In Her Way (14 page)

18

Search and Rescue

"Yes, I'm a witness and I think my Marshal is in danger." She takes in a deep breath after she says this, her eyes crowd with tears and I hope that's a good sign, hope that means they're taking her seriously. I always feel like crying when I'm in a bad situation and someone finally comes to help.

"His name is Andrew Kennedy. This is Kaylee Tay -- Yes, it's me. Again." Her face tightens. Oh no. Was she right? Are they really not going to believe her? But then her features go soft and she sighs as she says, "Yeah, his house. We had an appointment for me to get a new phone and he never showed, so I went to his place and the door was kicked in. Everything was a mess and there was some blood on the ground." After that Kaylee does a lot of listening and says, "Okay" a bunch. She tells them about me, gives them my address, and then she hangs up.

I lean forward. "What did they say?"

"They're going to send someone out. We should stay where we are. We should definitely not go to Andrew's place until they come get us. They will arrive in a blue sedan with government plates and we should not allow anyone in who does not arrive in a blue sedan with government plates." She rattles off the list the person on the phone must've given her.

"Okay." I let out the breath I was holding during the call, but don't feel better for some reason. "Now we wait."

"Yep."

I look around. "And their office was in Seattle? So that'll be at least an hour."

Kaylee nods. "One more hour."

"Or more." I can't help but close my eyes and think of Andrew, hope he's still alive, hope the hours are being kind to him. "But, at least we've done the right thing. We've taken the first step." I feign a smile at Kaylee who only nods.

We wait patiently for all of five minutes before Kaylee turns to me and says, "We should go there."

"Where? Andrew's? They just told us not to." I stammer the words out, trying to sound angry even though that's really the only thing I've been able to think about ever since she hung up the phone.

"I mean, maybe we can find something. I know the case really well, I was part of it. Maybe they left a clue I didn't see when I was there the first time. I ran out of there super fast because I was worried they might be hanging around."

I lean in closer. "Do you think they would've left a clue?"

Kaylee shrugs. "How will we know unless we go check?" She looks at the clock on my wall. "You said yourself that they are at least an hour away in the city. What if we go there and make it back before they get here?"

I bite at my lower lip as I think. At this point we're at least two hours into Andrew's missing-hood. I also had to sit for an hour in the car and I'm not about to repeat that here while we wait for these Marshals to arrive.

"Plus, this is probably all my fault and I really want to try to help Andrew. All he's ever done is to be nice and help me. I feel like such a pain and I would hate if anything happened to him when I could've helped."

"Okay. Let's do it." I stand up.

Kaylee lets out an excited squeal and jumps up next to me.

I look at her for a second and wave at her mascara-covered face. "But you need to give it a little bit of a wipe or else I think we're going to have a pack of bats following us the whole way, Princess of Darkness."

She laughs and runs into the bathroom, but not before stopping at my coffee table, collecting the bracelets I made her take off the other day, narrowing her eyes at me as if to say, "Just try to get these away from me this time."

Moments later we're on our way over to Andrew's place.

He lives on the other side of town, on a quiet street in a dark gray house with white trim and a well-kept front yard. I know Kaylee's said, "Andrew's house" before, but the fact that it's a house surprises me. I figured a guy with his profession would be moving around a lot, wouldn't want to be tied down, and any of those other straight-out-of-a-movie-stereotypes you want to add in.

The biggest thing I notice, however, is how "Andrew" it all feels. It's clean, pretty old fashioned and traditional, pleasant to look at, and it definitely makes me want to spend some time here. And dang-it if seeing where he spends his days doesn't make my whole body twist up in a new bout of worry, sickness, and regret.

We park across the street and walk over only once we've checked that there are no suspicious looking cars or people anywhere around. The door is closed, but once we get closer I can see the splintered wood around the lock.

"I closed it before I left because I didn't think Andrew wanted any animals or people just walking in."

I nod and Kaylee pushes it open.

