One Adventure Too Many

by Marja McGraw

“Why don’t you stay down here with me,” Pete said.

  He turned to me.

  “Would you bring something of Zasu’s down for Bubba to sniff?”

  I nodded.

  He’d perked Gloria’s interest. “Is your dog a search and rescue dog?”

  “No, but it’s worth a shot to try to figure out where she went. Whoever took her must have left by the back door or you and Joe would have seen something.”

  “True. I’ll be right back. Zasu left her sweatshirt jacket downstairs.”

  My relatives and I followed her inside and headed up the stairs while she looked for the jacket. I held a few toys out to Sophie and she didn’t react until I held up a stuffed gray bunny.

  “I’ll go back downstairs,” I said. “You take care of the baby while you search Zasu’s room.”

  I tried to pass Sophie to my aunt, but she clung to my neck and whimpered again.

  “Okay, baby doll, you can come with me.” I made a point of bringing her bunny along.

  I found Pete standing inside the house, at the bottom of the stairs. He and Gloria were making sure Bubba got a good whiff of Zasu’s jacket. Clem stood on her hind legs, sniffing along with the big guy. I guess she didn’t want to be left out.

  “Find Zasu,” Pete said. He flipped the jacket in the direction of the back door.

  Bubba sat and stared at my husband, grinning.

  “Go on, Bubba. Find Zasu.”

  Bubba continued to sit and grin.

  Clementine, on the other hand, started sniffing a pair of tennis shoes that were sitting by the stairs.

  “Those are Zasu’s,” Gloria said.

  Clem started sniffing around the shoes, and before long she sniffed her way down the hall and through the kitchen.

  Not to be left out, Bubba followed.

  I stood with my mouth hanging open. Clementine? A search dog?

  Chapter Thirty-three

  After watching Clementine, Bubba seemed to catch on. I think. At any rate, he began to sniff his way through the hallway, too, and both dogs sniffed through the kitchen and the laundry room before sitting down in front of the back door. They sat very still – no tail wagging or any other movement – and they concentrated on the door.

  Gloria was following us, but the phone rang so she disappeared to answer her landline.

  Pete and I looked at each other with hope in our eyes before he opened the door and let the dogs out.

  Sophie was a little fussy, so I patted her on the back while following the dogs.

  They started walking faster and hurried around to the side of the house. Clem suddenly sat down, facing the side yard. Bubba took one last sniff and did the same.

  Phil must have been planning on doing some work on the house because the dogs sat in front of a pile of tarps, paint cans and paint brushes. The paint cans sat on top of the tarps, so there definitely wasn’t a body hidden underneath. Sometimes my suspicions and imagination worked overtime.

  “I don’t get it,” I said. “This would indicate to me that a

  car might have been parked here and Zasu was forced into the car.”

  “But if there was a car, Joe and Gloria would have seen it.” Pete finished my thought for me.

  “Phil was in the kitchen. He wouldn’t have seen it.”

  “We’ve got too many questions and not enough answers.” My husband looked frustrated, which was exactly how I felt.

  “It was a good idea to try to use the dogs,” I said. “I wish they could talk.”

  Bubba glanced back at the house and then focused on the side yard again.

  “So do I.”

  The baby held her arms out to the dogs so I squatted and let her touch them. Bubba grinned, but still wouldn’t move. Clem licked the baby’s hand and I quickly wiped off the dog slobber.

  I stood and balanced Sophie on my hip.

  “Let’s go see if my mother or aunt found anything useful.” I looked at the dogs and patted my chest, which means Come, but they wouldn’t budge. I guess they figured they’d done their job and now they were going to guard the area.

  Sophie pointed at the dogs, but I started talking to her to distract her.

  My relatives had just come downstairs when we reentered the house, and Gloria was telling them that she finally had a new customer who’d be arriving the following weekend.

  She looked at my mother. “Did you find your earring?”

  “Sadly, no. Maybe I dropped it at the hospital. Felicity had her baby, by the way.”

