Killer Con Fuego Read online

  Harrison was definitely smitten. Lydia didn’t know how Harrison was going to recover from his latest family crisis. The boys would need counseling. She hoped Harrison would go with them. They needed to heal together, not apart.

  Then there was Alli, Charles’ girl. If wedding bells were going to ring, Lydia wanted them to bring joy to everyone. Not sadness or bitterness. Lydia knew no one but God could bridge such a rift. Only He could turn their mourning into dancing. She’d seen Him do it, over and over. Maybe He’d do it again, for her brother.

  Scooby grinned with pride, drawing Lydia back into the present. “I caught Dave digging around in here. I tried to act casual, but he was already expecting a fight. I had no idea what he was planning before it was too late. He tossed me my hoodie, and I put it on. I mean, it’s cold and I had no clue he’d stolen it. I thought I’d left it in the office.”

  “He left the cell phone in the pocket?” Lydia asked.

  Scooby shook his head. “Nah. I filched it later before he knocked me out.”

  “How’d you learn to pickpocket?” Lydia asked.

  Maude replied, “What do you think?”

  “Vikki?”

  “Yup.”

  Scooby frowned but recovered quickly. “I knew her as Denise. Dave said her name was Alex when he worked with her. That was before me, and unlike me, she ditched him. It hurt him real deep. I think it messed with him up here.” Scooby tapped his temple with his index finger.

  “I don’t blame him for that. People aren’t toys. They aren’t tools, either. They break when handled improperly.” Lydia looked into Scooby’s eyes as she spoke. He didn’t avoid the connection but thought over her words.

  Lydia returned her focus to Vikki’s phone. She scrolled the haunting picture away and was greeted by a password screen. “How do we get in?”

  Scooby grimaced. “I didn’t try to. But Denise, I mean Vikki, wasn’t very forthcoming with her personal information. I hacked her tablet once. It took me an entire day.”

  “Do you think you could do it again?” Maude prodded.

  “I could try,” Scooby said. He peaked out the window and crouched down quickly. “Put it away, he’s coming closer.”

  “Why is he still here.” Maude paced, clamping her hands on her biceps. Her breath clouded and faded. It was getting colder and colder. But that’s not what had Lydia worried.

  Chapter 43

  “WE SHOULD HAVE HEARD something by now.” Joan tucked the tail of her braid between her lips. It was an old habit she fell into whenever she was tense. “It’s been an hour since she left.”

  Ivy sat on the couch. She peeled off her nail polish. Her nervous tick. “I’m going to the restaurant,” she said. “I can’t take the waiting.”

  “Patrol has checked there two times since I arrived. They say nothing is wrong,” Ethan said.

  “But Mom wasn’t at the station either. Do you think she’s with Charles and Calvin?”

  Ethan’s eyebrows pinched together. He shook his head. “She would have texted me.”

  “Maybe she can’t,” Joan said with a gasp.

  Ivy swallowed hard. “Don’t say that!”

  “I mean, maybe she doesn’t have reception,” Joan deliberated.

  “I’m going over there,” Ivy said, standing to get her coat and shoes on. Her phone rang. She answered to Kat's softest tone to be overcome with the sound of Scout’s nightmare wail. “Oh, no. Ok. I’m coming,” Ivy said. “I’ve got to go to Scout. I don’t know what else to do.”

  Joan hugged Ivy. “I’ll walk her over, Dad.”

  Ethan stopped the girls. “Wait up.” He rummaged through Santi’s kitchen drawers. He found a pile of post-it notes and permanent markers. “I’m coming with you. First, let me write a note for Scooby or whoever shows up. Then I’ll text Santi and Harrison.”

  “Ivy’s got to go. I’ll walk her over, now,” Joan said.

  “I’ll be right behind you,” Ethan called out.

  DAVE MEANDERED CLOSER toward the freezer. He roamed just outside the door. Lydia was much stronger than when she first woke up. She walked close to Scooby. Maude stayed toward the back of the freezer.

  “I can’t believe she chose you over me! You! You’re weak!” Dave launched a mucus-filled spit wad toward Scooby’s face. It missed the window. But made Lydia remember she had vomited not too long ago. She looked around for her mess and some way to clean it up. A cardboard box decorated the spot.

