Vendetta

by Fern Michaels

  “The pleasure…the pleasure is all mine, Bear.” Myra gulped. Oh God, Charles, you are never going to believe this!

  “ Where you headed, Bear?” Kathryn asked.

  “I’m off for thirty-six. Just unloaded kitchen appliances at Home Depot. I go north to the mountains at the end of the thirty-six, how about you?”

  “I’m picking up twenty thousand Christmas trees that go up the Eastern Seaboard, then home till after the holidays. See ya next year.”

  But Bear wasn’t finished yet. He eyed Myra and bent over to whisper something in her ear. Myra smiled. “I’ll be sure to save a spot on my dance card for you…ah…Bear.” Murphy howled again. This time the customers ignored his outrage.

  “Time to go, Myra,” Kathryn said. She placed a twenty-dollar bill under the salt shaker and said, “These girls work hard for their money. Now, are you sure you don’t want to pay the five bucks to take a shower and put on some clean duds?”

  “No, dear, I’m fine.” Myra looked around the busy truck stop. Steam billowed up from the grill as waitresses and cooks shouted to one another. The truckers joined in, adding quick fixes for certain recipes. It was a friendly atmosphere. The red Formica table tops with the cracked leather booths added character to this thriving place on the road to nowhere. Myra enjoyed every minute, especially eating the greasy food that was so delicious, she’d asked for seconds.

  As they wound their way through the crowd of truckers Kathryn was stopped a dozen times. Some of the truckers she hugged, some she shook hands with, some she patted on the back. The smile never left her face as she talked and laughed with them. It was easy to see that she was well liked. Myra felt proud to walk alongside her.

  They were almost at the door when Kathryn heard her name called. She turned to see one of the weary waitresses rush up to her. “I didn’t know you were here, Kathryn. It’s been a madhouse here all day. Listen, yesterday word came down that Curly Cue’s wife was in a bad car accident. They’re on one of those shitty HMOs and they’re going to need some help. We’re taking up a collection.”

  Kathryn and Myra both emptied out their pockets.

  “Miss, do you have a pencil?” Myra asked. The waitress looked at her but handed over her pencil and a slip from her order booklet. Myra scribbled Nikki’s name, the name of her law firm, and the phone number. “This is my daughter and she distributes money from a defunct HMO. She’ll be glad to help you. Call her in two days. I’ll talk to her myself when we get home. Tell Curly Cue and his wife not to worry, everything will be taken care of.”

  The waitress looked over at Kathryn to see if Myra was blowing hot air. Kathryn nodded. “Be sure to do it, Arlene. Tell Curly Cue I said merry Christmas. See ya next time I come this way.”

  Outside in the frosty Oregon air, Myra took off her baseball cap and slapped it against her leg the way she’d seen the other truckers do. Kathryn giggled all the way to the gas pump where she inserted her credit card to pay for the gas. “Thank God for plastic. Thirty more minutes and we load the trees and head for home. You tired, Myra?”

  She was, but she wouldn’t admit it for the world. “Not at all, dear. Do you think we should try calling Charles again? And Isabelle. She should have called us. Dear Lord, I hope nothing is wrong.”

  “Nothing is wrong. Charles allowed for everything and anything. Isabelle, now, that’s a different story. Soon as we get out of this zoo and on the road, I’ll call her again. I’m sure there are at least a dozen messages on your answering machine at home. Are you sure you can’t retrieve the messages by phone?”

  “I’m sure. It’s just an old-fashioned answering machine that sits next to the phone. Nikkiwanted me to get voicemail but you have to remember so many numbers, I decided I didn’t need it. Now, of course, I wish I had. I do hope Charles isn’t upset. If I had been thinking clearly before we left, I could have put a new message on the machine. Oh, well, there’s no point in worrying about it now. That man Bear called me sweet cheeks. That was so…sweet of him. He was flirting with me. At my age. Don’t tell Charles, but I loved it. Just loved it.”

  “I know. You pinked up pretty good back there. Bear is a honey. He loves classical music, goes to the ballet when he can. He has season tickets to the opera but rarely gets to go. And he reads romance novels by the dozen. Actually, he listens to them on tape. He said he’s learned more from them than from actual real-life situations. He claims that if the right woman ever falls in his lap he’ll know just how to treat her. The funny thing is, he means it. OK, here’s the cellphone. Call Isabelle.”

