by Cass Tell
Yet, she felt uncomfortable when thinking of him. He was sometimes overly curious and that caused her concern.
Even though the storm confined him to the hotel, he could still get into difficult situations.
She went to the reception desk in the spa and used the telephone to call their room, but there was not an answer.
Chapter 13
Jack walked past the shops and at the end of the hallway saw a sign with an arrow that said, ‘Clubhouse.” The hallway turned and ten steps later there was a set of glass doors that shook because of the high wind.
Just inside the glass doors was another door. He went to it, turned the handle and went inside a large room with three golf carts. There was a garage door on one wall.
Next to the garage door, someone was looking at a lock on the wall. It was Marv, one of the two people with Ward.
Marv undid the lock and then slid the garage door open about a foot, and then he shut the door. It seemed he was testing it.
Seeming satisfied, Marv turned and saw Jack. Surprised, he said, “Hey, you’re the same kind that was at the meeting rooms. What are you doing here?”
Jack hesitated. “Ah . . . still playing hide and seek.”
“I ain’t seen any other kids. Who are you playing with?”
“They are hiding.”
“Where?” Marv asked.
“I don’t know. I thought they were here.”
“Maybe they are outside,” Marv laughed. “I’ll throw you out there to look for them.”
Jack’s muscles tightened. The howling wind beat against the sides of the hotel and he imagined being blown away like a leaf. “Why are you here?” He asked.
“What?”
“What are you doing here? I’m sure you can’t use these golf carts.”
“That’s none of your business,” Marv answered.
“Then why were you opening that door?”
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you.”
“Kid, you’re snooping around in places you don’t belong.”
“You’re up to no good,” Jack exclaimed.
“You little brat.” Marv took a step forward.
A flash went through Jack as he remembered the pain in his wrist when Nalf grabbed him. Combined with this, he felt stupid to have challenged Marv like that. He should have kept his mouth shut. Now Marv knew he was suspicious to whatever Marv, Wade and Maya were planning.
Maybe they were not planning anything wrong but Marv’s reluctance to share with him, as well as his threat told Jack that something wasn’t right.
Jack opened the door behind him and jumped into the hallway.
Behind him, he heard Marv laughing, deep and monster like.
Jack sprinted past the shops and into the lobby of the hotel.
Chapter 14
Jack went to the reception desk and waited several minutes while the receptionist was looking at a computer screen.
Finally, Jack said, “Can someone help me?”
The receptionist slowly raised her head and looked at Jack. “What do you need?” She asked.
“Can I have a map of the golf course?” He remembered Wade talking about the service road next to the course.
“There’s no golf today,” the receptionist said.
“I know. I just want to see the course.”
The receptionist reached into a drawer, took out a map and handed it to Jack. “We have two eighteen hole courses.”
Jack took the map without opening it and said, “Thank you.” He headed for the elevator and remembered what Robert the porter said about the electricity and the elevator not working. Therefore, he went to the stairs and walked up to the fourth floor.
When he passed Wade’s room, he wondered what Wade was doing. Jack even considered going into Wade’s room again, but figured it wouldn’t do any good. He wouldn’t find any new information that he didn’t know already. Wade had a suitcase with guns and plastic handcuffs. Jack would get into big trouble if he were caught again in the room.
He went to the next room, used his electronic key, and went inside.
The noise of the storm was greater on the fourth floor, a howling, grinding sound like bulldozers at work.
After opening the map on a table, he looked at the layout of the golf courses, which seemed to stretch out for miles.
Then he noticed a road that went from the parking lot, past the clubhouse and then wound along the sides of the two courses. He understood that would be for gardeners and utility trucks for maintenance of the courses. The road eventually ended at a public road on the backside of one of the courses.
The map indicated there was a parking area where the utility road met the public road. Was it there that Ward and his team would park a vehicle?
Jack went to the window, looked outside and saw the utility road. Then he thought that someone would have to be crazy to be out there on a day like this.
Rain streaked across the buildings and trees bent to extreme positions. Broken branches lay scattered everywhere. The puddles on the golf course had become lakes. At the same time, the utility road seemed a bit higher than the course and it might be possible for a golf cart to use the road.
He wondered where Amy was and wished she were with him so he could tell her what he had observed. She was probably still in the spa with those two rich ladies, so he would need to wait.
He turned on the television to the weather channel while trying to calculate what to do next.
Chapter 15
Amy went with Flora and Georgia to the restaurant where they ordered lunch. She felt relaxed, yet tired from being pampered at the spa.
She wondered why these two women would take an interest in her, yet it was a nice feeling, something similar to being around her mother.
The women talked about one of their friends who could not make it to the golf tournament because she had crashed her new car the day after she bought it.
“How is she doing?” Flora asked.
