Weekend Warriors (Sisterhood #1)(52)

“Listen, I have to take Murphy out. I’ll be with you in a minute.”

Yoko held out a napkin-wrapped package. “Take your time,” she said. “I gathered up some of the steak bones for Murphy to chew on. Do you wish to give it to him? There’s quite a bit of meat on them. Those men did not eat much. It was such a waste of food. I remember the days when I had only scraps to eat.”

“That was sweet of you, Yoko. Thanks. Hopefully, it will keep him occupied. He’s going to know there are strangers in the back. I don’t know how he’ll react. He might bark his head off and there’s no way I can control that.”

“So what. Dogs bark all the time. This,” Yoko said waving her arms at the trees, “is pretty far out. We are soaked, Kathryn. We need to get out of our wet clothes.”

Kathryn unlocked the cab and climbed up. Murphy licked her face and then snatched the napkin-wrapped bundle out of her hands. “Yoko, thanks for…you know.”

“Yes, I know. You are welcome, Kathryn.”

Fifteen minutes later, both men were inside the truck and the tailgate was closed and locked down. “First things first,” Julia said. “We need to get out of these wet clothes and into dry ones. Stand still for a moment while I look around. “The sheets are in place, the entire floor is covered. That’s good. The table is up, there’s a clean sheet on it. We have a dozen towels. The lights are on. That’s good. I can see perfectly. Gloves, everyone. Who goes first?” she asked, tying her surgical mask behind her head.

The women looked at one another. “La Fond didn’t drink as much of the beer as Wagstaff did,” Alexis volunteered. “You better do him first. Put a drop on his tongue, just to be sure.”

Julia held up her gloved hands. “It’s up to you three to boost him up to the table. Yoko, take both his feet, Kathryn and Alexis, grab him under his arms. There you go. Take off his pants. On second thought, just pull them down.” She picked up the scalpel. She looked up over the mask. “Hospital procedure or quick and dirty?”

“Just do the Q&D,” Alexis said.

Kathryn leaned against the wall of the truck, her eyes on Julia’s hands. How deft and sure she was. She said it wasn’t brain surgery, but still, without her skill, this wouldn’t be happening. She blinked. It was happening. She was seeing it with her own eyes. She almost jumped out of her skin when she heard La Fond’s jewels drop into a small pickle jar. Even from this distance she could read the Mt. Olive label. Two down and one to go.

“That’s a very nice, neat bandage. Will it come loose?” Yoko queried.

“Probably. When they start rummaging for the missing goods, they could dislodge it. Depends on how frantic they get. Okay, this guy’s done! Next!”

While the women lifted La Fond off the table, Julia stripped off her gloves and pulled on two new pair. She waited, her hands in the air until Wagstaff was on the table. Yoko yanked at his pants until she had them down around his ankles.

Kathryn sucked in her breath when Julia picked up the scalpel. Ten minutes later, Wagstaff’s nuts plunked into a mayonnaise jar. She slid to the floor of the truck and put her head between her knees.

“What are we supposed to do now? My brain’s frozen. I can’t think. What?” Kathryn shouted. “Somebody tell me.”

“Hey, take it easy, Kathryn. We’re taking them in the two cars back to their campground. We put them in their tents and split. Charles will be there to point out which tents belong to them. It’s okay that you forgot. We have it under control. Now, let’s move. If we fold up the legs of the table and lower it to the floor, we can slide it down the ramp and we won’t have to carry them so far. We can drive the cars right up to the opening,” Alexis said.

Kathryn shook her head to clear it. “Has Murphy been barking all this time?”

“Yes,” Yoko said.

“Julia and I are driving. C’mon, Kathryn, look alive here.”

“I’m alive. Let’s do it.”

Charles waved the light from a small flashlight to show them he was waiting. They drove the cars as far as they could before they climbed out. It took fifteen minutes before the men were settled in their sleeping bags. Yoko bent over and zipped them up. She smiled at Kathryn.

“Get out of here now,” Charles said.

“What about the Mustang?” Julia asked.

“I’ll drive it deep into the bushes. Did you wipe it clean?”

“I did,” Yoko said.

“We’re outta here,” Alexis said, climbing into the driver’s seat of the car.

“Wait a minute,” Kathryn said. She unzipped the flap of the tent and stuck her head in. “In the words of President Bill Clinton, gentlemen, I feeeel your painnnn.”

Charles clapped his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing as Kathryn sprinted for the car.

Back at their home base, Kathryn yanked at the tailgate. “Cleanup time! Somebody is watching over us. All this rain has to do is keep up for another couple of hours, and it looks like it will, and it will wash away our tracks.”

They did what they had to do. The motorcycles were stashed in the back, the wheels on the tarp Kathryn had spread earlier. The sheets, towels, bloody gauze pads and gloves were shoved into heavy-duty trash bags. The table would be dumped as soon as they found a suitable trash container, the trash bag somewhere in San Francisco. The mayonnaise and pickle jars were placed with the Snapple bottle in the lunchbox. Kathryn handed it to Julia.