One Adventure Too Many

by Marja McGraw

  I nudged the big galoot with my foot. The snoring stopped and he gave me an annoyed look before he moved.

  I glanced at the clock. No wonder the dog was still asleep. It was only five-thirty on a Saturday morning. Way too early to get up after yesterday’s events.

  Shrugging, I stood and made my way to the bathroom where I brushed my teeth. It was too early to take my shower. I’d wake everyone else and I didn’t want to do that.

  Heading downstairs to get some coffee going, I mentally kicked myself for not going back to sleep. Halfway down I realized I could already smell some brewing.

  I found my aunt sitting at the kitchen table.

  “Aunt Martha? What are you doing up so early?”

  “Oh, Griz and I always get up early. It’s become a habit. Sometimes I’d like to sleep in, but it never seems to happen. I guess that’s part of going off the grid.”

  I nodded. “As a private investigator, I often keep odd hours. You get used to it.”

  “I’m still amazed to think that my niece is a private eye. A gumshoe. A – “

  “I get it, but that’s what I do. And I love doing it, although it’s a challenge. Did I ever tell you about Chris Cross? The guy who looks like Humphrey Bogart and who wanted to be a P.I.?”

  “No. Tell me about him.” She grinned, ready for a good story.

  I proceeded to tell her about the man who’d followed me, trying to figure out how I did my job. I told her about becoming involved in a murder and how he helped solve it, after I taught him just how hard it can be to do my job. He had a habit of using 1940s slang and he dressed the part, but as frustrated as I was with him, we actually had a good time.

  “Did he go on to become a private eye?” she asked.

  “Not exactly. He and his wife opened a forties-themed restaurant. Somehow he kept getting involved in situations because he’d built a minor reputation thanks to my case, but he finally decided to stay out of trouble. He’s referred some business to us. Sometime when you and Griz come to Los Angeles I’ll take you to his restaurant for dinner.”

  “I’d like that. By the way, we never did go straighten up the guest house. Why don’t we do that now so we don’t wake anyone up?”

  “Works for me.”

  We each took a cup of coffee with us and we slipped quietly out the door, making our way to the guest house. We were surprised to find that we didn’t need to do much. The dishes had already been done and things were straightened up.

  Aunt Martha sucked in her breath. “I just had a horrible thought.”

  “The last thing we need right now is a horrible thought,” I said, dreading what she might be thinking.

  Chapter Thirty-five

  “What’s your horrible thought?” I asked.

  “What if Stan’s asleep in the bedroom? I mean, they didn’t ask us to straighten up the house. We’re kind of trespassing – in a way.”

  “Uh oh. I didn’t think about that.” I paused, thinking back. “Wait a minute. His car isn’t outside. He must have spent the night at the hospital with Felicity and the baby.”

  “Do you think they’ll mind that we came in here?”

  “No. Let’s see if anything needs to be done in preparation for the baby coming home.”

  After putting some teeny tiny diapers and some onesies on the changing table and lining some bottles up on the sink, we sat down at the kitchen table. Felicity already had everything else ready and waiting.

  “Do you think they’ll find Zasu?” Aunt Martha asked. “I can’t stop thinking about that little family.”

  “Think positive,” I replied. “I think we’d have heard from Redding if the kidnapper had tried to contact Mateo. I don’t know what he’s waiting for, but it feels like something hasn’t been completed yet.”

  “I dreamed about your dogs looking for her last night.”

  My aunt put her head back and looked at me down her nose.

  “Funny, but so did I. In my dream the dogs just sat and watched me while I ran in circles around them.”

  “I dreamed they were on her scent but it kept leading nowhere. They always ended up back where they started.”

  “Huh.”

  “I have a thought about your dream,” she said.

  “What’s that?”

  “I think your subconscious is telling you to stop running around like a chicken and stop to study everything around you.”

  “You could be right. We were all so tired yesterday that we shouldn’t have even tried to figure it all out.”