My whole body seems to react to what I see inside. Hearing about it from Kaylee was one thing, picturing all the scenarios in my mind was another, but actually seeing the evidence of a struggle in Andrew's house is such a physical thing that I immediately feel like I'm going to throw up. And then I see the blood. She was right, it's not a lot, but it's there. It's blood and it's supposed to be in Andrew's body, not on the light oak hardwood floor of his living room.

Luckily I hate throwing up more than most anything in the world and so my body, even if it might feel like it needs to, usually takes care of things until the feeling subsides. When it does, though, all I'm left with is the terror and worry as I help Kaylee look around the place for any clues.

She's very focused on the damn blood, however, and it seems I won't be able to avoid it. Her eyes narrow and flick about on the floor, so I squat down and look, too.

There are a few definite splats, but the thing that catches my attention is that there are trickles here and there that look like something bloody bounced along that part of the floor. I show Kaylee the pattern as it travels to the right and then stops. There's nothing where it ends, though, so we go back to the splats.

And that's when I notice it. Squatted down as I am, I can see under the coffee table that's knocked slightly askew in the middle of the room. Under the table is a single white tooth.

A shiver finger-dances up my spine and I think for a minute I might lose my battle against throw up. Is it Andrew’s? I point at it and grunt to get Kaylee's attention.

"What?" She looks at me.

I crab crawl forward and pick it up to show her.

"Gross!" she screeches. "Ew! Don't pick it up." She does a grossed-out-wiggle-dance in the middle of the room.

I hold the tooth in my palm (because, dentist) and walk toward her despite her expression. We study it for a few seconds.

When Kaylee finally speaks, her voice is almost as small as the tiny clue I’m holding. "Is it Andrew’s?”

I want to die or cry or curl up in a ball. I shake my head. "I don’t know. It very well could be one of the guy's teeth." I motion to the mess around us. "One of the guys who did this?"

Kaylee jumps up and down. "We can take it to the office!"

I look at her and cock my head to the side. "Our office?"

She nods. "Yeah! Can't you like x-ray it or find the dental records of the guy it belongs to?" When I don't respond, she adds, "Like the movies."

My mouth pinches to one side and I shake my head. "Hollywood has really done a lot to perpetuate a cool-factor that does not actually exist in the field of dentistry."

"Oh," she says. "So it's just a tooth?"

"I'm afraid it is."

I place it on the counter so we can continue our search around the room, but other than it just being a big ole mess, we see no more clues.

"This isn't telling us anything."

Kaylee sighs in response. "I know. All we know is that someone lost a tooth and Andrew must've been drinking milk when they ambushed him." Her eyes narrow. "Those bastards, catching a man when he's drinking milk."

"Well..." I look around again, but can't see anything else that might help us. "Maybe there's something upstairs." I shrug my shoulders and try to hide the fact that I really just kind of want to see where Andrew sleeps and see anything else that has to do with him since I'm realizing just how much I freaking miss and am worried about him.

Kaylee mimics my shrug and follows me up the stairs. There's what looks to be a guest bedroom, a small bathroom, a workout room (which I would've loved to indulge in a little longer, but refrained), and then we find his bedroom. The hardwoods creaks as we walk around the upper floor of the well-kept but obviously older home.

Walking into Andrew's bedroom sets my skin prickling and my chest tightening. It's clean, again, not a surprise knowing him, but still nice, so cozy and nice. Not in an a-girl-decorated-this kind of way, but in a this is a man's room who's just keeping things he likes close to him.

There's a large photograph of a mountain on one wall, on another is a jumble of pictures that show him playing hockey, and then in the corner there's a keyboard. I walk over and brush my fingers over the keys and smile at the thought of Andrew bent over it, creating music.

Other than a wonderful glimpse into this man's life, however, his bedroom opens no more doors nor does it give us any clues about his current whereabouts, so Kaylee and I head back downstairs.

"What do we do now?" I ask, then answer my own question with, "I suppose we just have to wait for the Marshals back at my place."

Kaylee lets out a humph. "No." She shakes her head.

"Huh?"

