4 Big Easy Hunter

by Maddie Cochere

  The vein in Rico’s temple started to pulsate; his anger was visible. His eyes exuded hatred. He looked at the driver and said, “There is time no more. Other arrangements must be made. We no need her. Do as we discussed.”

  Rico stepped back. Two menacing men moved toward me. I opened my mouth to scream yet again, but a cloth-covered hand clamped over my mouth from behind. Everything quickly went dark.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  The pain in my head was intense. It hurt to raise my hands to rub my temples. Whatever had happened to me was obviously over, and I was probably in my room at the hotel. I opened my eyes slightly and was met with total darkness. It only took a second for me to realize I wasn’t in my hotel room, and I was blind. Panic washed over me. I stood up and tried to move with my arms outstretched in front of me, but I quickly fell over something on the ground.

  I felt around and picked up objects. It wasn’t until I had a skull in my hand, that I realized I was in a tomb. The screaming came easily now.

  After the screaming, came the sobbing. When the crying subsided, the pain in my head was a hundred times worse. There was a metallic taste in my mouth, and I knew I had most likely been chloroformed. I forced myself to feel along the walls to find a broken spot where I could attempt to break free from my prison, but it was useless. I couldn’t even find the place in the wall where the door would be located.

  My finger slipped into a small hole. I leaned down to peer through it with one eye and could barely see a little sliver of light in the distance. Hysterical laughter broke out, and I couldn’t control it. The relief at knowing I wasn’t blind was overwhelming.

  When the laughter finally stopped, I leaned down by the little hole and started a steady stream of yelling. If I would have counted the number of times I yelled, “Help” before my voice gave out, it would have probably been 2,347,001.

  I sat down in the dirt and allowed the tears to flow down my cheeks again. I couldn’t have stopped them if I tried. I felt as if I would go mad there in the tomb. The psychic had seen this, and I knew I was going to die here. No one knew where I was. She had seen the knife and the tomb; it was all true. My heart nearly burst when I thought of how frightened my parents and Darby and Nate would be that I disappeared. They would go through the rest of their lives never knowing what happened to me on that hot August night. Mick would have a broken heart, but he would get over it and probably hook up with some sexy redhead and get married again and forget all about me. How could he forget about me so quickly like that? My heart was broken, and a fresh wave of sobbing washed over me.

  I was delusional.

  The crazy thoughts came and went for hours. I dozed. I was awake. I tried to scream and yell for help, but my vocal cords were broken, and my throat was raw. I eventually dropped off into a fitful sleep.

  When I woke, there were slivers of sunlight coming through the cracks of the tomb. I couldn’t move. The smell was nauseating. It was dank and made me sick to my stomach. I tried to stand, but my leg muscles felt strange and wouldn’t hold me up. I assumed they were atrophying, and I would soon be part of the dead.

  Then a new terror came. The door of the tomb was forced open. The sunshine poured in and the light blinded me. I could see a human form in the doorway, and I knew Rico had come to kill me. I opened my mouth to scream again, but nothing came out. I threw my hands in front of me to ward off the knife that was surely coming for me.

  My hands were simply knocked away, and I was scooped up into strong arms. A soft voice whispered into my ear, “Susan,” as he carried me out into the sunshine.

  It was Mick. He was holding me and tears were streaming down his face. His emotions had taken over at the sight of me, and he lost control. I tried to put my hand up to his face and whisper, “Thank you,” but no words came out.

  He tried to set me down, but when he saw I wasn’t capable of standing on my own, he carried me to a waiting police cruiser and helped me into the back seat. He climbed in after me and held me tightly in his arms. I buried my face in his neck and breathed deeply. The familiar scent would have brought tears if I had any more to give. It erased the dank odor of the tomb from my nostrils and had the much-loved calming effect on me it always did.

  It was only then I looked around and was aware of the numerous police officers in the area, as well as a half-dozen guys from the security company – including the guy who had scared me in the bar.

