Queen of the Masquerade (Rosie Maldonne's World Book 3)

by Alice Quinn

  “Seeing as it’s you, Maldonne, I’m not going to take the bait. But if you speak to me like that again, you’ll be sorry. Let me remind you that I’m an officer of the law.”

  “And?”

  “You can’t speak to a cop like that!”

  I shrugged. Borelli was having a little meltdown, throwing his weight around.

  He continued, “But I’m a good egg, you know? And I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt, because even though your arguments are never very logical, you often hit the nail on the head. I don’t know how, but you do. So, Pirate Anor . . . Teddy Pirla is going down. I’m willing to put a mole on him inside. See who he hangs around with. See if he has any Russian friends . . .”

  “It’s no good. He won’t have anything to do with them. Didn’t you hear Sabrina? He was so touched by her therapy that he now wants to control his whole goodness-gracious-great-balls-of-fire side.”

  “Great balls of fire? What are you talking about now?”

  “It’s a song. Oh, never mind. Teddy Pirla doesn’t want to set fire to shit anymore, OK?”

  “Fine. So I’ll put Amar under protection until I find out what’s going on with the Russians, OK? The easiest thing would be if she didn’t stay at her own place. Some of those guys she helped put inside will have made parole by now. Also, it would be easier if you gave me everything you know next time I ask, instead of just letting your daughter give the official statement.”

  He stepped out to go get the others. I wanted to say that it would actually be easier if he’d asked the right kinds of questions in the first place. We’d been kidnapped, for frig’s sake!

  Everyone signed the (half-finished) report. I kept quiet as much as I could, because I didn’t want to annoy Borelli any more than I already had. It worked. He released us all back into the wild.

  I (also!) hadn’t mentioned to him that Erina was staying at home with us . . . I mean at Amar’s place. I didn’t want him to have another fit. And that’s exactly what he would have had.

  I had a long to-do list. At the top of it was to get some cleaning done, which meant I needed Bintou to take care of the twinniebobs that night. I had to ask Gaston if he could help move us all out the next day, and I also had to arrange a visit to see Mimi with Léo. Oh, and there was figuring out the whole Erina issue and finding the mysterious Monsieur Charles before he found us.

  It would also be nice if I found the time to see Linus Robinson again. We needed a little alone time. I wanted to explain some things. I couldn’t tolerate the idea of him heading off to Canada with such a bad impression of me. I’d been an impostor, a usurper, a charlatan.

  Before leaving the station, Borelli mentioned that Rachel Amar’s address had been found in Teddy Pirla’s phone. He was right, then. It was safer to keep Amar away from her apartment for the time being. I asked Gaston to take her home to his castle. I was sure he could help cheer her up.

  To my great surprise, Amar didn’t protest. Not even slightly. She was more than happy to be told exactly what to do. She had gotten herself into a deep discussion with Sabrina about the methods my little one had used to break Pirate Anorak. She seemed captivated by what my baby had to say on the subject.

  Great! I can finish all my chores back at the apartment, pack up, and get ready to move on out of there tomorrow.

  54

  So Gaston and Amar headed off in the Jag, and I took the bus back to Amar’s place with my Sabrina. My wrist was still hurting me, but the cream had helped. I didn’t know what was in that magic concoction that the handsome Rémi had used, but it had certainly done the trick.

  School pickup time for the twins had come and gone, but I was sure Bintou had picked them up. I just had to make sure she’d stay around that evening, so I could finish up the cleaning.

  Obviously, it didn’t all go as planned. I don’t know why things never go as planned for me. It’s like someone cast a wicked spell on me at some point and forgot to uncast it. My mother’s song was playing in my head at full volume: Raindrop, raindrops . . . I needed to ignore it. But I wasn’t really a head-in-the-sand type of person.

  As I stepped out of the elevator and reached the front door, it all began.

  I’d just put the key inside the lock and turned it when I heard screams coming from behind me. Before I’d even had time to spin around to see what was going on, someone pushed me in the back. I went flying into the apartment and landed flat on my face, some of my weight falling onto the bad wrist. Ouch! I yelped and yelped. The pain was baaaad!

