Chapter 33 #2
Lenore slapped down her cards. “It was a team effort. We all worked together to catch him. It was getting late,” she explained to us, “and I’d gone into your mother’s bedroom to get some blankets because Eugene’s hip acts up when he gets cold and Wendell wanted to take a nap.
That’s when I spotted something moving outside the window.
It looked like someone was sneaking around the side of the house.
I ran downstairs and told the others. We peeked out through the front window and saw this young man getting ready to light that nasty bag on fire. ”
“I opened the door and started shouting at him,” Wendell said. “I scared him so bad, he dropped his lighter. He turned to run, so I tripped him with my cane! Then Eugene trapped him against the ground with his walker and sat on it while Joan went to find the duct tape.”
“Who is he?” I asked.
“Don’t know,” Wendell said. “We asked him what he’s doing here, but he wouldn’t say, so we emptied his pockets and checked his ID. He ain’t from this neighborhood. All we found were his keys and some old receipts,” he said, gesturing to the mess on the table.
“And plenty of cash,” Eugene said. “We used that to order more pizza.”
“Why is Javi taped to the chair?” Vero asked.
“You told us not to let him leave the house under any circumstances.” Lenore’s forehead crinkled, and she looked to her friends. “Didn’t she?”
Eugene nodded.
“It’s a good thing you had a bunch of that tape,” Wendell said.
“Javi heard all the commotion and woke up from his nap. We told him you’d gone out with your friend hours ago and you hadn’t come home yet.
He got real upset and said he was going to find you.
He got right up out of that chair and started hobbling straight for the door.
It took all four of us to get him back in that damn recliner.
If it wasn’t for the duct tape, we wouldn’t have had a moment of peace,” he said, holding up what was left of the roll.
Eugene shook his head. “He’s a real firecracker, that one. Has been ever since you all were kids. Want me to cut him loose?” he offered, holding up the knife they’d used to cut their pizza.
Vero glanced over at Javi. The bruises from his bar fight had faded to pale greens and yellows, and new bright purple ones had taken their place after his fall from the window. There was pizza sauce on his cast and greasy handprints on his T-shirt. His hair was wild, and his eyes were seething.
Vero winced. “Maybe you’d better leave him where he is.”
Javi started thrashing. The vandal on the floor started thrashing again, too. Wendell hit the young man on the head with his cane. “You be quiet or I’ll pop you again!”
“You think someone paid him to deliver the messages?” I asked Vero.
“Could be,” Vero said, chewing on her lip. “But I’m more worried about my mom and Aunt Gloria. They’ve been gone all night. Where the hell could they be?”
Everyone’s heads turned toward the garage as the electric door hummed open.
Lenore brightened. “Oh, good! Sounds like Norma and Gloria are back. I suppose we can all go home now.” She rose stiffly to her feet and began gathering up the playing cards.
Vero ran through the kitchen. She flung open the service door to the garage and found Norma and Gloria standing inside it. They gasped. Norma clutched her chest in surprise. They were clad all in black, and both of them had dark circles under their eyes. Gloria was holding her rolling pin.
“Where have you two been?” Vero cried. “Lenore and Wendell said you were gone all night!”
Norma looked confused. “Why are Lenore and Wendell here? And what happened to your hair?” Her eyes raked over her daughter, from top to bottom. “And where’s your ankle monitor? Please don’t tell me you drowned another one.”
“No. I mean, yes,” she said. “It’s kind of a long story. Right now I’m just glad you two are home and you’re both okay. I was scared something terrible had—”
A thumping sound came from the back of Norma’s car. Norma and Gloria exchanged a guilty look.
“What was that?” Vero asked, narrowing her eyes at the trunk.
“Nothing, mija.”
“Don’t ‘nothing, mija’ me. I heard something. What was it?”
Norma and Gloria stared at us with guilty expressions as another round of thumping rattled the car.
Vero held out her palm for the keys. When her mother didn’t turn over the fob, Vero took it from her and pressed a button.
The trunk popped open. Theo squinted up at us.
There was a dustrag stuffed inside his mouth.
His hands were tied behind his back, and two sets of shoelaces had been tied around his ankles.
Gloria stared contritely at her unlaced sneakers.
“What is Theo doing in your trunk?!” Vero shouted at her mother.
Norma wrung her hands. “We only wanted to help. When you told us you didn’t know where Theo lived, Gloria and I checked the patient records at the hospital.
Everyone has gone to the hospital for something, right?
So we thought it would be a good place to try!
We found his address in the billing system, and we went to his house to talk to him.
But he wasn’t being cooperative, so we told him we would give him some time to think about his behavior and make a better choice.
But when we went back to see if he’d changed his mind, he was gone! ”
“Can you believe it?” Gloria said, waving her rolling pin around. “It was like he was staying away, just to avoid us.”
Vero’s face was deadpan. “I can’t imagine why.”
