Chapter Nine
“It seems that I am phoning you all the time.” Andrea heard a big sigh on the other end of the line.
Brian was quick to ask what the problem was this time. “I thought you would want to know. . .”
“What, what?”
“My house burned down this afternoon.” She heard a very audible gasp on the other end of the line before she continued. “I’ve lost everything except my dogs.” Silence, long and telling. “Brian, are you there?”
“Yes! Yes, of course. Man, what next? Do they know what started it? How did the dogs get out?” Brian rattled the questions off like an interrogator.
“They don’t know what started the fire yet but it seems to be an explosion of some sort. They’re guessing a gas line erupted. Anyhow, they’ll know by tomorrow. The dogs on the loose is a puzzle, but I’m sure glad they were. I guess I’ll spend tomorrow buying new clothes as well as luggage.” Andrea yawned.
“Do you want to postpone the trip until they discover what happened to your house?” Brian asked. “Maybe that way, there would at least be something we have an answer for.”
“I agree. I…” she sighed into the receiver.
The catch in her voice gave away the extent of her emotional stress.
“Andrea, do you want me to come over? I’d be more than happy to, and we could go get something to eat.”
“N-no, I’ll be fine, and I’m really not very hungry. I just feel absolutely exhausted, and yet I really haven’t done any hard work today.” She sighed again. Andrea opened her mouth to say goodbye but nothing came out.
“ Well…if you think you’ll be okay… Do you have any more of those tranquilizers that the EMTs gave you the other night? Why not take one and try to get a good night’s sleep? Tomorrow, things will be clearer.” Brian worked hard to inject a positive note in his voice.
“If I get hungry I’ll call room service. Brian, we have to find the Michners. Everytime something else happens, I get more fearful for them. These people are vicious.”
“You think this is arson and tied to the Michners?” Brian’s voice rose with his own emotional state of stress.
“What else?” Andrea let out a large sigh of resignation. “I’ll call you tomorrow.” With that she said goodnight. Moving toward her handbag on the table in front of the window, she extracted two tiny pills. Swallowing, she thanked God for good friends and medicine that would help her sleep. She rinsed the charcoal from her dress and hung it over the shower rod. It didn’t take too long for sleep to overtake her emotionally drained body.
•
Sun peeked through the draperies. Andrea opened one eye and searched the room for anything familiar. Oh yeah. The fire. Her eyes didn’t want to open more than a slit. The light hurt. She crawled out of bed and staggered. Sedatives. I hate taking those things. She was on her feet. The dogs? Oh yeah. The kennel. The loss of all her possessions made her feel as she had when her parents died; set adrift, no anchor. She’d hoped she’d never feel this alone ever again but…what if she had been at home when that gas line, or whatever, exploded? She’d be dead.
She checked the bedside clock. She slowly stretched from side to side to relieve achy limbs, expelling the numbness from the crumpled position she’d slept in. Speaking of crumpled. Andrea spotted her dress hanging in the bathroom. I need an iron. I’ll call the front desk to see if they have one after I’ve had a chance to shower. At least they’d provided a bathrobe.
She wriggled her toes. All she had for footwear were the high heeled shoes. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair could use a good shampoo. She quickly stepped out of the underclothes she’d slept in and stepped under the hot stinging spray of the shower. This feels so good.
Allowing the hot water to wash away her body stress, Andrea mentally made plans for the day ahead. Before I go to the office, I’m going to have to find some suitable clothing. I’ll call in and let them know I’ll be a little late. Some of Max’s money is going to come in handy when I shop for those new clothes.
•
As soon as Andrea sat down at her desk, Tom Forrester’s door opened. He motioned for her to enter his office. “Bring a cup of coffee with you. I heard the news on the TV this morning.”
Andrea poured herself a fresh cup and walked briskly into her boss’ office.
“How are you, Andrea? Is there anything I can do to help?”
“No, not really except…”
“Yes.”
“Well, I need some time off…about two or three weeks should be enough.”
“Oh, Andrea…I don’t know. You’ve been here such a short time. What do you need the time for?”
