NOT What I Was Expecting (24 page)

Luke listened for
a minute or two then said softly, “Okay, CeCe, it’s going to be all right. 
Where are you right now?”  He continued to listen before he ordered, “Go home. 
No, CeCe, I don’t want you to talk to anybody, understand?”

The tension that
showed on Luke’s face didn’t affect his calm, reassuring voice, but it was
there.

“No,” he calmly
told CeCe again.  “I don’t want you to call anyone or go anywhere except home. 
Didn’t you say you were in Fry’s car?  Do you have a key to his car?”  Luke
paused for a second and then said, “Everything is going to be okay.  I want you
to get Fry’s keys, go out to his car, and drive to your house.  Yes, right
now,” he encouraged her calmly but firmly.  He was quiet for a while as he
listened to CeCe talking.

“No, don’t hang
up.  Put us on speaker phone and leave the phone on the seat next to you while
you drive.  We aren’t hanging up.  We’re right here.”  Luke was quiet for
another moment.

“You’re doing
great, CeCe.  Are you out of the driveway?  Good.  Do you see any other cars on
my street going in either direction?  That’s great, CeCe, you’re doing just
fine.  And there’s still nobody behind you?  Great.  No, I’m going to take care
of it, CeCe.  How close are you to your street now?  Okay, good just keep going. 
You’re doing fine.”

I listened to Luke
try to keep CeCe calm as he talked her home.  I knew that he needed me to keep
quiet while he took care of CeCe’s problem.  I didn’t know what had happened,
but I knew it was something awful, and whatever it was, it had happened to Fry.

While Luke calmed CeCe
as she drove home, he walked through the condo and grabbed his duffel bag, socks,
and shoes.  He put them on as he spoke to CeCe but stayed on the phone with her.

I got the
impression that when he finished getting ready he was out of here, so I grabbed
the keys to the little blue jellybean car from the front hallway (to make sure
he couldn’t leave without me) and ran to slip on my shoes.  I grabbed the overnight
bag I’d bought and raced back into the kitchen where I found Luke collecting
the pictures Fry had emailed, as well as the cylinder with the print of
Marianne’s
Garden
.

“Now lock the door
behind you and don’t open it until I get there.  You’re safe now CeCe, and I’ll
take care of everything, so try to stay calm.  And CeCe, remember — no police.”
Luke listened to CeCe’s response before adding, “I’m hanging up now but call
back if you need to.  I’m on my way.”

Luke pressed the
button to disconnect the call and said, “They’ve got Fry.  He and CeCe went to
Uncle Barney’s house, even though I told him not to.  Apparently they left to
go over there right after they got off the phone with us earlier,” Luke
explained as he looked around for his wallet.  “These guys pulled up and
grabbed Fry.  Then they called CeCe on Fry’s cell and told her no police or
Fry’s dead.  They want me to come back.  Apparently, they’ve been picking up
the local gossip in Oakman and found out the police want to talk to me, because
I left town right after Barney’s death.  These guys must think I left town with
Ms. Eliza painting, or at least I know where it is since I lived there with
Barney.  They told CeCe they need to talk to me.  They want me to be at Barney’s
house when they call at nine o’clock tomorrow morning, and what do you think
you’re doing?” Luke asked as I handed him his wallet.  I’d grabbed my purse and
headed toward the door as I held his keys in one hand, my overnight bag thrown
on my shoulder and Peso’s leash with him attached in my other hand.

“I’m coming with,”
I explained as I opened the door.

“Maggie, I think
you and Peso would be safer here, and I don’t want . . . ,” he tried to tell
me.

“I’m — coming —
with,” I said more slowly, since he obviously hadn’t understood me the first
time.  “And you don’t have time to argue, so come on.  You can tell me again
what’s going on once we’re in the car.”

Luke mumbled
something under his breath as he took the keys I held out to him, and I closed
the door behind us.

Once we retrieved
the car and were on the way to Oakman, I asked Luke to start from the beginning
and tell me exactly what CeCe had said.

He explained that
two men matching Hoss and Little Joe’s description had grabbed Fry and crammed
him into their car in Uncle Barney’s driveway.  After they tore out of there,
they called CeCe’s cell.  They told her she had until tomorrow morning to get
Luke back into town.  If she called the police or if Luke wasn’t home to take
their call tomorrow morning, they said they would kill Fry.

