Part Six
He Said
Dan sauntered into the apartment where Di was living and glanced around in a casual manner. He easily identified the man who had been bothering her, but he did not give him much attention. Instead, he wandered over to the sofa and sat down. From here, he could keep the man in view from the corner of his eye, without seeming to be looking.
Di had approached him a few days ago, having tried for some time to get Jim but found him to be unreachable. She had shared the story of her living arrangements and Dan had agreed to help her. Now that he was seeing the situation for himself, alarm bells were ringing.
The apartment door opened and Di walked in. She did not do more than glance in his direction, but her eyes met those of the other man. Without seeming to do so, Dan studied him. As soon as Di’s bedroom door was closed, the man pulled out a phone and sent a text message. A few moments later, when Di walked out again, the situation repeated itself. Dan rose and walked out the door, having deduced that there was an accomplice somewhere nearby and intending to intercept him.
Reaching the street, he saw Di up ahead, walking at a slower pace to those around her – all except for one man, who kept an even distance behind her. Dan raced to catch up with him, dropping a hand on his shoulder and making him jump.
“Do I know you?” Dan asked the stranger. “I’m thinking you look familiar.”
“No,” the man answered, trying to shake Dan off.
“I’m sure I do. Didn’t I see you last summer in Kentucky?”
“Never been there, now leave me alone.” The man wrenched his shoulder out of Dan’s grasp and turned to walk away. Di was now nowhere in sight and the man swore freely.
“I don’t like to see a man stalking a woman like that,” Dan added in conversational tone. “You should use your time differently. Or, I could report you to the police. How would you like that?”
The man told Dan where to go, using rather picturesque language, but Dan only smiled. He had seen the fear in the man’s eyes at the mention of the police. Somehow, Dan thought that Di’s problem might not continue after today.
She Said
Trixie struggled in vain as she watched Englefield walk through the doorway to the kitchen. Once he had taken her into the former dining room, he had bound her hands and feet, stuffed a wad of cloth into her mouth and pushed her down to lie on the floor. He returned a few minutes later with a metal container in his hand. He unscrewed the cap and set it down on the floor near her head. The next thing she knew he had walked off once more.
The ropes cut into her arms and legs, the gag made it hard to breathe and the fumes of the canister that Englefield had set next to her made her eyes water. Trixie strained her ears to hear some hint that the alarm was being answered, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Traffic passed the house in the usual manner; somewhere in the building, Englefield was working; birds called from the trees.
Footsteps approached her and Englefield came into her limited range of vision. He had a smirk on his face, which made her long to be able to kick him. He leaned over and picked up the canister, swinging it by its handle.
“Now, what do you think I’m going to do with this?” he asked, despite her inability to answer.
Incriminate yourself, you big oaf, she thought to herself. Whether I live or die, whether they answer my call or not, no matter what happens, you’re never going to get away with this, you idiot.
He was poised to tip some of the liquid over her when a slight sound made him jerk with fright. The fluid sloshed over his own feet and he swore softly. Trixie watched in terror as his expression hardened and he held the can closer to her. She was staring into his eyes, seeing his hatred for her, when another shape appeared behind him. A moment later, the man in blue was holding a gun on Englefield and slapped handcuffs on his wrists. Another officer rushed forward to set right the canister, which had dropped from Englefield’s hand and was disgorging itself onto the floor.
Englefield began to struggle against the police officer’s hold, using knees and elbows and teeth to try to work his way loose. The second officer joined the fray, pressing the man’s face to the floor. Trixie longed to be able to contribute something, instead of slowly going numb, but it was useless. After what seemed like a long time, but had really only been a few minutes, Englefield was subdued.
Two more officers appeared in the doorway, the surprise of one of them at what he saw evident on his face. When he spoke, he confirmed that deduction: “I was sure this was a false alarm!”
As the other two led their prisoner away, the third man began helping Trixie. In a few minutes, she was rubbing her wrists and trying to stir the circulation in her extremities.
“How are you feeling?” the officer asked, leaning over her in concern.
“Very relieved to see you,” she answered, smiling. “Happy to be alive.”
He Said
Jim’s hand was reaching for the telephone to make his scheduled call to Trixie when the instrument began to ring. He paused for a moment, wondering whether she had forgotten that it was his turn to call or if this would be an inconvenient interruption, before picking it up.
