Pages of the Past (Bellingwood Book 9) (24 page)

"Of course I'm sure. I watched the video yesterday afternoon before I gave it to Ken Wallers. That's the guy."

"Then you need to call someone."

"I don't want him to know what I'm doing."

"You mean, like shutting your door in a hurry?"

"He didn't see me. He was in the computer room. I checked." Polly took out her phone, started to dial and then put it back down on her desk. "Who do I call?"

"Call Aaron Merritt. He can call Chief Wallers."

"Right. That's what I'll do."

A knock at her door caused Polly to drop the phone back on her desk.

"Yes?"

Jeff opened the door. "Polly, this is Jerry Costanza. He'd really like to look at the rooms in the addition. Do you suppose you could..."

"No. We can't," she said. "Not today. There is too much going on."

Jeff looked at her quizzically and she gave him a slight, gritted teeth, shake of the head.

"Okay," he said and turned back to the young man. "I don't think it will work out today. Rooms will be open early next week if you would like to come back. I'd be glad to show you the rest of the facility at that point."  He pulled the door shut behind him.

"Jerry Costanza?" Polly hissed at Sal. "Does he think we're idiots?"

"What do you mean?" Sal asked.

"Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza. Please."

Sal chuckled. "That didn't even occur to me. But you're right. It's kind of lame. Are you calling Aaron?"

"I don't want to call. I don't want this guy to hear me."

"So, what are you doing?"

"I have texting. Aaron will figure it out. Now keep talking about the building or something. Just make noise like we're in here working."

"Because I really am in here working?"

"Whatever. Just give me some cover."

Sal stood up and bent over the desk, riffling through the sheets of paper. "Cover like this? Is he looking at my ass yet?"

"Holy cow girl, you're a nut." Polly said, laughing. She quickly pressed keys on her phone.
"Aaron, the guy who ran your sister down is here at Sycamore House checking things out. What should I do?"

"What do you mean?"

"He's asked for a tour from Jeff, purportedly for a wedding reception next year."

"Are you sure?"

"I saw him on the video yesterday. I'm sure. Should I try to keep him here?"

"I'm in town and I'm on my way over. Don't do anything. If he tries to leave, let him. Where's Helen?"

"Upstairs in her room. Lydia is in the auditorium with Joss and the babies. The rest of us are in the offices."

"I'm driving into your driveway in back. Can you unlock it for me?"

"The kitchen door is unlocked. Anything else I should do?"

"Sit still. Don't make a scene. I've called for backup."

"You can sit down now," Polly said to Sal. "Aaron is here. He's coming in the back. We aren't supposed to do anything."

Another knock at Polly's door made her jump. "Come in," she said.

Sylvie walked in. "Do I need to shut this? Jeff's in his office with the Costanza fellow. Kind of a funny name, don't you think?"

"No, that's fine. It can stay open." Polly wasn't sure how much more she should say. It was probably better to just let everyone remain clueless for now. That way no one would do anything to make him nervous.

She heard Jeff say, "Thank you for stopping in, Mr. Costanza. Please let me know if you need any other information."

"I have everything I need."

Jerry Costanza, or whatever his name was, left the office and turned to the left, heading for the side door and the addition. Where was Aaron?

Polly jumped up out of her seat. There was no way she was letting him get into that addition and search for Helen. She rushed past Sylvie and Sal and dashed into the foyer just as he had his hand on the door to push it open.

"Excuse me, Mr. Costanza?" she called.

He didn't respond immediately, but then turned.

"Yes?"

"I didn't get an opportunity to properly meet you. My name is Polly Giller and I'm the owner of Sycamore House." She put her hand out as she strode across the floor to meet him.

"I see," he said, unsure as how to proceed. He finally did what was ingrained in everyone and put his hand out, taking hers and shaking it.

"Did Jeff talk to you about our catering service? I believe we have one of the best chefs in the region working for us here." Once she had his hand, Polly drew him back into the main building.

"He did. I even met her. Thank you." His eyes grew hard and he gripped Polly's hand, drawing her in front of him.

"What?" she gasped.

