Chapter 11

 

 

 

Jared and Saizy, Sandy and Vinnie and Denise were just leaving the apartment house on 43^rd Street when Jared's phone chimed. He wouldn't have been surprised at a call from Lt. Price, and, seeing there was no name or number on the indicator, not uncommon with a new phone until the registration went through, he was sure it was going to be her voice on the other end. She had replaced her smashed phone, and she would be several blocks away, making good her escape.

"Yes," he said, and Vinnie held the passenger side door of the Seabreeze for Saizy, who was looking through the plentiful contents of her bag to be sure she had the disposable cups from Lt. Price's interrupted breakfast. Denise and Sandy were getting into the back seat.

"Good morning, Jared," Maud said in a cheerful tone.

"Maud?"

"Yes, it's me; I promised to call –"

He was surprised at the depth of the relief he felt, and it made him irritable, that he felt it, that she had caused him and Cara and Chazaerte and Carter anxiety in the first place. "Maud, where the hell are you? Are you all right?"

"Of course I'm all right," she said. "Why wouldn't I be all right?"

He sat down on the hood of the car. Saizy paused by the passenger door with Vinnie still holding it open, and Denise and Sandy stopped at the back door. "She's all right," he whispered to them, and Saizy rolled her eyes and switched her tail. "Maud," he said. "You've been gone for two days now. We found your Verve. Chazaerte located it last night. Where in hell are you and what's going on?"

"What about the Verve?" said Maud, in a tone of mild interest.

"What about the –" Jared took a deep breath. "Maud. My dear. The Verve has been reduced to a pile of junk, parked over on the north side by a truly unpleasant bar, in the general area where Lincoln and Polly were living. "

"Are you sure," said Maud, "that it's Cara's Verve?" Trust her to phrase it that way, he thought.

"It's definitely your Verve," he said, making his own point. "Yes, we're sure. We checked the ID chip. Now where are you, and what have you been doing for two days?"

Vinnie leaned around the side of the car, showing the locater in his hand, a light on the screen pulsating gently. The "where", at least, was a question they could answer for themselves; Jared smiled and nodded.

"Oh, I've been doing all sorts of things," said Maud airily. "I know I told Louise I would call you, but I've been so busy it just slipped my mind. I'm sorry. I didn't know you'd be worried. There aren't any problems, are there? Cara is all right?"

The screen on the locater stopped pulsating; "61^st Ave. Mall, Level 3," it read, followed by a string of figures Jared found incomprehensible, although Vinnie looked pleased with them. He beamed and nodded, and Jared nodded back; they had her.

"Cara is fine," said Jared, "but –"

"Tell her I'll find her another car as soon as I have time," said Maud. "Soon. And don't worry; I'm doing very well. I'll call later, if I don't have time to drop by." She broke the connection, and the five of them scrambled into the car without further discussion.

"She is alive and well," said Saizy. "We know this much."

"Cara will be glad to hear it," said Jared, and gunned the car out of the parking lot.

Vinnie, studying the screen and doing a certain amount of calculation on his fingers, said he was pretty sure Maud had been calling from outside that third-level store with all the hiking gear, and the tents and canoes. She would have picked a handy bench at random to sit on while she called, Jared supposed. Maud would not have been shopping in that store; she had never had the slightest interest in the outdoor life. He still had a clear memory of an abortive camping trip upon which he had, with the optimism of youth, persuaded her to come. The out-of-doors was not Maud's milieu. There was too much there that was out of her control.

But although they reached the mall quickly, and although they separated once inside the door and scattered through the shoppers on all three levels, none of them found Maud. Jared tapped the return on his phone and got a number on the screen, but no one answered when he tried it.

At least it would be a relief to Cara and Carter and Chazaerte to know he had heard from her.

Vinnie's attention was caught by a reader store near the south exit; Sandy and Saizy and Denise paused at a window display of summer dresses and sandals, rushing the season a little. Jared found a spot by a shop that sold perfume, bath salts, lotions, and other heavily-scented items and caught Cara between classes to tell her about Maud.

