Chapter 5
Greenlee sat next to Miranda, who was trying to fit barn animal pieces into their proper places. "Cow. Cow!" She squealed in frustration as she tried to put the piece in upside down. Greenlee grinned at Bianca. "This was exactly what I needed right now. Thanks for letting me come over earlier than planned." Bianca patted Greenlee's shoulder. "Its perfectly fine. You're taking the whole thing remarkably well. I just can't believe that Ryan…" She shook her head. "Does anyone else know that Ryan is alive?" Greenlee shook her head. "Not that I'm aware. Unless Erin the errand girl has been making the rounds in Pine Valley." She stood up. "Kendall! She should be told. I need to talk to Kendall. Find out how she's doing. I've been hiding from her just as much as I've been hiding from Ryan."
She went to her purse and extracted her cell phone. She dialed Kendall's cell phone. She was immediately kicked into voice mail. She was either on the line or not getting a signal. Greenlee tried her land line in her condo. She got the machine. "Kendall, please call my cell as soon as you can." She bit the bullet and dialed Erica's number. "Erica, have you seen Kendall?" She heard Erica sigh. "No, and I've been trying to find her. Greenlee, she hasn't been to her condo in days. I found out from a neighbor, Gladys, that she was going on a trip. Gladys is feeding her plants. She also said that Zach hasn't been to his condo in weeks, though I couldn't care less about that."
Greenlee snapped her fingers. "Of course. She went looking for Zach. She said that Zach was in Thailand, and since she hadn't heard from him in a long time, she was going to find out what happened to him." Erica groaned. "Why does she waste her time with that man? And what is he doing in Thailand, anyway?" Greenlee sighed. "It has to do with Julia Santos Keefer. He was helping her find out who killed her husband." There was a long pause. "Julia Santos Keefer? Wait a minute. Opal was telling me all about that a while back. Apparently Tad was involved in that investigation. It was resolved weeks ago. It came to a head while Kendall and I were in California. Didn't you read about it?" Greenlee bit her lip. "Probably not. I've been preoccupied. Wait a minute. If it was resolved weeks ago, why didn't Zach come home? Look, if you say Tad was involved with this, then I need to call him. Bye Erica." She hung up before Erica could say anything else.
Greenlee dialed Tad and Aidan's PI office. Aidan answered the phone. "Aidan, its Greenlee. Is Tad there?" Aidan cleared his throat. "I'm afraid not. Tad is on an assignment out of town." Greenlee narrowed her eyes. "Let me guess, Thailand?" There was a brief pause. "I'm afraid that's confidential." Greenlee rolled her eyes. "Coy doesn't suit you, Aidan. I know that Tad is in Thailand, and I know that he's there with Kendall. Have you heard from them at all?" Aidan sighed. "As a matter of fact, no. I've been very concerned." Greenlee sat down, tears pricking the back of her eyes. She felt Bianca's comforting hands on her shoulder. "Aidan! Erica told me that this whole Julia mess was resolved weeks ago. If Zach was in Thailand working on that case, then he should have been back by now. And if he was just having a jaunt or something, Tad and Kendall should have found him by now. What if whoever's gotten to Zach has gotten to them as well?" There was another pause. "You're a very shrewd woman, Greenlee. That is exactly what I've been thinking." Greenlee howled. "You're not supposed to tell me that, Aidan! You're supposed to tell me they're fine! That everything will be alright! Aidan! She's pregnant. Kendall is pregnant." She heard him suck in his breath, and she wiped a tear that was threatening to fall.
"Look, Greenlee….where are you, anyway?" She sniffled. "I'm in Paris. With Bianca and Maggie." There was another pause. "Paris? Wait a minute, Anna's in Paris. She has plenty of contacts, especially in Southeast Asia. She'd be able to find out information much faster than I could. Stay put, Greenlee. I'm coming to Paris. We'll find Kendall, she'll be alright, etcetera, etcetera." He hung up. She stared at the cell. "I thought Anna went to New York with her daughter, Robin?" Bianca put her arm around Greenlee. "She did, but just to deliver her there. She came back a couple of days ago." Greenlee looked at Bianca. "You know where she lives?" Maggie looked up from playing with Miranda. "Oh sure, we go visit her all the time." Greenlee tossed her cell in her purse. "Well, I need to go see her right now. I'm not waiting for Aidan. Every time we leave it up to the men they just screw things up. Zach managed to get himself missing, now Tad. It's time for the women to get things done."
