Revenge is Sweet (A Samantha Church Mystery) (11 page)

“You don’t have much to lose,” he said. “Maybe ten pounds.”

Sam looked at him skeptically and couldn’t help laughing out loud. “You’re being very kind, David, but try like forty pounds, probably more. But like I said, I’m afraid to get on the scale.”

David’s smile was sincere and it helped put Sam at ease. “It won’t take that long,” he said. “Once you get started and stick to it. You’ll see how easy it is. I’ll help you with a program when you’re ready.”

“Thanks,” Sam said with a sense of falling.

David waved. Sam watched as he headed out the back door, thinking how often Robin had offered to help build a fitness program that would best suit her to lose weight. They never had the chance. “Come on, Sammie,” Robin would always say. “Let’s get you a membership at my club and I’ll help you get back in shape. Think how much fun it’ll be, us working out together!” Robin’s voice was full of anticipation and an eagerness that was almost contagious. “You can start with something as simple as just walking on the treadmill three or four times a week. Twenty minutes to a half-hour at the most, maybe with a little bit of an incline. Get that heart rate up a little. Come on, I’ll run beside you on another treadmill.”

At Robin’s insistence, Sam would join her sister’s club. And she would work out vigorously, for the first month or so. Then her visits would start to dwindle. Sam would have one excuse after another before she’d stop going. It wasn’t for lack of trying. She just didn’t share Robin’s enthusiasm for sweat and elevated heart rates. Sam had joined the athletic club primarily to make her sister happy. It was for all the wrong reasons. And she knew it. Sam knew she’d have to lose weight. But it wasn’t up to Robin to help her. It was Sam’s responsibility. For the time being, however, she would do what she had always done, she would put it off yet again. After everything with Wilson was over and she had April back, then she could concentrate on losing pounds and inches.

With the events of the past week, Sam suddenly realized how little her sister had been on her mind. How she had actually gone home each night and did not have that longing to pick up the phone and call Robin. It was one of the first things she used to do after she got home in the evenings. She’d fix herself a drink, turn on the news and dial Robin’s number. It was hard for Sam the first few weeks after her sister’s death to go home. The emptiness would be waiting for her as soon as she opened the door. It was almost as if she could see the emptiness hanging in the air before her like a haze of heat.

Sam glanced at her desk calendar. Her weekend was wide open. She thought of the loneliness waiting for her when she opened the door at home. She could not stand to know that another long weekend awaited her. She looked at the picture she kept on her desk, one taken of April, Robin and Sam the last time they were all together at Nona’s ranch. Robin and Sam were standing in front of an old wagon parked near the barn. The sisters stood beside April like bookends. The boards on the bed of the wagon were faded gray and the wheels, which long ago had stopped turning, had given way to rust. Sam guessed the wagon dated back to the early 1900s. It was one of several pieces of rustic farm equipment that had long ago lost its usefulness, but Nona kept on the property anyway.

Sam looked at each of their faces. The sun was beating down on them and everyone was squinting. Robin and April were beaming. Sam couldn’t help smiling now as she looked at the photo. She was happy that day too. Being on her grandmother’s ranch with her most favorite people, how could she not be happy? She was looking forward to moving to the ranch. The only thing that could have made the move more inviting was to know that April would be there with her.

Sam stared at the photo a moment more, then she got up from her desk and went to Nick’s office. “Got a second?” she asked.

Nick motioned her in. “Close the door.”

Sam did and sat in the chair facing Nick. He was eating a jelly-filled doughnut. It seemed every time she came into his office, he was eating something. At least this time, he didn’t have filling caught in his mustache. Did you hear something?” Nick asked, his expression hopeful.

Sam shook her head. “Nothing,” she said. “But I want to leave early.”

“Where you going?” Nick asked.

“To Seattle.”

“The kidnappers took Wilson to Seattle?”

