Illusion of Luck (13 page)

“
Does this room have
wireless?” she said.

“
I think so,” said Greg. He
hadn’t cared. He had planned to spend all night making love to his
wife—not browsing the web.

Rebecca opened her case, took out the
laptop, and turned it on.

She went to the site and found Barry
Undermine’s page.

“
No new chapters.
Sorry.”

“
I’ll call the police,” said
Greg. “And report her missing.” He took out his cell
phone.

“
It’s too soon to file a
missing persons report,” said Rebecca. “She could have just changed
her mind. You know—the old runaway bride scenario.”

“
But we know better,” said
Greg. “We know this guy took her. You have proof in his
book.”

“
Think about it, Greg,” said
Sandy. “Think about how it’s going to sound to the
police.”

“
We’ve got to find her
ourselves,” said Rebecca. “Because the longer she’s gone, the less
likely she’ll ever be found. And the more likely he’ll…”

“
You think he’ll
kill
her?” said
Greg.

“
I don’t know,” she said.
“But we know he’s already killed at least one person.” She saw the
bouquet of red roses on the shelf and nodded at them. “Did you buy
those?”

Greg and Sandy turned around to see what
Rebecca was looking at.

“
No,” said Greg. “I hadn’t
even noticed them.” He hadn’t noticed
anything
about the room but
the
bed
.

Sandy walked to the bouquet and picked it
up. “The card says, ‘to Greg and Cynthia,’ but it doesn’t say who
it’s from.”

Rebecca walked to where Sandy was standing
and studied the flowers and the vase. She ran her fingers along the
inside of the vase and found something. “Look at this.” She held up
a tiny object.

“
What is it?” said
Greg.

“
It’s a bug. That’s how he
knew what you were doing.”

“
But how did he get Cynthia
to go with him?” said Greg. “And why didn’t she scream?”

“
He probably had a gun
pointed at her,” said Sandy.

Greg couldn’t bear the thought of his
precious baby in such danger.

Rebecca walked back to her laptop. “All we
can do is wait.”

Chapter
17

It was just after 1:30 AM on Sunday morning
when Larry exited I-45 and pulled over at Bill’s 24-Hour Coffee
Shop.

Cynthia noticed the ‘Free Wireless’ neon
sign in the window.

“
Hungry?” Larry sounded
almost human, cordial.

“
No.”

“
Well, we’re going to be
here for a while, so you might want to reconsider.”

When they walked in, Cynthia thought the
coffee smelled good. But the cigarette smoke didn’t. She read the
limited menu, which was posted on the wall behind the counter. A
single cup of coffee was one dollar. A never-ending cup was $1.99.
Looking around at the patrons, Cynthia doubted any of them opted
for the single cup.

There was a 300-pound bearded man in an
undersized plaid shirt and jeans sitting at a table with a skinny
guy in a white T-shirt and a faded Chicago Bulls cap. Truckers, she
thought.

On the other side of the room was a very old
couple, smoking and sipping coffee. They sat in silence, staring
at nothing in particular. Their sad, worn faces seemed to know
their shriveled bodies would be laid to rest soon.

Larry selected a booth in the rear and they
sat down. He took out his laptop and opened it. Then he lit his
pipe and began to puff on it.

“
I need to go to the ladies
room,” said Cynthia.

“
Okay.”

She picked up her purse and started to
go.

“
Wait.” He pointed to her
purse. “Dump everything out on the table.”

She frowned, but obeyed him.

He fingered through the pile and picked up
her cell phone and said, “Okay. And by the way, the watch has a
little mike in it.” He grabbed the small earpiece that had been
dangling on a wire running out the top of his shirt. He smiled at
her as he put it in his ear.

Cynthia tried to act as if she couldn’t care
less. She put the stuff back into her purse and walked to the
bathroom.

Larry logged in, and began reading comments
from his fans. He didn’t even look up when the waitress arrived for
his order. “The never-ending coffee,” he said in a rude voice.
“That’s all, for now.”

Cathy didn’t appreciate his attitude. Just
because she was a few years past her prime didn’t give him the
right to treat her that way. Ten years ago, she thought, or maybe
twenty, he would have been drooling all over her tight body. Every
day she heard her mother’s voice:

Mark my words, Cathy. You’re gonna to live
to regret dropping out of college. The tips are great right now,
but one day they’ll start to dry up. And then what are you going to
do?

Shut up, Mama, she thought.
The loss of income didn’t bother her nearly as much as the loss of
respect. Or, maybe she never really had gotten any
respect
. But at
least the bozos used to
lust
for her. These days she got no validation
whatsoever.

Larry was elated by all the
positive comments. Wait until they read the
next
chapter, he
thought.

Cathy delivered the coffee pot and poured
his first cup. He watched her walk away, but was unimpressed by the
view.

The next comment was different from the
others.

I am a serious student of literature, so
please do not think it trivial when I proclaim my adoration for
you. Your writing invigorates my inner being. With every syllable
of every word, I find my soul increasingly engorged by the powerful
stroke of your pen. You may find the intensity of my passion
inexplicable. But I assure you it is quite real.

Thence, it is incumbent that I seek a
rendezvous, so that I may bask in the radiance of your fertile
mind, while you explore the wonders of my virginal body.

Your fervent admirer, Chaucey.

Larry didn’t know whether the woman was
crazy or just really turned on. But he wasn’t too surprised his
writing could have such an affect on a woman.

She had included her picture. Chaucey was a
breathtakingly beautiful, sexy young woman.

But
his
love was only for
Cynthia.

What was taking her so long? He rushed to
the ladies room and discretely slipped in.

