Alex in Wonderland (The Wonderland Series Book 1) (7 page)

10

Daddy Dearest

Wonderland crashed and burned at exactly
1:47 P.M.
the next day, Monday, May 14, while Alex was
treating Jolie to a leisurely lunch at a Mona’s restaurant in the Faubourg
Marigny, the Quarter’s downriver neighbor. He was regaling Jolie with tales
about last night’s raunchy romp with Joe the Cheshire Cat when the waitress
returned his Visa card and whispered a discreet refusal.

“Perhaps you did too much partying last weekend, sir.”

It was designed to amuse but didn’t. “What do you mean?”

Jolie said, “She means your card’s maxed out, right, my dear?”

That’s when the waitress dropped the second bomb. “Actually, the card
has been canceled.”

Alex’s jaw dropped. “But that’s impossi...oh, shit!” He stopped cold
when an ugly thought churned his stomach. He handed the waitress an Amex card.
“I’m very sorry. Would you please try this one?”

“No prob.”

As soon as she was gone, Alex gave Jolie a terrified look. “Know what I
think has happened?”

“Daddy dearest?”

“Bingo!”

“Then ‘Oh, shit!’ is right.” Jolie fished out his wallet. “Don’t worry
about lunch,
bébé
.”

“Thanks, but let’s not jump to conclusions.”

“Then you’d better not see the look on the waitress’s face. I’m afraid
she just got an encore performance, and your show has definitely been closed.”

“Sorry, sir.”

“Here, sweetie,” Jolie said, handing her cash. “Keep the change and
we’re sorry for the inconvenience.”

“No prob,” she smiled, thrilled with the biggest tip she’d ever
received. “Y’all have a nice day.”

“Fat chance,” Alex said, stuffing the worthless credit cards back into
his wallet. “That bastard has cut me off.”

“Maybe that was what—”

“What Mother was trying to tell me,” Alex finished. “Damn! I should’ve
known.”

“The cards aren’t in your name?”

“Sumner Oil. Every damned one of them.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll cover you until you work something out.”

“I can’t let you do that.”

“Reality check!” Jolie said, using his open palm like a radar scan over
Alex’s face. “You don’t have a job and you have no assets. Except a friend
who’s happy to help you get through hard times.”

Alex was moved, almost to the point of tears. This was truly a
situation where he was looking at his only friend in the world, and he reached
across the table to squeeze Jolie’s hand. “Thanks. I really don’t know what I’d
do without you.”

“As our sweet but only semi-evolved waitress says, ‘No prob.’”

“Well, one thing’s for sure. I don’t have to call Daddy and tell him
I’m not coming in to work today. Not that anyone would notice. My job was all
title and no duties.”

“Let’s go home and think this through,” Jolie suggested. “There might
be another message from your mother, and maybe she can help.”

“I doubt it,” Alex lamented. “She’s as much a financial prisoner as
myself.”

Jolie waved a hand airily. “C’mon.”

Alex was so distressed he didn’t even notice the two bare-chested
marines jogging across Esplanade, making their routine run from the naval base
in The Bywater to

Alex’s depression was complete when he and Jolie got home and found
another message
from his mother. “This is Karen Sumner again. Please tell Alex his
father was irate when he didn’t come in to work and that he’s talking about
drastic steps to get him home. I’m afraid the credit cards are just the
beginning.
Randolph
is a man with an ugly mission and he’ll stop
at nothing to accomplish it.” The tone was much more urgent this call, a mother
bear protecting her cub. “Tell Alex that I love him and to keep an eye on the
six o’clock
news.”

“Dear Lord,” Alex gasped. “What the hell can that mean?”

“Only one way to find out.”

At six o’clock, the two were riveted to the small kitchen television as anchorwoman Angela Hill
rattled off the lead stories with her usual out-of-control hands.
A dangerous chemical spill on Interstate-10.
Teachers making
new demands for a pay
raise
.
Another
drug murder in the Desire projects.
And, finally, an oil tycoon’s son is
missing, feared kidnapped.

“Kidnapped?!” Alex yelled. “That crazy sonovabitch!”

“Shhh!” Jolie said. “Somebody screwed up. It’s the first story. Look!”

Alex’s face materialized beside Angela’s blonde haystack coiffure. It
took him a minute to recognize the photo, one taken at the Comus Ball the night
he and Camilla announced their engagement.

“No wonder I look like Bambi caught in the headlights.”

“Shhh!”

Angela frowned slightly, a sure sign she was about to direct her Most
Sincere Reporting

Look at the camera. “Alex Sumner, son of oil magnate Randolph Sumner,
has been missing since last Friday evening and is feared the victim of foul
play.”

“What bullshit!” Alex cried.

“Shhh!”

Angela’s frown vanished as her eyebrows rose, making the viewer wonder
if she was about to ask a question. “Young Sumner, last seen at the family’s
uptown home on Prytania Street, (fade to the Sumner Garden District manse) is
an employee at his father’s firm, Sumner Petroleum, (fade to the Sumner Oil
Building) and the family says they are mystified by his disappearance. (Fade
back to Alex/Bambi) He left Friday night for a social event with friends who
report that he never showed up.”

“Liars!”

“Hush!” Jolie hissed.

Alex’s face disappeared again, replaced by some pertinent statistics
which Angela read aloud for the visually-impaired. “Alex Sumner is a white male
with blonde hair and gray eyes, twenty-six-years old, 5’5”, 140 pounds with no
distinguishing marks.”

