by Becki Willis
“I like that our grandparents are so down-to-earth. They’re nothing like the image I had for rich politicians. I enjoyed spending time with them this week and getting to know them better. And it was so sweet of him to get our approval on running for President before he made his final decision.” Makenna was already quite fond of the older couple. “So what do you think about their invitation? Are we going to go for a visit?”
“Do you want to?” Kenzie countered.
“I guess. I mean, we have to meet the rest of the family sooner or later. We have uncles, aunts, and a half dozen or so cousins.”
“I just don’t want them to think we’ve suddenly come out of the woodwork, just because he’s going to be President.”
“He may not get it, you know,” Makenna reminded her. “In fact, if it’s up to the people in his own voting district, he won’t. If you recall, few people in Haverhill had much good to say about him.”
“Hav’rill,” Kenzie corrected her with a grin, popping a cheese covered sliver of red pepper into her mouth. “They’re just looking at it from a personal angle. They feel like he betrayed his hometown, voting for the NorthWind expansion to come through. Plus, I think they’re all a little jealous of how well he’s done for himself. I bet they’ll change their tunes the minute he gets nominated. Fame does that to people. That, and a chance to be on television.”
Makenna nodded. “They can do the whole ‘I knew him when’ thing.” She pushed her plate back and proclaimed, “Okay, I’m stuffed. And don’t think I didn’t notice how you evaded my original question. Are we going to visit next weekend, or not?”
“You’re getting married in a month. Do you really have time for a trip to Colorado?”
“Wait. I thought it was at their house on the coast. I thought we were going back to New Hampshire.” Makenna’s face scrunched in confusion.
“There’s a tropical storm brewing in the Atlantic, so they’ve changed it to their home in Denver.” Kenzie waved her hand distractedly. “They have too many houses. How can they ever keep up with what’s where?”
“One of the few downsides of being rich, I suppose. But you still didn’t an- what on earth are you looking at?” Makenna interrupted her own sentence when she saw the intent way her sister was staring out the window.
“I think I just saw that guy again,” Kenzie murmured.
“What guy?”
“He was standing over there, wearing a brown shirt… Let’s get out of here.” Without taking her eyes from the spot across the street, Kenzie pulled a few bills from her wallet. She glanced down only long enough to confirm that she was tossing twenties onto the table.
Makenna followed her sister to the door, sprouting questions. “What guy? Who is he? What is going on?”
“The-The guy from before, the one who was watching Craven and me that day.”
“He’s probably just a local,” Makenna rationalized.
“Maybe.” Kenzie stopped at the door, scanning the area across the street. There was no trace of the mysterious man now. Still, unease slithered up her spine and coiled tight around her shoulders. After a moment of hesitation, she admitted something else. “I didn’t say anything earlier, but I thought someone might have been following us today. There were two guys-”
“One young, with longish blond hair, the other middle-aged, dark hair?”
“You saw them, too?”
“I wanted to think it was just co-incidence that they kept showing up where we were.”
“I think the dark haired man was the one in the blue car a few weeks ago, but I tried to convince myself I was being paranoid.”
“I know, I did the same thing,” Makenna commiserated, falling into step with her sister as they started down the sidewalk. “I thought we were finally free of all this cloak and dagger stuff. Now that everything is out in the open and we’re no longer under protection, I thought things would go back to normal.”
“Yeah, well, have you thought what it’s going to be like if there really is a Harry Lawrence presidency?” Kenzie snorted.
“In that case, I may campaign for the other guy.”
Kenzie continued to scan both sides of the road as they walked. “Uh-oh,” she said suddenly. “There they are. That’s definitely the same men from earlier. Come on.” She whirled around, doing an about-face in the middle of the sidewalk.
“But the car is that way, across the street.”
“Don’t point! Keep your head down. Come on, let’s cut through here.”
Kenzie led the way through a small maze of senior citizens decked out in bright pink t-shirts touting their church group. “Excuse us, coming through,” she said, elbowing her way into their midst. The elderly women harrumphed and grunted, but grudgingly moved aside.
Once past the solid sea of pink, Kenzie made a sharp turn, disappearing from sight.
“Kenzie! Where did you go?” Makenna hissed. She had looked over her shoulder for only a second.
“Over here,” Kenzie called from a narrow passage that ran between the buildings. It was barely wide enough for her to slip into.
Makenna had passed these very buildings dozens of times and never noticed the sliver of ground running between them; leave it to her sister to find adventure in the most mundane of places.
Adventure or not, it was a tight squeeze. “I’d better not get hung in here. My hips are wider than yours, you know.”
“Not by much. You’re wearing my capris,” Kenzie reminded her. “Watch your head up here. There’s a breaker box.”
Ducking beneath the box mounted on the building’s exterior, Makenna noted the label with curiosity. “So this is where they plug in their Christmas lights,” she murmured. “I always wondered about that. This town is lit up like Vegas around the holidays.”
“Hurry, before the pink sea departs,” Kenzie urged her, picking up the pace as she rushed down the slim passageway.
“Do you even know where this leads?”
