“You just put your watch in my purse. That’s not theft,” Alice cried out. She shoved her hand in her bag fishing madly for the watch in her cluttered stuff.
Fiona kept smiling. “The clasp is broken so I keep it in my purse and there you were, digging through my purse and the watch is gone. What will the police say?” Fiona asked, hand folded in front of her, her eyes looking up and to the left.
Alice paused long enough to disconnect the call on her phone. “What police?” she finally gripped the watch, and yanked it from her purse. She tossed it across the room so that it slid under the register desk. “I don’t know where your watch has gone, but I’m sure if you look you will find it.” She pushed past Fiona who was still sweating and still too close to Alice. Alice made it to the door and pushed on it.
“We’re closed for inventory, aren’t we, my dear? I can’t open up until we’ve finished.”
Alice took a deep breath to keep from panicking. There was more then one way out of Neveah’s. “In that case, go count your product. I’ll wait.” She leaned on the door handle, trying to look relaxed.
“Yes, I do believe you will wait.” Fiona walked with maddening slowness back to the office.
Alice had spent a lot of time in Neveah’s and if she took just a minute to think she could figure a way out. As she tried to remember Lara’s tricks she walked over to the register counter. Didn’t they have a spare key hidden there? She ran her hands around the underside of the counter. She couldn’t find a key, but she did find a button. She hit it. Was that the silent alarm? She waited at the register to see if Fiona would notice. After just a moment the phone rang. She picked it up before Fiona could.
“This is the alarm company, did you just trigger the alarm?”
“I did, I’m so sorry,” Alice said. “I’m Alice McNinch and I’m inside of Neveah’s Wardrobe right now and I can’t get out.” She took a deep breath. Fiona was behind her. She could feel her hot breath on her neck.
“Damn you,” Fiona hissed.
“Okay, first I need you to give us the secret word,” the man from the security company said.
Alice turned and looked at Fiona, one eyebrow raised, “Secret word…” she mouthed.
Fiona pursed her lips but then spit out the word, “Artichoke.”
“It’s artichoke,” Alice repeated into the phone.
“All right. Can you call someone to bring you a spare key or do you need someone to come out to you?”
“You had better send someone out,” Alice said, keeping her eye on Fiona.
“Okay. I’ll have someone there in 10 minutes.”
“Thank you,” Alice said.
She put the phone down with her hand over the mouthpiece. “What shall you have? They know I’m here, and they are on their way. Will you let me out and then call them back to say that you showed up and got me out? Or will you need them to come all the way here and let me out themselves?”
Fiona walked to the front door and unlocked it. “Don’t ever let me see you here again,” she said, her voice like a knife.
Alice let go of the phone receiver and ran out the door. She ran down the block to her car. By the time she reached her car her chest was burning and her breath came in ragged puffs. She needed to see Mitzy right now.
Alonzo left the highway at Hermiston to check the nearest gas stations for Mitzy. He watched for the lowest price on gas; he knew that’s where he’d find her.
He found the station that was ten cents cheaper than the one right at the exit. A little red Miata with a big head of blonde hair at the wheel was leaving it. “Thank you God,” Alonzo prayed. He tried to get right behind her and followed her as she got back on the highway. He honked his horn but she didn’t turn around. He grabbed his phone and called her number. She still wasn’t answering. He was willing to follow her to the end of the earth, and it looked like he’d have to.
Mitzy left Hermiston with her full tank of gas. Night was beginning to fall. She’d be in town before morning and could pull over and sleep before she went into the woods. She could probably even grab a coffee too. As far as she could tell, nothing could go wrong. She checked her mirrors. Lights in the far distance seemed to follow her. Of course, they were on the same road so they would seem to. Mitzy shivered. She had chosen a dangerous job for herself, but that was no reason to be paranoid. She ran through her plan again. It seemed to her to be completely flawless. She’d wait and call Alonzo after she found the drugs operation. There was no point in calling now and getting him worried.
There was less traffic in the waxing light of morning. Alonzo had gunned it for miles and finally caught up with Mitzy, but now the bright sun glared off of the road, blinding him as they drove into the sunrise. He wanted to flash his lights at her and make her pull over, but he was sure she wouldn’t be able to see them. If she wasn’t going to answer her phone he was going to have to keep following her and stop when she finally stopped. Even if she didn’t stop until she hit the Rockies.
Dawn broke with a swath of orange sky spread across the Eastern horizon, and filled Mitzy with hope for success. She marveled at the blue sky as the sun rose, in the middle of December. It was freezing. It hadn’t snowed in a while and didn’t look like it would. The lid of clouds that closed the sky in Portland was nowhere to be seen.
In spite of the inspiring sunrise, Mitzy hadn’t been able to shake the feeling that she was being followed. She tried to believe it was just that paranoia born of driving in the dark. But then again, she could hear the engine of something big not far behind her. It would be nice to get off the road and let whoever was back there pass.
She pulled out the map she had printed while in Alonzo’s work trailer. From town she had to go southeast to get into the forest. The address should bring her to the somewhat iffy house in the woods. Her plan, for now, was to find the house and then pull over somewhere out of eyesight and hike until she found the forest of drugs.
