Opie held something in the crook of her arm; I guessed it was the diary wrapped in some sort of blue plastic bag. She talked to the men, their short conversation quickly escalating into an argument that caused her to point and scold as if she was a teacher to much taller and bigger students.
“Oh, don’t do that, Opie. Just get out of there,” I mumbled to myself.
“I’ll be right back.” Sally disappeared but then reappeared next to Opie.
Sally kept her hands on her hips as she looked back and forth between Opie and one man who seemed to suddenly take charge. They got closer and closer to each other, their conversation getting more and more heated.
“Come on, Opie, get the hell out of there,” I said.
I’d frozen in place. If I ran to the house, I’d get there right about the time Opie found her common sense or the big man finally reached his limit and physically removed her from the property.
Suddenly, the man grabbed her arm and I thought I was going to see her thrown out into the street, but instead he yanked her so hard that the package flew out of her grasp, and a short shrill scream traveled over the open space and right to my heartbeat-deafening ears.
“Oh, God, don’t hurt her.” I fumbled in my pocket for my cell phone, but I couldn’t take my eyes off what was happening at the house.
The man yanked again and dragged Opie, literally kicking and screaming, into the house. Into. It.
“No, don’t do that!” I yelled, but I was too far away to be heard, which was probably a good thing. Whatever fate they had in store for her was something they wouldn’t hesitate to do to me, too.
I turned and ran back up to the car as at the same time I tried to maneuver my finger to Cliff’s speed-dial number.
Sally appeared just as I got back into the Nova.
“They took her upstairs, up to the attic. I think they’re going to kill her,” Sally said.
“What?” I screamed. “Kill her, for what?”
“She was insisting that they let her in the house so she could put something back where it belonged, but the men wouldn’t allow it. She was insistent. She should have just left.”
“She’s a pain in the—Hello! Cliff?” But I’d reached his voice mail. “Monroe House! Get out here as quickly as you can!”
I hit disconnect and then called Teddy and Jake but had to leave them the same message. Finally, I called 911—and no one answered.
It was a problem we’d had earlier in the summer, but I thought Jim had taken care of the issues.
Finally, I called Gram.
“Betts? Hi, dear. It looks like I’ve missed a couple calls. I was busy. What can I do for you?”
“Gram, I can’t get anyone to answer their damn phones. Would you please find the police and get someone out to the Monroe House right away. Please.”
She hesitated a beat but then said, “Of course. You be careful, do you hear me?”
“Yes.”
Once I hung up the phone, the silence in the car seemed menacing.
“I’ve got to see if we can help her,” I said.
Sally nodded. “Let’s go.”
The ever-reliable Nova sprayed a little gravel but got us out of the ditch and back onto the road. As I turned the final curve, I noticed that the BMW and the men were nowhere to be seen. They’d already hidden the car or were in the process of hiding it. I calculated that I might have a few more seconds to get inside the house without them seeing me if they were to return from wherever they’d taken the car. They probably weren’t counting on two crazy women in such a short time frame so they wouldn’t be looking for me.
But they would hear the Nova. I pulled it to the side of the road, threw myself out of it, and ran as fast as I could. I hadn’t planned to, but as I sped over the front lawn, I bent and picked up the blue package. Sally met me at the porch. She looked at the package but only briefly before she signaled me to go in.
“I think they’re all up in the attic. There are so many voices,” she said. “I don’t think you should go up. I can’t get in.”
I scanned the road in both directions. There wasn’t another person or car in sight. Broken Rope was one of the more populated small towns in Missouri in the summer, but you could turn a corner and suddenly be in the middle of nowhere. No matter what I did I probably had only a second or two more to do it before one of the men caught me on the porch.
“I can’t just leave her,” I said.
“I understand.”
I flew up the first flight of stairs, trying to keep my footfalls quiet but not really caring. I heard a lot of voices coming from the attic; I doubted the people attached to the voices would hear me.
I stopped outside the door to the narrower flight up to the attic and tried to calm my breathing and heartbeat enough so I could discern what was being said.
“I just wanted to put something back in that window box. You didn’t need to be so rough,” Opie said. She didn’t sound scared, though; she sounded angry. I thought that was a good sign.
“I told you to leave. I told you that this property was off-limits.”
“Off-limits? What are all these people doing here, then?”
“We’re going to have to get rid of her,” another voice said. This was a female voice, though, one I didn’t recognize.
I held my breath again, hoping to figure out whose voice it was.
“I made it in, Betts. I don’t know how, but I think I just wished so bad that I got in; either that or you being in here helped me,” Sally said as she appeared by my side.
I nodded, not really caring how her ghostly travels worked at the moment.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “I just know I can’t leave Opie alone. What if they…”
“Right. I guess you could divert their attention to you. Maybe Miz will get someone out here before things get out of hand.”
“Good point. Stall. That’s what I need to do, stall somehow and put a stop to whatever’s going on. The woman said they had to get rid of Opie. I need to get up there before they hurt her.” I was coaching myself. I was scared to death and knew I wasn’t being smart, but I also knew I couldn’t leave Opie up there with people who wanted to “get rid of her.” Besides, hurting Opie had always been a job I wanted for myself. I wasn’t ready to relinquish it to a bunch of thugs.
