Upstate Uproar (16 page)

They turned into the driveway at the bed and
breakfast. The headlights crossed the front porch where Tracy was
sitting alone in a rocking chair. She stood and went inside before
they were out of the car.

“I’m going to take a hot shower and put on my
jammies,” Kate said.

They got out of the car and walked up the
steps. Wendy sat down on a rocker and pulled out her phone. “Guess
I’ll make my call.”

“You want anything?” Vivian asked Wendy.
“Glass of vino perhaps?”

“Sure.”

The light from the phone cast a glow on
Wendy’s sullen face, and Vivian could see tears welling in her
eyes.

Vivian went inside, leaving Wendy on the
front porch to make her call. Vivian wandered into the kitchen
hoping to find a nice pinot noir. Instead, she found Tracy standing
in front of the stove, staring into space. “Hey there, long
day?”

Tracy turned around slowly, her face grim.
“Yeah, sorry. I’m tired. Can I get you something?”

“I was hoping to spy some wine and a couple
of glasses.”

“Sure. I think I have some Merlot in here.
Will that do?” She began shuffling around, opening cabinets.

“That’ll do just fine, thanks.”

“Where is Kate? Does she need anything?”

“Nah, she went upstairs to take a bath.
Wendy’s on the porch calling her…”
what do I call them?
“…
her fiancé’s parents.”

“Oh, that’s nice. Both Brandon’s parents are
dead.”

Vivian didn’t know what to say to that.

Tracy sifted through several bottles of wine
and turned around with one labeled Goosewatch. “This is my favorite
local winery. Let me open it up.” She grabbed a flat waiter
corkscrew and had the bottle open in 20 seconds. She poured three
glasses. “Think I’ll have one, too.”

“I wouldn’t feel right if you didn’t!” Vivian
said, taking two of the glasses. “You can join us on the porch if
you like.”

“I may in a few minutes.”

Vivian had a sip and walked to the front
porch. As she stepped out she heard Wendy wrapping up the call.

“I will, thanks. And please, please, let me
know if you hear anything at all. I miss him so much.”

Vivian handed her the wine and sat in the
next rocker.

“Love y’all, too.” Wendy’s voice cracked a
little. “Take care, ’bye.” She put the phone on the small wooden
table next to the rocker and dropped her head, trying to hide the
tears.

“I’m guessing there’s been no Jake news,”
Vivian said.

Wendy sniffled. “None at all. I feel like I’m
in a nightmare.”

“I wish I knew what to say. But I tell you
this, if you want us to go with you to Vegas, we will. I don’t know
what we’ll find, but you know we’re willing to try to help in any
way.”

Wendy pulled a tissue out of her pocket.
“Thanks, Viv, that means a lot. And who knows, maybe we should go.
I was such a mess the first time I was out there, I barely knew my
own name. If I went back, maybe I’d think of something I hadn’t
thought of before, or ask better questions of the cops assigned to
the case. I’d like to go to the convenience store where they have
video of him getting gas, stay at the hotel he had been in, stuff
like that. I may be grasping at straws, but at this point, what
else can I do?”

Vivian didn’t answer because her cell started
ringing. “Perfect timing.”

V
ivian looked at her
ringing phone and then back to Wendy. “It’s Antonio in New Orleans.
You ready to see what he’s got?” Wendy nodded so Vivian answered.
“Hey, Antonio. I’m with Wendy, do you mind if I put you on
speaker?”

“I don’t mind as long as it’s just you
two.”

She hit the speaker button. “Okay, you’re on.
What’d you find?”

“The cellphone is a burner. Not a surprise
there, but I wasn’t able to tell where it was purchased. I have
someone with higher clearance working on that.” Antonio cleared his
throat. “As for the passport, I was able to pull up some
information, but it’s not what I was expecting.”

“But you found something?” Wendy said, hope
ringing through in her voice.

Vivian could feel tension on the other end of
the line and scooted her rocker closer to Wendy.

Antonio cleared his throat. “Yes, but I saw
some red flags, things that don’t sit well.”

“What do you mean?” Vivian asked. She put her
hand on Wendy’s arm.

The phone crackled as if it was being moved
around but Antonio was silent.

“Hello?” Vivian said, looking down at the
phone to make sure they were still connected.

“Is anyone around you right now?” Antonio
asked in a hushed voice.