“I’ve got a strawberry birthmark on my fanny!” Alex shouted, crazed
with disbelief. “Maybe that’ll throw them off the scent!

“Any persons with information should call this special number,” Angela
concluded with impressive authority. Alex wondered absently if she had taught
kindergarten before her star soared in the TV news firmament. “On I-10 this
morning, a truck belonging to Norco Petrochemical Company overturned and—”Alex
and Jolie nearly jumped out of their skins when the phone rang. It was the
first of seven calls from people who had attended Alex’s gay cotillion. They
all wanted to know where Alex was. Thinking fast, Jolie delivered one long
run-on sentence saying that Alex had gone out last night and not come home and
that he, Jolie, was as bewildered as everyone else and that the television
story obviously had the time of the disappearance wrong and we should all hope
and pray for the best and that he had to go because he had another call but
thanks very much for calling.

Alex was impressed. “What a smooth liar you are!”

“I don’t think any of them would call the hotline since there’s no
reward being offered, but why take the chance? On second thought, I hate to say
it, but it’s just possible Ken Calhoun might call. He’s probably addicted to
publicity too!”

“Jesus!”

“Don’t worry,
bébé
. If they come looking for you, they’ll need
a search warrant to get past me. What’s more, there’s a secret passageway
between the second and third floors where I can stash you if worse comes to
worse. I think they used it for runaway slaves or something.”

Alex was about to ask to see the passageway when the phone rang again.
“Let the machine pick up,” Jolie said. He went to the refrigerator and pulled
out a bottle of Stoli. “Drink?”

“Please. A double.”

“Good boy. As Auntie Mame used to say, I think I’ll have a ‘tiny
triple.’”

Alex cocked his ear toward the answering machine when Jolie’s message
finished.
 
“Hello. This is Karen Sumner
again. Aren’t you people ever home?”

Alex almost collided with Jolie and the vodka bottle in his effort to
get to the phone. He grabbed the receiver, fumbled and grabbed it again. “Hi,
Mom!”

“Darling!” Karen cried, relief flooding over the wire. “Are you
alright?”

“Fine. You?”

“A little tired I’m afraid. Your father just left for the office. He’s
been working out of the house all day long. It’s like a sting operation or
something. Cops. Detectives. All sorts of strange
people traipsing in
and out.” Alex’s heart sank. “I take it you saw the news.”

“Yes.”

“I’m telling you, Alex, your father is a man obsessed. He’s been a
maniac since he got up Saturday morning and discovered you were gone. I haven’t
seen him this angry since the oil bust.
 
I’ve been playing dumb of course but I don’t think he believes me. After
my remarks about Camilla, I’m suspect too, and Jedediah is on high alert. I had
to hide in the rose bushes to make this call.”

“Damn!”

There was a brief pause. “What are you going to do now, darling?”

“Get out of town I guess. My friend Jolie has offered to lend me some
money. I’m thinking of driving over to—”

“No!” his mother interrupted. “That red Porsche will be a flag in front
of a bull. Your father’s got men watching everywhere. Highways. Airports. The
train station and marinas. I even heard him say something about rental car
offices. They’ll pick you up in a heartbeat.”Alex was staggered. “He’d do all
that?!”

Karen eyed the house warily as an unfamiliar figure peered from the
library windows. She ducked lower behind her prized Queen Elizabeth
floribundas. “I don’t think you grasp the magnitude of what you’ve done, son.
Nobody ever defies your father, least of all his only child and heir. He’s
absolutely furious and terrified that the truth will leak out and embarrass the
old family name. This kind of crisis always bring out the best and worst in
people, and you need to know what you’re up against.” Sleepless for two days,
she yawned and coughed tiredly. “Believe me when I say he’ll stop at nothing to
get you back, Alex. Nothing.”

“I’m beginning to realize that,” Alex moaned.

“You know I’d do anything to help you, but my hands are tied.”

“I know, Mom,” he said, wishing he could hug her. “I’m proud of you for
standing up to him too.”

“It was overdue for both of us, son. I still love your father, but
things will never be the same after this.” She took a tired breath. “Are you
sitting down?”

Alex gulped, wondering what more ammunition his father might use.
“Yes.”

“He’s so determined to find you he’s going to offer a reward. It’ll be
announced on the
ten o’clock
news.”

“Jeeze Louise!” There was a long pause as the two sensed each other’s
anxiety. Alex’s heart raced as he felt the pervasive old weakness and began to
backslide. “Look, Mom. Maybe I should just forget the whole thing and come
back—”

“NO!” she cried. Jolie too, since he was hanging on Alex’s every word.

“You’ve come too far to quit!” Jolie said.

“You can’t back down now,” his mother continued. “It’s high time your
father learned he can’t have everything his way.”

“I’m sorry, Mom. I...I just feel so worn out.”

“I know, darling. Me too. In fact, I should get off the phone and try
to get some sleep.”

“You’re wonderful, Mom. I love you.”

“I love you too. Thank your friend Jolie for me and tell him I’ll call
whenever I can to find out what you’ve decided.” Alex heard the sound of a
kiss. “‘Bye, darling.”

“‘Bye, mom.” Alex reiterated his conversation for Jolie. “Can you
believe that lunatic?”

Jolie sipped his vodka. “Given everything you’ve told me and what I’ve
read about your
father in the papers, frankly yes.”