Chapter Thirty-Three: Wanted Dead or Alive
"Tell me again why we're doing this?" Tootie asked Natalie that morning as she juggled a hot Box o' Joe, paper cups and a bag full of cream, plastic stirrers and sugar packets they had gotten from a nearby Dunkin' Donuts on their way to Blair's house. Natalie held onto a big box full of a dozen donuts.
Tootie and Natalie stood outside Blair's house that morning after hearing from Casey that the State Police and the FBI were still there, gathering information.
"I know the cops have found some juicy info…I just know it!" Natalie informed her friend. "And I'm sure they'll want to tell us something after we give them some coffee and donuts. And with I did to help them, they should be thanking me! And they never even bothered to tell me what happened afterwards!"
Tootie looked a little miffed that Natalie had broken her promise of not getting involved in the case but she decided to ignore it. "Coffee and donuts are so stereotypical, Nat," she remarked, rolling her eyes.
"Cops love coffee and donuts, OK? So sue me. I don't make the rules. Rollins and McNeal owe me anyways. I know those guys got something good!"
Natalie then rang the doorbell. After a few moments, Casey answered the door.
"Natalie? Tootie? What the hell are you two doing here?" Casey demanded sharply, scowling.
Natalie felt herself growing annoyed and irritated with Casey's presence. It was time to tell this bastard off, once and for all! "Selling beauty cosmetics, Casey," Natalie replied sarcastically. "What the everlasting fuck does it look like?"
She then gave Casey a sickeningly sweet smile. "You know, I could ask you the same question, you know…squatting in your girlfriend's house while she's on the run from the law…don't you still have a job somewhere?"
Tootie clapped a hand over her mouth to suppress a giggle.
"Well, what the fuck do you want?" Casey asked through gritted teeth. He scowled angrily at Natalie and Tootie and clenched his fists together, wishing so badly they were men so he could knock their lights out.
"Mr. Clark, you have guests?" A man's voice questioned before Natalie or Tootie could respond to Casey.
Natalie, Tootie, and Casey looked in the direction of the voice. It was Rollins, casting curious gazes at the three all standing in the foyer.
"Hey, there! Brought you some refreshments!" Natalie exclaimed. She pushed past Casey and walked into Blair's kitchen, setting the donuts on the table. Tootie followed suit and placed the coffee and utensils down next to the donuts.
"And possibly get some dirt on what's been going on since we seen you last!" Natalie then admitted.
Rollins frowned. "So…you think by bribing us with coffee and donuts is going to make us tell you anything, Ms. Green?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
Natalie only shrugged. "Why not?" She admitted, smiling sheepishly.
McNeal shrugged impassively. "Sounds good to me," he replied. "I'm fucking starved."
"Help yourselves," Natalie invited, waving her hand.
Rollins then sighed tiredly. "Well, one of your friends did call here yesterday. Joanna."
Natalie and Tootie's eyes widened and their mouths dropped open. "Jo called here?" Natalie asked, her voice squeaking. "Are she and Blair OK? Where are they? What are they doing?"
"Well…from what we gathered after tracing a call we got late last night, they were in Boise City, Oklahoma. They're en route to Mexico so there's no doubt they're in New Mexico now."
Tootie then felt her heart sink even lower then she had probably felt. "Mexico? They're going to Mexico!?" She exclaimed angrily, gripping the edge of the table.
Everyone in the room stared at Tootie in surprise.
Tootie took a deep breath to try to compose herself. "I'm sorry but…I just can't believe this is happening! Just two weeks ago, I was letting Blair borrow my Wilson Phillips CD and I had paid Jo a visit to her apartment to tell her about an acting gig I got at the Peekskill Community Theatre and now they're running away to goddamn Mexico and we'll never see them again because some guy got killed! It just doesn't make any type of sense! It just doesn't!"
Tears streamed down Tootie's face. "I'm so confused! I want to still consider them my friends but I just can't get past all of this shit! Just who are they?! I don't understand!"
Rollins gazed at Tootie, swallowing hard. He hated seeing the anguish, stress and sadness the case was putting on the family and friends of the fugitives. As he had done with Rose Polniaczek, he walked over to Tootie and put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
Casey left the room, muttering something about estrogen and female hormones. Natalie immediately walked over to her friend to hug her.