She found the house on the first try. If you didn’t count the thick hedges and the long driveway, it wasn’t really hiding.
She went about a mile up the road to the first wide shoulder and pulled over. Once outside of her car she folded her arms and rubbed them a few times to warm up. The air was bitterly cold. She stamped her feet. Her boots looked good but were unlined. She hoped she could find what she was looking for quickly.
Alonzo yawned. Mitzy had turned up a narrow road into the woods. He was stuck behind the last light in town. He rubbed his eyes and then his jaw. She wasn’t far ahead. He sat for another minute before he realized it was a blinking red. He ground his teeth in agitation and hit the gas.
Up the road he took the same turn he had watched Mitzy take. He raced the empty road trying to find her. At the first curve he glimpsed a spot of red off to the side. After driving all night Mitzy had finally stopped in the woods outside of a tiny town in Idaho. What on earth was she doing?
Mitzy trekked a few hundred feet into the woods and realized her mistake. It was the middle of winter. No one was growing weed in the woods right now. She had to look for something less obvious than a forest of cannabis; however, she continued forward, prompted by that inner disgust with being wrong. A few more feet led her to a clearing in the woods.
Alonzo pulled over at the Miata. He had a terrible feeling out here. He was not a country boy. The frozen ground gave him no idea where Mitzy had gone, so he just marched straight in. The trees were massive and spread apart. There was little underbrush. He squinted into the distance. He could see a tall slim figure quite a ways ahead of him. The absolute silence of the woods and the creepy feeling of being in the wrong place at the wrong time kept him from calling out her name. He trudged forward.
Mitzy pulled out her phone and began taking pictures as quick as she could. According to her map she was on National Parks land. And those were greenhouses in the clearing. She got herself right up next to them and wiped the frost off the glass. She held her phone up to it and clicked a picture. The she tried
the door. It wasn’t locked. She stepped inside to find row upon row of tiny seedlings. She had checked that out online too. Those seedlings were pot. She took more pictures. Then she heard the footsteps.
It should have been obvious, she thought. Anyone maintaining a system like this would keep a close eye on it. Her heart beat against her chest like a hammer. She leaned against the door with her shoulder, one hand on the handle. Was it at all possible to sneak away in the bright morning sun in the middle of the clearing?
Alonzo bit back a curse. Mitzy had hunted down a grow operation. He had to get her out of here as fast as he could. Counting the buildings involved and the number of plants they might hold, Alonzo knew they were in serious danger. He had seen her step into one of the greenhouses. All he had to do was get her out.
Mitzy listened as the footsteps came closer and closer. “Oh Lord I’m sorry, Oh Lord help me, Oh dear God, what now, Oh help, Oh!” she prayed under her breath in a panic, “Oh dear Lord!” The door handle she was gripping turned.
“Mitzy?”
Mitzy pushed the door as hard as she could into the person trying to get in “Ahhhhhhh!” The scream escaped before she could think. She tried to run out the door but rammed into a broad, strong, man. His arms wrapped around her tightly holding her in place. She beat his back with her fists and tried to pry herself free, “Help me!” She screamed again.
“Sh! Mitzy! Sh! We don’t want them to know we’re here.”
Mitzy pulled her leg back and kicked the man in the shins as hard as she could. She did want someone to know she was here!
Alonzo dropped her.
She fell back into a shelf of small plants. It rocked beneath her but didn’t fall. She looked up.
“Alonzo!” she cried out. She threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around him. “Oh baby. I was so scared!”
“Sh! Really! We need to get out of here now before they hear you. You just stepped into something serious.”
“Okay. I’ve got pictures. Let’s get out now.”
“I’ve never seen so much pot,” Alonzo said, fumbling for his phone.
“I’m glad,” Mitzy said. Her moment of panic had calmed slightly so she took another picture of the seedlings. She wished she had taken time to get more comfortable with her camera phone. Her hands shook and she fumbled with the keypad to send the picture as a message. Then she took another one and sent it a little bit faster.
“We can’t stay here,” Alonzo whispered. “You’ve got to stop now.”
Mitzy looked up, Alonzo’s eyes were red and his jaw was clenched tight. The veins in his forehead were bulging.
She could hear something in the far distance that sounded like a motor. “You’re right. Let’s run.”
Alonzo opened the door and looked out. The forest was still and quiet. He grabbed her hand and ran. They ran as fast as they could back to their cars.
“I wish we weren’t here in two cars,” he said.
“Just get going. Get into town,” Mitzy ordered.
She drove as fast as she could around the curves of the country road. Alonzo was on her heels. Before she was even half way to town she saw a pickup behind Alonzo’s.
“Oh dear heavenly Father,” she whispered. Now was the time for that silent effective prayer that went straight from her heart, skipping the stumbling block of her brain. She didn’t know what she needed to survive this, but God did.
The truck was flying. Before she knew it, it had switched to the oncoming lane and inched closer. She hugged the edge of the road and slowed down but the truck slowed down too. Alonzo slowed way down to give her room in front of him. She was desperate to stop until she looked into the truck next to her. A rifle was hanging over the back window and a very skinny man with a ragged face glared at her from under the brim of his hat. She didn’t want to see what he would do if she stopped.
