by C. J. Carson
“What do you mean ‘too early’? It’s eleven o’clock, girl, rise and shine!”
I put the pillow over my head. “No way!”
“Yes, way! Get up, sleepyhead.”
I peeked out from under the pillow. “Really, is it really eleven a.m.?”
“Yes, and Josh went out to get us each a toothbrush and some things for breakfast. He and Jake are cooking bacon, eggs, and biscuits as we speak! Get up, freshen up, and join the living!”
“Okay, give me a minute. I’ll be right down.”
I got up, washed my face, and used my new toothbrush. Throwing on my robe, I went downstairs. There they were in all their glory, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. “How are you guys up and moving already?”
“We have been up for hours. I have already been to the store and back.” Josh chuckled. “You must have slept like a log. It must have been all that wine last night.”
I smiled. “Must have been. I feel so drained. It must be a hangover.”
Claudia smirked. “You didn’t drink that much. My guess is that you didn’t get enough sleep.”
I threw her some eye daggers. “What do you mean by that?”
“Well, I guess we did go to bed quite late!”
Walking by her, I whispered, “Good save, my friend.”
***
Per Payne’s orders, we stayed at the cabin for a couple of days. On Tuesday, they cleared us to leave and return home. That evening, I met Claudia at the house. We were sitting at the counter, preparing dinner.
“So, are you planning to continue working with the police? I mean, I know you, and you can’t help yourself sometimes.”
“No, Claudia, I think that is you. I am only helping them to figure out what is going on with my stalker.”
“With your help, they found Patricia Cole, didn’t they?”
I jumped up and ran to the oven to pull out two cake pans. “Whew, that was close!
“Don’t try to change the subject, Allie, and what about that little girl, what is her name, Jennie?”
Yes, her name is Jennie. They are still working on that one with her parents, but the case is still open. So, can we please not talk about the Patricia Cole case, the Jennie Slater case, or any other case tonight? I want to just have some fun and besides, there is something I would like to run by you. Let’s get this food to the table so we can eat and talk.” I handed her the salad and rolls.
We sat down to eat and as was typical, Claudia’s curiosity was getting the best of her. Before I could get situated, she chirped, “So don’t keep me waiting. What do you want to talk about?”
I paused just enough to let her squirm a few seconds more. “Well, I have been thinking. This place is so big for me and your little apartment is so ridiculously small.”
Claudia jumped out of her chair with excitement. “Yes, yes, one thousand times yes!”
“Wait, you don’t even know what I was going to ask.”
“Yes, I do! You want me to move here to the beach house with you! Right?”
“Well, not exactly.”
She slumped back down in her chair like I had burst her birthday balloon. “Well, what then?”
“I have someone interested in leasing this place, and I am thinking we could get an apartment in the city. Something smaller than this place that has a studio for you and is closer to work for me. Frankly, since we want to spend more time doing fun things together, I think it would be great!”
Claudia lifted her glass to toast. “I think so, too. Let’s do it!”
I got up and grabbed the newspaper on the kitchen counter. “Great! I’ve already been looking at the classifieds. Let’s check it out.”
Chapter 18
ACROSS TOWN, PAYNE CALLED JAKE ON his cell. “Hey, Jake, where are you?”
“At home. Why?”
“I’m on my way to pick you up. We have a homicide; I’ll be there in ten. This one is close to home, and they specifically asked for us.”
“What do you mean they asked for us? You mean, as in you and me specifically?”
“Just be ready, Jake.”
When Payne arrived, Jake was waiting on the curb. He climbed into the patrol car. “What’s going on, Payne?”
“It’s not good. It’s a homicide, and it’s the mayor’s wife. He found her when he got home tonight and their five-year-old granddaughter, who was staying with them, is missing.”
“What?”
Payne brought Jake up to speed on what was happening as they drove to the scene. “They already have a team there investigating. Forensics is there and a group of detectives from homicide.”
When Jake and Payne arrived and entered the house, it was buzzing with activity. Mayor McKenna was sitting on the couch in the living room, slouched over with his head in his hands. As he looked up, he yelled, “Oh, thank goodness you’re here! We need that woman you’ve been working with, you know, the one who helped you locate Patricia Cole? Where is she? Why isn’t she with you now?”
Surprised, Payne blurted out, “How do you know about her?”
“Are you kidding? That is all everyone is talking about at the town offices. Whoever killed my wife kidnapped my granddaughter. We have to find her. If the things I am hearing about that woman are true, I want her here helping us!”
“Wait, first we haven’t been working with her. She was just connected to that case in some way. I don’t know if she can be of any help with this case.”
“Listen, Payne, I don’t care what you know or don’t know. I want you to get her on the horn and get her over here right now.”
As Payne looked around for Jake, he saw him talking on his cell. He turned to Payne. “Already on it, sir!”
***
“Hi, Allie?”
“Hey, Jake! Long time no talk.”
“Listen, Allie, Detective Payne and I need to see you right away.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“I can’t explain right now. Can you meet me at the park in front of the fountain downtown in, say, ten minutes? I wouldn’t ask, but this is a high-profile case.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Great, see you there!”
