The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (9 page)

Adela asked, ‘do you have any money?’

Olivia glanced at her over her shoulder, ‘I have enough.’

Adela knew she was lying, she went to her purse, took out all the money she had in there, about two hundred dollars, and handed it to Olivia, ‘here, I wish I had more, but that’s all I have on me right now.’

Olivia looked at the money then at Adela then back again, ‘no, I can’t take your money.’

‘You’re not taking it; I’m giving it to you.’

Olivia shook her head as if to say, what is it with this woman, why won’t she be told.

Adela took Olivia’s hand and pressed the money into her palm then closed her fingers over it, ‘you’re not leaving without it, so you might as well accept graciously.’

Olivia looked up into Adela’s soft green eyes and felt something she had not felt in a long time, the beginnings of tears at the back of her throat, she had to swallow several times to suppress them. She nodded, ‘thank you…Adela.’

Adela’s smile was sad as Olivia opened the door and stood on the threshold for a moment, obviously afraid to venture out. She had taken one step when Adela took her arm firmly saying, ‘I would never forgive myself if I didn’t try one last time to get you to change your mind, so please, let me help you,’ Olivia began to shake her head. Adela rushed on, 'then please stay a while longer, at least one more night.’

Olivia looked down at Adela’s fingers curled around her forearm. When she raised her eyes there was such a deep sadness and regret in them that Adela almost closed her eyes to block out the sight. Olivia said nothing but smiled a tender smile then turned and walked down the few steps to the path. Adela watched until the trees swallowed her up and she was lost from sight, then she shut the door leaned against it, closed her eyes and said a silent prayer for Olivia’s safety.

Adela pushed away from the door and took a deep breath; she felt very depressed and needed a long walk to clear her head and think about last night and all that had happened. But first she would go to the shop and get some food, she had three more days here and what she had would not last.

She left the house and walked through the woods to the town. The lady who ran the shop, Mrs. Hosewater, (Adela had congratulated herself for not roaring with laughter when she had first heard that name), greeted her enthusiastically as usual, ‘good morning, Ma’am, how can we help you this fine day?’ Mrs Hosewater always used the plural when asking this yet she ran the shop single handed. The postmaster, Mr. Stebbings, had told her that Mrs. Hosewater’s husband had died at least twenty years ago, but that she often spoke as though he was still around. Perhaps he was, but only Mrs. Hosewater could see him, Adela had said which caused Mr. Stebbings and the other customers to stare at her in confusion until Mr. Stebbings had smiled and said, “yes, that must be it, that’s very astute of you, Ma’am.’ She had laughed when she had left the store not really at them but at their willingness to give people the benefit of the doubt. She liked the people of this town, all of them.

She returned Mrs. Hosewater’s greeting and gave her a list of things she required saying, ‘if you don’t have the compass don’t worry, I could perhaps get one in the next town.’

Mrs. Hosewater looked very much put out at this and said somewhat imperiously, ‘I think we can accommodate you in
that
regard.’

Adela fought desperately to suppress the laughter rising up in her and said plactingly, ‘I knew that if anyone could help me it would be you, Mrs. Hosewater.’

Mrs. Hosewater almost preened and bestowed on Adela a wide toothed smile saying, ‘and you call me Rose, honey, all my friends do.’

This time Adela’s fight with her laughter was almost fatal, she dug her nails into her palms until it hurt and said, ‘thank you…Rose, and please call me Adela.’

Rose Hosewater beamed, ‘Adela, why ain’t that nice now.’

Adela thanked her and asked, ‘can I call back later for those, I want to go to the post office and then to the book store.’

Adela was Rose’s new found friend so said, ‘of course,  Adela, you run along and do your other chores and I’ll have these ready for you when you get back.’

‘Thank you, Mrs. Hose…I mean Rose.’

