Freddie leaned over and carefully lifted the purring cat onto his lap. “Is this the kitten Oliver talked about rescuing from that swimming pool?” He scratched Lazarus’s neck carefully. “He’s certainly a handsome boy.” Then, still sending the cat into bliss, he said, “Now, about my truck ...”
Still close to tears, Felicity said, “We’ll talk about your truck later, Freddie. For now we’ll just enjoy all being together.”
* * *
The act of brushing her teeth brought Felicity to attention. Her thoughts had been chaotic and scrambled by the events of the day, but now she recalled that she had a number of tasks that had to be taken care of. The most important, in her eyes, was those bags the imposter had stored in her garage loft. She rinsed her mouth and carefully replaced her toothbrush in the holder as resolution took hold. If she waited to haul them down and inspect the contents in the morning, something would sidetrack her. The thing to do was to go out right now and make sure there wasn’t anything in there of importance.
With that, she went into her room and retrieved her super flashlight from the bedside table. Oliver had always been insistent about having flashlights stored throughout the house, particularly next to the bed. “You never know when the lights will go out or there is an emergency at night,” he’d repeated time and again. She’d often wondered what kind of emergency he meant, but had never asked. Oliver tended to get wordy and complicated at times.
Since she hadn’t yet taken off her sturdy shoes, she didn’t even have to change. She quietly opened her door. The dim light from the all-night hall sconce gave her more than enough light to head for the stairway. She was careful to hold tight to the bannister as she descended. That long ago night when she’d fallen down the stairs, even though she’d been shoved by Sam Duvall, was carved in her memory. Sam had murdered Oliver and terrorized her household as he searched for her husband’s intricate formula that turned the stock market into a money machine. At least Sam was locked away, and she didn’t have to worry about him.
She turned on the flashlight to help her find way through the kitchen, and scooped up her key to the garage on her way through. “My heavens, but it’s dark tonight,” she murmured on her way out the back door. After once more being careful on the steps, she negotiated her way along the winding path to the garage and continued her murmured monologue as if certain it would keep her spirits up.
“I sometimes wonder what Lazarus thinks when he makes his rounds of the neighborhood at night. Whenever barking dogs waken me, I’m convinced he’s prowling in their yards. Something I’m sure he does that just for laughs.”
Shadows seemed to wave menacingly in the fringe coverage of Althea’s security light. Felicity began to doubt the wisdom of her quest, and had to remind herself why she had to get this out of the way. Now. When she tried to unlock the door, it gave immediately. “How careless of me. I was in such a hurry to get Freddie inside that I must not have locked it.”
Eager for more light, she felt her way alongside the car and re-engaged the sliding door. When it raised, the garage remained in darkness.
“Oh, dear. Of all times for that bulb to blow out. I must put that on the list for the next time Tony has a free day to do some chores,” she told herself. Somehow, the sound of her own voice gave normalcy to this whole adventure. She had only to find those bags of Dan’s belongings and go through them quickly.
Surely the stench from the fire had faded somewhat by now, and there might be some clues in there as to where he’d gone into hiding. She looked around, then reminded herself, “He’s put them up in the loft. The man was paranoid about his belongings. He was false from beginning to end.”
Turning the head of her flashlight toward the stairway, she reached for the railing to steady herself, holding the light steady on each riser as she stepped up. Too late, it occurred to her that she should have tucked her cell phone into her pocket, just as a precaution. It would be a stupid mistake to fall out here in the garage at this time of night with no way to call for help.
The stairs creaked. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been up here, and wished he hadn’t put the bags upstairs. Felicity ventured one sweep of light to the top, to make sure the stairs were intact. It had been so long since she’d been up ...
There at the top of the stairs stood Dan Truxler. He carried a small penlight in one hand, and held the bags of his belongings in the other. “Don’t come any closer,” he ordered. “Go back down and get out of my way. You’ve been nothing but trouble, but I don’t want to hurt you if I don’t have to.”
