Take the Monkey and Run (23 page)

I wondered if she was spending too much time helping us and not enough time being Belinda.

“You okay?” I asked her. “I know this has been a lot to take in.”

“It's not that. I just got a terrible headache out of the blue earlier. I hate taking this stuff, but I'm out of magnesium tea.”

I thought about how surprised she'd been at not having known something was off earlier when she walked in and saw we'd taken Jason out.

“Your headache,” I said. “Do you think that's why you didn't feel the Tingle?”

“I'm not sure. I've never had this happen before. It's like my head is stuffed with cotton balls. I've got a client lined up later and I don't even feel like doing my nails.”

“Maybe you should go lie down. Voodoo is always ready for a snuggle.”

“That's a good idea.” She nodded and tried to smile but it fell short of her usual mischievous grin. “I've got an hour before my appointment. Maybe I'll go rest my eyes until then.”

I did a mental search for my kitten.

“Voodoo's already napping on my bed if you want to grab her on the way to your room.”

“Thanks,
cher
, I'll do that. If you need anything, holler.”

“Is she okay?” Emma asked after Belinda had gone upstairs.

“Headache. It interfered with the Tingle and she seems pretty stressed about it.”

I moved to where Kai and Jason were watching the video for a second time.

“Stop,” Jason said.

Kai clicked the button to pause the video.

“Ronnie's there.”

“How do you know that?”

“Chocolate.” Jason pointed at the screen. “See the wrappers? This is her favorite brand. She eats it when she's stressed.”

“We looked all over the house. She's not there,” Kai said.

“Did you check the attic?”

“We tried but the door had been locked for years.”

“There's another way in. Come on, I'll show you.”

Emma and Hugh stayed at the B and B to continue working on the monkey map. And Emma had promised to keep an eye on Belinda.

Sometimes caretakers need care, too.

We took Jason's car—a sporty SUV that made Bluebell look like the vintage tank she was—to Hattie's. Jason hadn't put up a fuss when I told him we were taking Moss with us. If Jason failed to get into the attic, my dog could at least tell us if he smelled someone.

We got out of the SUV and Moss took a moment to mark a tree or two. Jason walked to where the garden hose spigot sprouted from the house's brick foundation. He grabbed the brass faucet and pulled. The spigot, and the brick it was attached to, slid out, revealing a hollow spot in the brick below.

“Really?” I asked and looked at Kai.

He lifted a shoulder in a half shrug.

“This place has all kinds of hiding places,” Jason said as he reached into the hole and retrieved the key.

We entered through a mudroom and then went into the kitchen. Jason paused to look around.

“I remember the plate,” he said, pointing to the wall where Kai thought the broken platter had hung.

Moss walked over to where the plate had smashed to the ground. He paused, sniffing the area. A ripple of unease fluttered through our connection. Sometimes, energy lingers. Intense emotions felt in a place leave their mark. Like a never-ending echo animals are tuned in to.

Easy, Moss. It's okay.

Okay?

Yeah, we're looking for someone, though. So keep your ears pricked.

Moss listen.

Good boy.

Jason led us out of the kitchen, down the hall, and into the library. I watched, with a growing sense of disbelief, as he walked to the bookcase and scanned the shelf.

“If there is a hidden passageway behind that bookcase, I give you permission to drop the mic and walk away,” I said when he put his hand on a large copy of
War and Peace
.

Jason looked over his shoulder with a half smile. “The house used to be part of the Underground Railroad.”

Tilting the book out released some sort of latch and a section of the bookcase shifted, the edge popping out a couple of inches.

“How did I miss this?” Kai said, walking over to study the faux book.

“To be fair, you weren't looking for a secret room,” I said.

Jason gripped the edge of the bookcase and swung it into the library, revealing a small staircase. Jason took the lead, Moss and I followed, and Kai brought up the rear. The staircase was so narrow, both Jason and Kai had to walk with their shoulders canted to the side.