"Let her go," came Aaron's firm voice.

"Oh crap," Polly said under her breath.

"That's right, oh crap," Jerry Costanza said. "It looks like you're taking a walk with me."

Polly tried to sense whether or not he was carrying a gun. She'd taken punches before and knew she could live through that, but she'd obey if there was a gun. He had one hand in hers and his other hand was reaching up to grab her chest. In an instant, she made a decision and picked her foot up, jamming it back down on his foot. She leaned forward, bit his hand, and twisted at the same time.

"Bitch!" he yelled, releasing her. He turned to run for the door, but she stuck a leg out and tripped him. He didn't fall to the ground, only tripped across the floor, staying on his feet. It gave Aaron enough time to move in.

"Stop right there," Aaron demanded.

"You're a fool," the man said. "You want to let me go."

"No, I'm sorry. I don't. You've threatened too many people in my territory. This ends now."

The man dropped to his knees. "You know better than that. There is no end to this."

"It's ending for you today. And if you're smart, you'll talk to me so that we can finish this."

Aaron pushed him down until his face was on the floor, kicked his legs apart, and zip tied his hands behind his back. He patted him down and didn't find a weapon. Polly took a deep breath, glad that she'd not made a horribly stupid decision.

She looked back at the office. Sal, Sylvie, Jeff, Sarah and Stephanie were all standing there staring at her.

"It really sucks getting taken down by a girl, doesn't it?" she asked the man lying prone on the floor.

He didn't respond and Aaron shook his head. "You're going to scare me to death for the rest of my life, aren't you, Polly?"

"Maybe?"

Stu Decker and another deputy came in the front door and rushed over to Aaron. Stu pulled the man up from the floor. "Anything special?" he asked Aaron.

"Just take him in for now. Polly recognized him from the video yesterday. I suspect that will be an easy match. He's part of it."

"Got it, boss. You coming down to the office?"

"I'll be there in a bit. I need to breathe. Polly did it again."

"Hey," she protested.

"Hey whatever," Aaron said.

Stu grinned as he walked the man out. "I'm sorry we were late to that party." He nodded to the group standing in front of the office and went on out the front door.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

"I'm never going to win with you, am I? When are you going to let me be the tough guy?" Aaron asked Polly.

She glared, giving him her most rotten evil eye. "But he was getting away!"

"I could have handled it. It's my job."

"Look, he didn't freak out until he saw you come around the corner. We were just chatting up until that point. And..." she glared at him. "By the way, I handled him. I'm getting pretty good at this self-defense stuff."

He laughed. "You were lucky. That kid was a thick-headed thug. He didn't know what he was doing."

That surprised Polly. "You mean that wasn't the assassin?"

Aaron shook his head. "No, Polly. If he'd been a trained assassin, you would have been dead in a heartbeat. The man who killed Albert was in and out of town that same day. He didn't stick around for a week and a half just to try to run down my sister. I'm guessing this poor young man works in an office during the week and got sent to reconnoiter. He's less qualified to engage in hand to hand combat than you are."

"I think you just insulted me."

"You're lucky and manage to get in a few good pot shots every once in a while, but you'd be no match against someone who knew what they were doing." He looked up in thought. "However, it might be interesting for you to train with some of my people. None of them can believe that you are capable of doing damage, even after we have proof of it. Would you want to come down and work out with us?"

"Are you serious?" she asked.

"I might be. If I thought for one minute that this was the last time you'd get into a skirmish, I'd let it pass, but with you, I never know what's coming next."

"Will you teach me how to use a gun?" she asked as they walked back to the office.

He stopped mid-stride and looked at her sideways. "Now it's my turn to ask. Are you serious?"

Polly cackled. "Nope. Not at all. I'd shoot myself in the foot. Pretty sure of that."

"Thank goodness. Telling Lydia that you were packing would only be detrimental to me and I am not ready to walk that path any longer."

"I'm surprised she isn't out here checking on us."

He put his hand on her back. "That's the reason it took me a bit longer to get to you. I stopped in the auditorium and told her and Joss to stay put with the babies. I need to tell them that all is safe."