Cynthia was standing at the
mirror staring at herself. “This is the
ladies
room. Do you
mind?”

Larry looked around. He checked each stall.
Then he checked again—but this time he went inside each one to look
at the back of the door. “What’s this?”

Cynthia didn’t answer.

“
Did you really think you
could get away with this? Wet some paper towels and get in here and
clean it off.”

Cynthia had used an eyebrow pencil to
write:

Please call the police. I
have been abducted by Larry Luzor. Cynthia Blockerman
Tenorly
.

She had added her Social Security number at
the bottom.

He waited while she wiped off her message.
Then he checked it. “Now, scribble all over the door.”

She followed his orders, erasing every
discernible trace of her cry for help.

“
Now, you will go back out
there and behave. Right?”

She frowned at him. “Right.”

She’ll come around, he thought. She just
needs time.

When they walked out of the ladies room
everyone was still in their places. They apparently hadn’t seen or
heard anything.

Larry sat down on his side of the table and
began typing on his laptop.

Cynthia took her place across from him.
After a few seconds she decided a little rest might make her feel
better. For now, she would give up on getting away. She would think
more clearly after a nap.

**********

Greg sat on the edge of the bed with his
head bowed, and prayed silently.

Oh, God, please don’t let anything happen to
Cynthia. You gave her to me, Lord. You wanted us to be together,
didn’t you? I beg you to protect her. Please don’t let him hurt
her.

“
We’ll find her, Buddy,”
said Sandy.

“
If anything happens to her
I’ll never forgive myself.”

“
I know. But it
wasn’t
your
fault.”

Greg stood up. “Maybe
it
was
.”

Rebecca looked up from her laptop.

“
What are you talking
about,” said Sandy.

“
Remember when I got that
call on the night of the rehearsal?”

“
Oh, yeah—the prank call.”
said Sandy.

“
Maybe it wasn’t a prank.
And I got another call after that. I missed the second one, but he
left a message.”

“
You didn’t tell me
about
that
one,” said Sandy.

“
What did the guy say?” said
Rebecca.

“
He said there were things I
didn’t know about Cynthia and that she would rip my heart
out.”

“
Okay, that’s good to know,”
said Rebecca.

“
Why?” said Greg.

“
Because it sounds very much
like what’s in the book. And if that’s the guy who took her—and I
think it is—then he has a
romantic
interest in
Cynthia.”

Greg looked puzzled.

“
Why do you say that?” said
Sandy.

“
When Greg got those calls,
he thought they were a prank. But they were
really
an attempt by the caller
to get Greg to postpone or cancel the wedding,” she
said.

Greg and Sandy looked at each other, both
waiting for the other to talk first.

Rebecca got up and walked to
where they were standing. “Don’t you see, Greg? He wanted you out
of her life so
he
could have her.”

“
You really think that’s
it?” said Sandy.

“
Sure. And when his calls
didn’t work and Greg married her anyway, he had to go to Plan B:
steal her away before the marriage was consummated.”

Sandy grimaced. “How do you know it wasn’t
already consum—“

“—
it wasn’t,” said
Greg.

“
But, look on the bright
side, Greg,” she said. “If he’s in love with her, he won’t want
to
hurt
her.”

Greg tried to perk up. “Yeah…I guess
not…”

“
Until she rejects him,”
said Sandy.

Rebecca slapped Sandy across the
shoulder.

“
I’m sorry, Greg,” said
Sandy.

Rebecca walked back to her laptop. “Hey. He
posted a new chapter.”

“
What does it say?” said
Greg.

“
Let’s see…yes, he talks
about putting the bug in the vase…and about making the phony
call…and the abduction of his beloved redhead. They’re headed south
on I-45 toward Houston.”

“
But how do we know he’s not
feeding us bad information?” said Greg.

Rebecca grinned. “Because he
doesn’t know that
we
know his pseudonym—Barry
Undermine.”

“
How
do
we know that?” said
Greg.

Sandy jumped in. “She found it in a trashcan
when she broke into his house.”

“
What?” Greg didn’t know
what to think of Sandy’s new friend.

“
It’s okay,” said Sandy.
“Rebecca is a lawyer
and
a private eye.”

Rebecca closed her laptop and jumped up.
“Let’s head for Houston, Guys.”

“
But we don’t know exactly
where he’s going,” said Sandy. “And if he goes to Houston—that’s a
big city.”

“
Well, at least we know
his
general
direction
,” said Greg as he
rushed toward the door.

“
Yeah,” said Rebecca. “He’s
going
down
.”

Chapter
18

Cathy, the nightshift waitress at Bill’s
24-Hour Coffee Shop, walked to the booth in the back and started
cleaning up Larry’s mess. She was not at all surprised by his lousy
tip.

He had sat there on his computer for nearly
three hours, sucking down three pots of coffee and devouring four
apple crumb muffins. The stench of his smoldering pipe tobacco
would take hours to dissipate.

She could tell that the redhead didn’t want
to be there. Cathy didn’t blame her. And the woman never even had
anything to eat or drink. The jerk probably wouldn’t allow it.

There was a napkin on the woman’s side of
the table that had been used and neatly refolded. Odd, she thought.
She picked it up, opened it, and saw smeared mascara. She had
thought the woman might have been crying. Probably being abused.
Cathy knew something about that. Leave him, Honey—he’ll never
change.

**********

It was 6:02 AM when Greg
pulled into the IHop parking lot in The Woodlands. Funny name for a
city, he thought:
The
Woodlands. Why not
just
Woodlands?
But he didn’t really care what the name of the city was. He
just wanted to get Cynthia back—safe and sound.