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The next morning they ate breakfast in their kitchen before work. Sady's phone buzzed. "Oh, that's Amanda!" She jumped off the counter and gave him a quick kiss. "Gotta run. We're meeting Uncle John. Don't forget you and I are leaving a work early, so we can check the other stores."
"Don't let John stiff you with anything ugly," he joked.
Sady tipped her head and angled her eyes. "The ship sailed last night, Matthew Meadows. I saw some of that junk you slipped past me!"
"I'm just trying to balance the scales," he teased.
"I guess we'll be in the running for the ugliest apartment, if they ever put a show like that on TV."
Matt jumped off the counter and hugged. "Be safe and tell John there's no need to make a personal visit. He can say hello from Detroit any time he passes through."
"Be nice, or I'll set him up in our guest room," she threatened. Her phone buzzed again, and he pushed her to the door.
"Hurry, before Amanda shows up here. Then we really will have the ugliest apartment!"
"You're headed for disaster," Sady cautioned, racing out the door to meet Amanda in the parking garage.
"Do you have the address?" Amanda asked as they hopped into her car.
Sady handed it to her, and she punched the location into her GPS. As they drove, they laughed about Matt's unexpected domestic streak.
"Just don't let him bring home any black velvet paintings," Amanda warned. "Or you're gonna need a house with a pole barn."
As they approached their destination, they looked at each other hesitantly. Amanda's brows rose. "Did Uncle Sam get demoted? This isn't the kind of place I expect him to stay."
"I know," Sady agreed in a worried voice. "I hope everything's okay."
"Maybe he's hoping those paintings will be stolen so he can collect the insurance money," Amanda suggested, following Sady into the hotel. They took the stairs to the upper level and walked down a grimy hall with stained carpet.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Sady hissed. Amanda showed her the paper that she printed with John's message. Sady gave her a doubtful look and knocked on the door. It was quiet, so she knocked again and put her ear to it. Pounding footsteps from the other side made her jump back. So did the sight of the woman who opened the door.
Slightly taller than Sady's 5' 9" the woman outweighed Sady by nearly a hundred pounds. She had a square, jutting chin, and a scar along her left temple. Her hair was chin length and wavy. It did nothing to soften her manly appearance.
Sady asked for John Morrow, and when the woman answered her voice was deep and booming. "John ain't here," she bellowed, giving her stick of chewing gum a good workout as she spoke. "What can I for ya?"
"I'd like to speak with John," Sady said.
The woman frowned. "I just told you, he ain't here. Maybe I can help you."
"You?" Amanda sniffed.
"You gotta a problem with that?" the woman glared. Amanda took a deep breath, and Sady knew there would be trouble if she didn't stop Amanda.
"No," Sady told the woman as she placed a restraining hand on Amanda's arm. "I'm John's niece, and he asked me to meet him here."
"What about her?" the woman growled. "She ain't his niece, is she?" Sady shook her head, and the woman snapped, "Then why is she here?"
"Uh, she's my bodyguard," Sady improvised, hoping Amanda at least had her stun gun in her purse, if not her real gun.
The woman playfully slugged Sady on the shoulder and barked out a laugh. Sady bounced off Amanda, grateful she hadn't been knocked across the hall by the forceful blow. "John never said you had a sense of humor."
Amanda pushed Sady out of the way and demanded, "Who are you?"
The gum chewing stopped as the woman sized up Amanda. The chewing resumed, and she replied, "I'm Sally. Me and John are friends." She elbowed Amanda in the ribs. "You know what I mean?"
Sady tried to get the conversation back on track. "Well, I'm sorry, he didn't mention you were joining him. Do you know where we can contact him?"
"I don't know when he'll be back, but you can leave a message and I'll be sure he gets it," Sally promised as she wiped her hands on the front of her sweatpants.
"No, I don't have a message for him," Sady told her, shooting a perplexed look at Amanda.
"Then why are you here?"
Sady and Amanda glanced at each other, then Amanda’s expression hardened. "Uncle Sam told us to meet him here," she stated flatly, looking ready for a fight.