"No, we're not going to go wait for them. They're just going to sit us down and ask questions and follow procedures. I remember it all. These guys who have Andrew are not going to follow any rules or wait for the right paperwork. They have our friend and we need to go find him."

I find myself nodding along. It's crazy, but this whole thing has me feeling so far from sane, so helpless that I'd pretty much follow any plan that involves actual action.

"Okay. How?"

Kaylee rubs her fingers together as she thinks. "They wouldn't take him very far away, right? They must still be in the area. Let's drive around and see what we can find."

I dip my head side to side. Okay, so that's not exactly the plan I'm hoping for, but it is something and driving is a type of action. "Right." We start to head out to the car, but I grab her shoulder and stop her. "And what if we do find them? Won't they have guns?"

She nods. "We'll call the police."

"That's when we'll call the police? And what about the time it takes them to get to us?"

Kaylee doesn't answer, but just makes a scrunched face that I take to mean she has no ideas about that.

Then it hits me. "The office. Let's go stop there first. Daddy bought Em and I a stun gun when he found out we were starting a business."

Kaylee gives me a nod and we head out to the car.

19

Office Drama

The office is just down the street, so we arrive quickly, but it takes us a moment to get our butts out of the car. Because we're not the only ones there.

Em's car
is
already in the lot. Dammit for that awesome girl doing extra work on the weekend.

Kaylee looks at me. "How do we get around her?"

I shake my head. "I can't lie right to her face about this stuff. She's going to know I'm hiding something. I'm awful at lying and she can read me too well."

"What if I just go in?"

My head continues the shake it already started. "Why would she let you take that stuff?" I pause for a moment and squint when I ask, "What if we tell her?"

Kaylee takes a deep breath and nods. "Yeah. It'll just be easier, and let's be honest, Andrew --" She pauses and her face squeezes tight. "I'm going to have to move anyway after all of this."

The sadness in her voice stabs right to my core, but I know just as well as she does that it's her only option now. We nod in unison and get out of the car. The door's unlocked so we head right in and I start calling for Em right away (you know, not wanting to scare her or anything) as I walk back toward her desk.

She pokes her head around the corner when I'm halfway to her. "Hey." Her forehead scrunches in little layers as she sees it's me. "I thought you were with the fam this weekend."

I nod, still unsure how I'm going to do this, how I'm going to say all this to Em and make it sound believable because frankly if it wasn't happening to me currently, I don't think I'd believe a word of it.

Em spots Kaylee behind me. "Oh, hey Kaylee." Her face contorts even more now as she looks from her to me and back, trying to put something together.

"We really need to talk to you." I finally get it out and follow a very confused looking Emma back to her desk where Kaylee and I sit on one side and Em plops back down in her chair.

She runs her hands up and down her arms. "Okay, what is it? You guys are totally freaking me out."

I close my eyes, trying to picture what might be the best way to say this. Which scary thing I should start with? What phrase is the least likely to make her want to get up and run away? But Kaylee beats me to it.

"Emma, I'm in Witness Protection, Andrew's a Marshal, the Russian mob is after me, but they've taken Andrew instead to try to find me so they can kill me before their appeal trial, and Jules and I need some supplies so we can go find the bastards and get Andrew back."

Kaylee nods at me and sits back. Well. Not exactly how I would've done it, but at least it's all out there now. Em looks at me and I duck my chin once in confirmation.

Her hands run through her hair and she tucks it behind her ears. She closes her eyes and shakes her head. "What? Wait. I don't -- how?"

I take a deep breath. "Em, it's all true. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but I really didn't want to compromise Kaylee's position here and things were actually going okay until Andrew disappeared. Now we have to go find him, well, hopefully."

Em's eyes wince a little as she holds my gaze. "Andrew Andrew? Sir Andrew? The mob has him?" The sadness in her voice and the fact that the thing she focuses on is that the man that she knows I have feelings for is missing makes me love my friend even more than I did before. "Oh Jules, what are you guys going to do?"