Tracy was nowhere to be found. It was just
her and Wendy on the porch. “We’re alone.”

Antonio’s words reverberated on the
porch.

“I think you need to call the FBI.”

“Excuse me?” She and Wendy quit rocking as
his words settled over them. “Did you say Jake is in the FBI?”

“That is NOT what I said. I said you need to
contact them. There were several things I found that feel off. Paul
Vaughn has a bio with a long arrest record, some of which make me
suspicious.” Antonio sighed. “It has a federal feel to it. Not just
anybody can get a fake bio into the system.”

“What’s that mean?” Wendy asked.

“In my experience it means this is bigger
than local. It kind of makes sense if you look at the South America
connection.”

“Wait. Wait,” Wendy said, shaking her head.
“Jake is a salesman. He’s got nothing to do with South America.
This has to be a mistake. The stamps in the passport have to be
fake.”

“I’ve got some connections in the FBI,”
Antonio said. “I’m reaching out.”

Vivian spoke her thoughts out loud. “Look at
the facts, Wendy. He had a passport with another name, money from
another country. Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe he’s like James
Bond or something.”

Antonio couldn’t let that one go. “First,
James Bond is fictional. Second, he’s from England. Third, I didn’t
say Jake
worked
for the FBI.”

“And fourth,” Wendy stood and tilted her head
back, frustrated, “fourth, James Bond was never engaged and never
went missing for six months.” She turned and started down the
steps. “I’m going for a walk.”

“Wait,” Vivian said, getting up. “Antonio,
thanks for the info, I’ll call you back.” She hit “end” on the
phone and followed after Wendy. “Wendy, stop.”

Wendy kept walking around the house and
straight toward the lake.

Vivian hustled to catch up to her, but she
was moving fast. About 10 steps from the water Vivian grabbed the
back of Wendy’s shirt. “Buddy system, remember.”

Wendy melted to her knees, sobbing.

Vivian knelt down beside her, stroking her
long, chestnut brown hair. She just kept repeating, “It’s going to
be okay, it’s going to be okay,” and waited until Wendy had gotten
a lot of frustration and sadness out through her tears.

After a few minutes, Wendy pulled a fresh
tissue out of her pocket and dabbed her face.

“You okay?” Vivian asked.

“I don’t know what I am.” Wendy’s arms hung
listlessly at her side.

“We are going to get to the bottom of this,”
Vivian said. “One way or another, I know we will.”

“You say that, but I’m not so sure. He’s been
gone for 202 days, Vivian. Two hundred and two days!”

“I know, but they haven’t found anything to
suggest he’s dead. The dental records didn’t prove anything. That’s
something. And now we learn that there’s a connection with the
feds. That’s something, too. More than we’ve had.”

Wendy nodded.

“Maybe he’s on a secret mission somewhere and
isn’t allowed to call you, like he’s deep undercover and contacting
you could be dangerous.”

“Yeah, or maybe he’s dead,” Wendy said, and
she started crying again. “Maybe he’s
dead
, Vivian! No one
seems to know anything! We keep getting the runaround from the Las
Vegas PD. There’s been no mention of the FBI until just now. I
thought at least I would get closure with the dental records, but
no! And then finding that stuff in his apartment freaked me
out.

“I’m angry, I’m sad. I feel betrayed. I hate
this! I hate this!” She banged her fists into the soft earth. “It’s
bullshit! I hate it!”

Wendy was usually so composed, so large and
in charge. It killed Vivian to see her in such pain. Vivian had
known pain in relationships, and thinking about how she’d found her
husband in the swimming pool with another woman fired her up. She
stood in front of her friend, hands on her hips, in her mom/Wonder
Woman pose.

“You listen here, Wendy Schreiber. We are
going to find Jake. There is an answer, and I promise you, we will
find it. We are Texas girls, and by god, we grab the bull by the
horns and wrangle the hell out of him until it’s over. I can tell
you this, this bull and his shit are going down.”

Wendy looked at her, sniffled once more, then
started laughing. An uncontrollable, fall on her side, roll in the
dirt laugh.

Vivian didn’t know what to make of it but was
glad to see something other than what she had been witnessing.

Wendy laughed so hard she could barely
breathe. Eventually she threw her arms and legs out, spread-eagle,
taking a deep breath and staring up at the stars.