Before she really embarrassed herself Adela left the shop and made her way to the post office. She chatted a while with Mr. Stebbings and the few other customers that were in there, then made her way to the clothes shop a few doors down to buy a new hat, preferably one similar to the one she had given to Olivia. Unfortunately they had nothing like it; in fact they had a very limited selection in hats. She ended up with one made of brown cloth with a narrow brim and no flowers. It was certainly not as nice as the one she had given to Olivia but it would suffice until she could get into the next town where they had more shops therefore maybe more choice. She paid for her purchases and walked down the street to her favourite place, the book shop.

She spent half an hour and thirty three dollars fifty cents in there then made her way back to Mrs. Hosewater’s shop where she picked up her order, including the compass; she was assailed by a warm feeling as she was told to “have herself a nice day now.”

She made her way back to the cabin where she put her usual things into her backpack, adding one of the books she had just bought from the little book shop in the town earlier. This one was the latest Fenn Llewellyn story. Her fantasy hero, charming, witty and romantic as well as sensitive, but very tough when the need arose. Her perfect man.

She would walk a while then maybe go back to that café she had found yesterday and sit outside with a cup of ice tea and read some of her book, maybe she would have some lunch there, it would be nice to see Jill and Sammy Know It All again.

As she walked, and as was to be expected, she thought about Olivia, wondering where she was and if she was all right. Indeed, she had not been far from her thoughts all morning, even when she had been laughing in Rose’s shop, the image of Olivia’s sad, scared countenance was still paramount in her mind. She felt a little odd, spaced out as Daniel would call it, no doubt the aftermath of the previous night’s events. She finished her tea then left for her walk.

She wished Olivia had stayed, she wished she had let her help her. What was it that she was running from? Or more to the point from
whom
was she running? An abusive ex husband or boyfriend? Were the would-be abductors his friends? Is that what they'd meant by, “
He
wants to see you?” All questions she desperately wanted to know the answer too but now never would. She said out loud and with feeling ‘be safe, Olivia.’

Adela had walked maybe an hour and saw several foxes and a raccoon; she was very pleased to have seen that, it was so cute. But her mind was distracted and this time she did not really notice the beauty of her surroundings, or the ever present noise that was part of this place.

She had not seen Jonas Lando, but thoughts of him suddenly brought her up sharply, she must not let her mind wander and get lost again. Oh gosh, the thought of having to rely on that surly man to help her out once more was enough to clear her head. She looked around, no thank goodness, she was not lost, she knew where she was. She looked at her watch it read 12.30; she reached into her backpack for her water. It was not quite as hot today but still hotter than she was used too.

She decided to head back and get some lunch. She turned around and made her way back along the path. She was about a quarter of a mile from her cabin and quite close to Jonas Lando’s place when she heard a noise to her left; someone was running through the tre
es…fast. She expected to see Lando emerge maybe in pursuit of an animal. But to her shock the figure emerging through the trees was not Lando, but Olivia.

Adela gasped in astonishment. Olivia had not seen her because she was looking over her shoulder into the trees so careered straight into her. She let out a small scream and began to flail her arms pushing at Adela and gasping. Adela grabbed her upper arms, ‘Olivia, Olivia it’s me, Adela, calm down, what is it, what’s happened?'

Olivia continued to struggle as though she had not heard her. She was sweating and obviously very frightened. ‘Olivia,’ Adela said firmly, ‘please, it’s all right, it’s only me.’

This time she must have got through because Olivia became still then her eyes opened wider still in panic as she gasped, ‘they’re here, the…they’re coming, we have to ge...get out of here.’

‘Who, who is coming, those two men?’

Olivia’s head bounced up and down as she tried to speak, ‘yes yes, they’re in there.’ She looked over her shoulder towards the trees.

Adela’s heart gave a lurch and her stomach turned over but she said calmly, ‘come on, this way, we can lose them in the undergrowth.’ She pulled Olivia with her off the path and into the thick undergrowth. Fortunately she could just about recall which way she had walked with Lando the day before. They ran into the shrubbery and headed for Adela’s cabin. As they approached Jonas Lando’s place Adela pulled up sharply and drew Olivia behind a tree whispering, ‘hush, I think there’s someone outside Mr. Lando’s cabin.’