I look down and feel more like crying than I have all day. "We’re going to drive around until we find him." Saying it out loud makes me realize how mostly ridiculous this plan actually is. I'm about to turn to Kaylee and tell her we need something better when the little bells on our front door tingle and we all freeze.

Em rolls her eyes and says, "Ugh, I'll go take care of it." She gets up and walks out to the front desk. We can't see her, but we can hear as she says, "Hello, sorry we're actually closed right now. I was just getting some paperwork together."

"My friend here lost a tooth and we need someone to put it back in."

The voice is gruff and manly, but that's not necessarily what makes both Kaylee and me sit stick-straight-up as if someone just dumped ice down our pants. What makes us look at each other with wide eyes is what the man says next.

"We put the tooth in milk. That's what you're supposed to do, right? Are you the dentist? We need you to put this back in his mouth right away."

The milk. The missing tooth.

Are these the men that took Andrew?

Maybe the carton of milk on the counter we'd assumed he had been drinking out of was actually from the mobsters. The teeth weren't from Andrew's mouth, then! I feel a slight happy bubble of hope in my chest at the idea of him getting a good punch or two in before they took him away. And that means the blood probably wasn't his either.

As I'm feeling happier and happier, I see Kaylee's face darken and her body shrink down in the chair she's sitting in. Then I realize that these are the men trying to kill her and here they are, in my office.

"We usually wouldn't do this, but since it's an emergency..." I hear Em say, then pause. "Hey Jules, can you come out here?"

I cringe as the words hit me. Shit. Em! I remind myself she doesn't know about the tooth and the milk. I'm not about to leave my best friend alone with two known mob men, so I peel myself reluctantly out of the chair, motion for Kaylee to stay there and stay quiet, then I put on what I hope is my most inconspicuous face as I round the corner.

"Yes?" I feel like I'm in some terrible TV drama and I'm the obvious worst actress, but it's all I can muster in the circumstance.

Em points at the men standing at the counter. Both tall and wearing tight, dark jackets (the muscle of the operation, I'm sure) one has longish curly hair and the other has a buzz cut. Buzz Cut is holding a package of frozen peas up to his mouth and a cup full of milk sits in front of the two of them. I narrow my eyes. That's Andrew's milk and those are probably peas from his freezer.

Not that I think I could make much of a difference against two large mobster muscle men, but the anger radiating out to my limbs and up my neck makes me want to just give it a quick try, just to see how much damage I might be able to do.

"This man needs a tooth put back in his mouth. They were hoping you might be able to help him out." Em furrows her eyebrows and without waiting for me to answer starts in with her normal questions. "Do you have insurance? If I can get your name real quick I can get the paperwork started while Dr. Maddox gets a station set up in the back."

"No names. No insurance. We'll pay cash," Curly says because he still has all of his teeth.

Now that I'm listening for it, I do hear a little bit of a Russian accent in the one guy's voice. Buzz Cut hasn't said a word yet, still pressing the peas to his jaw.

Em stops and looks at me. I widen my eyes and she mirrors the action. I can see her figure things out a heck of a lot quicker than I would in her situation. Her elbows drop down to her side.

"Oh, um...." I almost wish she hadn't figured it out because she's totally awkward now and I can tell she's getting scared because she keeps rubbing her left shoulder. "I'm really sorry, but without --"

She doesn't get a chance to finish because Curly lunges across the counter and grabs a handful of Em's hair.

"Listen to me. You will help him. Now." The man's voice stretches thin and low in a way that makes my spine straighten and my knees wobble.

By the time my legs respond and I lunge forward, Curly has released Em. He looks over at me, his eyes challenging me to do anything, a small chunk of Em's dark hair falls from his fingertips.

I raise my hands and say, "Okay, fine, we'll help him." I check on my friend. "You okay there, Em?"

Her hand grasps the place on her scalp he grabbed and her eyes narrow at him. "Fine," she says through gritted teeth. "Mr... um... you," Em says, pointing to Buzz Cut. "You go with Dr. Maddox." Then she points to Curly, her eyes daring him to touch her again. "And you, sir, are going to stay up here at the front desk because that is just where we do this whole money collecting business."