  “Susan Hunter, I’m going to start billing you for my time.”

  I was stunned to look across Mick and out the open door of the cruiser to see Detective Bentley squatted down beside the car door to chastise me.

  I wanted to say, “Susan Raines. I’m Susan Raines,” but my voice was completely gone.

  “I thought I might pull my hair out when I got your package in the mail,” he said. “I wasn’t going to wait for you to come home. I know how you operate, and if you had your hands on a counterfeit printing plate, I knew you were knee-deep in trouble down here. I called the local authorities, and they didn’t have a clue what I was talking about.”

  I couldn’t talk to him, so I made a couple of hand motions to let him know I wanted to write. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen and a small tablet. I simply wrote, “Ferg?”

  “Ferg’s ok,” he said. “He was picked up a few hours ago. He’s down at the local station giving a statement.” He looked at Mick and said, “Mick, she needs to go to the hospital. We can’t take her statement until she’s been checked out.”

  He nodded and the detective moved on to talk with the security guys. I glanced down and saw blood on my blouse. I frowned at Mick and pointed to the blood with a questioning look.

  “You have a small cut on your neck. It must have bled quite a bit,” he said while pulling me closer to him and holding me tight.

  The knife. The knife must have cut me when it was against my throat. I thought there were no more, but I couldn’t help the few tears which slipped out.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  “ . . . and when I came to, I was in the tomb,” I whispered.

  We were at the police station, and Mick, Detective Bentley, several police officers, and a few of the security guys were patiently listening while I gave my version of events. It was labor intensive and had taken a considerable amount of time, because I could only whisper. The doctor at the emergency room had given me a shot of cortisone and a spray to soothe my vocal cords, but all I could muster was a soft whisper. I told them everything from my adventure with Bogart to when they found me in the tomb.

  When I was finished, they told me what happened on their side of things.

  “Susan, you messed with a group of illegal arms dealers,” Detective Bentley said. “They heard of Ferg’s master printing abilities and provided the plates for him to print money. Of course, he refused, but after they showed him a news article of what happened to the last guy who refused, he didn’t have much choice. The money was going to fund a large shipment of guns coming into the Port of New Orleans this morning.”

  “Ferg told Scotty what he was up against, and Scotty told Dell,” said one of the policemen. “That’s when Dell decided to bring down the security team from Colorado to watch over the situation in the guise of providing security for the wedding.”

  “Everything was moving along pretty well,” said one of the guys dressed in black. “Ferg was being followed, and each person he met with was then followed, too. We were sure we’d have enough information about the gun dealers and the shipment to notify the F.B.I. before this morning’s gun delivery, but then a printing plate disappeared this week, and Ferg couldn’t complete the printing order.”

  Oh my gosh! I had ruined everything. They all must hate me. I put my head down and tried to will back the tears. Mick was standing close behind me and put his hand on my shoulder.

  “I tried to warn you off in the bar,” said the guy who scared me with the knife. “I didn’t know then that you’d taken the plate, but I did know you were watching Ferg a little
too closely. It was hard to hear you screaming and crying all night, but there was nothing I could do.”

  My mouth hung open. I couldn’t comprehend that he knew I was in the tomb, and he left me there. “You knew?” I whispered. I could feel Mick tighten as he moved beside me, and I knew his anger had been fueled.

  “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” he said. “But the only reason you’re safe today is because I was following you. We may never have known where they put you if I hadn’t followed the driver. Even Ferg didn’t know where you were.”

  Mick raised his voice at the man, “Why on earth would you leave her in there all night? What’s wrong with you?”

  “I couldn’t disturb anything,” he said with understanding of Mick’s anger. “Someone may have come back for her, and if she was gone, the whole operation could have been jeopardized. Susan, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t bring anyone to you until the guys at the port were apprehended with the money and the guns.”

  Tears ran down my face again. I was miserable. Being in the tomb had been an exhausting ordeal, and I was seriously concerned for my mental state.