"Oh, thank goodness she's all right," she said. "I mean, she has to be, doesn't she; I don't see how anyone could hurt her. But still, after seeing her car, I couldn't help worrying – and I'm glad you called; the police called just a few minutes ago. Someone spotted the car by the north side bar and they investigated and it's registered to me, you know. I didn't know what to say; Mother isn't my legal mother, you know. So I couldn't say my mother took it; I said I left it parked out on the street down from the D'ubian house, because there was kind of a parking crunch around our house, and I made a big fuss, were they sure it was mine, because I was positive mine was just right where I left it, and finally I said I couldn't come down to see it because I was working but I would try to get hold of my husband. Would you mind very much, darling? And did Mother say where she was? Did she know about the car?"

"She didn't really say," said Jared. "She acted mildly interested. About what I'd expect if she wrecked it herself and didn't want to admit it. I'll call the police and go see the car and raise hell about criminals running loose and stealing cars at will. That should do it."

There were two police cars down by the Leaning Tree at this very moment, he was told, and he collected his party, loaded them back into his car, and headed off for the north side down Central. "This is very awkward," said Saizy. "We cannot admit what we know about the car, can we. Cara is right; Maud has no legal standing as her mother."

It was a settled rain now, leaving puddles on the street and mud slicks around the weed patch lawns on 110^th Avenue. There were indeed two police cars in place, with an assortment of spectators at a respectful distance, where they were unlikely to be questioned about names and addresses and last night's activities.

The Verve didn't look any better by daylight.

Everyone agreed that it was hard to tell for sure that it was Cara's car, but Jared said he thought so, guessing from the color of the carpet and what was left of the paint, and he shrugged and sighed at the confirmation on the policeman's noter and agreed to call a wrecking yard, any yard but the one on the other side of the Leaning Tree. Since the car was, in fact, registered to Cara, that meant that between them they had had four cars destroyed since the first of the year, a dismal record.

Saizy stepped in to launch a tirade about the poor police service paid for by their exorbitant taxes. She threw in references to Percival Lincoln, still at large, and Polly Worth, located by accident in the area occupied by their intended victims, who had given repeated statements and signed complaint after complaint. She mentioned stolen weekenders and two-seat scooters and the unreasonably high crime rate in Bridgeton in general; she gave, in fact, a dramatic and moving speech while Jared arranged to have the Verve towed away, and Sandy and Vinnie examined the wreck and Denise took notes.

Jared signed and thumbprinted where he was told, forwarded forms to Cara, and left, with relief. At least the saga of the Verve was ended. And Maud was all right, and eventually he would have the story behind this curious incident. He was determined on that.

All he had to do was find Maud.

 

Lt. Price remained elusive also; Jared stopped by her apartment that night with Issio and Willis for company, but the place was once again empty. She had been back. The smashed phone was gone, probably chuted, and the screens and keyboard and the box of data chips were back in place on the table. There was a pair of running shoes, very muddy, set on an old towel just inside the bathroom door. There were also two suitcases and a large box in the middle of the bedroom. "How quickly can she find a new apartment?" Issio asked, looking into the box, which was still empty.

"Very quickly," said Jared, "unless she's picky."

They would have to check tomorrow, he thought; but tomorrow was Saturday, a significant day for the former Owens sisters, and everyone was trying hard to keep the atmosphere peaceful, friendly, calm. Mimi and Clyde not only cornered Rocky; they took him out to guard them as they picnicked somewhere in the mountains. Willis dialed down Logan and Leroy to keep them on their perch for all but major emergencies.

And by the time Cousin George and Chuck arrived, shortly after lunch, most of the Hardesty house residents had found other places to be, leaving the living room open to guests who wished to visit without interference. The only visible people, in fact, were Willis and Tim, looking for a little glitch under the hood of the Velocity parked in front of Ann's house, and Nelson Clancy, sitting with his sketch pad at the picnic table with Issio and Jared.

Cousin George parked in front of the Hardesty house and waved at Jared and at Tim before Denise ran out to greet him and Chuck, Faashi following a little more shyly. There was a good deal of hugging and hand shaking and they all vanished into the house; it looked friendly enough. Jared was pleased that Denise and Faashi were getting a little support from some of her family, at least. None of Faashi's family cared to do anything beyond sending messages bewailing his situation; they seemed to feel Denise was to blame for the entire thing, and his mother had sent her a message begging her to return her son in decent condition before it was too late.