"I don't know no one named Sam."
Sady pulled Amanda back. "Just tell John we stopped by," she said as Sally shrugged and slammed the door.
Amanda was ready to pound on the door but Sady whispered, "Something's wrong, Amanda. Maybe I should give him a call instead. Why would he tell us to meet him here and let that woman answer the door?"
They turned and nearly bumped into the housekeeper who rushed by with an armful of towels. She apologized and continued with her head low.
Outside in the car, Sady called her uncle and got his voicemail. She then sent him a text and waited a half hour. With a worried look at Amanda she called Harry and put him on speaker.
"Have you heard anything from Uncle John?" she asked when he picked up
"No. Is everything okay?"
Amanda grabbed her phone. "No, everything's not okay. We're at a dive hotel, and a woman who looks like Attila the Huntress answered his door. Uncle Sam's missing, so if you've got any connections in Washington you better start using them, Handsome. We'll be back at the office shortly."
When they got back to the office Harry had been busy trying to track down John. "I got through to John's assistant. She hasn't talked with him since Sunday. He was still on the West Coast and planning to fly back today."
CJ spoke up. "We can't get confirmation that John was on any of the flights into Detroit Metro today. He may have come in on a private flight, but there's no way to find out for sure. He may not even be in the state. The one thing I know for sure- if John doesn't keep an appointment there's a darn good reason for it. One that usually involves security."
"Do you think it involves the paintings?" Sady asked. "He said they were valuable."
Harry shrugged. "I don't know if any of this is tied to the paintings. You said the movers took yours?" Sady nodded, and he continued, "I think it's important to get it back as soon as you can."
"We have more stores to search," Sady panicked. "You don't think someone kidnapped him and wants to trade him for the painting, do you?"
Matt raised his brows at Amanda with a grin. "That's one way to get rid of it without making John mad."
Sady snapped, "Stop making jokes. I'm worried!"
"You three are the ones who saw the original painting," Harry said to Sady, Matt, and Amanda. "I think you'd better hit up the rest of those second-hand stores right away. If someone buys that painting..."
"I don't know if I can drive," Sady said, biting a hangnail anxiously.
"I'll drive you," Amanda said.
"Wrong," Matt corrected her. "I'll drive Sady, and you drive yourself. We can cover the stores faster that way."
CJ snorted and pushed them into the hall. "Just go and fix your mess! Harry and I will take care of the mayor's guests."
"I need a couple things from my desk." Amanda went to the front office, then she yelled for Sady.
"Did you hear from Uncle John? Is he okay? Where is he?" Sady galloped to Amanda’s desk, the words spilling out as she ran.
"None of the above," Amanda replied, standing by the window. "Come here and take a look. Do you recognize that woman across the street in the white SUV?"
Sady watched the woman thoughtfully for a minute, then remarked, "She looks like the housekeeper at the hotel, doesn't she?"
Amanda snorted. "She not only looks like the housekeeper, she IS the housekeeper. Or pretends to be one. When she reached up to adjust the visor, I saw the tattoo on her hand. The housekeeper had the same tattoo."
"What's the holdup?" Matt asked from the hall. Sady motioned him to the window and pointed to the woman across the street.
"She was at Uncle John's hotel this morning, disguised as a housekeeper," Sady told him.
"Let me get a camera from the equipment room," he said. "If we get a good picture maybe Harry and CJ can send it to their colleagues while we're gone." Less than five minutes later, he had a good face shot of the woman in the SUV.
"Hmm... she's pretty," he remarked, then he stopped and slid his eyes toward Sady.
She grabbed the camera from him and looked at the digital screen. "You're right, she is pretty. Hopefully, those good looks will work to our benefit." She took the camera to Harry, so he could download the photos from the camera.
"I'll let you know if we catch a break," he said. "Good luck finding your painting."
Matt handed Amanda a paper with two store addresses. "These are the farthest, so that's why you've got two. We'll take the closer ones."
