Dragonfly Vs Monarch

“What?” Katrina asked, cocking her head sideways. “What did he do?”

“Like this.” Rachel pressed her elbows to her waist and pulled them up.

“Wait a minute.” Katrina stood and performed the same motion. She found her elbows touched the waistband of her jeans, and when she lifted, she pulled up her jeans. “Like he was pulling his pants up with his elbows?”

“Yeah, like this.” Rachel did it again. “And he did it all the time. Danced around and then pulled his pants up.”

“Strange.”

“I don’t want to talk about that stuff anymore.”

“Me either,” Katrina said. “Let’s go start dinner for Rig, Autumn, and Pug. I bet they’re hungry.”

“Okay.” Rachel ran for the kitchen.

* * * * *

On Wednesday night, after Katrina put Rachel to bed, she, Pug, Autumn and Rigger sat at the dining room table.

Katrina asked Pug if he could run the video he shot in Central Park.

“Sure. It’ll just take me a minute to set it up.”

“Pug does videos?” Autumn asked.

“A guy has been tailing Rigger, and Pug caught him on his phone camera when Rigger took Wolf for a walk in Central Park.”

“Why is someone following you, Rigger?” Autumn asked.

“I have no idea. At first Pug and I thought he was in cahoots with Kat.” Rigger took Katrina’s hand. “But then we discovered she didn’t know him.”

“Why would you think that?” Autumn asked.

“They thought I was someone I wasn’t,” Katrina said.

“You were someone you wasn’t,” Rigger said, with a grin.

“No, I’ve always been me. But I’m not sure about you.”

“Okay, you two. Now I’m totally confused,” Autumn said.

“Ready to roll tape,” Pug said.

All four of them watched the video of the guy following Rigger and Wolf.

“My God,” Autumn said. “That is one ugly man.”

“My comment exactly,” Katrina said.

They watched for a moment, then Katrina said, “It’s him.”

“Who?” Pug asked.

“The guy who helped kill Rachel’s parents.”

“How do you know?” Rigger asked.

“Did you notice how he keeps pulling his pants up with his elbows?” Katrina asked.

“Is that what he’s doing?” Autumn asked.

“Yeah. It’s like some sort of nervous habit,” Katrina said.

“Weird,” Pug said. “But does that make him the killer?”

“Rachel told me he did that all the time while the woman cut up her mother and father. She said he danced around and kept pulling his pants up with his elbows. She even showed me how he did it.” Katrina nodded to the computer screen. “Exactly the way he’s doing it. If we can find him, we’ll find the woman, too.”

“So that’s why Rachel screamed the other night when she saw him on the video,” Rigger said. “She recognized him.”

“But why is he following you, Rigger?” Autumn asked.

“I have no idea.”

* * * * *

Rachel sat beside Autumn during dinner.

“Where’s your big airplane?” Rachel asked.

“Down at the airport.”

“Did you go up in the sky today?”

“Nope. The Wingnuts are working on the landing gear, so I won’t be able to fly for a day or two.” Autumn took her phone from a pocket and lay it on the table between their two plates. “You want to see something?”

Rachel nodded.

Autumn keyed in Donovan’s cellphone number. “Watch the screen.”

Rachel leaned toward Autumn to see the screen.

Autumn entered the code to start the Dragonfly, and the screen came to life.

“What is that?” Rachel asked as she squinted at the display on the phone.

“Hang on a sec.” Autumn rotated the phone to lift Donovan off the table in the upstairs room. Watching the screen, she maneuvered him toward the door. “Hmm…somebody…” she glanced at Pug, “closed the door.”

“Uh-oh.” Pug scooted back his chair and hurried for the stairs. A moment later, Rachel and Autumn saw the door open and the grinning Pugsley appear on the screen.