Diners, Dives & Dead Ends (29 page)

“Or,” I said, “he’s keeping
Axton in his own home.”

“He could keep an eye on him
that way,” Roxy said.

“Especially since you’ve
been running around asking questions at different NorthStar businesses,” Eric
said.

I nodded.  “That’s what I
was thinking.  I’m sure Henry took me to Sullivan’s house the night he snatched
me—”

“Whoa, what now?” Eric
asked.

Whoops.  Forgot to tell him
about that. 

“Henry threw her in the back
of the car and took her to see Sullivan who threatened her.”  Roxy blew over
the surface of her coffee.  “Again.”

Eric stood and walked to the
window, his hands thrust in the pockets of his jeans.  “You didn’t think this
was important enough to mention?”

Roxy popped her gum.  “She
didn’t tell me about it right away either.”

“Can we have ‘let’s all yell
at Rose time’ later?” I asked.  “I want to narrow down Sullivan’s properties.”

Eric rubbed his stubble.  “But
if you know where he lives—”

“I was kind of blindfolded.”

Roxy stopped chewing
mid-chomp.  “Anything else you left out?”

“I saw his decorated library,
he threatened me, he served me whiskey, then I came home.  End of story.” 

“Then you have no clue which
direction you were going?” Eric asked.

“No, but I know we took the
highway to get there, and we drove no longer than thirty minutes.”

“Even if we found the place,
he probably has it under major surveillance.”

I took a sip of coffee. 
“Probably.”

“I can get us in, but not
without setting off alarms,” Roxy said.

Eric started to look
optimistic.  “If there’s an alarm, I could hack in and disable it for say,
twenty minutes.  Would that give you enough time?”

“Definitely,” Roxy said.

I started to feel a little
sick to my stomach.  Yes, this was my idea.  But breaking into Sullivan’s place
made me very, very nervous.  So many things could go wrong.  And knowing me,
they probably would.

“I’m going home.”  Eric
shrugged into his coat and put on his cap.  “When should we meet back up?”

“How about tomorrow after we
close?  What about Steve?  Will he help?”

Eric nodded.  “Yeah, I think
so.  We’ll meet you at the diner at two-thirty.  That’ll give me time to go
over the list of properties.  Maybe something will jump out.”

“Sounds good,” Roxy said. 

They left and I was alone in
the apartment, going stir crazy.

The next morning at work, I
was such a nervous Nellie that I screwed up orders, spilled coffee, and
received very little tippage.  I barely noticed.  My brain spun with the many
ways our plan could go awry.  We could break into the wrong house, Sullivan
could be home, Sullivan could take us all hostage, Henry could shoot us in the
face.   

Ma flipped the closed sign
and patted my shoulder.  “Don’t be nervous, toots.  Things are going to be
okay.  Besides, it’s kind of exciting.”

I didn’t find it exciting. 
I found it scary as hell.

At two-thirty on the dot, the
boys walked into the diner.  Eric looked like a kid on Christmas morning, Steve
looked worried. 

“Rose, can we talk for a
second?” he asked.

“Sure.”

He glanced at the others. 
“Alone?”

I walked with him outside and
crossed my arms against the chilly breeze.  “Steve, you don’t have to be a part
of this.  It’s okay if you want out.”

He looked down at me, his
dark brown eyes full of concern.  “Eric told me Sullivan kidnapped you,
threatened you.  Why didn’t you tell me?”

I was sort of taken aback. 
“I didn’t tell anyone, not even Roxy at first.”

“Don’t feel like you have to
hide things from me, okay?”

First Kevin, now Steve.  I
was tired of intense guys who couldn’t take a hint.  And I didn’t have time to
worry about Steve’s delicate feelings, so I smiled.  “Sure.  No more hiding.”

I walked back inside and moved
two tables together and shoved chairs around.  Ma served us Rice Krispies
Treats and apple juice.  Perfect for preschool snack time or when planning a
break in. 

“This is such a hoot,” she said.

