Tudor Reunion Tour (7 page)

During what little down time I had to
myself in between cities or shows, I went out and ran. It seemed to be the only
time I could be free of Julia’s clutches. My mind wandered back to Zara and
things she’d already picked up on. Subtle things in the contract and other
papers Julia had inundated me with.

Julia had fast figured out that Zara was
correct in her assessment that Damien could not have done a tour without Angus
or me. He had been out of the spotlight too long. Sure, he had his followers,
his fans, but it fast became evident to her that I was the main draw. And she
intended to milk it for all it was worth, setting up interviews, after parties.
Doing it all in an attempt to strengthen Damien’s visibility.

The girls, always with the girls. There
was a never-ending parade of young girls Julia or Amber made sure were
constantly in my midst. It was almost pathetic, what her intent was. The two of
them ought to know me better than to think they could get me to cheat on Zara.
But no, those two thought they knew better.

****

It was Portland where things began to
pop. I had asked Red to get in touch with Detective Franco from the Seattle PD
and tell him I wanted to meet with him, and to use going to the show as the
excuse.

As soon as Red showed Joe Franco to my
hotel room in Portland, Julia came banging on the door. Expecting her, Red had
positioned himself by the hotel door.

“Red, you startled me. I thought I saw
Detective Franco walk into the building.” She shoved past Red, but not before
attempting to dismiss him. “That’ll be all Red. I’m sure you’re needed at the
arena, aren’t you?”

“He and Joe are old friends. So he’s
going to stick around and catch up for a while. I know you won’t mind,” I said
flatly.

Joe stood up and shook hands with Julia,
who was eyeing him curiously. “Julia, nice to see you again. I can’t wait to
see Damien and the boys in action this evening. I had planned on seeing them in
Seattle, but work called.”

Sensing that Julia was suspicious of Joe’s
appearance, I tried to take away any doubt she might have. “Joe, Zara, and I
became fast friends while I was recovering after I was in that coma. Turns out
he’s a regular Tudor Rose groupie.”

“Yeah,” Joe replied. “I can’t wait to
see Damien back in action.”

“He’s amazing, Joe,” I gushed in an
effort to win Julia over. “If Angus and I had any doubts, he blew them away
opening night. He’s back, no doubt about it.”

Convinced that Joe Franco was there as
nothing more than a friend and fan, Julia left us. Ever alert, Red made his
exit a minute or so later, winking at us both as he left. He knew better than
to leave Julia to her own devices.

I explained to Joe what had transpired,
about Zara’s disappearance. The only thing I let him in on was that while I
didn’t know Zara’s exact location, I had been prepared that she was going to
make herself disappear for the length of the tour. I filled him in on how Julia
had convinced my mother of the outrageous idea that mother needed to keep the
baby while Zara got herself together. In other words, an intervention.

“Man, this woman’s got it out for Zara.
I did check out Julia’s so called business partners. Nothing new there. Just
that Don Roberts has a lot of money and friends with deep pockets.”

“What about Amber? What’s the point?”

“Still working on her. There has to be a
connection I haven’t found yet. Something that connects the dots back to Julia
or Damien,” he replied. “Oh, and there’s one more thing, Amadeus.”

“What’s that?”

“Are you aware that Don Roberts was
Johnny Roberts’ uncle?”

I sat there with my mouth open. In all
the years I’d know Johnny, Don Roberts’ name had never been brought up in the
same sentence as family. “You’re sure?”

“Positive, and I’ll tell you, Amadeus, I
don’t like it. Don Roberts and Julia being partners. You’ve got to watch your
back until I can figure out the connection.”

“I’m trying, that’s why I wanted Red on
board with me. He’s the only one I can trust right now.”

“And Zara? She and the baby are
somewhere safe?”

“Yes, and don’t ask me where because I don’t
know and don’t want to know.”

“Okay. I’ve got calls out and stuff. If
I hear anything back, learn anything, I’ll be in touch. I hate to tell you, you’re
sort of vulnerable out here.”

“Yeah, don’t remind me. Should I do
anything, Joe? Should I quit before something happens, or simply let things
unfold?”

“Do you think you can hang on for a
while?”

