by Dale Mayer
She didn’t know what would happen when they got back to Miami, but she didn’t want to lose track of Tucker. Maybe that was just selfish of her, but she also didn’t want to lose track of Bernie. The thought that the dog had the same name as her sister was now an irritant more than anything because, every time she saw the dog, she was thinking of her sister and her horrible behavior. “Do you think my sister is still a threat to Bernie?”
“I would hope not,” he said, “but your sister’s an unknown quality. I don’t know how far she’ll go to get her way.”
At that, Addie frowned. “Well, I hope not this far, because, well”—she shook her head—“I just don’t know. I just don’t want any more of this. I want it to be done now.”
“So maybe she’ll have learned something about this scenario and will want it over too.”
“I hope so,” she said. “Are you looking forward to the wedding now?”
“Well, I’m better prepared for the wedding since saving the dog, visiting the fire site, and finding the vehicle used in the arson,” he said. “The rehearsal’s tomorrow—Friday afternoon—with the dinner that night,” he added. “I always think of it as being the wedding, but it isn’t. Obviously the wedding’s on Saturday.”
“How big is the wedding?”
“They told me that it wouldn’t be very big, so I don’t know,” he said. “I haven’t been very good about asking for any details.”
She nodded. “Of course not, if you’ve been trying to avoid the whole thing.”
“And that’s probably wrong of me too,” he admitted. “Sometimes there are just more to family needs than you expect.”
“Particularly if you came close to dying,” she reminded him.
He nodded. “And I do tend to forget that. Because I lived it and survived, I figure everybody else lived and survived it too and have moved on. But my sister still gets pretty emotional about it.”
“Also she and Rodney have had a long time to get to this point,” she added, “and she’s waited until you were back on your feet. So it matters to her to have you there.”
“Do you think they didn’t get married all this time because I wasn’t on my feet?” he asked, turning to frown at her.
“It would make sense to me. If it was just the two of us, I would want my brother there too.”
“I didn’t even consider that,” he confessed. “That makes me feel even shittier.”
She laughed. “You’ll make up for it by being there,” she said with a bright smile.
He nodded. “And if I can help my brother-in-law, then I’ll do that.”
“And you already talk to him as if he’s your brother-in-law, which I find interesting.”
“Well, he’s been in the family for a long time now,” he murmured. “I can’t see that the wedding certificate will make any difference.”
“I like that,” she said. “It’s nice to think that he’s already so accepted that the adjustments have already been done.”
“Well, I imagine there are plenty more adjustments to expect because I did hear from various people that having that wedding certificate does make a difference, although I don’t quite understand how or why.”
“I imagine it makes some difference, just like everything in life does. There’s a sense of reverence about making a commitment like that. Or at least I feel like there should be.”
“Agreed.” Tucker pulled into the restaurant’s parking lot and escorted Addie to the entrance.
The hostess greeted them and directed them to a table.
“Have you ever been here before?” she asked, looking around.
He shook his head. “No, I haven’t,” he said. “The food looks good though.” He tapped the menu.
“And I’m hungry,” she said. “Lately I haven’t been eating much.”
“Too much upset going on in your world,” he said.
“I guess,” she said. As they sat here, waiting for their order to come, they carried on with the same easygoing conversation that they’d started. Finally she pointed it out. “You do realize how well we’re getting along and how easy it is to talk to you, huh?”
“I was just thinking that,” he said. “It doesn’t always happen, does it?”
“No, but when people click, they click,” she said with a smile.
He nodded. “Nice to see that too,” he said. “I felt like I was a fish out of water for the longest time. When you’ve been in a major accident, you know that a lot of other people don’t even know how to relate. They don’t have a clue on what to do or what to say, so they ignore it all, which, in a way, is best,” he said, “or they awkwardly compensate by making it out that you’re incapable of doing anything.”
She burst out laughing. “Oh, isn’t that funny how, when you’ve got a broken leg, sometimes people speak louder because it’s as if you’re suddenly deaf too.”
“And it’s so darn frustrating,” he said with a grin. “At this point, I’ve just learned to smile and to accept it and to ignore it all.”
“It’s really all you can do,” she said. “We nurses see that all the time. People just don’t have any experience dealing with something like that, so they don’t know how to react.”
He grinned at her. “And that’s very true,” he said, “but that’s also what makes you very different. You have experiences that I can relate to.”
“And you have experiences I can relate to,” she said with a nod. “I think all of that helps make it feel like I already know so much about you.”
As they sat here, going back and forth, mentioning bits and pieces of their lives, places more relatable in blocks of time, she said, “I wish we didn’t have to leave Bernie in the truck.”
He nodded. “And speaking of that,” he said, “I think I’ll go check on her.” She frowned, and he shook his head. “I’ll be back in five minutes,” he said. “By then we should be served.”
“Okay,” she said, and she watched nervously as he headed to the truck. She didn’t know why she was nervous, but just the thought of being separated from Bernie and Tucker gave Addie anxiety. And that was just stupid. She’d been an independent female for a long time. She should be sitting here and smiling to herself because she finally met somebody who she really liked.