  “Have you talked to the Detective?” she asked. “Did anything happen when they moved Mateo out of the hospital?”

  “Pete spoke to him, but he never mentioned Mateo. I’ll ask him.”

  I suddenly had a horrible thought of my own. If Mateo had been moved, whoever kidnapped Zasu wouldn’t know how to reach him. Who else could they contact? He, whoever he was, wanted to trade Zasu for Mateo. He was certainly done with me. I felt like things were starting to spin out of control.

  Someone had Zasu, but they didn’t have anyone to contact. And what about the second thug from the van? What happened to him? Who took Zasu?

  “Knock. Knock.” My mother stood in the doorway. “If you two are hungry, I started breakfast.”

  “On our way,” I said.

  We found Pete sitting at the kitchen table with a knife in one hand and a fork in the other, waiting for food.

  “Funny,” I said.

  He grinned. “Gotta keep you ladies busy, even if it’s just fixing breakfast for me.”

  “Uh huh. We live to cook for you,” I said.

  My mother and aunt stood arm in arm, watching us.

  “You two are so cute together,” Mother said.

  “Made for each other,” Aunt Martha added. “You tease each other but you never seem to be annoyed.”

  “Don’t let appearances fool you.” Pete set his knife and fork down next to his plate.

  “Have you spoken to Redding?” I asked.

  “A few minutes ago. They’re finally digging up a little more information on the dead guy. What was his name?”

  “James Kennedy,” Aunt Martha supplied.

  “Yeah, Kennedy. They found some large deposits in his account that couldn’t be accounted for, and they figure someone was paying him off. They searched his office and home, too. Unfortunately, someone had already beaten them to it and the place had been trashed. Redding thinks this goes a lot deeper than they originally thought.”

  “What about the kidnapper contacting Mateo?” I asked. “Since he’s not at the hospital anymore and he’s in hiding, they wouldn’t know how to reach him.”

  “Redding said they got him out of the hospital without incident. You’re right, though. What are they going to do now, with Delgado out of sight?”

  “Let’s eat first and detect later,” my mother said. She motioned for my aunt to take a seat.

  “Well, this is nice. No one ever waits on me.” Aunt Martha seemed quite pleased.

  Mother started setting plates and bowls on the table. We had fried eggs, sausage, toast and hash browns. “I want you to know I only used olive oil on your food. It’s much healthier than the other oils. Also, I used a salt substitute.”

  Pete looked skeptical when he looked at the food. “Of course, if you’re serving sausage, I don’t get why you’d try to make everything else healthy. Doesn’t sausage have a lot of salt in it? And other, uh, stuff?”

  My mother shrugged. “Just eat.”

  He did, and there wasn’t a crumb left on his plate.

  Aunt Martha stood and started clearing the dishes. My mother is a notoriously slow eater and my aunt stood next to her with her arms folded across her chest.

  “Don’t get pushy,” Mother said. “I’ll be done when I’m done. Period.”

  “Felicity and the baby will be here soon. We need to be ready for them. Would you please hurry up?”

  Mother gave her a look and went back to eating – slowly.

/>   Aunt Martha rinsed the dishes and put them in the dishwasher before staring at my mother and tapping her foot.

  I had a feeling Mom was eating slower than usual just to annoy her sister.

  We heard a car pull into the driveway and she bolted down the rest of her food.

  A horn honked about the same time my cell phone rang. My family hurried outside to greet the new parents and their child.

  I answered my phone while Pete waited for me. Everyone was accounted for so I didn’t know who was calling and I pushed the Speakerphone button.

  “I’ve got Delgado’s girlfriend and he’ll never see her again unless you make a trade for her.”

  I recognized the voice as the one who’d called me when Gloria was taken.

  He chuckled. “Of course, once we make the trade, chances are she’ll never see him again.”

  I put my index finger to my lips, warning Pete to be quiet. Let the guy think I was alone.

  “Why are you calling me?” I asked. “I don’t have any control over Mateo or where he is. Come to think of it, I don’t know where he is.”