  Myra pressed in the number and listened to it ringing. “A voice is asking me if I want to leave a message. I’m to press one if I do…Isabelle, dear, please call Kathryn as soon as you can. We’ve been trying to reach you since yesterday. We’re on the road, about to pick up the Christmas trees. I’ll leave the cellphone on and wait for your call.”

  “That’s not like Isabelle,” Kathryn said. “I wonder if…Maybe something is wrong, Myra. Isabelle is conscientious, so it’s not like her not to call. See if you can get her regular home phone number from the information operator. She lives in Arlington.”

  Myra did as instructed. Then her shoulders slumped. “Isabelle has an unpublished number and they won’t give it out. I have her number at home in my Rolodex but that won’t do us any good. What should we do, Kathryn?”

  “There’s nothing we can do, Myra, until we get home or Charles calls us. I have an idea. I can drop you off at the nearest airport and you can fly home. Take a car service from the airport. We both have to get at least three or four hours’ sleep. You can be home in that amount of time. That’s if you’re really worried. If not, we’ll continue as we are.”

  “No, no, Kathryn, I’m staying with you.”

  “OK then, there’s the depot, and they’re waiting for us. Wait till we’re back on the road to make the call. It won’t take long to load the trees. We’ll be out of here in about an hour. Stretch your legs while I check the manifest. Stay, Murph,” she ordered the German shepherd before she jumped out of the truck to unlock the back. She shoved the door up. “We’re going to be smelling balsam all the way home.”

  Myra trotted around, trying to look like she knew what she was doing. This was such an adventure and she wanted to savor every minute of it. Until she’d gone on the road with Kathryn she hadn’t realized how boring her life was. Even with the Sisterhood, and that her own revenge was finally underway, something was missing. Not that hitting the road in an eighteen-wheeler was the answer, but it did shake away her doldrums.

  Myra did her best to stay out of everyone’s way. Truckers doffed their caps to her, waved, grinned, asked how it was going, to which she responded the way she thought Kathryn would. “Things are great, nice seeing you, what’s up’, that kind of thing. She high-tailed it to the side as a rig pulled in, did a quick turn and backed up next to Kathryn’s rig. She sniffed the heady scent of the balsam, a smell she loved. She watched for a few minutes as men started loading the trees into the back of the truck. She’d wondered how it was possible to load twenty thousand trees into one huge truck, but now she saw. Twenty trees to a bundle that were wrapped in some kind of wire mesh. Each bundle was tagged with a destination. Big trees were loaded first, then the rest were loaded according to size, right down to the smallest three-footers.

  Myra walked around to the side to make sure she was out of the way. She could hear the men barking orders and clearly heard the conversation of the two men assigned to load Kathryn’s truck. They were laughing and joking. With nothing else to do, she listened, her eyes popping at what she was hearing. Someone named Duke appeared, his voice a low growl.

  “C’mon, c’mon, move it. She’s no dummy. You want her climbing up here checking those bundles? C’mon, we got a sweet thing going, eighteen hundred bucks split three ways is Christmas money for the kids. No one is going to miss two trees to a bundle. You need to work faster.”

  Myra tried to do the math in her head.
Four hundred trees. They were stealing four hundred trees from Kathryn. Trees that sold from seventy-five dollars to one hundred and fifty dollars. Would Kathryn have to pay back the money? Would they call her a thief? Every business would be short-changed two trees to a bundle. If Kathryn was signing off on twenty thousand trees, she would be held responsible. Myra ran as fast as her legs would carry her, dodging truckers and rigs, until she found Kathryn. She yanked at her arm and dragged her to the side. Breathless, she blurted what she’d heard.

  Kathryn dropped her clipboard to the ground and ran to her truck. A moment later Murphy was at her side and she was carrying a shotgun that she fired in the air. The depot turned silent when Kathryn clicked back the hammer for another shot.

  “Don’t forget those four hundred trees you’re planning on keeping for yourselves! Load them in there now and get the hell away from this truck!”

