Derek, who'd arrived
shortly after Janet's call to the Dillon Residence, set up the
tracing devices for the phone even though
Trevor worried that she wouldn't get to
call again. "What we need to do is get the
Harrisburg police on his trail," he
protested.
"We're getting there,
Trevor. Take it easy. At least we know she's allright," Derek
tried to reassure him.
"Wrong, Derek. She's
in some sort of danger if she's two hours out of town, reading
this loser's pipe dreams over the phone!"
"I know, I know...
but we're dealing with a nobody here. This guy's got no prior
felonies, no arrests, not even a parking ticket.
And the first thing the force in
Harrisburg's gonna ask me, I can guarantee
you, is if we're sure Janet didn't simply
'change her mind'." Derek finished setting
up the top and looked to his buddy,
who was in total disbelief.
As Trevor began to
double over in sarcastic laughter, Derek sighed. "And then I'll
tell them about your connections to us, and
the restraining order..."
Trevor straightened
up again. "Well what are we waiting for? Get 'em on the
horn!"
"Are you sure she
was calling from a bowling alley?" Derek asked just befor dialing.
"Positive. She confirmed
it."
Derek gave him a dubious
look. "I never said this guy was the brightest bulb under
the lampshade," Trevor reminded him. "If it
were simply a battle of wits, Janet'd
win by slaughter rule. That's how I know she's
in trouble." Trevor stood up anxiously
and went to the window, catching a glimpse
of the Honeymoon-in-Hawaii
brochures he'd collected and tossed on the
desk.
"Tell them.... whatever
you need to tell them," he sighed, closing his eyes and
leaning his head on the glass in a silent
prayer.
P L E A S E H E L P !!! M E E T M E I N L A D
I E S R O O M
In between Axel's swigs
of beer and poorly executed turns with the bowling ball,
Janet had printed this message as clearly
as she could with the available
resources. It took nearly the entire game,
but she did it. She was just about to try
and flag down her best chance at freedom when
Axel bounced a ball into the
gutter for the third time in a row. "Damn!"
he bellowed, kicking the scoretable
before plopping down. "Your turn," he told
her sullenly.
She purposely made
eye contact and smiled at a redheaded woman in her 60s,
2 lanes over, before starting. Axel was too
wrapped up in his losing streak to
notice.
Despite her best attempts
to put in a modest showing at the game, Janet was
blowing Axel away. The harder she tried to
fail, the better she became. One strike.
Then another. Axel took his bowling very seriously,
and this embarassed him quite
a bit. "Ridiculous," he grunted, slowly tottering
over to retrieve his ball.
Janet wasted no time
in getting the redhead's attention. With a finger to her lips,
she held up her makeshift cry for help. The
stranger simply laughed nervously at
first, and started to look around for her
husband. Janet shook her head and
reiterated her need for the woman to be quiet.
Axel's first roll
struck 3 pins. Janet snapped back to his attention, sign dropped,
stranger ignored. The redhead cocked her head
in confusion. As soon as Axel
resumed his game, Janet looked back at her
frantically. "I'm not kidding," she
mouthed, holding her sign up again. Finally,
the stranger seemed to understand.
Woodenly she nodded, and vanished to the lounge.
Janet gave a little half-sigh
of relief... but knew full well that the ball
was back in her court.