Polly looked into the office as they walked past and waved. From the looks on everyone's faces, she knew she had some explaining to do. At least there weren't any visitors and guests here today. That might keep Jeff from taking her to task about her impact on the reputation of Sycamore House. She wished he would quit blaming her for the things that happened. It just wasn't her fault.

"Are you ever going to tell us what's been going on?" Polly asked.

Aaron took a deep breath, blinked and said, "It isn't safe yet. We're closer. Getting our hands on this young man is going to give us some leverage."

He pushed the door open to the auditorium only to find it completely empty. There were no babies, no adults, no nothing. "Where would they have gone?" he asked.

Polly texted Lydia,
"Where did you go?"

"Upstairs to your apartment."

"Do you want us to come up or do you want to come back downstairs?"

"We'll be right there. Is everyone okay? I saw the deputies drive in and then I watched them drive away."

"Come down. We'll tell you everything. Well, what I know, at least."

She put the phone back in her pocket and said, "They went upstairs."

"She's a smart woman."

"Yes she is." Polly put her hand on Aaron's forearm. "You have been a terrible husband these last couple of months and you owe her an explanation for all of it. If it hadn't come to a head and your sister hadn't come into town, how much longer would you have let this mess go on between the two of you?"

He dropped his head and pulled away from her.

"Aaron, your wife can't function if she's worried about your marriage. The two of you provide a foundation for each other. Surely you see that."

"All I ever wanted to do was keep her safe. That's all."

"So this was about keeping Lydia safe?"

"Of course it was."

"That's crap and you know it."

He frowned at her. "What do you mean?"

"You've been in a dark place. You've been afraid of something. If you had simply wanted to keep her safe, you would have been proactive. That's what you do. You don't sit and wait for things to fall apart until they can't get any worse. You fix it and make everything right."

"It wasn't possible. The only thing I could do was..." Aaron paused. "That's enough. I can't talk about it to you and besides, I hear babies."

Joss and Lydia came back into the auditorium, each carrying a baby.

"Did you catch the bad guy?" Lydia asked.

"One of them," he said. "And I think you need to have a talk with your friend about her behavior when the bad guys show up."

Polly coughed and said under her breath, "Throwing me under the bus?"

Lydia picked right up on it. "What did she do?"

"Why don't you ask her?" Aaron slid Polly an evil grin.

"What did you do, Polly?" Lydia asked, passing Sophia to her husband. "Here, I think you need a baby fix. She's just been changed and she could use a big, teddy bear hug."

"I didn't do anything," Polly said. "I was talking to that young man when Aaron turned the corner."

"And ask her what she did when he tried to use her as a shield?" Aaron asked in his best high-pitched baby voice, smiling and messing with Sophia.

"Polly!" Lydia exclaimed. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Aaron assures me that the kid was probably an office worker and any foolish woman could have taken him."

"That's not what I said. You have great presence of mind and handle yourself very well in tense situations," Aaron said.

"He also said that I should come down and train with his deputies," Polly said with a grin. "But I think he might have been teasing me."

Lydia nodded with enthusiasm. "It would certainly make me feel better if you had self-defense training. That's what it would be, right Aaron?"

"Uh huh," he said, cooing at the baby. "Self-defense. Absolutely."

"Aaron, are you paying attention to me?"

"No, ma'am."

The door opened and they all looked up to see Helen limp into the auditorium.

"Your friends told me you were here," she said, looking around. "Is there a chair in this place? I can barely lift my legs and the rest of me feels like it's been run through a wringer washer. I had no idea it was going to be so dangerous to come tell my brother how to run his life."

Aaron passed Sophia back to Lydia and went off in search of chairs. He came back with four in his hands and quickly set them up, gesturing to Lydia and Joss to sit after he'd helped Helen.

She beckoned to Lydia. "Can I hold her?"

"She's not a lightweight. Are you sure?"

"Babies are good for the soul." Lydia stood and placed Sophia in Helen's arms. The child was quickly enraptured with the woman, who then slid off her seat to the floor and said to Joss, "Go ahead. Put your son down. There's a great big room here for them to explore. I'll keep an eye on them."