  “But you can find out,” the voice said.

  “No, I can’t. Why don’t you just release Zasu? The cops aren’t going to tell me where Mateo is. This is a lose-lose situation for you.”

  My mother opened the back door. “Sandi, you’re missing…” She saw the look on my face and stopped talking, coming inside to stand next to Pete.

  Pete mouthed the words, “Keep him talking,” took his own cell phone and hurried to the living room.

  I grabbed a pen and paper off the sink and wrote a note, handing it to my mother. “Listen for background noises.”

  She nodded.

  “Let me talk to Zasu. I need to know if she’s okay.”

  “No. You’re going to have to trust me when I say she’s fine,” the voice said.

  “If I don’t hear her voice, then I won’t contact the cops. No deal.”

  “You can’t talk to her because I’m not with her.”

  I remembered something my mother had heard when she and my aunt had been taken. One of the men had mentioned that Bill was angry. I supposed he’d been right since one of them was now dead.

  “Is she with Bill?”

  Dead silence.

  “Where did you hear that name?” he finally asked. Did I detect fear in his voice?

  “Does it matter?” I asked. “I understand that Bill has a temper.”

  Click. He hung up on me.

  Maybe I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was.

  Pete walked back to the kitchen. “I called Redding, but I don’t know if he’s got the technology to get anything from the phone or not.”

  “These days he’d probably use a burner phone,” my mother said. “I’ve seen that on TV a lot.”

  “Did you hear any background noises?” I asked. “I was

  too intent on talking to him to pay attention.”

  “I wrote them down. I heard a horn honk, but I couldn’t tell if there was a lot of traffic and the sound didn’t seem to be too close. These darned cell phones don’t seem to pick up a lot of background noise. Someone coughed a couple of times, but I think he put his hand over the phone because it was muffled after the first cough.”

  “Anything else?”

  “I heard someone say, ‘…with you in a minute,’ like a waitress or something. Oh, and I heard a glass breaking. I’m thinking he was in a coffee shop, but that would take real guts to make a phone call like this around people.”

  “He could have sat at a table away from other diners,” I said. “That would be pretty gutsy though.”

  “I don’t think he’s a brain surgeon, Sandi,” Pete said. “Initially they took the wrong woman.”

  I nodded. “You’re right. And he wasn’t with Zasu when he called.”

  “Did the Caller ID show anything?” my mother asked.

  “Unknown Caller. I noticed that before I answered.”

  “I heard you mention Bill,” Pete said. “Maybe that wasn’t the wisest thing to do.”

  “And how many Bills are there in this world?” I asked. “I don’t think it’s an issue.”

  “I hope not,” Mother said.

  “Come see the baby,” Aunt Martha called, coming inside. “Felicity is waiting.”

  Chapter Thirty-six

  “They let me bring Joseph home,” Felicity said, “and they gave him a clean bill of health.” She sat in a rocking chair that hadn’t been there earlier, rocking the baby.

  Bubba sat in front of her, watching the child. Clem sat next to him, watching him. She still seemed to have a doggie crush on him.

  “She made me go buy it last night,” Stanley said, watching his wife and son with joy in his eyes.

  Felicity laughed. “I made him? Give me a break. He couldn’t wait to find me a rocking chair. He left it in the car overnight.”

  “Can I get you anything? You rock Joseph and I’ll fetch whatever you want, sweetheart.” Stanley practically bounced from foot to foot. It seemed like he needed to be doing something.

  “Fetch? No, love bug, you hold Joseph and I’ll start some coffee. I’m dying for a good cup of coffee. I’ve been doing without for too long.”

  “I can get it for you.”

  “No, you and your son need some father and son time together.”

  Felicity stood and handed Stanley the baby and they traded places. He took possession of the rocker.

  While my family ooohed and aaahed over the baby, I followed my friend into the kitchen. Thankfully, Joseph didn’t look like a little old man anymore. He was truly adorable.

