Charleston with a Clever Cougar: A Dance with Danger Mystery #6 (14 page)

Doug called Mimi. Said FBI called him --
children & ex-wife in danger. Warned her not do anything
foolish. Took off with Daisy. Still trying to locate them. Don’t
tell Carole.

I didn’t do a very good job of keeping a
poker face. Carole knew something was wrong, so I tried to distract
her.

“Doc. We had a little tiff earlier. He’s mad
at me.” I threw in some of the lines from my very real fight with
Doc about the date, figuring I could use the afternoon’s drama to
keep Carole from thinking about her missing daughter. She tried to
give me advice about Doc, telling me to give him a chance. I let
her talk me into going out on a date with him. When I got done
playing my part, I got up to use the powder room.

The doorbell rang while I was washing my
hands. I couldn’t hear who was at the door because of the overhead
fan, so I sacrificed light for the opportunity to listen to the
conversation just outside the door. I was hoping it was Doc and
Daisy, but it didn’t sound like it. Carole’s voice had an edge to
it. And then I could hear panic mixed in with the anger.

“What are you going to do to us?” Those were
ominous words. In the dark, I stood frozen. Mimi had brought Daisy
home at gunpoint.

My fingers fumbled on the phone as I dialed
Doc. I didn’t trust myself to text him. I needed to hear his
voice.

“They’re here,” I whispered. “What do I do?
She has a gun!
”

“I’ll call the local police. You stay where
you are.”

I could hear Mimi in the living room. She was
forcing Daisy to duct tape Carole’s hands and feet. The teenager
was sobbing, begging her mother to forgive her. Carole was almost
eerily calm. As Mimi’s voice rose in pitch and volume, Carole’s
grew softer.

“Don’t worry, Daisy. I know it’s not your
fault. You’re a good daughter.”

“I don’t want to die,” sobbed the terrified
teenager. “Please!”

“Shut up! Shut up!
Shut up!
” the
frazzled stepmother screamed.

Once Carole was restrained, Mimi wanted Daisy
to do the same thing to her little brother, and that meant going
upstairs to retrieve the sleeping boy. This was too much for a girl
on the verge of womanhood. Daisy begged her stepmother not to hurt
the family. Mimi ignored the pleas.

“Hurry up!” she shouted. “Get the little brat
now or I’ll shoot you in the knees. You won’t die right away. The
pain will be excruciating.”

Why go to the trouble of taping their arms
and legs together? Why wake up a second-grader from his pleasant
dreams and force him downstairs, where he would know only the sheer
terror as he faced his death? Why force Daisy to do her dirty work?
Power. Revenge. Mimi had come to Old Saybrook, first to eliminate
Doug’s daughter, and then, when the plan imploded in her face, to
extract revenge on the innocent for ruining it for her. She wanted
her victims to feel helpless as she killed them, one by one. Doug
would have to live with the horror of knowing his family was
murdered because he made Mimi mad.

I heard them go up the stairs, Daisy wailing
as she went, Mimi screaming at her to be quiet. I could even hear
them moving around as Daisy woke her little brother up. Taking
advantage of the moment, I ran to the front door, my hands fumbling
with the knob. A patrol car was just arriving. I stumbled out to
meet the cops, leaving the door open as I fled.

“Wait in the car!” commanded one cop over his
shoulder, passing me. Three cops made their way up to the front
door cautiously. I was too scared to get in the car. I hovered
behind it, watching, listening, praying. I could see the police
moving silently, carefully into the condo. Slipping inside, they
scattered. One went into the powder room. One ducked into the
kitchen. The third disappeared in the direction of the living
room.

Still upstairs, the sounds of Daisy sobbing
cut through the night.

“No, please!” she cried. “I’ll carry him!
Don’t hurt him!””

A moment later, I saw feet on the stairs. The
teenager appeared with her younger brother enfolded in her
arms.

“What the hell?” Mimi came down the stairs
behind her, her gun in Daisy’s back. “Why is that door open?”

Reassured that Carole was still on the sofa
and still restrained, Mimi dragged Dylan and Daisy into the front
hall at gunpoint, so she could close the door. The last thing she
expected was three cops pointing their weapons at the back of her
head, especially when Dylan and Daisy, forewarned, dropped straight
to the floor, leaving Mimi without her hostages.

