1 Hot Scheming Mess (15 page)

She was grateful to have Jason with her right now as they went from room to room. They tried to puzzle out what was going on in the kitchen, the den, Grandpa’s bedroom, the guest bedroom, and Madison’s old bedroom. It felt strange to her to be in the bedroom of her childhood under these circumstances. As a child she jumped on the bed, bounced balls off of the walls, and hit her head pretty hard on the ceiling once when she jumped off her dresser while wearing a towel tied around her neck for a cape. She’d crawled under the bed with a flashlight and read stories to her stuffed animals and dolls. She’d played dress-up with Spenser and an assortment of kittens. She had to acknowledge that although there might be some pretty dysfunctional aspects to her family, at least she had never had to fear for her physical safety. Like now.

Jason said, “I don’t know what feels worse. No Ray, or no Mr. Duct Tape.”

“Wait a minute.” Madison said. “Mitch said that Ray locked Mr. Duct Tape in a closet. All the closets in this house are sliding door types, except for the den. The closet in the den has the type of door that swings closed and can be locked from the outside.”

They went to the den and stood in front of the closet door, which stood ajar. Jason made Madison stand back while he swung the door the rest of the way open, ready to tackle whatever came out.

On the floor at the threshold of the closet was a pair of man’s pants with duct tape around the knees and around the ankles. It appeared as if the pants had been unbuttoned, unzipped, pushed down and slid out of, leaving the duct tape in place on the fabric of the pants. A wadded up ball of used duct tape from the stranger’s mouth and hands lay nearby on the floor.

Mr. Duct Tape was no longer duct taped. He had escaped.

“At least it will be easy to spot an old guy with no pants running around Seattle,” Madison said.

Jason said, “Well, actually that depends.”

Madison nodded, “Yeah. In the right neighborhood, he might blend right in.”

“He could have taken a pair of your grandfather’s pants.”

Madison agreed. “They did seem to be pretty evenly matched in size and strength this morning.”

“That’s saying a lot. Vincent may be an old guy, but he’s no pushover,” said Jason as he looked around the room, then asked, “How do you think he got the closet door unlocked?” Madison pointed to deeper inside the closet. There was an open tool box with an assortment of common household tools. One small screwdriver lay nearby.

“Poor Ray,” said Madison. “He didn’t know that Grandpa keeps a tool kit in there.”

“And we don’t know if he escaped before or after Ray got back from the hospital.” Jason rubbed the back of his neck, looking around. “Damn it.”

In a quiet voice, Madison said, “He’s not as big and strong as Grandpa. I hope he’s okay.”

They stood there in silence. Madison heard creaking sounds. She and Jason jumped as a baseball bat whipped around the corner, pointing up to the ceiling, ready to fly downward. Ray was in battle stance but slackened his posture as soon as he saw Jason and Madison.

“Oh, my God!” The short old man let the bat slump to his side. “Oh, my God, I almost hurt you!” He was breathing as if his heart were racing. Madison said, “I’m sorry, Ray. But we did try calling your name.”

“I was in the backyard checking the bushes.” He seemed to be a nervous wreck. He gestured at the empty pants with duct tape still on them. “Did you tell Jason about this?” In spite of her fright, Madison grabbed Jason’s hand and yanked it, making him look at her. She squeezed hard, trying to communicate with her eyes before turning to Ray and saying, “Grandpa called. He said everything went great. Just like he hoped.”

Ray blinked and exhaled. “You’re kidding.” There was a sad hope on his face. “Really?” He kept blinking, confused. “He couldn’t have landed in DC more than what, three or four hours ago? And they believed him? Just like that?” Madison tried a small smile and nodded.
DC? Come on, Ray, keep talking.
When Ray stared at her and didn’t say anything, she tried shrugging. Ray looked over at Jason who was watching Madison with his mouth a little open. He seemed to snap to, with a jerk of his head, and said, “Yeah. He sure pulled a fast one, didn’t he?” He raised his fists to his chin like he was doing a little shadow boxing. Madison tried to copy him, raising her fists to her chin and starting a little boxer two-step dance, shuffling around the floor. She and Jason started trading soft fisticuffs to each other’s chins, looking at Ray.