Instead she was almost getting depressed at the thought of being separated in a couple hours from his presence, and they hadn’t even been together very long. But the time they had been together had been incredibly powerful, she admitted. So what would she do about it now? How strange this whole mess was. Still, she sat here and waited, and, when their meals arrived, she realized how long Tucker had been gone. She pulled out her phone and quickly sent him a text. Meals are here.
When there was no answer, she froze, then quickly dialed him, but he didn’t answer his phone either. When the waitress came back, Addie said, “I’m sorry. There’s been an emergency. Can we pack the meals to go, please?” The waitress stared at her a second, but looked down at the burgers and fries, then nodded. She took the plates away, and, by the time she returned, Addie was standing up and had already put the money on the table for their bill. The waitress handed her the take-out bags. Addie thanked her and raced out the door.
Once outside, she stopped. The truck was still there—thank God—but she saw no sign of either Bernie or Tucker. Maybe he’d taken her out so she could go to the …
At the truck, she put the food items in the front seat, noting that it was unlocked, but then he would have unlocked the door in order to get the dog out, and then she raced around, looking for him. When she found no sign in the parking lot, she started calling out. She called his phone again, and, when it rang at the edge of the parking lot, alongside the woods, she raced over, following the sound, until she caught a glimpse of something in the long grass. His phone. Her heart sank.
She snatched his phone, swiped it like she’d seen him do, and called the last number. With the words tumbling over each other, she tried to tell the guy that Tucker had
gone missing.
Badger calmly said, “Let’s take this from the top. How long has he been missing?”
She took a long slow deep breath. “I can’t really say. Maybe fifteen minutes. I found his phone in the brush.”
“And that’s, of course, the most worrying part,” he said. “Stay very calm, and stay at that location. We’ll use satellite to track you.”
She didn’t even think about that. Maybe that’s just what these people did. As soon as he came back online, he said, “Somebody is coming toward you.”
“A cop?” She looked around nervously.
“Actually it’ll be Tucker’s brother-in-law.”
“Rodney? Was he still at the site?”
“We caught him on his way back too,” he said. “So he should be pulling into the restaurant any minute.”
“Oh, thank you,” she said. “I just can’t imagine what happened.”
“I imagine either he was kidnapped or attacked,” Badger said without mincing his words. “But I don’t want you searching the woods there on your own, in case the attacker is still there.”
“You could have said something else,” she said in exasperation, “something that wouldn’t send me into a panic.”
“Maybe, but it wouldn’t have been the truth,” he said, “and I’m on the side of life that deals with the truth.”
Just then she heard a voice calling out to her.
“Addie, you here?”
She turned and saw Rodney and ran to him. “My God,” she said, “I don’t know what happened.” He quickly asked for a breakdown. She gave it to him. He nodded and said, “That’s what Badger said to me.”
She held up the phone. “I have Badger on the phone right now.” She put it on Speaker, and Badger spoke up.
“Rodney, take a good look around the woods there. See if Tucker’s lying unconscious somewhere.”
“I’m on it,” Rodney said, his voice grim. He turned to look at Addie. “You stay here.”
“Hell no,” she said. “Two sets of eyes are better than one.”
“It’s almost dark,” he said. “Nobody can see anything.”
“All the more reason,” she said, “for both of us to look. We don’t have any time.”
He snorted. “At least this way I won’t have to worry about you disappearing too.”
“What if another vehicle came and got him?” she asked both Rodney and Badger.
“We’re looking at the video cameras right now,” Badger said, his voice calm. “The only way that would have happened is if he were attacked and knocked unconscious. Did you hear or see anything when you were in the restaurant?”
“No, he only went back to check on the dog.”
“Of course he did.”
“But why would somebody be following him?” she murmured.
“Which could indicate this mess is linked to the fire scenario,” Badger said.
Rodney stopped, looked at the phone, and said, “That’s exactly what’s happened, isn’t it? Whoever was involved in the arson case was likely part of the crowd there.”
“Give me the names of whoever was there,” Badger said.
Rodney immediately reeled off names. “They all work for me, either on a full-time or a contract basis,” he said.
“And give us the date of the fire and the time of the fire,” Badger said, “so we can check out alibis.”
“Well, I can give you the basics,” he said, “and you can talk to a Detective Watson at the local precinct, who has it under investigation.”
“Will do.” At that, Badger said, “I’ll ring off. Let me know as soon as you find out anything.”
“Well, I hope I find out something fast,” she said, “because any other answer will be bad news.”
“Don’t even go there,” Badger said. “Tucker is an old hand at this.”
“Says you,” she said, “but nobody gets lucky every time.”
“Which is why he had his accident. We’ve already told him that he’s used up a couple of his lives, and he needs to be more careful,” he said with a note of humor.
“That’s not funny,” she said. “I don’t want anything to happen to him.”