Felicity felt a moment of panic. She’d been careless and foolish to think he couldn’t find a way into the garage, and then to come out here alone at this time of night. It was as if all the little fears that had been nagging at her had gathered into one huge lump. She took a deep breath, hoping that it would help clear her mind.
It didn’t work. Keeping a death grip on the bannister, she lifted one foot and took an unsteady step down. Then she moved her hand lower and took one more. The action seemed to calm her nerves, while her mind searched frantically for a means of escape. She found none. Pausing two steps from the bottom, she said boldly, “You have no intention of leaving me free to call in an alarm, do you?”
Dan descended one step, resting the bag on the loft floor behind him. “If you behave, I’ll only tie you up. Someone will find you in the morning.”
I’ll believe that the day lemons grow on my azalea bush, she thought, and stepped down the last two steps.
“And don’t even think of flashing that light in my eyes to make me lose my balance,” he said.
The idea had crossed her mind, but she’d been afraid he’d then fall down the stairs on top of her. She stepped away, keeping her light focused on her feet, and thinking she might still have a chance of escape.
Everything happened at once. A scrabbling sound echoed in the stillness, followed by an unearthly yowl. Dan’s penlight bounced merrily down the stairs, followed by a burst of profanity such as she hadn’t heard in years as he began a slow tumble down the stairs. When he reached the middle riser, Lazarus leaped over him in what looked like a dash for freedom. He flew past Felicity and disappeared in the darkness behind her, while Dan continued his disastrous tumble down the stairs.
To her embarrassment, all Felicity could do was step back and keep the beam of her light focused on the imposter. The bags he was carrying burst, and bundles of what looked like legal certificates bounced down the stairs behind him. The stream of profanity finally ceased in a mournful wail as he landed, clutching his right leg with both hands.
Relieved as she was, her first instinct was pity. “Oh, dear. Are you badly hurt?”
“Stupid damn woman! Of course, I’m hurt. I think my leg is broken!”
Afraid to get any closer, she found herself making useless gestures with her hands as she said, “I’ll go call for help.” Panic made her turn and hurry out the door, her flashlight focused on her footing.
She was so intent on her mission that she ran full tilt into a shadowy figure that had just turned into her yard from the alley. Her shriek drew an immediate reaction from her victim. “Good God, Felicity! It’s me. Jonas. What on earth are you doing running around out here in the dark. Don’t you know there’s someone out there who doesn’t mean you any good?” He seized both her shoulders and held her steady.
The second shock of the evening stole Felicity’s ability to speak coherently for several moments. She found herself babbling. “Oh, Jonas, I just wanted to see if there were any clues in those awful bags of that criminal, and ... and then he was there! And the light was out and I couldn’t see, and then Lazarus ...”
Jonas drew her close and patted her back comfortingly before drawing back and carefully removing the flashlight from her hand, all the time murmuring reassuring words. “Just let me look in the garage and see what we have.”
He jogged back to the open door of the garage and aimed the beam inside. His burst o
f laughter had the effect of calming Felicity’s frantic nervous system, and she hurried to look over his shoulder.
Dan Truxler lay propped against the bottom step, clutching his leg and moaning. He was surrounded by the belongings he’d been intent on retrieving. On the step above him, Lazarus sat in the Egyptian statue pose, his green gaze focused on his prisoner.
Chapter Fourteen
A spotlight came on across the alley, blinding both Jonas and Felicity. It was followed by the sound of a door slamming and the sight of Althea, clad in a bright plaid flannel robe that flapped around her ankles and the tops of a pair of untied high-top tennis shoes. In her hand she clutched a heavy pistol that looked as if it might fire at any minute, and her voice was like a spear as she demanded, “What’s going on out here? I’ve called the police, and they’ll be here any minute. I’m armed, so don’t try to run.”
Jonas laughed even harder, leaning against the fender of Felicity’s venerable Buick.
