Nabbed in the Nasturtiums Read online

  Both men just glared at each other, but it appeared as if the fisticuff session was over for the moment. Doreen had never really understood how someone could pound somebody into the ground, then, all of a sudden, have it over with. Why didn’t the guy on the ground just get back up and punch him out?

  Perhaps he would just take another beating, since he clearly couldn’t defend himself in the first place. As she watched, the one man who’d done the beating stormed into the house and slammed the door. Denise walked over to the man on the ground and asked, “Are you happy now?”

  He struggled to his feet and glared at her. “It’s not my fault,” he retorted.

  “I had to go to the morgue,” she snapped. “And I said I didn’t know who it was.”

  “Good,” he roared. “You don’t know the man. Just because he’s my brother doesn’t mean you’ve had anything to do with him.”

  “But he looked enough like you that I’m sure it won’t take them very long to figure out who it is.”

  “I still didn’t kill him,” he snapped.

  “No, but which one of your cronies did? He did time for you. You owe him something.”

  He looked at her, then shrugged and said, “It’s the life. It sucks it out of you and makes you into this cheat.”

  “You don’t have to be a cheat,” she cried out. “You can be whoever you want to be.”

  “Not if I ever get caught,” he said. “I’m living a completely different life now. I’m not going back to that.”

  “Until you get caught,” she warned, and, with that, she turned and headed back inside herself.

  Stunned, Doreen could only sit here in shock, as she tried to figure out the new pieces of the puzzle. When her phone rang, she quickly answered it to make sure that the sound didn’t carry.

  “What are you talking about?” Mack asked. “I got that text but half came out garbled.”

  “Yeah, no wonder,” she said. “Hang on. I’m sending you something. At least I’m going to try but the Internet is spotty.”

  With the video shut off, she quickly sent it to Mack. Watch this immediately.

  She waited a few minutes, wondering if anything else could be happening at the house and hoping not, when her phone rang again.

  “Where are you?” he asked, and this time his tone was serious and brisk. “And don’t lie to me.”

  “I’m beside the house,” she said, “but, once again, I don’t know exactly where I am.”

  He swore into the phone, making her back stiffen.

  “No need for that kind of language,” she snapped.

  “Don’t even start with me,” he said. “You are in danger. They’ve already killed somebody, and here you are with the proof in your hand that can put them away, and you don’t even know where you are?”

  “No,” she said sadly. “I really don’t. I can’t get my GPS to work out here with all the orchards.”

  “You could have checked a map, before you entered this area. Did you ever think of that? You don’t ever seem to realize just how much danger you’re in,” he raged. “What happens the next time, if I’m not available, if I can’t answer my phone?”

  “I’m hidden in the trees,” she said. Just then she heard the snap of a branch behind her, and she froze, then spun around, thought she caught sight of somebody stepping behind a tree. She whispered into the phone, “Mack, someone’s behind me, I think. Or hopefully it’s just a deer.”

  “Dammit,” he raged. “Hunker down very quietly and try to stay hidden.”

  “That won’t work so well,” she said, as she studied her little space. “If somebody comes up to this hillock, I’m pretty well exposed.”

  “So why did you choose that particular spot?” he asked.

  ‘Because it allowed me to see what was going on below.”

  “Did you ever think, in all that time, that maybe you weren’t alone?”

  She thought about it, shook her head, and said, “No, but I guess it’s possible I was followed.”

  “You need to hunker down and stay down,” he said. “I’m on the way. Just stay alive. You have no idea how dangerous this can get.” And he hung up.

  The trouble was, she did know exactly how dangerous it could get. And, once again, she was right in the middle of it.

  Chapter 24

  Keeping an eye on the tree, where Doreen thought she’d seen somebody slip behind it, she moved her way up the hill in the opposite direction. With the animals keeping close to her, she wasn’t even sure how they knew they had a problem, unless it was an awareness of her actions. Goliath never strayed more than one foot away from her; he didn’t race off like he often did. And Mugs, instead of growling or jumping around in the leaves, walked quietly at her side, his ears twitching constantly, as he looked around. Moving ten feet, then twenty, and thirty, and so on, by the time she made it just up to a rise again, where she could go over the edge, she hunkered down at the top and studied the area below her.

  The trees where she thought she’d seen somebody were a little off to the side, and it was hard to see whether somebody could still be hiding there or not. Perhaps they’d taken the opportunity to disappear as well. As she looked around, she realized that she was in an orchard. These dratted things seemed to go on forever now. But, with no other option to get away from the house and whoever might have followed her, she kept walking farther and farther up the hill.

  She didn’t know if Mack could track her, based on her cell phone, and whether that was even something she wanted him to do because seriously? It was kind of an intrusive thought. At the same time, if it would get her safely home again, in this case she would be all for it.

  Up on the top and moving through the trees, she kept walking, zigzagging her way along, trying to confuse anybody who might have followed her. As she moved farther and farther up the tree-lined acres, she tried to reason it out in her mind. “Surely the owners have access to these orchards. Some roads must be up here somewhere.”