Standing there, Ray closed his eyes and seemed to deflate. “You always were a smart one,” he said quietly. “You had me going there.” Madison and Jason stopped, their fists lowering till their hands opened in defeat. Ray wiped the back of his arm across his forehead. “Neither one of you understand how serious this is.”

Dragging the baseball bat behind him, he turned to leave the room. The sight of Ray so dejected broke Madison’s heart. “Please, Ray. We weren’t trying to make a fool out of you. I’ve been worried sick and no one will tell me what’s going on. Give me something. Throw me a bone.”

“You got your bone when you tricked me into saying DC. There! DC! That’s more than I should have said. The wrong person could get wind of that, and they’ll know exactly what it means. We’re trying to keep this quiet till help arrives.”

“You, Mitch, and Grandpa?”

He nodded. “Now go home. Jason, get her out of here.”

“Did the hacker find you, too?” she asked.

His head jerked up. Madison said, “My mother said she was working on a case involving the UW getting hacked. She was trying to warn Grandpa about identity theft. But this morning Grandpa mentioned a hacker finding him. All three of you used to work at the UW. But this isn’t about identity theft is it? Ann’s about to stumble onto something, isn’t she?”

His jaw hardened, but it also lifted in pride. “We’re trying to fix it before she does. Vincent is the best friend we ever had. He deserves a chance to explain what happened.” He pointed a finger at her and said, “You give him a fair chance, you hear me? Ann may not. But you could help her. You’re probably the only one who can. You owe him that.”

*****

After returning to the The Loony Bean parking lot, Jason waited in his car, engine running, while Madison unlocked her own car and climbed in. Ray had left them little choice but to go home and wait. They each pulled out of the parking lot, heading for Madison’s apartment, Jason following her.

She was tired, hot, and hungry, and twilight was giving Seattle its usual spectacular sunset. Lowering the window, she revived herself by letting the evening breezes rush into her car as she drove down the highway. The thunderous wind blowing around her within the little car caused papers and leftover fast food bags to rise up on the air currents, threatening escape. It made her dark silky hair blow like a crazed Medusa, cooling her neck and helping her feel more optimistic. Normally she would always be up for an adventure, but dangerous adventures only sounded exciting when she knew they would never happen. Now that there might be some actual danger around, it didn’t sound so cool. She would prefer a safe adventure, and it frightened her to think she’d ever been fool enough to assume there was such a thing as a safe adventure.

Jason drove his car right behind her. He had insisted on following her home and checking her apartment to make sure no one was in there. Besides being a distracting cutie with a bootie, she had managed to involve him in what she considered her family’s private problem
.
She felt a mixture of gratitude at his attentiveness and annoyance that she had met someone with so much potential when she was at her worst. Her strongest desire right now was for him to see her at her best. Rested, relaxed, looking sexy. No doubt about it. He definitely had to go.

Alone in her car right now, Madison pondered the odd words that Ray had said. So it turned out Grandpa had flown to DC. Now she needed to find out why.

Meanwhile, Madison knew she had done what Grandpa had asked. He had asked her to hide the
box
. And she felt she had done even better than that. She had hidden the
contents
of the box
.
If anyone had been in her apartment today, they would have found a metal box with her fairy godmother tools of the trade.

As she threaded her way down the neighborhood street, she looked at the time on the dashboard and sighed. No wonder she was starving. She’d have to scrounge for something from her cupboards or fridge. And there was still so much that she needed to get done tonight with all the photos that she needed to scan into her computer. She needed to return the photos right away. She had broken so many promises to Ann in the past. She wanted to start keeping a few.

She parked in the apartment lot, grabbing her purse and the large envelope of photos, and got out of her car as Jason was pulling up alongside her.

“Jason,” she called through his open window, “you really don’t have to do any more. I’m fine.” He got out of his car, and shut the door as if to make his point. “As soon as I make sure no one is in your apartment, I’ll leave.”

Sheesh, he looks good in evening light!
The night breeze brought a mild heavenly scent from him. His nice t-shirt was a perfect fit around his broad shoulders, relaxed yet smooth, but the sleeves seemed to strain a bit around his biceps. She wondered if he was hiding a six-pack under there.