Adding to the chaos was the arrival of an aging Ford, which screeched to a stop in the alley not six feet from where Althea was standing. She half turned, keeping her aim steady on Felicity’s garage, as she squinted at the figure that stepped out of the car. “Kate, what in the hell are you doing here at this time of night? Back that wreck down the alley to make room for the police when they arrive.”
Kate Berrigan, clad in a shapeless sweat suit, stepped in front of Althea and squared her shoulders. “How dare you aim a gun at that poor man who just came to take back what was his? Don’t you know he’s a government agent here on an assignment? He needs the information in those plastics bag so he can complete his report. You have no idea of the subversive groups operating here on campus.”
Felicity didn’t know whether to step forward and slap Kate for being a gullible fool or to throw cold water on Jonas to make him stop laughing. Just as she’d decided on the first course of action and moved into the light where she could be seen, Althea lowered her gun and said, “Kate, you’re a gullible twit. If you believe that shifty-eyed imposter works for the government, it’s a wonder you haven’t been robbed of everything you ever had long before this. I suppose he’s been hiding in your house since Freddie got his memory back.”
“You’re all living in a dream world!” Kate said hysterically. “There are forces at work that could destroy our lives! And you’re persecuting the very person who’s trying to save you. Of course I gave him shelter.”
Since Jonas was still enjoying the scene so much he couldn’t speak, Felicity took charge. She went into the garage, where Dan lay moaning and clutching his leg, and picked up several of the stacks of what resembled stock certificates spilling through a hole in the bag. Holding them in outstretched hands, for they still carried the stench of oil smoke from the flaming pickup, she offered them to Kate. “Here. Do these look like secret government documents? They look more like bogus paper to me.” She dropped them at Kate’s feet.
The poor deluded woman reached down and seized them, holding the papers up to the glare from Althea’s spotlight. “Why, these . . aren’t what he said he’d come to get.” The force of Kate’s voice dwindled with each word, and her shoulders drooped. “I’ve been a credulous fool.” Her body seemed to shrink in place. Althea pocketed her pistol and reached to pull the weeping woman close. She patted her back and made soothing noises.
Just then the sound of the approaching siren wailed from the end of the alley; its volume was increased by the garden walls and garages of the old houses on either side.
Jonas had pulled himself together enough to step outside the garage. His head swivelled regularly as he kept an eye on the open garage door. He snickered. “Do you think Lazarus will sink his claws in if the rascal makes a move to crawl away?”
Felicity was torn between distress at the entire disturbance and joining Jonas in making light of the whole mess. Althea was still comforting Kate, and she would never have believed the woman had that much empathy. It just went to show that you never knew a person until he or she was put to the test, and Kate was a needy soul at this moment.
Just as the patrol car came to a stop and Jack Maguire stepped out, she heard her back door slam and Freddie’s voice demanding, “What in the name of Satan is going on out here?”
Andrew’s voice joined in, and everyone seemed to be talking at once as the two came up behind her. Finally, Jack Maguire’s voice rose above the hubbub. “Will everyone just shut up so I can find out what is going on?”
Jonas began to laugh helplessly once more. Felicity poked him with her elbow, something she had sworn never to do again after ending a friendship with a woman who poked her to emphasize every statement she made. “Detective, I think we’ll need an ambulance for that impersonator you’ve been looking for.”
Oh dear! She thought. This whole situation is too much. Now I’m ending sentences with prepositions.
As if he’d heard her, Dan set up a series of moans and groans – interspersing cursing at Felicity, Lazarus, and Cousin Freddie, who headed through the garage door and stood over his half-brother. “You lied to me, and then you hit me over the head. I’m disowning you as of this very minute,” the real Freddie proclaimed.
Since few in the vicinity knew of their relationship, confusion reigned. Jonas’s laughter had dwindled into the occasional chuckle and an amused expression creasing his features.
