Elementary, My Dear Watkins (47 page)

Alexa, Misty, and Rick came into the house, their mood light. Apparently they had been to an amusement park, and from the way things sounded, they’d eaten everything from churros to snow cones.

“Before you go, you have to come up and see what I did with the flowers for Jo and Danny’s almost wedding,” Alexa told her mother. “We’ll be right back, Uncle Rick.”

“Take your time,” he replied.

Alexa and her mother went up to Alexa’s bedroom, leaving Jo in the foyer with a man she had met only briefly before. Feeling awkward, she wondered if she should suggest that they take a seat in the living room, and then it dawned on her to bring him to the kitchen instead.

“Would you like a snack or something to drink?” she asked.

He put one hand on his stomach.

“I couldn’t eat another thing, but I’d love a glass of water.”

“Sure,” Jo replied, “right this way.”

They both went into the kitchen, Jo making light conversation, talking about how fond she was becoming of Alexa. Using the dispenser in the door of the fridge, Jo filled glasses with water for them both as she talked.

“This is a fancy kitchen,” he said, running a hand across the granite countertop. “Funny that it’s got a blender and a coffeemaker, but I don’t see a…toaster oven.”

Jo tried not to react to his comment. Instead, she simply handed him the water and met his eyes. There was something there, something very unsettling.

Then the telephone rang.

Danny was so relieved to hear Jo’s voice. He was calling from the road, using a cell phone he’d borrowed from Bradford. By the time Danny left the hospital room, Bradford had been in great pain and exhausted by the effort of their conversation. He was ready for some medication and eager for Danny to go. When Danny asked if he had a phone he could take, the guy had merely pointed to the drawer in the rolling table and told him to feel free to help himself—and to please send a nurse in on the way out.

“It’s me,” Danny said now, “I’m glad I caught you. I have to tell you something urgent. Listen, Winnie might not be the one who pushed you at the train or messed with the toaster. I won’t take the time to explain it all now, but I think that was done by Alexa’s mother’s boyfriend. His name is Rick.”

Jo was quiet for a long moment, and then she spoke in a strained yet singsongy manner.

“Yes, she just got home a few minutes ago. Would you like to speak with her? I can go get her. She’s right upstairs.”

“Jo? Did you hear what I said?”

“Yes, hold on just a sec,” Jo said, and then there was a clunk as she set down the phone. “Can you excuse me a minute, Rick? I’ve got to tell Alexa about this phone call.”

“Sure,” a man’s voice replied.

Heart pounding, Danny didn’t know what to do. Jo was in the same room as the man who wanted her dead.

Jo didn’t know how she managed to get out of the kitchen, up the stairs, and down the hall without running. As she forced herself to act natural, Chewie trotting along happily at her side, she could only pray that Danny had understood what was going on here—and that he had heard her address Rick by name. Surely, Danny would summon the police right away and come immediately himself as well.

When Jo reached Alexa’s room, she didn’t even bother to knock on the door. She simply swung it open and stepped inside, surprising Alexa and her mother, who were sitting on the bed and looking at the silk flowers from last night. Once she and Chewie were inside, Jo shut the door behind her, locked it, and then announced that they were all in danger.

“I don’t know how to say this,” Jo told them frantically, racing over to the dresser and trying to push it toward the door, “and I know you won’t believe me, but Rick tried to kill me on Wednesday and again yesterday. We’re not safe, at least not until the police get here.”

Danny’s mind was racing. He was still far away, just over the bridge out of New York City. Traffic was light in the direction he was going, but even as he pressed the accelerator to the floor, he knew it would take a good half hour to get there.

He was so torn, needing to call the police but not wanting to hang up on the only connection he had to Jo. After listening to dead silence for a full minute, however, Danny finally made his decision. Gritting his teeth, he disconnected the call and dialed 911.

It took a few transfers to get his call to the right police department, but he finally got there. Knowing that what he had to say sounded crazy, Danny explained the situation as quickly as possible.

“We’ll send a car right over,” the cop said in response. “What’s the address?”

Danny rattled the street name off from memory, but he wasn’t sure about the house number. He gave the Bosworth name and said for them to look it up—but to do it fast.

“A couple of your men were just out at the house this afternoon,” he added. “I’m sure they’ll remember it.”

