Daddy's Girls: Chapter 14
Author's Note: Now Harry, we don't want to be giving away any major plot secrets now, because that doesn't happen until the next chapter... *looks sheepish* Oops, did I give that away? :) Anyhow, here's the next chapter of excitement, please keep reading!
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Time continued to pass and the tension was growing in the small cramp compartment in the semi-truck. Buddy gave
Jess a quick glance over.
"Nice outfit."
"Thanks. I'm gonna burn as soon as we get home."
"If you're going to burn, I can only imagine what's going to happen to me…"
The two of them went quiet again for a while, as Buddy looked over at Annie's interjection. Ever since he'd seen
them, there had been a question on his mind. A question that now burst out of him like a fountain.
"So… you gals… you seeing each other?"
"Considering none of us goes blind anytime soon, yes," Jess stated flatly.
"Jess, that's not what he meant," Annie hissed, not wanting to discuss the issue any further. But now
Pandora's box was open… and Jess wasn't planning on closing it.
Roxanne lifted her head up wonder what exactly brought this conversation on, and what is it that she missed.
"Ahhh, you mean if we're screwing each other's brains out? No." She inspected her nails. "There
isn't any brains left in either of us."
"JESS!"
Buddy sat there stun for awhile, until he caught on that Jess was stringing him along, but he couldn't resist one
more comment to Annie. "Scott's going to be awfully jealous…"
"BUDDY!" Annie shrieked, turning a shocking shade of crimson. "Who's side are you on?!"
"My own." He shook his head and snickered, "Oh Jessie, If only your dad knew this side of you."
Roxanne on the other hand was laughing nonstop with tears in her eyes, after witnessing Annie's reaction.
Even though they were all in a tight spot, it felt good to forget for a moment that there was danger facing them
ahead.
Meanwhile, at Buddy's apartment…
"Did you find anything, yet?" Dusty asked Brad who was searching through stacks of papers piled up on
Buddy's desk.
"Nah." Frustrated Brad let himself fall down on the couch. "I don't understand. It's not like Buddy
to disappear like this… especially not with our girls. We should keep driving around town, until we find some sign
of there whereabouts. You'd at least think the man would leave some kind of clue for us to find if he'd really
have to disappear for a while, as some kind of lifeline."
"Ummm…. Brad what type of underwear does Annie wear?"
Brad turns his head to Dusty who was searching through Buddy's bedroom, "How would I know? Why are you even
asking me that question?"
"Cause I'm wondering what he's doing with a box full of women's underwear." Dusty remarks with discuss
Brad gets up and stares in disbelief, "I swear if he even touches Annie, I'm gonna do a lot more then kill
him."
"I second that partner, lets get out of here before we find something else we're gonna regret seeing."
"So what type of underwear does Jess wear?" Brad couldn't resist the jab.
"I ain't even gonna answer that," Dusty said in a tone that clearly stated the discussion was over.
With a sigh, Brad nodded and looked around the apartment once again, until his gaze settled on something lying
on the kitchenette counter.
A note pad, the top sheet half ripped off. Frowning, Brad walked over to take a closer look. It wasn't like Buddy
to leave a pad like this. Normally, he'd tear the top sheet he'd written on off completely, being the neat freak
he was.
"You know what?" Brad answered. "I think we just looked at the wrong lines."
He picked up the pad and the pencil lying next to it, carefully hatching over the paper until he found what they'd
been looking for.
"What are you doing?"
"Making us an almost perfect copy of the last thing he wrote down. Good thing he pressed down hard when he
writes. The lines pushed through pretty good. See for yourself."
Brad held out the pad for Dusty to see.
Ecstatic 10:00…James… deal…Contra World.
"We been over this place with a fine tooth comb, and I don't think we're gonna find any better evidence than
that, partner," Dusty drawled as he read the inscription on the notepad.
"I think you're right," Brad agreed as they headed for the door. "We better go talk to Matt."
Scott greeted them at the door of the mansion with a breathless, "What happened? Did you find anything? Are
the girls okay?"
Despite the situation, Brad couldn't help smiling slightly at Scott's outburst as he thought about him and Annie,
but he hid his amusement at the completely serious expression on the young man's face. He placed a comforting hand
on Scott's shoulder as he entered the mansion. "We didn't find them, Scott."
"Found a clue, though," Dusty added as he shut the door. "Yer dad still here?"
"Yeah, he's in the kitchen making some more calls. What can I do to help? Do you want help looking? I can
look if you tell me where…"
Scott was obviously just as distraught as the rest of them, and he had just as much at stake. It wasn't just his
sister, but a mentor, a friend, and an unofficial girlfriend. Brad simply shot him a sympathetic look and said,
"The best thing you can do for us, Scott, is to stay here and help man the phone. Annie called me once, maybe
she'll try again. And if she doesn't get me or Dusty, she might try here."