Vivian leaned over her head. “Feeling
better?”

“Oh my gosh, Vivian, I feel sorry for your
kids. They aren’t going to get away with anything, are they?”

Vivian smiled at her friend and offered her a
hand up off the ground. “Nope. My nickname’s not Mean Mama for
nothing.”

Wendy took her hand and stood. “Wow. I think
I’ve been holding in some of my emotions.”

“Hell yeah, you have. But I understand. What
you’ve been going through is unreal. And now to hear this news from
Antonio, I mean, it’s like a movie or something.”

“Yeah.” Wendy started walking toward the
house. “Thanks for my kick in the pants.”

Vivian saw a shadow walk out of the house and
sit in a chair. “Pffffft, nonsense. That was no kick. That was just
a nudge. You don’t want to see my kick.” She did an awkward
roundhouse move that more resembled a dog shaking water off its
foot.

Wendy laughed out loud. “I hope you never
have to use that on anyone. Then again, they might laugh so hard
you get away.”

Vivian gave her a butt bump. “I’m not
stretched out. It’s usually better.”

“Uh huh.”

They were halfway back to the house when
Vivian decided to go ahead and mention one more thing. “Did you
hear Antonio offer help with his contacts at the FBI?”

“Yeah, I did,” Wendy said. “We should
definitely ask him to do that.”

Vivian grabbed her arm and stopped. “I don’t
think so.”

“What? Why not?”

Vivian looked at her with a sly smile. “We
have a secret weapon. A really sexy secret weapon.”

V
ivian looked around,
like she was making sure they weren’t about to get into trouble.
“We’re going to call your former flame from Colorado. Our most
favorite, sexiest man alive, hell-yeah-he’s-a-hottie FBI guy —
Agent Wade Nelson.”

Wendy shook her head. “I don’t know, Vivian.
Not only will calling Wade be awkward, but he’s in Colorado. A long
way from Vegas and certainly a long way from this case.”

“I know it’s the right thing to do,” Vivian
said. “He would help you with anything. He’s probably our best bet,
if, in fact this has an FBI connection.”

Wendy took a deep breath. “I’m not going to
win this argument, am I?”

“Nope.”

CRASH! They both jumped.

“I’m so sorry,” Tracy said, hopping up from
the rocker. “I dropped my wine glass. I swear, I need to only use
plastic ware.”

“I hope it was empty!” Vivian said, rushing
up the steps. “Want me to grab a broom?” Just then the front porch
light popped on and Brandon stood in the doorway.

“Sounds like things are getting rowdy out
here.”

“Can you grab the broom, honey?” Tracy called
to him. “Watch the glass,” she said to Vivian and Wendy, who walked
over and sat in rockers.

Brandon turned and disappeared but soon
emerged with a broom and dustpan. “Hope it wasn’t the good
crystal.”

Tracy snorted. “Like I ever drink out of
that.”

He cleaned up the glass and then turned to
Tracy, a frown on his face. “You coming up soon?”

“In a few minutes.”

He turned and went inside, letting the screen
door bang behind him.

“Would you like a refill?” Tracy asked. She
had brought Vivian’s empty glass and Wendy’s partially drunk glass
to the back porch.

Vivian picked up her glass. “I thought you’d
never ask.”

“I’ll be right back.”

Wendy polished off her glass just as Tracy
came back to fill it up. “Just in time.”

“What’s the matter?”

“I’ll be better after this,” Wendy said and
took a long sip. “Thanks.”

Tracy poured Vivian a generous glass, then
filled up a rocks glass she had brought for herself. “Only wine
glasses I had left were the expensive ones, and I didn’t want to
risk it.”

“At least you own expensive glasses.” Vivian
laughed. “Mine are from the dollar store!”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Tracy said as she
took a big drink. “I love the dollar store.”

“To the dollar store!” Vivian said and held
up her glass.

“Hell yeah,” Tracy said and clanked her glass
hard against Vivian’s. “Oops, sorry. Good thing that glass isn’t
from the dollar store.”

They laughed at that and chatted about their
day, and the missing Lucy.

“I still can’t believe she left,” Vivian
said. “It’s so unlike her.”

“Sometimes people leave,” Tracy said. “Look
at Brandon’s wife, Rebecca. We all thought she left him, but it
turns out, maybe not.”