“Oh, yeah, no problem. That’s part of
the reason I decided to do this blasted tour. Zara was against it, let me tell
you. But something’s fishy and needs to be exposed. If not, something’s going
to happen.”

I ran my hand through my hair, and as I
did, it dawned on me. “Do you think this whole thing could be part of a revenge
thing? You know with Don being the uncle of the man Zara shot and all,” I
added.

“It would certainly stand to reason. But
why Don, why not Johnny’s parents?”

“
Pfft
, his
parents? His mom is who knows where, if she’s even still alive. Heroin user,
you know. And his dad died of mysterious circumstances about five years ago if
my memory serves me right. Tudor Rose was out on the road when it happened. I
remember because we had to pinch hit after Johnny left for the funeral and
stuff.”

“I’ll look into both of them.”

“Do, because Johnny was never the same
after his dad died.”

“That must be when he and Don hooked up,”
Joe replied, standing up and removing his cell phone from his jeans pocket. “Is
it going to be okay if I hang out with you?”

“Of course you can. We got a promo gig
to do in a while, but outside of that I’m free until show time. Why?”

“No reason. I’m going to call a contact
of mine here in Portland. I’ll just hang with you and keep my eyes and ears
open.”

I didn’t know where Joe was going with
this, but figured I’d sit back and see if he could bring anything more to
light.

As soon as the Portland show was over,
Julia had the entire band whisked out of the building. No after show
interviews, nothing. That meant I had no further contact with Joe Franco except
via my iPhone, which Red kept for me on his person while I was on stage. I
purposely brought no laptop or iPad along with me. My phone was my only contact
with the outside world. My world…Zara.

I knew we were headed towards the after
party. Julia wasn’t one to miss free publicity. I was soon shown how wrong I
was to try and read her mind. I was in the middle of texting Joe Franco,
letting him know the situation.

“Amadeus? Who are you texting?”

“No one,” I lied. “I’m playing a game so
I don’t have to listen to your grating voice, Julia. Is that okay with you?”

“Well, I think you occupy yourself far
too much with outside distractions. In fact, I’ve decided to implement a rule.
You boys can have your phones or iPads only on down days. The rest of the time
I keep them. I need for you all to be focused one hundred percent.”

“Ah, come on, Julia,” Angus chimed in. “You
can’t do that and you know it, and besides that, we haven’t had any down days.
You insist on working us to death! Try taking my laptop or phone, and I’ll walk
so fast it’ll make your head spin.”

“He’s right, Julia,” Damien added. “You
can’t do that.”

“Just shut up, Damien! If it wasn’t for
me, none of you would be here.”

“That’s right, Julia,” I said. “We
wouldn’t because none of us would have been foolish enough to sign that piece
of shit contract of yours. The only reason Angus and I signed was for Damien.
Now back off or we walk.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” she challenged.

“Try me.”

It took her a couple of minutes before
she got a hold of herself and started again. We’d rattled her. No doubt about
it.

“There’s a change of plans. Damien, and
only Damien, is going to the after party. The rest of you? You’re on the bus to
our next stop in Medford. Damien and I will meet up with you in the morning.”

I wanted to say something, but I didn’t
like the way the conversation seemed to be headed and didn’t want her rattled
any more than we’d just made her. Nope, save it for later.

A few hours later, we reached Medford.
Dog tired from the grueling schedule Julia kept us on, with all the interviews,
rehearsals, and no off days, all any of us wanted to do was sleep. I thought of
Damien and felt sorry for him. Julia, I was sure, probably gave him a verbal
beat down after we left. Angus and I were sharing a room this time. The hotel
evidently didn’t have all the rooms Julia required at the time she made the reservation.
So we took advantage of her being gone and decided to bunk together.

As we settled in, Angus grabbed us each
a beer out of the mini-bar. I sat back on one of the beds and checked my iPhone
for messages. One from Joe Franco, returning my earlier one. His message read
that he was working on things and would be in touch.

We were almost three and a half weeks
into the tour, and I had not had any contact with Zara. Mutual agreement. The
band did have two days off after the Medford gig, our first. I texted Peter to
see if he could contact Zara and set up a time for us to talk via her sat
phone. I really, really needed to hear her voice and hear Elizabeth’s, too.