“She just twisted an ankle and it is now in a brace. There’s enough domestic staff at her house to care for her, but she’s humiliated that she couldn’t come here. And of course Alfredo is upset that he missed the tournament. He won it last year.”
Georgia laughed. “Alfredo gets emotional, but he’s a good man. He adores her and will take care of her.”
Amy watched them as they talked, their eyes locked on each other, each gesture of their hands like an elegant dance. While they were probably in their late thirties or early forties, their faces did not have wrinkles, a sign that they were getting the best beauty treatment.
Each of them wore wedding rings that stretched across the top of their ring fingers. Amy imagined the rings had cost a fortune.
Georgia turned to Amy and asked, “How did you like the spa?”
“I’ve never had anything like that,” She answered.
Georgia smiled. “It’s something you should do every day.”
“Every day?” Amy gasped.
Flora laughed. “Don’t listen to her. She’s spoiled. Rick treats her like a queen.”
“Look who’s talking,” Georgia said. “John gives you with anything you want.” She turned to Amy and said, “You just need to marry the right man.”
Amy thought about that. She was only fourteen years old and marriage seemed a long way off. However, do you marry someone just because of wealth? It seemed better to marry because the person was right for you. “I’m not into that,” she stated.
The women laughed and Flora said, “Don’t worry. It will come. Just enjoy life each day.”
Georgia changed the conversation and asked, “Amy, where do you live?”
Amy did not know how to answer that knowing she should not give out too much information. “Jack and I lost our parents and we were in a foster home. Now we are going to live in Texas.”
“In another foster home,” Flora asked.
“Ah . . . with some distant
relatives.” She knew she had not told the truth.
“Where do they live?”
“Near Houston. That’s where we were headed before the storm.”
Flora smiled. “That’s a coincidence. I told you before that John and I live in Houston.”
“What do you do there?” Amy asked. She did not want to talk anymore about herself.
“Oh, John owns and manages a hedge fund.”
“What’s a hedge fund?”
“It’s a way of investing on the stock market. John manages portfolios for people in the oil industry. He’s quite successful.”
Amy thought of the money that she and Jack held in a bank account at Northern Bank, a million dollars. It came from a reward when they had enabled the recovery of stolen electronics equipment worth millions of dollars. She wondered if their money should be invested, but she knew nothing about that.
It would be tempting to ask John to manage their money, but she would first need to find out more about him and Flora.
Their food came. Flora and Georgia had ordered salads. They were both slender and it seemed they worked hard to remain fit.
The two women talked about their gym classes, private fitness trainers, diet plans and social clubs. Amy tried to imagine what that kind of life was like, as it was so different from what she experienced.
Georgia asked, “And you Amy, what do you do?”
“What do you mean?”
“You said you were in a foster home. What is that like?”
Amy paused. “Our last home was run by a woman named Mildred. She was strict and unreasonable. We did the laundry and cleaned her house. Meals were mainly peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, sometimes a noodle casserole.”
“Oh,” Georgia said, her face blank as though this was beyond her understanding.
“It didn’t work out,” Amy stated. “And that’s why we are headed to Texas.”
“You mean the social services sent you alone on a bus from Florida to Texas? That doesn’t sound right.”
Amy smiled. “We are a bit alone on this one.”
“Did you run away?” Flora asked.
Amy had revealed too much and the two women were smart. She didn’t know how to back track out of this. “I guess you could say that. We were not treated well and thought Texas might be a better place.”
Flora looked at Georgia. “This sounds serious. We should help them.”
“I don’t know,” Georgia responded. “We might get into trouble for aiding minors who are on the run. We could even get charged for kidnapping.”
“Oh come on. Don’t be dramatic,” Flora responded. “It was the bus company that put them here in a first class hotel and now we need to wait out this storm. We’ll figure out how to help them once the hurricane has passed.”
“We should talk with the police,” Georgia said. “They would know what to do.”
An icy fear bolted down Amy’s spine. She didn’t want any part of the police. If their names went into a database, who knows what would happen. High-level people in the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department might find out they were still alive.
She decided that once they were free to travel, then she and Jack would need to disappear without the two women knowing. For the moment, she needed to play along with them.
Amy said, “Once the hurricane is gone, then we could use your help. For now, I’m sure the police have their hands full with this storm.”
“That makes sense,” Georgia responded.
“So, we’ll take care of you until then,” Flora said. “This afternoon the three of us are booked into the beauty salon to have our hair done. The banquet this evening is a special event and we need to look and feel our best.”
“Thank you,” Amy said, wondering what she had gotten herself into.
Chapter 16
After lunch, Amy went back to their room and found Jack leaning against cushions on his bed and watching television. There was a cart with a white cloth and empty plates on it. Room service had brought him a meal.
As she closed the door behind her, Jack pushed a button on the TV remote and turned down the volume.
