Acacia-'Thorny'

Acacia--'Thorny', Chapter Twenty-one


Chapter Twenty-oneSanctuary
He wasn't in the house. The responding officers
searched it and the surrounding neighborhood
carefully.

Stephanie sat in Doug Crandal's kitchen, sipping a
cup of kick-ass coffee that Doug had insisted on
lacing with whiskey. She hadn't protested too
hard--her nerves were shot. The policeman sitting
across from her was going over the details of the
statement she'd given him, and once again he asked,
"You didn't see anything that might help us identify
him, Miss Bradshaw?"

She said wearily, "I told you--no. It was dark, and
he came at me from behind. Hell, now that I think about it, I'm not even one
hundred per cent sure it was a he. They whispered--it
could have been a strong woman."

The policeman looked doubtful, "It's possible, I
suppose, but not likely. These crimes are usually
committed by men, unless there's some previous
history."

"I told you that they were after my niece."

"You said they were whispering. Isn't it possible
that they were asking about something else? Perhaps
they were demanding to know where you kept your
jewelry."

"I you you..."

There was a knock on the front door, anug (ug (who had
till then been an ardent defender of their local
police, but now wasn't so sure) went to answer it. A
moment later, a little wide-eyed, he came back to the
kitchen. "Stephie, you were expecting someone,
weren't you?"

"Yes, I..."

Acacia brushed past Doug. She flicked a scornful
glance at the policeman, then went directly to
Stephanie. "Hey, lady. I'm Acacia, Milda's big
sister, and I'm here to take care of you." She
squatted down beside her, taking her hand. "Did the
asshole give you a hard time?"

The girl's hand was cold *Does bad circulation run in
her family?*, but the concern in her eyes and voice
was warm. Stephanie drew a shaky breath. "I'm
okay."

"Yeah?" Acacia glanced significantly at the now
crusting gash on her calf, then glared at the two men,
who began fidgeting. "You positive you don't need a
trip to the emergency room?"

"No, it's shallow. It looks a lot nastier than it
is."

Acacia looked over at the policeman. Her voice was
much colder than it had been when she addressed the
woman. "You guys through over at her place?"

"Yes. My partner took fingerprints, and Miss Bradshaw
can give us a list of anything that's missing
tomorrow. I'd advise you to sleep elsewhere till you
can get that deadbolt repaired, Miss Bradshaw."

"Oh, gee whiz, thanks, Officer Friendly. We never
would have thought of that on our own."

His expression stiffened. "Look, Miss..."

"I done anything illegal? Last I heard you can't be
arrested for attitude." She gave him a pointed smile.
"Not legally, anyway."

The officer's expression became even tighter, but he
didn't respond. Instead he just handed Stephanie a
piece of paper with her report number on it. "Please
check in soon, Miss Bradshaw." He left.

Doug Crandal said, "You can stay here, Stephie. I'll
fix up the spare room."

"That won't be necessar, Pops." Acacia stood up.
"She'll be coming with me. She needs a safe place to
stay."

"Now, look here, Missy! I'm perfectly capable of
taking care of her."

Acacia glanced at the huge, gleaming gun laying on the
counter, the bullets beside it. She cocked an eyebrow
at the old man, and there was a grudging respect in
her tone. "I suppose you could, Daddio, but she's my
client, so she's my obligation. You understand duty,
right?" She'd chosen exactly the right tact to take
with Douglas, and he nodded agreement.

"Stephie, are you up to going back over to your place
to pick up a few things? I think you ought to stay
over at the house for a couple of days at least."

Stephanie squared her shoulders. "Yes, I think so."

Douglas picked up his gun and started loading it.
"I'm going with you. I can't let you two ladies walk
in there unprotected."

Now Acacia seemed amused. She was flexing her
fingers. The other two were too pre-occupied to
notice, but needle sharp claws were sliding smoothly
in and out. "Hey, sure, if it makes you feel better."

They had to go in through the back again, since
Stephanie had left her keys in her abandoned purse.
She reached in and turned on the light before they
entered. Acacia eyed the sprawl of spilled
groceries, then said matter-of-factly, "Good thing you
didn't buy eggs." She bent down and picked up a can
of green beans. Showing it to the other woman she
said, "Was this your weapon?"

Stephanie examined it, finding a dent in its side. "I
think so."

"Good choice. Easy to use and heavy and hard enough
to do some damage." She grinned. "I had a girlfriend
once who had a pervert come in while she was pricing
groceries at a convenience store. He slapped his
willie up on the counter, and she grabbed a can of
creamed corn and... well, creamed him." That got a
startled laugh from Stephanie, and a wince from Doug.
"Yeah, he was still on the ground, clutching himself
when the cops arrived. Steph, do you have a picture
of Bethany that we can use in our inquiries?"