So she sped up. She zipped ahead and pulled in front of him, her heart beating to break her ribcage. Now she knew to pray that no cars came straight at her. She sped up, watching her speedometer hit 80. The thought of driving faster than that in the wrong lane scared her more than the man behind her.
The truck wasn’t riding her tail anymore, but Alonzo couldn’t catch up to get between them. Mitzy could see him trying so she slowed down. The pickup sped up. It rammed her fender. The impact shook Mitzy through the middle of her body, but she hit the gas as hard as she could and turned into her own lane.
She was spinning but she had pulled out of the way in time. The speeding truck had skimmed her fender instead of driving over the top of her tiny car. The truck veered as the driver tried to get control of his vehicle but it careened into the woods. Mitzy held her brakes down praying it would work.
The pedal vibrated against her foot, but she skidded off the highway like a stone. The land was clear and between her brakes and the sagebrush she slowed to a stop. She leaned over the steering wheel praying and trying to catch her breath. She turned her head and could see the truck driving off through the scrubland, away from their crash. She could also see Alonzo running to her car, and she could see smoke coming from the back of her Miata. She unbuckled, grabbed her purse and threw herself out the door. She rolled as far from the car as she could.
Alonzo ran to her and pulled her into his arms. “I don’t think it’s going to catch fire,” he said. “But we’d better call the police.”
“Can we call them as we drive away from here as fast as we can?” Mitzy held her head against his chest. His heart was pounding as fast as her own.
“I think that’s a good idea.”
Alonzo helped Mitzy into his truck and handed her his phone. “I’m sorry to make you make the call, but it’s best.”
Mitzy understood. He had to drive and watch for the terror who had just tried to kill her.
Mitzy finished her report of the accident before they made it back to town. “Why didn’t you say the guy drove you off the road on purpose?” Alonzo asked.
“I did, basically. I described what happened and why we were going straight to town.” Mitzy held her hands clasped in her lap. Her body still shook with fear. “It doesn’t take a genius to know he was trying to run us off the road.”
“Did the cop ask you any questions? It didn’t sound like it.”
“No. He took the report.”
“You should have told him everything.”
“I should have told him that we discovered the crazy driver’s pot farm and then he tried to kill me? We can only assume it was the farmer. I gave his license number to the cops. But think about this: what if the cops are crooked? What if I told them about the farm and then we were in real trouble because they already knew? We don’t know what the people out here are like, do we?”
“Aren’t they all Tea Party Ruby Ridgers or Mormons?”
“Please don’t let’s get political. I need to stay here until tomorrow so an adjuster can call my poor adorable baby car totaled. Let’s just find a place to stay the night.”
Alonzo set his hand gently on her knee.
She unclasped her cold hands and picked his up. She lifted it to her mouth and kissed his fingers. “I shouldn’t have come out here alone.”
“You’ve been driving all night. Let’s get you a place to sleep.”
They drove to the nearest truck stop in silence. Two medium sized hotels stood on either side of it. He pulled into the prettiest one. Mitzy appreciated that.
“There sure are a lot of cars here,” Mitzy said.
Alonzo parked and they made their way into the hotel. A very tired young woman sat at the front desk. Before they could say anything she shook her head. “We’re all full up.”
“We just need two rooms for one night.” Mitzy tried to turn on her professional “sell the house” smile.
“We don’t even have one free.”
“Fine. It doesn’t matter. We’ll go next door,” Alonzo said.
The girl shook her head. “They’re full too.”
“Well then
where do you suggest?” Mitzy asked.
“There’s another place all the way across town but I think they’re pretty full, too,” she said.
“Why?” Alonzo asked.
“The Baptists,” the girl said. “They’ve come to convert us. They think we don’t know. They are calling it a convention, but I can’t even bring them clean towels without them telling me about Jesus.”
“All of the hotels in town are full of Baptists?”
“Yup. There’s like 400 of them here. They’re everywhere.”
“If the whole town is swarming with missionaries we really can’t share a room.” Alonzo said.
The girl laughed. “You could go down to Boise. It’s only a half an hour down the road.”
“I can’t go to Boise,” Mitzy said. “I can’t leave until I’ve talked to an insurance adjuster.”
“You can try the place across town,” the girl said with a shrug.
“I guess we’ll just have to,” Mitzy said. They walked out and got back into the pickup. “I’ll make a note: no more spontaneous road trips.”
“First we get a room—two rooms. Then we get a meal. Then jokes,”’ Alonzo said.
Across town there was only one room available. The young man at the desk assured them there were only three hotels in town.
Alonzo booked the room and then they both got back in his pickup to find a place to eat. “You’ll be safe at the hotel, and I’ll just sleep in the truck,” he said.
“You can’t do that. Not with a lunatic out there.”
“It’s a single room Mitzy. Even if I had Gandhi’s willpower I could not stay the night with you in a single room and…respect myself in the morning.”
Traci Tyne Hilton - Mitzi Neuhaus 03 - Buyer's Remorse Page 14