Vegas or Bust: An Aggie Underhill Mystery (14 page)

“I don’t like this, Aggie,” Betty said, scowling.  She was nervously shredding a napkin into tiny little bits and making a small mess on the table.  “I still think you should call Tom.”

“Tom had told her to stay out of this,” Roger said, twitching his mustache.  “So she can’t call him.” 

“Things are different now,” Betty said, grabbing a fresh napkin to mangle.

“He’d still tell her to stay out of it,” Roger said.  “He’d tell her to call the police and make a report.”

“Well, I agree,” Betty said, pouting.   “She
should
stay out of it and let the police handle it.”

“For once we agree on something.”  Roger nodded.  “Two hundred thousand dollars is way too much money to waste on a wedding gift.”

Chapter 14

After making a few phone calls, and pulling a few strings, Aggie had the money wired to the account scrawled out on a scrap piece of paper that the kidnappers had given Jack.  Sitting on the side of her bed, she hung up the phone and sighed, “It’s done.”

“Good,” Roger said.  “Now all we need to do is retrieve Miriam.”

“Thank you so much, Aggie!” Jack said.  “You truly are a lifesaver.”

“Don’t mention it,” Aggie said.  “I’ll be happy when Miriam is safe and sound.”

“How do you know they’ll actually give you Miriam now,” Betty whispered.  She was sitting next to Aggie on the bed.  And Jack was sitting at the small table with Roger.  Harold was sitting at the foot of the bed staring at a sitcom on the TV.

“We don’t,” Aggie said, quietly.  “We just pray that they do.” 

“Couldn’t they just take the money and then kill Miriam?”

“Yes, they could.”

“Then why won’t you call Tom?  I don’t understand.”

“I think Miriam has a better chance if the police stay out of it.”

“Well, I don’t agree.  I think you’re just being stubborn.”  Betty crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the TV.  She suddenly felt cold even though it was warm in the room with the heater running.  She rubbed her arms through her pink formfitting sweater to try and warm herself.

Aggie threw her a sour look, but decided not to respond to the harsh comment.  She knew that Betty was just worried for Miriam’s safety.

“It’s almost
time,” Jack said for the umpteenth time since they entered the room.  He was obsessed with staring at his watch.  “Let’s go outside.  They said they’d leave her just out front at midnight.  Or anyway that’s what I remember.  I hope it’s just out front.  Which side of the casino is the front side?  Or do you think they’d go around back… or the parking garage…”

“It’s eleven thirty,” Aggie said.  “Let’s head downstairs.  We can split up and take different casino entrances to keep an eye out for her.  I have a feeling that they’ll drop her off before midnight so that you won’t see them leave.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they drop her off a block or two away and just point her in the right direction.”

“What?  Why would they do that?” Jack asked, getting up from the chair.  “I already know what they look like.  Doesn’t really matter, does it?”

“As far as they know you may have contacted the police,” Roger said matter-a-
factly.  “Or that you’d have them followed or something so you could turn them in.”

“Do you think they’ll hurt Miriam?” Jack panicked.  “I didn’t call the police.  You know that!”

“But
they
don’t know that,” Roger said.  “They might think it’s a trap.”

“Oh God, oh God,” Jack said, pacing back and forth.  “They’ve gotta know…they’ve gotta…we gave them the money…”  

“They might think the money is police money,” Roger stated.  “I’ve seen it on a TV show before.”

“Oh God,” Jack groaned.  “Maybe Mama was right and I should’ve just gone to the police anyhow.  They’d probably know what to do.”

“I know what show you’re talking about!”  Harold looked over at Roger, his eyebrows knit together with concern.  “I’ve seen that episode.  Oh jeez, what have I done?”  He smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand.  “How could I have been so stupid?”

Jack suddenly stopped pacing and stood in front of the TV, glaring at Harold.  “If anything happens to Miriam, anything at all, mark my word, I’ll kill you!” 

Harold jumped up and poked Jack hard in the chest with his forefinger.  “You think I wanted this to happen?  I love Miriam!”

Jack’s eyes widened, his ribs burning.  He grabbed hold of Harold’s finger.  “If you loved her so much, you wouldn’t have been cheating on her!”

