Chapter Four – "The Postman Always Rings at Least Once"
A disheveled Ryan opened the door to his penthouse, a haunted and confused look in his otherwise blank eyes.
"Thank you, Kendall," he said humbly. "I knew you'd come."
Hardly believing their eyes, Kendall and Zach walked into the once immaculate apartment.
"You might want to hire somebody to tidy up in here," Zach suggested tactlessly. The once spotless living room was covered in wall-to-wall empty beer bottles. Used paper plates, plastic utensils and take-out containers littered the dusty mahogany coffee table.
"At least he's eating," Kendall murmured to Zach.
"Why do you still care?" he demanded of her, not really wanting to hear a true answer. "And while you're at it, you might want to invest in a few cans of air freshener," he continued to Ryan, who at this point lay crumpled on the couch. "It smells like something died in here."
"Something did," Ryan moaned. "Me."
Zach grimaced. "Oh, would that were so!"
"Can it," Kendall directed Zach, going to her prostrate former lover and current friend.
"I'm dead, Kendall," he informed her as she knelt beside him. "Every hope and dream I ever had left with Greenlee."
"That's not dead!" Zach begged to differ, his eyes blazing. "Let's go over to that window, Ryan. Lean out a little while I push. I'll show you dead!"
"Zach, you're not helping," Kendall said, never taking her eyes from Ryan as he lay face-down on the couch, helpless and hurting.
"I want to help," Zach replied in his own defense. "I'd give anything to help! Tell her, Ryan!"
"He wants to help me kill myself," Ryan told the couch.
"Well, that's not gonna happen!" Kendall declared forcefully. "Ryan, Greenlee left town six weeks ago. Six weeks ago, Ryan! You can't go on like this living on memories and take-out! You've got to pull yourself together!"
"She never made it home from the hospital after the fire," Ryan recounted sadly, as if it had happened the day before. "Jack said she phoned him from a plane. He said she was on her way to Paris. But I don't believe him."
Kendall patted Ryan's hand to console him, and noticed absently that touching him didn't have the effect upon her that it used to have. "Why would Jack lie?"
"Because he wants to save his daughter from this waste of space?" Zach guessed at once.
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"And I know who's to blame!" Opal's voice was crackling over the answering machine as Aidan and Ted led in a distraught Stuart.
"Marian's gone," he repeated dully. "She didn't even leave a note. And when I call her cell phone, all I hear is --"
"A hauntingly familiar tune you almost recognize but don't," Opal's voice crackled. "Brooke, it's like what we hear when we call Palmer's cell!"
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"Tell me about the song you hear when you call Greenlee's cell," Kendall was requesting, wishing she had Lily's pad to write on. "Zach, we need to pick up office supplies," she told him.
"Aye aye, Captain," he responded. "And some Glade for your depressed friend's wreck of a penthouse."
"Get stuffed, Slater," Ryan said with real feeling.
Kendall was dialing Greenlee's number. "What IS that?" she asked as the tune played itself for her. "It's like something out of a 1940's film noir."
Zach stood beaming at her. How could somebody like her ever have thrown herself away on somebody like Lavery?
"Like 'Double Indemnity'," she continued. "Or 'The Postman--'"
"'Always Rings Twice'," Zach finished. "That's what it sounds like, alright. I wonder what it is."
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"It's the Newbies!" Opal cried out when she and Brooke arrived at Tad's and Aidan's office. "The Newbies are behind Palmer's disappearance!"
Tad loved Opal, but he was in no mood to deal with her wild-eyed speculations. "Did you have a particular Newbie in mind, Mama? There's quite a list!"
Opal did not hesitate for a split millisecond. "Dollars to donuts that she-devil Di Henry is the culprit!"
"I disagree," Brooke disagreed. "If it's any of them, it's Krystal."
Tad discounted Brooke's suspicions immediately. "You're jealous because she fooled Adam into marrying her and moved in on your storyline," he diagnosed. "I don't blame you, but your emotions are clouding your good judgment."
Brooke made a face at her former husband and still best friend. "YOU'RE going to talk to ME about clouded judgment? After romancing Krystal and Di? Why don't you phone Statesville and find out who's about to be released so you can figure out who you're going steady with next?"
Aidan snickered in spite of himself. "Good one, Brooke!"
"Can we get back to Marian?" Stuart appealed to them. "We need to find her!"
"Have you phoned Liza?" Aidan asked. "Maybe she knows where her mother is."
Stuart sighed. "Liza doesn't answer my calls either. I can't even get her voice mail. All I hear is --"
"A hauntingly familiar tune you almost recognize but don't?" Tad checked, beginning to see a pattern.
The phone was ringing.
"I need to hire your Agency," a metallic voice intoned. "People are disappearing."
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Ryan was sobbing into the couch pillow. "I want my Green Butterfly back!"
They heard a key turning in the front door lock. "Green Butterfly reporting!" the beautiful young woman said. Her curly jet black hair set off her amazing green eyes. She was between 5 feet 8 and 5 feet 9 inches tall.
"Who are you?" Ryan, Kendall and Zach asked her in unison.
"Greenlee Smythe Dupres Lavery," she replied. "But you can call me Gina!"
Are Liza and Colby victims of whatever all of the rest of the Missing are victims of? Who's next? Who is the caller with the metallic voice and why is he or she hiring all of Pine Valley's Detective Agencies? And who the heck is Gina? Perhaps the answers are in the next chapter! Probably not though. But they will definitely be in SOME chapter! Promise.