CHAPTER 24
“Merry Christmas. There are cookies and punch in the kitchen. Help yourself,” Lainey smiled, greeting the next wave of guests on the Christmas homes tour.
Theresa, the realtor, had persuaded her and Emma to volunteer as docents for the Abilene Historical Society’s Christmas Homes Tour.
Theresa had two listings coming up in the historic district at the first of the year.
She’d convinced the owners to participate in the Christmas homes tour to help market their upcoming listings.
Emma and Lainey both had their crisp new business cards ready to go to help promote themselves and their bank’s services.
Emma was manning a property four blocks west and had called to warn her of a Willy Wonderer coming her way in the next group.
She’d caught the guy slipping into portions of the house that were off limits to tour guests.
She said he was elderly and harmless and only a nosey snoop, but to keep an eye on him anyway.
Lainey continued, “He had the architect add a special tea room for his wife Lucille.” Lainey had recited these details twenty times already and no longer needed to peek at the info sheet for guidance like she had at the beginning.
“The current owners have remodeled the space into a primary suite with a walk-in closet and an en suite. They also made a section of the room into a reading nook. Future owners can use it as an office or nursery.” Theresa had written that last part into the script.
As the day went on, Lainey imagined what it would be like to live in such an opulent home, considered one of the mini-mansions of Abilene.
She’d definitely host more family gatherings and dinner parties with the space.
It would be a memorable house to grow up in.
Lots of nooks and crannies for a girl Vivian’s age to explore.
The current owners were a retired couple who had decided to downsize and make their permanent residence in Gulf Shores, Alabama. This house was officially going on the market at the first of the year, and there was no way she’d be able to afford it.
She’d looked at a smaller house in the historic district with Geoff before they bought their current home.
She loved the history, the architecture, and the idea of taking care of these properties for future generations.
But Geoff wanted something newer and thought these old homes felt cumbersome and haunted. He didn’t get it.
She kept Willy Wonderer by her side the entire time and stepped casually in front of him when he tried to meander into the pantry while everyone helped themselves to a cookie from the marbled kitchen island.
The tour group was onto the next featured home, when she spotted three of her favorite people coming up the walk in the next group. Robert, Macy, and Vivian.
Robert had insisted on taking Vivian with him and his daughter Christmas shopping and planned on watching her until Lainey returned home later that evening.
Christmas was only a week away and ever since Robert finished up The Forge week with the last BCT cycle, he’d been with her and Vivian nearly every evening.
Vivian had taken to Robert already. They even shared inside jokes Robert would make Lainey privy to later.
After dinner, they’d play board games as a family.
Vivian loved to play Pretty Pretty Princess, and Robert was a good sport, wearing the plastic jeweled clip-on earrings, which made Vivian giggle uncontrollably every time.
He made an absolutely hideous princess, but he’d become Lainey and Vivian’s handsome prince.
Robert had started looking for an apartment close by and had already interviewed with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation for a position.
Lainey wasn’t sure exactly what the future held, but she had absolutely no apprehensions or reservations when it came to Robert.
Though he hadn’t said the words yet, and neither had she, she felt it.
There was no one else for him or for her.
After she finished the tour and showed the group out, Robert and the girls hung around before the next group arrived. She allowed Vivian to explore the upstairs with Macy’s accompaniment, while Lainey showed Robert some features on the main level she hadn’t had time to mention with the tour group.
“You really like this house, don’t you?” he said.
“Don’t you? It’s gorgeous!” She was worried, like Geoff, Robert didn’t get it.
He surveyed the moldings and transom windows. “They don’t build ‘em like this anymore, that’s for sure. The detail...” he whistled.
“Exactly! Newer houses don’t have this craftsmanship or history,” she said.
She glanced at him, and he was smiling, staring at her.
“What is it?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.” But silently he was thinking something she couldn’t decipher.
Robert pulled Lainey into his arms and kissed her. His scent, his lips, his embrace — she savored the titillation it caused every time he touched her.
Laughter escaped from the second floor, and he broke away from her. “Ladies? We better get going,” Robert called up the stairs.
Lainey was elated his twenty-two-year-old daughter had taken so well to Vivian.