“Good,” he said in the gentlest of voices, “and that thought alone will help him fight a little more.”
With that, Badger hung up, leaving her staring at the phone, wondering exactly what he meant. But Rodney raced ahead in the woods.
“If you go too fast,” she said, trying to keep up, “we won’t see him.” She turned Tucker’s phone to Flashlight mode and used it to peer through the area. She looked down and grabbed Rodney’s arm. “There are tracks through here,” she said, pointing out a spot where the weeds had parted under heavy traffic. Rodney looked at it, nodded, and the two of them raced in that direction. “Do you think it’s safe?”
“Safe for us or safe for him?”
“Should we call out for him?”
He hesitated and then shook his head. “I don’t think it matters at this point. We need to find him.” He raised his voice and yelled out, “Tucker! Where are you, Tucker? Answer me.”
With him calling, she raised her voice at the same time, and the two of them went slightly different directions, calling out for Tucker. They kept at it for a good ten to fifteen minutes, and then they both stopped and looked at each other. She strained her ears and called out once as loud as she could. “Tucker!” Then she thought more about it and called out, “Bernie, bark!” She yelled again, “Bernie, bark!”
Up the path came a small yelp. They looked at each other and tore in the direction of the bark from the dark.
Tucker opened his eyes, stifling the groan seeping through his taut lips. Tucker knew from old times that, upon first waking up, the silence was instinctive, now ingrained only after long years of training and experience. He’d taken a blow to the head. A blow he hadn’t seen coming. He was on the forest floor and reached out a hand, and it landed on a furry back. Hearing a whine from the animal, he opened his eyes. Bernie sat here, looking down at him, worry in her huge chocolate-colored eyes. She leaned over and nudged his cheek and chin with her nose. He reached up and gently stroked her.
“Hey, girl,” he whispered. “You’re standing guard over me.” She gave a tiny whine again and then laid down alongside him, her body heat soaking into his. He lay here for a long moment, regaining his breath and a sense of awareness as to where he was and what had happened. He reached up a hand to the sore spot on his head, and his fingers came away sticky. Almost no daylight remained, and it was hard to see anything.
In the distance, he heard the brush being trashed as somebody raced through the trees. It didn’t take much longer to realize the sounds were coming toward him. He put a hand on the dog’s neck and, using her for support, pulled himself up to a sitting position. He didn’t know if it was a friend or foe racing toward him, but he needed to be prepared if it were the latter. He heard somebody call out, and then the dog barked again. He calmed her down and whispered, “Stay quiet, stay quiet.” Then he heard a female calling out, “Tucker!”
With his croaking voice, he answered, “I’m here.”
Seconds later two people broke into the clearing where he sat and came to a dead stop. Shock, relief, and dismay were on their faces. Addie raced over and dropped to her knees beside him. “Oh, my God,” she said. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure yet,” he said. “I just woke up a few moments ago.”
“You’ve been missing for hours,” she whispered, her hand going to his head. He winced as she touched the wound, but, remembering she was a nurse, he let her take a look at it. She had a phone in her hand, turned on the flashlight, and took a good look. “You’ll need stitches,” she announced. “Let me see if there’s any other damage.”
He lay back down again, as she did a quick check of his body. Everything felt okay, but he couldn’t be sure because he hadn’t stood yet. She checked his eyes, noted that his pupils were at least moving properly. “Somebod
y attacked you from behind, I presume, given the site of the injury,” she said quietly, as she sat back on her knees.
He looked at her, frowned, and said, “The last thing I remember was going to the truck to let Bernie here out.”
“You said you would check on her, and you left me inside the restaurant.”
“I didn’t even hear anything around me. Next thing I knew, something smashed into the back of my head, and I woke up here.”
“Why would they drag you out here and leave you?” she murmured.
“It’s hard to say,” Rodney said, behind her. “Maybe he thought that Tucker was alone and didn’t know you were here too.”
“And yet, if we’re working on the theory that the arsonist followed us here, then he would know that I left the arson site with Tucker,” she said, looking back at Rodney.
“Maybe they thought he’d dropped you off already.”
“I don’t know, Rodney. That’s kind of flimsy,” she murmured. “Or whoever it was thought I would take off because Tucker stood me up?” She shrugged. “Whatever the reason, you’re big and heavy when conscious. So you’re a dead weight to carry,” she said. “And you’re out here, some distance from the restaurant.”
“But am I still on the property?” he asked, as he sat back up again.
“I don’t know about on the property,” Rodney said, “but you’re not that far away.”
“So somebody big enough to carry me,” Tucker said. “The question is, why?”
“Unless they thought the blow to your head was more than they had expected it to be,” she said, “and then figured that, if they’d killed you, they might want your body far enough away that nobody would find you for a while,” she said.
“That would imply that they panicked,” he said, reaching up and holding his head. He suddenly lunged to his feet, where he stood with his legs spread apart as he braced himself to stop the swaying. Addie wrapped her arm around him. “Use me to help stabilize yourself,” she urged.
