ChapterThree – "Zendall Goes for a Drive While Tad Eats Breakfast"
The plot thickens as Zendall begins their investigation while Tad finishes up his Snickeros.
"I need to hire your Agency," a metallic voice intoned. "People are disappearing."
"What do you mean 'people are disappearing'? What people? Who IS this?"
All of Kendall's questions were answered by the loud "click" on the other end of the line.
"Share with me, Lovely," Zach requested of her. "I'm your Partner."
Kendall was shaking her head and hanging up the phone. "Somebody's playing a joke on us, I guess." She frowned. "But it was a spooky joke."
Saying nothing more to him, she headed for the door.
"Where are we going?" Zach asked her, standing and moving away from the desk.
"Where you're going, I have no idea," she answered at once. "I'm going to see Ryan. That weird call may be connected to Greenlee's disappearance. Hey, this could be our first case!"
Zach was next to her before she could turn the doorknob. His hand covered hers, causing a wave of white heat to surge up her arm that would have made her gasp, if she hadn't become almost used to the effect a chance touch of his had on her.
"We'll take my car," he told her as they turned the doorknob together. "I'll drive."
But Kendall, who was shaking only slightly, had a different plan. "YOU take your car," she directed. "And I'll take mine."
"Why two cars?" he wanted to know.
She shrugged. "I like to drive." And she didn't want to sit that close to her Partner for any extended period of time. Except that she wanted that so much it made her ache.
"To save on gas, Lovely, we'll take your car," he said, outflanking her. "And you can drive. I'll even let you play the radio."
"Thanks a heap," she thanked him as they left the office together.
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Tad Martin stared into his bowl of Cheerios and smashed Snickers and sighed. So much had gone wrong in his life lately. So many lies had been told to him and then heartlessly revealed. So much that he thought was back forever had been taken away again forever. At least he could depend on his breakfast to be the real deal. No other cereal was impersonating his Cheerios. At least not that he knew of.
"Aidan, you ever heard of fraudulent Cheerios?"
Aidan Devane, Tad's partner in the Agency, was pretending he was too busy playing the pinball machine in the corner of their not-so-spacious office to answer him. Over the last days not answering Tad had become a defense mechanism for Aidan, who couldn't have felt worse about Di's unmasking if it had been his own heart that was breaking. As it happened, Aidan's heart was happily unbroken and he planned on keeping it that way as long as he could. That didn't mean he was unmoved by his friend's pain. However, enough was enough.
"Tad, my once fun-loving friend, you are simply going to have to suck it up and go on with your life." There. He said it. He braced himself for the reaction.
"Good advice," Tad replied. "You're a true friend, Fish and Chips. If Tad Martin ever rises from the living-dead, I'll be sure and repeat your words of wisdom. Meanwhile, want some of my Snickeros? They make a swell lunch. Swell dinner too." Tad knew that for certain since he had eaten nothing else since the day he found out his Dixie was really Di Henry. Had that only been a week ago?
For his part, Aidan wasn't tempted in the least.
"Kind of you to offer, Mate, but they're all yours. Did I mention to you that no woman is worth it?"
Tad nodded. "Several thousand times. But there's where you're wrong. All women are worth it."
Especially Dixie, Tad thought. Only Dixie was dead again, and he had to come to terms with that.
"A case would help," Tad said. "If we had a mystery to solve, I'd have something else in my life besides Snickeros. Maybe."
Somebody was pounding on the door.
Tad, put down his cereal bowl and came to full attention.
"Hear that?" he crowed. "Opportunity knocks!"
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"Slow down, Kendall."
Kendall ignored her husband. She wanted to get to Ryan's as fast as they could before the feel of Zach this close to her became too much for her to handle. Because it was already too much for her to handle, she tried to think about something, anything, else.
"Zach, when we start getting scads of cases and making tons of money can I hire an assistant?"
Zach considered her question with some care. He had learned early on that it was wise if one entered into a conversation with his wife to be as fully prepared as one could be.
"Why wait? We've already got tons of money, and think how much we're saving on gas today. We could hire an assistant now. And you're still going too fast."
"I know we can afford it. I only thought that including somebody else might dilute the intimacy."
She could not believe she had actually said that.
"Did I say 'intimacy'? I meant 'efficiency'."
Zach looked out the window on his side and scowled in contemplation. "I'm pretty sure you said 'intimacy'. I might have misheard you but I doubt that, since it's my habit to listen to you with rapt attention."
Kendall floored the pedal. "I mean, we'll need somebody to type and file and organize our calendar."
Zach nodded, yearning to grab the steering wheel, but restraining himself. "I agree. We would not want a disorganized calendar. Did you have a particular person in mind?" He hoped against hope she wouldn't suggest Ryan.
As it happened, Ryan was the furthest thing from her mind, and Zach was the closest. Damn him.
"It would be good to have somebody who could take care of the phones," she said idly, taking a corner at 80 miles an hour.
"You are going to get the two of us killed," Zach predicted calmly. "And then it won't matter who answers our phone."
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The phone began ringing just as Aidan left the pinball machine to answer the door.
"Tad, we need your help!" Opal's voice crackled from the answering machine. "Brooke and I are on our way over! Palmer has disappeared!"
"Tad, I need your help!" Stuart cried out as Aidan let him in. "Marian has disappeared!"
Greenlee, Palmer and Marian have vanished. Who's next? And who will get to solve the mystery first? Zendall? Taidan? More will be revealed as our Adventure continues!