The First Ladies Club Box Set

by J B Hawker

  The only one taking his wife’s absence seriously was the awful Portland detective who thought Scott was a murderer.

  Scott tried to tell himself the blood stains were from a trespasser who’d been camping out in the house. Some squatter probably broke the lock on the door to get in and left the trash and stains. When this guy saw the women and the car with the keys in it, he probably thought lady luck was dropping a gift into his lap.

  It all made sense. The blood and the car theft probably had no connection to each other, or to Naidenne.

  This line of thought should have been reassuring, but if what happened yesterday was only a random incident, then they were still no closer to finding his wife.

  *

  “No, Len, we can’t even mention it to my brother while Naidenne is still missing,” Rosamund said.

  “I suppose you’re right, but as soon as all this is over, you are going to have to tell him.”

  “I pray when that time comes Naidenne will be back, safe and sound. It would be cruel to move out and leave Scott alone, otherwise.”

  “You are too kind-hearted to be real, sometimes, Rosie. That’s why I love you. You’ve been looking after your little brother all your life and I understand. You’ve got a husband, now, though…”

  “And I should be looking after you, is that what you are saying?”

  “Sounds selfish when you say it, but I guess that is what I meant,” Len admitted.

  “Don’t worry, dear. I don’t think you’re being selfish. A wife’s first duty, after God, of course, is to her husband. You may need to remind me of that from time to time, I’m afraid. I’m new at being a wife.”

  “Don’t you worry, we can stay here just as long as Scott needs us, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start making plans for a home of our own. Will you want to move into my condo, or shall we get a house? I’m willing to do whichever you choose, as long as we’re together,” Len said.

  “I can’t think about that just now…although I always used to dream of a cottage of my own with a nice little garden.”

  “Then you shall have it, my love.”

  Hearing Scott moving around, they left Rosamund’s room and went downstairs to fix breakfast.

  Scott was already pouring his coffee when they entered the kitchen.

  “Morning, Scott. Did you manage to get any sleep?” Len asked.

  “Not much, but I’m okay.”

  “Here, let me get you some breakfast,” Rosamund said, putting away the coffee filters and wiping up spilled coffee grounds.

  “Just coffee for me, Sis. I’m going down to the Sheriff’s office to see what they discovered at that empty property.”

  “You really should eat, first. You need to keep up your strength. I’ll heat up the leftover muffins and scramble an egg.”

  “This will do fine,” Scott said as he grabbed a cold muffin, quickly downed his coffee and left.

  “Oh, dear,” Rosamund sighed.

  “He’ll be okay, Rosie. A nice warm muffin and a scrambled egg sounds good to me, though. After that, I’d better get to the bank and make sure it’s still standing,” Len said.

  *

  In the dreary basement, the early morning light filtering through the dirty windows roused Naidenne to a renewed awareness of the pain in her head and shoulder.

  Remembering where she was, the full danger of her situation hit her anew and she moaned.

  “I’ve got to get out of here. I’ve got to…for Scott and our baby.”

  Thinking she might die, and Scott would never see their child brought tears to her eyes and a sob escaped her lips.

  “Get hold of yourself,” she admonished. “God is in control, so calm down and think.”

  She looked around and noticed a broken wooden stool a few yards away. There were exposed nails sticking out of the seat. These just might cut through her bindings.

  With a snort of determination, she rolled onto her stomach and once again began the painful process of inching across the cement.

  *

  “Judy couldn’t make it this morning, Letha,” Elizabeth explained. “She had to go to school with her twins.”

  “There will be just the two of us, then. Shirley dropped off the keys on her way to work at the arts and crafts shop. I really don’t think there’s much chance of us finding any trace of Naidenne in these last properties, though. We checked all the most likely places yesterday. Still, I guess we do need to look. Come in and have some coffee before we start out. I confess I’m discouraged, and a little reluctant to cross these last buildings off our list. I just don’t know what to do next, if we come up with nothing, again today,” Eskaletha admitted.

  Elizabeth perched on a stool at the black granite kitchen island while Eskaletha filled their cups and set out a plate of date bars.

  “I understand how you feel. I’ve prayed and pleaded with God like a spoiled child, begging him to show us where she is, then backing off and asking him to show me His will, instead, but I don’t feel like I’m getting answers,” Elizabeth said, reaching for a cookie.

  “It’s so frustrating,” Eskaletha agreed. “Intellectually, I know this is going to work out for good, somehow, but my heart aches for Naidenne…and for Scott, too, of course.”

  Joining hands around their cups, the women prayed for their friend’s safety and swift return.

  With an emphatic, “Amen,” they finished their drinks and set out to examine the empty commercial buildings.

  Arriving at a disused warehouse a short time later, Eskaletha unlocked the door and the two women entered the dimly lit building.

  It was a vast, empty space, at first glance appearing to contain nothing but a scattering of broken pallets on the cracked cement floor. An enclosed office area was just to the side of the entry, its door hanging open.

  The women poked around inside, but this space, too, was empty. There wasn’t anywhere for someone to be hidden. Reluctant to give up, they paced the full warehouse interior before leaving and locking up.

