Up To No Good: Book 4 Georgie B. Goode Gypsy Caravan Cozy Mystery (4 page)

“Hey Tams,” came a voice behind her. “It’s gorgeous. Did you do the interior?”

“Georgie, hi.” Tammy turned and gave her a quick hug. “I had a hand in it. How’s Rosa?”

“Cranky, in pain, and frustrated at being confined to barracks. Pretty much what you’d expect… yet I think she was happy to see me.”

Tammy looked at her keenly, noting the smile. “You sound surprised.”

“Well, Rosa and I have always had an up-and-down relationship. It’s changing, I think, because of the crystal ball and the Sight thing.” Her forehead creased. “Tams…about that…”

Tammy had known Georgie long enough to recognize that particular inflection in her voice. Her friend had something to say, and was unsure of how it would be received. She sat in one of the black wrought iron chairs at the small table, and indicated the other one. “What’s up?”

Georgie sat in the second chair, sitting forward uncomfortably, her hands clenched in her lap. Her eyes held Tammy’s.

“Tams, I’m going to just come out and say it. I think something’s going to happen to either you or Jerry. Or both. I can’t tell you what—you know what trouble I’ve been having with the crystal ball. But I told Rosa, and she did a tea leaf reading—or rather, I did—and I didn’t pick up much, but the
feeling
is still there.” There was a small silence, and then she added in a small voice, “I know it’s not much, and it’s as vague as all hell, but that’s all I’ve got. So all I can say is, be
careful.
Please.”

Tammy felt her heart lurch. Georgie wouldn’t be here telling her this if she wasn’t seriously worried.

“You didn’t see anything?”

“Nothing specific. I saw leaves, trees, like a forest or a wilderness area. And a few shadowy people.” Georgie closed her eyes for a moment, and Tammy could see that she was trying to recall it. “I didn’t
see
the people, I sensed them. I haven’t read tea leaves before, so I didn’t really know what I was doing.”

Tammy just sat there for a moment, caught by surprise. “I don’t know what to say. More important, I don’t know what to
do.”

“Me neither,” said Georgie with a hollow laugh. “Just ‘be careful’. That’s all I can say. And tell Jerry. I’m not sure what his reaction will be; he’s always treated Rosa’s crystal ball as a bit of a joke—window dressing for the gypsy caravan. I don’t know if he really believes that it works.”

Tammy thought back to the way their little group had used the crystal ball’s predictions back in Santa Monica, and before that in Dayton. “I told him about the cases you’ve solved… like the last one with Nick, and how we put things together from your crystal ball readings.” She added reluctantly, “Even so, I don’t know how seriously he takes it. I think he thought I was exaggerating.”

Well, she thought, Jerry could darn well take it seriously
now
, she would see to that. It was more than time he gave his sister the credit she deserved.

She stood up, leaned over and patted Georgie on the shoulder. “I’ll go find Jerry; he’s due back in Dumpsville about now with that new bug-out vehicle… what did they call it? The Barbarian?” She rolled her eyes. “
Barbarian.
Men…! Let’s meet up in an hour, right? Are you staying at your Dad’s house?”

“Yes. But can we make it an hour later? I heard from Scott this afternoon. He’s heading back from Cherokee Park. If we wait, and I grab Layla, we can all meet up for a council of war.”

“Perfect,” Tammy said. “The Crystal Ball Investigation team back together again…only with Jerry there too.” She sent Georgie a rueful look. “I’m not sure how the team will feel about
that.
”

“Whatever it is that’s coming, Jerry’s in it up to his neck,” Georgie assured her, looking marginally happier to be taking some action.

“Done. I’ll find someone to pack all of this away for the night, and go find Jerry.”

Georgie nodded. “I’ll locate Dad, give him an update on Rosa, and catch you later.”

Tammy watched her make her way toward the main building, an unlikely-looking gypsy fortune teller in blue jeans and an asymmetric navy t-shirt. It was a reminder that although she might wear flowing gypsy skirts and shawls a lot of the time, just as Tammy herself usually dressed in vintage clothes, real life wasn’t a dress up party.

There were real threats to happiness out there.

Several hours later, when she answered the chimes to the front door of her father’s house, one look at Tammy’s face told Georgie that her warning had come too late. Her heart sank.