“Hands up!” bellowed one cop.

“Show me your hands!” screamed another.

I watched it all through the open doorway as
I leaned against the patrol car, my knees weak, my heart pounding.
The night exploded in a kaleidoscope of blue and red flashing
lights as more police cars pulled up and cops rushed the house. The
look of surprise on Mimi’s face was frozen in place, like some
twisted death mask. With a howl of anguish, Mimi complied as
uniformed officers moved in on her. The stepmother from hell gave
up the fight. Just in time, too. As the local cops were cuffing
her, a cavalcade of federal law enforcement vehicles converged on
the condo complex. Agents poured out of their vehicles en masse.
The next thing we knew, the Walchuk home was crowded with law
enforcement people. For more than an hour, they came and went. Even
the press showed up, wanting to interview Carole and Daisy, who
declined. I was positioned at the front door as gatekeeper. When
Doc arrived, he grabbed me and held me tight.

“I’m glad you’re okay, babe,” he whispered in
my ear.

“Is it finally over?” I wondered. It still
seemed unreal.

Doc made his way through the law enforcement
gauntlet surrounding the family and gave Daisy a big bear hug,
telling her it was all going to be okay. The tearful teenager clung
to him, as if she were a drowning swimmer washing up on the rocks.
When she finally let go, Doc made his way over to the remaining
Walchuks as they sat on the sofa. Mussing up Dylan’s hair with a
friendly hand as the boy clung to his mother, Doc greeted
Carole.

“You okay?”

“I think so. It’s been a hell of a
night.”

“It has,” he agreed. “It can only get better
from this point on.”

“I hope you’re right, Doc.” She gave him a
weak little smile, pulling her children closer.

Doug showed up, babies in tow, forty minutes
later. He seemed stunned, not only because his current wife was
under arrest for attempted murder, but because he nearly lost his
ex-wife and children. He was a man out of his depth, overwhelmed by
his bad choices and dumb decisions. One of these days, his selfish
impulses were going to be called into account, but at the moment,
he had his arms around Carole and he was profusely apologizing. Doc
and I had taken the babies from him, so he could embrace his first
family. Doc settled himself into the big recliner, a baby in each
arm. The little creature wiggling in my embrace gurgled happily,
feet kicking, as I leaned against the arm of the chair. It was a
relief to know Mimi was in custody. Everyone was safe.

By one o’clock, Doc had helped Doug set up a
playpen on the floor of my spare bedroom, where one of the babies
would sleep next to the experienced medic. A second baby would
sleep in a pop-up travel crib. The third would sleep in another
travel crib in my bedroom, with me as babysitter. We child-proofed
the rooms quickly, making sure there were no hazards. Once Doug was
certain the babies were safe, he was in a hurry to get back to
Carole, Daisy and Dylan. Doc and I had all three babies in my
bedroom as we got them ready for bed.

“That man’s made a real mess of his life,”
Doc commented, as he changed the third diaper, and then swaddled
the youngster in a set of footed cotton pajamas. “He won’t be
digging himself out of that hole any time soon.”

Chapter Fourteen --

It was true. I saw it first hand for myself.
In the morning, Doug arrived to get Alana, Alexia, and Alicia ready
for the day with Doc’s help. As they wrestled the twelve wriggling
limbs that resisted yet another diaper change, I left the men to it
and popped over to the Walchuck house. It was a relief to escape
the chaos of three busy babies, but the silence that met me when I
entered was unsettling. Dylan was sucking his thumb, reluctant to
leave his mother’s embrace. Daisy, too, just wanted to cuddle with
her mother on the sofa. The three faces looked up at me with great
trepidation. They had had a terrible shock. The rug had been yanked
out from under their emotional feet. I took a page from Doc’s
handbook.

“How about I make us all some breakfast?” I
offered. “It’s nearly eight. Daisy, we’ll have to leave for the
shop by eight-thirty.”

“I can’t go,” she told me. “I’m too
upset.”

Carole’s eyes pleaded with me silently. Do
something. Say something. Make sense of all this madness.