  After wandering through one empty building after another, with no luck, they were getting discouraged.

  The last property on the list was an old decommissioned gas station out on the highway a few blocks north of town.

  They arrived at this last possibility much sooner than they would have liked and were hesitant to go inside.

  Stopping under the awning between the barren pump islands, Eskaletha and Elizabeth sat in the car for many moments without speaking.

  “Well, this is it. I guess we can’t put it off any longer, Liz,” Eskaletha broke the silence and opened her car door.

  As they approached the side entry to the service area, Elizabeth paused, clutched her friend’s elbow and pointed at a plastic milk crate, surrounded by crushed weeds and scrape marks in the bare dirt, under a half-open window.

  “Doesn’t that look like someone’s been climbing in and out here?” she asked with a mixture of hope and fear in her voice. “Maybe we should call the police.”

  “Not for litter and some scuff marks, Liz. Come on,” Eskaletha encouraged her friend as she unlocked the door.

  The interior was shadowy. It was difficult to see in the dim light, but the space seemed to be empty, except for a few display racks leaning against the wall beyond the pit area and grease rack.

  Eskaletha led the way carefully through the two bays, staying well clear of the open pit as she approached the door on the far wall.

  She hesitated, listening, with her hand on the doorknob.

  “I think I heard something,” she whispered.

  “I did, too,” Elizabeth responded.

  They stayed very still, alert with a mixture of hope and dread, for the sounds to repeat.

  A soft scratching sound and what might have been a whimper came from someplace on the other side.

  Opening the door as quietly as possible, the ladies crept into a large room, formerly the gas station’s convenience store and cashier’s counter.

 
The large windows had been boarded over, letting in very little light. In the gloom, they could just make out the rows of shelves, the counter area to their right and refrigerator compartments lining the back wall.

  Elizabeth peered over the counter and looked at Eskaletha, shaking her head to indicate no one was there.

  Eskaletha led the way cautiously down the aisles, both women’s nerves on edge, expecting someone to leap out at any moment.

  Coming to the last row of shelves, the women found themselves at another door. This one led to the restrooms and storage area.

  The muffled sounds seemed louder, as though coming from nearby.

  Elizabeth stepped closer to her friend and breathed, “Maybe we should go back.”

  Eskaletha shook her head and grasped the door handle. She pulled the door open slowly and peered around.

  The darkness in the windowless hallway was complete. She was tempted to give in to Elizabeth’s suggestion and leave, but thoughts of Naidenne gave her the strength to step through with Elizabeth following.

  Before the door closed behind them, shutting off the light from the empty convenience store, they saw three doors opening off the hallway.

  Feeling their way, they found the first door and paused again, encouraging one another with a squeeze of their hands.

  This door opened into a storeroom. Its lone window, while barred, was not boarded over. The filtered light revealed only bare floor and walls.

  The women were relieved and emboldened to move on to the next door.

  Leaving the door open gave them light to see their way more clearly. Another empty storeroom greeted them behind door number two. That left only the unisex restroom ahead on their right.

  The sounds were clearer now, definitely whimpering plus rustling and scratching, as from someone struggling while lying on paper.

  The women paused to consider what they might find on the other side of the door. If it was their friend, what condition was she in? If not Naidenne, then who was in this abandoned gas station?

  A shiver of fear passed over Elizabeth when she thought of all the horrific possibilities and she sent up a prayer before nodding to Eskaletha.

  As soon as the door began to open, both women recoiled at the strong, unpleasant odor.

  Eskaletha pushed the door wider and a cacophony of sound erupted.

  As they emerged into the restroom, squeals and yelps greeted them and they easily identified the source of the smell.

  The room was full of puppies!

  In a makeshift corral of cardboard boxes, on a carpet of soiled newspapers, were four mongrel puppies, two black, one tan and one white with a black eye like the dog, Zero, in the old “Little Rascals” movies.

  An empty dog dish and basin of water, now overturned, sat in one corner of this slapdash kennel.

  The dogs leaped over one another in their excitement and eagerness for company.

  Eskaletha dropped to her knees beside the row of boxes, reaching in to pet the wriggling pups as they scrambled to try to climb up her arms.

  “Whoa, there! I think these guys are hungry!”

  “Someone has obviously been taking care of them here, but it looks like they haven’t come today,” Elizabeth said.

  She looked around and noticed a couple of half-full trash bags over in a corner behind the boxes.

  The first bag she opened was filled with smelly newspapers and doggy doo. Closing it quickly, she opened the second more carefully and found it full of kibble. She scooped some out into the dish in the puppies’ pen and the hungry dogs scampered over.

  Discovering rusty water still flowed from the restroom sink’s taps, Eskaletha filled the pups’ basin. She put it down inside the enclosure and the tiny movie-star look-alike immediately sat in it, wagging his tail happily and spraying water droplets onto his litter mates.

  Elizabeth and Eskaletha laughed, releasing all their pent-up tension.

  “Well, who do you suppose left these little rascals here?” Elizabeth asked.

  “And what are we supposed to do with them, now?” Eskaletha responded.