I walk Buzz Cut back, and it's not like I haven't been afraid until this point (because this is all scary as hell), but now is the moment my brain chooses to realize that this man fought with Andrew. And while Andrew may have gotten a few good punches in, it seems that in the end, this man -- or the combination of him and the other guy (unfair) -- got the best of Andrew, who is goodness knows where.

As I turn around, I paste a fake smile on as I direct the man to sit in the dental chair.

"May I have the tooth?"

He hands over Andrew's glass half-full with Andrew's milk. Inside I see the tooth. I want to crush it. I want to throw it out the window. This man doesn't deserve to have this tooth back. Suddenly it dawns on me that I have absolutely
no
intention of helping this man and while I really should call the police, two things get in the way. First, Kaylee's fears about the boys-in-blue have somehow now become mine, but secondly, I have another plan, one I'm not sure law enforcement would be all too pleased with.

I smile again, place the tooth on the counter and say, "I'll be right back, there are just a few things I need to set up for the procedure."

The man scowls, but he's at my mercy and can't complain too much. We're one of only two dental practices in town, and I bet Dr. Leroy's place was completely closed, which is why they came here.  Our business is so new that it probably took them a while to find us. So they know we're their only hope if they don't want to drive an hour to some other town.

I scoot away and into the supply closet, taking a moment to close my eyes and lean on the counter for a second to get my bearings. I need to think. We've got two guys who know Andrew’s whereabouts
here
in the office. How can I use this to our advantage?

"Psssst."

I stand up and look around me. Across the hall I see Kaylee's face poke out of the staff lounge, her eyes are wide and she motions for me to come over. I run like a cartoon character across the open space and tumble into Kaylee who steps right in my way instead of aside.

"What do we do?" she whispers.

"I have an idea." I narrow my eyes and nod as things start to fall into place in my brain. I look at Kaylee and whisper, "Sabotage." Then I turn on my heel and walk away, super proud of how bad-ass I just sounded.

"What?"

The whispered word stops me.

"What did you just say?"

I turn to look back at Kaylee who's looking more confused than ever. Dammit, I was really hoping I could pull that whole movie-esque line off. But, oh well. I slump back over to her.

"Sabotage," I whisper again. "I'm going to drug him and see if we can't tie 'em up and get some information."

Kaylee smiles, nods, and gives me a thumbs up, ruining any chance of being cool we had left.

"Can you work on some booby traps with Em?"

Kaylee nods. I scoot back across the hall and grab the supplies I’ll need plus a crap-ton of floss.

Then I call out, "Hey Emma, where did you put the... teeth pliers?" so she'll hear me from where she is up at the front desk.

I hear footsteps and she crams her body into the closet with me. "What?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to get you back here."

She nods, but her hair is all frizzed in the back like she can't keep her hands out of it (a sure sign Em's having a mini-breakdown) and I can tell being left up there with the hair-pulling Russian mob guy who isn't already partly injured is wearing on her.

She ducks her head down toward me. "Did that bastard leave me with a bald spot?" Her fingers part her hair where I can see a slight missing patch of her normally thick locks.

"Um... sort of." I cringe and pull away.

"Shit." She stamps her foot and messes with it some more. "Now I'm going to have to sport a semi-comb-over until it grows back, dammit."

Okay, so maybe she wasn't messing with her hair out of nerves, but fear of comb-overs (which is a pretty scary concept in itself, if you ask me). I grab onto her shoulder to focus her.

"We need to take these guys down. They're going to hear if we make any calls to the police, but maybe we can drug them or tie them up first."

Em nods. I can't tell if it's because she's on board with my plan or still in shock.

I point across the hall. "Kaylee's in the break room. You guys work together to get some booby traps ready for the big one. I'll take care of Toothless back here." My voice feels strained doing so much whispering.

"Okay." Em nods and immediately starts gathering supplies.

I give her a thumbs up before I leave. Then I head back into the room with the mobster who
may
have hurt someone I think I
may
care very much about.