“Look, I know what Mimi did was horrible,
Daisy. I won’t deny that. But if we let her intimidate us, she
wins. She tried to ruin your lives. She failed. You saved your
little brother last night. I saw you drop to the floor at just the
right moment. You did a good thing. You’re stronger than you think
you are. You’re smarter, too,” I insisted. “And now it’s time for
you to help me make some French toast. Come on.”

With my hand outstretched, I reached for the
reluctant teenager as Carole gave me a faint smile.

“What about him?” She pointed to her little
brother.

“The difference between you and Dylan is that
he’s still a little kid, Daze. He isn’t capable of understanding
just how crazy and dumb some adults can be,” I told her as we
headed for the kitchen. “You, on the other hand, are almost a
college student. You can see how things get out of hand when adults
make bad decisions.”

“Cady?” Daisy stopped me as I took a carton
of eggs and a jug of milk from the refrigerator. “Why did Mimi hate
me that much?”

“Hate you?”

“She hired those guys to kill me. And then
she tried to kill me herself last night. She was going to shoot
me.”

“I don’t think she hated you at all, Cady. I
think she wanted your money.”

“I have money?”

“Your parents have put aside money for your
college tuition and expenses. Mimi wasn’t thinking clearly. It was
all about her, about her desires. I think she told herself that if
she could get her hands on your money, she could get herself out of
trouble. She gave herself permission to kill you so as to solve her
problems. That’s never the right way to do things.”

“I never saw my dad cry before,” she
confided, pulling down plates from the cabinet shelf as I heated up
the fry pan. “It was kind of weird.”

“He seems overwhelmed with all his
responsibilities, Daze.”

“Those babies are a handful.”

“Yes, even more so now that Mimi’s going to
jail.”

“What’s he going to do?”

“I assume he’ll do the right thing, for those
babies, for you, Dylan, and your mom, and for himself. It’s a royal
mess and he needs to get it solved.”

“Do you think he and Mom will get back
together again?”

“At the moment, Daze, things are too
complicated. Your mom needs to figure out what she needs. And you
can’t wish away the fact that your dad made some really bad
decisions that hurt the people he loves. It’s going to take some
time to get it all sorted out. It won’t happen overnight. Life
isn’t a romantic fairy tale, with a magic wand to wave away the
pain. It takes hard work to fix things. It takes real effort. But
it’s worth it in the end. When everything is put right and people
have what they truly need, they’re stronger for it, better for
it.”

“In other words, I shouldn’t wish that Dad
could move in here with us, even if it means putting up with the
babies?”

“It means that you have to be patient and be
willing to respect what both your parents need. Your dad is still
your dad, and he’s going to need help with those babies. It’s his
job to figure that out. Your mom has to do what is right for her.
Those aren’t her babies, Daze. She may not want the responsibility
of helping your dad.”

“Mimi really was a terrible person, wasn’t
she?”

“She was, but it always takes two to tango,
as they say. I think when your mom got cancer, it scared your dad
so much, he just abandoned his good sense. He got busy making a new
life, instead of living the one he had with your mom. The trouble
is he didn’t look hard enough at the real Mimi, because he wanted
in that make-believe fairy tale.”

“He just wanted the fun, without the hard
work.” Out of the mouth of babes. I stacked the pieces of French
toast on a piece of aluminum foil, wrapped them up, and put them in
the warm oven before starting the next batch.

“Sometimes people don’t want to believe the
truth about someone they care for, Daze, because it means they’ll
have to deal with the problem, whether it’s cancer or utter
selfishness.”

”I’m still mad that Dad left us,” Daisy
admitted. I could see it bothered her that she could have such
mixed emotions about someone she loved. “He should have thought
more about us, instead of that witch.”

“He should have. That was a big part of the
problem. He didn’t think.”

“Mimi tried to kill me,” Daisy said again. I
knew it would take time for the horror of all that to fade enough
for Daisy to grasp its reality and process it. “That wasn’t
fair.”

“I don’t think it was even about you. You
weren’t a person to her, with feelings, hopes, dreams. You stood in
the way of her having the lifestyle she wanted. She told herself
that if you weren’t around, she’d have a better life, so she went
ahead and made plans to get rid of you.”

“That was mean.”

“It was self-absorbed. Mimi saw herself as
more important than everyone else, more entitled. No one ever said
no to her or stood up to her bullying.”