  “Sorry about that,” she said to Maude.

  “Oh, that?” Maude pointed to the broken down box. “That’s nothing. I’m happy vomit was the only thing we had to clean up. When Dave dragged you back here, I thought you’d be covered in blood.”

  Scooby agreed. “I heard the saucepan land. I almost threw up just from the sound.” He shivered from disgust. His reaction made Lydia’s teeth rattle.

  “How long have we been in here?” Lydia asked.

  “15-20 minutes,” Maude said.

  “We’ve got time,” Lydia said, trying to encourage her fellow captive.

  Scooby wrinkled his nose. “Time to freeze, yes. But we’re running out of air. With the three of us, we’ve got maybe another half an hour before we start getting too loopy to form an escape plan.”

  “I know this is a very obvious question, but have you guys called for help?” Scooby rolled his eyes with a playful nudge. “Let me guess. There’s no reception?”

  Maude answered. “Yes and no. The freezer does make call quality spotty at best. But we’d have to have our phones to call out.” Maude nodded toward her beautiful kitchen. “Dave took them.”

  “Except Vikki’s,” Lydia said, feeling gloomy.

  Maude paced. “Which we can’t unlock.” Lydia tapped her chest and shoulders. “Are you that cold already? You need to move around.”

  “No, look.” Lydia’s stunned mind had only just remembered, hidden under her bra strap, was Lydia’s phone. Her horrible habit had paid off. She waved it in the air and then hurriedly put it down.

  Maude and Scooby encircled her. They awaited its grand awakening. When it finally turned on, one single bar flickered. Immediately, Lydia tried Ethan. The phone refused to send the call through.

  “Try again from a different spot,” Maude prompted. She led Lydia to the corner closest to the center of the kitchen. “This is the best one.”

  Dave was so near the door, Lydia worried he would hear her calling. He was still talking to himself. Lydia dialed with no connection. She started texting Ethan. Maude and Scooby stayed close by, trying to keep out of trouble and keep warm.

  “Why does he keep repeating the same thing? Did you know him before?” Lydia asked Scooby. Lydia’s phone rattled. A text was coming through. Lydia checked it and frowned.

  “It’s Ivy, not Ethan,” she said.

  “What does she say?” Maude and Scooby looked over Lydia’s shoulder. Their breath hit her neck. It wasn’t even close to warm. “It says Dave Pines is Dale Evergreen.” Lydia hurriedly sent a response. Trying to call did nothing. She hoped her text would go through the instant she found a more mobile friendly place in the freezer.

  Scooby clapped his hands together and blew on them. Maude rubbed his back. “Yes, of course,” Maude said. “Nothing else makes sense. Dave keeps moaning and wailing that Scooby took Vikki away from him. He’s about five years older than Scooby. I couldn’t tell if he was an adult victim or a minor.”

  Scooby’s face paled. “But why? I mean, if he’s been in my shoes, then why torment me all day every day? Why not work with me to turn Denise, I mean Vikki, into the police?”

  “Because Dave didn’t leave. Like you did. Dave was ditched,” Lydia said.

  Maude gasped. “There’s no telling what he had to do to survive once Vikki left.”

  For a moment, the three captives were silent. They each imagined the damaging fates that befell Dave. He was abandoned, heartbroken. No money. No credit. No friends. No family. And plenty of felonious acts hanging over his he
ad to keep him silent.

  “He probably spent all those years thinking something horrible had happened to Vikki. And then, she pops up in the very restaurant he works at.” Maude shifted her weight from heel to toe and back, still trying to warm herself.

  “Because of me,” Lydia said.

  Chapter 44

  IVY RETRIEVED THE PANIC stricken Scout from Kat’s arms. “I’m so sorry,” Kat said. “I couldn’t calm her.”

  Ivy kissed Scout’s soft hair and cooed behind her ear. Scout whimpered quietly before she curled into Ivy’s neck. Her hot tears warmed Ivy’s cold skin. “It’s okay. Sometimes a girl just needs her mama. Isn’t that right,” she whispered to Scout.

  Kat smiled. “Any news?”

  Ivy frowned. “Ethan’s leaving a note for Santi, and he’ll be over in a minute. We haven’t heard from Lydia. But she’s not at the police station.”