  It took a solid hour to clear it all up, with Kathryn and Myra inside the truck counting trees as other truckers helped load. The police arrived and carted off the three men with apologies from the managers of the depot.

  Thirty minutes later, every truck in the depot sounded its horn as Kathryn headed out. She gave her own horn two sharp blasts in return. “Myra, you just earned that shirt you’re wearing. It’s yours forever and ever.”

  “And I’ll treasure it forever and ever.”

  Myra soon dozed for a while but woke when the cellphone in her hand buzzed. “Should I answer it or do you want to answer it?”

  “This is a tricky road with a lot of hairpin turns, so I need to pay attention to what I’m doing. You answer it, Myra.”

  Myra’s voice was neutral. “Hello?”

  “Myra, is that you? This is Isabelle. I’m trying to reach Kathryn.”

  “She’s right here in the truck with me, dear. Or maybe I’m right here with her. We’re together,” Myra said firmly. “We’ve been trying to reach you. Are you at the farm?”

  “No, Myra, I’m home. Someone broke into my car and stole everything, even the cellphone Charles gave me. I had it programmed with everyone’s number. Whoever broke into my car damaged the transmission. I don’t have the money to fix it. I can’t rent a car because I don’t have credit cards. I’m stuck here. I haven’t been able to get to the farm. I have been calling every sequence of numbers I could in the hope of reaching Kathryn. If your next question is have I heard from Charles, the answer is no. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t called and whoever stole the cellphone answered it. Have you heard from him?”

  “No, dear.”

  “Tell me what to do, Myra. I am so sorry. I feel like I let you all down.”

  “No, no, dear. No recriminations. I think you were set up. And the reason you were set up is because someone is watching all of us. They, whoever they are, know there is no one at Pinewood. This is what I want you to do. I’ll call the limousine service Charles and I use and have them pick you up at your apartment. I want you to go to Pinewood and stay there. First, though, call the kennel people and have them bring the dogs back during the day. I want them there around the clock. Can you handle that, Isabelle?”

  “Yes, Myra. I must be stupid. I thought it was just a random car-theft thing. They took everything, even my clothes. I’ll call the kennel right now. When do you think you’ll be home?”

  “When you see me, Isabelle. I have a job to do. Bye, dear.”

  “What? What did she say? Tell me everything,” Kathryn said.

  Myra related the whole conversation, then said, “Pinewood is unattended at the moment. That worries me, Kathryn.”

  “It worries me, too,” Kathryn agreed.

  Eight

  The caravan of luxury cars sped through the dark night toward Li’s home. At some point during the evening, Li, with Charles’s approval, had invited other guests to join him for an overnight stay in honor of his American guests. John Chai’s father had declined the invitation, saying he had early-morning meetings scheduled, but his son John would be honored to attend. As it turned out, John drove himself there, with the other guests following in limousines and luxury cars.

  Jay’s passengers were tense and jittery.

  “It’s showtime, girls,” Alexis kept saying. Every time she said it, Nikki’s stomach heaved.

  Charles opened one of the side compartments in the door to take out a pencil and paper. He scribbled furiously. I can’t reach Myra. No one is answering the phone at the farm. Isabelle isn’t picking up either and for some reason my calls to Kathryn’s cell get disconnected. I’m worried.

  Nikki reached for the pencil and paper. Minor problem. They’re big girls. We need to worry about the passenger in the car behind us. What made you decide to invite other people? How can we carry out our plans with so many people around?

  Charles replied immediately. They’re elderly and will retire early. It was Li’s idea. He is our host. Trust us.

  The girls settled back in their seats, each busy with her own thoughts.

  The silence was unnerving. Twice Charles rolled down the window, held his cellphone out and tried to call Myra. The call did go through but he clicked off when the answering machine came on again. The girls heard him muttering under his breath as the window rolled up, at which point he started to converse with Li in fluent Chinese.

  The women bounced all over each other when the car finally came to a stop.