"But you're..." Aaron started.

Helen waved him off, "Leave me alone. I'm not an invalid. By the way, you goin' to tell me what those sheriff's vehicles were doing in the parking lot and why you're here at this hour of the day playing with your wife?"

"I'm not playing with my wife," he said defensively.

"Tell me." Helen got up on her knees and crawled to where Cooper had face planted into the carpet. She picked him up and put him on his bottom.

Polly shook her head at the woman. She just didn't give up.

"I'm waiting for a confirmation call from Digger on his identity, but I suspect he works for..."

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Helen spat. "Just say his name. No one up here knows who he is and it isn't like the entire community is terrified of Voldemort. Say his damned name."

"Helen," Aaron said warningly.

"Don't 'Helen' me. Price Sutton. That's his name. It's time you quit being scared of him."

"It isn't just me that I'm concerned about. He had Albert killed and sent someone after you."

"I'm sorry your friend was killed, but you need to find a way to end this. It's been thirty years and you left home. I'm tired of him controlling our lives."

"That was the deal we made."

Helen sat back and watched the two children in front of her crawl to their mother. "I remember that day," she said. "It was the early eighties. Nobody thought much about the future, except that it was coming up someday. We were young, invincible and twenty-fifteen was so far away it didn't register as real. We weren't even thinking about the new century. You didn't have a wife or a family, you barely had a job. Mom and Dad were still alive. Our future was way out in front of us. These girls," she pointed at Joss and Sylvie, "weren't even born yet."

Aaron nodded.             

"Aaron. The future is right now. Accept that everything is different and you were not the one who reneged on the deal. Sutton did when he sent a man to kill Albert."

"He thought we were going to expose him."

"He didn't know that. He panicked. And it's because Ludders was released from prison. Sutton didn't think about the future back then either. All he could see was that he'd gotten away with it. Jeff Ludders took the fall and went away for what we thought was a lifetime. But it wasn't, was it? Not for any of us."

Polly desperately wanted to ask questions, but all she could do was watch the interaction between Aaron Merritt and his sister.

"Digger is working with the FBI," Aaron said. "I'm not saying anything until Sutton is either in custody or dealt with. As soon as they confirm the identity of the kid who was just here, it will move forward. Until then, you all don't need to know anything."

"Digger?" Lydia asked quietly. "He knows about this?"

Aaron nodded again. "He knew thirty years ago."

"You told him and you couldn't tell me?"

"Honey. I couldn't. He was working for the FBI in Atlanta when it all went down. After I came to Iowa and found a good life, he called and asked questions, wanting to be back in the Midwest." Aaron turned to Polly. "He grew up in Minnesota. He applied at the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the rest is history."

"You knew Digger from back then?" Lydia asked, still in shock.

"I'm sorry, honey, yes. We didn't talk about it much."

"Apparently not."

"You're going to owe her a vacation in Hawaii, maybe even Australia," Polly muttered.

A knock at the door made them all jump and Sal poked her head in. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Mark called and wants to have lunch. I'm taking off." She held up a folder. "We'll talk more about this later, okay Polly?"

"I'm sorry," Polly said, jumping out of her chair. "I didn't mean to run out on you."

"Of course you did. Quit apologizing. We all know that sending bad guys to jail is kinda your thing... that is, after finding dead bodies. We're all just sorry we missed the excitement. I think you should start a self-defense class here during the week. Teach us all about your tricks to turning men into gibbering fools."

"You're teasing me, right?"

"Not really," Sal said with a straight face. "You have no fear when it comes to hurting a man who is intimidating you. That's one of those things that most of us don't think of doing. Men are supposed to protect us poor, sweet women from the rougher things in life."

"Okay, okay. That's enough."

"I'm actually serious," Sal said. "Women aren't taught to do damage to men who hurt them. You're kind of my hero."

"Whatever. You go have lunch with your pretty boyfriend and oh, by the way, what are you doing about those puppies?"

Sal winked. "They might be a Valentine's Day present for Mark. How do you think he'll react to that?"