Detective Maguire radioed for an ambulance and began moving the bystanders away from the garage door. He stopped in front of Althea and put his hands on his hips. “Althea, do you have your permit with you? Otherwise I’d be tempted to arrest you for bringing out that durned gun and waving it around. Look at poor Ms. Berrigan. You’ve scared her so bad she’s in tears.”
‘Poor Ms. Berrigan’ promptly produced another round of sobs, but they were so palpably false that even the detective’s sympathy shrank. Felicity was torn between turning the hose on her and joining Jonas in his renewed burst of laughter, but realized the situation was getting out of hand. Between Althea’s glaring outdoor lights, the spotlight on the police car, numerous flashlights, the howl of the approaching ambulance, the entire neighborhood was awake.
Lights flashed on up and down the street, and the sound of slamming doors promised a gathering crowd. “I think you better radio for more officers to come help with crowd control,” she said, putting her hand on Maguire’s sleeve. “This could get out of hand, and we want to be sure the squad can get through the alley.”
Maguire made a disgusted sound and radioed in the order. “Felicity, why is it that whenever there’s an uproar, it seems to center around your house or somewhere connected to you?”
To her embarrassment, Felicity began to laugh. When she could speak, she said, “Jack, I’m beginning to think trouble follows me.”
Lazarus chose that moment to bolt from his perch on the stairs in the garage, howling as if hounds were after him. The crowd that had gathered parted like the Red Sea, and he disappeared around the side of the house.
Dan could be heard cursing that ‘black demon’, which made Felicity suspect that Lazarus had taken a swipe at him on his way past. She assumed the hospital would treat the scratches along with his other injuries.
Suddenly she was aware of a panting sound behind her, and turned. A distraught Jenny stood there, clutching her purse and the little overnight bag Felicity had insisted she keep at hand beside her bed.
“I think I’m going into labor,” Jenny said between pants. “It was all I could do to get here to ask for help, between the pains and so many people out here. What’s going on?”
Felicity seized her arm and said the first thing that came to mind. “You can’t have that baby yet. You’ve another three weeks to go.”
Jenny managed a wan grin. “I don’t think anyone’s told the baby. I think I’d better get to the hospital.” She grimaced as another pain struck her.
“The ambulance has just pulled up behind the garage. They’ll have to take you and come back for that Truxler
person. He deserves to wait in pain after what he’s put everyone through.”
“What’s going on, Felicity? I thought we had enough excitement for the night.” Jason had come up and was standing to one side.
“Jenny’s in labor. Will you go and tell those EMTs to check her out and take her instead of that criminal in my garage?”
He looked around, his experienced gaze sorting and discarding all the possibilities. “That ambulance is blocked in right now. Come on. My car is parked right up there, beyond the crush of people and cars. It will be quicker if I drive you ladies there.”
He took Jenny’s arm in a firm grip and began to guide her through the crowd that had gathered behind the ambulance. Felicity noticed that the girl made no resistance, and made a mental note that she was going to have to teach her to stand up for herself. Not that this wasn’t an emergency situation, but Jenny had to learn to speak up and take a part in decisions.
She paused for a moment to catch Jack Maguire’s attention. “We’re rushing Jenny to the hospital. Her baby is coming.” The man didn’t appear to be fazed at all. She decided tonight was one of those times when anything could happen, and it just had.
Jason bundled them both into his car and backed smoothly around a police car which was half-blocking the alley. “If that guy had been six inches more into the middle, we’d have been stuck,” he said. The streetlight on the corner reached far enough into the alley that Felicity could see a broad grin creasing his cheeks.
“You thrive on emergencies, don’t you, Jason?” Andrew’s son had endeared himself to her with his deft handling of the situation regarding the transfer of the library, and she thought of him as part of her own family.
Jenny groaned again, then said in a panicked voice, “I have to call Marcus! He’s my birthing coach, and I can’t go through this without him.” She fumbled in her purse for her cell phone and speed-dialed the young minister.
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