We reached the top landing and followed Jason as he headed down a short hall that opened up to the attic. Just as he stepped through the doorway, a loud buzzing cut through
the silence. It was accompanied by a rapid, electric
tick-tick-tick!

I froze, startled, and Kai bumped into me from behind.

I recognized the sound. I had my own stun gun tucked under Bluebell's front seat. Something I'd forgotten about until that moment.

Jason let out a garbled cry and crumpled to the ground. Kai shoved me behind him and reached toward his gun holster for a weapon that wasn't there. Moss stayed silent but readied his stance for action.

Guard.

Before any of us could react further, a woman's voice said, “Jason? What the hell?”

“Jesus H. Christ, Ronnie.” Jason was barely able to choke out the words, but they held considerable heat. I guess the guy might have been irritated by being bushwhacked twice in one day—and by women, no less.

Kai eased forward and I could see from the hall landing into the dimly lit attic.

Ronnie stood over Jason. She was holding the stun gun and looking pretty pissed.

Answering his attitude with a bit of her own, she demanded, “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you, you crazy Cajun!” Jason rolled onto his hands and knees, then sat back on his haunches. Wincing, he sucked in a pained breath, then let out a string of what I was sure were a lot of Cajun curse words.

“How was I supposed to know it was you, eh?” Ronnie jammed her fists on her hips.

“You told me to come,” Jason fired back.

“I sent you that message days ago. And I didn't think you'd bring friends.” She motioned toward where Kai and I stood and noticed Moss. “A wolf?”

I eased around Kai and said, “I'm Grace, that's my dog, Moss, and this is Kai—he's with the Jacksonville Police Department.” I turned and gave him an expectant look, and
he slowly removed his ID badge and held it up so she could see.

She squinted at the badge. “Jacksonville, Florida?”

“We can explain what's going on from our end if you'll tell us what you know.”

“Well, for starters, Mamere has been kidnapped.” She directed this comment to Jason, who was slowly climbing to his feet.

The anger on his face drained away instantly. “I know,
cher
.” He reached out and tucked a loose curl behind her ear. The gesture was so intimate and at odds with his behavior a moment before, it took me a second to adjust.

Ronnie's shoulders dropped, and tears sparkled in her eyes.

“Come here.” He pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head.

“Um, am I reading this wrong,” I murmured to Kai, “or are they more than friends?”

He shook his head with a bemused smile. “I knew that the second she tased him.”

“Really?” I hated feeling like I was always a step behind when it came to reading people.

Now that there wasn't any drama unfolding in front of me, I had a chance to look around the attic.

The space was huge, running the length of the entire house. There were stacks of boxes and other things you'd expect to find in an attic. The area closest to the backyard had been cleared of the typical storage detritus, and there was a small bed and bedside table with a lamp.

Ronnie had a nice little hideout here. With strategically timed trips downstairs to the kitchen and bath, she'd rarely be exposed to any neighbors or prying eyes.

Jason released Ronnie and stepped back to look her in the eye. “We're going to find Hattie, okay? These folks have been looking for you. They have information we might be able to use.”

Ronnie nodded, brushed the tears from her cheeks, and turned her attention to us.

Kai brought up the photos of Anya and Barry on his phone and asked Ronnie if she recognized either of them.

She shook her head and I exchanged a look with Kai. Obviously, Ronnie wasn't the woman Cornelius had seen being strapped to a table. The next logical assumption was it had been Hattie.

“Does your
mamere
have a yellow dress?” I asked.

“I don't know, why?”

“We think—”

Kai interrupted before I could explain further. “Let's not get ahead of ourselves, okay?”

I frowned at him. He met my gaze and shook his head. Obviously, he didn't want to tell Ronnie that her grandmother might be enduring some sort of torture at the hands of a nutjob. Maybe he was right. Upsetting her wouldn't help anyone.

“What's going on?” Ronnie asked, looking back and forth between us. “Who are those people? Are they the ones who took my grandmother?”