“Sure. To the back.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Much to their surprise, the ‘back’ turned out to be a beautiful garden oasis. A brick-paved courtyard fanned out in an intricately laid pattern, leading to a small set of apartments behind one of the buildings. Hand-twisted iron railings and turn-of-the-previous-century gingerbread work edged the rear wing of the old commercial building. In the center of the courtyard sat a flowing fountain surrounded by lush flowerbeds and several sets of wrought iron patio furniture. Though just a few dozen feet away from the busy activity of the main street, the garden was quiet and serene and decidedly upscale.
It was also filled with a dozen women dressed in summer finery, complete with frilly hats and strings of pearls. A slender four-tiered cake and crystal punch bowl dominated half of a linen-covered table; the other half held gaily-wrapped presents in all shapes and sizes.
All eyes turned upon the sisters as they burst from the narrow ingress and skidded to a halt amid the intimate setting. Their mode of arrival was as shocking and out-of-place as their denim capris and costume jewelry.
“May we help you?” one of the women finally asked, her cultured voice ringing with formality. Even though she remained seated, she gave the impression of looking down her long nose at the intruders.
“Uhm, photographer,” Kenzie improvised, grabbing the camera case that hung off her shoulder.
“Oh, how splendid!” The woman was suddenly all smiles as she clasped her hands together in delight. “Mary Alice, did you do this?”
“Not I.” A woman in a beige linen suit denied the claim with a diamond studded hand placed upon her bosom. “Sheree, this was your doing, wasn’t it? No? Miriam?”
“Where would you like us to set up?” Kenzie asked hastily. At the rate they were going, the group would be out of candidates before she and Makenna were out of the courtyard.
Playing along, Makenna pretended to be looking for just the right light. When she spotted the exit, she motioned for her sister. “This will be perfec
t, right here.”
Without looking back, the sisters shot out of the courtyard and disappeared behind the high stone wall. They were half-way down the alley, their laughter spiked with adrenaline, by the time the unsuspecting women realized what had happened.
“Good grief, that reminds me too much of my childhood!” Kenzie proclaimed, slightly out of breath.
“You’ve done this before?” Makenna asked sharply.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
Until just then, Kenzie had forgotten the many times she and her father had run down alleys and similar city streets, avoiding unseen threats. Unseen to her, at least; her father surely knew exactly who they were running from - the mafia, or someone else he had swindled out of money. Kenzie slowed, trying to decide their next course of action.
“You do realize we’re still going the wrong direction from the car,” Makenna said through labored breaths.
“Yes, I know. But first we have to worry about crossing the street without being seen.” She looked around for a moment, until a bright smile lit her face. “Oh, look, a bus. Come on, let’s hurry!”
“Are you crazy? We can’t get on there! The doors are closed.”
“Hurry, go around behind it.” Kenzie motioned with her arm as she ran down the alley toward the bus, which sat idling at a red light. “It’s in the turning lane. When it starts across the street, we’ll run alongside it.”
“You have got to be kidding! We’ll be killed! A car will hit us!” Makenna protested, yet she ran alongside her sister, lest she be left behind.
“Who’s going to run into a bus? Ready? Come on!”
They raced behind the bus and up along its side, keeping pace as it turned left at the light. Swinging wide, the bus temporarily blocked traffic as it straddled both lanes in order to make the corner. Without the threat of merging traffic to worry with, Kenzie led the way straight ahead, even when the bus turned. She heard horns blaring and a few people shout, but her focus was on making it to the sidewalk. Makenna glanced up apologetically into the faces of the bus’s startled passengers. As the great vehicle straightened into one lane and lumbered its way down the main thoroughfare, Kenzie and Makenna hit the sidewalk without missing a beat.
“Come on!” Kenzie urged. They ran straight into the first building they came to, hurrying deep into the interior of an art gallery.
“I can’t believe we just did that!” Makenna said, stopping to catch her breath. She fanned her blazing face, ignoring the strange looks of other shoppers. “We could have been killed!”
Kenzie was straining to see the door. So far no one had followed, not even the police. “We made it fine, didn’t we?”
“The jury’s still out on that one,” Makenna declared, patting her heaving chest. “I may have a heart attack yet.”
“Do you think you can make it up those stairs without passing out on me?”
“You don’t have to be so sarcastic.” Makenna was unusually grumpy as she followed her sister up the curved staircase of the old building. Under normal circumstances, she would admire the century-old architecture and its fine attention to detail; she might even linger over the array of colorful blown glass and intricately carved art pieces. But these were not normal circumstances. She had just run across a busy intersection alongside a bus, while escaping from two men with probable ties to their father’s nefarious past. At times like these, she did not even recognize her own life.
“Why are we doing this? Aren’t we potentially trapping ourselves up here?” she hissed as they ascended the final step.
“We have a better view up here, and less people staring at us like we’re crazy.”
“We did just cross the street, running beside a bus,” Makenna reminded her. “They might have a point.”