I looked at Claudia. “That was Jake and they want me to help them on another case right now.”
“Okay, Allie, this is getting ridiculous. You have a life, you know, and you aren’t on their payroll!”
“I get that, Claudia, but he sounded desperate and said it was an important case!”
Still very annoyed, she conceded. “Okay, so much for our planning our new adventure. I’ll wrap your dish for when you come home.”
“Thank you.” I grabbed my bag and keys and gave her a peck on the cheek. “I’ll be back as soon as I can and we will start making our plans for our new pad! Did I really say that? I guess I’m hanging with you too much!”
When I got to the park, Jake was waiting for me. He got in my car. “Jake, where are we going?”
“Do you think you are up to working on another case with us?”
“What? Are you kidding? I just left a nice dinner with my best friend and told her I would be back soon. I thought you just needed my advice or something.” With no response from Jake, except for a puzzling look, I continued. “I’m not going to be back soon, am I?”
“Uh… No, I’m afraid not. Look, we wouldn’t have involved you, but this was a request by Mayor McKenna.”
“What? Are you kidding me? The mayor?”
Jake put his hand on my shoulder. “Look, Allie, his wife has been murdered and his granddaughter was taken from their home. He is hysterical! He had heard about you through the grapevine and insisted we call you immediately.”
I took a deep breath to collect myself. “Okay, I guess you couldn’t say no to him and honestly, under the circumstances, I couldn’t have either.”
When we arrived at the mayor’s home, Payne greeted us at the door. “Hi, Allie, please come in.”
The mayor rushed over to us. “Thank you so much
for coming, Ms. Callahan!”
“Please, call me Allie.”
As he shook my hand, he asked, “What do you need? Where do we start?”
What was I to say to that? This was all so new to me; I wasn’t even sure where to begin. “Can I look around?”
“Certainly, please come in.”
As I walked through the house and entered the living room, I felt a sudden lightness and a slight chill. There was a small end table on the far side of an overstuffed couch. Under the table was a small, stuffed bear. I had a flash of a small girl weeping and being dragged out from under the table against her will. I could sense that when she dropped the bear, she became frantic. I stopped and looked at Payne.
The mayor saw my face. “What? What is it? Do you know something?” His voice became loud and desperate. “Payne, how does this work? Is she seeing something or sensing something?”
“Look, Mayor McKenna, you need to let her just look around. Jake, can you take Mayor McKenna to the kitchen and get him a glass of water?”
“I don’t need water!”
“Please, sir, let us do our job.”
As Jake escorted the mayor out of the room, Payne turned to me with a desperate and questioning look. “Well?”
I bent down and pulled the stuffed bear out from under the table. “This is definitely where she was hiding when she was taken, but that is all I am getting. I don’t know how this works, Payne. I don’t have control over it, at least not yet.”
For the next two hours, we continued to move around the house searching for anything. There were no more signs of the girl, physically or otherwise. “Look, Payne, I am so sorry, but I am not getting the sense that she is here in the house anymore. I don’t pretend to know how this all works, but I am getting nothing else. The one thing I can say is that I don’t feel she has passed. I think she is still very much alive, but that is it.”
“I don’t think I will share that with the mayor, but it is a little comforting to me, I think. It seems that you have done all you can here for now, so if you could give Jake a ride back to the patrol car, that would be great. I appreciate your coming.”
I had to agree. “Okay, will you let me know if you find anything else? Maybe I can still be of help, I’m not sure.”
When I got back to the house, Claudia was waiting for me. “Hey, Al, where have you been? Supper was great. I saved your dish. Let me heat it up for you.”
As Claudia pulled my meal out of the microwave and brought it to the counter, I explained the events of the evening to her.
“So that’s all you got? Just a vision of her being taken out from under the table?”
“That’s it, nothing else. Heaven knows we tried. We spent over two hours moving around the house. I couldn’t get anything else, but I was getting a sense that the girl was scared and still very much alive.”
Claudia poured us both a glass of wine. “Hey, Al, what about your box of tricks or trinkets, whatever you call them? Maybe something in there might help. It can’t hurt to try.”
“You’re right, let’s try it.”
I collected the box and brought it back to the counter. As I opened it, the small dream catcher lured me. I picked it up, closed my eyes, and tried to concentrate for a few seconds. Growing a little frustrated, I opened my eyes and blurted out, “Nothing! Absolutely nothing!”
“There are a lot of trinkets in that box; maybe that is not the right one. You know, the right tool for this job.”
“I’ll try, but who knows?”
Claudia pushed the box closer to me as I pulled a few things out one at a time. I noticed a small black ball made of twine. I lifted it from the box and as I set it on the counter, it rolled off and onto the floor. When I reached to pick it up, it rolled from my grasp. It continued to behave in this manner until it reached the large broom closet at the far side of the kitchen. I slowly opened the door, entered the closet, and closed it behind me. When Claudia reached the closet and opened it, I was sitting on the floor, curled up with my knees to my chest.
Claudia looked dumbstruck. “Allie, are you okay?”
