After Mamasan and Asnee finished trussing us up like Thanksgiving Day turkeys, they bound BeeBee’s hands in front of her, flipped the light switch off, and left. I heard the bolt slide into place and the clamp of the lock being put back on.
Sitting very still, we all listened. My eyes adjusted to the dim room, not pitch black thanks to the sliver of light trickling around the edges of the door from the hall, but I dared not move until Mamasan and Asnee were definitely gone.
After long minutes with only the sound of Alice sniffling, I scooted to Sam. She spun around backward to me and I maneuvered the leg with the pocket at my knee containing the knife up against her hands. Thank goodness I don’t button these cargo pockets – the thought whizzed through my head as seconds drew out and Sam painstakingly fumbled around until, at last, she was able to grab the knife. For a moment, it felt like her bound hands were going to be stuck in the pocket, her fists too big to withdraw. Determined, she yanked free. Now, what to do with the knife? I tried to picture Sam opening it behind her back and cutting the zip tie and gulped behind the gag, images of bloody fingers coming to mind.
I felt Sam shift away from me and could just make out her shape scooting away in the dim light. Smart, Sam! She scooted right up to Griff and, I assumed, plopped the knife into his fingers.
Snap!
The waiting was torturous, but at last the pluck of plastic giving way sounded and Griff was moving fast. With a flick of his wrist, he severed the plastic from his feet and shuffled to the light switch. After a few swipes of his hand on the wall, he found it and light glared down at us again.
Griff knelt and carefully cut Sam loose and then me. Helping me to my feet, Griff squeezed my hands; leaning his forehead against mine, he whispered. “Do you have to keep getting kidnapped?”
I smiled wide. “Just following your lead.”
“Griff,” Sam said, swatting at her brother. “You have to cut Landon loose.”
“Do I?”
I shook my head at the grin steeling over his face.
“Yes.” Sam crossed her arms and pursed her lips at him.
I dropped to my knees beside BeeBee, cradling her head, as Griff freed both Landon and a sobbing Alice. Sam knelt with Alice, trying to quieten her before we were discovered.
I shook BeeBee gently. Stirring, her eyes opened and her mouth widened as if she were going to scream. With her knocked out, Asnee hadn’t bound her feet or gagged her.
“Shh.” I put a finger to my lips. “It’s okay. Griff is going to cut you loose.” I nodded at him.
With slow hands, he showed her the knife. At her nod, Griff knelt and cut the band from BeeBee’s wrists. She rubbed the back of her head and winced in pain.
“You have a knot,” I told her. “We need to get you to a hospital to check for a concussion or bleeding. Are you okay?”
“A little dizzy,” she admitted. “I’ll live.”
I helped her slide over to sit beside Alice and she took over comforting the frightened woman.
Sam, Landon, Griff and I huddled together to form a plan.
“What do we have to use as a weapon besides Piper’s knife?” Landon asked.
“Weapons!”
“Shush!” I put a hand over Sam’s mouth.
At the raised eyebrow, I removed it.
“Weapons? I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Sam whispered.
“Listen, we don’t know if they have more people coming or not.” Griff looked at each of us. “If we are doing this, it has to be now. Landon and I can break down the door, but it is going to cause a lot of noise.”
Landon nodded. “They’ll be ready for us. Just because we haven’t seen a gun doesn’t mean they don’t have one handy. You two stay back until we’re sure. Then, if you get the chance, take down Mamasan. Griff and I will stop Asnee.”
“Is this where we put our hands in and yell break?” I asked. BeeBee snorted in the corner.
Sam pinched me and I smothered a laugh. “What? I wasn’t the cheerleader or the football player; I don’t know how these team things work.”
“You need your head checked,” Sam rolled her eyes at me and huffed.
Clearly, we handle high stress situations differently. I took her hand and squeezed. “We are almost out of here. We can do this.”
“What makes you so sure?” she asked.
“Because I’m hungry,” I answered with a shrug. “You know nothing gets in the way of food for me.”
