Double Trouble 51: Answers and Questions
 by Cariad
 
 
 

Double Trouble
~Fifty One~
“What?” both Holly and Julia asked in unison.

Theresa inched farther into the room. “The voice came again and it told me it was going to get me tonight! I’m so scared!”

Holly rose and brought Theresa to her bed. “Now last time you heard something,” Holly explained, “It was only Aidan reminding you of your little rendezvous. Do you have one tonight? And if you do, you shouldn’t,” she chided gently.

“No!” Theresa protested. “But it wasn’t only the voice!”

“What was it then,” Julia asked, knowing it was like pulling teeth to get something out of Theresa.

“I found this!” Theresa cried, holding out a doll. The white cloth of the doll’s body had no cover and only a few strands of cloth held on the head, stuffing falling out the neck. A letter-opener had been jammed into the doll’s body between her legs.

“Oh God,” Holly whispered.

“I’m going to be sick,” Julia mumbled to herself. “We’ve got to call the police and let Daddy know. He’ll double security.”

“But he won’t believe me!” Theresa protested. “He won’t listen!”

“Stop whining!” Julia ordered. “We’re going to see Daddy, and that’s final.”

***

Theresa, Julia and Holly sat quietly in the library while they waited for Chief Bennett to finish setting up the police officers around the house. Julian paced back and forth near his desk, fuming about having the rabble in his house. “There will be no murders in this house,” Julian declared, “even if I have to kill the beast myself!”

Julia and Holly shared looks, but did not comment on their father’s statement.

“I say throw her to the wolves,” Ivy said, throwing her hands up in the air.

Julian chuckled over his brandy. “And here I thought you’d enjoy having your lover around, my pet.”

Ivy rolled her eyes. “Stuff it, Julian.”

“You only have to tell me where and when,” he purred in Ivy’s ear.

“You really are a pig,” Ivy observed. “I still say let them HAVE…”

“I will not be thrown out!” Theresa snapped. “Not while I still carry a Crane baby!”

“Oh, you can speak?” Ivy taunted.

“You say you want a divorce,” Theresa countered, finding her voice. “Well, I say, get one. Leave this house, and I will stay here as Mrs. Crane, and I will raise the Crane Heir. And I don’t plan on dying tonight!”

Holly looked at Julia and arched an eyebrow and quirked her lips. “What happened to the scared little girl?” she asked in their private language.

Julia shrugged, as confused as her sister.

“Really,” Ivy drawled in the tone the twins knew was associated with the proverbial kill—the cat toying with the crippled mouse.

“Stop!” Julian ordered. “I don’t plan on anyone dying tonight.”

Sam Bennett entered the study. “Good,” he said in a cool tone. “I don’t plan on having anyone die tonight either. We’ve got the whole house monitored. The killer shouldn’t be able to get through.”

Holly fought back a bitter verbal retort concerning the general competency of the Harmony Police Department. Julia noticed Theresa shrinking back into a frightened girl. She tried to lock eyes with Holly to see if her sister noticed, but Holly was glaring at Sam.

Aidan Crane pushed his way into the study. “What is the meaning of this?” he demanded of everyone in the room. “Why are there police officers in my room? Why are they crawling all over the house?” Aidan punched his hand against the doorframe.

“Calm down,” Ivy snapped, “You always did have a quick temper.”

“I wonder where he gets it from,” Julian drawled.

“Theresa’s been threatened,” Sam explained.

“So I have to deal with incompetent officers who are so stupid they scratch their watches and wind their asses?”

“That’s enough,” Ivy called, looking down at her son.

“At least we all now know where Ethan got his incredible intellect,” Aidan sneered, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“That was uncalled for!” Ivy yelled back, her eyes hot with anger.

“No mother,” Aidan said quietly, “what is uncalled for is you sleeping around with half the population of this town.”

“Don’t speak to your mother that way,” both Sam and Julian said at the same time.

Ivy strode over to her son, having no qualms about staring him down. “Don’t make me upset, Aidan,” she hissed. “I am still your mother. And I will not tolerate such insolence from you.”

“Truth hurts, doesn’t it, Mother,” Aidan shot back.

Sam stepped between mother and son, wrestling Aidan off of Ivy. “Apologize,” Sam growled.

Aidan laughed. “You have to have your lover come to your rescue?” he taunted.

Sam’s grip tightened on Aidan until the young Crane stopped fighting.

“No need to get upset,” he said coldly. “I’ll be upstairs in my room. Alone.” He stormed out of the room, leaving the rest in awkward silence.

“I don’t trust him,” Sam began, breaking the tension.

Julian put down his snifter of brandy. “Of course you don’t trust him. He’s a Crane. The world knows what you think about Cranes.”

Sam put his hands on his gun belt. “He’s violent as well. Did you know what he did to your daughter?”

Julia tried to sink down into the couch. She truly wanted to forget Aidan’s hands around her throat.

“Tell me,” Julian said widely, sitting down at his desk. “And was this before or after your son assaulted mine?”