I looked up with a combination of panic and some relief, if that was even possible. “I’m fine! She is in an office building. The mayor’s granddaughter is in an office building. It’s an old, brick building. It has a freight elevator…no, a dumbwaiter.”
Claudia looked a little more than confused. “What’s a dumbwaiter?”
“It’s a small box that operates like an elevator to move objects or food from one floor to the next. I think it’s on his property somewhere. They need to get to her. She is in real danger. Where’s my cell?”
“It’s on the counter.”
I darted out of the closet, grabbed my cell phone and called Payne. Impatiently, I paced around the kitchen, mumbling, “Come on, Payne, pick up!”
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he answered. “Hello, Detective Payne here.”
“Payne, oh my, God, I am so glad to reach you! Are you still at the mayor’s?”
“Yeah, we’re just wrapping it up for the night.”
“No! No! Listen, Payne, you need to talk to the mayor. I think his granddaughter is still on the property somewhere. Ask him if there is an old, large, brick building on the property and if it has a dumbwaiter in the kitchen.”
“Hold on, he is right here. I am putting you on speaker so you can talk directly to him.”
“Mayor McKenna, is there an old, brick building on your property? Possibly an old office building?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Is there a dumbwaiter in the kitchen of the building?”
“Yes, yes there is!”
“Payne, could you please take me off speaker?”
The mayor spoke up. “No, I need to hear this!”
Against the mayor’s wishes, he took me off the speaker. “Payne, I think she’s in the dumbwaiter. I believe she witnessed the murder and they intend to burn the building down with her in it as soon as everyone has left the property.”
“Okay, we’re on it. Thanks. I hope you’re right about this.”
“Yeah, me, too! Keep me posted.”
“You bet!”
Walking from the kitchen to the office to retrieve the classifieds and a pen, I turned to Claudia with a smirky smile. “I need to get my mind off of all this stuff. You still want to get an apartment together? You could back out now.”
“Are you kidding and miss out on all this mystery and adventure? Not on your life. Let’s go finish that bottle of wine and start searching for our new home.”
I passed her a pen and paper. “Okay, you’re on. You take the notes!”
Claudia and I both fell asleep in the living room, making our plans for the future, and waiting for a call from Payne. My cell finally rang at 3:30 a.m.
“Hi, Payne, do you have good news?”
“I won’t keep you. I know it’s late, but yes, I most certainly do. We found the mayor’s granddaughter exactly where you said we would, but even better, we apprehended the two guys who took her. You were right; we caught them red-handed, pouring accelerant all over the building.”
“Who are they?”
“A couple of thugs, looking for what they thought was an easy payday. It appears it was a robbery gone bad, and they didn’t want to leave any witnesses.”
“Thanks for calling, Payne. Please tell the mayor how sorry I am for his loss.”
“No, thank you! You’re getting to be quite the celebrity around the town offices, but we are going to try to squash those little rumors. I told the mayor you did not want this to be public.”
“I appreciate that, Payne. Talk to you soon.”
Claudia looked so comfortable sleeping on the couch I didn’t wake her. I curled up on the recliner and was sleeping almost as soon as I put my head back on the chair.
Chapter 19
I WOKE THE NEXT MORNING AT eight-thirty to the smell of coffee brewing in the kitchen. Claudia walked into the great room with two
large mugs.
“Here you go, girl, just like you like it. Did you hear from Payne last night?”
“Yes, I did. I am happy to report they found the mayor’s granddaughter safe and sound.”
“That’s great! You sure have a knack for this. You better be careful or they’re going to put you on the force.”
“Ha, ha! Very funny!”
“All kidding aside, I am so excited. I thought maybe we should get an early start this morning if we are going to begin our new life and look at apartments today.”
“That sounds like a plan to me. I’ll need to call the office and let them know I won’t be coming in, not that I have been spending a lot of time there lately, anyway. Let’s do it!”
We showered, dressed, and were in the car with the listings we had circled in the paper in less than an hour. The first stop was a three-bedroom, in a condo complex located just on the edge of the city. That rental was a no-go. There was not a room with sufficient light for Claudia’s studio, so we moved on.
We were at our last stop; a building called the Summit. We walked into the lobby. Claudia took one look, turned, and started walking out. “Oh no, this is a place where I can’t afford my part of the rent!”
I laughed. “Come on, Claudia, let’s just give it a look!”
“Are you kidding? I couldn’t even afford to rent a ten-by-ten storage space in the basement of this place!”
I grabbed her arm and stepped in front of her. “You never know. The ad said, ‘motivated renter.’ This is a secure building and we could relax and not worry about our intruder here. Let’s just take a look, okay?”
“Allie, you are looking for a big disappointment, we—”
“Hey, what has happened to my curious and fun sidekick? I am usually the practical one!”
“You’re right. When did we switch roles in this friendship? You’re on. I definitely can’t let you take that role from me!”
We went to the front desk to inquire. “Hello, sir, my name is Allie Callahan, and this is Claudia Buchanan. We called this morning about an apartment for rent here?”
