by Dale Mayer
He laughed. “Quite true,” he said. “We can do that.”
She grinned. “Then let’s go.” And, with that, she stood and said, “We’ll hit the hotel on the way, so you can change your clothes.”
“We can do that,” he said, “and I can grab a shower and check out at the same time.”
“So after we visit the attack site, we’ll come back here to get ready for the rehearsal?”
Tucker nodded. “You got it,” he said. “Okay, hotel first. Then a visit to the scene of the latest crime. That can take over an hour or two. But we’re still good on timing to make it to the rehearsal.”
Tucker drove, even though he was sore and tired, but he’d been in recovery for a long time now, and he valued his independence. He certainly trusted her to drive, as he had the previous night, but he felt just that much better to take the wheel himself. She didn’t give him any argument, for which he was grateful. She trusted that he knew what he could handle and what he couldn’t. Maybe because of that he said, “If you don’t mind, I’ll probably get you to drive home.” She nodded. They arrived at his hotel soon afterward. “Do you mind waiting with Bernie, while I take a quick shower and change at my hotel room?”
“No problem. I’ll take her for a walk.”
True to his word, Tucker was back in less than fifteen minutes, and they all regrouped in his rental truck, with Tucker again in the driver’s seat.
“It’s probably a good idea for you to drive now, early in the day,” she said quietly. “I get that you want to test how you are doing,” she said, “but, by the end of the day, you’ll feel it even more.”
“Very true,” he said. “Great painkillers though.”
She laughed. “Modern medicine at its best.”
“I didn’t take the time to check out yet, and I didn’t dare bring my suit with me. Not with all the attacks. We’ll have to return for that.” Addie nodded. He grinned and reached down a hand to nuzzle Bernie’s head. “No contact with your sister yet?”
“No, not at all,” she said, “and I’m okay with that too.”
“Do you think she knows that the dog escaped the death chamber?”
“By now probably so. She’s either plotting more, or she’s giving up.”
“And if she were to give up, what would that look like?”
“It would mean I would be suffering for a long time, if she had anything to do with that.”
“So she thinks you’re behind it?”
“I’m sure she does,” she said, “and I’m okay with that too.”
“And how much distress will this cause you?”
“I’m fine with whatever she does, as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody else. I have to care to be hurt, and I’m pretty good at walking away from that drama now,” she said with a laugh. “My sister is who she is, and I can’t change that, but neither do I have to be around her to deal with it either.”
“I agree. She has to understand how much she has brought on in her own life at this point.”
“Except she won’t care,” Addie said. “When you think about it, all she cares about is what her life looks like. So the rest of it won’t matter.”
“Very superficial and selfish of her.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” she said, laughing. “But again it’s who she is, so not a whole lot I can do about it.”
“Got it,” he said. “Still sucks though.”
“It does in a big way, but again she is who she is.”
He heard her repeating that phrase over and over again, almost as if she hoped that she’d believe it eventually. But no way one walked away from a family member this manipulative and vicious as that sister of hers and came away unscathed. He could only hope that whatever they did in the end here would help Addie deal with the outcome in case of a fallout. “Hopefully she’ll learn to change,” he said.
“I wonder how long something like that takes?” she murmured.
“Probably a long time.”
“Yeah, that was my thought too,” she said. “And how sad is that?”
“The restaurant turnoff is just up ahead,” he said, and he looked down at the dog. “What got me into trouble last time,” he said, “was the fact that I came out to check on the dog.”
“Ah, right,” she said, “so maybe …” Then she stopped.
“What?”
“I was just thinking about me going in and picking up our breakfast and bringing it out. We could have some sandwiches or something, you know, maybe egg and bacon sandwiches.”
“I’m okay with that.” He took the turn off the highway and into the parking lot. As he pulled in and parked, he said, “I really like those.”
“Me too.” She smiled and said, “Good, I’ll be right back.” She stopped and looked at the dog and asked, “Do I need to get her anything?”
“Probably better if we don’t,” he said. “We fed her this morning.”
With that, she nodded and walked inside the restaurant. He sat in the driver’s seat, studying the parking lot. He was still trying to remember the little bits and pieces from yesterday, but, of course, the blow had come out of nowhere, and, when he’d woken up, he’d been out in the brush already. He looked down at Bernie. “It’s okay, girl. We’ll go take a closer look, but let’s just wait for breakfast, okay?”
The dog barked once, and he cuddled her up closer. He took a long moment to scratch her under the chin, to rub the top of her head, to run smooth hands down her throat and her neck. He leaned over and gave her a big hug.
“You’re such a sweetheart,” he said. “I certainly understand that every animal will bite given the right circumstances, but it’s hard to know what that circumstance would be in your case, if you didn’t bite the psycho sister. But, if you do bite someone, I hope it is that nasty sister because she deserves a couple good bites. But even that thought just made you sick somehow though, didn’t it? Just thinking about all that vile nastiness in your mouth was bad enough, huh?”
