Chapter 102

Chapter 102
I shook my head. She waited for me to express my thoughts. “No way does Dudley Do Right cover up something like that.”

She snorted. “Dudley Do Right? Wrong Brendan Frasier character. More like Rick O’Connell.”

“Oh, he would totally off someone for cursing their friend’s granddaughter.” I scooped some cookie out of my milk. As we finished our cookies, I told her how I’d spent my morning.

“Oh!” She jumped up. “Let’s go see the new barn hang out!”

Shrugging, I grabbed some water bottles then I followed her out the back door. In the barn she stopped to whistle at the backed stall. It was oddly satisfying how the movers had filled every inch with boxes and furniture. Very impressive. We moved on down to the office.

“Oh, this is cute!” She flopped onto the leather chesterfield that was covered with a sheet. I went for the arm chair.  We spent the next couple of hours chatting. Neither of us  touching on the serious topics.

“Andretti! Bells!” VD’s voice sounded slightly frantic with a hint of breathlessness as it came down the aisle from the main part of the barn.

“In here!” I called back. He must have sprinted from the house. His face was flushed and his breathing heavy. 

“What?” We jumped up from our seats. He looked us over carefully. Elle and I exchanged looks. “What happened?”

“Mike Walker just turned himself in.” Without expanding, he opened the hidden panel to the basement. Elle and I looked at each other and then back to him. Frustrated, he waved us in when we didn’t move.

If Mike Walker had turned himself in, didn’t that mean the danger had passed? Shrugging, we went into the tunnel. All of us pulled out our phones to use as flashlights. The panel closed behind us with a click. Now in the darkness of the tunnel I turned to VD.

“Want to explain why Mike Walker turning himself in means we have to walk a mile underground?” Elle demanded. Saved me the trouble of asking.

“Earlier this morning, I received a text message saying he had shown up at the station to turn himself in.” AH. So that’s what had called him away this morning. “He confessed to a list of crimes that will see him disbarred and put away for life.”

I stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Any of those crimes involve me?”

His grim expression answered that question. No wonder he was in overprotective mode. Elle put her arm around me and we started walking again. The floor leveled off once we reached the basement depth. Our trio continued in silence. Me buffeted between the two of them. Their protective stances weren’t lost on me.

At the wall to the basement, VD reached out to open the door to the secret room in the hidden basement. I paused at the threshold. I was still traumatized from what I had witnessed down here.

“What if mom is sucking face with that tramp Sheila Wilson’s great uncle again?” I blocked VD from opening the door between the secret room and the basement.

“Whoa! Wait!” Elle held up a hand. “What about that tramp’s uncle?”

I wouldn’t meet her eyes. Looked everywhere but at her. Had I forgotten to tell her? Things had been crazy the last couple of days. I was beginning to think the force that controlled our lives was just some crazy chick who did things just to amuse herself.

“Mom is a traitor and has been sucking face with her dead great uncle.” Elle’s eyes blazed at my words. She understood the betrayal that had occurred there. VD just rolled his eyes at my junior high description. He opened the door and peeked out.

“Come on, it’s clear.” He waved us out to the basement. Then indicated we should sit on the couch. I refused on the grounds that’s where mom and the traitors uncle did unspeakable things. He shoved me onto the couch against my will. “Stay.”

Elle and I both barked at him. Treat us like dogs, get barked at. He rolled his eyes.

“Mike Walker confessed to plans to eliminate you. He also had a list of other things he had done for previous clients.” VD sat down on the coffee table to look me in the eyes. “Until I am sure we have all of his people rounded up, you will not be leaving this room.”

I ignored his intent to lock me up without due process.  Instead, I asked why he would just walk in and confess like that. VD shook his head. The cops didn’t have a clue. The disgraced lawyer claimed he did it of his own free will and would accept his sentence. None of us believed that.

“Any sign he was coerced?” Elle found her voice first.

The results were still out on that one. No one believed he would just waltz into the cop shop and confessed freely. Yet, a man like that would be hard to blackmail sense he would just eliminate anyone who tried. He had no family to threaten. So for the moment they had to assume he was doing it because his conscience had finally gotten to him.

“So now you think I’m just going to live in this basement until you clean out all his cronies?” I jeered. “Did you get hit on the head today?”

I didn’t like the way he smiled at me. OH. He meant business. I looked at Elle for help. Her eyes flicked between the two of us. Clearly, she couldn’t decide which team to be on. I scoffed.

“Dude.” She had the grace to look slightly ashamed.

“I’m sorry, Tosh. I’m just worried about you.” She wrapped her arm around my shoulders to pull me against her.  “I don’t agree with his neanderthal ways, just his intent.”

“How long we talking me being locked down here?” I queried.  If it was like a day, I could make that happen. Vince smiled like he had won.

“Until it’s safe for you to be out and about.” Smugly, he crossed his arms. I snorted in dissent.

“Seriously, get a CT scan.” I shook my head. “You clearly need one if you think you are locking me up. I will agree to spend a day down here. No longer.”

“We can’t round up all his henchmen in that amount of time.” VD bit out between clenched teeth. I shrugged.

“Not my problem.” I pulled out my phone and set the timer. “You got 24 hours. Better get busy.”