  She couldn’t guarantee that the roads wouldn’t lead back to that house that she was trying to avoid though. Mack was right in that, if anybody knew that she’d heard the conversation or had a copy of that recording, Doreen would be in trouble. But that was the least of her problems, considering she had so much else going on right now. And not the least of which was the fact that she was well and truly lost.

  But she was still in civilization, so an answer had to be here somewhere for her. She just had to find her way out. And, if that didn’t happen soon, she may scream in frustration.

  But rather than giving in to that kind of stressful thought process—or giving away her location to somebody following her—she just kept going, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. That had to be the better answer, given the chaos right now. Still it was hard not to get a little bit on the squirrely side, when she realized just how bad it seemed, when everything was completely out of control.

  As she continued on, she talked to the animals, trying to stay happy and positive, hoping to recognize something soon. One good thing about her current situation was the view. It also made her realize that she was climbing higher and higher. Gorgeous, yes, but a little disconcerting at the same time. She also knew Mack was on his way, but how was he supposed to find her, if she kept going away from the house? She stopped and frowned, then looked around. She was surrounded by just trees, apple trees upon apple trees upon apple trees. She reached up, scrubbed her face, and said, “Hey, guys, any idea where we go from here?”

  Mugs just woofed and laid down at her side. Goliath had stayed nearby, nothing beyond his presence that he could contribute. He was just a little farther up, staring at her, as if asking what was next on the agenda. Honestly she didn’t have a clue what to say to him. She groaned and said, “I don’t know what to say, boys.” And that wasn’t very helpful either. But it’s what she had to work with. “So let’s go. We’ll keep on walking.” And so she did.

  The animals willingly got up and came with he
r. She wasn’t even sure at this point if they thought this was a fun outing or had recognized that she was somewhat in trouble. She said somewhat because it appeared she had no immediate problem. Yet, at the same time, she didn’t know exactly where she was, and people were nearby who could potentially do her harm, especially if they knew what she had witnessed. She understood that aimlessly wandering was confusing and made zero sense. But she would go with it.

  As she continued walking, she started to sing softly, just enough to keep herself company. It was an old trick she’d learned when alone at her ex-husband’s house. She was alone there a lot, and she’d found all sorts of little ways to make life not seem quite so harsh and ugly. Only as Mugs raced ahead a little bit and started growling did Doreen fall silent and stopped. She crept up behind him, her gaze searching beneath all the trees, looking to see what was upsetting Mugs. When Doreen heard a crack off to the left behind her, she immediately spun and hid by a tree. She muttered down at Mugs, “What do you see?”

  She couldn’t see anything, and the fact that he could was enough to drive her crazy. Then she watched as a beautiful doe stepped out among the trees, glanced around delicately, then leaned forward to sniff at an apple on a tree. The doe moved on, and Doreen noticed another little one. It looked like the doe had a fawn with her. Stunned and delighted, Doreen watched in joy as the animals moved slowly ahead of her. “I guess life for you is the same, isn’t it?” she muttered. “Always about keeping yourself safe.”

  She wondered at the life they had, always on the lookout for predators. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “It must be tough.” At the same time the doe didn’t appear to care about Doreen at all. And that reminded her about their instincts and what they considered predators versus not. Maybe they were better off than she was.

  Doreen didn’t seem to know the difference between friend and foe, at least that’s what Mack would say. She wasn’t sure he was necessarily correct, but she could understand his frustration when she got into a scenario, like she was in right now, and of course had no idea where she was. Even from the vantage point she had at present, she was caught in the trees. Realizing that the doe was content where she was in her own space, Doreen moved forward and just kept walking ahead, but she was a little more lighthearted now. Something about seeing Mother Nature at her best brought out happiness.

  It could also mean that Mother Nature at her worst was somewhere close by as well, but, hey, Doreen was willing to work with whatever she had right now. And that was a little odd because so much was going on. It sounded like somebody had done time for the uncle, and maybe that was the uncle who was here. But, it had been the uncle’s brother who’d done time for him, how was it that he was now free?

  Unless he was the gardener, who had been the one kidnapped, or the kidnapping had been more a case of him just needing to disappear for a while, but why would that be? Because nobody could know that there were the two of them? That kind of made sense, but what would cause the one brother, the first one, the criminal, to need to step forward? Unless … then she shrugged. “It’s probably what it usually is,” she muttered. “Greed.”

  Somewhere, somehow money was involved, and they needed this guy to make an appearance. And why would that be? And why the kidnapping? Except to make one brother disappear and to allow for the other brother to show up. As if each brother were interchangeable. But wouldn’t the cops know then? Or would it just remain an open case? Had they been at this for so long that it didn’t seem to matter to anybody anymore? She pondered the vagaries of twisted minds, trying to pull something over on somebody else, and she realized she still needed more information.

  Of course the weak link here was Denise. Although Doreen wasn’t exactly sure about that because it appeared that nobody knew who had killed whom.