Amanda shook her head at him. "Don't try to put one over on me. I know the reason you're taking the closer ones is so you can load up on useless items at more stores. I warned Sady she'd better restrict how much junk you bring home, or you're gonna need a new place to live!" She snatched the paper and left with, "I'll be in touch."
Matt and Sady had no luck at the first two stores. Sady checked her phone and reported that Amanda had just reached the first store on her list. A half hour later she sent a text that the painting wasn't at that store, and she was driving to the next one.
"I guess we might as well take our time at the last one on our list," Matt told Sady. As she tore through the store looking for the painting, Matt checked out the other merchandise. He was staring at an object hanging on the wall when Sady reported no luck on the painting.
"But you found our living room furniture," she said, giving him a hug.
"Huh?" Matt gave her a puzzled look, then said, "Oh, yeah, I guess that's ours isn't it? What do you suppose that thing hanging on the wall is?"
"It's forbidden," Sady warned. "This time you make arrangements for our furniture, while I look for items we missed." She didn't get far before Matt waved her down.
He held up a metal item. "Hey, Sady, check this out," he yelled across the store. Sady rolled her eyes and went to see Matt's latest treasure.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I don't know. It looks like a kinky piece of BDSM equipment," he told her.
An older woman walking by stopped and gave Matt a puzzled look. "What's BDSM equipment?" she asked.
"Uh, it's special equipment that some people like to use," he said with a flushed face.
"Oh. Well, that thing you're holding is an eggbeater." She took it from him and demonstrated how to use it.
Sady whispered to Matt, "Wouldn't a whisk do the same thing?"
Matt gave the egg beater a spin and shook his head. "Nope. This one's guaranteed to make you swear and possibly break a finger." Sady snatched it and put it back on the shelf.
"Stop looking for junk!" she demanded. Then she left him to search for their personal items.
When Matt heard the sound of raised voices, one of them Sady's, he abandoned his treasure hunt and ran. Sady and another woman fought over a table and two chairs. "I saw them first," the woman complained.
"But they belong to us!" Sady insisted. She drew in a deep breath and Matt pulled out his wallet.
"Hey, lady. I'll give you twenty bucks to walk away," he offered. The woman grabbed the cash, gave Sady a snotty look, then laughed at her astonishment.
Sady turned to Matt to scold him and he held up his hand. "She's a bulldog, Sassafras. She didn't want the table and chairs until she saw you looking at them. As soon as you showed interest, she wasn't going to let you have them. Next time you see something of ours, and there's a shopper within twenty feet, just walk away and they'll lose interest."
Sady gave him a look of disbelief and he looked around the store. "Isn't that our wall clock?" he asked, pointing to an item a few aisles over. Sady nodded, and he said, "Watch this." He sauntered toward the clock, and the man browsing nearby watched Matt with a sharp eye. As soon as he saw Matt check out the clock, he parked himself in front of it and examined it in detail. Matt paused, then moved on to another aisle. When he left, the man abandoned his post in front of the clock and moved away.
Sady's mouth opened in disgust. She marched to the clock and reached in front of the man who saw her coming and decided to guard it again. Snatching it from the wall, she said, "Well, excuse me!" An aisle away, Matt laughed. Sady brought the clock to him and hissed, "Don't let him take it from our cart!"
"Sandy-Sue, it's a sad day when I am giving you lessons in shopping," he said.
"Well, I'm upset, and I can't help it." Her eyes narrowed as she spotted their missing nightstand. "Matthew, you'd better clear the path because I'm not leaving here without that stand... and you're NOT paying the biddy to get it!"
He chuckled and asked for a head start. Soon the area cleared, and Sady tagged her nightstand. "How did you do that?" she whispered.
"I just struck up a conversation and asked in a loud voice if she heard the announcement overhead for half off in the shoe department. I bet there's a fight over there soon," he joked. He waited for Sady to compliment his maneuver, but he realized she wasn't paying attention. He nudged her. "What's wrong? Did someone just make off with one of our lamps?"