He continued to talk to Bernie gently in a soft tone, just giving Tucker time to stretch out and Bernie time to ease back a little bit. She seemed totally willing to listen to his voice to stay calm. No reason for her not to. No threats were around, no aggravation or arguments were happening to disturb her peace. Everything was very peaceful out here. He wondered if it was too peaceful or if just that inner sense he had said that his world was usually full of chaos and war. Not since he’d been hospitalized obviously but, before that, it seemed like all he had were various elements of strife, one way or another.
But not now. And that was important to hang on to.
As he sat here, musing about the changes in his life, the restaurant door opened, and Addie came back out, carrying a large bag and a tray of coffee cups. He rolled down the window and said, “I should have thought that you might need somebody to help you carry stuff.”
“As you can see, I did just fine,” she said with a smile, as she held out the few things in her hand. “If you’ll grab the cups,” she said, “I’ll come around and bring the rest of the food.”
He took the two cups, put them in the holders in the dash. She walked around, opened the door, and hopped in. Immediately Bernie snuffled all over the bag.
“No,” he said, “Bernie, that’s not for you.”
She gave him the most soulful look in her eyes, and Addie laughed. “I might have picked up a sausage sandwich for her,” she said.
He just rolled his eyes at her. “You know it’s not good for her.”
“A lot of things aren’t good for her,” she said, “but, at this point, I don’t think that’s the priority.”
“I can’t argue with you there,” he said with a smile. He looked down at the dog. “You’re already spoiled, that’s all.”
She gave a woof and laid down between them, her eyes like a hawk as they unwrapped egg sandwiches. Tucker took a bite, loving the taste of the sausage patty—even though he knew it was probably loaded in sodium and fat—but, for once
, he didn’t give a crap. “These are really good.”
“I’m enjoying it too,” she said, studying the sandwich in her hand. “It’s funny the things that you end up liking.”
“It works for me,” he said. “Just think about how more traffic would benefit a place like this.”
“It’s also one of the reasons why I wouldn’t come though,” she said. “I prefer much less traffic than more.”
“You and me both.” He smiled, and the two of them kept eating.
By the time Addie was down to the last bite, she held it out to Bernie. She immediately whimpered and wagged her tail, inching closer. Addie gave it to her, then pulled out the extra sandwich for her. Bernie was very animated in her appreciation. The sandwich was gone in about two gulps.
Then Addie lifted her coffee, took a sip, and winced because it was still too hot. “How about we go take a look? Now that the food’s gone, we can take the coffee with us.”
“I was just going to suggest that,” he said, popping his dirty wrapper into the paper bag. He held it out for hers and then hopped from the truck, letting Bernie out on his side. He reached for his coffee and walked up to a garbage can to dump their trash bag. He turned, hit the button on the key fob to lock up his truck, and then waited for her to catch up with him and Bernie.
“Are we expecting to find something here?” she asked.
“I hope to find something, but expecting? I don’t know about that. It would just be nice.”
“Great,” she said. “I’ll tell you where we found you but …”
“No,” he said, “show me where you found my phone.”
She stopped, oriented herself, pointed in the right direction, and the three of them quickly followed that path. When they got to the edge of the parking lot, a cement barricade stopped vehicles from driving farther. She asked, “How did the guy carry you over this?”
Bernie was already sniffing the area.
Tucker bent down, took a look, and nodded. “One guy. A fireman’s carry maybe. Or two guys. Even so, probably had to shuffle over this with the added weight,” he said, “and then managed to lose my phone in the process and didn’t notice because he or they were in such a panic.”
“Still … would have been easier for him to just attack you in the truck,” she murmured.
“I wasn’t actually in the truck at the time. Remember?” he said. “I’d already come outside to walk Bernie.”
She gave a woof in agreement.
“Right,” Addie said, “so maybe you were already walking the dog over here?”
He frowned, nodded, and said, “That’s quite possible actually, and maybe I had my phone in my hand, and, when I went down, he wouldn’t have noticed. It was getting dark out at that time. That makes the most sense of all,” he said with a bright smile, looking at her.
She shrugged. “I’m not just some dumb bunny.”
He burst out laughing. “You’re nothing like a dumb bunny,” he said, reaching out a hand. She hooked hers into his, and they carefully walked toward where he’d been found. Bernie was on alert the whole way.
Chapter 10
Addie noted how quiet Bernie was, how her ears twitched at every noise. She watched Tucker study the ground, looking for hidden signs that she couldn’t possibly even recognize. She thought about asking him what he was looking for but figured it would just distract him. So she waited, as they made one pass, two passes, and then three passes, finally noting that they were moving outward from the main pathway a couple feet every time. “What do you expect to find on the outer edges?” she asked.
“Tracks,” he said. “Most people don’t take as much care on their way out as they do on the way in. They almost panic, trying to leave as fast as they can.”
“And yet we’re still walking the same pathway he took on the way in?”
“Only for the moment,” he said. “I’ll switch, and we’ll start looking wider soon.”
She nodded and waited and did exactly what he said, and then he came to a stop at a group of trees. “He stopped right here,” he said. “Look at all these footprints.”