  Sabrina shrieked. Léo ran from the kitchen, followed closely by Laroche. I felt relieved to see them both. I managed to stand, grab my Sabrina, and look behind me.

  There were three baddies. And how did I know they were baddies, apart from the violent push? They were wearing pantyhose on their heads to hide their features.

  It was all very Point Break. Oh, no, they wore masks in that. Well, it was the same idea, anyway.

  They pointed their whopping great big guns at us.

  “Hey, brainboxes! Do you think this is a bank? Are you whacked up on Scooby Snacks or what? There’s no money here!”

  Just as the words came out of my mouth, I wondered if Amar might, in fact, keep some cash around the place. Maybe she was hiding a big box of gold somewhere? Who knew? She’d been charging huge wads of cash for her shrinkage for years. Maybe these guys knew something I didn’t.

  Yeah, right.

  Whatever was going on, these guys weren’t about to let me in on it.

  Laroche was saying the same thing over and over again. It wasn’t helping much, and nobody was giving him any answers.

  “What’s going on? What’s going on? What’s going on?”

  “Shut your fucking mouth!” yelled one of the stocking heads. He then turned to me and screamed, “Where is she?”

  God. It was Murrash’s voice. I recognized it. They’d come for Erina. Still, there was no need to speak to Laroche like that. It annoyed me.

  “Hey you! Just because you’ve got a gun doesn’t mean you should forget your manners, understood?”

  And for that I got the butt of his gun smashed into my chin. He was strong. I landed back on the floor with a thud. As I fell, I let go of Sabrina. She roared out in my defense, “Leave her alone! Thith ithn’t right! It ithn’t even clever!”

  Oh no. I was worried for her. She shouldn’t have been taking those guys on.

  “Sabrina, go with Laroche, honeybun.”

  Laroche grabbed Sabrina and threw her behind him.

  “Erina isn’t here!” I shouted at Murrash.

  “Simmer down, Maldonne,” Laroche said to me. “They have a network of informants, these people! Don’t try to outsmart them.”

  Well, at least he wasn’t calling me Madame! He sounded like Borelli. Bigging his part up.

  “I’m not doing any simmering!”

  “I think it would be in your best interests to just do as he says!” said Laroche. “It would be the most prudent and intelligent—”

  “You! What’s with all the ass licking? You don’t know me! I have my own way of doing things, OK? This is all part of my strategy, my—”

  And with that Murrash gave me a good kick in the ribs, stepped over me, and nodded to his buds to go search the apartment. The nod must have also implied to break everything they came across, because that’s what they did. A nod can say so much, can’t it?

  So the housework had been bumped off the to-do list. The place now needed renovating, not cleaning. I decided not to argue it out with these men. I didn’t want any more thumps or kicks, nor did I want my Sabrina in any more danger than she was already in. I tried instead to follow Laroche’s advice.

  We all watched as Amar’s armless, legless blue statuette girl started wibble-wobbling. If she fell, at least nothing would break off her. There’d be nothing to stick back on. We should be grateful for small mercies.

  Léo suddenly took it upon himself to head-butt Murrash—but I don’t think h
e had much experience in head-butting. Murrash moved at the last second, and poor Léo’s skull cracked into the wall. He fell down like a sack of crap. He was out cold.

  I didn’t know whether Erina was still in the apartment or not. I hoped with all my heart that she’d left or found an excellent hiding spot.

  But one of the buffoons came back to Murrash, dragging her by the arm. I had my answer, then. She hadn’t left the apartment and she’d been in a shitty hiding spot.

  When she saw Léo passed out on the floor, she tried to rush toward him, but the thug pulled her back violently. Murrash gave a second nod and one of his buds frog-marched Erina out of the apartment.

  Murrash pointed his gun at me and took the safety off. At least, I think that’s what he did. We see that sort of thing all the time in the movies. We always understand exactly what’s happening in films, but it’s harder to figure out in real life.

  Sweat started running down my back, and my teeth started to chatter. I was sure I would have put up a better fight if Sabrina hadn’t been with me, but I had to put her first.

