Hungry Hostages

by Marilyn Miggles

  Lulu came across and sat at the table opposite to me and I continued to stare straight ahead at the pictures on the wall.

  "You look terrible. You're not still upset about these clueless people who have signed that awful petition, are you?"

  "Thank you for telling me I look terrible," I said, thinking of how I must have looked in front of the Sheriff. "It's not the petition."

  "Good, I don't want you fretting about that. I am having another one signed by the people who want you to stay and believe me, there will be more names on it than the lousy Sheriff's."

  I laughed, "aww, thanks, Lulu."

  "So, what's bothering you?"

  I took a deep breath, "it's that conversation we were having the other day, about the one."

  "Oh, that, I shouldn't worry yourself too much about it. You'll meet the right one soon enough."

  "That's just it. I have."

  "You have! Then what are you looking so glum about it for? Who is he?" Lulu squealed.

  I reddened and took a look around the café, "hush, they'll hear you." I whispered.

  "Sorry, but who is he?" Lulu whispered back.

  "I am so confused, it just felt so right," I said miserably, wondering what Lulu would think of me.

  "Well, that's good, isn't it?"

  I shook my head.

  "No, it isn't good?" Lulu asked frowning.

  "Yes, I suppose. Oh, I don't know!" I cried, putting my head in my hands.

  "You puzzle me, Miss Bryony Womack. You are odd at times. You know you could almost be as odd as Mali at this moment."

  "It's the Sheriff!" I cried out and then covered my mouth.

  "I know he's the sheriff."

  "No, I mean it's the Sheriff. It's Al!"

  Lulu's mouth dropped open as this sunk in, "the Sheriff is the one!"

  I was nodding furiously.

  "Speaking of him, here he comes," she replied, glancing out of the window to the carpark, where his car had just turned up.

  I could feel myself blushing and I just about had time to smooth down my hair before he entered the diner. He looked a bit taken aback to see me there but, nonetheless, he came towards our table, if a little more hesitant than he normally walked anywhere, as I'd already noticed his confident stride.

  Once he'd reached our table, he looked right at Lulu, while I kept my eyes on her hands, resting on the table.

  "Lulu Pine?" He asked, flipping open his notepad, as I was watching from the corner of my eye.

  "Yeah, Sheriff. You know I'm Lulu."

  "We have reason to believe that diners like this one are now being targeted for the robberies in nearby towns like sunshine bluff. It seems we have a hungry gang on our hands. This is just a friendly warning for you to keep your eyes peeled for any strange activity."

  "I'll do that, Sheriff," she replied, decisively.

  This brought back to my mind what I'd seen earlier at the diner and I looked up at him as he was about to turn and leave.

  "Sheriff, I think there could be a link with this and Gerald Pickering's killer. I saw Kit Worthington in this diner a few days' ago and he was arguing with a stranger."

  He turned back to us and looked at me and our eyes met and locked for a few moments.

  "That's right. I had to throw them out," Lulu remembered, interrupting this special moment for us.

  He turned his attention back to his notepad and scribbled this down.

  "Alright, we'll look into it," he said and with another quick glance back in my direction, he nodded his head and left the diner.

  Lulu turned to me and smiled, "that's the friendliest and most compliant I've seen him and that's the first time he has ever stepped foot in here. We almost got a smile out of him."

  I smiled, "I know."

  "It's down to you, of course, Bry. It may actually do him good, dating you. You may loosen him up a bit."

  "I hope so," I said, giggling.

  Lulu's face suddenly took on a startled expression and she dived from her seat to get a better view out of the window.

  "What is it?" I asked, startled in my turn.

  "There's a man with a gun! He's heading this way!" She cried.

  C h a p t e r11

  There was no doubt in my mind that it was Kit Worthington under that mask. He must have been responsible for the store owner's death. Just why, I didn't know.

  He swaggered into the diner and I wondered if he were drunk. He closed the door behind him with a jingle of the bell and turned the open sign to closed. There was no one else in the diner but us two and I guessed he'd been watching me.

