You Dirty Rat part (6 of 7)

What should the friends do now? Virginia did not want Robert to know she was alive because then he would just twist things and make it look like she had tricked Justine

into getting into her car. Why was he coming back to the porch all the time? Was he checking up to see if the parents had come back from Greece?

Who knew what was going on in his twisted mind!

Sam decided he would pretend to come back from his plane trip and talk to the police about the "death" of sister Virginia. This meant he would not be around the basement

as much to help watch the porch but that was ok with the others because it would show he was the bereaved brother.

Sam publicly said he could not believe anyone would hate his sister so much as to kill her. He also said his parents were traveling in remote parts of Greece and would be back home in about 6 days. He was setting up the trap for the rat real well.

More flowers and packages were sent to the porch from made up friends hoping rat would continue coming and snooping.

While on watch Anthony sees Robert again eating, snooping and yakking on the phone.

"Yea, honey Mike & I got rid of that stray dog the other night we planted it in the woods."

" Can't see ya tonight got a business meeting."

then another call:

"Mike, baby leave a key under your back door mat for me...ok ?"

So this is good news to hear as Anthony reports that this honey is alive so they do not have to go to the police about the map.

Then the house phone rings and the answering service picks up a call from the rat.

"My poor sweet Virginia I did all I could to stop her from taking those drugs."

Virginia now knows Robert is quite nefarious and a twinge of hatred towards him is setting in her heart but she does not like it at all.

She and Sam were brought up to not bear hatred towards their fellow man. This is a time she must do some soul searching so she will not harden. She would not allow herself to lower to his pitiful level.

Annie had been tending the flower shop for Anthony but there were inquiries as to why he was not there. There were a lot of local older ladies that came in for flowers and chats with him. She and Anthony had to come up with a reasonable reason why he was gone so much. Annie would just say he was out checking the places where he bought flowers. That evening while dear friend Annie was on watch the rat is up snooping and trying to get conversations going on the phone,

"Honey where are you haven't seen you for a few days call me."

Another call: "Lori you home ?"

Finally a last call: "Mike you coming over tonight?"

No one is around to feed him.

Poor old boy must be very lonesome tonight Annie thought to herself...so get a pet....A Big Pet..................RAT !

Mario and Maria are now home from Greece and putting on a show upstairs for the public but downstairs they are joyous that Virginia is alive. It is decided that anytime Virginia is upstairs she will continue to wear her brown hair disguise along with glasses and darker make up in case someone should drop in and recognize her and start asking questions.

Unknown to anyone, including his wife, Mario has a slight connection with the mafia in a business sense. Nothing illegal but a connection.

Unknown to anyone, including her husband, Maria has a slight connection to the police in a family sense.

My, oh my, the pot is thickening.