Maybe there was something to this hanging around with the llamas. A plan was starting to take shape in my mind. It was still ill-formed and downright peculiar. It might not succeed. But if I could put together the pieces …
“Non sequitur of the day,” I said. “But have most of your students gone home?”
“You’re thinking about tomorrow night’s pizza party, right?” Actually I’d completely forgotten about it, but he didn’t need to know that.
“Most of the undergrads have gone,” he was saying. “But we have quite a few grad students still around, since so many of them are doing the street theater. We should have about three dozen for pizza.”
More than I’d expected.
“Do any of them happen to be women with tech experience?” I asked. “As in knowing something about running a video camera? I need someone ASAP for a shelter-related project.”
“I can think of several who might fit the bill,” he said. “You want me to call them?”
“I’d rather call myself,” I said. “I can explain better. Can you get me their contact info? I’d like to send an email tonight, and then be ready to call them as soon as possible.”
Actually, I was planning to call them as soon as I got their numbers, but probably better not to tell him I was planning to wake up his students.
“Sure. I’ve got the guest list in my office. I should be heading that way anyway—I agreed to take the first night of riding herd on the teenage boys in the library. Time I showed up to make sure they don’t burn the house down.”
Excellent. That would make it easier for me to sneak out to execute my plan.
“I’ll go back in with you, then,” I said aloud. “We’re having an emergency women’s shelter steering committee meeting in the dining room.”
When we got to his office, Michael printed out a list of the students who’d accepted our Sunday night pizza party invitation. I was delighted to see that he’d already put the emails and phone numbers on it. Delighted, but not surprised. Given the possibility of snow in the weather forecast, we’d wanted to make sure we had no delay in notifying them in case of a change in plans. He ticked off a couple of women’s names.
“Any of those should be able to do your video project, whatever it is.”
“Thanks.” I wanted to tell Michael what we were up to. But I was afraid he’d say it was crazy. Or dangerous. Or that he’d insist on coming with us. And I had a gut feeling that for my plan to succeed, we needed to keep it all female. Not that I thought the Dingles were models of chivalry, but I suspected they’d take a bunch of women a little less seriously. Give us a little bit of the good old boy “now, now, little lady” nonsense before taking any drastic action. At least I hoped so.
“Well, wish me luck.” He braced himself and opened the library door. A chorus of voices arose.
“No grownups allowed!”
“Hey! I’m getting dressed in here!”
“Did you bring the pizza?”
The door closed behind him.
I studied the list. I knew two of the women. I’d call them in a little bit. First I had to see if my own family and close friends thought my idea was worth trying.
I strolled back to the front of the house. I was hovering between entering the dining room and sitting in front of the fire in the living room for a few more minutes, to let my idea take a little more shape.
Someone knocked on the door. I peered out the window to see Minerva Burke, the chief’s wife.
“What are you doing here at this time of night?” I opened the door and beckoned for her to come in. “Which doesn’t mean your visit is unwelcome—just unexpected.”
“Henry seemed to be worrying that you might be planning to do something stupid and foolhardy and dangerous.” She shed her coat and handed it to me. “Like invading Clay County to rescue your menfolk.”
“What makes him think that?” She’d realize, of course, that I was avoiding the question.
“Who knows how men get these ideas? Anyway, I told him you hadn’t done a stupid thing in your life, and I didn’t think you were going to start now. And then I told him I was going to go lead a prayer vigil for the safe return of our friends and neighbors.”
“Great idea,” I said. But if she was planning to lead a prayer vigil over at the New Life Baptist Church, why was she taking off her snow boots?
“He probably thought I was headed over to the church,” she said, as if reading my thoughts. “I figure I can pray on my feet as well as anywhere else. When are we leaving for Clay County?”
“First I have to see if anyone else thinks I’ve come up with a plan that will work,” I said. “You can join us. In the dining room, in a few minutes.”
She nodded and marched down the hall. When she opened the dining room door, I heard glad cries of welcome from some of the others. Then the door shut again.
Time for me to join them.
I was about to walk over to turn out the porch light when I heard a car pull up outside. Then footsteps coming up the front walk. By the time the doorbell rang, I was peeking through the window to see who else was arriving.
Robyn. And Josefina.
“You’re out late,” I said as I opened the door. “And without Noah. What’s up?”
“Matt’s watching Noah,” Robyn said. “And in case you’re worried, the shelter residents have arrived at their new temporary quarters, and Mo Heedles is holding down the fort there. She sends her regards.”
“Good.” Mo was both a friend of Cordelia’s and the very savvy police chief of Riverton, where the shelter occupants had gone to take refuge in Cordelia’s house. The shelter residents were in good hands. “So what brings you here so late?”
“Your mother said you have a plan to rescue Mark Caverly,” Robyn said. “And the other jailbirds. No matter how silly they are, we can’t let them spend Christmas in jail.”
Evidently Mother had already been busy rounding up recruits.
“I’m not exactly sure I have an actual plan yet,” I said. “I’m still working on it.”
“Whatever it is, count us in,” Robyn said. “We want to help.”