He walked over to where she was standing next to her car. She said, “You should try to salvage what’s left of your evening. It’s bad enough I ruined the first half.” He shrugged. “I had no idea that kind of thing was going on in the background. Looks like our grandfathers are a couple of wild guys.”

That made her laugh. “I guess so. Look, Jason, I’m really sorry I got so mad at the hospital. I’ve been a little desperate all day. I thought you would come to the cafe, maybe call Mitch for me, or…” He had a crooked little smile. She could tell he wasn’t listening. “What?” she asked.

Leaning in dangerously close, his teasing voice said. “I feel like such a bad boy. But I can’t be fired.”

*****

They knocked on Toonie’s door. Madison said to Jason in a quiet voice, “If anyone saw or heard anything it would be her.”

Locks clicked and turned. Toonie opened the door and looked from one to the other. “Brought it upstairs, did you?” The surprise on Jason’s face when he had to look upward at Toonie made Madison want to giggle. “I thought you two were going to have ‘a moment’ down there in the parking lot.” Toonie added, “Always best to keep that stuff private.”

“Toonie, this is Jason. Jason, this is my neighbor, Toonie.” Jason stared for a second, reached out the wrong hand at first, then quickly switched to the other hand, hitting Madison in the arm as he did so and mumbling, “Sorry.” They did a polite handshake.

“You met her mama yet?”

“No.”

“Scary woman.”

Madison had a wry smile and asked, “How did you guess?”

Toonie answered, “Because she loves you and any mama who loves her child is a scary woman. Now, what’s the occasion here?”

“It’s complicated,” said Madison.

“Seems everything is with you.”

“Have you seen or heard anyone entering my apartment since the last time we talked?”

“No. Everything has been quiet. Guess that ends now, huh?”

“I promise to be good tonight.”

“When are you going to tell me what’s going on? I get a little bored without some juicy story now and then,” Toonie said. She looked Jason up and down and asked, “You work out?”

“Uh… no,” said Jason.

“You should. Good potential there.”

Madison said, “I’ll tell you soon, Toonie. I hope.”

They left Toonie and went to Madison’s door. As she got out her key, Jason said, “Promise me you’ll tell the truth. If you see anything at all out of place in your apartment—” Madison interrupted him and said, “Everything in my apartment was already out of place.” He turned her to face him. He looked earnest. “Promise me,” he said.

The truth was, she considered saying whatever she needed to get him to stay. But the way things were going, she would find a way to screw it up with him before she’d had a chance to show him her good side. She should wait until he could see her in a better situation, one in which she wasn’t a needy, paranoid, nervous wreck.

She wondered what his kiss would be like. He had full lips. A bit of dark stubble around his mouth made her think he might feel a little rough. She’d like to find out.

“Jason. I’ll tell you if anything looks wrong. But you have to promise me that when we get in there, we won’t have ‘a moment.’ That’s the last thing I want tonight. There’s so much work to do and I really need to concentrate.”

He tried not to smile saying, “You were looking at my lips the whole time you said that.”

“I was?” Her gaze shot up to his eyes.

“Yeah.”

She blinked. “So noted.”

As they entered her dark apartment, the street lights from the parking lot flooded in through the living room window that she had left open. The box sat near the window where she had left it, looking pointless and unimportant. She turned on the light and Jason’s eyes took in the surroundings. “You don’t have to tell me,” he said. “I can see this place has been tossed.”

“Yes. But has anyone been in here?” she said.

“You mean…? Oh. Sorry.”

She walked around. “Everything looks fine so far.” She walked into the bedroom, poked her head into the bathroom, then shrugged her shoulders. “It all looks the way it should. I mean, not the way it should, just the way I left it. I left it the way it definitely should not look, but that means it should look the way it shouldn’t. Shouldn’t it?”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Jason walked over to the living room window and looked out. “It doesn’t look like anyone would be able to enter from this window. There’s nothing nearby to climb on.”

“Convinced? I’ll be fine.”

“All right.” They typed out each other’s phone numbers on their phones. “Let me know if you hear anything from Ray,” said Jason.

“Will do. And likewise, if you get anything new out of Grandpa Mitch.” She sighed. “And thanks, Jason. It’s been good to have someone I can talk to about what happened at Grandpa’s house this morning.”