Nonplussed, she shook her head. "I think that woman over there was at Uncle John's hotel," she whispered. Matt looked, then reached out to feel her forehead. She slapped his hand. "What are you doing?"
"Babe, that definitely is not the woman we saw in the SUV this morning. This one looks like an escaped convict!"
"No, this woman was in the hotel room, and she answered the door when we knocked. Matt, I think she's following us."
"Sady, you're under a lot of stress. Could it be you're mistaken about that woman?" he asked, stupidly. An elbow to the stomach answered his question.
Sady slipped around an aisle and snapped a picture, then sent it to Amanda for confirmation. When she got a response, she held it up for Matt to read. "You'd better get that picture to Harry," he said, rubbing his stomach. "He might want to start with anyone who has a prison record. She looks like she's been in for a while!"
She sighed and looked around the store. "Anything else?" Matt asked. She shook her head, and they made arrangements to pay for their items, then load them on the truck. By then Amanda reported she had no luck finding the painting.
Sady bit her lip. "What are we going to do? We don't have a painting to ransom Uncle John with."
Matt kept his smile to himself. "Sady, we haven't received a ransom demand. Maybe he just got called away on urgent department business. You know he can't talk about his work."
"Do you think that's what happened?" she asked, her brow still furrowed with worry.
"I'm sure of it," he replied.
"What about those women? That can't be a coincidence."
"Believe it or not, Sady, it can be a coincidence," he told her in a firm voice. "Let's check the place, okay?" She nodded, and he said, "Stop worrying. John can take care of himself."
She finally smiled. "You're right. I saw him slip away from Amanda one time and she didn't even know he left."
"I'll text Harry," Matt said, "while you check the list for what's still missing." He didn't tell her the text he sent to Harry was meant to keep her away from the office, in case they got bad news. Matt had worked with John long enough to know a sudden disappearance was not his style, and he wouldn't do so without a good reason... or unless he was taken by force. Anyway, he didn't want Sady worrying. Harry agreed to let them retrieve their items and said he would put Amanda on the search for Morrow when she returned.
By the end of the day Matt and Sady had most of their household items back. "The mattress on my bed is still good," Sady told him. "We can use that instead of getting a new one."
He grinned and couldn't help himself, "That mattress is more than good, Sassafras!"
She frowned. "I guess someone snatched up your TV right away. I'm sorry, Matt."
He reached across the seat to take her hand. "It's just a TV. Besides, you owe me a new one," he teased. She nodded absentmindedly, and he sighed. There had to be a way to keep her from worrying about her uncle. She needed a distraction.
The distraction Matt hoped for came in an unexpected form. With their final load, they met up with the Davis family in the elevator. Argus hugged them, and even baby Harris managed to slobber over them. Bea, on the other hand, turned her back and refused to speak, even when her mother scolded her.
"I'm sorry," Kristen said when the elevator stopped on her floor. "She's been out of sorts since she spent the night with you."
"Did we do something to upset her?" Sady asked, concerned.
Kristen smiled. "Not intentionally. It's just one of you must have said the word V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N," she spelled out.
Sady rolled her eyes. "That would be Matt."
"Well, we never take one without going S-W-I-M-M-I-N-G, and she must have thought that you were going to take her. She isn't old enough to separate the two. In her mind they go together," Kristen explained.
"I know what you spelled," Argus shouted.
Matt put his hand over Argus' mouth. "I'll give you a buck if you don't say it," he offered.
Kristen looked horrified while Argus negotiated. "A buck for each word," he counter offered. Matt pulled out his wallet and paid, then looked up to see the women glaring at him. He thought fast.
"Say, I have an idea," he offered. "Since we didn't get to go swimming the last time the kids stayed, why don't you let Sady and I take them to that indoor swimming lodge? You know the place, right? It's mid-week and I'm sure we can get a room."
Sady looked stunned, but Kristen knew a good offer when she heard one. "Let me pack their bags," she yelled. "They can catch up on their home schooling over the weekend."
