The B Girls (15 page)

"Well? What do you see?"

"Give me a minute." She sent the beam of
light into every corner starting on the right.

This first chamber, immediately inside the
entrance, was about the size of a large bathroom. To the right the light was
reflected back by the same pale rock she'd seen from the entrance. To the left,
the light dwindled away into a deep blackness.

"Well?" Jane asked again.

"There's an opening going deeper into the
hill. I'm going to check it out."

"Don't go too far. Make sure you can still see
the entrance."

"I will."

In the way of a small light in a very dark place,
the flashlight seemed much brighter as she moved deeper into the cave away from
the light near the entrance. There was only one opening. Shining her flashlight
into the bowels of the hill, she realized within seconds that there was no way
to keep her promise about not losing sight of the entrance and still explore
the opening.

She stepped into the mouth of the opening and
inspected everything she could reach with the light. "Uh oh."

"What uh oh?" Jane asked.

"There's a big hole."

"You already told me that."

"No. In the floor of the tunnel," Lucy
said.

"How big?"

"A Simon Says giant step." Lucy
shuddered. "We really need that map."

"Then let's go back to Belle's and figure out
how we're going to get it."

Mae's phone started chirped again. Just like it had
every ten minutes since she'd taken it off silent mode when they got back to
the van.

"Aren't you going to answer it?" Lucy
asked.

Mae shook her head. "I talked to Chip twice
before we left this morning. He probably wants to ask me something
earth-shattering like where to find extra batteries for the remote. I'll call
him back later."

"You mean to tell me you're not stressed about
not being there to manage your family?" Jane said.

"Given the fact that this morning's calls were
about clean socks and orange juice concentrate, I'm not exactly fearing the
worst."

Lucy bit her tongue to keep from blurting out
something unflattering about Chip. Clean socks and orange juice? More like
guilt and shame. At least it didn't seem to be working. Mae hadn't started
talking about going home.

"I have one priority and that's finding out
what happened to Belle," Lucy said. "I don't know if it has anything
to do with the Declaration but that's all we have to follow so I'm taking it as
far as I can."

"It'd be a serious kick in the ass if she's at
home waiting for us after we spent another day sweating and scratching,"
Jane said.

Lucy wasn't so hopeful. Belle would never have
stayed away voluntarily after learning about Gary's defection.

And that was the first thought she'd had about Gary
for hours. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Probably it meant
that her worry about Belle was more urgent. After all, no matter what else
happened Gary and the divorce would be waiting for her when it was all over.

###

Belle wasn't home waiting for them, but the message
light on the phone was blinking.

Lucy dialed the voice mail and waited through the
mechanical woman telling her there was one new message in Belle's mailbox.

The message voice was also mechanical and Lucy
nearly discarded it thinking it was a sales call. Her finger was poised over
the 3 when she realized what she was hearing.

"Belle sends her greetings. Unfortunately
she's unable to speak to you right now. I will call again with instructions for
her safe return home. Do not report this call to anyone."

Lucy pressed one to repeat the message, praying
she'd heard wrong.

She hadn't.

Someone had kidnapped Belle.

She turned off the phone and tried to wrap her mind
around the concept that someone she loved was in the hands of a criminal--or a
crazy person.

What the hell was she supposed to do now? Call the
police? Now that she had proof that Belle hadn't disappeared willingly, they'd
have to do something.

But the caller warned her not to tell anyone and
the police were obviously at the top of the "do not call" list.

Okay, scratch the call to the police at least until
she had a better idea what the kidnapper wanted.

Don't be
stupid
, she told herself.
You know exactly what they're after-the
Declaration
.

And she didn't have it. Therefore, the obvious next
move was to make a plan to get the Declaration and wait for the next call from the
kidnapper.

She dropped the phone onto the kitchen table.
"Damn. Damn and double damn."

"What?" Mae said. "What's
wrong?"

"Someone has Belle."

"What do you mean someone has her?" Jane
said.

"The message. Someone saying they have her and
will call with 'instructions' for her return."

"Oh God," Mae said. "That's bad. We
have to call the police." She reached for the phone.

Lucy stopped her. "No. We have to think about
this. No mistakes. Until we find out what they want, we have to sit tight. They
might hurt her if we call the police."

"I'm sure what they want is the Declaration
and we don't have it to give them," Jane said.

"Then we'll just have to get it," Lucy
said. "Whatever it takes."

"We should let the police handle this,"
Mae tried again.

Lucy stood and started pacing. "No. I don't
have much faith in the system at this point." She stopped, gripped the
back of the chair, fear and determination in her eyes. "No. I'm going to
find out as much as I can about Perry Thiel and the Declaration.
And
I'm going to figure out how to get
that map back from the ranger. I'm not putting Belle's life in the hands of
people who don't care about her," Lucy said. Tough talk from a woman who's
biggest adventure to this point in her life was shooting a few dead fish and
getting tattooed.

"Find out about Perry Thiel?" Jane said.
"I say we track him down and kick his weaselly little ass."

"We don't know if he's the one who has
her," Lucy said. "Or if he's the only one involved."

"Who else?" Jane said.

"Somebody he blabbed to," Mae suggested.

