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In minutes Connie had fresh-brewed coffee laced with half-and-half and Jack Daniel’s. The table was filled with bakery bread, deli meat and cheese, mugs of minestrone soup, pickles, chips, and a whole Entenmann’s cherry cheese Danish. Connie was wrapped in one of my mom’s robes and her clothes were in the washer.
I called Connie’s mom and told her Connie was okay and with me and she’d be home soon. Connie got on the phone and gave the same message to her mom.
“What did your mom say when she heard your voice?” Grandma asked Connie.
“She yelled at me for giving her a fright,” Connie said. “And then she said we’re having ricotta shells for dinner.”
“We haven’t had ricotta shells for an age,” my mom said. “I’ll have to put them on the menu next week.”
We all sat around the table with Connie. She drank half a cup of coffee and ate two slices of the cheese Danish before taking a mug of soup. No one else ate anything. We were too intent on watching Connie, looking for signs that she might need help, thankful that she was at the table with us.
“What can you tell me?” I asked Connie when she finished the soup.
“It was bad,” Connie said. “I was stun gunned and drugged. When I came around, I was in a small dark room. There was a cotwith a single blanket and a chemical toilet. No window. One door that was locked. They took my watch and my purse, so I had no way to tell time. I tried to keep track of the days by counting the meals. Three times a day I’d get a bag of fast food and a soda.”
“Could you see their faces?”
“No. They were always masked. After the first day they never talked to me. Toward the end I could tell they were angry. Sometimes I’d hear them shouting, but it was muffled, and I couldn’t tell what they were saying. Honestly, I was afraid they’d kill me or maybe abandon me to die from starvation.”
“Just terrible,” Grandma said. “Did they do anything to hurt you?”
“Only the first day, and it could have been worse. They burned my arm with one of those click-and-flame things you use to light candles.” She pulled the bathrobe sleeve up to show us the scars. Four spots on her arm about the size of a dime.
“We should put something on them,” my mother said. “I’ll give you some ointment.”
“They were trying to get me to talk,” Connie said, “but I didn’t know anything. After that they left me alone.”
“Do you have any idea where they kept you captive?”
“No clue,” Connie said. “I was stun gunned from behind when I was opening the back door to the office. They dragged me inside, and when I was able to talk, they quizzed me about the coin. I’d never seen the coin so I couldn’t tell them anything. They found the fire starter in the junk drawer. That was the first time they burned me, but I couldn’t tell them anything. They searched the storeroom and the office and when they couldn’t find the coin, they decided to take me as a hostage. I was stun gunnedagain, handcuffed, and they wrapped a towel around my head and duct-taped it. I could barely breathe. I know I was in a car. The ride was smooth, but I don’t know anything beyond that.”
“Was it a long ride?”
“Maybe a half hour but I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“And what about when they dropped you off at the cemetery?” I asked her.
“I was stun gunned and drugged. I don’t remember anything from the ride. I was really out of it when I started to come around. I thought I was dead.”
“That makes sense since you were in a cemetery,” Lula said.
“We need to come up with a good story before we take you home,” Grandma said to Connie. “Your mom is going to tell Mabel Shigatelli right off. And Mabel is going to tell Jean Frick and in an hour everyone in the Burg is going to know.”
“Is that a problem?” Connie asked.
“I didn’t go to the police,” I told her. “I went to Ranger for help. There were complications with the coin.”
“I was wondering why it was taking so long,” Connie said.
“It’s a long story,” I said. “Do you want to hear it now?”
“Freakin’ A,” she said. “I want to know every detail. And then I want to track them down and kick their ugly asses all the way to hell.”
We all relaxed in our chairs and smiled. I was smiling so wide my cheeks hurt. Connie was back.
I took Connie home, and Lula and I went to the office. We walked in and my phone rang.
“Where’s the money?” he said.
