Feeding Frenzy (Watty Award Winner)

Breakdown Sandwich: Chapter Thirty-Nine

Zain drove Ducky away from the police station in a rented Mazda 6. "I am so going to put all this into a movie." Zain gestured at the trees with one hand as he drove. "What do you say we do a thriller? And a horror flick."

"Without a camera?" asked Ducky.

"A minor setback. I kept all the recordings. We could tell one scary-assed story with what's already in the can. Plus, Loon Lake is trending. People are posting clips of to-the-death food fights and graveyard binges everywhere!"

"What do we do for a star?"

"You mean that crazy girl, wandering around in a yellow Hazmat suit, shouting into a megaphone?"

"Tonya?"

"I've seen how you two look at each other. Ask her nicely, and she'd probably do anything for you." Zain smirked.

Tonya... Ducky had been too caught up in his own problems. He rummaged through the bag of personal possessions the cops returned to him. When he found his phone he discovered her recent text message.

"Tonya's been taken by her Aunt and forced to drive to Toronto."

"Lucky her," said Zain. "If they get around the quarantine, they'll be safe."

"We have to find her! Tonya says Helene brainwashed her parents and sent them to Australia, and if her Aunt kills her, she wants me to contact them."

Zain shook his head. "You believe that?"

"She's in trouble." Ducky squared his shoulders.

"All right, we'll go, because if we don't, you'll be impossible to live with."

# # #

Tonya didn't send Ducky a message expecting rescue, but if she disappeared, somebody had to tell Mom not to trust her sister. Ducky might be able to follow her directions, but he couldn't find a moving target. A rendez-vous with him was impossible, unless her Aunt's car broke down. Should she sabotage it? Tonya remembered the extreme headache the last time she defied her Aunt's wards. That power to hurt made her so nervous, Tonya almost didn't puncture the tire as they got back into the car.

Later, standing beside the desolate road shivering, Tonya wondered if it had been a mistake. The sandwich shop was closed, and they stood staring at the flat tire while cold leached all warmth from her toes and fingers. If they stayed outside all night, would they die of hypothermia?

"Nonsense. You are perfectly dry and wearing a heavy coat," said Aunt Helene.

"You can read my thoughts?"

"Only when you move your lips."

Tonya looked at her Aunt to see if she were joking. If Aunt Helene could read her thoughts, why did she act surprised to discover the flat?

"What am I thinking now? Have I stopped moving my lips?"

"Barely, but it doesn't take a mind reader to know you had something to do with that puncture."

Tonya recognized her Aunt's concerned look from when she was a kid with skinned knees. "I don't want to go to Toronto."

"You could have just said something. You didn't have to slash my tire."

"Would you have listened?"

It was late afternoon but night was falling early. Long shadows obscured her Aunt's features. The way her Aunt had kidnapped her, and then killed that Doctor, made 'saying something,' seem futile.

"You're afraid of me."

"Should I be?" Tonya hoped her suspicions were wrong.

"You must have seen something at the farm."