  "Hands up!" He shouted, pointing the gun at us.

  We did as we were told and he got us to walk towards the counter, our backs towards the wall and then enter the kitchen where we couldn't be seen by onlookers. This would be our prison for the next few hours, as we listened to his constant bickering to himself.

  "Do you have something to eat? I'm hungry!" He shouted, after some time had gone by. It was definitely Kit's voice under there.

  "That's a dumb question. It's a diner, for goodness sake!" Lulu replied.

  "Shut up! Get me something!"

  "Aright, I'm going," Lulu said, slowly edging her way towards the fridge.

  She pulled out some left over chocolate milkshake and a plate full of freshly made tray bakes, bringing them over to him.

  We watched hungrily as he ate them. Our mouths watering.

  "You know, we could use something ourselves. We're starving here," Lulu said bravely.

  I looked at her, pleading with my eyes for her to be silent, something she could never do! She was not the best companion to have around in a sticky situation such as this one!

  He seemed to be getting more agitated as time went on and I was beginning to wish I had the Sheriff's number stored on my mobile. I knew I hadn't got it without even looking because I would never have even dreamt of phoning him before. It was too bad Eddy was away by this time. I just had to ride the storm, which would be both difficult and dangerous.

  "Hey, Kit! Why were you following me?" I asked, bravely standing before him, my hands still in the air.

  "Who says I was?" He shouted, pointing the gun at me.

  "Bryony, get down. What will I tell Mali if anything happens to you?" Lulu hissed.

  "You must have been following me because you knew I was here. It's me you're after, isn't it? Because you knew I'd work out what you did to Gerald Pickering," I said, ignoring her.

  "You shouldn't have been poking your nose in, should you? I've seen you watching me all the time. You should have left it to the pro's."

  While I was distracting him like this, I could see Lulu from out of the corner of my eye and she was crawling away slowly towards her mobile, which was sitting on a chair in a corner.

  "Why did you do it, Kit?" I asked, watching his face closely to make sure he wasn't watching Lulu, which he wasn't.

  "I don't need to tell you. It's unlikely you'll make it out of here, anyway," he replied fiercely.

  I took a deep breath and began my synopsis. I'd seen the police talk people down before on t.v. I just had to copy them. Easier said than done, I know!

  "You see, I thought he had just got in the way but that's not quite the way it happened, is it?" I said in the calmest voice I could muster.

  He grunted something under his breath, which I couldn't make out, so I continued with my guessing game.

  "I thought it was just another robbery that had gone wrong at first but that's what you wanted it to look like. You had a specific reason for wanting him out of the way."

  "Gerald was a fool. He got what was coming to him!" He cried out savagely.

  Lulu discreetly signed to me that she had got a message that the police were on their way. I just needed to keep him talking a bit longer.

  "What did you have against him?"

  "He was a grass, that's what! He used to be part of the gang until he went straight. He turned me in and I have only just got out of prison
."

  "You came looking for him and staged the other robberies to make it look like an accident?"

  He nodded.

  "The stranger you were arguing with in this very diner, only a few days' ago, was another gang member? Did he threaten to go to the police?"

  "He did. Now you know everything."

  He raised his gun and I dared not even flinch. I just stood there, immovable, my heart pounding in my chest.

  Then, to my great relief, the kitchen door flew open and in walked Mali, holding a gun, with another deputy, who I guessed was standing in for Eddy while he was away.

  "Drop the gun, or I'll shoot!" MaIi cried.

  Kit resisted at first but seeing it was hopeless, he dropped the gun and the deputy grabbed it and took out the bullets, while Mali cuffed his hands and led him outside.

  "Deputy Adams, nice to meet you," said the big man with a shaved head and eyes that looked startled all the time.

  He put out his hand and I shook it, taken aback by his polite manner. He then sauntered out of the kitchen, still carrying the gun.