“For my ladies,” Josefina said. “And their babies.”
Okay. I could fit them into my still-vague plan.
“Go on into the dining room,” I said. “And—”
Another car was parking in front of the house.
Chapter 29
Robyn, Josefina, and I all tensed as we turned to study the new arrival. Then we simultaneously relaxed when we saw Ekaterina emerge from the driver’s seat, wearing a quilted jacket that managed to look both effortlessly chic and toasty warm.
I threw open the door.
“We have come to join you,” Ekaterina called out, throwing back the hood of her jacket. “My sister Oksana and I.”
Oksana, wearing a very similar elegant coat, but with the hood pulled low over her face, strode up the walk behind Ekaterina.
“Welcome,” I said to them both. “I didn’t even know you had a sister.”
“I do now.” Ekaterina shut the door and beamed at Oksana. Oksana threw her hood back, revealing that she wasn’t Ekaterina’s sister after all.
“Hello, Janet,” I said.
“I made Ekaterina bring me,” she said. “If you’re going to rescue Mark, I want to help.”
“Join us, then.” I still had those residual doubts, but maybe it was better to have her where we could keep an eye on her. I’d drop a quiet word to Ekaterina on that.
“A moment.” Ekaterina was looking out of the window. My stomach knotted again. First with anxiety and then with anger that those thugs from Clay County had made me feel unsafe in my own house.
My tension must have shown on my face.
“Is nothing,” Ekaterina said. “Only that there should be one more car arriving. Ahh—there she is.”
A bright red convertible skidded to a stop right behind Ekaterina’s car, sending up a small wave of snow, and Delaney hopped out.
“Sorry!” Delaney called as she loped up the front walk, heedless of the patches of ice yet somehow managing to miss them all. “I know I’m the last one here. Did I miss anything?”
“You’re just in time.” When she arrived at the door I gave her a quick hug, on impulse. She tightened the hug and held on to me as if she might need the support.
“Did Rob reach you?” I asked.
“I’m an idiot. I was ignoring every call that wasn’t from his number, I was even getting mad at your father for calling over and over when I wanted to keep the line free for him to get through. By the time I realized it was him calling on your father’s phone, I guess he’d despaired and gone off on that stupid rescue mission. If anything happens to him it will be all my fault.”
“Then we won’t let anything happen to him,” I said.
“We are all back in harmony.” Ekaterina nodded with approval. “Good. Now let us begin.”
“Follow me.” I led the way to the dining room, still thinking furiously. Granted, the plan evolving in my mind would take a bunch of people. But I hoped we didn’t get any more arrivals for the time being. We were going to run out of chairs.
It took a few minutes for everyone to get settled, with friends who hadn’t seen each other in the last few days—or hours—exchanging warm greetings. I introduced Janet to those who hadn’t already met her. Delaney fetched a couple of chairs from the kitchen. And then they all sat down around the table and looked expectantly at me.
Mother. Cordelia. Caroline. Robyn. Josefina. Delaney. Rose Noire. Minerva. Ekaterina. Janet.
I suddenly felt a lot more optimistic. With this group on my side, maybe my vague plan had a chance.
“Okay, I think I have a plan,” I said. “Or at least the glimmerings of one. I’m going to need all of you to start making a whole lot of phone calls. And I apologize in advance, because I bet most of the people you’ll be calling will be pretty mad about being awakened in the middle of the night. But it can’t be helped. We need to have our troops ready to head into Clay County at dawn.”
“Troops?” Robyn said. “I don’t want to sound oppositional, but should we really be thinking in terms of sending in armed people? Hasn’t Clay County already captured some of our most skilled hunters and woodsmen? Along with … um … some of our most adventurous souls?”
A tactful description of Grandfather’s band.
“And do we really want to stoop to their level?” she went on.
“You’re right,” I said. “We don’t want to stoop to their level, we don’t need to add armed people to an already tense situation, and most importantly, we absolutely don’t want to repeat the mistake that both the Shiffleys and Grandfather’s crew made.”
“I’d say their mistake was going to Clay County in the first place,” Janet said.
“No,” I said. “Their mistake was to think they could sneak into Clay County, stealthily break your husband out of jail, and then whisk him back to Caerphilly before the Dingles figured out what was going on.”
“I admit, it’s a long shot,” Caroline said. “But isn’t that what we have to do? Or at least try to do? What else can we do that would help?”
“We’re not going to sneak into Clay County,” I said. “Not most of us, anyway.”
“And we’re not going to be armed, right?” Rose Noire asked.
“Of course we’ll be armed,” I said. “Just not with firearms. We’ll be armed with brains. And common sense, which both of the previous expeditions were probably a little short on.”
“Amen to that,” Cordelia muttered.
“And the Christmas spirit—that’s it. We’re going to bring the Christmas spirit to Clay County.”
“Dibs on playing the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come,” Delaney said. “I dig the costume.”