  “Have they heard from her at all?”

  Ivy shrugged. Ethan tiptoed into the hallway behind her. He kept his voice low and happy. “Nothing. But I just can’t sit by any longer. I’m heading to the restaurant, and then who knows where. Something is wrong.”

  LYDIA’S PHONE CHIMED. Her battery was dead. “Well, we’ve done all we can on that. Now, how do we get out of here?”

  Scooby peeked out the window once more. Maude’s rocking increased. “If he’d left us the freezer ax, we could have smashed the window. That would have helped our air situation.”

  “Like Dave would have been that kind,” Scooby said. “I guess I could try to make him really mad. Maybe he’ll break the window for us.”

  Maude flicked Scooby’s arm playfully. “Something tells me that would be a horrible idea. He’s likely to charge in here just to hurry things along.”

  Lydia paced the freezer. Every step was agony. She wasn’t walking to stay warm. She didn’t really feel cold. Lydia knew it was a huge issue. Her head injury was bad. She didn’t have as much time as Maude and Scooby. She needed to get out of the freezer, now.

  Maude and Scooby stayed beside each other. Lydia didn’t like the way they kept looking at each other. It was too final of a feeling. Like they were giving up. Lydia couldn’t let them do that.

  “Talk to me while I’m thinking,” Lydia said.

  “We don’t want to distract you,” Maude said.

  Lydia staggered as the pain increased in the back of her head. “Please, I could use a little distraction. I need it. My head is screaming at me.”

  Maude’s attention diverted to Lydia. She examined her from across the freezer. Lydia’s walk was strained and her feet stuttered. She cringed, often. Maude silently prayed for Lydia. “Dear God, please don’t let her die. Please get us through this.”

  “Amen,” Scooby said. Maude hadn’t spoken aloud. She stared stunned at her foster son. “I know you. And I was asking Him for the same thing.”

  “I’M GOING WITH YOU,” Joan said. “Just wait for me to get better shoes and pants on.”

  “Your mom might not have time.”

  “Please, Dad, let me help. I’ll be less than two minutes.”

  Ethan nodded. He held out his hand, forbidding it to shake and, in doing so, give away his fear, and stroked Joan’s cheek. “Hurry.”

  LYDIA HAD TO KEEP HERSELF occupied. It staved off the most intense of the pain. “Tell me more about what happened in the kitchen?” Lydia asked Maude.

  “Scooby woke up, but he didn’t move. He signaled to me that he was alright. But he didn’t move. Then the cop came. He beat on the front window. Dave freaked out. I think that’s when he spotted you. He shoved me into the freezer and told me that if I cared about Scooby, I wouldn’t move. He skulked out of the kitchen. I wanted to warn you. Instead, I went straight for Scooby and untied him.”

  “We called for help,” Scooby interrupted Maude.

  “We tried. But either the weather is messing with our lines or Dave did,” Maude said.

  Lydia kept searching the room. Maude continued her story, pacing beside Lydia. “He came back without you, at first. Scooby attacked him.”

  “That’s when I picked his pockets. I’d hoped to get his phone. I never imagined I’d get De...Vikki’s phone,” Scooby said.

  “Explain. I understand Dave came before you in Vikki’s chain of hurt, but how did he get to Vikki at my party.”

  Scooby scoffed bitterly. “When I bumped into her on the patio, she passed me a note. I guess he saw her.”

  “Do you still have it?”

  Scooby nodded. “But not on me...”

  “In your shoebox,” Maude said. Scooby gave Maude a look of fleeting pain and distrust. “I had to look. I needed to find you and help you. Please forgive my meddling.”

  Scooby caught Maude up in his arms and pulled her to him. He hugged her awkwardly. Her short body against his boyish tall one. He rested his head on hers and allowed himself to cry for just a moment. If they hadn’t been a family before, they were now.

  “Thank you. But it’s not there,” Scooby said, almost too softly to hear. “It wasn’t anything. Just Denise being her manipulative self. I threw away the picture she put inside of it. Maybe Dave found it? His anger makes sense if he really is this Dale guy.”

  Lydia wanted to hear the rest of the story that had led her into the freezer. But more than that, she wanted out. She wanted to help save this new family. “How long has it been since the last patrol?”