“Oh please,” Ivy sighed, finding a chair of her own. She balanced her head on her thumb and forefinger. “Can we stop with this arguing?”

“Please?” the twins asked in unison.

An officer burst into the study, dragging someone by the arms. “Sir, the young Crane has locked himself in his room, and we found this woman walking around the grounds.” He pulled the woman into the study with him.

“Gwen?” nearly everyone in the study asked in amazement.

Gwen flipped up her hair. “Let me go!” she demanded.

“Just like I thought!” Theresa said. “She did it all to get sympathy from Ethan!”

Holly and Julia shared a look with their mother. Fortunately, the three of them controlled their laughter.

Sam took custody of Gwen, dismissing the other officer. When the officer had closed the door behind him, Sam released the unwilling prisoner. “Why were you out?” Sam asked quietly.

Gwen smoothed her hair. “I was getting some air,” she replied. “I do live here. Or at least I did before Mother…” Gwen’s voice broke. “What’s with the police escort?”

“Theresa heard that threatening voice again,” Julia ventured.

“Oh,” Gwen said, hanging her head. She turned to the police chief. “Would you please convey my apologies to the officer I kicked in the shins then? I thought he was an attacker. It was dark upstairs.”

“So what happens now?” Ivy asked.

“We wait,” Sam replied.

***

Julia put her arms around her sister in her sleep. She was readjusting her position and sinking in deeper when there was a commotion at the door. In an instant, she was awake, along with the rest of the inhabitants of the study.

Someone brushed against Theresa, who let out a piercing scream.

Gwen grabbed a heavy paperweight.

“What’s going on?” Chief Bennett demanded into his radio.

Julia could not make out the answer through all the static. Apparently they had apprehended a van near the gate. Three men had been taken into custody.

Something else crackled over the radio. “They’re requesting to see you, Julian,” Sam passed on, a dark look in his eyes.

“Me?” Julian asked. “What would they want with me?”

More static. “He said to mention the name ‘Dr. Arnold Bassire.’”

Julia watched in trepidation as her father’s face paled. She glanced to her mother. Ivy had sat down on her chair with a loud exhalation. She glanced to Holly. Holly shrugged. She had no idea what was going on.

“Out!” Julian ordered. “Everyone out of the study! I will speak to these gentlemen,” he concluded.

“I’m staying,” Ivy insisted.

Julian gave her a look, but did not argue.

The twins marched out with Gwen and Theresa. They let the other two go and proceeded to the “sweet spot” on the study wall, hiding as the other officers brought in the three detainees.

A cell phone rang.

“I’ve got to take this,” they heard Sam say. They could not catch what he said on the phone, but they had to scramble to a hiding spot as Sam burst out of the study door and out of the mansion. They heard the rev of an engine and the sound of sirens turning on.

Julia glanced at Holly with wide eyes. She imagined she as looking in a mirror. Still surprised, they put their ears to the sweet spot. Something was going on with the mysterious doctor that unnerved their father.

“Why are you here in the middle of the night?” Julian asked.

“Why are you here at all?” Ivy echoed.

There was a clearing of a throat. “It’s about your son, Aidan,” a new voice said. He spoke with an Australian accent.

“He’s up in his room pouting,” Ivy snapped. “What about him?”

The twins heard a sigh. “Then he is here. We had hoped when we found he came to the U.S. that he would make his way here. You see, he left without permission.”

Julia squished her eyebrows together in thought. “Wasn’t he at school?” she asked in a hushed whisper.

“That’s what I thought, too” Holly replied.

“What do you mean, ‘left without permission?’” Julian demanded. “Even Father agreed that he should be home. Father said he received a letter with Aidan’s permission to leave.”

“It must be a forgery,” the Australian doctor replied. “I came back from holiday to find him gone. We’re here to take him back, before he can do damage to himself or others.”

“He’s up in his room,” Ivy said quietly.

The twins quickly left their position at the sweet spot. “What’s going on?” Holly asked, biting her lip and trying to think.

“I don’t know, but Aidan is in some sort of trouble,” Julia replied, pacing along side her sister.

Holly slumped against the wall. “What if Aidan killed those people?” she whispered. “What if he framed Jonathan. He was terribly jealous that Jonathan got to be Alistair’s mouthpiece and not him.”

The phone rang. Julia and Holly jumped. They ran back to the stairway. Both Ivy and Julian were running down the stairs, followed quickly by three strangers, two of whom looked as if they could restrain a charging bull.

“What’s going on?” Holly asked.

“No time now,” Ivy said, as she made her way down the last few steps.

The twins stared at each other. “We’re going with you,” Julia said suddenly.

“No!” Julian replied firmly.

Julia stopped dead in her tracks her daddy never denied her anything. “What?” she asked.

“I said, no,” Julian stated again, helping Ivy into her coat. “This doesn’t concern you. Go to bed.”

The girls stared as their parents rushed out the door and into a police car, which sped down the driveway, the lights and sirens blaring.
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