Kenzie made no comment as she sidled up beside the large windows and stared down at the street below. Summer tourists milled down both sides of the street, keeping the shops busy even though it was mid-week. After studying the crowd for a few minutes, she spotted the two suspicious men across the street. They were dipping in and out of storefronts, looking around in confusion as they wondered how two women had disappeared so completely. “There they are,” she said. “We need to get out of here while they are still on that side of the street.”
“I think this building has a side entrance. Maybe we can sneak out and make it to the car without being seen.”
“Too risky. We need to change our appearance. Cover our hair, at the very least.” Travis would be so proud, knowing she had learned a thing or two from their experience at Red Rocks.
“I thought we were supposed to be safe now, now that the scam is out in the open. What do they have to gain by harming us now?”
“I guess someone still wants to find our father. That, or to get even.”
With that discouraging thought, the sisters made their way back down the stairs and out the side door of the studio. It opened onto a tiny plaza with a scant handful of shops set further off the street, an open-air cafe, and to a familiar ice cream vendor.
“I almost forgot about that first guy,” she murmured, glancing around uneasily for any sign of him now. “This is almost the exact place I saw him before.”
“And there’s where we ate lunch,” Makenna said, pointing directly across the street. “He must hang out around here all the time.”
“You’re right. Let’s get out of here. Walk along the edge as we make our way to that dress shop down there. Maybe we can buy a disguise in there.”
They turned into the tiny plaza, edging the inside perimeter furthest from the street. They walked quickly, keeping an eye on the two men still searching for them across the street. As Kenzie brushed past a clump of green shrubbery, she heard a low voice hiss, “Psst! Hey, Lady!”
She whirled to see where the voice came from, just as Makenna grabbed her arm. “Oh, no, I think they spotted us!” Makenna gasped.
Kenzie glanced at her sister, then turned again to see the retreating back of the man who called out to her. There was no time to wonder who he was or what he wanted. She and Makenna had to move, fast.
“What do we do?” Makenna asked frantically.
The man had disappeared into the shrubbery. It was risky, but one villain was better than two.
“This way,” Kenzie said, ducking behind the bushes. She grabbed her twin’s wrist as she climbed through the prickly limbs of the ornamental conifers.
“Where in the…” Makenna’s squeak was short lived, as the gymnosperm seemed to swallow them whole.
She followed Kenzie as they crawled through a double row of bushes and exited on the other side, into an alleyway of sorts. It lead in only two directions- a narrow overgrown path alongside a brick building, or back onto the street they had just come from. Kenzie chose the overgrown path.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Makenna hissed. “It looks scary back here!”
“All I know is, it’s away from those men,” Kenzie said over her shoulder, searching for any sign of being followed.
“This way, Lady.”
Kenzie whirled back around, stumbling on the rutted pathway as she searched for the voice. The man in brown was several feet ahead, beckoning them to follow his lead.
“Are you insane?” Makenna saw the man ahead of them and jerked on Kenzie’s arm to stop her. She dug her heels into the ground, her nails into flesh.
“Ouch, that hurts!”
“Have you totally lost your mind? We can’t follow that man! What is wrong with you?” Makenna hissed.
“There are two men behind us, both younger and stronger and a full head taller than either one of us. At least this man is smaller, not to mention older,” Kenzie reasoned. “Now come on.”
“No.”
“Quit being stubborn.”
“No. I am not budging. You want to go, you go without me.” Makenna crossed her arms stubbornly. Jutting out her chin, her auburn hair glowed red in the sunlight.
They were still not far from the
street, even though there was no direct line of sight. There was, however, a straight audio course. “Yeah, man, they went that-a-way!” they heard someone say.
Without further protest, Makenna followed her sister deeper down the overgrown path. It ended abruptly into a graveled parking area, wide and open and with nowhere to hide.
“Lady, over here!” The man in the brown shirt stood at the back of the art gallery they had previously vacated. He waved them over, motioning for them to stay low. Ivy, briers, and climbing vines grew thick and dense around the old brick building, seeming to sprout from its very mortar. Fearing they were trapped with nothing but foliage for cover, Kenzie almost didn’t see the tiny basement door.
“Hurry,” the man said. He fairly pushed Kenzie into the small opening, before forcibly pressing Makenna’s head down, just in time to save her from banging the top of it on the low threshold. A small set of stone steps sank into the understructure, leading into a surprisingly large space.
As the women’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, the man pushed the door closed and slid a heavy bar in place. A low bank of casement windows lined either side of the stone-laid room. Several of the panes were obscured with vines and leaves and undergrowth, others were caked with mud and dust and the grime of decades past, yet adequate light managed to penetrate the heavy glass panels, enough for the women to see. Once their eyes adjusted, Kenzie surveyed their surroundings, while Makenna surveyed their host.
Or was he their captor? Makenna watched him warily, wondering why he was willing to help them. What was in it for him?
“Who are you?” she asked, her voice surprisingly strong. Brave, in fact.
“Shh!” the man cautioned, holding a finger to his lips.
Makenna thought he was being melodramatic, until shadows moved along the side of the building. They watched as two sets of legs passed by. Moments later, the shadows returned, as the men outside retraced their steps. This time they stopped just beyond the cellar, their voices muffled but discernible as they plotted their next move.