by Rose Pressey
“Excuse me,” Conrad yelled out to the bookstore owner.
He turned around and looked over his shoulder. When he saw me a frown instantly spread across his face.
“You stay away from me,” he called out.
“I didn’t exactly make a good impression the first time,” I said.
“We need to speak with you about the detective who was in your bookstore and is now missing. Do you have any surveillance video?” Conrad asked.
He started walking faster down the sidewalk away from us. I wasn’t sure how much faster I could go. I was already running while everyone else was still walking.
“Hello, short legs here,” I said.
Now I was panting trying to catch up.
“It will just take a second to ask you a few questions. Can you please stop?” Conrad asked.
Now the bookstore owner ran at full speed and Conrad started running after him. There was no way I would be able to keep up. But I was trying my best. If I collapsed on the street would someone call an ambulance? Now my side was hurting.
“Please call the police. These people are after me,” the bookstore owner yelled.
Strangers on the street watched us suspiciously and then all of a sudden some man tackled Conrad. They landed on the pavement with a thud. That would definitely leave a bruise.
“Get off him,” I yelled. “He’s a detective with the National Organization of Magic. And that man is wanted for questioning and now he got away,” I said.
I was so angry. I bet I could probably pull that big guy off Conrad, as angry as I was. Luckily, the guy listened to me and got off Conrad. Conrad managed to get to his feet.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said.
“Sorry about that, man. I just assumed that you all were running after the guy for bad reasons.”
“It’s all right,” Conrad said with agitation in his voice.
“Now what do we do?” I asked.
“I guess we go back to our Plan B. But if that guy thinks he’s going to get away without talking to us then he’s mistaken. We’ll be waiting for him first thing in the morning when he opens.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking. I like that plan.”
The detective and I headed back toward the bookstore. I hoped that some of the other stores were open. When we reached the post office, we stopped and looked around to see what was open.
“Any lights on?” I asked.
“Just that restaurant down there. It’s a little bit away but it could still provide something good.”
“Let’s go,” I said.
When we got closer, I recognized the place. Luckily, I knew the owner. When we reached the door, the host at the door asked if we had reservations.
“No, but I need to speak with Albert,” I said.
“I’m not sure if he has time to talk to anybody right now. You don’t have a reservation?” the man asked again.
“No, I know Albert and if you tell him Elly is here I’m sure he’ll talk to me.”
Chapter 22
The man looked at me reluctantly but then ultimately turned and headed across the restaurant floor.
“He didn’t seem that happy,” Conrad said.
“I know Albert will talk to me.”
I paced to try to get rid of nervous energy as we waited. When I finally stopped in one spot I shifted from foot to foot. Watching people as they came and went from the restaurant, I grew more anxious. It felt like forever, but it really was only a couple minutes before Albert appeared and headed our way. Immediately he smiled, so I knew I’d been correct in my assessment that he would talk to me. Take that, guy working at the door.
“Elly, it’s so good to see you. Are you dining tonight? I don’t know if I’m up to preparing food for you. You are the expert, I can’t live up to that.”
“Now you’re making me blush,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Sadly, we’re here for something not great. I appreciate your offer though. Your food is fantastic.”
“Thank you,” he said. “But what can I do for you?”
“We’re trying to find a detective. We think he was kidnapped. Can we see your surveillance video?”
“Of course, come back with me to the office. I can pull it up on the computer. We can get a better view than my phone,” he said.
Conrad and I followed him through the restaurant. I hoped that something would show up. I tried to keep the positive attitude, though the negative kept wanting to rear its ugly head and knock the positive out of the way. We followed Albert back into the office.
Soon he clicked on his computer. “It’ll just take a second.”
“I really appreciate this,” I said.
My anxiety was almost more than I could handle while we waited for the screen to appear. Conrad leaned close for a good look at the screen. It only took a couple minutes until I spotted Tom.
“There he is,” I said.
Albert stopped the film for just a moment.
“He’s getting into the car just like Mildred,” I said.
Albert looked confused because he had no idea what that meant, but nevertheless, he played the film again so that we could see the scene play out. Kris Kringle got in his car and it looked as if Tom was perfectly fine with climbing in the passenger seat with him.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “This is so strange. How will we ever find him?”
“Can you roll the film back and maybe we can get a license plate number and track this man?” Conrad asked.
Albert played it back, but it was the same as before. We couldn’t make it out. Time was not on our side right now. I really didn’t think that Tom would go away with this man on his own. There was something definitely bad happening.
“What do we do now?” I asked.
When he didn’t have an answer right away I really started to panic.
“Let me think about this for a minute.” He ran his hand through his hair.
Okay, he really didn’t have a plan. I supposed I needed to think of something.
“Thank you, Albert, for the help,” I said.
“Glad I could help. If there’s anything else, let me know. Are you sure you don’t want to stay for dinner?” Albert asked.