After he’d let me
know everything he knew so far, we rode for a while in silence, as both of us
tried to absorb what was happening.  The longer I thought, the more terrified I
became.  Poor Fry.  At the mercy of men who had already murdered two people.

CHAPTER 18

After creeping
through the New Orleans traffic, it was around 2:00 in the afternoon when we
pulled up to my house.  I got a huge lump in my throat when I saw Fry’s car
parked in the driveway, looking like it did every other time Fry had stopped
by.  It made me want to cry.

In an effort to
keep anyone from finding out I was having a hard time coping, I tried silent,
deep breathing to calm myself.  The calm was working but not the silent, since
Luke apparently heard me.

“I know this is
hard, Maggie, but we have to hold it together, or we won’t be able to help CeCe
get through this,” Luke encouraged.  His words eliminated my desire to indulge
in a good cry.

He was right.  We
needed CeCe to recount everything she saw down to the most minor detail.  If I
didn’t keep my panic under control, I wouldn’t have any chance of keeping her
calm enough to tell us something that might help.

“I know, and I’m
okay,” I reassured him.  “Let’s go.”

CeCe threw open
the front door and came running out to greet us.  “I’m so glad to see you
guys,” she cried, as she threw her arms around me.

After she hugged
me for a minute, she must have noticed I used only one arm to return her
embrace.  She pulled back, looked down at what I was holding, and said, “Oh,
you have a – dog?  Where’d you get the dog?  That is a dog, right?  I mean, of
course it’s a dog, but what’s up with the ears?”

After CeCe gave
Luke his I’m-so-glad-you’re-here hug, we all walked into the house together
with me explaining how we acquired Peso as we went.

When we walked in
the front door, Sassy Cat stood in the foyer and rubbed her face against the
arched doorway that led to the living room.  She spotted Peso in my arms at the
same time that he went from a relaxed blob to a rigid guard on full alert.

“Do you want me to
close Sassy Cat in the bedroom for a while?” CeCe asked when we followed her
into the living room.

While I stood
there unable to make a decision (since my mind was focused on Fry), I reminded
myself I had to give the appearance of coping.  It was obvious CeCe had been
crying recently.  She needed me to appear capable instead of the way I actually
felt, which was kind of lost in a fog as I watched things happening around me.

Although it had
only been a few seconds that had passed while I lectured myself, Luke must have
seen my struggle to come up with an answer to CeCe’s question.

“It’s up to you
two, but I say they need to meet at some point.  I’d put Peso down and let them
check each other out,” he suggested.  “If you need to separate them, then you
could do that, but see what they think of each other first.”

Luke’s suggestion
not only saved me from appearing as zoned out as I felt, but it also made
sense.  CeCe and I shrugged and spoke at the same time.

“Sounds good to
me,” CeCe agreed.

“Sure, why not,” I
nodded.

Sassy Cat had followed
us into the room, refusing to take her eyes off Peso.  He responded in kind by
adjusting in my arms to keep her in his line of vision.

“CeCe, can you be
ready to grab Sassy Cat just in case there’s any attitude or fur that starts to
fly?” I asked as I lowered Peso to the floor.

Sassy Cat walked
slowly toward Peso as he inched slowly in her direction, neither one ever
taking their eyes off the other.  When the distance between them was only about
a foot and a half, they both stopped moving and stood staring at each other
while sniffing the air.

Peso was the first
to adopt a nonaggressive position.  He sat down.  As he gazed at Sassy Cat, the
edges of his mouth turned upward, and he gave her his smile-look.  Sassy Cat
did her signature move, the nonchalant scan to the side, but she was unable to
stick it.  Her attention came right back to Peso.  Bless her heart, she once
again attempted aloof by going for the
head-turn-in-the-opposite-direction-snub.  Unable to look away for more than a
few seconds, she focused on Peso’s face and cocked her head to the side.  The
look on her face seemed to say, “Is he grinning at me?”

Finally, she cast
her eyes heavenward, possibly a silent plea for help, walked over to just past
where Peso sat, adopted her usual sitting-on-a-throne posture with her back to
him so that her tush was touching his, and started to clean her paws.  Peso,
whose focus had followed her progress until she sat touching him, swiveled his
head back toward Luke, CeCe, and me.  As we all let out the breaths we had been
holding, Peso grinned at us for just a second before he curled in a half
circle, put his head down, and closed his eyes.