“And our goal won’t be to break Mark Caverly and the other prisoners out of the jail,” I went on. “Although I’m hoping we can convince Sheriff Dingle of the wisdom of turning everyone loose. But even if we can’t do that, our mission will be to distract and delay them. And if possible to shine enough light on what they’re doing that they’ll realize they can’t get away with hurting Mark or locking up everyone over Christmas.”
“You think light will scare them?” Rose Noire asked. “It’s not as if they’re beetles.”
“I was speaking figuratively,” I said. “By light, I actually meant … well, eyes. The light of publicity. Caroline, how fast do you think you could get hold of the equipment you and Grandfather use to do those live webcasts when you’re in the field doing some kind of animal rescue? And the shortwave radios that you use when you’re someplace where there’s no cell service?”
“All that stuff’s already at the zoo,” she said. “Want me to fetch it?”
“No, just round it up when you get back to the zoo. That’s where we’re going to rendezvous before heading into Clay County,” I said. “Everyone will rendezvous there at the zoo—everyone here, and everyone we recruit. And if possible, get your recruits to show up there half an hour before dawn. Six A.M. With their official town Christmas carol books,” I added.
“You’re serious about the Christmas spirit thing, then?” Robyn asked.
“Absolutely. Think what total jerks they’d look like if they were rude to us while we were singing ‘peace on earth, goodwill to men.’ But the more of us there are, the better this will work—so I want most of you to start rounding up volunteers. Mother—you work on the ladies of St. Clotilda. Minerva—can you bring the sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, and altos from the New Life Baptist choir? Robyn, see if you can get any recruits from the rest of the Ladies’ Interfaith Council. The rest of you—if you can think of women’s groups or single individual women who would be good additions to the project, see if you can recruit them, and if you can’t, help the others with their phone calls. Although I do have special jobs for some of you.”
Mother, Minerva, and Robyn took out their phones. The rest looked at me expectantly.
“Delaney—you’re in charge of the webcasting. Whatever happens when we get to Clay County, we want the world to be watching.”
“Got my laptop in the car,” she said. “I’ll get on it.”
“Go out and set up at the zoo,” I said. “I’ll call and tell them we’re having an emergency women’s shelter meeting in Grandfather’s conference room. Caroline, you can go out with her and work on the video equipment. Although I seem to recall that all of Grandfather’s cameramen are male, right?”
“That’s usually who’s willing to put up with him,” Caroline said.
“I have a line on some camerawomen,” I said. “Janet, can you convince Rachel Plunket to help us?”
“I can try,” she said. “What do you need her to do?”
“She works at the Burger Barn,” I said. “Do they open for breakfast?”
“No.” Janet shook her head. “The Clayville Market has a monopoly on serving breakfast—if you call bad coffee and stale doughnuts breakfast. The Barn doesn’t open till eleven.”
“Then the Barn could be a good place to set up our equipment,” I said. “If there’s any way Rachel could meet us there and let us in, that would be great. She doesn’t have to stick around. And we can make it look as if we broke in, if she’d prefer.”
“I’ll see what she can do.”
“Most of us will be going in openly at dawn,” I said, turning back to the rest of the crowd. “I’m going to sneak in beforehand to arrange setting up the camera equipment. Ekaterina, do you think you could get hold of a van or a panel truck? And would you like to be part of the vanguard?”
“Yes, to both questions,” she said. “I am good at covert and clandestine activity. And the Inn has a small panel truck we could use.”
“Are you sure you want us to use something with the Inn’s name on it?”
“This is the truck we use when discretion is required,” Ekaterina said. “It is unmarked.”
Was I the only one here wondering what discreet missions the Inn needed an unmarked panel truck for?
Evidently not.
“‘When discretion is required’?” Caroline repeated. “For what?”
“When, for example, our landscaping department needs to acquire a bulk supply of fertilizer,” Ekaterina explained, “from one of the local organic farms.”
“Oh, like manure,” Caroline said.
“Yes.” Ekaterina wrinkled her nose. “We would not want the Inn’s logo associated with that. And, of course, I always ensure that it is thoroughly cleaned after such expeditions,” she added to me.
“Awesome,” I said, “Anyone have any ideas they’d like to propose?”
Everyone looked back and forth at each other. I was a little disappointed that no one was speaking up. Because at the moment, sneaking into Clay County and singing Christmas carols sounded a little thin as plans went. Maybe they were just eager to start phoning.
“If you think of anything, speak up,” I said. “I’m going to go off and make a few calls of my own.”
“Before you go.” Robyn’s voice had a tone that even the non-churchgoers in our band could recognize, and we all fell quiet and listened as she asked a blessing on our endeavors. I wondered if it had occurred to her that our endeavors were likely to include a wide variety of deceptions and misdemeanors, and maybe even a felony or two. And then I decided from her expression that yes, she probably did.
Chapter 30
I retreated to Michael’s office for some privacy. Occasionally a burst of shouts or laughter or fake screams would erupt from the library next door, from which I deduced that the teenage boys were watching a horror movie.
I settled comfortably into Michael’s desk chair and dialed up the first of the grad students he’d flagged.
To my relief, she answered, and didn’t sound all that sleepy.
Lark! the Herald Angels Sing Page 19