“Nick, I said I hadn’t heard from them,” Sam said trying to keep the irritation from her voice. “No, I want to go see my daughter. She’s with her grandmother on an island up there. I called her this week and her grandmother said she was sick. That was Wednesday and I haven’t been able to get a hold of them since. I’m worried.”

Nick cocked his head and eyed her for a moment. “And you think going up there is gonna help?”

Sam stared back at Nick, the expression on her face blank. She was certain that sometimes the blood that ran through his veins wasn’t human. “Nick, it’s my daughter.
Do I have to say anything else?”

Nick put his jelly doughnut on his desk and wiped his fingers with a napkin and then used the napkin to wipe his mustache.
“Sam, you can’t go. I mean you could leave any time you wanted otherwise, but now isn’t the time,” he said. “What if the kidnappers contact you? They won’t contact anyone else. I need you here. Besides Wilson is due back Monday. What’ll we tell the rest of the staff?”

“Nick, I’m only taking a few days off. But I have to go see my daughter. Besides no one will expect to see
Wilson the first few days he’s…”

Nick interrupted her. “How can you leave at a time like this? Wilson’s life is on the line.”

“Don’t throw that back in my face,” Sam snapped. “Don’t tell me something I haven’t already thought of a thousand times.” Sam spoke through gritted teeth. “Don’t you think I am well aware of that? I was with Wilson the night they took him. Remember? It’s just that…” Sam’s voice drifted off and she avoided Nick’s stare by directing the rest of her sentence to the fabric in her wool skirt. “It’s just that I miss April terribly and if she’s sick then I want to be there for her. It’s driving me crazy not knowing how she’s doing. Wilson would want me to go.”

“Sam, we need to find Wilson.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “Don’t you think that I want to find him too? Nick, we’re at the mercy of those who have him. Nothing would make me happier than knowing he’d be in that corner on Monday.” Sam pointed in the direction of Wilson’s office. “We don’t have any choice but to wait for word.”

Nick looked away from Sam and snorted. He picked up his jelly doughnut and took a large bite. “Do you have a flight yet?”
he asked.

Sam shook her head. “Not yet. I was going to do that after we talked.”

“Will you be back Monday?”

“Tuesday. I will check my e-mail constantly.”

“See you when you get back,” Nick said and dismissed Sam as he turned away from her and starting to sift through a pile of press releases spread out over his desk.

Sam watched Nick for a moment, but he continued to ignore her so she got up and went to the door.
“See you Tuesday morning,” she said. Sam waited a moment for a response before she opened the door, walked into the newsroom and headed for her desk. She sat down hard in her chair and started pounding her keyboard as if the computer had offended her. Within minutes she was on the Internet checking flight information from Denver to Seattle. She booked a flight to leave late that afternoon and return late Monday. She picked up the phone.

At the ranch, Nona and Howard were finishing breakfast at the kitchen table drinking coffee. Howard answered the phone at the end of the second ring.

“Hi, Howard it’s me.”

Howard beamed. “Hello, Samantha. How’s my daughter from a former marriage?”
It was the way he always referred to her. Sam felt immediately better as the sound of his voice filled the phone.

“Howard, can you take me to the airport for a five o’clock flight this afternoon?”

“Did you hear from the kidnappers?” Howard’s voice filled with hope as he glanced at his watch and then to Nona, who was looking at him expectantly.

“No. I called Esther this week and she said April was sick. I haven’t been able to reach them since Wednesday. I know she’s there and just screening the calls. I’m sure every time that she sees my number, she lets it go to the answering machine. If I hear that woman’s voic
e on that machine one more time…” Sam’s voice trailed off. She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead hard with the tips of her fingers.

“Samantha? You okay?”

“Yes, Howard, I’m fine. I’m sorry to talk like that, it’s just that she’s keeping me from seeing my daughter and who knows what she’s filling April’s head with. I just want to go to Seattle and spend some time with my daughter. I’m flying back late Monday.”

Howard and Nona already knew that Esther had declined Sam’s request to let April come home for a weekend. They were no more pleased about it than Sam was. Sam originally planned not to tell them. She did not want to disappoint them, but then she decided to tell them after all. Someone to share her misery.