“Absolutely. We have to find the detective.”
“I understand, some other time,” he said.
Conrad and I hurried back through the restaurant and outside onto the sidewalk. Once there we stood and looked at each other for a moment. I supposed each of us was waiting for the other to come up with a plan. I hated to admit I had nothing.
“I suppose we could look for more footage and see if we can get a license plate number,” I said.
“I don’t think there are any other places open that we can check the cameras for right now,” he said. “We’ll have to wait until the morning. I suppose there’s nothing we can do tonight.”
That wasn’t an acceptable answer for me. I couldn’t wait until the morning. What would I do until then? All this time I’d thought I would be the one possibly kidnapped, maybe Mary Jane or Laura, but not Tom. I’d thought he could get out of any situation. All I knew was that Mildred and Tom were both missing and had left with Kris Kringle seemingly on purpose, which I knew couldn’t possibly be the case with Tom. Now I was doubting whether Mildred had left with him on purpose too. What kind of trick had this guy played to get them in the car with him? Maybe he had told Tom that he would take him to Mildred.
“Follow me over here,” I said, motioning over my shoulder.
Conrad looked suspicious, but he did as I asked and followed me down the sidewalk.
I stopped by a bus sign. “This is exactly where we saw Tom get in the car with Kris Kringle. It’s right across from the bookstore and where his car was parked. So we ran behind the bookstore building chasing the man. I don’t think he would have time to go all the way down the block and come back up to this car in the amount of time it took me to run to the front.
I would’ve seen them.”
“How do you think they got to the car without you seeing them?” Conrad asked.
“Perhaps they went back to the bookstore when I went around the corner. They were out there somewhere. Or else he was never in the bookstore and ran into a different store.”
“Maybe the one next to the bookstore,” Conrad said.
Conrad and I looked at the store that was right beside the bookstore.
“What is that place?” he asked.
“It looks like they sell spices. I don’t remember this place. And me dealing with spices, I thought I knew all the places in town that have spices. If they just opened then why didn’t anyone tell me about this?” I asked.
He struggled as if I expected him to actually have an answer. “I’m not familiar with anything around here so I really don’t know.”
“No, I don’t expect you would have an answer,” I said around a sigh. “I’m just confused about this.”
“Well, people use spices in cooking all the time.”
“Yes, but I thought for sure somebody would tell me about it,” I said.
“Unfortunately, they’re not open right now.”
“No, I guess we have no choice but wait.” I really felt discouraged now.
I stood there for a bit longer, not wanting to admit that there was nothing else we could do. Leaving meant that I had to worry about Tom all night. Not to mention I’d never found out what happened to Mildred. Both of them could be in great danger. More than likely they were. And the police didn’t want to help at all.
I looked down the street and saw a piece of paper. That wouldn’t be anything unusual, but for some reason I just felt compelled to pick it up.
When I unfolded the paper I realized that it was another magic spell. Just like the one that I had found at Mildred’s cottage. It wasn’t the same spell, but it was written the same way with the same handwriting. And I knew it had to be connected. Kris Kringle had left it. But had he left it on purpose?
“I found something exactly like this at the cottage, remember?” I waved the paper.
He peered at the paper. “Yes, I do remember Tom telling me about that.”
“So I think this has to be a clue. A connection. Did he leave it on purpose?”
“I don’t know,” Conrad said with wide eyes.
“I want to go over here and see it in the light better.” I moved over to the restaurant’s window for the bright light above the outside entrance.
I studied the paper, trying to figure out if I understood the spell. It was just as mysterious as the other one.
“Wait, look, something else is written here,” I said.
“Something other than a spell?” Conrad asked.
“Yes, it was as if this was on a pad of paper and somebody wrote a note on top of it and it pressed down into this paper. I just need a pencil and maybe I can read what was written.”
We rushed over to the guy who was still at the door.
“Are you back again?” He frowned.
“Wow, aren’t you friendly,” I said. “I need a pencil ASAP.”
I placed my hands on my hips.
He rolled his eyes. “I don’t have pencils. This isn’t a store.”
“I know somebody in there has a pencil, so go get one for me,” I said.
“I don’t do things just because somebody orders me to.”
“Look, this is an investigation. Now go get that pencil right now. I’m going to have the organization here and close this place down,” Conrad said.
The guy frowned and stared at Conrad for a moment, but then ultimately turned and walked into the dining area toward the kitchen.
“Can you really close this place down?” I asked. “Do they do magic in there?”
“Well, I didn’t know for sure, but the fact that he went when I told him that means that they do.”
Albert had never mentioned it. I’d have to ask him about it. I’d thought there were a lot of secrets in this town. Soon the guy came back with the pencil.
“Thank you very much,” I said with a slight attitude.
I was only giving him back what he had dished out. I frantically swiped the pencil across the paper and like magic the words appeared. It was an address.
