Strung Out to Die (17 page)

“I’ll think about it.” There was no way I was going to let anyone else in on everything that was going on. The less he knew, the better. “Hey, what is your name?”

“Donovan. Donovan Scott.” He smiled again, before he disappeared into the group of students waiting for him.

I couldn’t look at any of the Divas during class out of fear that I’d burst out laughing. We had to be the most uncoordinated bunch of middle-aged broads I’d ever seen.

On several occasions, Donovan had to tell Flora to silence her cell phone. Finally, after it had gone off several more times, he came over and took it from her. I thought she was going to have a heart attack when he shut it off and held it over his head when she tried to jump up to get it. She didn’t give up without a fight, but in the end, she lost the battle.

“I can see how this could help me tone my arms like yours.” Flora flexed, referring to Cheri.

“It would help if we were a little younger.” Bernadine flicked the flab under her arm as she flexed.

I was sure my arms were going to be sore tomorrow. Donovan had us in positions that no robber would ever put me in.

He asked us to split off into pairs. Bernadine grabbed me, which was a huge mistake.

“What did Marlene
really
want?” She whispered as she put in me in the robber hold.

For this particular defense move, I was supposed to play the victim and head butt the robber, Bernadine, held me from behind, gripping my wrist with one of her hands and holding me close with her other arm wrapped around me.

She was also supposed to say, “Give me your money,” but decided it was time to get the truth out of me.

“I can tell you are lying, Holly Harper.” Bernadine was making up her own dialog using her best robber voice.

“I told you.” I winced from her ring that was cutting into my wrist. I jerked. “Let go.”

“Good, good.” Donovan nodded and smiled walking by all the pairs.

“I’m not letting go until you tell me the truth.” Bernadine squeezed harder.

She was getting really good at this robber act.

“Let go now!” I yelled and stomped my foot down. I could’ve head butted her like I were supposed to, but I didn’t want to hurt her.

“Ewwwowl!” Bernadine screamed. She let go of me, grabbed her toe and hopped around on one foot. “You smashed my toe.”

I tried to rub the ring indentions off my wrist but they were too deep. Donovan jogged over to see what all the commotion was about.

“She…” Bernadine had her shoe off and was rubbing her perfectly-pedicure red toenails. “Holly decided to stomp on my foot, for real!”

“You were holding me a little too tight.” I held my wrist out to show Donovan.

“Now ladies, we’re only pretending here.” He looked back and forth between us. Before he walked off, he said, “Good job, though.”

“Geesh.” Bernadine continued to rub her big toe. “Now I know you were lying and I’m going to find out what it’s about.”

“Come over later and we can talk.” I took a look at her toe. There was some red nail polish that had been chipped off. “I’m sorry.”

We both started to laugh. Everyone turned to look at us, which made us laugh even harder.

Before I changed back into my pants, Donovan asked again if I wanted one on one lessons. I told him again that I’d think about it, but we exchanged numbers anyway. It wouldn’t hurt to have extra protection, and I’d have his number just in case.

Chapter Twenty-four

Sean had been on my mind all day. It wouldn’t do me any good to stop by his house now that I knew his truck had been sold in South Burrow.

On the way home, I decided to take a detour and stop at Sloan’s Hardware to take advantage of the pay phone.

Ten, fifteen, twenty…damn.
There wasn’t enough change in my ashtray to pay for a call, but I was sure there had to be some loose change somewhere in the car. I didn’t bother checking my wallet, because I knew it was dry as a bone, so I checked under the floor mats, in the console, and glove box and came up with nothing.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of silver between the driver’s seat and console. There it was, barely sticking out.

I surveyed how it was positioned. I was sure if I went under my seat, I could get it.
Under..ugh!

I opted to grab the pen I’d seen in the glove box and started flicking at what little of the coin was visible.

I flung my body against the seat, and held the pen out like a weapon when someone knocked on my window.

Be aware of your surroundings.
I had to post that somewhere.

“You alright?” Jim motioned for me to roll down the window.

