She nodded.
“So, Randy is looking after Isaac then?” It was like pulling teeth to get information out of this woman. But still, she was providing valuable information.
The stranger hesitated, then decided that she should retreat, as if she’d already spoken too much.
Doreen immediately reached out again. “Is there anything else you can tell me?”
The old lady shook her head. “No, and I shouldn’t be telling you any of it. Randy will get mad.”
“But why would he get mad?”
The old lady looked at her, and she said, “You were right. Because he doesn’t want to lose Isaac.”
“Exactly,” she said.
“But if he is allowed to keep him, then that would make life easier on him.”
“Maybe,” she said, “but I don’t think he’d be allowed to keep him.”
Just then came a loud raspy cough and the stomping of feet. The woman’s face turned pale, and she raced inside, slamming the door on Doreen.
Doreen turned, but nobody was in sight; yet she heard voices coming down the pathway. She looked down at Mugs and Goliath. “Now we’ll get in trouble.”
But, as she looked around the corner, she thought maybe she could slip across the property and disappear from sight. Picking up Goliath in her arms, she softly called Mugs to her and raced around the old lady’s steps. She hid in the bushes between there and the next property. Sure enough, Randy came storming out, as if looking for her. He stood at the cul-de-sac, his hands on his hips, muttering out loud, something about Stay away.
She figured that message was for her, even though he hadn’t actually seen her this time. Still, it was a close call, and she decided it was time to go home. She needed to contact Mack and to give him the details. She waited until Randy disappeared, and then she and her animals hurried back to the cemetery. When she got there, she noticed that Thaddeus was still looking behind her.
“It’s okay. We’ll take care of it, buddy. We’ll find out what’s going on.” He seemed to be in better spirits, and she was thankful for that. In no time they were all in her car and heading for home. When she got there, she had no sooner stepped out of the garage and went to close the door when she saw Mack pulling up behind her.
He glared at her. “You were supposed to come home.”
“I know I was.” She went on to explain about the three men and what she’d found out from the old lady.
“What?” he said, frowning. “I’ve known Randy for a while,” he said cautiously. “I didn’t know there was a little boy in his life.”
“Well, apparently he’s been looking after him for a while,” she said. “As in a couple years. Nobody really knows where he came from—maybe Vancouver.”
Mack jumped in. “Nobody is talking about where he came from, and that’s a whole different story.”
She had to admit he was right there. “Fine,” she said. “Nobody is saying much, let’s put it that way.”
He nodded slowly. “Maybe I need to have a talk with Randy.”
“Yeah, you do that,” she said. “I think he spends a lot of his time threatening people.”
“Well, that’s partly because of his size,” he said. “He was also a prison guard down at Abbotsford for a few years, and that intimidation just comes naturally to him.”
“And yet you’re not intimidated,” she said.
He looked at her in surprise. “Of course not. Why would I be?”
“Well, he’s huge for one,” she said with a chuckle.
“Not for me, he isn’t.”
“Yeah, that’s true enough,” she muttered. “There’s some advantage to you guys being the size you are.”
“A lot of advantages to it,” he said, “also disadvantages.”
“Yeah, name one,” she said in a challenging voice.
“Well, I need a lot more food than you do for one thing,” he said, motioning at her front door. “Will you ever open this door so we can go in?”
“Are you depleting my coffee supply again?”
“Maybe,” he said, “but I also brought groceries.” He pointed to his truck.
Immediately she gave him a fat smile. “I guess you can come in then.”
He rolled his eyes. “Gee, thanks.” He grabbed the bags and followed her to the door.
She opened up the front door to let the animals in, then took one last look around the front of the house. She couldn’t see anything suspicious, but, feeling like she had maybe stirred up some trouble that she would regret, she carefully closed and locked the door. He watched her curiously. She shrugged. “One of the three guys threatened me. He said he would come in the middle of the night.”
“Wow,” he said, glaring at her. “You really know how to stir up trouble, don’t you?”
“I do,” she said. “The problem was, I accused him of doing it already. You know? Locking me in with the rocks.”
He stared at her in surprise. “I don’t know how much of a locking in that was,” he said, “since it was more of an inconvenience than anything. I was thinking it might have been kids. Like maybe the kids who saw you rescue Thaddeus.”
She stopped and stared and then said, “Oh, I didn’t even think of that.”
“That’s why I’m the detective, and you’re not,” he said, waggling his eyebrows at her.
She snorted. “In that case, you better have a talk with Randy and figure out what is going on with that little boy.”
“Maybe I will,” he said, with a smile, “but obviously other things need to be done first. Part of that involves food,” he said, walking through to the kitchen.
“What are you making?” she asked excitedly.
He looked at her, smiled. “Nachos.”
She almost jumped up and down for joy. “And that means we can eat pretty fast, right?”
“Well, it doesn’t take all that long to prepare, if that’s what you mean,” he said. “Why? Are you hungry?”
“Yeah,” she said, “I didn’t eat much today.” He stopped, slowly turned, and glared at her. She shrugged. “I didn’t really feel like it. When Thaddeus gets all upset, it’s hard to eat.”
He nodded. “Well, that’s true,” he said, “and I know you’re very close to Thaddeus, and we don’t want anything to go wrong with him.”
“Nope, we sure don’t,” she said, “so I just headed out after some toast.”
“And you haven’t eaten since?”
She shook her head. “Nope, we’ve been gone.”
“Good, I was hoping we could have lunch,” he said, “instead of dinner. Nachos aren’t necessarily a huge meal.”
“Well, it can be,” she said in surprise. “I’ve seen it as a big meal.”
“Maybe so,” he said. “I just figured that, if we had a good lunch, then I would go to work afterward.”
“Interesting,” she said, “and that works for me because I’m hungry.”
He snorted. “You know how I said you’re always hungry? Yet this last time apparently you weren’t so hungry.”