"Oh, of course." She led Acacia through the house,
turning on lights all the way. Doug followed, peering
around suspiciously and checking every closet. There
was a portrait on Stephanie's bedroom dresser, and she
took the picture out of its frame handing it to
Acacia. "This was taken last year, when she graduated
from college."

Acacia studied it. The young woman had long, curly,
light-brown hair spilling out from under the
ridiculous mortarboard she wore. There wasn't
anything remarkable about her--she was neither ugly,
nor very pretty, but there was something appealing
about the shy, proud smile. "Nice looking kid. I'll
be careful of this. We can run off some copies. Why
don't you point me toward Bethany's old room, and you
can get packed while I have a look at it?"

"All right," Stephanie led her across the hall. "But
it won't do much good. she pretty much stripped it,
and..." Her words died into a gasp as she opened the
door.

The room was as much of a shambles as it was possible
for it to be when there weren't any personal effects
to toss about. The mattress had been dragged off the
bed. All the drawers of the dresser and vanity were
either standing open or on the floor, and a lamp,
still glowing, was laying on its side on the night
stand.

Acacia said, "I'm going to assume that you didn't
leave it like this?"

"Of course not. I haven't been in here for days, and
I know I didn't leave that lamp on."

Doug examined the mess. "Steph, maybe that cop was
right. Maybe he was looking for something to steal."

Acacia snorted. "He tears up an empty room and leaves
the master bedroom alone? Don't think so. Nope, he
was looking for something that might tell him where
Bethany went." She looked at Stephanie, who was
biting her lip nervously. "Don't worry, he didn't
find it. Otherwise he wouldn't have been waiting for
you. Would you have any of Bethany's
clothes--something that hasn't been washed since she
last wore it?"

Doug looked interested. "Are you going to use dogs?"

Acacia wrinkled her nose. "Not likely. I doubt the
beasts could pick up a trail at this late date."

"Then could you explain...?"

"I could, but I won't."

Seeing her old friend frown, Stephanie said hastily,
"I don't think there's anything left. She even
emptied the laundry hamper."

"I'll still look. It's hard to get everything when
you've lived somewhere as long as she did here. Go
on and pack." She looked at Doug solemnly. "You
better go keep an eye on her, mister. That sucker
could always come back." Crandal knodded firmly and
followed Stephanie out. *And now you're both out of
my hair.*

Acacia closed the door and stood in the middle of the
room. She closed her eyes, lifted her head, and
sniffed. The overwhelming scent was simple
staleness--the room hadn't been airedce Bce Bethany
had left. There were the personal scents of Stephanie
and Douglas, but she ignored them. That left two
scents.

The first was the stronger of the two. It was more of a reek--heavy
with anger and anxiety. That had to be the
intruder--the one who had almost certainly killed
Bethany's parents. In fact, the smell was so
distorted by the hormones that had been pumping
through the assailant's body that Acacia doubted she'd
be able to recognize the asshole's scent unless they
were in nearly the same state.

The second scent, the one that had to be Bethany's,
was much more pervasive. It was layered--it permeated
the room. Acacia turned slowly, scenting the air.
When she found a direction where the scent seemed
stronger she followed it toward the bed.

Acacia frowned. *I could understand getting a hit on
the mattress--after all, sle slept directly on it.
But the frame?* She considered it for a moment. *Mm.
Maybe if she's like me--not real good about moving
furniture to clean.*

Acacia pulled the bed out a few inches from the wall
and peeked into the crack. "Aha!" She bent and
fished down by the floorboard, coming up with a pair
of panties. "Oo, black lace!" *Bethany, I never
would have guessed you might be wearing something like
this under those funky grad robes.*

She stuffed the underwear into the pocket of the mini
jumper she was wearing. *Might be better if they
don't know I'm taking a pair of your used undies,
doll. I don't want them to get the wrong idea and
think I'm stalking your butt instead of trying to save
it.*

Doug promised to see to having Stephanie's back door
repaired and was persuaded that he didn't need to
escort the women to the car waiting at the curb. As
they buckled in, Acacia noticed Stephanie admiring the
car. "Like my ride?"

"It's fantastic."

Acacia shrugged, starting the engine. "I'd rather
have a sports job--they're better for picking up
girls," she sighed, not noticing the other woman's
startled lookut Nut Naresha is a car snob. Well, I'm
about to let her have this one." She grinned. "I've
found the coolest car! It's a '66 Mustang, and it's
cherry--sunshine yellow with a black interior. I'm
gonna look g-o-o-d in it."

"You look a lot like your sister," Stephanie ventured,
"If it wasn't for the hair I'd think you were twins."

"Milda? Yeah, I've heard that before."

"But the hair... Her's is pretty, but yours is so
unusual. I've never seen such beautiful shading. I
hope you don't mind my asking, but who does your
hair?"

"God." Acacia chortled when she saw Stephanie's
expression. "Man, I love saying that. I'm the real
deal, sister. What you see is what you get."

"I didn't mean..."