“What’s up, A?” I heard Angus ask as I
finished my text to Peter. “You look as though you lost your best friend.”

“Nothing, I was just missing Zara.”

“No word on where she is?”

“No,” I lied. “None. That’s what I was
doing. Trying to find out if anyone has heard from her.”

“And?”

“Oh, I’ve got to wait for an answer.”

“Tell me something, A,” Angus began,
taking a long pull off his beer bottle. “You don’t really buy into all that
crap that Zara was losing it mentally and took the baby and ran, do you?”

I shook my head. I could at least let
him know my feelings. To a point. “No, I don’t. I think she saw where
everything was headed. Zara’s smart enough to know that all Julia wanted was to
get her out of the way for the duration of the tour.”

“You know where she is?”

“No, I don’t, and that’s the honest to
goodness truth, Angus. I don’t have a clue as to where she is. None.”

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I
wish Julia would reveal herself if she’s got a hidden agenda.”

“The only hidden agenda Julia has is
money. It’s why she teamed up with Don Roberts, and it’s where he is that
concerns me.”

“I’m sure between your friend, Franco,
and Red, we’ll expose them. I just hope Damien doesn’t get hurt too bad.”

“So do I, Angus, so do I.” I tipped my
beer up and drank the remains.

Zara

Impatiently, I moved the sat phone from
one side of the table to another, secretly afraid the signal would not connect
and my first conversation with Amadeus in weeks would be lost. I paced around
the cottage, the phone never out of my sight.

Unable to keep Elizabeth awake, I gave
in and let her take her nap, hoping she’d either wake up or I’d be able to wake
her up long enough for her daddy to hear her voice. It might have seemed silly
to some folks, but not to me. She was the apple of Amadeus’s eye and I knew he
missed her as much as I was missing him.

My round of the cottage once again
complete, I sat down in front of the black sat phone to wait. Any time now.
Come on phone, ring!

Then it happened, the phone rang. I
grabbed it on the first ring and pressed the button connecting us. “Amadeus? Is
that you?”

“I’m here, Zara! It’s so good to hear
your voice, babe. How are you? How’s Elizabeth?”

I was on the verge of letting the
waterworks go. It was going to be hard to stop them. “It’s good to hear your
voice, too. We’re fine. We both are.” I almost said something about acclimating
to the area but caught myself. If I had, it would let him know I wasn’t in the
United States.

“I know you can’t tell me where you are.
I don’t want to know. Not right now. As long as you and the baby are fine, I’m
okay not knowing.”

“Under the circumstances, it’s better if
you don’t. How are things going?”

He took a second to answer. I didn’t
know if that was good or bad. Were things going south? What little Peter had
filled me in on indicated that the fans were loving the tour of the three. It
was behind the scenes I wanted to know about.

“As far as the shows go, it’s been
great. Julia’s starting to show her other side. The one we saw over Christmas.
But you’re never going to guess who came to see me. Joe Franco, and he’s going
to check some things out.”

“Good, that makes me feel better. Have
you seen Don yet?”

“No, he hasn’t shown his face. I don’t
know that he will. Enough about the tour, Zara, I just want to talk with you. I’ve
missed you, girl. I wish things hadn’t turned out this way.”

“So do I, but I think it’s for the best.
Elizabeth is napping, but I’ll wake her for you.”

“No, don’t do that, Zara. I can wait for
another time.”

“No, I know you want to hear her voice,
and I want to put her ear up to the phone. Perhaps she’ll recognize your voice.
I know she misses you. She’s confused by all this moving around.”

“What, you’re not staying in one place?
Why not?”

“I’m in the same place. I simply meant
that she’s been so many places the past few months.”

“Is she walking yet?”

“No, just crawling and pulling herself
up on everything like she was when you last saw her.”

“Don’t forget to take pictures if she
does start walking, Zara. I wish I could be there.” I could tell even he was
getting emotional. The time apart and not talking on a regular basis was taking
its toll.

“I will, but I don’t think you need to
worry about her walking any time soon. She’s a bit on the lazy side when it
comes to trying new things.” Okay it wasn’t exactly the truth, but I had to
take his mind out of that place.

