“So Dick pulled my leg?” asked Tex, staring at his mother-in-law in the mirror.
“Sure! He’s just one of those guys lucky enough to still have all his hair. He doesn’t know why—nobody knows why. Good genes, probably. And definitely not mayonnaise.”
“And now you’ve gone and bought a truckload of the stuff, honey,” said Marge.
Tex gave two of the three women in his life a rueful look.“I really made a fool of myself this time, didn’t I?”
“You did, honey,” said Marge, and gave him a kiss, then made a face. “I think you better brush your teeth a third time. I can still smell it on you.”
Tex licked his lips, then winced.“Strong stuff. I wonder how Malcolm does it.”
“He was probably pulling your leg, too,” said Vesta. She patted the doctor’s back. “You’re all right, Tex. Your hair is fine, and so are you. And now let’s get this day started, folks. Time’s a-wasting!”
And leaving her daughter and son-in-law to get ready for their day, she practically skipped down the stairs. And if anyone would have asked for her secret on how she was still so healthy and vivacious at seventy-five years of age, she would have told them it was all down to the entertainment level she derived from watching her nearest and dearest make absolute fools of themselves. Soap operas and reality shows were all fine and dandy, but nothing beat the real thing—free of charge and available twenty-four-seven!
31
Angel Church was fed up with this nonsense. She’d been in that cramped little room for twenty-four hours now, or even more, and enough was enough. The food wasn’t bad, though a little on the greasy side for her taste, but she missed home, and she missed being able to move about freely and do the things she loved. But most of all she missed being able to take a long hot shower!
So when the man with the mask entered the room and placed another tray on the table, this time containing breakfast, she demanded,“When are you going to let me go?”
But the man didn’t speak.
“I asked you a question!” she said. “How long do you plan to keep me here!”
The man turned to walk out again, but this time she was so fed up with this whole situation, that she felt a wave of white-hot anger take control, and as she uttered a low growl, she picked up the tray, dumped its contents on the floor, and accosted the man with it, hitting him over the head as hard as she could. Her warden uttered a sort of startled squeak, then went down and didn’t get up!
She stared down at the victim of her sudden outburst, a hand to her mouth in surprise and shocked at her own strength, then glanced over to the door. And she was about to take that leap to freedom, when the second man suddenly materialized, saw what had happened and said,“What did you do!”
But she was so overwrought, and determined to end this ridiculous situation once and for all, that she found herself streaking forward, and attacking this man, too!
Unfortunately for her, this opponent had anticipated her maneuver, and was ready. He quickly turned her around, then marched her back to the bed in the corner and forced her to lie down, then found nothing better to do than to sit on top of her, pinning her down.
“Now you listen to me, and you listen carefully!” she said, as she tried in vain to wriggle out from under this man. “You let me go right now! Or there will be hell to pay, mister!”
“You’re not going anywhere, princess,” said the man as he lit up a cigarette, then took out his phone.
“Let. Me. Go!”
“Yeah, it’s me,” the guy now spoke into his phone. “We’ve got a situation. Yeah, you better come down. She knocked out… our mutual friend. What? No, he’s on the floor, unconscious.” He disconnected and glanced down at his prisoner, who was still wriggling frantically. “Stop squirming, princess.”
“You can’t keep me here forever!” she said.
“And we won’t.”
“So when are you going to let me go?”
“Soon,” he promised. “Very soon now.” He glanced down at the remnants of breakfast, now splattered all across the floor. “Now look what you did,” he lamented. “That took me a long time to prepare, princess.”
“Well, boohoo,” she said viciously.
The man got up, but wagged a finger in her face.“Are you going to behave? Cause if you won’t…”
“Then what?” she said defiantly, sitting upright again and massaging her painful arms.
“No more food for you,” said the guy after a moment’s hesitation.
For some reason she had the impression these were not professional kidnappers. In fact they both reeked of rank amateurism. The way they’d allowed themselves to be surprised by a mere slip of a girl told her everything about their preparedness. “I’ll behave,” she promised. “And I’m sorry about your friend. Will he be all right?”
The other man now stood bent over his friend, and said,“What did you do to him?”
“This,” she said, as she lifted the same tray and this time let it come down heavy on the second guy’s head. He immediately crumpled into a heap, on top of his larger and burlier buddy, and she watched with satisfaction how she’d managed to eliminate not one but two of her guards. The door to freedom once again beckoned, and she hurried out of the room, then slammed the door shut and turned the key in the lock. And she probably would have managed to escape this time, if not a third man had suddenly materialized, and leveled a very dangerous-looking gun in her direction.
“Not so fast,” said this person. And suddenly she thought she recognized the voice. She couldn’t immediately place it, but there was something very familiar about this person.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she demanded. “I don’t understand.”
“Get back in there,” the man growled, and reluctantly Angel did as she was told, and opened the door of her prison cell again. She’d had a chance to look around, and saw that she was in some kind of cabin—and she even thought she recognized it. She’d been there before!
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but you’re not getting away with this,” she said as she entered the room, and stepped over the prostrate figures of the two men.
“What did you do?” asked the third guard. A note of admiration had inadvertently crept into his voice.
“I knocked them out,” said Angel simply. “And if you don’t stop this nonsense right now, I’ll do the same to you.”
But the man was holding onto that gun, and Angel had the impression he wouldn’t hesitate to use it.
“Back—step back,” said the guy, and gestured to the bed. Another black-clad and masked person had walked in at this point, and Angel had the impression this was a woman. “Help me carry them out,” the guy ordered. And together they carried first the smallest man, then the biggest one out of the room.
And since they were busy, Angel saw an opportunity and decided to grab it with both hands. So she accosted the woman, giving her a hard shove that sent her flying to the side, and then she was on her feet, racing for the door of the cabin. She had been here before, and she knew exactly where she was now, and who was holding her. The only thing she didn’t know was why. And she’d just made it to the door when another person materialized in front of her, held up a hefty club, and knocked her over the head with it.
And before she passed out, the last thought that passed through her mind was that she wasn’t going to make it out alive—these people meant business: deadly business!
32
“Are you sure about this, Max?”
“Well…” I said, hedging my bets. I have to confess that I’d lost some of my self-confidence since my last theory had proven a bust. I actually felt sorry now for suspecting Father Reilly. The man sat in the car with us, and so did Marigold. Chase was behind the wheel, and Odelia rode shotgun as we raced along the road out of town, once more to that wooded area where Angel had gone missing more than twenty-four hours ago.