“Oh, boy. Step back Griff, Landon. You might as well let Piper break down the door. She nearly removed an indecisive four-year-old from the ice cream parlor once for taking too much time in line before us; she’s a menace.”
She said it with all the sarcasm she could muster, but Sam still smiled at me. I could see her relaxing and getting ready for what had to be done.
Crash!
Thud-thud-thud.
Chapter 29
We jumped. The noise came from somewhere else in the building; not a single one of us had moved a muscle.
“What in the world?” Scenarios of the building being torn down around us or men on the way to kill us flitted through my brain. I had no idea how to reconcile the sudden burst of sound into our quiet captivity.
Alice shook and sobbed in full now, loud wailing cries mixed with pleas for forgiveness.
BeeBee, giving up on her task of calming the woman, came and huddled between Sam and Landon.
The noises drew closer. Shouting voices could be heard, but no words distinguished.
“Help!” Alice screamed; a shrill, desperate screech. Sam ran back to her and tried to hush the yells. “Hellllp!” Alice continued.
Pounding footsteps made their way to our door. It shook.
“Break this lock!” someone demanded from the hallway.
Griff and Landon squared their feet, arms up, bracing for a fight while I tugged BeeBee backward from the door. We had no idea who would be coming through it.
Violent banging commenced. The lock gave way and the door crashed open.
Hands dropping to their sides, Griff and Landon relaxed their posture.
I peered around them and relief coursed through me. “Officer Campbell!”
“How did you find us?” Sam exclaimed.
“Everybody okay in here?” Officer Campbell asked before his eyes lit on Landon. “You.”
“I can explain,” Landon lifted his palms up as he stepped up to the officer. “I didn’t hurt Arthur or Coco.”
“You left the site when everyone was explicitly ordered to stay put. Because of you, my men have been on a wild goose chase.”
“I only needed to find some answers.” Landon held his hands.
“Finding answers is my job,” Officer Campbell growled. “You’re going to have to come back to the station.”
“Officer Campbell,” I interrupted. “BeeBee needs to go to a hospital.”
“And Regina, you have to catch Regina. She’s behind all of this.” Sam waved her arms, her lips a tight line of anger instead of her typical carefree smile.
“Quiet!” Officer Campbell yelled. Silence fell, interrupted by each hiccupped-breath Alice let out, her sobs finally subsiding.
“First, EMTs are on their way for this young lady,” he pointed to BeeBee. “After that, we are all going to take a trip to the station where I will get each of your statements and sort this mess out. Regina Wilson has been picked up based on a tip,” he eyed the group and Landon shuffled his feet. “So far, we have no evidence to hold her. I’m still unclear what role each of you had to play and none of this changes the fact that the poison, the murder weapon itself, made an appearance in the possession of you, Miss Rivers.”
“But I was kidnapped!” Surely, we can’t still be back to this. “I didn’t lock myself up in here.”
Officer Campbell narrowed his eyes at me. Then, ignoring us, he shouted orders at nearby deputies to escort us to the vehicles outside and on to the police station.
“Look on the bright side, Pipe
r,” Griff whispered as we trudged down the hall. “Maybe down at the jail you’ll get a frequent visitor prize.”
“Ha-ha-ha,” I stuck my tongue out at him.
Outside, rain drizzled down. Through the drops pelting the windows of one police cruiser, I could see Mamasan handcuffed in the back seat. Whether or not Asnee had been captured, I couldn’t tell.
BeeBee as well as Alice were led to an ambulance. The doors closed behind them and the vehicle sped off.
Leading the rest of us to dark SUVs, the deputies helped us inside and slammed the door. We were not, I can happily report, handcuffed or under arrest at this point.
“It could be worse,” Sam said, reading my mind.
Out the window, lights could be seen flipping on throughout the Thai Massage Parlor. Police clearly were continuing their search of the building. I turned to better face the others. “Since we have time, why don’t one of you explain how you got kidnapped.” I grinned at Griff and Landon, crossing my arms. Bound to be an interesting story, I couldn’t wait to hear it.