I had walked back into the bedroom where
I found the baby waking. The sound of my voice brought her around quicker as
she pulled herself up and stood at the side of the crib. She was babbling, and
I put the phone up to her ear, but she’d have nothing to do with it. I could
hear Amadeus loudly vying for her attention. At one point, Elizabeth cocked her
head as though she recognized him and started speaking in her baby gibberish.
After a few long seconds, I took the phone back and the wailing started. “I
think perhaps she recognized your voice, A. You hear her?”

He laughed. “Yeah, you sure she’s not
crying because you took her play pretty away from her?”

“No, because at first she wanted nothing
to do with it. Then she heard your voice, and she tilted her head like she was
trying to figure out where it was coming from. I think she knows it was you.”

“I hope she doesn’t forget me in such a
short space of time.”

“No chance of that,” I replied,
balancing the baby on one hip and trying to talk to him and keep Elizabeth from
grabbing the phone.

We talked a few more minutes before we
both knew we should call it a day. I wasn’t sure who was more choked up,
Amadeus or me.

“Just let Peter know when you have time
off where you can talk uninterrupted. We’re at the halfway mark, Amadeus. We’ll
start talking where to meet and stuff soon. I love you so much and miss you
just as much.”

“I miss you two. I love you, Zara. I’ll
text Peter when I have time and let him set things up. Give Elizabeth a kiss
for me.”

That was it. I knew he’d disconnected; he
was probably bawling just as much as I was about to. I kissed Elizabeth on the
cheek, telling her who it was from. She patted the dampness on my cheek as
though she understood what was going on.

“Don’t worry, sweetie. It won’t be long
now before we see daddy. He’s halfway through his tour, then he’s going to come
down here, and the three of us are going to just kick back and relax for a week
or so. Now why don’t we go change your diaper and get you something to drink?”

I grabbed the sat phone on my way out
and put it back to recharge. It was my lifeline to another world. As I changed
Elizabeth, I had an idea. It was late afternoon, and the sun wasn’t as fierce
as earlier. I’d take my camera and get some shots of the baby on the beach
playing, sitting in the sand. The light ought to be perfect.

Being in Patagonia is so, so unique. The
landscape is vast and distinct, untouched for the most part by human
technology. Greg and Mary had come here way back in the seventies and loved it
so much they purchased land and slowly began building the small, isolated
resort they now have. To me it was a slice of heaven. One I was constantly
capturing on the daily walks Elizabeth and I would take. I would place her on
my back all secure and head out on walks, taking photographs of whatever caught
my eye. I would have to stop and remember that I was at the other end of the
world from Amadeus. I intended to share this with him, just as I had told him a
few years prior after I returned from my first visit here.

This was the place I decided our reunion
should occur. Away from anyone and everyone we knew. I had spoken with Peter
about it briefly, and he assured me he would begin to put the wheels in motion.
An uninterrupted ten days of just the three of us. Before we would have to
return to the real world and whatever lay ahead. Amadeus was certainly going to
need it, time to decompress and breathe.

****

I sat in front of the lap top one
evening after Elizabeth was down for the night. The tour was winding down, two
weeks to go and I lived for the emails Peter sent me with a weekly update of
what he knew, or had heard from Amadeus. If anything had been uncovered as to
the true reason the tour existed. I was shocked by what I read. He had written
the email just hours prior.

‘A-man in route to you as you read this.
All is well. Remaining concert dates postponed. J and D in the wind with all
the $$. A, A, & D promised dates would be made up. A-man has details. You
were right all along. Enjoy remainder of holiday. It’s back to work for you,
old girl. Fondly P-man.’

Shocked, I stared at the screen in front
of me. What in the world happened? I immediately thought of Joe Franco and
wondered if his presence scared Julia off or if he had actually uncovered
something.

I replied to the email with one word: ‘Shocked!’

There was not a thing I could do until
Amadeus arrived and spilled the details. As late as it was, I decided to wait
until morning to find out if Greg had word on the arrival of Amadeus’s plane.
Not knowing when he left, I surmised he might arrive the following night. That
would give me a day to get ready. I wanted to write down everything, all
questions that came to mind. And there would be a zillion of them. For now, I
closed the email account and pulled up the on-line journal I’d been keeping and
began furiously typing everything Peter had just conveyed to me and my
thoughts.