"Maybe," Jane said.

"It doesn't matter," Lucy said. "We
have to be smart about this. Once we know for sure it's the Declaration they're
after we do whatever it takes to find that document."

"Okay. Okay. No need to get your panties in a
twist. We'll help you. Won't we Mae?" Jane said.

Mae didn't look too sure.

"I said won't we Mae?"

Mae looked from one to the other and finally nodded
her head yes. "I guess the B Girls are going all the way."

"To where?" Jane said. "Jail?"

"If I have to," Lucy said. "I meant
what I said. I'll do whatever I have to do to get Belle back. As of this
minute, I refuse to let anyone tell me what I can and can't do. And that goes
double for the voice in my own head. It's way past time for me to take control
of my life and quit letting fear of change hold me back. This time I'm not
going to rely on somebody else to fix things for me." Lucy paused for a
deep breath. "I'd welcome your help but I don't want you two to do
anything you'll regret."

"I'm in to the end," Jane said. "I'm
more than ready to prove a few things to myself. Besides, you're right about
not going to the police. The kidnappers could be watching the house or even
just listening to a police scanner. One little slip-up by the cops and Belle
could get hurt."

Mae still didn't look quite as convinced but she
nodded her head. "We'll find a way to do this."

"Well then, let's get busy," Jane said.

Lucy got up and started to search for Perry Thiel's
phone number. "First I'm calling Mr. Thiel."

She dialed and waited through several rings.

"Hello? Lucy?"

"How did you know?"

"Caller ID. I don't answer the phone unless I
know who it is. I don't like the interruptions. Did you find something? Is
Belle back?"

"No, we didn't find anything. It's Belle I'm
calling about." And why assume from the caller ID that it was Lucy and not
Belle?

"She's still not back?"

"No. I was hoping you might have heard from
her." It took all of her self control not to cry or scream at him. Control
she kept by reminding herself she didn't want Perry to know she suspected him.

"Me? You think she would call me before she
called you?"

Lucy frowned. If Perry was behind Belle's
kidnapping he was a better actor than she would have given him credit for.
"No. I suppose not. Who else knows what you're working on?"

"Only Dr. Dawson, my faculty advisor. He
thinks I'm wasting time. He's been trying to steer me toward a more traditional
approach."

"No one else?"

"No. Why? What's going on?"

"Nothing for you to worry about. If we find
anything we'll let you know."

Lucy hung up and shook her head. "I don't
know. He says he doesn't know anything."

"Well, I think we're going to have more
success finding the Declaration than finding the kidnapper," Jane said.

"Agreed," Lucy said. "We need to get
that map."

"I don't suppose we're going to see Ranger
Leonard tomorrow?" Jane said.

Lucy shook her head. "I have another
idea."

"I'm almost afraid to ask," Jane said.

Lucy shrugged. "I'm going to break into the
Forest Service office and make a copy of the map."

"Oh no you're not!" Mae said from the
doorway. She was returning after taking yet another call from home.
"You'll get arrested for sure."

"Maybe not," Jane said. "You saw
that place. It looks like it was built in the twenties. I seriously doubt
there's an alarm."

Mae tried a different tack. "But we can't
break in. We don't know how."

"I bet I could get the door open with a credit
card. And I'm not going to
steal
anything. I'm just going to make a copy." Lucy pushed up out of the chair.
"Besides,
we
aren't going to do
anything. You two shouldn't be involved."

"You're not leaving me behind," Jane
said.

Mae made a visible effort to look brave. "I'm
coming too."

"Absolutely not. I wouldn't have to worry
about going to prison if we got caught, Chip would kill me."

It was the wrong thing to say. Mae bristled like a
startled porcupine. "Chip is not my keeper. We all go together or not at
all."

"I say we go tonight," Jane said.

Lucy had a sinking feeling things were starting to
spiral out of control. Just like the rest of her life. Getting her friends
involved in this seemed like
such
a
bad idea. But they really wanted to help and she really didn't want to
undertake this rescue mission on her own. "Okay, you two can come. But I'm
the only one going inside."

Jane and Mae started to protest.

"It won't take three of us to make a copy.
Besides, if I get arrested I'll need someone to answer when I make my one phone
call."

"Mae can wait in the car and I'll be the
lookout," Jane said.

Mae looked relieved. "I think I can handle
being the getaway driver."

Talk of lookouts and getaway drivers gave Lucy a
shiver. "Shit. We're probably going to wind up in federal prison. But I
won't be able to live with myself if I don't at least try."

"Even if we get caught, we're not going to
prison. Like you said, we're not stealing anything," Jane said. She
grinned. "If it'll make you feel better, you can leave a dollar for the
copy."

It
was
Belle's
map. And she wasn't going to
steal
anything. Nothing like a little rationalization. Maybe this was how all
criminals started out. "We have to wait for Belle's kidnapper to call and
then we go to the forest service office."

Lucy answered the phone on the first ring.
"Hello?"

"Very smart of you to follow instructions and keep
the police out of this."

The mechanical voice had been creepy enough in a
voice mail. Having a conversation with someone who sounded like a robot was
horrifying. "What do you want?"

"The Declaration of course but I'll settle for
the Broadside."