Terri Austin - Diners, Dives & Dead Ends

My father’s face became cold, shut down. “You will apologize, Rosalyn, and you will do so immediately. She talked to you like a child because you’re acting like a child. From what I understand you were being inappropriately physical with Dane in the middle of the street. Your mother was humiliated.”

I flinched. I felt like I saw my father’s true character for the first time. The man was weak. In choosing the easy way out, constantly acquiescing to my mother’s demands, he diminished himself to me.

I looked him in the eye. “I’m not apologizing.”

He frowned at me as if I was speaking Mandarin with a British accent. “Pardon me?”

“I’m not apologizing.”

“But Rosalyn—”

“And another thing,” I said, stepping around him to open the door. “I prefer to be called Rose.”

After he left, I made a piping hot pot of coffee with an extra scoop of dark brown grounds. I refused to think about our conversation, so I called both Roxy and Eric and asked them to come over.

Roxy made it over first. She shrugged out of a hot pink fuzzy jacket, hanging it on the hook next to the front door.

I handed her a cup of coffee, poured one for myself, and curled up on the futon, my feet underneath me. “Thanks for coming.”

“Yeah, I was bored anyway.”

Eric arrived soon after. He stepped inside, pulling off his blue knit hat and coat. He dropped to the floor, crossing his legs. He took the mug of coffee I handed him. “Thanks,” he said. “Okay, what’s going on?”

“We need to brainstorm. I called Sullivan again—”

“Goddamn it, Rose.” Eric set his coffee cup on the floor next to him and glared at me.

“I wanted to make an exchange for Axton.”

“Well?” Roxy asked.

“He won’t trade for just the hard drive. He wants the money, too.”

Eric rubbed his head. “I thought you said Packard was in debt. Can he get that kind of money?”

“Nope, no way. I think Sullivan’s just feeling pissy because of the hard drive debacle. Nevertheless, he won’t make a trade. So…”

Roxy grinned. “So we break in.”

Eric’s eyes almost popped out of his head. “What?”

“Where is the most likely place Sullivan would stash Axton?” I asked. “He owns a ton of properties, but I was thinking the most likely would either be an abandoned building—”

“Right.” Eric nodded slowly. “He wouldn’t leave him tied up in a working business. Too risky.”

“Or,” I said, “he’s keeping Axton in his own home.”

“He could keep an eye on him that way,” Roxy said.

“Especially since you’ve been running around asking questions at different NorthStar businesses,” Eric said.

I nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. I’m sure Henry took me to Sullivan’s house the night he snatched me—”

“Whoa, what now?” Eric asked.

Whoops. Forgot to tell him about that.

“Henry threw her in the back of the car and took her to see Sullivan who threatened her.” Roxy blew over the surface of her coffee. “Again.”

Eric stood and walked to the window, his hands thrust in the pockets of his jeans. “You didn’t think this was important enough to mention?”

Roxy popped her gum. “She didn’t tell me about it right away either.”

“Can we have ‘let’s all yell at Rose time’ later?” I asked. “I want to narrow down Sullivan’s properties.”

Eric rubbed his stubble. “But if you know where he lives—”

“I was kind of blindfolded.”

Roxy stopped chewing mid-chomp. “Anything else you left out?”

“I saw his decorated library, he threatened me, he served me whiskey, then I came home. End of story.”

“Then you have no clue which direction you were going?” Eric asked.

“No, but I know we took the highway to get there, and we drove no longer than thirty minutes.”

“Even if we found the place, he probably has it under major surveillance.”

I took a sip of coffee. “Probably.”

“I can get us in, but not without setting off alarms,” Roxy said.

Eric started to look optimistic. “If there’s an alarm, I could hack in and disable it for say, twenty minutes. Would that give you enough time?”

“Definitely,” Roxy said.

I started to feel a little sick to my stomach. Yes, this was my idea. But breaking into Sullivan’s place made me very, very nervous. So many things could go wrong. And knowing me, they probably would.

“I’m going home.” Eric shrugged into his coat and put on his cap. “When should we meet back up?”

“How about tomorrow after we close? What about Steve? Will he help?”

Eric nodded. “Yeah, I think so. We’ll meet you at the diner at two-thirty. That’ll give me time to go over the list of properties. Maybe something will jump out.”

“Sounds good,” Roxy said.

They left and I was alone in the apartment, going stir crazy.

The next morning at work, I was such a nervous Nellie that I screwed up orders, spilled coffee, and received very little tippage. I barely noticed. My brain spun with the many ways our plan could go awry. We could break into the wrong house, Sullivan could be home, Sullivan could take us all hostage, Henry could shoot us in the face.

Ma flipped the closed sign and patted my shoulder. “Don’t be nervous, toots. Things are going to be okay. Besides, it’s kind of exciting.”

I didn’t find it exciting. I found it scary as hell.

At two-thirty on the dot, the boys walked into the diner. Eric looked like a kid on Christmas morning, Steve looked worried.

“Rose, can we talk for a second?” he asked.

“Sure.”

He glanced at the others. “Alone?”

I walked with him outside and crossed my arms against the chilly breeze. “Steve, you don’t have to be a part of this. It’s okay if you want out.”

He looked down at me, his dark brown eyes full of concern. “Eric told me Sullivan kidnapped you, threatened you. Why didn’t you tell me?”

I was sort of taken aback. “I didn’t tell anyone, not even Roxy at first.”

“Don’t feel like you have to hide things from me, okay?”

First Kevin, now Steve. I was tired of intense guys who couldn’t take a hint. And I didn’t have time to worry about Steve’s delicate feelings, so I smiled. “Sure. No more hiding.”

I walked back inside and moved two tables together and shoved chairs around. Ma served us Rice Krispies Treats and apple juice. Perfect for preschool snack time or when planning a break in.

“This is such a hoot,” she said.

“Thanks for coming, you guys,” I said. “But I don’t want anyone to feel obligated to do this.”

Steve pushed up his glasses. “I’m in. Anything I can do to help get Axton back.”

“Breaking into Sullivan’s house is highly illegal and very dangerous and we might get caught and Axton may not be there—”

Ma touched my shoulder. “Be quiet, toots. We know the risks.”

“Okay,” Eric said. “I narrowed the properties down to two, both out in the country.” He pulled two pieces of paper out of his computer bag and handed them to me. “I looked them up on Google Earth. Which one do you think is more likely?”

One house was close to the street, the other had a long narrow road leading to a circular driveway. I closed my eyes and tried to remember my bumpy blindfolded ride. “I think there was gravel. I remember a curve before the car stopped.” I looked back down at the aerial maps. I handed him the one with the circular driveway. “This one, I think.” I hoped.

Eric powered up his laptop. “I pulled the blueprints from the zoning commission.”

I rubbed my eyes and sighed. “You hacked into the zoning commission?”