“Could I speak to Jim Frayne, please?” an unfamiliar man’s voice asked.
“Speaking,” he answered.
The man introduced himself as Steve Hosking and explained that Trixie had asked him to call on her behalf. “Please don’t get too upset, but I’m afraid she’s had a few difficulties this afternoon. There was an intruder at the house while she was there and I believe they had something of an altercation.”
“They had what?” Jim almost dropped the phone.
“She was at the house, in a completely legitimate manner,” the trustee explained, somewhat hastily. “It wasn’t anything reckless. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But she’s okay. She identified the assailant to the police. They didn’t keep her in hospital.”
“Then, why are you calling me, instead of her?” Jim almost growled the words.
The other man paused, perhaps to select the right words. “She’s still being questioned by the police. She asked me to call you and let you know what was happening, and why she wasn’t there to answer your call. Is that okay?”
Jim ran a hand across his face and tried to calm down. “I’m sorry. I just had a feeling that there must be something worse to this.” An image of two summers before, when Trixie had almost toppled over the edge of a steep drop, flooded his mind.
“It could have been very much worse, from what I understand,” the man added, “but she seems to be a very resourceful young woman and she got herself out of a very tight spot.”
A less-than-manly squeak escaped Jim’s lips. “What do you mean by very much worse?”
“It’s just hearsay at the moment. You do understand that, don’t you?”
“Please, just tell me.”
The other man sighed. “I’ve heard that someone was about to set the house on fire. They didn’t,” he hastened to add. “From what she told me, he was stopped before he could actually light the fire.”
“And do they know who it was?” A thought occurred to Jim and he groaned. “I’ll bet it was Mr. Englefield’s nephew, the one who has been trying to have Trixie evicted.”
Hosking paused. “I can’t be sure,” he answered, “but that’s the impression that I received.”
Jim sighed. “I knew I shouldn’t have come up here and left her alone. She never would have been in Kentucky by herself otherwise.”
“Well, there’s not a lot of harm done,” the other man soothed. “From what I hear, she’s just fine and there’s minimal damage to the house. If it is Englefield, I’m reasonably sure that there’ll be enough evidence to put him away, which will solve another problem.”
“Those are good points.” Jim tried to push the anger and fear down. “Thank you for calling and telling me.”
“That’s no problem.”
When the call ended, Jim banged his head against the telephone table a couple of times. No matter how long he knew her, he would never get used to Trixie’s gift for finding trouble.
She Said
“Mart?” Honey called, in a soft, sleepy voice.
“Yes, Mrs. Belden?” he answered, sinking onto the bed next to where she lay.
“I was just wondering where you went.”
He lay down beside her and pulled her against himself. “I’m back, now. Did you want something in particular?”
She shook her head, smiling as he started to kiss down the side of her face. “I just missed you.” She drew a quick breath as he passed over a sensitive spot on her neck. “I was wondering, though: do you think we’re going to come home to find that the others have gotten into trouble without us?”
He stopped kissing her and propped himself up on one elbow. “You’re thinking about that now, while I’m trying to keep all of your attention on me?”
Honey giggled. “You’ve had about as much of my attention as is good for you, for the moment. I’m starting to think about how it’s going to be when we get back.”
“The honeymoon’s almost over already? It seems like we only just got here.” He gave a rather fake sigh. “Okay, I guess I can think about that now, for about two or three minutes.” He frowned at the effort. “Well, considering that my intrepid sister was in the middle of a project, and that project was being thwarted by the usual less-than-trustworthy opponent, I would say that the chances that she’s been in some kind of trouble are around about 100%. Whether the rest of them are involved, I couldn’t say.”
Honey sighed. “It makes me feel a little left out to think that she’s off having adventures without me.”
Mart’s eyes goggled. “Hon! You spent all that time convincing me that now was the best time to get married and now you’re telling me that it makes you feel left out? How am I supposed to reconcile these two things?”
She swatted his arm. “It’s not like that. When we go home, we’ll be able to get involved in projects again. And I don’t miss the part where we get kidnapped, or trapped somewhere, or bad things happen to us.”
“Good. Because you’re not allowed to do any of those now that we’re married. I’m pretty sure that it’s a husband’s prerogative to forbid such things and I’m doing so right now.”