  That just blew Doreen away because how many times did somebody get killed in some family issue, like this, when you didn’t really have any idea who was at fault? It was very strange to listen to them argue because Doreen had only little bits of information, and none of it was enough. She came around the side of a great big apple tree, and all of a sudden, the land dipped down, and she found herself at a road. She looked at it with relief and grinned.

  “Now look at that,” she crowed to the animals. “I know we’re tired, but here is a road.”

  They looked up at her, turned toward the road, and seemed completely unimpressed.

  “I get it,” she said. “You’re not as happy about a road as I am. But a road means that Mack can find us, and I’m not lost in the middle of that orchard.”

  Chapter 25

  Of course finding a road wasn’t all that great of a help if Doreen couldn’t tell Mack what road she was on. Still she would take this as a good sign. As were the symbols saying she had internet again. She sent Mack a picture of the road and said, “I made it somewhere.” Her answer was a phone call.

  “It would help if you knew where the road was,” he muttered.

  “I know,” she said apologetically. “I was sitting here, patting myself on the back. I’m somewhere now that isn’t in the middle of an orchard.”

  He laughed. “You always were somewhere,” he said. “It’s just nowhere that we could identify.”

  “I know,” she said, “and I’m sorry. It seems like this is an awful lot of trouble.”

  “Not so unusual for you,” he muttered. “I was just hoping that we were getting to a place where you weren’t in so much trouble all the time.”

  “I was thinking,” she said, “what would make the uncle want to disappear?”

  “It could be all kinds of things,” he said. “Somebody after him most likely. Given his criminal record.”

  “I was wondering if he needed to disappear so that the other brother could show up again.”

  “So you’re assuming again, based on what you heard, that we have two brothers involved, and the one did time for the other one, who was the criminal?”

  “Yeah,” she said, “that’s what I was thinking. And then I was trying to figure out what would bring up the need for the one guy to come forward, like why kidnap the brother that’s been here for seven years?”

  “But that means you’re thinking that they were involved in the kidnapping.”

  “The one guy said the other guy just needed to disappear, and that it was simple and that he shouldn’t have made it complicated.”

  “Right, so, if he disappeared for a while, but then what?” Mack asked. “Show up again and say it was all just a mistake?”

  “I’m sure you’ve seen things like that happen before.”

  “Yes, but then why? You know that if he had been manhandled into a vehicle, it would make sense if he managed to get away from them and didn’t want to press charges. We would end up just dropping the case. But the ransom note makes it different. And the niece delivered it, but I’m not sure she knew about it.”

  “Meaning, somebody else is involved?”

  “Really, Doreen? What have I told you about suppositions?”

  Such doubt was in his voice that she groaned and said, “I know. My theory is really complicated, isn’t it?”

  “It is, indeed. But you have to remember that almost everything in life is simple. As in very simple.”

  “I know. I know. I know,” she said. “It’s just frustrating me.”

  “Yeah, I get it,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean that there’s not an easier explanation.”

  “I don’t know. This was starting to sound pretty complicated.”

  “But it’s not a cold case,” he said smoothly. “It’s a live case. Remember? And you’re not supposed to be involved in that.”

  “I know. I wasn’t trying to be involved. Denise got me involved.”

  “Yeah,” he said, “and how does that happen?”

  “I don’t know, and what was all that about the Bob Small stuff?”

  “I’m thinking that may have been a red herring on her part,” he said thoughtfully. “Especially if y
ou mentioned that name to her first.”

  “Are we thinking she’s involved in this?”

  “Isn’t that what you were already saying?” he asked curiously.

  “I just don’t want her to be,” she muttered.

  “Just because we don’t want somebody to be involved doesn’t mean they aren’t. You knew right off the bat that something was odd about her.”

  “Yes, but she wasn’t involved in the fighting on the ground here.”

  “But she didn’t stop it either, did she?”

  “That’s the thing about being in the middle of a fight like that,” Doreen said. “There’s a good chance that they would have turned on her.”

  “True, and a judge would certainly consider that, depending on what her defense is, but there’s an awful lot going on here that we still don’t understand. So, at this point, we can’t really assume anything.”

  “No, we can’t presume,” she said. “I would agree with that. It’s just kind of odd.”

  “Maybe not so odd,” he said. “Anyway I have a good idea where you are now, so sit tight, and, with any luck, I can be there in a few minutes.”

  She hung up the phone and started down the road. No matter which way he came, he would be on the road and would pick her up, but she felt the need to keep moving. She hadn’t mentioned the feeling like somebody was behind her, watching her. It felt silly since she had no evidence. And, as long as she and her animals got picked up and taken out of here soon, hopefully they’d all be safe. And, sure enough, she heard a large truck coming toward her. She looked up, smiled, and waved.

  Mack pulled off to the side of the road, hopped out, and immediately wrapped her up in a hug and held her close. She burrowed in, smiling, more relieved than she may have cared to admit. When he finally released her, he shook his head. “You do get yourself into a spot of trouble every week.”

  She nodded. “I didn’t mean to,” she said, looking up at him. She reached out, patted his cheek, and said, “But, once again, you came to my rescue.”