Page 88 of Long Live the King

“Aye, except...” He had his tongue out while he twisted in the seat and jammed his hand between the seats. He dug up a phone and passed it to me.

I spoke into my phone and my voice came out of Ash’s phone.

Then a truck pulled up behind ours. I peered, “Who’s that?”

Fraoch climbed from the car.

The bartender from the Palace, Don, stepped out of his truck. “Hey Katie, hey Fraoch, what’s going on — where’s Ash?”

Fraoch said, “I was goin’ tae ask ye the same thing.”

He strode up to the car. “Jeez, she was in an accident? Where is she?” He put both his hands on his head.

I said, “I don’t know.”

“Dammit, I knew I should follow her home, oh man, did you check at her house?”

I nodded, “She hasn’t been home.”

“Shit. She promised to call me, she didn’t call. She... Did that guy kidnap her, you think?”

I said, “What guy? We don’t know anything, she called me and it sounded like something terrible was happening.”

“This guy came by the Palace tonight, he was looking for Ash, he asked about Lochinvar... I told her to call you, Katie, I was sure he was going to be trouble.”

He dropped his hands. “We gotta call the police.”

I looked at Fraoch.

Fraoch said, “We canna involve the police, Don, tis a problem for us.”

“No, no, that’s not good, what are you suggesting — that we just let her be kidnapped?”

Fraoch said, “Nae, we will get her back, we ken we will, but we canna hae the police involved.”

Don huffed. “I knew this was all sketchy, all of it.”

I said, “Did the guy say anything else?”

“He said he was Magnus’s friend — are you sure we can’t involve the police?”

I shook my head. “Look, we are going to get her back, Lochie won’t rest until he does. Just, give us a few days, we’ll find her.”

“Am I going to get in trouble? If I don’t call this in, is this going to come back to haunt me? What if she blames me for not calling it in?”

“She won’t, I promise. Look, can I get your phone number? You can call me if anything else happens, I’ll call you if we learn anything.” I pulled my phone from my pocket and he gave me his number and I typed it in. Then I texted: Me, Katie.

His pocket beeped when he received the text and he nodded.

Fraoch said, “I will make certain she kens ye wanted tae call them. I will take full responsibility for decidin’ not tae.”

Don nodded. “Damn, this sucks. I wish I had been here.”

Fraoch said, “They would hae taken ye as well. Trust me, ye daena want tae be involved.”

Fraoch held out a hand and began sort of herding Don back to his truck. “We will get her back, I promise. We will all come down tae the Palace and hae a beer tae celebrate.”

Don climbed in the truck. “Okay man, yeah... how many days?”

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