They hid as best they could behind the tree
, out of breath and hearts racing. They heard a dog barking and Adela knew it was Lando’s dog. They heard a door being opened and she knew by the squeaking noise it was the door to the old shack she had gone into and been virtually thrown out of the day before.

They both tensed as they heard a voice say, ‘just hold it right there.’ The heard a clicking sound and looked at each other and even Adela, who knew absolutely nothing about weapons, knew that it was a rifle being cocked. They heard Jonas Lando say, ‘I’ll give you five seconds to get off my property.’

Adela and Olivia held their breath as they waited for a response; they heard a shuffling noise then both jumped almost out of their skin as a shot rang out. They stared at each other in horror, Adela beside herself with fear that Jonas Lando had been hurt or killed. Then they heard his voice again, ‘you can either go right now or stay here permanently, but I doubt you’ll like the accommodations.’

The two men in the outbuilding seemed to understand his cryptic message to mean they would end up six feet under the earth because they suddenly appeared outside. Adela and Olivia sprung back out of sight.

One of the men spoke then and Adela knew it was the same one she had heard the night before telling his friend to “get her.” He said, ‘hey, man, we don’t mean no harm now, we’re private investigators on the trail of a runaway.’

Then another voice that Adela recognised from the previous night spoke, ‘yeah, runaway with an old guy’s life savings.’

Adela looked quickly at Olivia who looked back her eyes wide and pleading, she shook her head vigorously.

The first man was speaking again, ‘supposed to be looking after the elderly gent then went and stole his money and skipped town. That was the day afore yesterday and we think she headed this way.’

Lando said, ‘well she ain’t here, and I don’t harbour fugitives. And I don’t care if you’re P.I.’s or FBI’s you got no right to trespass. Now get, and don’t come back or next time I ain’t gonna be so understandin', you get me?’

There followed a silence in which the two women held their breath wondering if they would all shoot it out, but to her relief one of the men said, ‘yeah, yeah okay, we got ya, we’re going. Here’s my card, if you see the girl we’d appreciate it if you’d give us a call. She’s about yea high, dark hair, dark eyes. There’ll be a nice little reward in it for you.’

Adela could not see whether Lando took the card or not but he said, ‘just get, and don’t y’all come back.’

They got, straight towards the women’s hiding place. Olivia gasped and turned to run, but Adela caught her arm and shook her head mouthing, ‘they’ll hear us.’ But as soon as she had said it she knew they would not only hear but see them any second now, there seemed no way out.

Adela was just contemplating showing herself, try to divert them, hoping that with the hat she was wearing they would not recognise her from the night before, when Lando said, ‘not that way. That way’ll lead you to the path back to town.’

They hesitated then turned and walked towards the trees away from the two women.

Adela and Olivia stood rigid until the men disappeared then let out their breaths, which Adela was sure they’d been holding since they’d first heard Lando’s voice.

Adela grabbed Olivia’s arm and began to walk quickly towards her own cabin when a figure suddenly appeared in front of them. Blinded by fear Adela responded automatically, she shoved Olivia aside whilst simultaneously pushing the figure backwards, or at least tried too, but it was like pushing a tree. She hit out but her wrist was caught by a huge hand and held firmly. She tried to kick out but he smoothly sidestepped her foot. Then the man said, ‘stop that or I’ll put you on your butt.’

She sopped fighting instantly as she recognised Lando’s voice. She looked up at him and went limp with relief. She said breathlessly, ‘Mr. Lando! Oh good gosh.’

By now Olivia had picked up a big stick and was about to hit Lando on the head. But still holding onto Adela’s wrist with one hand he wrenched the stick from Olivia with the other, spun her around and pushed her away, only the tree she bumped into keeping her from falling flat on her face.

Adela held her left hand out to her and said, ‘it’s all right Ol…it’s all right, this is Mr. Lando. He won’t hurt you.’ She looked up at Lando, ‘unfortunately I can’t say the same for myself.’ She nodded at her wrist still in his grasp. He gave her the same scathing look he had the day before then abruptly released her.