  “Is she being charged with anything?” Mick asked abruptly.

  “No,” Detective Bentley said. “I’ll only be filing this one in my Susan Hunter file back home.”

  “Susan Raines,” I whispered. “I’m Susan Raines.”

  Mick drove me back to the hotel where Mom, Dad, Darby, and Nate were waiting in the lobby. I assumed I looked a bit zombie-like, and from the look of horror on Mom’s face when she saw me, I figured I was right. After a tearful reunion, and after Darby and Nate had made a couple of sandwiches of me with their two-man group hugs, Mick led me to our room.

  There wasn’t a mirror in the restroom at the police station, and I had only washed my hands. But now I was shocked to see my appearance in the mirror. It was far worse than I could have imagined. I was filthy from head to toe. My mascara was streaked down my face, and there were dirt tracks from tears. My eyes were nearly swollen shut from crying. The smeared blood on my neck made it look as though my throat had been slit and blood was smeared down the front of the right-side of my blouse. My slacks had a rip at the knee.

  I burst into tears.

  There was nothing Mick could do to console me. It was the breakdown I had feared. He undressed me, stripped down himself, and put both of us in the shower. He scrubbed me from top to bottom while I sobbed the entire time. After drying me off, we both slipped into thick, plush hotel robes. I was calmer now. Mick picked me up and carried me to the bed.

  As he lie down beside me, I whispered, “When did you get here?”

  He had to take a moment before speaking. I had never seen Mick cry before today, and I felt so much regret at having put him through this. He was still having trouble keeping his emotions in check.

  “About 1:00 A.M.,” he said. “It was the worst moment of my life to show up and find your family at the police station trying to file a missing person’s report even though you’d only been gone for a few hours. It was a knife in my heart, Susan, to realize you’d gone missing and had probably been abducted.”

  I held his hand against my cheek. I didn’t know what to say. I felt so guilty and ashamed.

  “I was home early on Thursday and had just taken Joe out to the field for a run when Detective Bentley came around the building and told me he was on his way down here. He said he was sure you were in trouble, and I should get my things and come with him. When he told me about the printing plate, I didn’t know what to say. You hadn’t mentioned it all week.”

  “I thought I wasn’t getting involved,” I whispered. “When I found the plates, I knew someone should know about them, but I didn’t want to get caught up in anything here, so I sent one to Detective Bentley. I figured he could check into it once we were all back home.”

  Mick smiled a little smile and said, “It does sound like a better plan than the ones you usually come up with, but you need to stop coming up with any plans.”

  I nodded and scooted closer to him. We had already decided to let Mom, Dad, Darby, and Nate go to the bachelor and bachelorette parties without us. We were going to spend the rest of the afternoon in our hotel room and go out for a romantic dinner later.

  Mick’s hands found their way through the opening in my robe. Maybe we wouldn’t go out for dinner after all.

  Chapter Eleven

  Dell and Lisa’s wedding was by far the most beautiful wedding I had ever seen – even in magazines.

  It was a beautiful, sunny day, with the temperature having dropped a full ten degrees, and there was a light breeze to keep everyone comfortable. The garden had been enhanced with flowers and sculptures and was breathtaking.

  Lisa was exquisite in an amazing wedding dress. The dress was sleeveless with a plunging neckline and a fitted bodice. The skirt was exceptionally full with layers upon layers of organza pulled and stitched to create beautiful folds. It was sexy and elegant, and as it should be, all eyes were on the bride today.

  I was almost ashamed to show up after all the trouble I had caused, but I needn’t have worried. When Ferg saw us coming across the lawn, he broke into a run from the carriage house and threw his arms around me in a big hug. “I’m so glad you’re ok, Susan,” he exclaimed. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am Bogart showed those plates to you. All of this was my fault.”

  “I need to keep my nose out of where it doesn’t belong, Ferg,” I rasped at him. “I’m glad you’re ok, too. I couldn’t bear the thought that something I did might have had you killed.” I shuddered a bit.