  “Felicity? Oh, yes, Sandi’s friend. Boy or girl?”

  “She had a boy,” Aunt Martha said. “He was three weeks early, but the doctor said he thought it was more like

  two weeks.”

  “It’s not an exact science, you know,” Mother added. “Doctors have been known to be wrong about due dates.”

  The phone rang again. “Where the heck did Phil go? He could answer the phone, too. I don’t want to miss what’s going on. Oh. I forgot. I sent him to the store.” She left to answer the call, shaking her head.

  While she was gone, Phil walked in, carrying a grocery bag. “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “We brought the dogs over to see if they could pick up on Zasu’s trail,” Pete said.

  “Any luck? I’ve heard dogs can follow a scent, but there are all kinds of scents around this house.”

  “The dogs are outside, sitting by the house and they won’t move,” I said.

  “That’s odd.” Phil scratched his chin juggled his bags to keep from dropping them.

  “I know this is reaching,” Pete said, “but was there a car parked beside the house when she disappeared?”

  Phil looked surprised. “Just mine. I brought home some tarps and paint that day and set them outside. I’ve got to do some repairs and painting around here.”

  “I just don’t get it,” I said. “Somehow Zasu’s scent seems to have ended there.”

  “Excuse me.” Phil headed toward the kitchen with his bags.

  Sophie rested her head on my shoulder. My arms were beginning to ache from carrying her, but Gloria returned and took care of that.

  “Come on, Sophie. Let’s go get a snack.” She held out her arms and Sophie let her take charge. Gloria smiled. “She knows the word snack. I’ll put her in her highchair with a treat before I try to put her down for a nap.”

  My mother and aunt had been suspiciously quiet while they watched the action going on around them.

  “Did you find anything out of the ordinary?” I asked, speaking softly.

  “Yes and no,” my mother replied.

  “What do you mean?” Pete asked.

  “We didn’t find a note that said Help on it, but there were signs of a minor scuffle.” My aunt thought she was being funny. Maybe she was trying to lighten her comment about a scuffle.

  “What kind of signs?” I asked.

  “You three talk,” Pete said. “I’m going upstairs.”

  “Wait for us,” mother said.

  “We’ll show you what we found,” my aunt added.

  We trooped upstairs and into Zasu’s room.

  Pete crossed his arms. “Show me what you found.”

  My mother lifted her chin. “Gloria has taken the baby downstairs to live, so Zasu’s room hasn’t been touched since her disappearance – except by the police, of course.”

  Aunt Martha nodded. “They were looking for physical evidence like something the kidnapper might have dropped. We looked for other things.”

  “We took your advice and…” my mother began, grinning.

  “…looked up, down and all around,” my aunt finished, also smiling.

  “You two are amazing,” Pete said. “You think this is fun and games, don’t you?”

  “Certainly not,” Aunt Martha said.

  “We’re taking this very seriously,” Mother added.

  I rolled my eyes and turned to Pete. “They think it’s all a grand adventure.”

  I turned to them.

/>   “If you don’t start taking this more seriously, this is going to be one adventure too many.”

  “Like I told Pete, we are taking it seriously,” my mother insisted. “There’s a little baby downstairs who needs her

  mother, and we’re going to find her.”

  “Mateo needs Zasu back, too,” my aunt added.

  Mother nodded. “And after we were kidnapped, we realized this isn’t an adventure. Things could have turned out… Well, I’d rather not think about it.”

  I was glad to hear they weren’t thinking in terms of an adventure anymore. After all, they had been kidnapped, and so had Gloria. Seeing the condition Mateo was in should have changed their way of thinking right from the beginning. Well, that and the fact that my mother had found a dead body.

  “Let’s get on with it,” Pete said. “You said you found signs of a struggle. Show me.”

  My mother motioned Pete toward the closet. “Here’s what we think happened. If you look inside the closet, you’ll find that the few items of clothing she had with her were neatly hung up. Even her jeans were folded in half and placed on hangers.”