  “Can I help?” I asked.

  “Keep me company,” she replied. “What’s going on with Zasu? Any leads yet?”

  “I just had a call from the kidnapper. I don’t know what’s going on. She’s at a different location instead of with him.”

  “That’s kind of weird. You’d think he’d be with her.” She paused. “Oh, dear Lord, I hope she’s okay. Maybe she’s – “

  “No, I think she’s with Bill, whoever he is.”

  “Bill?”

  “When my mother and aunt were taken, they heard one of the men refer to the boss as Bill.”

  “Oh, yes, I think I remember them saying something about that. Or maybe not. I’ve kind of lost track of things.”

  I sat down at the table and gave her a general update.

  “How on earth did we get involved in this?” she asked.

  “You can put the blame on Pete and Stan. They’re the ones who found the abandoned house. And my mother’s the one who found the dead body. Did you know that while you were in the hospital one of the thugs was brought in? And he died? He’d been shot and had an accident in that beige van.”

  “No! Really? Stan didn’t mention it.”

  “He was probably afraid of upsetting you, and you had enough to deal with at the time.”

  She poured both of us a cup of coffee and sat down at the table, looking exhausted.

  “And the police haven’t come up with anything?” she asked.

  “There’s just not enough to go on. We’re all stumped.

  Pete and I took the dogs to the B&B yesterday to see if they could follow her scent, but when they got to the side of the house they just sat down and stared at the yard. All we can think of is that she was loaded into a vehicle there, but no one saw a strange car that night.”

  “This just gets weirder and weirder,” Felicity said. “While I’m home with Joseph I’ll try to figure something out. After all, how much work can a new baby be? I’ll have plenty of time to think things over. Since I’m not as close to the situation as you are, maybe I’ll see something you’ve missed.”

  I almost laughed at her comment about having plenty of time, but I smiled instead. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so helpless in my life,” I said. “There should be something we can do.”

  “Who’s taking care of Sophie?”

  “Gloria. I think she’
s really enjoying it.”

  “Well, if she needs a break, have her bring Sophie down here and Stan will help with her.”

  “Uh huh.”

  We could hear my mother and aunt talking baby talk to Joseph, so we rejoined everyone in the living room.

  Felicity held her arms out and Stanley handed her the baby. “I’ve missed you already, Joseph. Should we call him Joey?” She thought for a moment. “No, for now it should be Joseph.”

  “Okay,” Pete said. “We’re going up to the main house and let you people get some rest.”

  After hugs and air kisses from my mother and aunt, we left the little family to their peace and returned to our house. I had to call to the dogs to get their attention. They followed us home.

  “Isn’t that just the cutest baby you’ve ever seen?” Mother asked, not talking to anyone in particular.

  “Absolutely,” Aunt Martha replied. “Well, there’s Sophie, and she’s the cutest little girl around here.”

  “Most certainly.”

  My mother turned to me. “Oh, I remembered something else I heard.” She stopped talking and sat down at the kitchen table.

  “And?” I asked. Sometimes it was like pulling teeth.

  “And I heard a sound that reminded me of heavy equipment, so if he was at a diner, maybe it was near a construction site.”

  “Outside construction and he was inside a diner, using a cell phone,” Pete said. “Do you really think you could have heard heavy equipment?”

  “Well, that’s what it sounded like. Maybe he stepped outside or something.”

  “Pete,” I said, “just in case, why don’t you pass that on to Redding?”

  “Sure.” He and his cell phone disappeared.

  My mother excused herself and walked outside to find her sister, who’d gone for a walk. Bubba and Clem followed her.

  My phone rang. Caller ID said Unknown Caller. I let it ring a few times before I answered it. If it was the kidnapper, I didn’t want him to think I was anxious. I had no idea why I felt that way.

  “Did you talk to the police?” the now familiar voice asked.

  “I told you, they won’t tell me anything. You need to bring Zasu back and then run like your life depends on it, which it probably does.”