"Where are we going?" Bea asked Matt with a scowl. "Last time we had bacation we didn't swim."
"Well, this time we are," he told her, ruffling her bright red hair. She and Argus rushed from the elevator while Sady stood with her mouth open. Matt pushed the button for the elevator to continue to their floor. When the doors opened, Sady was still standing with a dazed look. Matt stepped back into the elevator and led her out by the hand.
"W-why?" Sady stuttered.
"Because I'm not going to let you sit around worrying about your uncle, that's why," Matt said firmly. "You need a distraction, and Harry will keep us updated." He gave her a push into the apartment. "I'm going to call the Fountain Mountain and make a reservation for tomorrow night. You can start putting things back where they belong, then pack your bag because we are leaving early tomorrow."
"We can't check in until the afternoon," Sady protested. "Why do we have to leave early?"
"So we can take the kids to the interactive museum next to the indoor water park. Kristen looks like she can use the break."
"Uh, Matt? You realize they will have to stay in the same room with us, right?" He nodded with a grin, and she shook her head. "No messing around, Matt. I'm serious."
"Not even a little fun under the covers?" he teased.
She shook her head. "If you don't behave, I'll check out and leave you alone with them. Now promise me you'll behave."
"I promise to behave while we're at the hotel," he said. "How's that?"
"And the water park?"
"Why, Sandy-Sue, you have a suspicious mind," he scolded.
"No, I just understand your mind," she replied. "Promise me..."
He grinned and gave her a hug. "I promise to behave, but that doesn't mean I won't sneak a kiss now and then."
"Just keep it that way," she warned. "I'd hate to see you get beat up by Mrs. Davis if her kids happen to see some R Rated action."
"I have more action in mind than R Rated," he leered. "But we'll keep it at home."
After a quick kiss she said, "I'm calling Harry to see if he has any news."
"Well, I think we're on the right track about the paintings being at the bottom of this whole thing," Harry told her. "We got a hit off Interpol. The woman in the SUV, who pretended to be the housekeeper? She's an international art thief, Sophie Lowe. How she got into the states is beyond me. But I'd say it's a good bet she's involved with John's disappearance. If we see her again, we'll follow her."
"What about the other woman?" Sady asked.
"Surprisingly, with a face like that, nothing. We checked all the databases, Sady, and she's as clean as they come. But we'll keep digging. I promise we won't stop until we find John. You know he's okay, right?" Sady didn't speak, and Harry said, "Listen, Sady, CJ and I worked with him for many years. John's every bit as capable of taking care of himself as CJ or I."
"Seriously? He's as lethal as CJ?" Sady asked.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Harry said wryly. "But, yes, John's every bit as lethal as CJ. Does that make you feel better?"
"If I were at the office I'd hug you," she told him.
"Then I'll take that as a yes and collect the hug from CJ instead. By the way, CJ just dropped a note that you and Matt won't be in to work for a day or two?"
Sady sighed. "Matt's big idea is to distract me by taking the Davis kids to the water park."
Harry laughed, and in the background she heard CJ howl with amusement. "Have fun," they told her before disconnecting.
Sady turned when she heard a crash outside the apartment door. She opened the door and saw Matt struggling to get the mattress down the hall from her old apartment. "That looks like a lot of work," she told him as she leaned against the wall and watched.
"That's okay. You know what they say. All work and no play makes Matt a dull boy. Well, after all this work I want to play. You wouldn't me to be dull, would you?"
She snickered. "What I'd really like is for Amanda to be here to answer that one, but I'll let it slide. No, it wouldn't do for you to be a dull boy." She left her post against the wall and helped him get the mattress and box springs from her old apartment. Then she tossed him a set of sheets. "Work's not done, Junior!"
His brows went up. "That's okay. More work equals more play. Plus, I've got to make tonight last because tomorrow night we'll have minor chaperons. Now get over here and help me with this sheet, Sandy-Sue! I wouldn't want you to be short-changed when it comes to the fun."