“Thanks for coming, you
guys,” I said.  “But I don’t want anyone to feel obligated to do this.”

Steve pushed up his glasses. 
“I’m in.  Anything I can do to help get Axton back.”

“Breaking into Sullivan’s
house is highly illegal and very dangerous and we might get caught and Axton
may not be there—”

Ma touched my shoulder.  “Be
quiet, toots.  We know the risks.”

“Okay,” Eric said.  “I
narrowed the properties down to two, both out in the country.”  He pulled two
pieces of paper out of his computer bag and handed them to me.  “I looked them
up on Google Earth.  Which one do you think is more likely?”

One house was close to the
street, the other had a long narrow road leading to a circular driveway.  I
closed my eyes and tried to remember my bumpy blindfolded ride.  “I think there
was gravel.  I remember a curve before the car stopped.”  I looked back down at
the aerial maps.  I handed him the one with the circular driveway.  “This one,
I think.”  I hoped.

Eric powered up his laptop. 
“I pulled the blueprints from the zoning commission.”

I rubbed my eyes and
sighed.  “You hacked into the zoning commission?”

He just smiled.  “Okay, look
at this.”  He shifted the screen toward Roxy and me.  Ma crowded in, squashing
my shoulder until I moved my chair over and gave her some room.  “This could be
the library they took you to.”  He glanced up.  “Do you know if it was on the
first floor?”

“Yeah, it was.”

“Good.  There are six
bedrooms.  Four upstairs, two down.  Axton may be in one of them.”  He hit a
few keys.  “Then there’s the basement.  The door is here, next to the pantry in
the kitchen.  Any questions?”

“What should we search
first?” I asked. 

“We should start downstairs,”
Roxy said, “work our way up and search the basement last.”  Then she grinned. 
“It’s been too long.  Do you feel it, Rose?  The rush?”

I shook my head.  I didn’t
feel a rush.  I felt the need to hurl.  “Are we sure this is the right move?” 
I scanned their faces.  They didn’t seem fazed we were about to commit a very
serious crime.

“It’s your call,” Eric said,
“but the longer Sullivan has Axton, the more worried I get.  And the dean said
if Ax didn’t show up tomorrow, he shouldn’t bother showing up at all.”

“He’s been gone for over a
week,” Roxy said.

I took a deep breath and
slowly blew it out.  “Okay, let’s do it.”

“Right,” Eric said, rubbing
his hands together, “we’ll be in Steve’s Explorer on the edge of the property. 
You two,” he nodded at Roxy and me, “will have to run through a wooded area,
here.”  He pointed to the aerial map.  “I’ll hack into their mainframe and
disengage—” 

To tell you the truth it got
very technical at that point.  All I knew was the computer geniuses decided to
temporarily disable the alarm instead of turning it off completely.

 “So you guys will bypass
the alarm and Roxy and I will sneak in.”

“We’ll hook you up with
headphones with a microphone attached.  You’ll tell us if you need a diversion
or if you get caught.  We’ll have your back.”

We agreed to reconvene at
Eric’s house at ten p.m.  Project Rescue Axton was a go.

I was about to walk out with
Roxy when my phone rang.  It was Jacks and she was crying.

“I’ll be right there,” I
said. 

I knew Jacks was going to be
angry with me, she always was when Barbara and I weren’t getting along.  It was
easier for her to blame me than confront my mom.  I’d already been through the
wringer the last couple days and wasn’t looking forward to any more
confrontations, but she was my sister and I loved her.  It was time to put on
my big girl pants.

For once Scotty didn’t
answer the door.  Jacks greeted me with a red nose, watery eyes, and splotchy
skin.  She wasn’t a pretty crier.

“I heard your talk with dad
didn’t go so well.”

“No, I guess it didn’t.”  I
stepped inside the foyer.  Sunlight shone through the windows, leaving bright
lines of light on the marbled floor.  The house smelled like furniture polish
and disinfectant, so I knew the maid had been by earlier.