Acacia waved away the apology. "Forget it. Look,
normally I'd take you to our safe house, but we have
someone there now who's a little shy of people she
doesn't know. You'd be, too, if your dad had been
pimping you since you were eleven. While you're
staying at our place we have to have a few house
rules. I'm not much on rules myself, but these are
gonna be for all our benefits, dig?"

"I understand."

"Okay. Now, it's not like you're gonna be restricted.
Heck, you have a life--you need to work. Nana will
take you wherever you need to go, and pick you up,
too. I guess that POS in your driveway was your car?"

"POS?"

"Piece of shit."

Stephanie's voice was wry. "A crude but accurate
description."

"We'll see what we can do about fixing you up with
something a little less likely to disintegrate into
its separate parts."

"I can't afford it right now."

"You can if you go to Akuji Motors, and I can guaranty
you won't be screwed over. Next, when you're at the
lair you don't open the outside door--ever. If one of
us isn't there, and that won't happen often, just
pretend you aren't there." She glanced at Stephanie.
"I'm not bullshitting about this one, Steph. There's
always a chance that something nasty might come
a'callin."

"You mean one of your client's psycho ex-husband?"

Acacia's lips twitched. "I know it's hard to believe,
but there are things out there even nastier than that.
Don't drink Milda's tomato juice out of the fridge,
but you're welcome to open a fresh can. Don't poke in
the freezer, and stay on the ground floor unless
someone invites you to another part of the house.
It's not that we're anti-social, but we need our
privacy. Okay?"

"More than reasonable." *Though I have to wonder
about that 'don't peek in the freezer' caveat. I hope
I haven't fallen in with the Chainsaw Family.*

At the warehouse, Acacia took Stephanie's bag and led her to the door,
then leaned casually on the bell. In a moment a voice
came over the intercom. "Acacia, don't try to tell me
that you've forgotten the code."

Acacia winked at Stephanie. "Got someone with me,
remember? Wouldn't do to let her learn our secrets."

Stephanie heard a snort. "You're just lazy." There
were a few electronic beeps, and the door opened. A
pleasant looking woman in her late middle age stepped
back to allow them entrance. She smiled at Stephanie
as she shut and locked the door. "Hello, you must be
Stephanie Bradshaw. Just call me
Nana--everyone does."

Acacia handed over Stephanie's bag and headed toward
the stairs. "Take Steph into the kitchen and get her
some tea or something, huh, Nana? Something nice and
hot--her throat may be tender from that shit grabbing
at her. She also has a cut on her leg. I'm gonna
send Milda down to help her out."

"Come along, dear." Nana led her back to the kitchen
and seated her once again at the table. As the older
woman prepared tea Stephanie reflected that if her
life hadn't been in such an uproar she could easily
get to feel very at home here.

She was sipping hot tea laced with honey when Milda
came in, juggling a handful of items. She dropped
ton ton the table, saying, "Casey told me what
happened, Stephanie. Let me have a look at that cut."
Stephanie had peeled off her ruined stockings back at
Doug's house. Milda crouched down, her granny dress
sweeping the floor, and took Stephanie's foot into her
hand. "Nana, could you bring me...?"

"On its way." Nana was running hot water into a
basin.

"Stephanie, have you had a tetanus shot recently?"

"I stepped on a tack about four months ago and got one
then."

'Good, you won't need to go in for one." She took the
cloth and soap Nana brought and used the hot water to
gently wash Stephanie's wound. Her touch was firm but
gentle. "You won't need stitches." She opened
a small, unlabeled jar, then hesitated. "Stephanie,
this is my own concoction. It soothes and sterilizes,
and I have another that will minimize the chance of
scarring. If you prefer, we have an emergency supply
of over-the-counter antiseptic, but this is just as
effective, if not more so."

"You girls run a pharmaceutical company, don't you?"

Milda nodded. "Besides the more mainstream items we
have a line of all natural cures that I've formulated
myself."

Stephanie extended her leg. "I trust you."

Milda smiled. "That's good. It will make it so much
easier to help you." Milda dressed and bandaged
Stephanie's wound. "Now, Casey told me that you have
a picture of Bethany? I feel so silly that I didn't
ask you for one when we first met. I'm sure you must
carry one in your purse."

"Oh, yes." Stephanie took the photograph she'd
removed from the frame and handed it to Milda.

Milda studied the picture, then said softly, "She has
old eyes." She handed the picture to Nana. "They
look as if they've seen much more than a girl that age
should have, but I suppose that's understandable,
after what she's been through. Do I have your
permission to reproduce that so we can distribute them
to our people?"

"Yes, of course. Milda, I'm even more worried than I
was. If that man was desperate enough to come into my
home..."

Milda patted her shoulder. "I seriously doubt that he
has the resources that we do, Steph. I believe we'll
find Bethany before he does. The problem is, for
Bethany to stay safe, we're going to have to find him,
too."