Ферн Майклз - Truth and Justice

“These bags sure are jam-packed,” Nikki added. “Sara what’s her name was one busy lady. Just look at this stuff. Quick, let’s fold it all up and get out of here before she gets back here. Make sure the table is in the exact same spot so she doesn’t see anything amiss.”

“If she even suspects something, she’s going to take off. But considering the circumstances right now, she might not be in any condition to go anywhere but home to bed,” Alexis said.

“We need to make sure we’re not leaving any signs we were here. Check for water in the foyer, we did drip when we got here,” Kathryn said.

“I cleaned it up,” Yoko said, “but Kathryn is right, fan out and check everything you might have touched and didn’t put back in the right place.”

Ten minutes later, the Sisters were at the front door. “It’s still pouring rain. If anyone is looking out their window, they’ll be hard-pressed to identify any of us. Everyone, make a mad dash for the van; keep the door open and the engine running for me. I have to lock up,” Nikki said.

The girls followed Nikki’s instructions.

Within minutes, Maggie was careening down the road, her horn blasting for no reason.

“Why are you blowing your horn?” Kathryn shouted.

“I don’t know, Kathryn, I just felt like I should. You know, success and all that. It was a dumb thing to do, I admit it.”

“A text is coming in from Avery,” Isabelle said. “Sara is still inside urgent care. He said Matt said they have a lot of emergencies right now. Mostly car accidents. He said Duke went inside and looked around and tried to talk up one of the aides. He said he was trying to find out if a buddy of his was brought in. And then he did a bit of flirting and learned that prior to the sudden rush, only one patient came in and her condition wasn’t life-threatening. He said she would be discharged shortly. Duke thinks it’s Sara. He now has a dinner date for Saturday night with the nurse’s aide.”

The girls burst out laughing. “At least some good came out of this little caper,” Nikki said, and giggled. “And we got the brass ring in the bargain.”

“We need to decide what we’re going to do from here on in. As soon as we get to the farm, we’ll let Avery go through all these ziplock bags while we decide if Sara deserves the punishment we had planned for her. We have to keep in mind that she did not physically harm anyone. Yes, she’s a thief. We’re going on pure instinct when we say we think she was going to harm Bella. I do believe that is so, and for that reason I’m still okay on the punishment. We all agreed that she literally stole Bella’s eggs and Andy’s sperm. Obviously, the first insemination didn’t work. Who knows if the other six or seven will work. Regardless, Bella gave us our marching orders. She is the legal custodian of her husband’s donations and she wants them destroyed. Now, having said that, once Sara realizes the jig is up, if we don’t intervene, she’s going to go after Bella because there is no one else for her to blame,” Nikki said.

Myra, Annie, and Avery clustered around the rain-soaked women. Nikki handed over the ziplock bags, and the group ran up to the second floor to put on dry clothes.

“Is it all you thought it would be? Is it enough, Avery?” Annie asked anxiously.

“Enough plus more. I assume you want my people to continue with the surveillance. By the way, Matt just sent a text saying that Sara is on her way home, and they’re right behind her at a safe distance. Obviously, she’s going to be fine. If you no longer need my services, I’ll take my leave of you all. I’ll have my people stay on surveillance until you notify me otherwise.”

“One more thing before you go, Avery. Is there a way for you to jam Sara’s phone around seven o’clock this evening? Better yet, make it six o’clock,” Annie said.

“Not a problem. Does that mean I should be ready with my people for the send-off?”

“Eight o’clock will be fine,” Annie said primly. “We will call you. You can see yourself out while we retire to the war room. Thanks for your help on this mission.” The Sisters all echoed Annie’s thanks.

Yoko locked and double-bolted the kitchen door.

The mad scramble to the dungeons left the Sisters giggling hysterically. They had prevailed. Now all they had to do was finalize the plan, and Bella’s world would be right side up again.

Each of the women snapped off a crisp salute to Lady Justice before they took their seat at the table. Myra called the meeting to order. “Girls, this is going to be one of our shortest meetings on record. So, let’s get to it so we can all go out for some surf and turf and a barrel of margaritas. I guarantee all of us a safe ride home.”

“Hear! Hear!” the girls shouted.

* * *

“It’s all packed in the van. It’s almost six, girls. We should be on our way. Avery said he would jam Sara’s phone at six, so we can break and enter at will. Does anyone have any questions?” Alexis asked.

There were no questions.

Ten minutes later, Maggie had the van on the road and they were on their way to the house where Sara with a million aliases lived.

When they arrived at the house in Kalorama, Maggie backed the van up to the garage doors and hopped out as Kathryn, with her steel-toed boots, kicked in the front door.

“I was going to pick the lock, Kathryn,” Nikki grumbled.

“Takes too long. Look, it’s open! Let’s go, girls! The prize is standing right there in the kitchen. Let’s make this quick.”

And quick it was. Yoko did her whirligig dance, and before Sara could blink or demand to know what was going on, Nikki and Alexis had her tied and were dragging her to the garage, where Kathryn decided to pick her up and throw her over her shoulder. She marched to the van and dumped Sara in the back.

“I closed up everything. We were never here,” Isabelle said.

“What time is it?” Alexis asked.

Annie looked down at the Mickey Mouse watch that was her prize possession, and urged, “Drive faster, Maggie, we only have seventeen minutes. Don’t worry about speeding.”

In the back of the van, Sara started to scream. “Who are you? This is kidnapping! That little snot sent you to kill me, didn’t she? She’s sick and deranged. She put you up to this. I know she did. Let me go, I’ll pay you whatever you want, ten times whatever she paid you.”

The Sisters laughed. “Impossible,” Isabelle said. “We already took all your money. We found all your stuff under the kitchen table. You sure did use a lot of duct tape.”

Sara started to curse at the top of her lungs. She didn’t stop until Nikki whacked her across the face with the back of her hand.

Sara started to cry. “Who are you crazy people? I just got out of the clinic. I’m sick. How can you treat me like this?”

“Oh, it’s easy,” Kathryn said.

“We’re here with nine minutes to spare,” Maggie said, careening into the parking area near the beach. “Timing is everything, girls, move it!”

And they did. It was a precision drill. First, they assembled the oversize dog crate. Maggie and Kathryn carried it to the beach. Nikki and Alexis half carried and half dragged Sara through the sand to the dog crate. Yoko cut her bonds as Annie and Isabelle shoved Sara into the crate and locked it.

“High tide is in six minutes!” Myra shouted.

“Our work here is done!” Annie said, as she followed the girls back to the van. Off in the distance, if anyone was looking, Avery Snowden and his operatives were laughing like a bunch of lunatics.

“Anchors away, mates!”

Epilogue

Twenty months later

Bella looked to the horizon and smiled. A perfect day as far as she could tell. And, it was the first day of summer, June 21. How pristine everything is, she thought. How green. Did they measure with a ruler to make sure all the crosses lined up so perfectly? She should know the answer to that question, but she didn’t. But then how could she know? She had never been here before. Well, she was here now, and the answer really didn’t matter. Not now.