Chapter 29 #2
Amber’s mouth worked furiously. “Brody,” she said in a dry, whispery voice.
Then she blinked rapidly, stared directly at him, and let loose a scream that rose in volume until Theodosia thought the poor girl might break the sound barrier!
It was a feral scream laced with anguish and pain and quite possibly relief.
“Over there!” shouted a man’s voice from off to their left. “That has to be them over there.”
Heavy tramping, like a herd of buffalo thundering through the forest. And then three, no four, uniformed police officers were standing over them, all with shell-shocked expressions.
Luckily, the officers didn’t hesitate for very long. Theodosia was helped to her feet, Brody was gently pulled from Amber, and another officer wielded an enormous metal cutter to free Amber from her chains and cuffs. All the while Amber cried softly and Brody whispered quiet words in her ear.
“You see what happens when you take things into your own hands?” came a sharp, unhappy voice.
Theodosia looked over to find Detective Burt Tidwell tromping toward them. He wore a shiny black rain slicker that stood out from his body like a tent, and green rubber boots on his feet.
Theodosia shoved wet hair off her face as she faced him. “But we got her back.”
Tidwell ignored Theodosia and turned his complete attention to Amber. “You poor girl, are you able to speak?”
Amber nodded.
“We have an ambulance on the way, but I’d like to ask you a few questions first. Do you feel you’re up to that?”
Amber nodded again.
“Who kidnapped you?” Tidwell asked.
“I don’t know,” Amber said in a soft voice.
“Do you know where you were held? Can you give us any kind of description of the kidnapper? What he was wearing, the car he drove?” Tidwell was beginning to launch a rapid-fire barrage of questions.
“I never saw his face,” Amber said as tears rolled down her cheeks. “The whole time he was wearing a horrible, ugly mask.”
“Mask?” Theodosia said, breaking into the conversation. “What kind of mask?”
Amber bit her lower lip and frowned. “Something weird and pink. Kind of like a pig face.”
That’s when Theodosia took a step back and said, “Oh dear.”
Tidwell caught her reaction immediately. “Oh dear?” His eyebrows shot up in a quizzical expression. “What does that mean? Do you know something about this? If so, you’d better enlighten me right now.”
So Theodosia had to give Tidwell all the details about the Porky Pig character that had barged into the Indigo Tea Shop this past Wednesday and assaulted Drayton.
“And you didn’t think to report this?” Tidwell asked.
“Not that much came of it. It wasn’t a robbery, Drayton claimed to be okay…I don’t know.” Theodosia shrugged. “Maybe we goofed?”
“I’d say so,” Tidwell said. Then he scowled at Theodosia and added, “This means everything is linked. Problem being, how is it linked?”
“I haven’t a clue,” Theodosia said. “I wish I did.”
Tidwell focused his beady eyes on Brody. “And I’m guessing you brought the ransom money? And deposited it somewhere in this vicinity?”
“Theodosia left it in a hollow tree,” Brody said.
“Where was this?” Tidwell asked.
“Show him the instructions,” Theodosia said.
So Brody pulled the crumpled note from his pocket and handed it over to Tidwell. Then Theodosia tried to explain the route she’d taken, with Brody jumping in to add his two cents’ worth.
Finally Tidwell said, “Stop. None of your chatter is remotely helpful.” He pointed to one of the officers whose name tag read T. Donohue. “Officer Donohue, I want you to take this note and kindly retrace Miss Browning’s exact steps. Can you do that?”
Donohue bobbed his head. “Yes, sir.”
“Take care, use your service weapon if needed.” Then Tidwell cocked an eye at Theodosia and said, “Perhaps it would be helpful if you accompanied Officer Donohue.”
“I can do that,” Theodosia said tiredly. She didn’t relish the idea of tromping through that swamp again, but knew she had to do it anyway.
“Just one catastrophe on top of another,” Tidwell muttered. He was radiating irritation and making no bones about who felt it.
But tired as she was, all Theodosia felt was relief. Because Amber was finally safe.
* * *
Three hours later, with the hot water feeling so darned good, Theodosia was almost ready to abandon her plans to go to the ball.
She wanted to stay in the shower forever as water pulsed against her sore back and shoulders and hot steam enveloped her like a warm blanket.
But when the pipes began to clank, when the hot water started to run out, she turned off the spigot, climbed out, and pulled on a terry cloth robe.
Earlier, Theodosia had spent a half hour on the phone with Drayton, giving him the 411 on the search for Amber and the girl’s eventual rescue. First Drayton had chastised Theodosia for running out on them, then he peppered her with a million questions.
“Is Amber going to be okay?” he’d asked.
“I think so. The poor girl was bedraggled and in a mild state of shock so they took her to a hospital,” Theodosia had said.
“Did the kidnapper retrieve the ransom?”
Theodosia explained how she and Officer Donohue were tasked to check on the bag of money she’d dropped in the hollow tree, but found it missing when they went back.
Which led everyone to believe that the kidnapper had been lurking at the Old Sheldon Church Ruins all along, shadowing her and Brody and grabbing the money at the first opportunity.
“You’re lucky you weren’t killed,” Drayton had said.
“I know,” Theodosia replied. “People keep telling me that.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”
“I don’t.”
“Does this mean you’re still going to the ball tonight?”
“I guess so.”
“Do you still plan to pick me up?”
“Of course.”
So now Theodosia was running a tad late.
Luckily, Earl Grey had been fed and walked and her ball gown was hanging on the door behind her.
Now she was rushing to do what she called her Three-Minute Hollywood Glam.
A touch of gel to tame her brows, then smooth on a hint of tinted moisturizer.
Seated at her mother’s old-fashioned dressing table, Theodosia gazed in the mirror as she spread the moisturizer across her face and gave a wry smile.
Good. That light base tint had evened out her complexion and some of her color was coming back.
What else? Okay, some dark brown mascara to fluff out her eyelashes and a bit of lip liner followed by her favorite Chanel tinted lip gloss.
As for styling her hair? That was going to present a challenge.