  Laroche was the next person who spoke. “Um, I really would advise you not to shoot. You’ve done all right for yourself so far. You got what you came for and no harm has come to you. No bloodshed.”

  The third thug grabbed Sabrina and pulled her toward the front door. Where did he think he was going with my baby? She fought tooth and nail. Literally. She squirmed, she bit, she scratched, she screamed. She was making some raucous noises! But he held onto her. He put one of his huge paws over her mouth, and they disappeared down the hallway outside.

  I threw myself onto Murrash, but my hands and legs were tied together with tape before I even knew it was happening. Laroche wasn’t in any position to make a move either. Murrash was holding him by the cheek.

  “If you call the cops, I’ll kill them,” Murrash hollered. “Next time, blood will be shed. You,” he continued, staring at me as I lay tied up on the ground, “you’d better not interfere in our business. All that’s finished now. If you want to see your little girl again . . . alive . . . you’ll keep a low profile. Mind your own fucking business.”

  I was beside myself with rage. I couldn’t even hear what he was saying. All I could see, playing over and over again in my head, was that bastard’s big hand over my Sabrina’s mouth.

  They tied Laroche and Léo together, back to back. And someone gave me another sharp kick to the head. I saw stars dancing all around me and then nothing.

  55

  The three of us stayed for some time in those positions. Tied up. Nowhere to go. For how long? It’s impossible to say with any precision.

  I think my neurons had been kicked out of sync. There’d been a short circuit in there somewhere. Everything had switched down. I needed a reboot. If I hadn’t lost consciousness for at least some time, I think the stress would have pulled me under. They had my girl!

  When I finally came back to the real world, it hit me just how big a disaster everything was. Léo was still out for the count, and Laroche was tied to him, traumatized.

  This was what empty felt like. Silence.

  Those bastards had disappeared as quickly as they’d arrived. They’d taken Erina and the apple of my eye. My Sabrina.

  My feeling of powerlessness had gone, and in its place was pure fury. At least I was still alive and kicking. That meant I could go get my baby. My wrist felt hot. I could feel it burning. I could also sense that my neck was bruised and my ribs were killing me. Happy times!

  I hoped Léo would get his act together. I needed him ready for action. He had to be in top form.

  It wasn’t looking good. In fact, as I examined the three of us, all lying on the ground in various states of injury, it looked pretty bleak. Catastrophic.

  This had been a shit day from start to finish. The shittiest.

  Except it wasn’t even over!

  Everything that had happened so far came back to me in an accelerated flashback: everything Erina had told me, the arrival of the police, Amar coming home, Linus finding out the truth about me and then splitting, Sabrina and Pirate Anorak, the courthouse hostage negotiations, our Russian kidnapping, making my way through the mountains with just one shoe, pretty-boy Rémi and his flirting, Borelli and the statement, the pink sneakers, and now out-and-out war with Murrash, who’d taken my love.

  That’s exactly what it was. A declaration of war.

  He’d gone way beyond too far. There’d be no coming back from this.

  I sensed that Léo was regaining consciousness. It took him a few seconds before he realized that he was tied to Laroche.

  “Don’t move. You’ll just make it worse,” I said.

  We didn’t have time to go into a big discussion. We heard voices outside. The little ones and Bintou.

  When they came in, they saw us all on the floor.

  I really didn’t want the twins to see us all in this state. They were going to be scarred for life if they had to live through any more of these adventures.

  But those two had incredible natural capabilities. They were bouncer-backers if ever I knew any! They hopped from me to Léo, howling loudly. “What are you playing? Robbers? Like Sabrina?”

  “That’s exactly right! And you’re the cavalry, OK? You’re here to save us just in time! To the rescue!”

  Bintou untied us all, muttering as she did so. “I warned you something like this would happen. These guys don’t mess around. You’re in it deep, aren’t you?”

  They weren’t going to beat us.

  “Are we going? Let’s go!” I howled.

  Laroche and Bintou looked at us, and Laroche reasoned, “I think we should go about this intelligently. That’s how we’ll win this thing. Throwing yourself out of the frying pan and into the fire won’t do anyone any favors.”