“He’s missing, Georgie.” Tammy was trying to sound calm, but Georgie could hear the strain in her voice. “Nobody has seen him since yesterday. Except me, but I was still half asleep when he left this morning.”

“Wait, save it for the others so you don’t have to tell it twice.” Georgie gave her a quick hug, then led the way to the media room with its soft lounges. “Dad and Angela are out, thank goodness, so we can talk this through without him going off the deep end.”

Layla and Scott were waiting, and their expressions changed when they saw Tammy. Layla immediately bounced to her feet and took her arm. “Come sit by me. No Jerry?”

“No.” Tammy took a seat, and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. She was still wearing her pink swing skirt with the musical notes on it in black, and the neat little shirt that went with it. With her high bouncy ponytail, she looked like a high school kid sitting and waiting for the Principal. She swallowed a couple of times.

Scott passed Tammy the wine that he had poured when Georgie answered the door, and gave her shoulder a supportive squeeze.

“Thanks, Scott.” She sat there holding it, staring into the glass, and then seemed to gather herself. Her chin came up, and she took a deep breath. “Let me tell you what I’ve been able to find out. First, nobody at the BugOut Base has seen Jerry since yesterday afternoon at around 3 o’clock. He was out last night at some local government dinner, and I was in bed when he got home. This morning he left at around five—said he had a long round trip to make, but he’d be back late afternoon, dinner time at the latest.” She paused and toyed with the stem of her glass. “I didn’t ask where he was going; he’s always heading off
somewhere
.”

“And you hadn’t heard anything from him when I saw you this afternoon?”

“No, there was no reason. I was busy setting up the new trailer, and he always calls when he can.” Her voice hitched a little on the ‘when he can’. “So after I saw you, I went straight out to the BugOut Base to talk to the guys. They were all still there, doing overtime to fill the orders. Jerry had checked out Barbie, but left no details of where he was going.” She sighed. “Anybody else would risk being fired if they did that, but because Jerry’s the boss… well, anyway, he didn’t tell them.”

Georgie looked at her blankly. “Barbie?”

“The newest bug-out vehicle. Equipped with everything for the day everything goes ballistic. That thing I was talking about earlier. They called it the BoV Barbarian, Barbie for short.”

“What about satellite tracking?” asked Scott.

“I thought of that right away. I got Danny to check. The last coordinates were in Kentucky.”

“Kentucky?”
Layla said. “What’s he doing there?”

“He goes all over to visit preppers.” Tammy nibbled on a fingernail, her forehead creased. “If it’s a long way, he’ll fly, but if he’s demonstrating a bug-out vehicle, he’ll drive it there. The guys all assumed that’s what he did today.”

Georgie had picked up a lot about the preppers scene from Jerry, and had consulted with him on fabrics and design for the interior of the early bug-out vehicles. She’d got to know the layout and fittings well. “He’s got an on-board satellite phone. Can you reach him on that?”

“It’s out of action, just like his phone. And nobody knows who he was meeting today.” Tammy picked up her own phone from the table and tapped a few buttons before pointing at the screen. “I got Danny to email a list of all the people Jerry’s been talking with in the past few weeks, and their contact details—but there’s no guarantee that the person he was meeting is there. It could be somebody from months back.”

“What about the CB radio?”

“The vehicle has a combo MURS/FR. We could probably raise someone down that way to try to contact him on it, but—” Tammy stopped for a fraction of a second, then pushed on, “but Jerry has to be able to get to it to use it.”

“I hate to state the obvious,” Layla said, “but do we want to call in the police?”

“Last resort,” Tammy said. “His prepper business will collapse if the police are allowed access to private information. The customers are all paranoid.” She immediately corrected herself. “No, actually they’re not, I’ve met a lot of nice people who just want to give themselves a chance of survival if things go bad. But there are a
lot
who are paranoid.”

Georgie’s phone beeped, and they all froze.

She picked it up from the side table, glanced at the screen, and shook her head. “Not him. Hang on.” She swiped at it and put it on speaker. “Hi, Rosa.”

Her great-grandmother said without preamble, “Young Jerry’s already in trouble, isn’t he?”

They all knew it, but hearing Rosa’s ancient voice saying it baldly over the phone made it so much more real. Tammy’s eyes immediately grew bright, and she bit her bottom lip.