I made CeCe and
Luke promise not to talk about anything important while I went into the kitchen
to start coffee and throw some sandwiches together.  In accordance with my
wishes, Luke told CeCe the details I’d left out of how we ended up with Peso.

When I entered the
living room with the tray of food and coffee, I heard CeCe asking Luke, “What’s
the deal with that smile?  I didn’t know dogs could smile?”

“Actually,” I began
as I deposited the tray on the coffee table.  “I was watching his face while he
slept in my lap all the way here.  I think his lip gets kind of stuck on his
teeth at the edges of his mouth, and that gives the appearance of a smile.  Or
maybe he’s just really happy and likes grinning.”

That made CeCe
smile, which was nice because she hadn’t done much of that since I’d arrived
home.

Once we were all
comfortable, I asked Luke if he would mind staying at our place for the night
since I thought it would make CeCe and I sleep better.  What I didn’t say but
was worried about, was the fact that the murderers knew where he lived.  I
really didn’t think he was safe in Barney’s house alone.  He assured me he
didn’t mind at all, if it was okay with CeCe.  Her visible sigh of relief
answered that question as she put her hand over her heart and told him she
would be forever grateful if he would stay with us.

We had put off
making CeCe go through every detail as long as we could, but now we needed her
to tell us everything that happened.  CeCe started at the beginning and went
through everything she could remember leading up to and including Fry’s
abduction.

She said the
sisters popped in at the Big & Blessed shop and offered to mind the store
so Fry and CeCe could go out to lunch.  Our mothers had said they were going to
rush next door to check on some material they’d ordered for Pearl’s bathroom
window, and they’d be right back.

Fry and CeCe
decided that would work out great, because earlier that morning, Barney’s
neighbor called Fry looking for Luke.  The neighbor explained that he noticed the
Becnel’s door standing open and went to check it out.  The front door lock had
been jimmied and the house was torn apart, so he called the police.  CeCe and
Fry decided to help Luke out by going over to straighten and clean some of the
mess left from the break in.  CeCe called Deputy Ben to see if he could let her
know when they had the all clear to go to the Becnel home and was told Deputy
Ben was out, but the investigators were finished.  The sheriff’s department said
anyone with a key and permission to be there was free to enter.  Since Fry had
Luke’s keys and gave himself permission to enter, CeCe and Fry felt covered to
go in and clean up a little before Luke’s return. 

When the sisters
finished their shopping next door and arrived to watch the shop for a while,
CeCe told them thanks and that she and Fry wouldn’t be long.  Fry and CeCe had
a plan which they set it in motion when they first stopped to pick up a few
supplies and then headed for Barney’s house.  In spite of Luke’s insistence
that he didn’t want them to do it, Fry and CeCe really wanted to help out by
having Barney’s house somewhat put back together by the time Luke got back.

Their plan had
been to stay for only a brief time, straighten as much as they could, head back
to relieve the sisters at the shop, and return to finish the cleanup at
Barney’s later after the shop closed.  When they pulled into Barney’s driveway,
Fry walked CeCe inside, since she really, REALLY had to pee.  That part nearly
made CeCe tear up again as she described how she
had
to get the Big Boss
size diet soda when they stopped to pick up trash bags and some cleaning
supplies on the way to Barney’s house.

Apparently, after
he walked CeCe into the house and tossed his keys on the table in the
entranceway, Fry walked around each room assessing the damage.  Then he went
back out to his car to haul in the cleaning supplies just before CeCe came out
of the bathroom.  She was on her way back through the living room when she looked
out the window and thought it was odd that a car was blocking Barney’s driveway. 
At the same instant that she saw two men struggling to shove something into the
back seat, she realized the flailing object being shoved into the car was Fry. 
Within seconds it was over, and they were gone while her mind was still trying
to process what she saw.

“See, it’s my
fault,” CeCe said as her eyes misted over.  “If I had just waited until after
we carried in the supplies
together
, they never would have grabbed him
like that.  I should have been out there with him.”

I went over to sit
next to CeCe on the sofa, put my arm around her, and cried, “That’s not true! 
It isn’t your fault.”