  Aunt Martha picked up the story. “Now look at the floor. One of her shirts is on the floor and it looks like she just dropped it and left it there. I don’t think she would have done that. She’d have hung it up, like the others.”

  Mother continued. “The floor in here is hardwood.” She pointed at the flooring. “Notice the light scuff marks leading from the closet toward the bed, where she was packing.”

  “I’ll be the police never noticed the scuff marks,” my aunt said, “but we did.”

  “We think someone surprised her, grabbed her and dragged her across the room,” my mother said. “We’re not sure why she was dragged toward the bed before someone took her out of her room. Maybe there was something in her suitcase that the person wanted.”

  “We just don’t know,” my aunt said.

  “However, we noticed that the things in her suitcase are messy,” my mother continued.

  “Judging by the way she hung things in the closet, and by the way she kept her room so neat,” she said, sweeping the room with her arms, “we think someone else went through her things.”

  “Either that or they struggled by the suitcase,” Mother added.

  “The question is, how did the intruder stop her from struggling?” I asked.

  “We think we have that figured out, too,” Aunt Martha said.

  “We think the person may have chloroformed her.” Mother looked pleased with herself.

  “Which would mean the intruder had to carry her down the stairs,” Pete said, “and to a waiting car.”

  “But no one saw a car.” This was a detail that was bothering me. If no one saw a car, where could the person have taken her?

  Pete nodded. “If there was no car, where is she? This property is too big to carry anyone too far, even if she is a small woman.”

  “It’s like she disappeared into thin air,” Mother said.

  I narrowed my eyes at my mother and my aunt. “Why are you now saying ‘we’ instead of ‘I’? What’s going on with you two? First you were trying to outdo each other, but things have changed.”

  “We decided that for the sake of Zasu and Sophie, we need to start working together.” My aunt looked like she was quite pleased with herself.

  “It’s about time,” Pete said. “You two have been driving me nuts.” He turned and left the room.

  “Well!” My mother wasn’t happy with his comment.

  “He’s right,” I said. “You two have been fussing with each other since you got here.”

  They looked at each other.

  “But that’s what we do,” Aunt Martha said. “We’ve

  always been this way. We’re sisters, after all.”

  “Sisters who’ve decided it’s time to get down to business.” My mother folded her arms across her chest, unfolded them, and linked arms with her sister.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  I felt like Mother and Aunt Martha were presenting a united front, which was a good thing. We’d get more accomplished if we worked together.

  Oh, good grief! Now I was saying ‘we.’ My relatives had a strange hold on me. I’d probably never figure it out.

  The three of us met Pete downstairs. He was chatting with Phil and glanced at us while we descended the stairs. He and Phil shook hands before Pete joined us.

  “Why were you two shaking hands?” I asked.

  “I was going to walk the property but Phil said he’d do it in case he sees something that we’ve been missing. He’ll know if anything is out of place.”

  “Good idea. Why don’t you call Redding and see if anything new has turned up.”

  “That’s what I planned on doing,” he replied.

  He turned to my mother and aunt.

  “I owe you both an apology for saying you were driving me nuts, ladies. I’m sorry for the comment I made upstairs. I know you both mean well, but you were close to being the two straws that broke this camel’s back.”

  My mother hugged him. “It’s okay, Son, we know how

  abrasive we can be sometimes. It’s just our nature, and we’re trying to change that. Old dogs can be taught new tricks – I think.”

  “Not that we’re old dogs,” Aunt Martha added quickly. “Or even young dogs.”

  “Speaking of dogs, where are Bubba and Clem?” my mother asked.

  “We left them guarding the property,” I said. “I guess I’d better call them in and we should head back. I want to straighten up the guest house before Felicity comes home. You two can help me.”

  “Can we go to the hospital again to visit tonight?” My mother didn’t sound enthusiastic, just tired.