The girls trotted down the stairs, rejoining them. “Text me when you’re leaving here. I’ll take you and the girls to dinner tonight,” he said.
She agreed, and they said their goodbyes as the next tour group stepped onto the front porch.
* * *
The owners returned at six-pm on the dot, and Theresa arrived shortly after.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make it earlier,” Theresa told Lainey. “I had to show three homes to a couple. It took way longer than I thought.”
Theresa had checked in with Emma four blocks away, and she’d already conducted her last tour and left.
“Good news,” Theresa told the owners standing in the foyer next to Lainey, “I’ve already received a call from someone on the tour today. I expect an offer on New Year’s Day, when we officially go to market.”
The retired couple were pleased. “Sounds like we’ll be in The Gulf sooner than later,” the husband said, smiling at his wife. “I don’t look forward to shoveling snow. Not even for one more winter,” he concluded.
Theresa walked Lainey to her car parked along the curb in front. Lainey let her car warm up and watched Theresa drive away as she sent Robert a quick text that she was on her way.
The sun had set, and frost had formed on the windows. Lainey turned on the defrost and pulled away from the curb. There was a thumping noise from the car. She drove a block, and the faster she went, the worse it was. She pulled over.
As soon as she stopped a knock on her passenger window startled her. A young man in a hooded sweatshirt motioned for her to roll it down. “Your rear passenger tire’s flat,” he said, pointing to the rear.
She got out and walked around to look. Sure enough, it was completely flat, which explained the thumping. The deep curb she’d parked beside in front of the tour house had hidden it from view when she'd left.
She stood beside the young man inspecting the tire. Out of nowhere, a truck skidded to a stop in front of them. The passenger door flew open.
Something hard jammed into her back. “Get in the truck and I won’t shoot,” the hooded young man beside her said.
She couldn’t see who was driving. It was too dark. Lainey froze, processing the fact that she was being abducted. She lunged sideways to run, but the young man was quicker, hooking his arm around her neck and pushing her towards the truck.
Lainey’s mind was racing. Why were they doing this? What could she do to stop it? She resisted, locking her knees. When that didn’t work, she went limp, becoming deadweight. But he’d already moved her close enough to hoist and throw her in the cab.
She kicked and screamed, but the driver grabbed a handful of her hair and punched her in the face with the other hand.
The stinging pain cut off her scream and stunned her long enough for the hooded man to force her legs aside and jump in.
She held the side of her face, and her body jerked as the driver slammed down the gas pedal.
She felt a goose egg instantly forming on her cheekbone, and pain seared through her face. Though the weather was frigid, Lainey no longer noticed. The adrenaline pumping through her had raised her body temp.
She was too terrified to feel anything but confused. Why is this happening? Who are these people?
It was dark. The streetlights illuminated the inside of the cab, but only for a few seconds when they drove underneath one.
She looked at the hands gripping the steering wheel.
The nails were long and manicured, a bright red.
They were a woman’s hands, and the right hand was wearing her grandmother’s topaz ring.
* * *
“Dad, shouldn’t Lainey have been here by now?” Macy said. She was playing Barbies with Vivian on the living room floor of Lainey’s home, and Robert was watching football highlights.
Robert looked at the time. “I was thinking the same thing,” he said. It’d been forty-five minutes since she texted, and it was only a fifteen-minute drive.
He called Lainey’s phone, but it rang and rang, then voicemail. He tried and tried again, but still no answer. A stone formed in his gut. She’d always taken his calls when he blew up her phone over and over again.
He grabbed his keys and shoved his boots on. “Mace, watch Viv. I’m gonna drive to the house she was at. See if something held her up.”
Macy nodded, and he was out the door, phone to his ear, trying Lainey again.
He spotted her car as soon as he turned the corner into the neighborhood. But it wasn’t parked in front of the Christmas Home Tour house. It was a full block away. He pulled alongside it.
Lainey’s car was unlocked. Her phone and handbag were on the passenger seat, and the passenger window was down. The air sucked right out of his lungs.
He rushed around to inspect the passenger side, discovering the flat tire. Someone had slashed the sidewall. His heart plummeted.
* * *