“Here goes nothing,” I said to Sally. I peered around the open door frame. “Hello!”
There was a rumble and then silence until Opie spoke. “Hello! Who’s there?”
One of the big men bounded down the stairs and looked at me. “Who are you and what do you…oh, wait, you were here the other day. What do you want?”
“Sorry to bug you, but I’m here to meet my friend. I believe she’s up there.” I pointed. Stall, stall, stall, I thought. “The others are on their way.”
“Right.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me up the narrow staircase.
“Should I go find Jake and make him see me and tell him to get out here?” Sally said.
It wasn’t a bad idea, but I shook my head as I maneuvered the narrow steps. I’d left messages they’d all get eventually. Besides, if she was going to just appear, I hoped she’d appear in the attic and maybe scare the murderous notions out of the bad guys. Or take a swing at them. Well, scare them at least.
When we reached the attic, the big guy with the firm grip threw me into the room. I managed not to fall, but the blue package went flying out of my hands and landed right in the middle of the dusty floor. The wrapping broke open, and a book slid out, sending a few loose pages sliding away from the worn binding. No one took notice of it except Sally.
She ran right past me and knelt down to look at the pages. “It’s my diary,” she said.
I couldn’t have cared less if the book contained the secrets to the universe, but now was not the time to let her know as much.
The attic was still stuffy and uncomfortable, even more so since it was full
of people. I looked around quickly, trying to assess the situation. Two of the big guys had accompanied Opie into the attic, both of them armed with guns I hadn’t noticed before. I guessed that the third guy was hiding the BMW and potentially the Nova if he’d noticed it and its open driver’s door down the street. Opie was there, of course, her mouth open wide at my arrival. She put her hand on her hip, closed her mouth, and drew her eyebrows together.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Meeting you, Ops. Remember, you told us to meet you here?”
“Right,” she said with only slightly less doubt than the big guy had a minute ago.
“You’re Isabelle, the cooking school person?” Eloise Dinchel said as she stepped forward. Though she was supposedly one of the kidnap victims, she sure didn’t look like one. She was fine, in great shape actually. Her red beehive hairdo was no worse for the wear, and even in the dimly lit space, I could see her eye shadow was thick.
The third victim, Ash, was in much worse shape. He sat on one of the lawn chairs, his face tired and probably pale, though the light wasn’t good enough to know for sure. His previously bent glasses were missing completely, and as he slumped forward in the chair with his elbows on his knees, he squinted at me, a mixture of hope and desperation in his expression.
Leroy Norton, the bus driver, sat in another chair. I knew Cliff was looking for him. If he got my message and got out here, he’d get to talk to him. I hoped that would happen.
“I am,” I said to Eloise. “And I’m glad to know you are both all right. Lots of people have been looking for you,” I said. “We should let everyone know.”
Eloise laughed. “We haven’t been here the whole time, but most of it, haven’t we, boys? Good place to hide people.”
The two big guys nodded, but Leroy turned away when she glanced at him.
“Feeling bad, are we?” she said to Leroy.
“Shut up, Eloise. I’ve done whatever you’ve asked. That doesn’t mean I liked it,” Leroy said.
“Touchy, touchy. Well, brace yourself, there’s more to take care of. We didn’t get the money, and now it seems the whole stupid town is looking for us. Take the two women and get rid of them. Take him, too.” She pointed at Ash. “The rest of us will get out of here.”
“I’m not killing anyone else,” Leroy said. “I’ll be your errand boy, but no more killing. Let’s just leave, all of us. I’ll take them and drop them off in Mexico or something.”
I cringed. If he really felt that way, why didn’t he just lie? He could have pretended to take us away to kill us and then let us go. He’d just missed a great opportunity.
“Did you not hear me the first time? We didn’t get the money. Don’t forget, you owe me. My cousin caught you stealing from your passengers. I’ll expose what you’ve done, what you’ve been doing all along,” Eloise said.
“I’ve heard it all before, Eloise. And if I’d just confessed to all that, I wouldn’t have a murder on my conscience. No, you’ll just have to kill me, too.”
Eloise looked around the room. “That can be arranged. Jimmy, take them, get rid of them.”
One of the big guys, Jimmy I presumed, reached for his gun.
“Wait a second,” I said. “What’s going on? Why is all this happening?” Stall, stall, stall. “Don’t you think Ophelia and I deserve to know why we’re dying?”
“No,” Eloise said. “Greg didn’t know. Why should you?”
“Come on, take ten seconds and tell us. I’d love to know how you pulled this off,” I said.
Even though I hadn’t stuck with law school, some things about it had stuck with me. Criminals love to brag about their crimes. It’s weird and creepy, but they take pride in their accomplishments. My current stall tactic was to get Eloise to brag a little.
