat down, Abijah—somewhat leaner from lack of treats not provided by his temporary caretaker—sprang into her lap. She rubbed his stomach and was rewarded with a comforting rumble.

  Mary Lynn cast a look of disgust at her recent charge. “I didn’t come to ask questions about that, just to look at you and know for sure you’re okay. You and Shana both.”

  “Rosabel Deane is coming by later to take her out to Pembroke Point and help pack the rest of her things to ship home. Then Bradley’s driving her to the airport in Little Rock tomorrow.”

  “So she’s going home to stay.”

  “There’s nothing for her here.”

  “Where’s Jake this morning?”

  “Where else? Having coffee with the Toney Twins and regaling them with tales of his wonderful vacation.”

  Mary Lynn laughed. “Mr. Kelley always did know how to enjoy life.”

  “Who wouldn’t enjoy a five-star hotel, a credit card, and a sporty little rental car?”

  “Good for him.” Mary Lynn hesitated. “Have any arrangements been made for Travis?”

  “When I go with Rosabel and Shana, I’ll pick out a suit to send over to Caret’s. Bradley shouldn’t have to do that. He…” She sipped her coffee and stared into space.

  “This has got to be eating on him. I’m sorry.”

  “The body…” Penelope had to stop for a moment. “The medical examiner hasn’t released the body, but it’s just a formality according to Bradley.”

  “Hal Greene did a nice job on the story in the Bugle. He made sure Travis was exonerated from blame for anything and cited the ongoing investigation as to why he couldn’t write the details of what really happened.”

  “Well, Travis deserved that. He was a womanizer, but he was honest as they come in his business dealings. People liked him.”

  “Everybody accepted him for what he was. Maybe they shouldn’t have, but they did.”

  Penelope shrugged. “That’s just how it goes.”

  ****

  The house at Pembroke Point looked worse in the daylight. “We didn’t leave it this way,” Rosabel apologized, “and I don’t think the others did either.”

  “The others,” Penelope prompted.

  Rosabel cut her eyes away. “You know I…”

  “Yes, I do know. Sorry. But whoever came in afterwards made a blessed mess.”

  “I told Sgt. Pembroke I’d check for any actual damage,” Rosabel said. “Maybe we can get somebody in here to clean up before he comes out again.”

  “As bad as it sounds, Bradley’s going to have to be the one to take care of it. I’ll help him, but he needs to supervise putting things back the way they were.”

  Rosabel started up the stairs behind Shana. “You’re right, of course, Mrs. Pembroke. Will you be all right with what you have to do?”

  “Yes. Actually, I’d rather do it alone anyway.”

  Shana and Rosabel turned left o
n the landing, and Penelope went right toward Travis Pembroke’s bedroom, the one she’d shared with him and in which she’d conceived their son. It took her a moment to gather her courage before she opened the door. It was like stepping back in time. Nothing, not even the drapes, had changed in the years since she’d moved out. The room still smelled of his cologne, the same one he’d used since she first met him.

  I’m glad we found some common ground before he died. I just wish he hadn’t died that way. Died for nothing.

  She moved to the closet and began to rifle through the clothes hanging there. He wasn’t a suit-and-tie man, just when he had to be. He was a hands-on cotton grower. I think he was happiest out in the field getting his hands dirty. I remember he told me once about out-picking everybody else one day when he was only twelve.

  After she’d chosen a navy suit, she moved to the dresser to look for a tie. It was harder opening the drawers where his most intimate possessions reposed…tastefully monogrammed handkerchiefs, a handful of jewelry including the tie tack he said belonged to his father. She willed herself to select carefully, even when tears began dropping on the neatly folded handkerchiefs.

  I don’t know why I’m crying. I didn’t love him…hadn’t loved him for a long time even before we separated…but he was my son’s father. That has to count for something.

  Finally she packed everything into an cracked plastic suit bag emblazoned with the logo of a tuxedo rental store in Little Rock and carried it downstairs. In Travis’s study, she inspected the panel behind which the safe was hidden, but it appeared not to have been tampered with. Probably because no one could tell any difference between it and the rest of the paneling. Travis said it was foolproof, and I guess it was. Made to last a dozen lifetimes, he said. And it outlasted him, didn’t it?

  When Shana and Rosabel brought the last box downstairs, Penelope offered to have them picked up rather than hauling them back to town. “I’ll be coming out here again with Bradley. Just leave your address, and I’ll get some labels.”

  “Are you sure you don’t mind?” Shana had been distant since that night in the parking garage.

  “I don’t mind at all, Shana.” Penelope turned to Rosabel. “Come to dinner tonight.”