Tad gave unconscious Zach a physical examination, trying to remember what his dad taught him. A few things were fresh in his memory because Jamie sometimes used him as a study aide for medical school. Zach's arm was definitely broken. His foot was also fractured, as were a few ribs. Some of the cuts and bruises were old, some were new. He was apparently the favorite punching bag of the guards around here. There were no needle marks on him, but Tad was pretty sure that he was being drugged. Probably because Zach wasn't likely to be a submissive prisoner. Tad figured the drugs were in Zach's food. It made sense. In his deteriorated physical condition, he was probably eating less and less over time, and therefore ingesting less of the drugs. That was why he had been able to wake up and put up a fight earlier. Unfortunately there was enough left in his system to give him one hell of a hallucination. Tad hated to think what Zach thought he saw when Kendall was screaming her head off.
Tad contemplated the bowls of soup the guard brought earlier. Zach needed to eat, because he was in a pretty sorry state and needed to heal. He wasn't going to do Tad much good, lucid or not, because he was too beat up. Tad, on the other hand, was still in excellent physical health, and didn't need food as much – at least for the time being. Being hungry was much better than being doped up. The best course of action was to feed Zach his soup and some of Tad's, and then get rid of the rest so it looked as if Tad ate his soup, too. Then he could pretend to be drugged and submissive. He didn't want to feed Zach the entire contents of both bowls, because he was afraid of overdosing him. Their only hope for getting out of this hell hole was Aidan. Aidan was the only one who knew Tad was in Thailand and why. He would eventually grow suspicious and come after him. Hopefully he would be more successful than Tad had been. Hopefully he would come soon, before Tad grew too weak from hunger.
Tad sighed and picked up one of the bowls. He lifted Zach into a semi-upright position and smacked his cheek. Zach stirred, but didn't wake up. Tad slapped him a little more. "Come on, Zachary. You don't have to wake up all the way, just be aware enough to swallow what I put in your mouth." Zach groaned, but didn't open his eyes. Good enough. Tad spooned some soup into his mouth. Zach made a face, but swallowed. Tad spoke in a falsetto. "Good boy. That's a good boy, Zachary. Geez, I haven't done this since that time Jamie caught that nasty bug and was too weak to do anything. I think he was 10? JR laughed his head off, calling Jamie a baby. Jamie got him back, though. When he got better, he kicked the shit out of JR." Tad continued feeding him, and shook his head. "I sure hope the guards aren't filming this. It would be prime blackmail material back home." Zach shifted his body a little bit, as if he were struggling to wake up. "Tad?" Tad put down the soup. "Can you hear me Zachary? Are you coming out of dreamland? Do you still think I'm some sort of demon?" Zach shifted some more. "Tad?" His voice was low and slurred. "Shut the fuck up."
Kendall stared through the bars, ignoring the chatter behind her. Every so often she would feel someone playing with her hair or tugging at her clothes. She'd stopped protesting it long ago because it did no good. The other prisoners would just laugh at her or tug her hair harder. Picking a fight was a bad idea when there were so many of them crammed into one large cell. She remembered going to see that Bridget Jones sequel last year and laughing at the ludicrous idea of Bridget ending up in a Thai jail with a bunch of other female prisoners. It wasn't funny now. And her situation was much worse. There was no smarmy embassy employee visiting with ineffectual promises. She was pregnant and scared to death about the health of her baby. And Zach wouldn't be swooping in to save her like Mark Darcy because Zach was near death in a cell much worse than her own. Tears fell down Kendall's cheeks. The sight of them caused some extra chatter among some of the other prisoners.
Kendall tried to think if she told anyone where she was headed on her trip. People would notice she was missing, but would they have any idea where to find her? Think positively. There had to be a paper trail. And Tad possibly told Aidan where they were going. Aidan was former special ops, he could probably find them. Greenlee could connect the dots, but she was probably wrapped up in grief right now. Kendall felt a pang as she thought of her best friend back in Pine Valley, mourning Ryan and her second chance at a baby. Kendall hung her head. If she stayed in here indefinitely, what would happen to her baby, assuming she managed to carry it to term? She cradled her stomach and wept.