“CeCe,” Luke began
softly.  “I want you to understand, so listen to me very carefully.  There is
no reason to believe that if you had been out there with Fry that he would not
have been grabbed.”  Luke spoke so quietly, we had to stop weeping to hear
him.  It kind of irked me that he’d figured out a way to calm us that was so
sneaky.

“The more likely
result, had you been standing next to Fry, is that you would have been taken as
well,” Luke explained as he continued to use the same soft, soothing tone.  “I
don’t even want to think about the bind Maggie and I would have been left in
without the information you’re here to provide.  Don’t get me wrong, if that
were the case, we would get you and Fry back just like we’re going to get Fry
back now, but it would have been much more complicated.”

“Don’t you mean
impossible.  If these are the guys who’ve already killed two people, what’s one
more?” CeCe asked as her eyes grew moist again, but she didn’t cry.

“Ah, but here is
where our advantage comes in.  We have you,” Luke announced, a big smile
forming as he spoke.

“Me?” CeCe
squeaked, “I’m your big advantage?  In that case, fear for us, Luke.  I don’t
know anything that can help.”

“Yeah, you do,
CeCe,” Luke calmly informed her, “and you’ve already told me what I needed.  When
you were on the phone with me earlier, you said the men who grabbed Fry
resembled Hoss and Little Joe Cartwright from Bonanza.  I know you heard that
reference from Fry recently, because he heard it from Uncle Barney.  Even
though you told me on the phone that Fry didn’t get to show you the pictures
Stubby sent him before he was nabbed, you recognized the men who took Fry as
the same men Barney described in Eliza’s kitchen.”

“Um, Luke,” CeCe
eased in gently.  “I hate to be the one to break it to you, but that is
not
good news.  Those guys are stone cold killers.  I really think we need to call
the police even though they said not to.  What choice do we have?  They’re just
going to kill Fry, too.”

While Luke was talking
earlier, I figured out where he was going with his rationale.  Since he’d
bailed me out earlier, I rushed to his aid.

“But CeCe, Fry has
an advantage poor Eliza and Barney never had.  Luke!”  When I said his name,
Luke turned to look at me, although he’d been nodding in agreement up to that
point.

“Well, uh, I
wasn’t going to say ‘me,’ but I do agree Fry has an advantage,” Luke indicated. 
“These guys want something, and they probably see Fry as their last hope of
getting it.  If they kill him, they have nothing to bargain with.  My guess is
they’re planning to trade Fry’s safety for the painting.  They think I have it
and will trade it for Fry, and they’re right – I would if I had it.  All I have
to do is convince them to let me drop it somewhere in exchange for Fry.  What I
can’t do is let them know we’re aware of their identities.  That would likely
get Fry and I both killed.”

Luke was obviously
thinking out loud, but when he saw the concern deepen on CeCe’s face, he
quickly added with a smile, “So I have the advantage.  I know exactly how much
information I’m willing to give them and how much I don’t want to tell them. 
You were instrumental in clearing up that information, CeCe.  Don’t think for
one minute that you put Fry’s life in danger.  You are the one who’ll be most
to thank for saving him.”

Slowly, a smile
crept across CeCe’s face as she turned to me and said, “This guy is pretty
decent, I must admit.  Looks like your taste in men is improving.”

As soon as CeCe
realized what she’d said to me in front of Luke, she let out a little, “Eek!”
and slapped her hand over her mouth.

It took me a only
a fraction of a second to get control of myself and make sure I didn’t have the
same horrified look on my face that CeCe currently wore.  I smiled at Luke, who
looked from CeCe to me with a questioning smile on his face, and then I waved
off CeCe’s comment with a brief explanation.

“Oh, yeah,
apparently I drunk texted CeCe the other night, and I never had the chance to
clear it up for her.”  I turned my attention to CeCe and offered up the lame
excuse I’d quickly worked out in my head.

“I didn’t realize
I was drinking such a strong drink the other night, but it was really a lot of
alcohol,” I began explaining, but ended up rambling and couldn’t seem to stop myself. 
“You know I don’t usually drink that much all at one time, and apparently I
started believing I was on a date with Luke from college.  You remember Luke
from college, CeCe.  The guy I was so in love with, but then we broke up and I
can’t even remember why anymore.  It was all so long ago.  It’s weird the
things that hang around in your subconscious, isn’t it?”