“A few more seconds wouldn’t hurt, I suppose,” she said a moment later. “It was all about Greg. He was once married to my cousin, Austin. He cheated and they divorced, but Austin wasn’t quite done with him. She wanted him dead. He shouldn’t have cheated on her, especially with pretty young things. Austin’s also one of the smartest, most observant women in the world. Years ago, she knew Leroy was stealing from his customers, and she knew that Jake Swanson fella was richer than even Greg or her own daddy. She knew she could blackmail Leroy to do the deed, and guess what, that worked just fine.” She looked at Leroy, who, in turn, looked like he was going to be sick. “The kidnapping was only supposed to involve me and Greg. Greg was supposed to die and the ransom was to be for my return, but this idiot”—she pointed at Ash—“woke up. We had to take him with us. We’ve been hiding here and there, mostly here because we thought no one would be interested in an old run-down house.” She shook her head at me. “Why were you interested?”
“Long story,” I said as I looked at Sally, who was still crouched next to the diary. “Why didn’t you just grab the bag and go?”
Eloise laughed again. “The police were all over it. Your friend, Jake, didn’t do as I asked. He contacted the police. I was about to kill Ash and drop him on Jake’s doorstep next because he just couldn’t obey, but things kept getting more complicated.” She looked at Leroy again. “For one, he quit being cooperative.”
“Cece picked up the bag,” I said. “Why?”
Ash sat up. “Cece? Is she all right?”
I didn’t profess to understand the complexities of love, but this man’s reaction to Cece’s name made me think he must have really loved that annoying, shallow woman.
“The police have her, just as I suspected might happen. I used her for bait. I had Leroy tell her to pick up something of his that he’d left at the park. I thought if Jake really hadn’t obeyed and had called the police, they could pick her up. She could irritate them long enough for us to leave, which is what we were about to do,” Eloise said.
“And she did it?” I asked, surprised she’d do anything for anyone.
Eloise laughed. “He said she could borrow the car for the afternoon if she did it. She grumbled, but apparently available rental cars in this miniscule town are few and far between right now. When we abandoned the car we stole to get away, we had no idea that Leroy would get the last rental available. We got lucky. Too bad you and your strangely dressed friend here didn’t get so lucky.”
“So you planned on killing, blackmailing, and stealing? That’s quite an agenda,” I said. Keep talking, lady, keep talking.
Eloise smiled. “Why, yes, I’m good at multitasking. When the police finally figure out my real name, they’ll find my record and I’ll be long gone again. I’ve done this sort of thing for years; this is just the first time family has asked for help. Austin just wanted Greg dead, but I decided we had to do something bigger. A cool mill from Mr. Swanson wouldn’t hurt, and we knew that if I was a kidnap victim, too, no one would suspect me. But between Ash joining us and Swanson’s inability to obey our commands, things got out of control. We thought we had them back in control, and here the two of you bimbos show up.”
“The credit card thefts and fraud, they were all Leroy?” I said. I knew I sounded shocked, but it was the credit card crimes that were the most sophisticated; Leroy didn’t strike me as sophisticated.
“That’s right. Pretty slick, huh? His ‘dumb guy’ routine is just that, a routine. He knows his way around a computer and knows how to type his way into places that none of the rest of us can get into. He’s good. Too bad he’s got to die now.”
I looked at Leroy.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “About everything.”
“I gotta know,” I said. “The three spaghetti dinners? Who were they for?”
“These guys.” He nodded toward the two big guys left in the attic, but then he realized something I’d already thought about—I could see it in his eyes. Where was the third guy?
He hurried and spoke again which made me realize he was on our side more than theirs. “I thought you might catch me when I left the restaurant and drove away from the hotel instead of
toward it.”
“I didn’t notice,” I said.
Leroy looked appropriately ashamed.
“You…” I thought back to when we were in the shoe shop and Leroy mentioned that things had been missing from the bus. His comments seemed somewhat strangely timed then, but I’d chalked them up to him just wanting to be thorough—maybe the thefts had something to do with the larger crimes. “When we were in Stuart’s shoe shop you talked about the missing items. You were the thief. Did you think you mentioning them would make you look innocent?”
Leroy looked at me and then looked at the ground as he shook his head slowly. “I know, it doesn’t make much sense, but, yeah, that was the idea.”
“And you were so casual about your group staying at the cooking school. No one in charge would have been so casual. You almost seemed not to care,” I said, wishing I’d thought about that before now.
Leroy looked at Eloise. “I had specific instructions that we were to be in Broken Rope that night. I wasn’t allowed to veer from those instructions. No matter what, we were to be in Broken Rope.”
“Well, I’ve just decided that that’s enough talk,” Eloise said. “Now, boys, get them out of here, take them deep into some Ozark woods, and take care of them.”
Jimmy grabbed Opie and me, and the other guy grabbed Ash and Leroy. It was a wonder we didn’t break our necks as they shoved us down the first narrow stairway. They held tight as we went down the next set of stairs. Sally didn’t come with us, but at that point, there wasn’t much she could do anyway. She couldn’t have scared these guys even if she appeared and said, “Boo!”
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