Aggie hopped up and quickly pushed herself in between the two men.  “Miriam will be fine.  Let’s go.”

***

Aggie walked in a hurry to the parking lot.  She’d talked Betty into going with Harold, and Roger into going with Jack.  They split up to check different entrances of the casino.  She told Roger and Jack to go to the main entrance because that’s where she felt Miriam would most likely be dropped off.  Betty and Harold went to a side entrance, and Aggie told them she’d check the parking garage entrance. 

Hurrying, Aggie dug around in her large silver pocketbook in search of her car keys.  She found them in a small side pocket while hiking as fast as she could to her car.  This was one of those times she wished that she’d used valet parking.  Normally she didn’t like strangers driving her car, but this hike was killing her.  She cursed at herself for not changing her shoes.  Why she’d felt the need to wear strappy high heeled sandals to dinner was beyond her.  And why she didn’t think to change them was also beyond her. 

Several minutes later, and completely out of breath, Aggie pushed the alarm button several times.  The alarm on her Mercedes chirped.

“There you are,” Aggie said, spotting the silver car.  She opened the driver’s side door and slid behind the wheel.  “Now to catch us some crooks.”

Aggie started up her car and carefully backed out of her parking spot.  She looked at her blue eyes in the rearview mirror and questioned her sanity.  But then she pushed it far from her mind.  If she was going to do this, she needed to act now.  She knew that more than likely she’d never spot the kidnappers, anyhow.  But it couldn’t help to be prepared just in case she did see them.  If she did, she’d follow them back to their hide out, get an address and then call Tom.  Then he could dispatch the news to whomever it was that needed to know where these guys were hiding out and they’d come catch them.

Smiling, while thinking about her brilliant plan, Aggie exited the parking garage and circled the block.  There was quite a bit of traffic being that it was a Saturday night.  Not only were there a ton of cars, there were also a ton of people on foot.  They were everywhere.  Aggie waited for a mob of people to cross the street. 

“Come on already,” she groaned, when she spotted a man dressed up as a Transformer across the street.  “Bumblebee,” she said, remembering the yellow car’s name.  She’d taken her grandson Shawn to see the movie when it was in theaters.  Boy did she get an earful from Sarah when she got him home.  She hadn’t realized that the movie was rated PG-13.  She figured talking cars that looked like robots would be fine for a small boy.  She still didn’t understand why her daughter had gotten so worked up over it.

A couple of people darted out right in front of Aggie’s car at the last second, causing her to put on her brakes once again.  The couple waved an apology and crossed.  A yellow cab looming behind her honked at her to move out of the way.

“I’m trying!” Aggie complained and made the turn.  She slowly crept past the Planet Hollywood hotel hoping to see the men.  Right away she spotted Roger and Jack standing out front.  Roger did a double take when the cab honked again at Aggie. 

“Go around!” Aggie yelled, impatiently.  She rolled down her window and waved him around.  The tires of the cab screeched as he pulled in the next lane, slamming on his brakes when another car almost collided with him.   

Aggie frowned at the near accident the cab almost caused.  Then she looked over at Roger and Jack.  She and Roger locked eyes.  Roger seemed shocked to see her.  Feeling uncomfortable because she knew Roger was wondering why she was driving down the street, Aggie broke eye contact.  Just then, a little ways down the road, Aggie spotted a black car pull up to the curb and a woman getting out of the back.

Aggie squinted.  “Miriam?”  She watched the car cut back into traffic, causing the car behind it to slam on the brakes. 

Looking over, Aggie saw Jack walking quickly toward the woman.  It
was
Miriam. Aggie was excited over her good fortune and sped up as much as she could and kept her eye on the black sedan that was three cars ahead of her.  She watched as it pulled into the opposite lane.  Aggie turned on her blinker and carefully squeezed into the same lane.  She was thankful for all of the traffic.  Having three cars in front of her and all of the people around helped to camouflage her Mercedes.     

  Aggie was careful to keep at least two cars between them.  She followed for about fifteen minutes.  They turned down a dark street away from the strip.  The casinos were older, smaller and less elaborate.  They were getting farther and farther away from the busy strip and the cars that were in between the two of them had disappeared.  Aggie slowed down.  She didn’t want to get too close to the black sedan in case they noticed that she’d been following them.  Without a warning, the black car made a sudden turn into a dark parking lot.  Aggie drove past.  She decided to drive down the street and then circle the block once or twice.  She felt uneasy about the way the car pulled into the lot without using a turn signal.  She prayed that they hadn’t noticed her tailing them.

