Page 110 of Spencer

Tabitha was just so happy to hear her sister’s voice, that she let her ramble. Sheila spent a few more minutes expounding on the duck, while Tabitha checked her over for any signs of injury. But her sister was fine.

Once Sheila wound down, Tabitha took her hand and pulled her over toward Spencer.

“Sheels, this is?—”

“Spencer. I saw a picture. Even though they all look alike, I can tell them apart. This is Spencer.”

She was clearly talking about all the Sothard brothers.

“You’re Mason,” she pointed at Mase, while alternately glancing at faces and her feet. “You’re Kyle, you’re Julian, and you’re DeAngelo but they call you Buck.”

“Great job.” Spencer stepped forward, but he knew enough not to touch Sheila. “I’m so happy to finally meet you. I think we all want to hear about your trip. We know bits and pieces, but we’d like to have you fill us in.”

“Uh,afteryour debrief on the situation here, Spence,” Welker reminded him. “We’ll get it done quickly, then get out of your hair. I know you’ve had an emotional few days.”

Less than hourlater all the Sothards, plus Tabitha and Sheila, piled into the three SUV’s while the police took Ghillie away.

Before the door had slammed shut behind him, the miscreant had tried to engage Tabitha with some spiteful vitriol. But the officers had put a stop to that. They’d pushed him into one cruiser with a not-so-gentle hand to the top of his head.

Good riddance.

Once their vehicles were all underway, Sheila couldn’t be contained. She was practically jumping up and down in her seat where she was sandwiched between Tabitha and Spencer, while Mason drove and Everlee rode shotgun.

“Can I tell you about my trip?” she chirped. “I need to tell you about my trip. Spencer said you wanted to hear. It was long, but I can tell you about it pretty fast.”

“Can we wait until everyone is together at the Sothards’ house?” Tabitha asked, interrupting her. “I know they’ll all want to follow your epic journey.”

“I told the police station people. They have it all down on their computer. But I want to tellyounow. Can I tell it again when we get to Spencer’s house, please?”

Tabitha raised her brows at Spencer, who grinned and nodded.

“Okay,” Tabitha agreed. Knowing Sheila, her sister would spare nopragmaticdetail. The emotions that might have been involved in her odyssey were another matter. Sheila, if she’d felt any angst, would have already erased that from her memory-banks.

“I took money out of my savings account. I walked there. To the bank. It was easy. At the house, I told Mindy I was hungry and I took food. I packed it with my best things.”

Her mention of personal belongings had Tabitha remembering that Welker had retrieved Sheila’s suitcase from the back of his squad car, and transferred it to the SUV before they’d left.

“I climbed out my window and I took a cab to the bus station. Cabs take cash. Ride shares don’t take cash. I didn’t use my credit card. On TV, you never use credit cards because you can be found.”

Tabitha was almost bursting with the question she’d had since the beginning. She had to ask. “Why didn’t you want to be found, Sheila? I would have helped you get to Maine if you’d told me that’s what you wanted.”

“A surprise,” Sheila responded as if it were the most reasonable thing on earth. “A surprise is always good. I wanted to see your face when I got to Bangor. I wanted you to be surprised. But you weren’t at the bus stop, so I went to the police station where Spencer’s brother works.”

Tabitha knew that’s all the explanation she was going to get for why Sheila had attempted the trip on her own. Sometimes there was no unraveling nuances with Sheila.

“I took the bus from Orlando to Atlanta. It was long. I wanted to take the train from Atlanta to New York, but I got in at 11:25 at night, and the train was leaving at 11:29, so I knew I’d miss it. You had a man waiting for me. I put on a disguise and fooled him.” There was a grin that accompanied that assertion.

“I got a hotel room. They took cash. It was nice. I slept, I watched TV, and I played video games. I took a cab to the train station and got on the 11:29 train to New York.”

Amazing.

Her sister took a deep breath to continue. She was looking straight ahead, as if reliving the whole thing in her head.

“I got to New York after five o’clock the next night. That was eighteen hours. Eighteen hours is a long time. Trains are good, though. I like them better than busses.” Her narrative jumped. “There was a lady. A nosy lady, so I changed my clothes again.”

Tabitha knew what lady she meant. Dana. But there was no accompanying explanation for how Sheila had figured that one out, so Tabitha let it slide.

“The next bus to Boston from New York wasn’t until six-thirty in the morning. Hotels cost a lot in New York. A lot. I found a car service instead that took me to Boston in five hours. I did that. I found that. They took cash. They needed my bank account number to make sure they’d get paid. I gave it to them, but they said you couldn’t trace it because they didn’t actually take any money out.”

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