“You have to do what you have to do,” Howard said.

“Thanks, Howard.” Sam said, feeling her spirits lifting.

“What time’s your flight?”

“Five-thirty
.”

“I’ll pick you up,” he said.

“Thanks, Howard,” Sam said into the phone. “I’m leaving the office in just a few minutes. See you in a bit.”

Wilson was in her thoughts as she collected her things and called Anne to tell her she’d be out of the office the rest of the day and when she would return. She tried not to think about what could be happening to him and could not understand why nothing else had been heard from the kidnappers.

As soon as Sam walked into her apartment, she called Esther to let her know that she would be flying out later this afternoon. Of course, the answering machine picked up the call. “Esther? Hello? Are you there? It’s Sam.”

Sam waited a few moments giving Esther time to get to the phone. Sam went on. “I thought about it and I’m taking you up on your offer to come for a long weekend. I’m leaving this afternoon a
nd should be in Seattle around eight.” Sam waited another moment, hoping that Esther would pick up the phone after hearing her news, but nothing. “I’ll grab a cab to the ferry terminal and take the ferry. Will you please be there to pick me up? Okay, I’ll see you later tonight. Please tell April I’m coming.”

Sam gently put the phone in its receiver, leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. All she could
do now was hope that Esther would be there to pick her up at the ferry and that she would tell her daughter.

Sam changed into boots and a pair of Levis. She put on a thick black sweater and a lighter top underneath. Though the rainy season was on the verge of ending, February days in the Pacific Northwest could be deceiving. She took her Polar Tec jacket out of the closet. The sleeves in the jacket could be removed. Sam had been to Esther’s one time with Jonathan. He had told her it was best to dress in layers. All she remembered about the trip was the cold. It had been mid spring then, but it might as well have been winter, for the sun was seldom seen and the chill had yet to leave the air.

At 2 p.m., Sam was putting food in Morrison’s bowl. As she watched him eat, she glanced around her apartment, surveying what she would take with her when she moved to Nona’s ranch. Not much. Her place was sparsely filled with a hodge-podge collection of contemporary furniture, which had been taken from the spare rooms in their house on Glen-Gary Street. She would donate everything but the kitchen table. Robin was with her the day she bought it. Nona had everything else that Sam needed and they would make a place for the kitchen table.

She looked out the living room window just as Howard pulled in and stopped next to the Accord. She thought of the black sedan that had been in the parking lot last night. She was relieved to see Howard’s old and ugly, albeit ever-reliable, two-tone brown station wagon. Sam wasn’t sure of the make, maybe a Dodge. She smiled at the welcome sight and waved to Howard from the window.
“Okay, Morrison, be a good kitty,” Sam said. “And don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of food, Howard will come feed you while I’m gone.”

Sam gave the black cat a scratch behind the ears, collected her purse and bag and locked the door behind her. She walked out into the warm winter sun and squinted at the brightness. The sun was a beach ball suspended in a brilliantly blue sky. The few clouds were puffy and cotton white. She shielded her eyes with her hands until she reached the station wagon.

Howard was beaming at Sam when she opened the car door and slid inside. “How’s my girl?” he asked.

Sam leaned over and kissed
him on the cheek. “Doin’ fine now,” Sam said, feeling a warmth and security radiating inside her, one that she only felt when she was safely surrounded by family. Howard was the closest person that Sam had to a father, or in Howard’s case, since he was old enough to be her grandfather, a grandfather. He was wearing his usual white T-shirt, Levis and work boots. The day was sunny, but brisk. Cold, however, never seemed to bother Howard. Sam wasn’t sure he owned a winter coat.

As they headed toward Interstate 70 and Pena Boulevard to Denver International Airport, Sam let the rays from the afternoon sun warm her.
“Ah, this feels so good,” she said keeping her eyes closed and her face turned in the direction of the sun. “The days are getting longer again, Howard. I can hardly wait for spring.”