  “Ladies! Ladies! A little decorum, please,” Charles said quietly. “Li said drinks and sweet rice cakes will be served in his entertainment room. He has a new martial arts movie that will be shown if anyone is interested. For you young people, as Li so charmingly said, there is an American jukebox — a real Wurlitzer — and a fully stocked bar. The La Ling sisters will retire when their parents do, so that won’t pose a problem. Mr. Quon Zheyuan, a friend of John Chai’s, will probably pass out shortly as he has already had far too much to drink. The man smokes a great deal of opium and anything he says is usually discounted. Wing Wu will be your only problem. He is a quasi-friend of John Chai. I’m sure you can entertain him when the time comes.”

  “Oh, it’s raining,” Alexis mumbled as she got out of the car and ran toward the house, Nikki and Yoko right behind her.

  Inside the house, the women stepped aside to allow Li and his guests to precede them to the family area. A lot of bowing went on before the young people split off to be led to the entertainment room, where a small buffet table had been set up with classic American food and American beer in silver buckets full of ice.

  Nikki tried to work some excitement into her voice. “Hey, guys, give us a few minutes to change out of these gowns. It’s kind of hard to dance with so much material to drag around. In the meantime, help yourselves to the beer and food. Put on some lively music and we’ll be back before you know it.”

  “I’ll count the minutes,” Chai said. Nikki wished she could wipe the smirk off his face with one good right hook. Instead, she smiled and winked. Wing Wu leered at her and said something to Chai that sounded suggestively dirty.

  Yoko walked over to the pockmarked La Ling sisters and in Chinese invited both young women to join them. They declined and sat demurely, their hands folded in their laps. “They’re no fun,” Yoko said to Nikki and Alexis.

  The three women raced down the long hall to their rooms where they changed into brightly colored spandex mini skirts with fishnet stockings and spike-heeled shoes. They chose sleazy-looking tops that showed off a generous portion of their bellies and a lot of cleavage.

  Nikki looked at herself in the mirror. “Oh my God, I feel like a slut!”

  “You look like one, too,” Alexis laughed.

  “Who is carrying the drugs?” Yoko asked.

  “You are, darling,” Alexis said as she held out six small white pills. “All you have to do is drop these in their beer bottles and within seconds they’ll all be loose as a goose. We’ll be dancing with each other because they won’t be able to stand up. When I tug on my ear, you do the deed. Our beer bottles are filled
with apple juice and we’re drinking Beck’s. The boys are drinking Chinese beer. The La Ling sisters are probably guzzling hot tea, but who knows?”

  “OK, girls, let’s do it! We bound into the room like the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders when they hit the field at half-time. Show lots of teeth. Gyrate for all you’re worth and, if you can, whisper dirty little ditties in their ears,” Nikki said as she tugged on the spandex skirt.

  Yoko opened the door, took a deep breath and raced down the hall. She threw open the door and made a grand entrance by somersaulting to the middle of the floor and then doing a neat split. Nikki’s jaw dropped as she ran over to John Chai, reached down for his tie and pulled him to his feet. “Let’s see your moves, Chinese boy!” she said as she rocketed to the middle of the dance floor. She was like a wild woman and all Chai could do was stare as he tried to get his feet to work.

  The La Ling sisters tittered behind their hands. Alexis literally dragged Wing Wu to the dance floor. He was no match for the athletic longlegged beauty, but he did try. The La Ling sisters continued to titter.

  Yoko looked down at Quon and flashed a smile. She bent low, looked into his vacant eyes, and whispered in his ear. “I’m a virgin! You wanna dance?”

  Quon tried his best to focus on Yoko. He grinned as Yoko yanked him to his feet and literally dragged him out to the middle of the floor where Nikki and Alexis were whooping and hollering at the men who tried to keep up with them.

  Wing Wu and Chai were sweating profusely — so profusely that their shirt fronts were drenched with sweat. Both men were staggering back toward their seats when the next record dropped on the turnstile.

  “No, no! We came to dance! Take off your shirts. You take off yours and I’ll take off mine! Woooooo, let’s do it!” Alexis said, tugging on her ear, at which point Yoko gave Quon a stiff push. He folded like a wet noodle and slid across the polished dance floor to land near the La Ling sisters’ feet. They tittered loudly and pretended not to notice the wild shenanigans around them. They were saved from further embarrassment when a servant came to escort them to their quarters. They shook their heads and spoke in hushed tones. The servant left quietly, leaving the sisters there.