The B Girls (7 page)

"Scat! Shoo! Go on!" Jane hollered while
she poked the stick in the raccoon's direction.

"What if it has rabies?" Mae asked from
behind Lucy.

Lucy looked at the animal. He looked healthy and
well fed. "Doubtful. I don't think cake is the food of choice for rabid
animals."

The raccoon hissed at Jane but it backed up toward
the open door to the outside.

"Ha!" Jane shouted. She advanced on the
poor creature like a fencer trying to force her opponent back at the point of a
sword.

The raccoon hissed again and stopped backing up.

"You're scaring him," Lucy said.

Jane let out an exasperated sigh and waved the
stick at the raccoon again. "It's
supposed
to be scared."

"Maybe you should back off a little so he can
run out the door instead of feeling he needs to protect himself," Lucy
suggested.

Jane shrugged, lowered the stick and backed up a
few feet.

With the immediate threat relieved, the raccoon
decided escape was better than further confrontation. He skedaddled.

Jane hurried to close the door behind him just in
case he changed his mind and decided cake was worth the risk.

Mae came back into the kitchen and looked at the
remains of the cake.

"I guess Belle must have left the front door
ajar," Mae said.

"She can be a little scatterbrained,"
Lucy said.

Jane wasn't so sure. "What about the lights
and the open drawers and the pillows on the floor?"

Lucy shrugged. "Raccoons have been known to do
an awful lot of damage."

"I've heard people with cabins up here say
they have to keep their doors locked even when they're home because the
raccoons learned to open doors," Mae said.

In spite of her words, Lucy had the feeling the
raccoon in this case was more of an opportunist taking advantage of a door left
open by a human criminal but she didn't see the need in dwelling on it since
the person was clearly gone now.

"Well it doesn't really matter. Nothing seems
missing and other than the cake nothing's destroyed," she said.

"So? Now what?" Jane said.

"We make ourselves comfortable and wait for
Belle," Lucy said. "I'm sure that cake wasn't the only treat in the
house."

So they chose bedrooms, put together a snack tray
of cheese, crackers and fruit, and settled in on the main deck with big glasses
of sweet tea. None of them were ready to venture back into the world of
alcoholic beverages after dancing on the bar and getting tattooed.

Jane rattled the ice around in her glass and looked
over at Lucy. "So what do you think this big mystery of Belle's is all
about?"

Lucy shrugged. "There's no telling. I'm more
worried about what I'm going to do for the next forty years than the next two
days."

"Well, I'm sure you'll be just fine. Think of
this as a chance to figure out what makes you happy, all on your own," Mae
said.

"And what about you?" Jane said.
"I'd say you're in need of a little overhaul yourself. Or maybe Chip needs
one."

"Maybe both of us could use a little shaking
up," Mae said. "I feel like I don't have a self of my own anymore. Know
what I mean?"

"Of course I do," Lucy said. "Let's
make a pact that we'll really use this time away. To evaluate where we've been
and where we're going."

When Jane rolled her eyes Lucy turned her best Mom
look on her. "You too. Obviously you weren't deliriously happy with your
job or you wouldn't have self-destructed yesterday."

"Fine," Jane said. "But could we
wait at least a couple of hours? I'm still fighting the last of my
hangover."

"Sure, but first we swear by our sacred
tattoos that we'll each leave here with a positive plan for change," Lucy
said.

"Let's make a ritual promise," Mae said.
"Right hands on your tattoos ladies. Left hands in." She put her left
hand out.

Lucy put her right hand on her ass and solemnly put
her left hand on top of Mae's.

With a put upon sigh, Jane joined in.

"Okay, repeat after me," Mae said.
"I swear on the sacred mark of the B Girls to leave this mountain retreat
with a concrete, measurable plan to live my best life."

Lucy and Jane repeated the oath and they all threw their
left hands into the air.

"Now, let's snack," Lucy said. "I
wish Belle would hurry up and get back, I'm curious about the mystery but I'm
more anxious to get her input on our plans."

Mid-afternoon wore on into late afternoon.

And still Belle didn't appear.

Talk turned back to their pact and they tossed out
wild possibilities for their futures.

"No idea is too crazy at this point,"
Jane said after Mae let out an appalled gasp at her suggestion that Lucy
consider opening a strip club. "There's good money to be made from randy
men."

"I don't think supervising naked women is in
my future," Lucy said. "But maybe I'll shave my head and join a
Buddhist monastery for a while."

"I'd be happy with finding the nerve to tell
Chip he has to cook once a week so I can go out with you two without having to
worry over supper first."

"You have to want more than that," Lucy
said.

"Yes but that would do for a start. If I could
find the courage to demand more of Chip, I think the rest would fall into
place."

Lucy turned to Jane "What about you? You've
been quick to make suggestions for me but I haven't heard you come up with any
wild plans for yourself."

"I'm thinking of becoming a starving artist. I
was once told I had the potential to be a successful painter."

"Really?" Mae said. "I don't have an
artistic bone in my body. Do you still paint? Have we seen anything you
did?"

"No, I haven't picked up a brush in years. My
lovely ex ruined it for me with his snide comments and criticisms. All my old
paintings are boxed up in a rented storage building."

"Well, just as soon as we get back to town
we're going to get them. Even if you decide to do something else with the rest
of your life, I want to check them out for myself," Lucy said.