"So," said Issio, nodding toward Ann's house where their wives were meeting with Zarei and Shamri and Ollie, "a wedding shower." He tasted the words and the concept. "And Ann is planning this thing? Will it be in any way similar to your reception?"

"Cara says she and Sofi will try and keep it simple," said Jared. "I think they're outnumbered. The good news is that it's a women-only event. Now if they decide Denise and Faashi have to have their own reception, that will be a different matter, and we'll be expected to attend too."

"Exploding candles," said Issio with a shudder.

"Singing goblets," said Jared, with vivid memories of Lillian and Al's wedding. Nelson raised his eyes from the sketch pad, and looked at them warily.

"Dancing nut cups," said Issio.

The Hardesty front door burst open and Denise ran across the porch and down the steps. "Dr. Ramirez!" she called. "Dr. Ramirez! Grace is stuck! You have to help her!" Faashi appeared in the Hardesty door behind her, looking from her to whatever was in the living room, torn between love and duty.

"Grace is stuck?" repeated Jared.

"Yes, she can't move and she wants you. Can you come? Please? She's scared!"

"Can't you and Faashi –"

"She knows you better," said Denise. "Faashi says she's asking for you. You come every day and talk to her, you know, and you're always so nice to her, and she trusts you, and if you could just come and help –"

"Well, of course," said Jared, "but how can she possibly be stuck?"

"She's afraid to move," explained Denise, which conveyed very little, but Jared got up and followed her up the street; Faashi held the door for them. Sandy was by the dining room, a little out of the way, no doubt waiting for Lewis to call; she was going to borrow Weston's car and go to meet him. Cousin George and Chuck were standing, looking extremely uncomfortable, on the far side of the coffee table occupied by Grace's enclosure, with the sheltering towel draped over the end. Jared could feel Grace, blasts of the purest panic, but he couldn't see her until he got closer. Grace was not on the floor of the enclosure, by the pool or on the flagstones or beside the little green plants with which Sandy and Denise had furnished her home. Grace was on the inside of the roof of the enclosure, hanging by her four suction-padded feet from the glass, and fear was coming off her in great waves, filling the living room. Even those without Ears were feeling it, Jared thought.

He bent to look through the side of the enclosure, reaching for Grace's mind; she rolled an eye his way and saw him and identified him through her terror. "What's wrong?" he asked. "What happened?" She looked entirely secure where she was; it wouldn't have been comfortable for most mammals, but it was a perfectly reasonable place for a lizard to be, and he couldn't see anything preventing her from moving.

And Grace herself was too scared to make sense; she could only send him a blast of fear and confusion. There were in her mind strange loud noises and the abrupt movements of large menacing beings and an explosion of colors and light. She was terrified; she couldn't remember how to raise her Voice to be heard by Ear-less others.. Jared looked up at Denise, who in turn looked at Faashi, who at least had Ears enough to interpret for Grace. "She is afraid she will fall," he explained.

"She has those little suction pads," said Jared. "She can't fall."

"She does not know," said Faashi. "She just ran. She did not think. When she heard the noise she ran."

"Cousin George," said Denise, accusing, far too upset to remember that Cousin George was one of their few friendly family connections, "tapped on the side of the glass there, right where her nose was. He tapped hard and it spooked her; she went running right up the side of the wall and then onto the ceiling and then I guess she saw where she was and she froze."

"She climbed there by instinct," explained Faashi. "She did not think, and the lizard habits took over, you see? So she got that far, and then she realized where she was and now she cannot remember how to get down and she is afraid she will fall, because she sees us, she knows we sometimes get hurt falling, and while to us this is not a great distance, she is very small, you know, and to her –"

"It's very far to the floor," agreed Jared, beginning to understand. And Grace wasn't all that adept at operating a physical body; there was that to consider, too. He looked in the enclosure; Grace looked at him again, and he felt from her a little thread of hope in all the panic, as if she really did believe he could do something to help her. And that was touching; he had to try.

"Maybe," said Denise, "you can talk her down. Tell her how to do it."