“Yeah, the last time we heard, you were on your way to check up on us.” Sam raised her eyebrows.
“We can’t save the interrogation for the police?” Griff asked, a wry grin teasing at the corner of his mouth.
“Nope.” Shaking my head, I looked between the two. “Who wants to start?”
Landon stretched both arms out in front of him, cracking his knuckles. “First off, I might have called in an anonymous tip to Officer Campbell about Chaplain Moore and Regina. I still wasn’t sure who murdered Arthur or why, but I needed the police looking for someone besides me while we investigated.”
“And we actually did come back to the retreat,” Griff added. “Right as we pulled up, Regina tore out of the parking lot like a madwoman. Landon insisted we follow her. I planned to call you and tell you where we ended up, but things happened too fast.”
Glancing out the window, I watched the police carry cardboard boxes, draped protectively with plastic, and put them in the trunk of the cruiser. Curious as to what they found but knowing Officer Grumpy would be unlikely to share, I turned back to listen to the guys’ tale.
“Regina rushed straight back to the massage parlor. I decided to go in and confront her, find out what business she had there; Griff agreed to come in as backup.” Landon rubbed his neck. “We could hear yelling as soon as we got inside. I found Regina screaming at Alice about keeping her mouth shut. I tried to stop her, but when Regina turned around, I saw she had a gun.”
“Unlike Landon, I didn’t rush in. Two of Regina’s thugs caught me in the hall before I could call anybody. I managed to take one of them down but the other had some kind of insane martial arts moves; he tripped me and then Regina held the gun on both Landon and I while we were bound.”
I had difficulty picturing someone taking down Griff, but having seen Asnee in person I would guess he had the skills to pull it off.
“That must have been where Regina went after we saw her leave Roy’s cabin,” Sam said.
“Yes,” I agreed. “She already had Alice and came to check her bases, make sure nobody else knew whatever Alice wanted to tell us.”
“I think I know what that was,” Landon said.
“Oh?”
“Yes. Alice was a wreck. She kept swearing to Regina that she didn’t tell anyone about getting the girls from her. You two said Coco came into the kitchen with the cleaning ladies yesterday morning?” At Sam’s nod, Landon continued. “I think Regina operated multiple trafficking rings – sex and labor – and that she supplied Alice with girls to work for next to nothing.”
“How in the world would Alice get mixed up in that?” I wondered.
“Who knows,” he shrugged.
Griff spoke up, “What I want to know is how you two found us?”
“On accident,” I shrugged.
Sam snorted. “Yes, Piper’s genius plan to get information that actually ended up getting us captured.”
We explained about talking to Roy and worrying about putting Alice in danger by going to the police, the phone call to Griff’s phone, and our actions from there.
“Oh my gosh!” I sat bolt upright and clapped my hands over my mouth. “My phone!”
“I’m sure we can get your phone later,” Sam said.
“No, you don’t understand. I’ve got to find that phone now.” Leaping from the car, I ran across the parking lot, headless of the puddles I splashed through.
I must have looked a fright at best or deranged at worst, sopping wet and running full-tilt for the door; the two deputies at the entrance made a grab for me, one touching a hand to his weapon.
“Officer Campbell,” I pleaded, raising my hands up and slowing. “Please, I’ve got to speak with Officer Campbell.”
The deputies shared a look. “Wait here,” one said, disappearing into the doorway leaving his partner to watch the crazy lady standing in the rain.
“What do you want?” sour-faced as ever, Officer Campbell placed both hands on his hips and remained in the dry shelter of the building.
“Officer, that woman stole my phone.” With one arm I pointed to Mamasan in the cruiser, never looking away.
“Miss Rivers, a charge of theft is not even a drop in the bucket amongst the crimes I plan to charge that woman with. Now, go wait in the car.” He turned.
“Wait. I need it.” I begged. “Please, did someone get it off of her? Do you have it? It’s important.”
“You young people and your blasted technology obsession.” Officer Campbell stomped toward me. “I won’t have my investigation interrupted for this nonsense.”
“You don’t understand. I have Regina’s confession to the kidnapping recorded.”
