Against the Odds Ch. 02

"Troy, are you OK?"

"Fine, and almost sober. Molly – don't panic' you're just going to have to trust me."

"If you say so."

"Brace yourself Molly, this is serious news. Ellis has been taken. She and I were expecting this, but not so soon."

Molly remained calm but said Troy was scaring her shitless. If anything bad happened to Ellis Troy would be taken to the cleaners.

"Remain calm, Molly. Ellis knew that the Jefferson's would learn they couldn't win in Court and would try something else. Do you understand that?"

"Y-y-es."

"Remember the reason why Ellis fainted outside the library, I mean City Hall?"

"Y-e-s. Vividly."

"You don't have to believe this but somehow she saw me as the reincarnation of her great-grandmother's man in black that she'd hired to clean out the Hurst's. The only trouble is I cannot help her that way...one simply cannot march in these days as Top Gun and wipe out the villains. Ellis and I discussed this and were due to began working on our strategy this week, calling in you and me to join her and Mitch Jefferson..."

"Mitch Jefferson, are you mad?"

"Keep your voice down, Molly; don't alert your husband who may tip off the police. I asked Molly a couple of days ago to nominate two people she could trust to act as spotters for me when I tried to rescue here. She had only two names: You and Mitch; you because of your fitness and toughness and Mitch because of his knowledge and her absolute confidence he'd turn against his father if her knew his father was attempting to strip Ellis of her rightful assets."

"Ah, I see. So this is what this is about and poor Ellis feels she has only two people she can trust absolutely."

"Me too, perhaps?"

"Of course. Tell me what to do and I'll do it."

"Dress warmly and grab food and lot drink to last a night and a day. Convince your husband he is not to call anyone but to sit tight. Take your phone so you can report to him every four hours. Grab a shotgun for your own protection. Go to Mitch's house; I'll brief him now and will meet you both there. I'll have to go by damn cab. Okay."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing, But then why would you invent this? Anyone who attempts to apprehend me will get two barrels of buckshot up their ass."

"Good girl. Bye"

Troy walked outside and secured a cab that had just pulled up with three shift-workers.

He arrived to find the homestead in a blaze of lights. A big blonde guy about Troy's age arrived, holding a gun behind his back as Troy paid off the cab driver."

"Mitch?"

"Yeah."

"Douse the lights; I want this place looking normal. Have your wife drive the kids and anyone else here except Molly to relatives in the city and warn them to keep their mouths shut; ask your wife to go slowly out of here, not using main lights. Just plead with her to understand and ask no questions. It will all be over by tomorrow sometime; tell her you'll phone her and only her every four hours. We have to trust her she'd keep everyone's mouth shut – tell her Mitch that Ellis's wellbeing depends on that as does your father and Uncle Richards staying out of the penitentiary. Convince her Mitch."

Within five minutes the carload of people driven by Mitch's wife Gabriel was going slowly down the access road; Mitch had told her not to use the brakes if possible because they would be seen from miles away.

"This is spooky, Mitch said, shaking Troy's hand. Molly has told me about you and what you said on the phone seems credible."

"Great – I won't ask you to move against your father unless you think he and your uncle are in the process of doing wrong to Ellis. Do you have a video recorder in the house?"

"A cam-recorder – it's mine."

"Good, I'd like you to film the scene if we find it and if Ellis still has what it takes to sit it out I want her to remain their to allow you to collect incriminating evidence on your cam-recorder. I then propose taking our prisoners, if we succeed in capturing them and display them and you show your DVD to as many Elliot's and Jefferson's we can get into the lounge at the Home for the Elderly with your grandfather presiding."

"Gee, that sounds impressive. You then release the two scoundrels to their families and Grandpa then attempts a families' reconciliation and with everyone apologizing to Ellis, tears and all that? You are rather over-expecting."

"Bright boy – Ellis indicated that. The only thing is I have no idea where she is and who has seized her."

"What!"

Troy scratched the back of his head. "When you have nothing, you run on assumptions and hunches. Ellis understood that so I expect you to. I need you to help find her and then my hunch is everything will fall into place and she'll escape with nothing more than a harrowing experience."

They walked into the kitchen where Molly had coffee ready and three backpacks with basic supplies. Troy scratched the back of his head again and gave her a résumé while Mitch sat shaking his head.

"Well Mitch?" Molly asked.

"It strains credibility but I agree it's our soft option. If we involve the police and dad and Uncle Richard have indeed snatched Ellis they will be up on a kidnapping charge with dire results. What do you think Molly?"

"Ellis believed in Troy's most likely scenario arising from his analysis and I believe in Ellis."

"Okay, Mitch said, "So do I even though his flimsy theories are all we have."

Troy said they required a map of the three ranches indicating every barn, outbuilding and disused building away from the houses and asked Mitch could he prepare a sketch. Mitch left the room without answering and returned almost at the run holding a rolled up map.

"We have an accurate map of everything of man-made substance on the combined properties as well as prominent natural features; here it is."

"At last, we're almost up with the ball game," Troy sighed. "This is fantastic."

He turned to Mitch. "Sit, take your time. I want you to try to think like your father – put yourselves in his shoes. If you grabbed Ellis giving her 24 hours to make up her mind to sign otherwise she'd be roughed up or whatever, where would you stash her/ He would be a fool to choose somewhere too close to the houses."

After two minutes Mitch was grinning.

"You and Ellis were taking gambles Troy, now it's my turn. Mom is a little unwell at the moment and that means dad won't want to leave her on her own so will be in his own bed, asleep right now. The cook begins work at dawn so dad and Uncle Richard will grab some chow and then head out. So we can go out now without risk of detection – their two houses are in a valley so we can skirt that. We have a small bunkhouse attached to our fertilizer store and hay barn about four miles out – a track all the way. I'll put you two on four-wheelers – the track winds but it goes only to that storage area. On the way out I'll detour to check two other possible sites – the quarry, three miles out and I'll go another eight miles to the old waterwheel and come back four miles..."

"Waterwheel you say?"

"Yes. It's just been re-commissioned now the snowline has retreated. It has loft accommodation and the quarry also has a couple of sheds."

"I want to go to the waterwheel, now."

"That's not a good idea Troy, it splits us up."

"I agree with Troy," Molly said emphatically. "If you goes to the quarry and then to the waterwheel and find her we'll still have time to reach to you when you call us by radio before the others show up."

"Look, we're sounding like a bunch of amateurs," Mitch said. "Molly has a shotgun and I'm going out armed. I haven't said this but I haven't seen our foreman today – Bute Jamieson. He stands 6ft eight and is two feet through both ways. Dad always says Bute does his dirty work. I figure Bute may be keeping guard on Ellis."

"I had anticipated more than the two brothers being involved," Troy frowned. "But a guy that big – I need to take a piece of heavy chain, two feet long."

"I'll give you a Winchester pal."

"No, I don't wish to kill anyone but guys, let me go in first; I'm trained for this sort of work. I'm sorry I know you guys don't want to split I'm going to the waterwheel."

"Why,"

"Because for several centuries Molly the bad guys have tied the good guys to waterwheels and gradually slowed down the dunking until the wheel stopped with the victim or victims' head down and staying there. Quite a persuader, eh?"

"I don't think my father would want to kill anyone."

Troy said he didn't think so either, but probably would want to give Ellis a damn good fright. "I'm not having anyone putting her through that."

"Oh God," Molly said. "Look at his blazing eyes – he's gone soft on Ellis."

To Be Continued