  Lulu ran towards me and threw her arms around me. We then hugged each other for a few minutes.

  "That was a close call, girlfriend. I'm so glad Alley wasn't here!" She cried.

  "No, she would have been hysterical!"

  "You did good."

  "So did you! If you hadn't called the Sheriff's office, I would have been toast."

  "Nah, don't mention it. I need a breather," she replied, edging towards the door.

  I followed her outside where Kit had been safely packed away in the car and spotting Mali, I ran towards him and fell into his arms. He wrapped his big, strong arms around me and I nestled my head onto his chest. I knew this was what I had been missing, being in the arms of a strong man who could take care of me.

  He kissed the top of my head and wrapped his Sheriff's jacket around my shoulders and I looked up into his face.

  "Are you okay, Bryony?" He asked, with that same soft tone he had used only a couple of times before in my hearing. I liked it!

  "I am now," I said gleefully.

  I leaned my head up to him and kissed him as I'd done earlier, though it now seemed so long ago after the recent events.

  "I warned you about the dangers of playing detective before but you wouldn't listen to me," he scolded me gently, when he pulled away.

  "I know you did but you know I can't help myself."

  "I do know that," he replied, stroking my hair.

  I turned my head and I could see Lulu appearing to be flirting with deputy Adams and I wondered if they were of a similar age.

  "Come on, I'll walk you home. Adams will drive Kit back," Mali said.

  "Yes, Sheriff."

  He gave me a rare smile and walked towards Adams with his instructions. Lulu came across to me, grinning and l raised an eyebrow at her.

  "I see you have met the new deputy," I said.

  "Oh yes, I sure have and I like what I see. He's a little younger than me but not that much," she replied looking back at him.

  "He seems pleasant, though I'm not sure he's for staying. As soon as Eddy returns he will move on."

  "Well, you're in the know now, aren't you?" She said, winking at me.

  "Yeah, it'll help my sleuthing, that's for sure."

  Mali came back to walk me home and I waved to Lulu as we strolled away, my hand resting on his arm.

  E N G A G E M E N T E N T A N G L E

  S N E A K P R E V I E W

  C h a p t e r1

  I was staring out of the window at Lulu's diner, waiting for my fiancé, Sheriff Mali, to join me for lunch. He was fifteen minutes late already and there was still no sign of him.

  I glanced over to where Lulu Pine, the diner's owner, was standing behind the counter, serving another of her famous traybake creations to a customer. She looked up and smiled at me, tapping her watch. Her blue eyes were full of amusement.

  I smiled back and sighed.

  "Has he stood you up again?" Lulu asked, walking across to me.

  "It seems like it. No doubt something has come up at work again."

  "Or maybe it's pre wedding nerves. Al has always struck me as the type who is hesitant to commit," she replied, sitting down in the seat Al should have been sitting in by now.

  "It could have something to do with my mom flying over from New York. He's only met her once and then they didn't exactly hit it off."

  Lulu laughed, brushing back her shoulder length pink hair.

  Just then my mobile started chiming in my bag and after rooting for it, I noticed Al's name up on the screen.

  "Hi, Al. Where are you?"

  "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I'm gonna have to give our lunch date a miss. Somethings come up at work," he said regretfully.

  "It sounds serious. What's happened?"

  "Nothing you need to know. I'll see you later." He hung up before I could quiz him further.

  I had promised him I wasn't going to do anymore detective work after what happened last time but I knew as well as he did, that I couldn't leave mystery and intrigue alone for long. It must have been in my blood.

  "Is it work?" Lulu asked.

  "Yup, looks like I'll be having lunch on my own today. I think it's a murder but he won't give me the details. He doesn't want me snooping again."

  "I can't say I blame him. It's a dangerous past time, Bry."

  "That might be what I like about it."

  "Well, don't say you haven't been warned. That's all I can say."

  "I at least intend to find out what happened today."

  She left it here, knowing my stubborn nature by now and went off to clear some tables.

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