He stood up from a bed and said, “Something weird is going on.”
Amy pointed at the window and said, “It’s a storm.”
“No, not that. This Ward guy is doing something strange.”
“Who is Ward?” She asked.
“He’s the big guy in the suit in the room next door. I followed him and the people he is with and heard them talking.”
“What? I told you to stay away from him.”
“But, I think they are planning something.”
“Everyone in the world plans something at some point. Why is that so special?”
“No, it’s just weird and I can’t figure it out.”
“It’s not up to you to figure anything out. We need to keep a low profile and stay safe. We need to get to Texas and disappear, and start new lives.”
“I know, but there is something going on with Ward and Marv and Maya.”
“Who are they, Marv and Maya?”
“They are the people working with Ward. I went to a meeting room and listened through a partition. They were planning something. I heard him say they are bringing in a couple more contract people to do the job.”
“Maybe it has to do with the cancelled golf tournament, or maybe something to do with their business. Why are you sneaking around and listening to them?” She asked.
“Because, they look suspicious.”
Amy rolled her eyes. “Oh man, you can really be a pain with your fantasies. Don’t go messing with other peoples’ lives.”
“It wasn’t only that. I followed Marv to the end of a long hall past all the shops and he went to a room with some golf carts.”
Amy grimaced. “What’s weird, is you! Golfers use golf carts. You are imagining something that doesn’t exist.”
“You never listen to me.”
“That’s not true,” Amy responded. “You often have good ideas, sometimes.”
“Yeah, yeah. Ward and those guys are up to something and I know it.”
“Even so, stay away from them. We have enough problems without snooping into their lives.”
“What do you mean?” Jack asked.
“I was talking with Flora and Georgia over lunch.”
“You mean those to pretty rich ladies.”
“That’s right. They both pretty, and pretty rich. Anyway, they kept asking me questions and I couldn’t think fast enough to give answers. They deducted that we are on the run.”
“You mean they know about California?”
“Of course not. They just know that we are here on our own, and that we ran away from the social services and are headed to Texas. One of them, Georgia, wants to call the police to help us.”
“What have you done?” Jack gulped. “That would be a disaster.”
“I know and I’m sorry about this. When the hurricane passes we need to vanish before the police get involved.”
“That’s pretty stupid what you did,” Jack stated.
“Don’t rub it in. By following the big guy in the suit it was just as stupid.”
“Okay, so what do we do now?” He asked.
“This afternoon I’ll go along with the two women to the hair salon and then we go with them to the banquet tonight.”
Jack laughed. “I wish I had a camera. I’d love to see the beauticians doodling around with your hair.”
“Doodling?”
“Yeah, you know. Just the thought of it is hilarious, my sister getting fussied over like that.”
“Look Jack, let’s just go along with this and try not to stand out or get in trouble. Can you do that?”
He nodded, but she felt it was not convincing.
Chapter 17
Amy tried to relax as the hairdresser massaged shampoo into her hair. When she had left the room she commanded Jack not to get into any trouble and especially not to snoop around Ward and his
team.
She felt anxiety. Jack was curious and creative, but sometimes he thrived on the excitement of childhood fantasies. And, that worried her.
What Ward and his team were up to was of no concern. Amy’s goals were to go to the banquet with Flora and Georgia, to ride out the storm, and then evaporate into Texas for lack of a better term.
Of the two women, Georgia seemed to be the one that might get them into trouble, for she wanted to call the police to get help. Her intentions were not malicious, but going to the police was the last thing that Amy and Jack needed.
Flora on the other hand was cautious and Amy wondered if she had a hidden motivation for delaying the call to the police. Was it because of something motherly? Flora didn’t have children of her own and she called Amy honey and my child. Was there a need to have children in her life and was Amy fulfilling that need?
Amy liked both women, but especially Flora. When the storm was finished, would Flora ask Amy and Jack to go with her to Houston? If that was even a remote possibility, it was not a good idea.
If the bad men in California ever learned that her and her brother had survived the bombing of their home, the evil men would do everything to find them. As those monsters had done to their parents, they would destroy her and her brother. For that reason, Amy could not involve Flora and John in their lives. By doing so, it would endanger them. That she could not do.
The only action would be to get back on the bus and head to Texas and then to some town far from Houston.
When the hairdresser finished washing Amy’s hair, she picked up her scissors and began cutting loose ends. It had been ages since Amy had her hair cut and it had become long and scraggly.
Amy looked across at another chair where a hairdresser was high-lightning Flora’s blond hair. Flora glanced at Amy and she smiled. The smile tore into Amy’s heart for she deeply wanted the love and security of a mother.
Chapter 18
Jack was becoming bored with the Weather Channel, which continued to report the same things on the hurricane, over and over.