“Do you want to hold on until someone is there?”

“No. I’m going to keep calling back until she answers the phone again.”

“Help me,” Jo said, trying to slide the large dresser against the door all by herself.

Alexa just stood there, loudly and angrily refuting everything Jo had said about Rick. But Misty seemed to believe her. She complied, and together the two women were able to move the dresser into place just as Chewie started barking and there was a loud pounding on the door.

“Jo, are you in there?” Rick’s voice demanded. “Come out! You don’t know what you’re doing!”

Jo looked at Alexa, who burst into tears.

“Tell me it isn’t true, Uncle Rick!” she yelled, and almost instantly, her mother was at her side, clamping a hand over her mouth.

“Be quiet, Alexa,” she hissed, “or you’ll get us all killed. Quick, show me how you sneak out at night. Get us out of here!”

“No, don’t leave this room,” Jo said, “we’re safer in here. Where’s the phone?”

“There is no phone,” Alexa sobbed. “I don’t have one.”

No phone in here, and Jo’s cell was in her own bedroom across the hall. Rick’s pounding grew louder, as did Chewie’s barking.

“You can do what you want,” Misty hissed at Jo, “but my daughter and I are out of here. Rick keeps a gun in the car. Any minute now he might start shooting through the door.”

Clearly terrified now, Alexa did as her mother said, quietly sliding open the far window and climbing out onto the veranda.

Silently, Misty went through the window next, and then, reluctantly, Jo lifted the very heavy Chewie to push him out as well. He fought her, though, for some reason afraid to go through the opening out into the dark. Quickly, Jo handed out his big bone to Misty and told her to wave it at him so he would come. Sure enough, that did the trick. Focused on getting to his treat, he scrambled through the window as Jo helped, lifting his heavy rear end off of the floor. Once he was out, the bone clenched happily in his mouth, Jo followed.

Crouching, the three women and the dog all ran across the veranda and down the back stairs, and then across the lawn toward the pasture. Jo did the best she could in her removeable cast, though she was slower than the others.

“Alexa!” Jo whispered, trying to catch up with them. “Why are you going this way? We’ve got to escape, not just hide. We should be going toward the front. There’s a guard in the hut.”

“There’s too much light out front,” Alexa whispered. “If he’s got a gun, we’d be easy targets. Besides, this
is
an escape. There’s an old gate behind the stable.”

Jo remembered the old gate. Though it probably hadn’t been used in a while, that was how they used to bring in the horses when she was a child.

“Don’t fall in the well!” Jo warned as they veered close to the stone structure in the dark. By then they were nearly to the gate.

Once there, Alexa announced that they’d have to climb over the top. Jo instantly realized that she’d never make it. With her sore ankle, she was barely even standing at this point.

Besides, even if she could make it over, she had one problem: Chewie. There was no way they could get him over that gate without breaking his neck.

Jo told Alexa to go first, and then Misty.

“Now you, Jo,” Alexa whispered as her feet touched the ground on the other side.

“I can’t leave Chewie here alone,” Jo said. “I just can’t. I’ll hide back here in the shadows and wait for the two of you to get help. If I know Danny, the police will be here soon too.”

Jo looked up at Misty, who had paused at the very top of the gate.

“You’re not coming with us?” she said.

“I can’t make it over,” Jo replied. “Even if I could, I can’t leave my dog.”

Misty hesitated, looking at her daughter.

“You know where to go from here, to get help?”

“Yeah,” Alexa said. “There’s a couple houses along the road.”

Strangely, Misty swung her leg back over and started down the inside.

“I can’t leave Jo here alone,” Misty said. “You go ahead and go, Alexa. Jo and I will both hide and wait until you return with help.”

D
anny couldn’t stand it any longer.

Calling the Bosworth house merely resulted in a busy signal. Calling Jo’s cell simply rang and rang and then went to voice mail.

What’s happening there?

As the needle on the speedometer entered the red zone at the very top of the dial, Danny tried again to reach the police. Once he was connected to them, they told him to be patient, that the policemen had reached the property but had not yet entered the house.

“There’s always a chance that we have ourselves a hostage situation here,” the dispatcher said. “They have to enter with caution.”