  I glanced at my watch and saw that it was getting late. “No, I don’t think so. We’ve got to get some sleep or none of us will be any good tomorrow. Let’s have a pizza delivered before we do anything else.”

  When we arrived home, I called and ordered a pizza while Pete phoned Redding.

  While we waited for the pizza, Pete told me that the Detective was beyond frustrated. He hadn’t been able to come up with anything useful. My husband told him about the dogs’ reactions after following the scent which, unfortunately, frustrated Redding even more.

  No one had seen a car beside the house, and yet that’s where the search seemed to end. It just didn’t seem to make any sense.

  After the pizza was delivered and we’d eaten, I called Felicity for an update.

  “They’re releasing me first thing in the morning,” she said. “Dr. Stemich is very pleased with Joseph’s condition and he may get to come home with me.”

  I could hear such joy in her voice.

  “I told Stan to go home and get some sleep,” she said. “I know none of you have had any sleep. Go to bed.”

  “Soon,” I said.

  “Has there been any news about Zasu?”

  “Nothing. We’re at a dead end. We even used the dogs to follow her scent and that fizzled out, too. They just sat by the side of the house and watched the yard.”

  “That’s odd.” Felicity paused and I knew she was thinking things over. “I’d try to give it more thought, but the nurse keeps coming in to take my vitals. I can’t concentrate.” She sighed. “I had a baby, not pneumonia. You’d think they’d let me rest.”

  “Concentrate on coming home with Joseph tomorrow,” I suggested. “I’m a little surprised they’re keeping you overnight. It seems like hospitals usually send people home at the first opportunity.”

  “It’s just a precaution. Look for us in the morning.”

  We hung up and I decided to clean up the dinner dishes. Paper plates – easy peasy.

  I found that my mother and aunt had already taken care of things. They asked about Felicity.

  “You should have let us talk to her,” my mother said.

  “Yeah,” my aunt added. “What are we? Chopped liver?”

  “We’re all tired,”
I said, ignoring them. “Let’s get some sleep. The Hawks will be home in the morning and you can fuss over Felicity and the baby tomorrow.”

  I knew they were tired when they didn’t argue with me, but dragged themselves to their rooms to grab some sleep while they could.

  Pete and I sat in the living room for a few minutes before going upstairs.

  “I can’t explain it,” I said, “but I have a feeling we’re getting close to some answers. I know everyone is frustrated, but as often happens it seems like the answer is right in front of us just waiting for us to see it.”

  “Another one of your gut feelings?” Pete asked,

  rubbing his forehead.

  I could see how tired he was, and so was I. “Let’s get some sleep. Maybe we can start fresh in the morning.”

  He nodded and we climbed what felt like a very long staircase. It wasn’t, but it sure felt that way.

  The last thing Pete said to me was, “Maybe Redding will have found Zasu by the time we wake up.”

  That night I dreamed about Bubba and Clementine searching for Zasu. They sniffed her scent and sat down while I ran in circles around them. In the dream I kept calling to them to continue the search, but they just sat and watched me run. They both looked at me like they thought I was nuts.

  “Go find Zasu,” I’d say. “Go find Zasu. She’s waiting for you two to do your thing. Pulease go find Zasu.”

  In the dream, Bubba stood and turned in a circle, imitating me. Clem rolled over on her back and stared at me. She rolled back over, stood and followed me, jumping up and licking my hand.

  Throughout the entire dream I kept hearing a loud noise, kind of like a snort.

  That’s when I awoke.

  Clementine was on the bed, licking my hand and I wasn’t dreaming anymore. I gave her a gentle shove off the bed.

  “Go find Bubba.”

  “Huh?” Pete asked from beside me.

  “Go back to sleep. I was getting rid of Clementine.”

  Pete rolled over. I doubted he’d even remember waking up.

  I sat up and swung my legs off the bed, only to feel something soft under my feet. Bubba was sleeping next to the bed, snoring at the top of his lungs. No wonder I kept hearing a loud noise in my dream.