Chapter 20

“M ack, Mack, are you there?” she cried into the phone.

“Yeah, what’s the matter?” he asked.

“Are you on your way to my place? You should have been there ages ago??”

“I was, then I got held up at work. Everything okay with Tammy?” When she quickly explained about Nan, he muttered, “Good Lord. Are you sure she said he’s got a gun?”

“Yes, no doubt, and I can’t get there fast enough.”

“I’m already on the way, so, if you’re coming from the bus station, I should get there before you.”

“Good to know. I should never have left her at home.”

“But you left her with the animals, right?”

“Yes, not that it’ll help much against a gun,” she cried out. “Oh my God, I can’t believe a gunman is holding Nan at my house.”

“I’m not completely surprised, considering you had a break-in, but I’m not at all impressed that they’re bothering Nan.”

“Yeah, you and me both,” Doreen agreed bitterly, as she quickly turned another corner, tires squealing.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Mack cried out in alarm. “Let’s get you home in one piece. Slow down. I can hear your tires through the phone.”

“Oh, I’ll get there in one piece,” she muttered. “But I can’t guarantee I’m leaving whoever is holding a gun on my Nan that way.”

“Ouch. Come on now. We can’t have you going crazy in there.”

“Yeah, you ain’t seen crazy yet, but you’re about to,” she muttered. “Who on earth terrorizes innocent old women?”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. I’m on the way, and I should be there ahead of you.”

“Maybe not,” she replied. “I’m not very far away.”

“I hope you’re a little farther than that at this point. I’m pulling into the driveway.”

“Good. I’m guessing they’re in the backyard,” she suggested. “Maybe you can get inside the house and go out that way.”

“Did you lock it?”

“No, I don’t think so,” she said, her heart slamming against her chest. “I really don’t think so.”

“Take it easy. I’ll go check it out. Please don’t come barging in.” And, with that, he disconnected.

It was all she could do to stay calm enough to keep driving. She took corner after corner, willing the miles to disappear. By the time she jerked her car into her driveway, she had barely stopped the vehicle before she was out and racing around to the back.

When she came to the patio, nobody was there, so she burst into the house and cried out, “Nan? Nan, where are you?”

Mack came down the stairs. He shook his head. “They’re not here.”

Her heart sank. “What do you mean, they’re not here?”

“They’re not here. I’ve already called for backup and forensics.”

She stared at him in shock. “Somebody took her? Somebody took Nan?”

He nodded. “That’s how it appears, but we can’t jump to any conclusions right now.”

“Sure we can,” she snapped, staring at him. “Somebody kidnapped Nan.”

He winced at that. “And the animals apparently.”

She stared at him in horror. “Nan and the animals? All of them?” She called out, “Mugs, Mugs, where are you?” But no answer came. “Thaddeus,” she cried out. “Thaddeus, are you here?” And again no answer. Calling for Goliath was almost useless, but she had to try. When she turned to face Mack, she stared at him and whispered, “They’ve taken everybody who matters to me.”

He nodded, his face grim. “I know, and I’m pretty sure it was deliberate.” From the expression on her face, it was clear she was about to crumble. He opened his arms, and she raced into them.

“How could somebody do something like that?” she cried out. “Nan’s never hurt a soul.” He didn’t say anything to that. She looked up and frowned at him. “Okay, she may have made a bet or two, but she wouldn’t have hurt anybody.”

“I know that, sweetheart. Tell me again what she said on the phone.”

Doreen struggled to remember the exact conversation and gave him the gist of it. “Just that somebody was here with a gun, and I needed to hurry back.”

“He didn’t make a sound the whole time?”

“No.”

“Which means that she made the phone call with this guy’s permission. As a matter of fact he might have been the one to force her to say that.”

She nodded numbly and stared at him. “What does that mean?”

He shook his head. “We don’t know that it means anything yet, except that he wanted you to show up.”

“If he wanted me to show up, why isn’t he here then?” she asked, spinning around in a circle. She bolted over to the fence, pounded on it, and yelled, “Richard, Richard, are you there?”

It took a moment, then she heard a chair slammed up against the fence, as he climbed up and scowled at her over the top. “I am now,” he snapped.

“Did you hear anybody over here in the last hour?” Before he could respond with his grating answers, she went on. “Somebody’s kidnapped my grandmother.”

He stared at her in shock. “From your backyard?”

She nodded. “Yes. Did you hear anybody?”

He shook his head slowly. “No, I didn’t, but I just now have come outside.”

“You didn’t hear anybody?”

He looked from Mack to Doreen and then back again. “No, I didn’t. I swear.” He frowned. “I didn’t hear anything.”

“You didn’t hear them leave? You didn’t hear Mugs barking?”

“Sure, I heard the dog barking like crazy,” he said, then frowned. “I did hear somebody. I guess maybe it was your grandmother, calling for Mugs to come with her.”

“Where did her voice seem to come from?”

He frowned, then looked toward the river and pointed. “I think it was down that way.”

She stared at him in shock, took one look at the river, and bolted in that direction.

Mack called out behind her, “Doreen, wait!”

But there was no waiting for her, not right now, not when somebody had taken Nan and her animals. There was absolutely no life for Doreen after this if she didn’t get all of them back. As she raced to the water, she stopped on the pathway and studied it. She couldn’t read tracks—something that would have been useful right now—but right ahead on the left, as if heading to Rosemoor, was a fresh pile of dog poop. It was about the right size and shape for Mugs, although she couldn’t guarantee that it was his. But she wanted desperately to believe that it was, and, with that in mind, she bolted toward Rosemoor, calling back to Mack, “I’ve got to search for them.”

As she raced toward the home, she kept looking from side to side of the creek, wondering where the gunman would have taken Nan and why, or was she just at the wrong place at the wrong time? And how mean was that when she was just there holding down the fort, until Doreen got back?

Gasping for breath as she bolted around the corner of Rosemoor, she noted that nobody was up ahead. She scrambled to Nan’s patio and made her way inside Nan’s small apartment, but it was empty. Trembling now with the fear racking all the way through her, she bolted out to the hallway, where she saw Richie. “Have you seen Nan?”

He shook his head. “She was going up to your place. Didn’t she get there?”

“She did, and a gunman was at my house apparently. She told me that he was holding a gun on her and to get home quickly. I did, but she wasn’t there.”

By then, a crowd had gathered around them, and they all started to talk at once.

“Mack has backup coming, but we’re looking for Nan. It looks like they came down the river.”

“They didn’t make it this far,” Richie stated, with a defined clip of his head. “But don’t you worry. We’ll search this place. You go outside and search for her there.”

She raced outside because, if the intruder had taken Nan this far, surely somebody would have seen her. As far as Doreen was concerned, that could only mean that they made it partway down the river but hadn’t made it to Rosemoor. With that, she headed back up the river.