“Jim, you scared the crap out of me.” I said as I rolled it down. “Between you and Ginger, I might be the next person in the morgue due to a heart attack.”

“I saw you over here, so I thought I’d walk over to see how the cameras are doing,” He said, and waved to someone driving past. “What are you doing in there?”

“I was going to call Sean, but I didn’t have enough change. I was looking for some.” I threw my hands up in the air.

Jim dug in the front of his blue, blue jeans, and pulled out some coins.

“You know, Ginger makes me keep this phone booth here for you. It costs me more to keep it than you use it.” Jim handed me the money. “You really should get a cell phone. Not that I’m trying to act like your husband looking after you, but I am your best friend’s husband and she thinks you should have one too.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I put the coins in the slot and carefully dialed Sean’s mobile.

I had to concentrate on pushing the right numbers because I couldn’t risk dialing the wrong number like I had done so many times before. This time, I couldn’t afford to screw up, literally.

“Sean, it’s Hol.” I thought if I called myself by the nickname he had given me when we were married, he might feel some emotion and return my call. Wishful thinking, but it was worth a try. “I saw your truck in South Burrow. Please call me. We can work this out.”

Not that I really wanted to fix our relationship, but I did want to find him to take the heat off of me.

“So, you still haven’t seen him?” Jim asked. “Why is his truck in South Burrow?”

I hadn’t realized he was still standing there.

Really, everything seemed to be running together. Days, nights, and hours.

“Tell me about South Burrow.” Jim seemed awfully curious.

I’m sure he was trying to gather any information he could to help with the investigation, including taking in everything I was saying. I’d made it a point not to tell Ginger anything.

“I had to go there for some beads and I saw his truck there.” I lied yet again. “Marlene had told him about some work down there.”

“South Burrow? What does Marlene know about South Burrow?” He asked, and then waved at another hardware customer.

“Apparently she’s from there.” I got back in my car. “I guess I better go.”

Jim walked back to the shop, and I headed for home.

I racked my brain for any clue why Sean would leave town. When I talked to him before he disappeared, I had been sure he was innocent. Since he sold his precious truck, it’s made me question whether I really knew him at all. The only evidence that he hadn’t left for good was his precious chandelier he’d left behind. That was enough of a red flag for me to question where he really was.

I glanced at the box in the back seat in my rearview mirror. There was no way Sean would leave town without that box, guilty or not.

There was foul play somewhere in all of this.

I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel and tried to piece all the information I had. Unfortunately, the pieces of the puzzle were not fitting together. Plus it was hard to concentrate with all the honking horns behind me.

The new ePhone was coming out today, and it looked like everyone in Swanee was turning into Cell City’s parking lot.

With all the excitement, I found myself turning in with them.

I convinced myself it wouldn’t hurt to look and followed the people into the shop.

A lady in a blue Cell City t-shirt greeted me as soon as I walked in the sliding glass doors.

“Welcome to Cell City.” She smiled, and handed me a brochure with a picture of the new ePhone on the front. “Are you here to get the new ePhone?”

I shrugged. “I’m just checking it out.”

Before I knew what was happening, she had me sitting in a cubicle, signing a two-year contract, and explaining how I could tell this phone what to do by just talking to it.

“Like solve a murder?” I asked, hoping the new gadget could return my life back to normal.

“No.” She threw her head back in laughter. “Oh, you are a funny one.”

Within minutes, I was out the door, sitting in my car with my new ePhone.

Immediately, I dialed Sean’s number, knowing he never answers a call from a number he doesn’t recognize. But I thought if I gave him the option to call my new phone, he might call me back.

I’d never considered that Noah might be tapping my home or shop phone until that moment. I wouldn’t put it past him.

This is Sean. I’m going to be out of town putting up chandeliers in a new restaurant. So leave a message and I’ll eventually get back to you.

What? I hung up and redialed. He put a new message on his phone between the time I’d called from Sloan’s Hardware phone booth and this time?

I listened carefully.

He sounded tired, withdrawn.

I called back. I needed to write down every single word in his message. I grabbed a pen from the glove box, and with no time to find a piece of paper, I wrote on my arm.