“The fire just complicated our plans. Brian Strait and I have decided to go to Haiti to search for Trent and Diane. We believe that’s where they’ve been taken.”
“Taken…but I thought…”
“I know. Everyone, including the police think they left for a last minute vacation. We have reason to believe otherwise.”
“Andrea, I’m not sure this is something you should handle yourself. Let the police find them.”
“I can’t.” Andrea clamped her mouth shut. She’d already told him more than she’d planned.
“Where are you staying?” Tom Forrester crossed his legs. He seemed in no hurry to begin his workday.
“I found a comfortable room at the Viscount Gort but I intend to relocate to something a little nicer tonight.”
“That hotel is pretty expensive.”
Andrea crossed her fingers behind her back. “I have some money saved.” Her lie felt wrong but Andrea knew that telling Mr. Forrester about the money would have only caused a string of questions. She filled him in on the suspicions of the fire department.
“The fire marshal hasn’t confirmed arson yet. I’ll call him later. Until he knows what happened for sure, I plan to stick around. I want to inform my insurance company before I leave town. As soon as I know what course of action I need to follow to have a home to return to, I will leave town. Could take a day or two, at the most.”
“Andrea, I will miss working with you. We were a team. I know the company will not grant a leave with your short work history here. I’m sorry.”
“I am too. But I need to do this.”
“Why don’t you pack up now then. That’ll give you the rest of the day to make those decisions. I hope you decide to let the police handle this. I think you’re out of your league here.” His utter lack of support for her trip surprised her but it did sound like a wild goose chase, even to her ears.
“I’m sorry about not giving you more notice …”
“Oh forget that. One of the other girls will fill in. When you get back, check with me. If I haven’t hired anyone, the job is yours. You’re one of the best secretaries I’ve had.” Tom Forrester stood and reached across his desk to shake hands. “Now be careful.” He ushered her out of his office and even waved. She stopped at her desk. Andrea quickly emptied her personal items from the desk and stuffed everything into her new handbag, one that matched the shoes she’d bought that morning. She picked up her keys and left the building.
First stop…the bank. Determining, with the bank clerk’s help, that American currency was used in Haiti, Andrea asked for two books of traveler’s checks in the amount of $3000 each.
“But miss, two books? We could put all $6000 in one book. And what denominations did you want the checks?”
“I need two books. A friend is traveling with me. Make the checks in denominations of $100 each.”
“If you want your friend to be able to cash the checks without your signature, she’ll need to sign her checks.”
“It’s a he.”
“Pardon?”
“My friend. It’s a he.”
“Oh, I just thought…”
“We’ll come back later today to pick his up then,” She took the list of things to do from her purse and crossed bank off. One task completed; several more ye
t to do. “Er-r could he come in alone to sign those checks?”
“As long as he has proper identification. We close at five.”
Andrea walked out, stuffing her book of checks and some more cash into her handbag. She sat in her car thinking about her next stop, reading her list to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. She decided to phone Brian to let him know that he had to go to the bank to sign his checks. Using her cell phone, she punched in the numbers for Hartford Industries. An operator answered. “May I speak with Brian Strait?”
“One moment, please.”
Comfortable, safe, trustworthy. His voice spoke interrupting her thoughts. “Uh, Hi Brian. I’m in the bank parking lot. I took some money out of the account and had them make up some traveler’s checks for us. I’ve left a checkbook for you at the bank but the checks have to be signed by you before they will let us leave with them. Can you meet me here or…?”
Brian chuckled on the other end of the line. “You know, for a quiet woman, you can sure talk a mile a minute sometimes. I’m glad to see that you are feeling a little better today.”
“I am. In fact I’m having fun…shopping.”
“You women are all alike. Give you a shopping mall and you’re in seventh heaven.”
“As if you guys don’t like to spend time shopping. I seem to remember you and Trent taking an inordinate amount of time looking for some fishing equipment about two weeks ago.”
“Yes…well…that’s different”
“Oh, sure. Are you going to answer my question or not?”
