CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE #2
Not to Hawk he didn’t. “That’s beside the point,” he said.
“I saw that sawdust on that floor. That hole was fresh. And if they used a silent blade, they could have cut that hole while Mother was in that dressing room and snatched her as soon as Ellen left to get more dresses for her to try on. She screamed when she first saw them, and then they snatched her through that hole and moved the vanity back in place.”
“She didn’t go through that hole,” said Donnally.
Hawk looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“The Chief says there’s a false door in the wall that they took your mother through,” Janita said.
“A false door?” asked Hawk. “What door?”
“It looked like the wall, that’s why you didn’t see it,” Matty said.
“This is crazy,” said Hawk.
“I agree,” said Janita.
But the chief was turning red. This was not going according to plan.
He was determined to be the hero of this capper, not that black gal.
“Whatever,” he said. “But what I can commit to you,” he said to William and Matty, the real power center in that room, “is that we’ll find your wife and your mother. That’s the point.”
“And Keep Miss Cooper informed,” Hawk said. “She’s on the case too.”
The chief took umbrage to that. He looked at Mr. Webster to take his side.
But William wanted his wife back. “You heard my son,” he said.
The chief, fully set back, said that he would.
And then they waited.
One hour went back.
Then two, which caused panic to set in.
But before they hit the third hour, William’s phone began ringing.
According to Chief Donnally, they had his phone set up to get global positioning of locations, cell tower dings, and whatever else they needed. Once the chief was certain they were ready, he nodded for William to answer.
But when William quickly said hello, there was no sound in return. He said it again. And again. But no one answered. “Can you hear me?” he said into his phone. But still no answer.
William looked at Donnally. “Hello?” he kept saying into the phone. “Hello?”
But as soon as he said hello that final time, the line went dead. The person on the other end had ended the call.
“What the fuck is this?” Nat asked angrily just as the front door of the home flew open and William’s grounds security chief ran in.
They all stood up. “What is it?” William asked him.
“You aren’t going to believe this, sir.”
“Believe what?”
“Mrs. Webster is outside. She just walked up!”
Everybody in that room took off running out of that house. But nobody was running faster than William.
When they made it outside and indeed saw Reecie Webster, still in her fur coat and heels walking up the driveway, they all were stunned.
William, Matty, Nat, and Hawk, and Janita too, stopped in their tracks in utter relief and shock.
But Dray, Minka, and Barbara ran to their mother.
And when she saw her three youngest children running her way, she smiled the smile of a grateful mother and threw her arms around all three of them.
And then they escorted her up to the others.
For Matty, who believed that everything should be decent and in order, he couldn’t wrap his brains around what was happening. She was kidnapped and returned with no ransom demand? How could that be?
For Hawk, he was pissed. And a part of him still wondered if his drama queen mother staged this whole thing.
But for William, it was relief beyond compare.
He began walking toward her as she came toward him.
One of his lady friends had threatened to do bodily harm to his wife one day.
That was what led him to get her security.
And when he heard about the kidnapping, his fear was that she acted on that threat.
But she didn’t. He told Matty about it, and Matty paid her a visit.
But when he and his wife met up, all of that past stuff was gone. He threw his arms around her and held her as tightly as his eyes were shut. “I thought I lost you,” he kept saying. “I thought I lost you.”
And when they stopped embracing, both of them had tears in their eyes. It was the very first time any of his children had seen their father so emotional that he was reduced to tears.
Janita wanted to cry, too, when she saw that Mrs. Webster was alive and well. She couldn’t wait to call Von! But when she looked over at Hawk, he seemed almost upset. And not in an I’m so glad to see my mama way either. He looked pissed.
That was why she wasn’t surprised when he didn’t embrace her. Matty did, although he seemed reluctant as well. And it was then did Janita realized that Hawk and Matty were her two oldest children. They knew her the best. And they also apparently knew what antics she was capable of.
When Reecie walked over to Hawk, her oldest child, he wasn’t going to go along to get along. He never did. “Where have you been, Mother?” he asked her.
“It’s late. I look a mess. And that’s your question? What happened to welcome back, Mother? I’m glad you’re alive, Mother?”
Then she was about to sweep past him and go into her home, but Hawk grabbed her fur coat-clad arm and pulled her back in front of him. “Where have you been, Mother?” he asked her again.
William was about to object, but Matty held him back. “It’s a legitimate question, Pop,” he said.
Reecie stared at Hawk. “You think I set this all up, don’t you? You bastard.”
Wait what? That was news to William. Why on earth would Hawk think that?
“Where were you, Ma?” Hawk asked her for the third time.
“I don’t know where I was, okay, Hawthorne? They came through a door I didn’t even know was a door. I got off a scream, but then they covered my mouth, gave me a shot in the arm of what I do not know, and then carried me out of that door.”
Hawk exhaled. It was still sus to him. “Go on,” he said.
“There’s nothing to go on about,” Reecie said.
“It all happened in a matter of seconds. By the time they put me in the backseat of some SUV, I passed out. The next thing I remember is that I’m waking up in that same SUV, two blocks away from home, and nobody’s around me.
So I get out, and walk home. That’s all I know. ”
“That SUV is still there, Mrs. Webster?” Donnally asked her.
“Yes it’s still there.”
“What color is it?”
“Black I think.”
Donnally snapped his fingers at some of the uniformed officers standing around and ordered them to go the two blocks to the SUV.
“Do you remember what any of the kidnappers looked like, Mrs. Webster?” Janita asked her.
“No darling, not in the least. There were several of them, and they were all white. That’s all I can remember.”
“Okay, that’s enough,” William said as he broke free from Matty, removed Hawk’s hand off of his wife’s arm, and then escorted her into their home. All of his siblings, including some that looked at him as if he was being disrespectful to their mother, went inside too.
Nobody was left outside except for Hawk and Janita. And she couldn’t hold back her suspicions either. “Something’s not right, Hawk. Why would they go through all of this just to leave her in an SUV two blocks away? And not even require a ransom? It doesn’t add up.”
“I agree,” Hawk said. “It stinks.”
Then Hawk’s phone began ringing. When he looked at the Caller ID, he answered. “Hey.”
He listened, but Janita could see it was some devastating news.
“I’m on my way,” Hawk said and ended the call.
“What is it now?” Janita asked him.
“I’ve got to get back to L.A.”
“Why? What’s happened?”
He looked very concerned. “One of my artists just attempted suicide.”
Janita was shocked. But then she suspected who. “Was it Kemberly?” she asked.
Hawk looked at her. How would she guess that? “Yes. Call your brother. I need him to take me to the airport,” he said, and then hurried inside the house to say his goodbyes.
Janita was floored as she phoned Von. Because Hawk didn’t just look as if he was worried about Kemberly. He looked as if he devastated by the news.
Which, given how Janita was beginning to feel about him, devastated her.