Driving down the dark street, Aggie took in the state of the buildings around her.  There were a few fleabag motels still in business.  The rest were dark and boarded up.  This was obviously the older part of town.  The part you didn’t want to wander around late at night alone.  And here she was, following a car with one or more kidnappers, into a dark, empty street.

“Not one of my brightest plans,” Aggie muttered.  She wondered if she should just pull over and give Tom a call.  She could fill him in on Miriam and tell him where the kidnappers are.

But what if they turned around?
she thought. 
What if they just stopped in that parking lot to see if she was following them?
And then when the coast was clear, they pulled out of the lot and drove the opposite direction.   That was a possibility.
 

For a moment, Aggie continued to drive down the dark deserted street and was getting farther away from the parking lot the kidnappers had turned into.  Abruptly she stopped her car and did a three point turn.  She decided to go back to the parking lot to make sure the car was there before calling Tom.  She knew he was going to give her a lecture for following the kidnappers.  The least she could do was to make sure she knew exactly where they were hauled up before putting herself in that position.  She hated lectures.  So she might as well make sure she knew exactly where the bad guys were before making that call.  Then the glory and satisfaction of putting the kidnappers behind bars where they belonged would be worth the torrid lecture.

Once Aggie reached the dark parking lot with the yellow lit up sign that said
‘otel’
because the
‘m’
had burnt out, she turned into the lot.  There was no black sedan parked in front.  An old orange and beige Volkswagen van was the only vehicle there.  Aggie stopped her car for a moment and sighed. 

All of this stress was for nothing,
she thought, and smacked the top of the steering wheel. 
What should I do now?
 

  Looking into the dark recesses to the right of the lonely building, Aggie decided to drive around the motel and see if there might be a small reclusive lot in the back because if she were a kidnapper, that’d be where she’d want to park. 

“Bingo!” she said, smiling, when she rolled around the back of the building.  There it was a black four door sedan.  In fact, she was so close to the car she could see that it was a Ford Taurus.  She reached for her pocketbook that was resting on the passenger seat and felt around inside for a pen.  Since she was there and had the opportunity, she thought it would be a smart idea to scribble down the license plate number and give it to Tom.  That way if the men left before the police arrived they could hopefully trace the car. 

“Urrr!” she growled, still groping around in her pocketbook.  “Why can I never find a pen when I need one?” 

Deciding that her car probably looked suspicious just sitting there looming behind the kidnapper’s car with her headlights shining on the license plate, she decided to park two spaces over to make it look less conspicuous while searching for a pen. 

Frustrated, Aggie grabbed hold of her pocketbook and dumped out all of the contents onto the seat.  She quickly moved everything around, scattering things across the seat and onto the floorboard.  There was no pen to be found.

Aggie stared at the car that was parked to her right and frowned.  Maybe she should just call Tom and head back to the hotel.  But then, staring at her pile of stuff scattered on the seat, she had an idea.  Grabbing her phone, Aggie smiled.  She had a brilliant idea. 

Hopping out of the car, phone in hand, Aggie walked over to the Black Taurus and snapped a picture of the license plate.  She studied digital photo for a moment but didn’t like the way the flash bounced off the plate.  Only a portion of the numbers was readable.  Aggie took another photo.  It still wasn’t coming out right.  She decided to try something different.  This time she took the photo at an angle so the flash wouldn’t bounce off the plate.  She pushed the back button on the phone to examine the photo in her gallery.  It worked.  She had a clear picture. 

“Perfect,” she whispered, finally satisfied.  She looked up from the phone and noticed the drapes to a room at the far end of the building move.  Light shined through the gap in the curtains. 

Wondering if that was the room the kidnappers were in, curiosity got the better of her, and she made her way toward the window.  Common sense told her not to do it, that she should leave now before she was caught, but she couldn’t help herself.  She just had to have a peek.  The small sliver of light in the window was so hypnotic that she couldn’t stop herself even if she wanted to.