  “We should report them to Animal Control. I’d take the little darlings home with me, but Gil and I really don’t have the time for even one puppy…They are cute, though, especially this little beggar,” Elizabeth said, scooping up the black runt of the litter, who had already finished eating.

  “I’ll bet we would have no trouble finding adoptive homes for them, but we don’t know who left these guys here. They may already belong to someone,” Eskaletha pointed out.

  A scrap of damp paper clung to the back paw of the puppy in Elizabeth’s arms and she pulled it off. It was lined notebook paper and there was writing on it.

  She looked closely and read aloud, “A-S-T-I-L-B-E.”

  “Oh, no! You don’t suppose it was Judy’s girls who put the puppies here, do you?” she exclaimed.

  “How else would a school paper get here?” Eskaletha said. “If they aren’t actually responsible, they must be involved or at least know about these pups. There can’t be two girls named ‘Astilbe’ in Bannoch.”

  “We have to tell Judy, then, I suppose.”

  Eskaletha nodded, but the two women continued to crouch beside the puppies, rubbing their little round bellies and scratching their ears.

  “I guess we can eliminate this place from our search for Naidenne,” Elizabeth said, breaking the spell.

  “Yes,” replied and Eskaletha stood up. “And now I don’t know where else to look.”

  Elizabeth was dismayed to see her take-charge friend looking so lost and discouraged.

  “What do the detectives on TV do when they hit a brick wall?” she asked, with a twinkle in her eye.

  Eskaletha thought for a moment before responding with a dry chuckle.

  “I guess they go back over everything again to see what they missed.”

  “Okay, then. We’ll go to Judy’s to find out what the girls know about these cute little critters, then you can call the Club ladies together and we’ll start searching for Naidenne from the beginning.”

  “What about the puppies?”

  “They are fed, watered…quite well watered, in fact…and settling down, now. They should be okay for the rest of the day, while we attend to business,” Elizabeth said.

  With a definite agenda, they topped up the quickly emptying dishes, patted the dogs and hurried out, intent on getting things done.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Scott left the Sheriff’s substation with precious little additional information.

  Preliminary lab tests determined the blood was human, but the sample was so small it would be weeks before the DNA results came in.

  Scott told himself the small amount of blood was a good thing, but he was frustrated not to have it ruled out as belonging to his wife.

  Scott decided not to wait for the lab results, but to go to the house where the blood was found and see if he could find anything the authorities had missed.

  With no proof of a crime, and feeling his men had gotten all the information they could from the house and grounds, the Sheriff had released the scene

  Tillamook County wasn’t Las Vegas CSI, after all. And local authorities hadn’t taken Naidenne’s disappearance very seriously in the beginning. They might easily have overlooked something Scott would find meaningful.

  He drove back to the parsonage to get a flashlight and the set of lock-box keys his wife kept there.

  *

  Naidenne had finally wriggled up against the broken stool, where she was rubbing her sister-in-law’s favorite apron against the exposed nails, hoping to shred it apart and free her hands.

  “I hope Rosamund forgives me for ruining her apron,” she thought.

  “Ouch!” she cried out as the nails tore deeply into her skin, causing her to smear fresh blood onto the cloth and giving Naidenne a twinge of regret at this additional damage to the apron.

  “Silly, me,” she murmured aloud. “I may not get out of this a
live and I’m worried about staining Rosamund’s apron.”

  She knew she was in grave peril, but the inconsequential thoughts seemed to take her mind off her fear and discomfort.

  Even with her gag removed, her mouth was like cotton and her stomach cramped from hunger. She worried about her unborn child. Was this tiny life hungry too?

  *

  After spending the morning stumbling through the crowded hallways in the wake of her mortified daughters as they went from class to class and sitting in the back of each room like a bodyguard, Judy was relieved to be home.

  The girls had promised to stay at school for the afternoon, if their mother would go home at lunchtime.

  Judy warned them she would be calling the school, periodically, to be sure they were there.

  It hurt her heart not to be able to trust them, but she knew Ken would insist on verifying they lived up to their word.

  He’d dropped the three of them off that morning and would pick the girls up after school, since Judy no longer had her own transportation.

  Thinking about her car, Judy wondered if she should tell the troopers to look out for it in nearby gas stations.

  The gas gauge in her car hadn’t worked in years. Judy routinely filled the tank once a month, but with all the confusion and upset about Naidenne, she hadn’t gotten around to it, lately. It was bound to be getting pretty low.

  She fixed herself a vegan macaroni and cheese dish using whole wheat macaroni and a faux cheese substitute comprised mostly of almond paste, with mustard added for color. It was a new recipe she’d found in Vegan Life magazine and she had to admit it didn’t taste much like she thought it would.

  As she ate, she decided the troopers would have already checked the area gas stations as a matter of course when the car was first stolen, so they wouldn’t need any advice from her.

  She was cleaning up her dishes, scraping the ersatz mac and cheese off her plate into the compost container, when Eskaletha and Elizabeth arrived and rapped on the window at her back door.

  “Hey, you two, what’s up?” she greeted them.

  “Hi, Judy. We’ve been checking out the final properties on our list, looking for any sign of Naidenne,” Elizabeth told her.