She noted the flattened ground cover and saw it had been well trampled. “Or it could have been somebody else,” she suggested.
“It’s possible,” he said, “but not likely, given the circumstances of what already happened here.”
She frowned. “Meaning two unrelated crimes weren’t likely to be committed at the same place at the same time?”
“Something like that,” he said with a nod. “Plus see how Bernie is sniffing the area? She’s got the scent of our guy.”
She thought about it and said, “I guess that’s a little bit too much of a coincidence, isn’t it?”
“It is, and coincidences are not something that I’m very comfortable with,” he said. “However, it’s just supposition at this point.”
“Right. I hear a lot of people talk about the fact that there is no such thing as a coincidence,” she said, “but I have a hard time saying fate played a part in any of it either.”
“You don’t believe in fate?”
“Maybe,” she said with a shrug. “I’m just not sure how much credence can be put into an unknown, unseen, unproven force.”
“While acknowledging that you don’t know something, what you understand is way better than being defiant about it one way or another,” he said, “because I think everybody’s opinion can change when new information comes to light.”
“Well, I guess what I mean to say is, nobody’s ever proven to me that fate actually exists.”
“I can see that.” He looked at the area and started taking several photos.
“You believe this is important?”
“Well, I don’t want to take the chance that it is important later and just ignore it now,” he said. “Better to do my due diligence at this time.”
“Okay, can you tell where he went from here?” He pointed in the opposite direction than she expected. “Seriously?” She looked over there and said, “Nothing’s there.”
“Maybe, but that’s where he went, and that’s where we’ll go right now.” He smiled at her. “Come on. Let’s go.”
She followed along, giving him some distance, so she didn’t mess up any tracker trail that he seemed to think he was following. When they finally stopped, she looked around and said, “Oh, a road is here.”
“And he probably took the road back to the restaurant and picked up his vehicle, so it looked like he was coming from a completely different direction and then took off,” he muttered to himself.
“Is that a good deduction then or a bad one?”
“It just make sense,” he said. “Again look at Bernie. She’s picked up the same scent, I believe.” He looked at Addie, smiled, and said, “No right or wrong. Just gathering theories.”
“Ah.” Again she didn’t quite understand, but, if it made him happy and if it got them farther down the road to figuring out who and what was going on here, she was all for it. “I would like to figure out who did this,” she said. “I’ll have nightmares about you disappearing off the face of the Earth because I couldn’t find you.”
“But you did find me,” he said.
“Only when we started calling for the dog,” she said, looking down at Bernie. “She stayed quiet at your side the whole time.”
“Yes, but, when I was attacked, she took off,” he said. “Or went to the bathroom.”
“Then she got confused with the other man or men with you, so she followed you here, or you ordered her to stay?” she said with a shrug. “Who’s to say what went through the dog’s mind at the time?”
He just nodded and continued to walk. As they arrived at the restaurant again, she noted they’d been walking for about ninety minutes. “Interesting to see that all of this evidence is still here,” she said. “I guess if it had rained, all of it would have been gone, wouldn’t it?”
“To a certain extent, yes,” he said. “Certainly any rain washes away a lot of it, bu
t, in the brush there, we don’t see a whole lot of other tracks. So I don’t imagine those tracks would have been affected as much because they would have been protected from the heavy rainfall.”
“What about the dog? Can Bernie track the footprints?”
She looked at Tucker, as he looked at Bernie, shrugged, and said, “I’m not sure who and what to track. I don’t have anything of the guy who knocked me out and kidnapped me, and she didn’t show any kind of hostile reaction when we were at the location where you found me.”
“Right,” she said. “What about looking for the accelerant? Would she tell you if it was the same guys?”
“I don’t know. We still must direct her somehow, so I can understand the results of what we’re getting.”
“Right,” she said, feeling frustrated over the whole issue.
They stayed outside for another twenty minutes, walking near the restaurant, and she asked, “Do you see anything?”
“No,” he said, stopping at the road his attacker left by. Tucker said, “Let’s go back the same way we came in, and I’ll take another look.”
Bernie was happy to tag along.
“Why would you ever worry about anybody coming back here?”
“I’d be happy if he did,” he said quietly. “It would give me a chance to fight him face-to-face.”
“That doesn’t make me any happier,” she said.
He smiled, nodded, and said, “Sometimes it’s what we need to do though. Fighting hidden enemies is almost impossible. You must look into the shadows, so that you can really see who you’re fighting.”
She nodded and stayed quiet. Bernie was much less excited about the smells this second time around.
As they walked back to where she found him, she shivered. “I don’t like this place,” she whispered. He stood up from his crouch, reached for her hand, and murmured, “The good news is,” he said, “we don’t have to stay here.”
She smiled, and he grabbed her hand, and slowly they walked back. Just as they were about to leave the brush and to head into more of an open area back to the parking lot, she heard an odd noise, before she was suddenly slammed to the ground. As he dropped on top of her, she realized that odd noise she’d heard had been a bullet.