  I couldn’t deal with talk like that. Laroche sounded all wet. But I had to keep it together in front of my two youngest daughters. Whatever happened, I couldn’t let the panic set in (it had, though, in a major way!). I just had to act like everything was normal, for their sakes. I didn’t want them to find out that their sister was missing, that she’d been taken.

  I took a deep breath. “I read you loud and clear. No messing around this time. No fear. I’ll send those stinking bas—blockheads to the hole for good! We need to do this right. We can’t hang around too long. We need a plan, sure, but anything could happen in that time. We need to make a move soon.”

  “No!” screamed Léo. “That’s all just bullshit! I’m off!”

  The girls roared with laughter. “What a bad word!” Emma said. “Mommy! He said bullshit!”

  “Yes, but there’s no need to repeat what he said, is there?” I explained in as nice a way as I could. To Léo I snorted, “Cut it out, boyo! Watch what you say in front of these babies. We need to keep our wits about us! Stop with the hothead bull!” I headed to the bathroom. “In the kitchen, all of you. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  The scratches on my face needed cleaning. I also put some chamomile lotion on my neck to help with the bruising. It had started to swell. I needed some of Rémi’s cream. The bandage on my wrist was still holding out, so I left it where it was.

  I went and joined everyone in the kitchen. “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry. So we’re going to eat.”

  It was important to keep up appearances, and when the poppets came home from school, the ritual was that we always had a snack. Period. So that’s what we were doing.

  As soon as the kids were each settled with a bowl of cereal that I’d dug out of a cupboard, we had our war council. It was just a figure of speech, because the fact of the matter was, we didn’t have much of an idea of how to move forward.

  “This time, it’s over,” Léo kept saying ad nauseam. “If we don’t go now, I’ll—”

  “Wait,” I told him. “You’ll see that Laroche was right.”

  “Oh no! Come off it, Cricri! Next you’ll be telling me that we’re going to call up your friend
Borelli. I’m sorry, but what has he done for us so far? That moron is totally useless. Plus, Murrash told us not to call the cops or he’d wipe everyone out. We need to get over to that hellhole house of theirs and try to find them.”

  “People can’t be wiped out,” reasoned Lisa. “Is he a people eraser?”

  “Where’s Sabrina?” asked Emma.

  What could I say? My lip trembled. “She went out for a stroll with Erina . . .”

  But Emma had already dragged Lisa off her chair and they’d run off to play horsies through all the rooms.

  That’s when I decided it was the right time to grill Bintou. She’d actually met the big boss. So she was the one who we needed to convince to help us. If we could find this Monsieur Charles, we’d maybe find Erina. And if we found Erina, we’d maybe find Sabrina. A three-for-one deal.

  “But Bintou’s going to help us find them again,” I said, looking at her.

  “No, I’m not! It’s out of the question,” she exclaimed. “I don’t think you actually understand. You never even tried to understand. I know these people. I know Monsieur Charles. You’ve shat in his begonias, OK? And he doesn’t like it. I’m sorry for the expression. I know it’s crude. Let me just say, you guys are lucky to be alive! I know you’ve been roughed up pretty bad, but that’s nothing! So take my advice on this and call the cops.”

  “No! You can’t be saying what I’m hearing here!” yelled Léo. “Who are you, anyway? Why should we be taking such crappy advice from you? You’re a journalist! You journalists are all the same! No balls!”

  The twins ran past and Lisa tsked. “We’re going to tell Sabrina about your bad words, Léo! She doesn’t like it!”

  “Yes, Léo. I told you once already. Watch what you’re saying.”

  “You’ve got no balls, balls, balls!” sang the twins. Oh jeez!

  He was right, though. I spoke my piece. “We can’t do that, Bintou. The police are already on this, but we’re not leaving it up to them. You know, they’re all a bunch of . . . useless men with unmarried parents.” I tried to use code to avoid certain words in front of the babies. I didn’t want them to know how serious the situation was with Sabrina. “So we have to get organized. You’re the only one who knows stuff that might lead to their whereabouts. So you’re going to help us, and that’s the end of it.”