“Yes, we think he might be,” Georgie said, deliberately keeping her voice steady. Tammy didn’t need anyone breaking down. “He’s gone missing. We’re all at Dad’s—me, Tammy, Scott and Layla—trying to work out what to do next.” Georgie asked the question in everybody’s mind. “How did
you
know?”

“I just know. The boy’s my blood.”

“Do you know where he is?”

“Only that it’s some distance from here. It’s no good looking around Elkhart, you won’t find him.”

“We think he’s in Kentucky—or that’s as far as the vehicle got, anyway. Can you wait a second?” Georgie looked at Tammy. “What time was the last reading on the satellite tracker?”

“Danny’s on it…wait.” Tammy scrolled through her messages again. “Around 11 am. He says whoever they are, they know what they’re doing. An alert is supposed to come through if a tracker is tampered with, and we should also be able to immobilize the vehicle from the base.” She looked up. “Didn’t happen.”

“It’s probably not where it was the last time the tracker registered it, then. They’ll have moved on.”

Georgie held up a hand and returned to Rosa. “Did you catch that?”

“Yes.” Rosa’s crack of laughter held no humor whatsoever. “Young pup swears by his new-fangled devices. Wonder what he says now.” Then her voice softened marginally. “Don’t you fret, Tammy girl. We don’t need satellite trackers.”

Maybe gypsies whose crystal balls
work
don’t need trackers, Georgie thought. “Do you want one of us to pick you up, Rosa? Bring you here? You could stay here with us tonight.”

“Not tonight. You put your heads together and come up with a plan, and I’ll contact you when I know anything.” Her voice grew louder. “Tammy?”

Tammy, lost in thought, jerked upright. “Yes, I’m here.”

“You’ll be going after him with the others,” Rosa said in a tone that brooked no argument. “Jerry has certain equipment over there at that BugOut place. Be prepared to use it; I know you know how.”

Stunned, Georgie gazed at the phone. This was
Rosa?
She was obviously a lot savvier with what was going on around the RV Empire than any of them gave her credit for. She glanced across at Tammy, who had a strange look on her face. Her eyes met Georgie’s, and narrowed, and then she gave a short, sharp nod.

Georgie would have to follow up on that later. Was Rosa talking about guns? There couldn’t be any over at the BugOut Base, surely; they didn’t have a license to sell guns. She put that thought aside. “Rosa, you’ve seen something about us going after him? Tell us.”

“That’s it. I see you following his trail. You get that crystal ball out and use any other means—tea leaves, cards, water scrying for all I care—to find your brother. Young Scott, you look at the cards too, and call your mother. You know wilderness areas, so be prepared. Layla, you’ve got a head on your shoulders, so get thinking.”

Rosa was on the warpath; nobody was messing with
her
family.

“OK,” Georgie said. “What about Dad?”

“You’ll have to tell him.” A hint of slyness entered her great-grandmother’s voice. “But wait until you’re about to leave. He’ll try to stop you; you’re his baby girl.”

“All right. I’m ending the call now, but I’ll keep you informed. Anything else you want to tell us?”

“Just find my great-grandson. There’s a lot of good in the boy, underneath those conniving ways.”

With that, Rosa was gone, without waiting for Georgie to cut the connection.

Jerry had to concede that he was in a bit of a fix.

If there was one thing that he prided himself on, it was being able to adapt to circumstances. He was a chameleon, gifted at reading a situation and swiftly figuring out a way to turn it to his advantage. Or sometimes, how to get himself out of trouble. When you grew up with an eye to the main chance, you were going to run into trouble sometimes.

But this—
this
was like no other situation he’d ever found himself in before, and he wasn’t having much luck at talking his way out of it. He’d tried anger, indignation, threats, promises, half-truths, and bribery, but this Vincent guy just looked at him with flat eyes and said, “We want locations, Mr. Goode, and we’re going to get them.”

Locations, as in ‘give up the bug-out bunkers’—or houses, or fortresses, or whatever the heck people had come up with to give themselves a hidey-hole for the apocalypse. They knew, Vincent said, that he had names and GPS locations. Hacking into the RV Empire computer had revealed nothing, so they said he obviously kept them somewhere else and they would like to know where, thank you.

His beloved new bug-out vehicle was already gone; Barbie, it seemed, was on its way to the prepper version of a chop shop. He was a little concerned that he, Jerry B. Goode, could well be on his way to a human chop shop. The thought didn’t thrill him.