“The only thing we know for sure is that they're looking for you,” Kai said. “Why don't you tell us what happened and we'll see what we can piece together.”

She looked at Jason, and he nodded—indicating that she could trust us, I suppose.

“I got a call from her the other night,” Ronnie said. “I was on my way home from work. She sounded really upset and told me I had to leave town right then. She wouldn't say why. Then she told me not to use my phone.”

“Your phone? Why?” Kai asked.

“I don't know.”

“Did she say anything else?”

“Just that if anything happened to her she wanted me to know that she loved me. She believed in me.”

Ronnie's voice dropped to a raw whisper on the last
words. She pressed her lips together and tried to blink away a sudden rush of unshed tears. It didn't work. The tears spilled over and she impatiently wiped them away. “That's all she told me before she hung up. I tried to call her right back but the line was busy.”

“Then you came here?” Kai asked.

Ronnie nodded. “I don't have a car so it took me at least fifteen minutes. By then, she was gone.”

“Did you call the police?” he said.

“No,” she said defensively.

“I'm only asking because there was a 911 call from this house on that same night.”

“There was?”

“The caller hung up before the dispatcher picked up. It was written up as a crank call.”

“Stupid cops,” Ronnie said, which invoked a frown from Jason.

“They didn't even look around?” Jason asked.

“They did,” Kai said. “The officer reported the house was locked and there was no response to his knock and no sign of a problem.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Ronnie scoffed. “Except that she's missing.”

“So why
didn't
you call the police?” Jason asked.

“I called
you
,” she snapped. “I knew the cops wouldn't do anything.”

“When you got here,” Kai said, “did you see anything unusual?”

“I knew something had happened because the platter from the kitchen had been knocked off the wall. I didn't know what to do. I was so upset I forgot Mamere told me not to use my phone and sent Jason a message. You didn't come,” she said, looking up at him. “I don't know, I kind of freaked out. I thought something had happened to you because of the text I'd sent, so I trashed it.”

“What? Your phone?” I asked.

She nodded.

“But you called Layla, too.” I saw Ronnie's surprise that I knew this, and so I explained. “We tracked her down. She's safe. So is Coco.”

Ronnie relaxed a little. “Good. I was more careful when I contacted her. I used the phone at the coffee shop down the street.”

“I did come,” Jason said. “It was late, but I was here.”

Her face softened as she looked up at him. “It must've been while I was at the coffee shop. It was so weird not having a phone. At first I kind of panicked.”

“I understand, believe me,” I said.

“But then it was sort of liberating. No one knew where I was. I could try to figure out what had happened to Mamere.”

She turned and walked to the other side of the room, stopping at a desk made up of two steamer trunks topped with an old door. Standing on tiptoes, she reached up to turn on a utility lamp clipped to one of the beams. The light revealed a large map sitting on the table next to the gable window. The map covered most of the table's surface. It actually reminded me a lot of our monkey map.

Next to the map Ronnie had taped notes and a few newspaper clippings. Kai immediately walked over to study the display.

Ronnie watched him for a moment, then turned to face me. “You were here last night.”

I nodded. “I guess you saw Moss?”

I glanced at my dog, who'd decided it was time to inspect something on Jason's pant leg. Or rather something on his leg that Moss could smell through his jeans.

Liniment of some sort. I wondered what had caused his limp, but decided it wasn't important. Jason glanced down at Moss and did something unexpected. He held out his hand and said in a quiet voice, “Hey, boy.” After a few seconds
Moss gave a swish of his tail. Jason returned the friendly gesture with a pat on the head.

Well, darn. I might have to learn to like the guy.

I looked back at Ronnie. She'd angled her head and was studying me intently. Then, something strange happened.

The air didn't stir, but a wave of subtle heat pulsed over me. Like a dream of a desert breeze.

“What was that?” I asked her.

She shifted her gaze to Jason, shook her head, and started to turn away. I reached out to touch her arm.