“I think you know what this means,” I said. “We have to go to this location right away.”
I handed the pencil back and we dashed toward the car. Waiting until the cars passed, we ran across the street. Conrad and I jumped into the car. Just a short time ago I’d been so nervous to drive the car. Now I was practically a pro.
“Can you enter the address in the GPS?” I asked.
“I’m already on it,” he said as he was texting on his phone.
I sped off, squealing the tires, headed for the address that we’d found.
“How many miles does it say?” I asked.
“Five miles,” Conrad said.
“Thank goodness it’s not too far.”
I made a couple left turns and then a right. We got on the highway and stayed there for the remainder of the time to the address. Half a mile away the voice instructed us to take a right turn. We were kind of in the middle of nowhere now and this made me a bit nervous. Considering the possible kidnapper lived at this address, I didn’t know what to think. It was dark in this place and with all the trees around there were plenty of places for strange people to hide. I had no idea what we would get when we reached the address, but now the GPS was telling me that it was only five hundred feet until my turn. I was finding it hard to breathe.
There was an old weather-beaten clapboard house at the end of the long drive. It looked like something straight out of a scary movie. This was where we had to go? Why couldn’t it be some brightly lit, new, non-scary-looking place?
“This doesn’t give me a good vibe,” Conrad said.
“No kidding,” I said.
I reluctantly pressed the gas and continued down the driveway. There were no other cars around and no signs of any people. There were no lights in the house and it was completely dark out there. All we had was the black sky with a million sparkling stars. I supposed the only thing worse would be rain or maybe more snow. I pulled to the end of the drive in front of the house but didn’t turn the car off just yet. I wanted to be prepared in case I needed to put it in reverse and get out of here quickly.
“What should we do now?” I asked.
“I guess we have to go see if anyone is in there.”
He didn’t sound as if he wanted to try it either. But I knew it had to be done. I inhaled a deep breath and released it and then opened the car door. I shut off the ignition and took the keys with me. The detective got out as well. Thank goodness. I didn’t want to have to go out there by myself. I would if I had to, but I would prefer not to be alone out here in the dark and scary setting.
Slowly we walked toward the front door. The old steps creaked as we made our way up the porch. I hoped they didn’t break and make us fall on our butts. I was equally afraid of that front porch too because it didn’t look all that stable. As a matter of fact, the whole house looked like it might fall over at any moment.
More than anything I hoped that we found Tom and Mildred inside this place and that they were safe. We could get out of there and forget all of this nightmare, putting it behind us. Conrad and I stood in front of the door. When he knocked it rattled as if it might fall down.
“I’m pretty sure no one lives in this house,” I said.
“It doesn’t seem safe,” Conrad said. “We’ll give it a minute and see if anyone answers. If they don’t then we’ll try to go in.”
“I think there are rats in there,” I said.
“Maybe even snakes,” he said.
“You’re not helping,” I said.
“Hey, I’m afraid too,” he said.
A few more seconds passed and still there was no answer at the door. And now I knew we would have to go in on our own. What would we do if the door was locked? We could proba
bly just knock it down.
Conrad twisted the knob and the door opened easily. I wondered if it might fall right down.
“Hello,” he called out.
There was nothing in the house. It was only an echo.
“This place is definitely abandoned. Why the address was written on that paper I have no idea.”
“Well, nevertheless, we’ll check around,” Conrad said.
“Maybe the guy brought Mildred and Tom here.” I said.
“Well, if they’re here I just hope we find them safe.”
“I don’t want to think about finding them any other way than safe,” I said.
We inched our way into the house with our phones’ flashlight as the only things guiding the way. I wasn’t sure where to start. There was a room to the right and the left. It looked like the kitchen area was in the back. A staircase sat in the middle of the house. I dreaded the thought of even walking up those steps.
“Should we split up?” I asked.
“That sounds like a good idea. Just be careful,” Conrad said.
“Extra careful,” I said.
“I’ll go to the left and you go to the right.”
“Okay,” I said, releasing a deep breath.
I headed across the house. My legs were shaking slightly. No sooner had I reached the doorway to the kitchen when someone bumped right into me. I screamed so loud that all of Mystic Hollow probably heard me. I wasn’t the only one screaming though because the woman who had bumped into me was equally as loud. A thunderous noise rattled through the house and I realized that Conrad was racing across the house toward me. I knew the woman standing in front of me too. But why she was here? I had no idea.
“Laura, what are you doing in this house? You nearly scared me to death.”
She looked as if she was trying to catch her breath too. Apparently I had scared her as well.
“Laura, what are you doing here?” I asked again.
“I just like to look around all the abandoned houses,” she said. “I didn’t think anyone would come in here. What are you doing here?”
The detective had walked up now and was staring at her.
“We’re looking for Tom. He’s missing.”
“Oh, no.” Her hand flew to her mouth. “What happened to him?”