"Believe me, they're competent but not all
that fascinating," Jane said.

"All the same, I think you should let us be
the judge of that," Mae said.

"Fine. What do you suppose is keeping
Belle?"

"I don't know but I'm starting to get a little
worried. I'm going to try her cell again." Lucy had already tried two or
three times and been routed to Belle's voice mail. She left brief messages that
she didn't expect to have answered. Belle rarely answered her cell, she
considered it a convenience in case of emergency rather than a means of making
herself available to her friends and relatives.

"And I'd better check in with my family,"
Mae said.

Jane shrugged. "Go ahead, I think I can manage
to entertain myself for a few minutes since my fish don't currently have phone
skills. Maybe I should look into a hands free model for them."

The clock ticked its way to dinner time and Belle
was still gone. And she hadn't called.

Lucy went through Belle's address book. There were
only four local numbers among the hundred or so entries. The housekeeper and the
yard man hadn't seen Belle since their own respective work days at the house.
Louisa Dent didn't even know Belle was in town and Vernon Taper hadn't spoken
with her in two days. No one was alarmed that Belle was a few hours overdue and
they all promised to call if they heard anything.

Lucy wouldn't have been alarmed either if Belle
hadn't been aware of the crisis in her marriage. That one fact changed
everything.

Lucy made another futile call to Belle's cell phone
and paced around the kitchen while Mae performed some magic with red leaf
lettuce, radicchio, baby spinach, button mushrooms, pomegranate, fresh shrimp
and a loaf of crusty French bread.

They went out to the deck to take advantage of the
view.

The sun dipped lower on the horizon.

Lucy stirred her lettuce around, picked at the
shrimp and watched Mae and Jane crunch through their salads.

"You're not eating," Mae said.

"I'm not hungry." Lucy put her fork down
and stood. She knew better than anyone that Belle wasn't a woman to be ruled by
clocks and calendars but she was a woman concerned with the feelings of others.

She wouldn't leave Lucy to worry and wonder if she
could help it.

Something was wrong. Lucy felt it in her bones.

"I'm going to see if Belle left any hint about
where she went."

"Want some help?" Mae asked.

Lucy shook her head. "No. I'm not even sure
what I'm looking for."

In the kitchen, she found a notepad, a Sharpie and
a few computer printouts. Her first thought was to do the trick of rubbing the
top sheet of the notepad with a pencil to find out what was written on the last
page to be torn off but the Sharpie probably hadn't left any impressions to be
raised.

The printouts were more promising. They were all
relating to a nearby wilderness area--Cohutta Wildlife Refuge. It was managed by
the National Park Service. Belle had circled some of the information about
parking and hiking trails.

Lucy called the number for the Ranger Office but
didn't get any answer. She didn't bother to leave a message. Chances of anyone
checking messages on a Sunday night were probably slim and none.

"Now what?" she muttered to herself
glancing at the clock surprised to see it was going on nine-thirty.

She looked up the non-emergency number for the
county police. They didn't have any accident reports for a vehicle matching
Belle's Cherokee and wouldn't take a report on an adult who'd only been gone a
few hours.

She called the only hospital within fifty miles. No
Belle Morris and no unidentified patient matching her description. Where the
hell was she?

Mae and Jane drifted in from the deck to see what
she was up to.

"Find anything?" Jane asked.

"Just these printouts about the Cohutta
wilderness area."

"I've heard of that place," Mae said.
"I think Chip and Gary went bear hunting up there."

Lucy nodded. "I think you're right. But what
would Belle be doing up there? She doesn't hunt and even if she did it's the
wrong time of year."

"We could drive up there and see if her car is
there," Jane suggested.

"These printouts show several different
parking areas, no one's answering at the Ranger station and we're not even sure
that's where she went," Lucy said.

"But you're worried," Mae said.

Lucy nodded. "She would've made a point of
letting me know if she was going to be gone this long."

"Well, we're all sober. I say we at least
check out the parking lots at the wilderness area," Jane said.

"I think it's most likely she went to one of
these two," Lucy said pointing to two circled spots on a sketchy map of
the area.

"Let's go," Mae said.

Lucy left a note for Belle in case she returned
while they were gone and they piled into the van.

###

"I wouldn't want to make this drive if I was
in a hurry or with even one drink in my system," Mae said.

The winding mountain roads were a little unnerving
in the dark. The girls were used to large, well-lit suburban avenues.

"Just take your time," Lucy said.
"We don't want to wind up on the missing list too."

The first circled parking area on the map was
empty.

"Of course we couldn't have been that
lucky," Jane said.

"It looks like we have to drive past the
Ranger station to get to the next spot. Maybe there'll be someone there,"
Lucy said.

"Just tell me the way," Mae said.

The Ranger station was dark and there weren't any
vehicles in the parking lot--official or otherwise.

They drove on to the second parking area on the
printout.

There was no one parked in the gravel area.

Mae circled once and put the van in park. "Now
what?"

"I guess we go back to Belle's and wait until
morning to call the Ranger office," Lucy said.

Headlights appeared coming up the road from the
direction of the Ranger station.

Lucy watched the lights approaching not at all sure
whether she expected a serial killer, a ranger, or just someone out for an
evening drive. Then again, the way her stars were apparently aligned right now
it was probably a serial killer.

A pickup truck with US Forest Service painted on
the door pulled into the parking area and stopped driver's door to driver's
door with the minivan.