She snuggled in against him. “You can’t forbid bad things happening. They just do.”
“I’ll try,” he persisted. “I’m forbidding bad guys from looking at, speaking to or otherwise communicating with my wife. I’m also forbidding them from harming you in any way.”
“And what will you do if they try?” She raised an eyebrow and waited for his answer.
He shrugged. “Set Trixie on them? Feed them to Reddy? Run over them with the car – accidentally, of course. What do you think?”
She shook her head. “How about if we just work on staying safe together?”
“That could work, too.” He tightened his arms around her. “Well, I hope we’re wrong and that nothing dramatic has happened while we’ve been away.”
“Me too,” she answered. “I just doubt that that’s the case.”
He Said
From the moment he saw Trixie, Jim knew that the conversation to follow was going to go wrong. Knowing this did nothing to stop him, however, even though the most likely outcome would be for him to put his foot in his mouth. The sight of her, that hint of defiance in her expression and the slight marks of the ropes still visible on her wrists, made him see red.
“What did you think you were doing, coming here alone?” he demanded. “You could have been killed!”
She huffed with impatience. “I was here because you were busy doing your own thing, whatever that was, that you didn’t see fit to share with me. I can’t just sit around and twiddle my thumbs, waiting for you to give me your attention. I need to be doing something useful – and this is useful. It wasn’t my fault that that nutcase tried to burn the house down when I was there.”
“But you knew that he wanted to do you harm,” Jim argued. “How could you take that sort of risk?”
“Take a hold of your temper and listen to yourself,” she urged him. “If I worried about every person who wanted to do me harm, I’d never leave the house without an armed guard. Lots of people want to do me harm, Jim, it’s just the way it is. I can’t let that get in the way of living my life, or I’d never do any good in the world.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Have you any idea what I would be going through right now if he’d succeeded?”
He felt the touch of her fingers against his arm. He opened his eyes to find that her expression had softened. “You can’t live your life in fear that something’s going to happen to me. Look what happened the last time you thought that way.”
He nodded. “I know. I can’t help feeling this way, though. I can’t help worrying about you when you seem to attract nutcases, to use your own description.”
She smiled and kissed his lips. “I looked after myself pretty well, this time. Sure, I had to be rescued, but I arranged the rescue myself.”
Jim smiled and returned her kiss. “Yes. And I would have liked to have seen you attacking that man with a fire extinguisher. He deserved everything he got.”
“He deserved a lot more, but I’m happy for the judicial system to give it to him.” She grinned up at him. “The first time I met him, I thought that I’d disown him, too, if he was my nephew. I’m thinking that Mr. Englefield made a good choice when he gave the house to me, even if I do say so myself.”
Jim nodded. “You’ve done a really good thing here, Trixie. I’m proud of you – even if you do scare me half to death on a regular basis.”
“We’ll have to work on building up your nerves, Mr. Frayne,” she told him. “If you’re going to deal with me in the long term, you’re going to need nerves of steel.”
He smiled. “Well, as it happens, I plan on sticking around you for the rest of my life, Mrs. Frayne.”
Trixie shook a finger at him. “Now, what did we agree? You can’t call me that until we do the whole wedding thing in front of all our family and friends, and we’re not doing that just yet, are we?”
Jim gave a shrug. “You can’t blame a guy for trying.”
She Said
“Trixie!” Honey called, running to her friend and pulling her into a hug. “Are you all right? I mean, really all right, not just saying that you are, when really you’re not, but honestly, really all right?”
“Yes, Hon,” her friend answered. “I’m really, truly all right. I was a little sore for a while, but that’s gone now and other that, I’m really just fine.”
“You’re sure? Really?”
Trixie nodded. “I’m sure. Milton Englefield’s been arrested and won’t be bothering me again any time soon. The house is finished and ready for its grand opening. Everything’s worked out just fine. So, how is married life?”
Honey smiled. “Wonderful. Mart is just so sweet. He brought me breakfast in bed, this morning.”
Her best friend rolled her eyes. “Not wanting to hear about you, my brother and a bed, remember?”
Honey laughed. “I didn’t know you were quite so sensitive about it. Sorry.”
“I guess it’s okay.” Trixie shrugged. “I just hope you’ll both be really happy together.”
“I think we will,” Honey replied. “You were right, Trixie: everything’s working out just fine.”
The End