“One sec,” he said, answering the phone and putting it to his. “Frank O’Dwyer. How can I help?”
“Who is it?” I hissed. Normally, I wouldn’t have been too curious about a business call to any of the guys’ cell phones, but it was certainly an odd time of night to be getting one. And, with everything that was going on, what were the chances it was unrelated?
“Sheila Pearson?” he asked, a concerned look on his face. “Yeah, I remember you from working with your father.” He paused. “Woah there, girl. Go ahead and slow on down, alright? Take a deep breath and start over.”
Sheila was calling Frank? What the hell? Maybe Jessica’s phone was out of power, or broken in the skirmish with the bikers. A lot had been going on. But, why then, would our number one suspect be trying to get in touch with me? Wouldn’t she be trying to convince Jessica not to call us?
“Okay,” he said after a moment, “I’m handing you off to Richard, since he’s more familiar with this case.”
He handed the phone to me. “Sheila?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Jessica, that’s what! She’s disappeared! I was at the store, and I came out from paying for gas, and the car was empty. I think . . . I think she might have been kidnapped, Richard! Could those bikers have done this? The ones that dragged me along? Do you think they could have seen her and swung in?”
“I don’t know,” I said, my jaw clenched, the thought of something happening to Jessica while I couldn’t help her turning my stomach upside down. “I don’t think so, though. Where are you?”
“The gas station half way to the Rock. You know it?”
“Yeah,” I said. “We’re not far away. Stay right fucking there, Sheila. We’re on our way.”
I handed the phone back to Frank and told him what she’d said.
“Still think it’s her, then?” he asked. “Sheila? She didn’t strike me as the stalker type when I met her before. A little too, uh, flighty a bird for that.”
I shook my head. “Doesn’t add up, if she is. Why would she be calling us if she was the stalker?”
“Only one way to find out, I guess,” Frank said, leaning back in the seat. “Hi-yo Silver!”
I nodded and slammed my foot down on the gas. If the stalker, or someone else, had her, we might not have much time. The faster we got there, the better.
Chapter Forty-eight
Jessica
“Why’d she even have your dogs?” Karen asked as we pulled away from Sheila’s place, both Eli and Wallach stuffed into the back seat.
I’d gotten the boys together, along with their food and leashes, and piled them into Karen’s car as fast as I could. In the back of my mind, I was worried that I was falling into Sheila’s trap by coming there. Like I was walking into the lair of the beast herself. But, how could I do anything else? I couldn’t leave Eli and Wallach with her. Not if she was the one threatening my life. After all, I'd seen that poor tortoise.
“It’s a long story,” I said, sighing. I was so tired, I was just ready to hit the hay and try to get some sleep. “But, well, I was supposed to be going out of town this weekend.”
Karen looked me over. “Jessica, can I ask you something?”
“Uh, yeah, sure. I guess.”
“Why the hell are you lying to me? It feels like you haven’t been straight with me in weeks, and you’re always just dancing around on the edge of things.”
I was shocked, and at a sudden loss for words. She was right, I guess, but to have it so blatantly thrown back in my face like a glass of ice water? I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
She sighed, frustrated. “We’ve been friends since high school, right?”
“Yeah,” I admitted grudgingly. “I just, I don’t know, okay? At first, it was one little thing. And, as it’s gotten more and more out of hand, I just knew I couldn’t tell you without you getting upset because of not having let you know about any of it in the first place. Like, a poisoned seed, or a dying root.”
“Well,” she said carefully as we slowly drove through town, “why don’t you just tell me everything?”
I groaned. “Better late than never, I guess.”
Karen reached across the center console, grabbed my hand and squeezed tightly. “Exactly.”
Wondering where I should start, I took a deep breath, then the story just began to pour out of me. All of it, the calls, the bikers, the stalker, fax, the tortoise, my worry about Sheila. Everything.
Except, of course, the werewolves.
I didn’t for a second think she’d believe that.