Four things happened then almost simultaneously. I put the Tupperware bowl and a glass of water in front of Albert Lee, Sister folded the newspaper, the receipt from Rich’s Fine Jewelry drifted from the table, and Albert Lee reached down and picked it up saying, “You dropped something.”

What happened next I’ll always blame on Sister. If she hadn’t said, “Oh, my God,” and grabbed for the receipt, chances were that Albert Lee wouldn’t have paid any attention to it.

But he did. When Sister’s swipe at it missed, he looked to see what he was holding.

For a moment, I don’t think any of the three of us breathed. Then Albert Lee stuck the receipt in his jacket pocket and drank the glass of water I had given him. Drank it slowly, looking out of the bay window.

“I like this house,” he said. “I see your sasanquas are already blooming.”

Sister and I glanced at each other. Maybe everything was okay. So he knew we had looked through his wallet. So what?

But everything was not okay.

“You know, don’t you?” Albert Lee said almost dreamily.

“Know what?” Sister and I said together.

Albert Lee stood up, reached in his back pocket, and pulled out a small pistol.

“Come on, ladies. I guess we’ll have to go see Mama.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter
Twenty-one

“Damn, damn, damn,” Sister said in my ear while I was wrapping the tape around her ankles. “This is all your fault.” She was sitting in the backseat of Albert Lee’s car. Stuffed in, really. Albert’s Neon had not been designed with Sister in mind.

“Shut up.” I had already taped her wrists together with the clear reinforced tape that I was sure Albert Lee used when he shipped books. It had been in the glove compartment of his car and, surely, he didn’t go around taping women up all the time.

“We’re going to be all right,” I whispered to Sister. “The man’s an English teacher.”

She banged her chin into the back of my head. It hurt like hell. I’d never before realized how pointed her chin was.

“Ow,” I flinched back and felt a tiny circle of steel between my shoulders.

“Something wrong?” Albert Lee asked.

“She hurt me,” I said, rubbing my head.

“Well, shame on you, big sister. Don’t try that on me.” He reached over with a penknife in his left hand, cut the tape, and pressed it down against Sister’s ankle. Then he motioned with the pistol for me to get into the front seat, which I did and he taped my wrists and ankles. So much for our “Neighborhood Watch” program. Here we were being kidnapped in broad daylight at gunpoint and what everybody was watching was The Price is Right or All My Children.