Chapter 30
“Thank God we’re almost home!” Sam did a little happy dance in the passenger seat of my truck.
“I know. Who knew two days away could be so exhausting?”
“I still can’t believe you forgot you had an app on your phone that records all of your calls. We could have handed that recording to the police right away and saved ourselves a lot of close calls.”
Shrugging, ignoring the embarrassment tinging my cheeks, I played it off. “Then we would have missed all the action.”
“Good. I’m done with action. Heck, I’m done with action movies, action figures, the word action, all of it!”
I grinned to see Sam struggling to hold a straight face. Her sunny disposition would be back in full force in no time.
“Do you want me to take you home or stop by the bakery?” I asked her.
I glanced over to find her giving me the one raised eyebrow look. I laughed.
“The bakery!” we said together.
We drove past the front of the shop, pleased to see a small crowd inside so close to closing, before parking in the back lot.
In the back, Flo hauled two small garbage bags to the dumpster. I waved as Sam called a hello. Flo nodded and smiled.
“It’s still bothering me that her business is doing badly,” I whispered to Sam. “We have to do something.”
The back door swung open, taking us by surprise.
“You’re back!” Victoria skipped over and wrapped us up in a hug. “I’m so glad you’re back. Piper, you have to try this incredible cookie. Also, I had no idea how hard it is to bake all the time. My feet are killing me. Do your feet kill you, too? How was your trip? Did everyone like the desserts?”
“Whoa! Slow down, Victoria.” Sam smiled and hugged the girl again. “Are you okay?”
“Who me? Sure, I’m fine. Quite fine. I was a little tired yesterday but then Millie made me some coffee and so that helped. I’ve had lots of coffee today. I accidentally spilled some coffee in the cookies actually, but then they were delicious so I ate those with my coffee drink, too. Come on, I want you to try them.”
With her feet flying as fast as her words, Victoria pulled us into the kitchen and promptly deposited us on stools. I shook my head.
�
��Someone is way over-caffeinated,” Sam whispered.
“Yep,” I agreed watching Victoria dish cookies up onto plates which nearly went flying when she whirled around and speed-walked them to us.
The cookie presented prettily on the plate, a nice tan color with beautiful drizzles over the top. “What flavors are those?” I asked, pointing to the stripes zig-zagging across the cookies.
“Milk chocolate and caramel,” Victoria answered.
“I can’t wait to taste them!” Sam picked up a cookie and took a large bite. As she chewed, her eyes grew wider and wider.
Curious, I nibbled a tiny bite, barely more than a crumb, from my cookie. The caramel coated my tongue in a pleasant taste for a moment before an incredible jolt of coffee flavor took over. How it was physically possible to fit that much coffee into a mere morsel, I had no idea. No wonder Sam’s face registered such shock – she had nearly half a cookie in that one bite.
“Wow,” I kept my tone casual as I looked up at Victoria. She bounced on her toes, hands clasped in front of her, looking as eager as a puppy for praise. “Tell me how you made these.”
“Sure. I had a plain ol’ shortbread cookie dough all mixed up this afternoon and stopped to drink some more coffee. I sat drinking my coffee and staring at the dough trying to decide if I should jazz it up any, when Millie started talking right beside me. I didn’t even know she had come in the kitchen so I jumped about a mile high. That’s how I made the cookies.”
I cocked my head sideways, as if maybe hearing the words a different direction would make sense of them.
Sam must have been puzzled as well; after swallowing several gulps of water, she asked, “Victoria? How did shortbread cookies become coffee cookies? What did you add?”
“My whole double espresso,” she answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I spilt it all in the batter when Millie scared me. I thought about throwing it out, but decided to stir it in and see what happened after I baked it.” She smiled. “Now, tell me – what do you think?”
“Lots of coffee flavor,” Sam said.
“Very strong.” I nodded as I tried to hide the rest of my cookie under a napkin. “Good idea to add the milk chocolate and caramel stripes.”
Ooey Gooey Bakery Mystery Box Set Page 29