  Maude spoke first. “Six minutes or so. We’ve been counting the rounds.”

  “Good,” Lydia said. “I have an idea, but it’s risky.” Lydia pointed to the fire sprinkler. “Do either of you have a match?” Maude and Scooby turned away from the door and listened to Lydia. Her idea was scarier than the crazed young man in the kitchen.

  Dave banged on the door. His eyes were inhumane. He yelled. His words were dulled but perfectly understandable. “Well, I can’t hang around any longer,” he said. “You’re taking too long.”

  Lydia whispered. “Why is he waiting?”

  Maude trembled and shivered. “He wants...”

  “To blame Scooby,” Lydia said. Maude nodded and kissed Scooby’s hand. “He’s going to call the police after we’re dead. Then he’s going to say he escaped in time to get help, but not in time to save us.”

  “Something like that, is my guess,” Maude said.

  “Do you think my plan is still too risky?”

  Scooby and Maude nodded with eyes as round as saucers. “But I don’t see we have much of a choice,” Scooby said.

  Maude fidgeted. “Let’s wait until the patrol is closer. I don’t want to do this and not have anyone notice.”

  “We’ll wait two more minutes.” Lydia stacked a crate on top of another underneath the solitary fire sprinkler and smoke detector.

  “Are you sure? I mean, we’re all going to get wet at the very least. Then there’s the air supply we’ll be wasting.” Maude fretted. She couldn’t stand by and wait for Scooby, Lydia, and herself to slowly fall asleep and into death. She couldn’t let Dave, no matter his damage, frame Scooby for her murder.

  “I’ll rip up some cardboard,” Scooby said.

  “I’ll keep praying.”

  Chapter 45

  ETHAN AND JOAN WAITED for the patrol car to pull up to the curb before crossing the street. Ethan was thrilled with God’s timing. “Excuse me.” He flagged down the fellow peacekeeper.

  The young man jumped. “I’m so sorry. I’m Ethan Everett, I’m the sheriff in Honey Pot, and this is my daughter, Joan.” Ethan did not approach the cop. He stayed on the corner allowing the rain to soak his jacket and run down into his shoes. It was better than getting shot by a rookie patrol. He waited and watched the young man. Ethan ascertained the patrolman’s nerves. He wasn’t in danger. The kid was startled but not attack happy.

  “I’m friends with the owners of this restaurant. I’m looking for my wife,” Ethan said.

  The officer listened but didn’t say much. “There’s been nothing unusual happening here.
Not when I’ve come by, anyway.”

  “That’s good.” Ethan kept his hands in the open and approached the cop with slow and steady steps. “But my wife might be inside. In the back. It must be hard to see into the kitchen from here.”

  The cop on patrol stepped toward Ethan and extended his hand to the sheriff. “I’m Jon Pertwee.” Ethan shook Officer Pertwee’s hand, happy to be accepted into his confidence. “I heard you might be popping in. There’s a man named Harrison at the station. I think he’s related to you.”

  “He’s my brother in law.”

  “That makes sense.” Officer Pertwee crossed his arms. “That’s your daughter?” He nodded toward Joan.

  “Yes. She’s a missionary in Africa.” Ethan waved Joan over. He introduced the two as if standing in the rain at four am was a normal occurrence and the perfect time to make new friends.

  After the niceties, Officer Pertwee restated his night’s findings. “This is my second run past the restaurant. The guy before me said he never saw anything out of the ordinary. There seems to be a light on near the back, but it’s very faint. Might be a security light. I was just about to walk around back and check the locks.”

  “We’ll follow you, if you don’t mind.” Ethan pulled his shivering girl under one arm and tried to warm her.

  “Suit yourself.” Casually and cautiously, they rounded the corner of Con Fuego just as a fire alarm shot through the soggy sky.

  “So much for normal.” Officer Pertwee told Ethan to stand back with Joan.

  He reached for the door handle. His fingers scraped the steel knob as the door launched open and a man without a coat shot out into the alley.

  “Stay here,” the patrolman called to Ethan before he hit his radio and called in the occurrence. Jon Pertwee was faster than he’d first appeared. He was around the back of Con Fuego before Ethan could offer his help.