Baton Rouge Bingo by Greg Herren Read Free Book Online Page B

yawning and looking totally bored. “Besides, it’s not every day a tiger is kidnapped. Did it make the national news?”
    “Shh.” She turned up the volume just as the video of a frightened-looking young girl being walked up the steps of the police station by two uniformed cops played on the screen. Across the bottom of the picture was the caption V ETERINARY S TUDENT IN C HARGE OF M IKE H AS T IES TO A NIMAL R IGHTS A CTIVISTS .
    “Hope Porterie is the daughter of the notorious Veronica Porterie, who founded the AFAR group back in the 1980s.” The newscaster’s voice was breathless, her tone screaming Can you believe this? A really horrible photo of Veronica Porterie—her mug shot from her arrest for the security guard’s murder—popped up on the screen. “When AFAR broke into the animal-testing facility for Flax Cosmetics, they released all the animals, but a security guard was killed. Veronica Porterie was tried for his murder, but the result was a hung jury. The district attorney chose not to try her again.” Now her voice was disapproving: Can you believe he didn’t throw the book at this lunatic? “And we here at WBRZ News have recently learned that AFAR has been threatening to ‘free Mike’ for more than a year. And the group founder’s daughter somehow managed to insinuate herself into caring for Mike—and was with him when AFAR kidnapped him. Things are not looking good this morning for Hope Porterie. Back to you, Jim.”
    “That’s really bad,” I said as Mom muted the television. “But I suppose it was just a matter of time before the connection turned up.”
    “Guilty until proven innocent,” she said, picking up her cell phone. “I’m going to text Storm.”
    “You don’t think there’s a connection?” I replied, a little dubiously. “I mean, come on, Mom. Her mother runs AFAR.”
    “Nobody knows for a fact that AFAR took Mike, Scotty. What kind of private eye are you, anyway? Automatically assuming guilt based on circumstantial evidence?” Mom replied. “Besides, don’t you think the FBI has had Hope’s phone tapped for years now?” She fumbled with her phone for a moment before giving up and dialing.
    I was glad Frank was in the shower. Frank adores her, but as a retired FBI special agent, Mom’s paranoia about the Bureau sometimes got a bit under his skin. He never said anything when Mom went on one of her tears, but his face would always flush a bit and that vein in his forehead would start throbbing. Both Dad and I had talked to Mom about it—to at least ease up on the feds or just bite her tongue in front of Frank—and she had gotten a lot better. But once she’s wound up there is no turning back the tide.
    “Storm, it’s your mother. The cops have taken Hope in—we just saw it on the news. You need to get down there!” She paused, listening, and started talking again. I got up, tuning her out, and walked over to the bedroom. I didn’t hear the shower running, so I went inside. Frank was shaving, naked, in the bathroom with the door open. He turned his head and smiled.
    “I called my sister,” he said, going back to shaving. “I told her to send Taylor down as soon as possible. She’s going to put him on a flight from Birmingham to New Orleans.” He smiled back at the mirror. “I called Rain, she’s going to pick him up tonight for us and take him home with her. She’ll bring him over once we get back home tomorrow.”
    I sat down on the bed. “Wow.” That was quick.
    He rinsed the lather off his face and walked over to me, kissing the top of my head. “It’ll be fine, Scotty.” He started getting dressed. “I haven’t seen Taylor since he was a little boy.” He pulled on a pair of sweatpants and laughed. “You should see your face—you look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He finished getting dressed and walked back over to me.
    “It’ll be fine,” he said, stroking my arm and kissing my head again. “We can’t just abandon him. Where else