  “We’re all good now,” he said giving me another hug. Introductions were made between him, my parents, and Mick, and he left us with a cheerful, “Enjoy your day!”

  After the beautiful ceremony, we were all seated together for dinner. Darby looked at me and said, “Well, Susan, I guess we should give Nate a little credit.”

  “Yeah,” said Nate with an accusing edge to his voice. “You didn’t want any protection from evil spirits, and the fortune teller saw you with the knife slit across your throat and dead in a tomb. You should have let me put the oil on you.”

  Mom and Dad both frowned while Mick’s mouth fell open. “What?” he asked. “You had fortunes told, and Susan was told she was going to die?”

  “I told her not to believe it, and that it was all bullcrap,” Darby tried to reassure Mick. “But, yeah, she did get a bad fortune.”

  “The lady said death would come to me in the form of a knife, and she saw my entombment here,” I said waving my hands around spookily.

  I could see Mick’s blood start to boil. “I don’t see how she can lawfully tell someone they’re going to die,” he fumed. “I’m going to ask Detective Bentley to look into it before we leave.”

  “Forget about it, Mick,” I said. “I did have a knife to my throat, and I was in a tomb. If she had a vision of me while I was still chloroformed or sleeping, then she was right.” I placed my hand over his and leaned into him. “Let it go, please.”

  “Well, I don’t see how the oil helped Nate all that much,” said Dad as he took another bite of his salmon. “He lost his eyebrows and eyelashes, and now he looks a little bit like a drag queen. Not that you don’t look good, son.”

  Mom broke out into peals of laughter, and it only took a moment for everyone to follow suit. Darby had tried to help Nate draw in his eyebrows, and they both tried trimming false eyelashes to look more like a man’s lash, but Nate still looked quite feminine.

  I fared much better than Nate, and was happy when I dressed for the wedding. The soft, layered dress from Nordstrom was lightweight, clingy, and looked really pretty. I curled my hair instead of only blow-drying, and it fell around my shoulders in soft waves. Makeup and concealer had done wonders for my face, and the small cut on my neck was well hidden.

  Many of the guests had finished eating and were moving to the ballroom where music was already coming from the orchestra. “Are you ready for some d
ancing?” Mick asked. I nodded, and we made our way to the ballroom.

  Dell and Lisa were already dancing their first dance to a beautiful rendition of Van Morrison’s Someone Like You. The music almost brought tears to my eyes as the lyrics rolled through my mind. The man had traveled the world searching for someone like you. It was a perfect first song.

  As the dance neared the end, the Master of Ceremonies invited everyone to dance, and the song was reprised. As we joined Dell and Lisa on the dance floor, Mick swept me around into his arms. He was a great dancer, and it was a heavenly moment with the beautiful music, his arm around my waist, and his hand in mine. It felt like we were dating again. I was aware of his fingertips gently pressing into my back, his scent making me almost lightheaded with delight, his body close to mine as we swayed to the music. He nuzzled my cheek for a moment and whispered into my ear, “I love you.” It was a perfect moment which I tried to commit to memory so it would be with me even when I was old.

  After an hour of dancing and a fair amount of drinking, Dell came to claim Mick and Dad. He wanted to introduce them to some of the other hockey players. Mom was giving her feet a rest by sitting in a beautifully upholstered chair along the wall. I left the ballroom to take a stroll through the rose garden. I stopped in front of a particularly beautiful sculpture of an angel and admired it.

  “She’s not as beautiful as you,” said a voice as an arm slipped across my shoulder.

  “I bet you say that to all the girls,” I said giggling as I turned to face Darby.

  “We haven’t had much time to talk,” he said, “but I want you to know how sorry I am everything happened to you the way it did. I can’t help but think that I should have known you were in trouble, or I should have been with you so you wouldn’t have been in trouble, or …” his voice trailed off.

  “Darby, there’s nothing you could have done,” I told him softly. “There’s no way either of us could have seen what was coming.”