I had also begun a long put off novel,
something I had always wanted to do, meant to do, but never had. This was the
perfect place to write, no outside interference. Tonight, however, I couldn’t
focus, instead going back into my journal and adding more. I mused that I was
soon going to have more juicy stuff to add to the fodder of my novel.

Finally, I headed off to bed. I was
exhausted but pumped up about finally seeing Amadeus after all these long
weeks. And then the curious, inquisitive side of me came out wondering what had
happened. I had my ideas, and hoped at least part of them were wrong. Somehow,
in spite of my head spinning with thoughts, I fell asleep.

Once Elizabeth was fed and bathed the
following morning, I set her down in the portable playpen while I grabbed my
second cup of tea and powered up the laptop. I wanted to see if I could get a
Wi-Fi signal. If so, I intended to search the web and see what there was about
the reunion tour’s sudden demise.

I wasn’t disappointed. In the few
minutes of uninterrupted online time, I managed to go to a few of my favorite
pages. I scrolled down, finding what I was after. I wondered who had provided them
with the information, and then quickly realized Peter’s people must have been
in the wings waiting for something like this. Everything read like a well-oiled
public relations machine. The gist was Angus had become ill, and the boys were
postponing the remaining dates.

Digging deeper, I found what I was
looking for, one site that didn’t believe all the glitz of press releases. In
it the article mentioned discord between management and the Tudor brothers as a
possible true cause of the postponement. Their other conspiracy theory was that
rumor was out on the streets that the boys’ new manager, Julia Tudor, and her
associate, Don Roberts, had skipped town, taking any and all money, leaving
everyone in the lurch, while vaguely hinting of criminal activity.

Connection lost for the time being, I
pulled up a blank page and began making notes of what I’d read. Amadeus couldn’t
get here quick enough!

A knock at the door drew me out of that
world and back to reality. Being it was the high season for tourists, Mary and
I usually didn’t have our daily chats until early afternoon or evening as she
was rushing around taking care of her and Greg’s guests. A lot more than the
last time I’d been here. Business was good.

Elizabeth stood, holding on to the edge
of her playpen, babbling cheerfully as I padded towards the front door of the
cottage. I unlocked the deadbolt and swung it open. In front of me stood
Amadeus.

Amadeus

The band was in the middle of an after
party in Manhattan when Red pulled me to one side and gave me the news.
Noticing Julia was nowhere to be found at the venue, and her walkie-talkie
dead, Red began to investigate. He and I had our suspicions all along, but that
was all confirmed with the unannounced arrival of Don Roberts.

“They’re gone, Amadeus. I went back to
the hotel to check after the gig, and her stuff is all gone. So is Don’s. The
only thing the hotel could tell me is that Don had ordered a car service to
pick them up during the time y’all were on stage.”

“Fuck!” I replied. “Damn her all to hell!
Zara was right all along. She planned this from the start.” I swore again under
my breath. Pulling myself together, I tried to think what Zara would do if she
were here. Someone was going to have to be in charge, and that would be Red and
me.

“What do you want me to do? Someone’s
going to notice she’s not here. Damien, for one.”

“Don’t say a word for now. Let the party
continue. I need to speak with Angus and Damien alone before the others find
out. Then I’ll wake Peter and tell him to get his PR machine in full gear and
find Zara. We need Zara. She’d know what to do.”

“What about the band?”

“Let me get this other done, so just act
normal. If anyone asks about Julia, say she wasn’t feeling well. That’ll give
me time. I’ll gather everyone together at the hotel and tell them then.”

Red went in search of Angus and Damien.
We’d been at the party for an hour. Plenty of time, so no one would think it
unusual if the three of us left. Tomorrow, thank God, was an off day, but I had
the feeling it was going to be anything but a day off for me.

Angus and Damien followed me silently
into the waiting limo. They attacked me verbally straight up about being pulled
from the fun when everyone had the next day off. God, I hated being the fall
guy. I was dreading even more having to tell my eldest brother that his
long-time wife had evidently vamoosed with Don Roberts. No note, no good-bye,
no nothing. Bitch.