“We thought he must come home eventually. So we looked around inside his house while we were waiting for him to come back—”
“Norma needed the bathroom,” Gloria explained. “I told her not to drink so much water in the car.”
Norma shuddered. “His house was a mess! There was filth everywhere. How do young men live like that?”
Gloria looked to the ceiling and made the sign of the cross.
“So we tidied up a little while we waited, but Theo still didn’t come. We found the address to his gym on a magnet on his refrigerator.”
“And we found the address to the bar where he works on a pay stub in his house,” Gloria said.
“We looked for him every day and night. It was all we could do to help you, Vero. But he didn’t come back to his house again. Not until tonight.”
“Tonight, our persistence paid off!” Gloria said proudly.
“We didn’t want to take any chances that he might run,” Norma said, “so we ambushed him as he was going into his house. Gloria held him down while I tied him up. We tried to get him to agree to help you, but every time we took the rag out of his mouth, he yelled and fussed. We got tired, and we didn’t know what else to do with him, so we brought him home with us.
We thought we could all get some rest and a hot meal. ”
“Maybe if we feed him, he’ll come around,” Gloria said.
Vero buried her head in her hands. “Mom, what did you do?”
“We found him, Vero! And now you’ll have an alibi. We’ll call Don after lunch. He can take Theo’s statement. I’m sure once we explain how important this is, Theo will agree to testify at your trial—”
“I’m not having a trial!” Vero said, throwing up her hands.
Norma frowned. “What do you mean, you’re not having a trial?”
“Finlay and I figured out who stole the money. The sorority dropped the theft charges, and the police took off my ankle monitor and released me from custody. I have to pay a fine and do six months of community service for the gambling, but it’s over.
Or at least it was over, before you two kidnapped my alibi! ”
“Oh no,” Norma whispered, paling from the shock.
Gloria dropped her rolling pin. “What have we done?”
“Help me get him out of the car,” Vero said to me.
Theo’s eyebrows shot up with panic as we each grabbed him under an arm and hauled him out of the trunk. Vero untied the shoelaces from his ankles and marched him into the house by the back of his shirt. Norma and Gloria hung their heads as they followed the three of us inside.
Vero stopped abruptly in front of the living room.
Lenore, Eugene, and Wendell stood around the coffee table, arguing with one another.
Lenore held the roll of duct tape. Wendell shook his cane.
Eugene waved the dirty kitchen knife around as they bickered over who should get the last slice of pizza.
Joan woke up with a loud snort. She bolted off the couch, her cannula stuck in her hair. “What did I miss?”
Theo blanched when he spotted the bound, gagged vandal on the floor.
His stunned gaze lifted to the recliner.
Javi’s eyes narrowed. He started thrashing violently and shouting into his duct tape.
The Fantastic Four all turned to see what Javi was fussing about.
Theo whimpered at the disturbing tableau.
Vero leaned close and whispered in his ear.
“The man on the floor was messing with my family. And you see the one in the recliner? He was the last boyfriend of mine who tried to ghost me. Look very closely at them and then listen to me, because if you don’t, the next person in that duct tape could be you.
” Theo’s eyes widened as she went on. “I was released by the police this morning. There are no more charges against me, and as long as it stays that way, that means I’m free to leave the state and go wherever I want.
If you keep your mouth shut about what happened to you this morning, I won’t tell anyone what you and your friends were doing in that print shop, and you will never, ever hear from me or my family again.
But if you breathe a word of this, to anyone, I will send them after you.
Every one of them,” she said, pointing at her elderly neighbors.
“I know where you work and where you live, and I will make your life miserable. Do you understand me?”
Theo nodded. He smelled like he might have wet himself. Vero plucked the rag from his mouth. Theo started to speak, but Vero held up a finger. “Not. One. Word,” she warned him.
Theo snapped his mouth shut as Vero untied the shoelaces from his wrists.
“I’m terribly sorry for the confusion,” Norma said. Theo flinched as she patted his shoulder.
“Can we pack you something to take home to eat?” Gloria offered him. “We have capirotada.”
Theo started to shake his head, but Vero pierced him with a glare. Theo swallowed and nodded. Vero patted his other shoulder.
I cringed at the traumatized look on his face. “Would you like me to give you a ride home, or should we call you an Uber?”
“Uber,” he croaked.
I took out my phone and arranged for his ride.
Gloria handed him an insulated tote full of leftovers in Tupperware.
Norma gently took his arm and walked him to the door.
“I hope you can forgive us for the misunderstanding. Give me a call when you’ve finished all of this, and I can come by to pick up the containers.
Don’t bother washing them. I’ll handle it.
” She hid a grimace, as if she were recalling the state of his kitchen sink.
Theo cast horrified looks at Javi as Vero escorted him out the front door. The Uber driver was waiting at the curb.
“That’s your ride,” Vero said. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Theo, but I hope I never see you again.”
Theo made a run for the car, dove inside, and locked the door.