Page 62 of Xavier

Lissette’s hand darted out, snagged his arm and stopped him. She moved in front of him and addressed the room. “You can hate me, call me names and slam doors in my face. I don’t care. I deserve it. But someone broke into the Mamba Wamba and knocked over Johnny’s cage. He’s not in the shop. If he was dead, we’d have found his body. You might not like him either, but he doesn’t have the skills to live in the wild. Please...if you see him, let me know. If you don’t want to let me know, let someone else know. We need to bring him home before the hurricane hits, or he dies of starvation.” She stared around at the people, her eyes shimmering. “Please. For Johnny.” Then she turned to Xavier. “I’m done here.”

He shook his head. “No, you’re not. We’re going to have breakfast and then go back to the shops to clean things up.”

Mimi showed them to an empty table and laid menus in front of them. “I’ll keep an eye out for him,” she said. “He’s a mean son of a gun, but he’s great entertainment. The Mamba Wamba wouldn’t be the same without him.”

Lissette smiled up at the woman. “Thank you.”

Xavier ordered food for both of them, and Mimi filled cups with steaming coffee.

“We need to notify the sheriff of the break-in,” Xavier said.

Lissette sighed. “I know. I can’t believe this happened. Gisele will never trust me to look after her place and Johnny again.” She stared down into her coffee mug. “Assuming we get Johnny back alive.”

“He’ll come back,” Xavier said, praying he was right. “I’m calling the sheriff.” He placed the call. The dispatcher answered and said she’d send a deputy as soon as he came back from a wellness check on someone whose life alert had gone off that morning. Xavier told the dispatcher where the deputy could find them and ended the call. “They’re sending someone. I think we have time to eat.”

A woman gathered her two children and headed for the door. When she reached their table, she stopped, holding the children’s hands as she glanced down at Lissette. “You’re Lissette, aren’t you?” she asked.

Lissette nodded.

The woman hurried on. “You might not know me. You were a few grades ahead of me in school. I’m Stacey Jenkins, Arley Romig’s daughter.”

Lissette’s brow dipped. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember.”

“I didn’t expect you to. My father relies on your grandmother’s house calls since I can’t get out there often, what with a full-time job and two little ones. He said you were the one to warn him about the stolen reliquaries and that we should be careful until they were returned.”

“I did,” Lissette said.

Xavier frowned. Romig was the man who’d been particularly nasty toward Lissette. He hoped the man’s father wasn’t about to make a scene, especially in front of the children.

The woman glanced down at her toddlers. “He called me and let me know what you said. I was worried to learn our reliquary had been taken. As soon as I got off the phone with him, I went looking for these two. I found them climbing a bookcase. It was leaning, about to fall over when I came into the room. Without that warning, I might not have gone looking for them soon enough to keep the shelf from falling. I just wanted to say thank you. Your warning saved my babies.”

The smallest child, a girl with bright blond hair, reached her arms up to Lissette.

“May I?” Lissette asked. “I mean, I’ll understand if you’d rather I didn’t.”

“Of course,” Stacey said. “Emmy is a little love bug.”

Lissette reached down and lifted the child up into her lap. “I’m glad you got to them before the shelf fell.” She smiled down at Emmy. “Do you like climbing?”

She nodded and then her forehead wrinkled. “Is Johnny lost?”

Lissette nodded. “He is. Do you know what color he is?”

“Johnny’s blue,” the little boy said.

“Yes, he is.” Lissette turned to the boy. “Will you look out for him whenever you’re outside?”

He nodded solemnly. “Yes, ma’am.”

“I’ll look for Johnny,” Emmy said in her little voice. “Johnny needs to come home.”

“Yes, he does.” Lissette hugged Emmy and set her on her feet.

Stacey took the little girl’s hand. “We’re on our way home to pack a few things. What with your warning about the reliquaries and the weatherman predicting the hurricane is speeding up, we’re going to head north before the call for mandatory evacuations, and the highways get jammed with vehicles.”

“That’s smart,” Lissette said. “I’ve heard of people stranded on the roads during evacuations, having to ride out the weather in their cars.”

Stacey laughed. “There’s no way I could survive with these two in a car for an extended length of time. I tried to talk my father into coming with us, but he’s a stubborn old cuss.” Her brow furrowed. “I hope the storm isn’t as bad as they’re predicting. He promised he’d get out if they called for a mandatory evacuation.”