“Dad’s very upset,” Jacks
said, with a sniff.

“I hear that’s going
around.”

She gave me a look.  “I
thought you’d listen to him.”

“You sent him?”  I assumed
my mom gave him those marching orders.

“I thought he might be able
to calm the situation down.  Do you want some coffee?”  She walked to the
kitchen and I followed.

She poured me a cup and
topped off her own.  She rubbed a tissue against her red nose.  “This whole
thing has been very distressing.” 

“I can see that.”

“Dad’s angry because you
were so disrespectful.  Mom’s barely talking to me.  She’s mad because I didn’t
tell her you’re dating Dane.  Then he calls and he’s all worked up about your
place getting vandalized.  Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Jacks—”

“And you know when Mom’s
pissed off like this, Dad is too.  So now he’s doubly upset.”  She took another
sip of coffee.  “I don’t want to be in the middle of this.” 

I hated when my sister
cried.  And I hated she was in the middle of this family drama.  But I hadn’t
put her there, my mother had.   

Old anger resurfaced.  Anger
at my mom for holding the family hostage with her icy temper all these years.  Anger
at my dad for acting like her little lap dog.  And anger at my sister for
letting my mom control her.  

I set my cup down a little
too hard and coffee sloshed out onto the counter.  “Mom’s upset?  Dad’s upset? 
Are you freaking kidding me?” 

She pulled another tissue
from the box by her elbow and delicately blew her nose.  “Of course I’m not
kidding.  I get so stressed out when everyone’s like this. Why can’t we all just
get along?”

I looked at her like she had
told me that clouds are made of delicious marshmallow fluff.  “Because, Rodney
King, we can’t.”

“Why do you have to be so
difficult?”

“How is this my fault?  What
did I do wrong?”

“Let’s not get into this,
Rose.”

“I think it’s the perfect
time to get into it, Jacks.  How am I difficult?”

She put her hand to her
temple.  “I don’t want to do this.”

She wouldn’t look me in the
eye.  So I kept at her, like a little kid picking a scab.

“How am I difficult, Jacks?”

She finally met my gaze. 
“You always have to provoke Mom.  Why can’t you just do what she wants?  I
mean, I did and is my life so bad?  I have a husband and a child.  What do you
have?  You live in a hovel.  You’re a waitress, for God’s sake.  You have no
one to love you.  Thumbing your nose at Mom and Dad really paid off, didn’t
it?”  Her voice had gotten louder and louder as she spoke. 

Feeling like I had been
sucker punched, I left the kitchen and headed for the front door. 

Jacks scurried after me. 
“I’m sorry, Rose.  I didn’t mean it.”  Fresh tears ran down her cheeks.

“Yes you did.  And you’re
right.”

“No I’m not, Rose.  You’re
just more independent than I am.  You live your life your way.”

“Bullshit, Jacqueline.  You
think I’m a loser.”  I looked around the foyer of her beautiful home.  “And
you’re right.  I’m dead broke and don’t know what I want to do with my life. 
I’ve been pissing around taking random classes trying to figure it all out. 
And I date other losers because that’s all I can attract.”

Jacks shook her head and
sniffed.  “No.”

“I know what Mom and Dad
think of me, but I never thought you saw me like that.”  I pulled open the door
and left, swiping at a tear as I ran to my car.

I spent the next hour
sitting on my new futon feeling sorry for myself.  Axton was gone—it wasn’t his
fault, but I really needed him right now.  And I needed Jacks, too.  I pushed
for the truth, and I didn’t have any right to complain, but I still felt
abandoned by the people I loved when I needed them the most.

I stood and started to
pace.  My frayed thoughts took me from Jacks and my broken relationship with my
parents, to worrying about Axton and breaking into Sullivan’s house.  A week
ago, I thought my life was boring.  Now I prayed for boring.

As I wore down the nubby
carpet, there was a knock at my door.  I grabbed Sparky before I looked out of
the peephole.  Two delivery men in red t-shirts stood on my doorstep.