“As it turns out, I am free today. I just told my boss that I would not be working for Hartford anymore. He told me to clean out my desk today to make room for someone who will do the job. I think he’s kind of miffed. Anyway, I’ll be finished here in a couple of minutes, and then I’ll see you at the bank. Okay?”
“Sure. Hey…maybe I’ll go back inside and check out some of the money transfer information. When we’re in Haiti we may need to transfer a little to a bank account there…since we have no idea how long we’ll be gone.”
“That sounds like a plan. I’ll see you there.”
•
Twenty minutes later, Brian walked through the door to the bank. He winked. Her heart felt as if it had a bubble in place of a beat. What’s that about? She placed her hand over her heart and smiled in his direction.
“What’s with you?” He stopped signing the checks the clerk had placed in front of him to glance in her direction.
“I feel kind of free, don’t you? No job, no responsibility, no…”
“No means of support except…”
“Yah, I know.” She lowered her voice considerably. “Max’s money. Anyway, we can enjoy it for a little while, can’t we?” They walked towards the exit and out to the parking lot.
“I hope this will cover our initial expenses.” Andrea moved towards her car. “If we need more, I deposited enough in the account I think. The clerk said that if we need to transfer money, all we have to do is wire the amount and the bank will handle everything.”
“I’ll bet you feel better just knowing you have enough to buy a house when this is all over. I know it won’t replace the memories, but . . well . . we’ll be making some new ones anyway, won’t we?”
“I sure hope they’re not all bad ones.”
“I hear that Haiti is quite pretty in some spots. A lot of poverty, though.”
“Yes, well. We’ll need to keep focused, I’m sure. I expect that there’ll be plenty of distractions.”
“At least, the trip will help get your mind off what you’ve lost this past week. Have you given any thought about when you would like to leave?”
“Not really,” she replied. “I want to wait until I hear from the fire marshal.”
“Someone could very well be trying to warn you to mind your own business. Of course, we could both be paranoid too.” Brian placed a reassuring hand on Andrea’s arm. “Um, I didn’t want to scare you yesterday but…remember that car that almost ran over me in front of the Michners? Well, Saturday, it followed us to the police station. After I dropped you here, it followed you and I followed it past your house. They saw where you live.”
“Brian, did you not think I needed to know that?” Andrea’s voice trembled.
“I wasn’t sure they were part of all this but now… I followed them until I lost them in traffic. They don’t seem to be anywhere around today. I wonder if they’ve changed cars.”
Andrea closed her eyes and chanted, “We’re doing the right thing. We’re doing the right thing” And then, “Yes. We are. Max said this is tied to Trent and Diane. We need to find out where they are so we can get them out of whatever mess they’re in."
Brian fingered her chestnut colored hair. He pushed it behind her collar. “You know, you’re one brave woman. After all you’ve been through, you’re still thinking only of Diane.”
“And Trent. They’re a couple, remember. Anyhow, I don’t know how brave I am. I have no idea if I have what it takes for something like this. If you weren’t going with me…I…”
“There’s no question about me going. I want to uncover what’s happened as bad as you do.” Brian stepped away from her and headed toward his car. He turned to look over the roof of his car toward her.
Andrea smiled. “Well, partner. Let’s get the stuff done that will allow us to leave as soon as possible. Okay?”
He hung his head, scuffed his toe on the pavement and then looked into her eyes. “I am concerned…I mean…I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you. Do you mind?”
“No, I guess. . . no not at all.” Andrea giggled. “Oops.” She placed a hand over her mouth.
“I’ve never heard that from you before. Must be a good sign.” Brian grinned and then waved as he sat down on the front seat, closed his door and started the ignition. He rolled down his window. “Hey, wanna have dinner tonight…to go over what we accomplished today…I mean?”
“Sure. Call me or better yet, I’ll call you. I don’t know where I’ll be staying for the night yet.”
“Sounds good to me. See Ya.”
Andrea smiled. Brian was not the man she’d thought. He seemed not afraid to have a woman lean on him occasionally. He also appeared to be anything but a womanizer…at least he didn’t treat her that way. I’m probably not his type. She chuckled. Where did that thought come from? They had just become friends. Sort of. Because of the Michners.
* * * * *