Out of town, chandelier, eventually.

Those words spoken in his tired voice replayed in my head when I hung up. Those words were completely out of character for him.

One, he almost never left Swanee. Not even on our honeymoon. As a matter of fact, we never took a honeymoon.

Two, he said chandelier. What man says chandelier? Also, why go into so much detail in an outgoing message? Was that a clue? Was he in trouble and he knew I’d be calling to talk to him?

Deep down, I had to believe he put those words on there for me to hear. He was in trouble, and I had to find him.

And three, eventually was always
right now
for him. Sean loved to work. He jumped at the chance to work every time. So, if someone did call him for an job, he would always call them back right away, no matter what, and give them a time frame when he could get the job done.

Out of town, chandelier, eventually.
I continued to repeat those words out loud until I got home.

Chapter Twenty-five

“Hello?” Bernadine answered her phone; there was a little trepidation in her voice.

“Bernadine, I’m so glad you are home. Do you want to go for a walk?” I asked.

I wanted to talk out what was going on in my head. I’ve already conjured up every scenario, from Sean being a murderer and running off, to him being kidnapped.

Bernadine had always been the most logical Diva other than Ginger. And talking to Ginger wasn’t an option at this point.

“I don’t know. I’m awfully tired, and my toe still hurts.” Bernadine said. “Where are you calling from?”

“I got the new ePhone.” I never thought those words would come out of my mouth. And by Bernadine’s silence, she obviously didn’t either.

“You what?” Bernadine finally broke the silence.

I imagined her jumping up and down with excitement.

“Yes, I broke down and got one.” I briefly told her about my adventure in Cell City. “Listen, I really need to talk to you.”

Before I made it home, Bernadine had already used my hidden key and let herself in. She and Willow were sitting on the futon. Willow had her snoot stuck deep down into Bernadine’s zip lock baggie of treats and eating her heart out.

Bernadine claimed that Food Watchers told her if she carried around healthy snacks, it would aid in her weight loss plan. I think the snacks were meant for Bernadine to eat, not Willow.

“Bernadine, I told you that she can’t eat all those grapes.” I took the bag and put it on the counter.

The last time Willow ate Bernadine’s grapes, she had diarrhea for a week. Doc Johnson, Swanee’s only veterinarian, had a hard time getting Willow regulated.

“Well, let’s see it.” Bernadine held out her hand. “I want to hold the new ePhone. I hear it can do anything short of cooking.”

I laughed, and handed her the new electronic gadget. For the price of the darn thing, it should be doing my laundry.

Bernadine played with my new phone while I went to my bedroom to change into my walking stretch pants.

I slipped them on and looked in the mirror. They felt looser, and they were. I even had to double over the waistband. I slipped my tennies on and skipped down the hall.

“You ready?” I looked down at Willow.

He-hon, he-hon, he-hon
, She trotted over to the hook where her beaded collar and hot pink leash hung, her tail twirling with excitement. She had already figured out that when I put those stretch pants on and followed up with my tennis shoes, she was going for a walk.

It took us two times around the lake for me to tell Bernadine everything I knew about Sean and Marlene.

“I can’t believe that.” Bernadine seemed amazed at all that had taken place. “How much is the Spinel diamond?”

I stopped dead in my tracks, and turned to face her.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked her, a tad bit frustrated. “I just told you that I believed something has happened to Sean and all you can think about is how much Marlene’s gem is worth?”

“It’s a lot to take in. Besides, isn’t this what we Divas do? Wish our exes away?” Bernadine smiled and shoved me when I didn’t reciprocate. “Come on, Holly, we will find him.”

“Well, don’t tell any of the Divas anything I told you.” I stumbled from Willow pulling so hard to get back to the cottage. “Are you sure you saw Marlene here?”

“I’m double-dog positive. On my ex-husbands pension.” Bernadine made the sign of the cross, because God knows there was no way Bernadine would pit anything against the big payout she was going to be getting.

Willow went straight to the water dish. She wasn’t use to so much exercise.