Scott just gave Brad a disbelieving look of 'yeah right', but he didn't protest much further. "It just seems
like there should be something more we can do…"
"I know it seems like we're clutchin' at straws," Dusty said, trying to lift Scott's spirits, "but
we're doing the best we can, kiddo."
"I know, Dusty."
Matt hung up the phone just as the trio entered the kitchen. "Find anything?"
"Just the imprint of a note Buddy left on his notepad." Brad handed Matt the slip of paper. "Looks
like contact information."
The ringing phone interrupted Matt's reply and he quickly answered it. He listened intently for a few moments before
he stated in a flat tone, "We'll be right there." He glanced up at three quizzical expressions and said
by way of explanation. "That was the police…they found Buddy's car in a ditch on the side of the road…"
Without waiting for any further explanation, the three fathers headed for the door. Scott started to protest asking,
"Can I-" When Matt, Brad, and Dusty all turned back to stare at him, he sighed deeply and sat down at
the kitchen counter. "Right, I know, stay here, man the phone…" As the three agents left the mansion,
he let out another deep sigh and asked himself, "How old do I have to be before they stop leaving me behind?"
One of the officers at the scene let the three of them past the police tape as he explained, "The tire looks
like it was shot out…there are some scuffed tracks that indicate a possible confrontation, but we're still analyzing
the scene…"
A second officer in a squad car called the first officer over, so Matt, Brad, and Dusty took the opportunity to
look around and come to their own conclusions about what might have happened. Matt took the lead, drawn immediately
to a cordoned off area of sand scuffed up by several different tracks of footprints. Dusty leaned down for a closer
look as Brad remained standing and peered over his shoulder.
"I ain't no High Mountain Ranger," Dusty said with a smirk Brad's way, "but the way these tracks
are all runnin' together, it seems as though somebody got inta a little bit of a scuffle."
"I'm no Trakker, either," Brad continued the semi-humor by smirking at Matt, "but I think I'd have
to agree with you."
"Looks like they clean up farther down."
Matt trailed along the barrier with Dusty and Brad following. The tracks resolved themselves nicely into four unique
sets of tracks, and several others parallel to them that all matched. This time, all three fathers stared at the
tracks intently, trying to discern what they meant.
Brad broke the silence first, pointing toward one of the sets of footprints. "Those could be from Annie's
cowboy boots…there's a square heel print and a pointed toe."
"Jess musta been right beside her…there's a ridiculously small heel from them crazy stilletto heels the girl
insists on wearin'," Dusty noted, indicating a different set of tracks.
The other two sets of tracks were a very similar style of boot, with one imprint significantly larger than the
other. As Matt mulled this over in his mind, a theory of what happened last night began to develop in his mind.
"I think it's safe to assume the other two are Buddy and Roxanne. I think somehow the girls met up at the
club and got embroiled in Buddy's mission."
"Least we know they were probably okay when they left here…" Dusty said with forced hope.
"A better question is where they are now…"
Brad couldn't stand still any longer. He felt almost completely responsible for this as it was, and this inactivity
was driving him insane. If I would have just put my foot down like I originally wanted to… He sighed and
started to pace in the opposite direction, stopping to momentarily adjust his tired eyes as they were drawn to
a black material on the ground in the distance. Oh no… His heart dropped right into his stomach when he
approached and the material resolved itself into the shape of Annie's favorite cowboy hat, the one Dusty had specially
picked out as one of her birthday presents. That didn't disturb him as much as the bloodied hunting knife lying
just a few inches away, and he fell to his knees, staring in shock at the sight.
Curious to see what had drawn Brad's attention, Dusty walked over to where he knelt on the ground. He gasped sharply
at the sight before him and laid a hand on his good friend's shoulder, "Oh man…"
"Give me your handkerchief…"
Dusty complied immediately at Brad's razor sharp request, pulling the handkerchief out of his back pocket and placing
it in Brad's outstretched hand. Brad used it to gently pick up the knife and examine it, as though it could tell
him something about what had happened.
Matt joined the group and laid a hand on Brad's other shoulder as he turned the knife over and over in his hand.
"It's not hers," Brad intoned firmly as he laid the knife down exactly where he found it.
"Brad, you can't know that," Matt contradicted softly.
"The hell I can't!" Brad snapped, recalling the words Annie had said to him when he was in the hospital
almost two years ago: I knew something happened to you…I can't explain it…I just knew. His tone softened
as he added, "I would know if that blood was Annie's…I would just know…" He shook his head to clear it,
and then said decisively. "What else I know is that we aren't going to find anything else here…"
Matt looked down at him in understanding. "We need to go back to the club."