"I sense you two care a great deal about your friends and I'm truly sorry they're both in this predicament," Rollins said to Tootie and Natalie. "I have some news to share that might be upsetting but I do feel that it is something you both probably need to know. It may or may not explain the case of Kincaid's death and why your friends are running but it might so here goes…"
Natalie and Tootie then listened intently as Rollins retold Rose Polniaczek's story.
That same morning, Jo stared out at the blue sky in front of yet another pay phone of a tiny general store as Blair went inside to use the bathroom.
Digging in her jeans pocket for loose change, Jo pulled out a handful of quarters and inserted them into the phone, calling Blair's house. The phone only rang two times before McNeal picked it up.
"Hello?" McNeal answered.
"Uh…yeah…lemme speak to Rollins, please?" Jo asked as politely as she could.
Jo could then hear muffled voices she couldn't recognize before Rollins finally got to the phone.
"Hello, Joanna," Rollins greeted her.
Jo grimaced. "'Jo' is fine," she said coolly.
"Alright, fine. How are you out there?"
Jo sighed inwardly. She rubbed tiredly at her worn face.
"Weird," she admitted. "Got kind of a snowball effect goin' on out here or somethin'."
"But you're still with us, right? You're still somewhere on the face of the Earth, aren't ya?"
Jo laughed dryly. "Well, we're not exactly in the middle of nowhere but we sure as hell can see it from here," she remarked.
Rollins found himself smiling and chuckling yet again at Jo's dry sense of humor.
"You know something, Jo? I almost feel like I know you," Rollins told her.
Jo frowned. "Well, ya don't," she told him crossly. Hell, after all the things Blair and I have done, I don't think I even know myself!
"You're getting in deeper every moment you're gone, Jo," Rollins informed her.
"Well, would ya believe me if I told ya this whole thing was an accident?" Jo asked.
"I do believe you, Jo. That's what I want everybody to believe. The only trouble is, it doesn't look like an accident. You're not here to tell me about it. I've got one of your friends here who wants desperately to believe you and is afraid her friendship with you is hanging by a thread. I need you to help me, Jo. Everyone is worried sick about you."
Jo felt her heart drop when Rollins had mentioned one of her friends. If only they knew what we had to go through, she thought. She hated knowing she and Blair had probably disappointed everyone back home in Peekskill but they had no clue what had really happened! If only they really knew, then they'd probably understand but there was no way to reach out to them to tell them the truth.
"Did Lee Kincaid_" Rollins began to ask.
Jo nearly hung up the phone hearing Lee Kincaid's name. That asshole got us into this mess! She thought bitterly. I don't wanna hear that asshole's name!
"No!" Jo exclaimed through gritted teeth, growing repulsed just hearing that man's name.
"Are you going to turn yourself in?" Rollins then asked.
Jo stood quiet and thought. And risk going to prison for the rest of my natural born life? And wind up losing Blair? She thought. Do they even have the death penalty in New York?
Jo didn't think it did but she wasn't willing to find out. Mexico was the only solution for her.
"No," she finally said. "I don't think so."
Rollins blew out a frustrating breath at his failure to get Jo to turn herself in.
"Well, Jo, then I'm sorry but we're gonna have to charge you with murder," he informed her dejectedly. "Now, you do want to come out of this alive, don't you?"
Jo chuckled wryly. "Well, ya know," she said, the sarcasm and irritation in her voice evident. "Certain words and phrases just keep jumpin' out at me…incarceration, cavity searches, life imprisonment, death by electrocution…all that shit. So come out alive? I dunno…Let us think about that."
"Jo, please," Rollins begged. He took a quick glance at Natalie and Tootie, who were both hanging onto Jo's every word from headsets given to them by one of the police officers.
"I'll do anything," Rollins pleaded. "I know what's making you run, Jo. I know what happened to you in Texas."
And before Jo could ask him how he knew or how much he knew or anything, she then heard the line go dead.
She turned around in complete shock and puzzlement. Blair was now standing next to her, her finger on the phone lever. Blair had purposefully ended Jo's call with Rollins.
She gave Jo a serious look, raising an eyebrow. "C'mon, Jo," she said to her sternly. "Don't blow it."
Jo could've sworn she'd seen a brief look of sadness and hurt in Blair's eyes. But only briefly.
Blair then turned around and walked briskly away towards the door of the store, leaving Jo alone.
What was that about? Jo wondered as she went out to follow Blair.
But time to find out.