by Nora Roberts
jolted at the echo of her own voice. “This is where I want to be,” she said more firmly. “Where I have to be. But it's not going to be as easy as I thought.”
Brushing away the excess water on her face with her hands, she turned away from the glass. She would go down, get her sleeping bag, and tune out for the night. She was tired and overemotional. In the morning she would go through the house again and see what she needed to make her stay more pleasant.
Just as she stepped back into her parents′ bedroom, she heard the creak and groan of the front door.
Panic came first, quick and instinctive. Her always vivid imagination conjured up a pack of roving convicts newly escaped from the correctional institution that was only twenty miles away. She was alone, in an empty house, and for the life of her, she couldn't remember one move she'd learned in the self-defense course she and Angie had taken two years before.
Pressing both hands to her heart, she reminded herself she was in Emmitsboro. Convicts didn't tend to roam the streets of tiny rural communities. She took a step forward and heard the creak on the stairs.
Yes, they did, she thought again. Anyone who had ever watched a B movie knew that convicts and psychos always headed for out-of-the-way towns and quiet villages to spread their mayhem.
In the empty room, she looked around wildly for a weapon. There wasn't even a ball of dust. Heart thudding, she searched her jacket pockets and came up with three pennies, a half roll of Lifesavers, a broken comb, and her keys.
Brass knuckles, she thought, remembering how she'd been instructed to hold the keys with the pointed ends sticking out between the fingers of a closed fist. And the best defense was a good offense. So saying, she jumped forward toward the door, letting loose with the most hideous shriek she could summon.
“Jesus!” Cameron Rafferty stumbled back a step, one hand reaching for his weapon, the other gripping the flashlight like a club. He saw a woman with wild red hair and a kelly green suede jacket come leaping at him. He ducked her swing, tossed an arm around her waist, and used his weight to overbalance both of them. They landed with a thud on the hardwood floor.
“Bruno!” Clare shouted, inspired and terrified. “Someone's in the house! Bring the gun!” As she yelled, she tried to bring her knee up between her attacker's thighs and nearly succeeded.
Winded, Cam struggled to pin her arms above her head. “Hold on.” He swore as she tried to take a bite out of him. “I said hold on. I'm the police. I said I'm the goddamn police.”
It finally got through. She subsided enough to look at his face in the slant of light from the bedroom. She saw dark hair, a little curly, a little too long, the stubble of a beard over tanned skin that stretched taut over excellent cheekbones. A good mouth, she thought, artist to the last. Nice eyes, though in the dark she couldn't be sure of their color. There was a light scent of sweat about him, clean, clear sweat, not at all offensive. His body, pressed hard into hers to keep her still, felt lean and muscled.
He didn't seem like a psychotic or a crazed felon. But…
She took her survey while she fought to regain her breath. “The police?”
“That's right.”
Though she was flat on her back, she gained some satisfaction from the fact that he was breathless. “I want to see your badge.”
He was still cautious. Though his grip on her wrist had caused her to drop the lethal keys, she still had nails and teeth. “I'm wearing it. At this rate, it should be imprinted on your chest.”
Under different circumstances, she might have been amused by the exasperation in his voice. “I want to see it.”
“Okay. I'm going to move, slowly.” He was as good as his word. His eyes never left hers as he shifted back and dropped one hand to the badge pinned to his shirt.
Clare flicked a glance over the metal star. “I can buy one of those in the dimestore.”
“I. D.'s in my wallet. Okay?”
She nodded, watching him as carefully as he watched her. With two fingers, he reached in his hip pocket and flipped open a wallet. Clare inched back, then reached out. She tilted the wallet toward the spill of light. She read the laminated identification, frowned at the name and picture.
“Cameron Rafferty?” She looked up at him then, squinting in the dark. “You're Cameron Rafferty?”
“That's right. I'm the sheriff here.”
“Oh, God.” She giggled, surprising him. “Then pigs must be flying.” She laughed until tears ran down her cheeks. Baffled, Cam shined his light in her face. “Take a good look,” she invited. “Come on, Rafferty, don't you recognize me?”
He played the light over her features. It was her eyes, gold and glowing with unholy amusement, that jogged his memory. “Clare? Clare Kimball?” He gave a shout of laughter. “I'll be a sonofabitch.”
“Yeah, that's the truth.”
He grinned at her. “Well, welcome home, Slim.”
Chapter 4
“SO HOW THE HELL are you, Clare?”
They were sitting on the front porch steps drinking two of the lukewarm Becks that Clare had picked up during her meanderings through Pennsylvania. Relaxed, she moved her shoulders as she tipped the bottle back. The beer and the cool night eased the driving kinks.
“I'm pretty good.” She leveled her gaze to the badge on his shirt. Her eyes glowed with humor. “Sheriff.”
Cam stretched out his booted feet, then crossed them. “I take it Blair didn't mention I'd moved into Parker's old job.”
“Nope.” She sipped again, then gestured with the bottle. “Brothers never tell their sisters the interesting gossip. It's the law.”
“I'll write that down.”
“So where is Parker? Spinning in his grave because it killed him to see you sitting in his chair?”
“Florida.” He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered her one. “Took off his badge, packed up, and headed south.” When he flicked on his lighter, Clare leaned over and touched the tip of her cigarette to the flame. In the glow they studied each other's faces.
“Just like that?” she said, expelling smoke.
“Yeah. I heard about the job and decided to give it a shot.”
“You were living in D.C., right?” “That's right.”
Clare leaned back against the stair rail, her eyes amused and measuring. “A cop. I always figured Blair was pulling my chain. Who would have figured Cameron ‘Wild Man’ Rafferty on the side of law and order?”
“I always liked to do the unexpected.” His eyes stayed on hers as he lifted his bottle and drank. “You look good, Slim. Real good.”
She wrinkled her nose at the old nickname. While it didn't carry the same sting as some of the others-Beanpole, String, Gnat Ass-that had clung to her during her youth, it did remind her of the days when she had stuffed her woefully underfilled bra with tissues and consumed gallons of Weight-On.
“You don't have to sound so surprised.”
“The last time I saw you you were what? Fifteen, sixteen?”
The autumn after her father had died, she thought.
“About.”
“You grew up nice.” During their brief wrestling match inside, he'd noticed that while she was still on the skinny side she'd rounded out here and there. Despite the changes, she was still Blair Kimball's sister, and Cam couldn't resist teasing her. “You're painting or something, right?”
“I sculpt.” She flipped her cigarette away. It was one of her pet peeves that so many people thought all artists were painters.
“Yeah, I knew it was some arty type thing up in New York. Blair mentioned it. So do you sell stuff-like bird-baths?”
Miffed, she studied his bland smile. “I said I was an artist.”
“Yeah.” All innocence, he sipped his beer while crickets chorused around them. “This guy I knew was really good at making birdbaths. He used to make this one with a fish on it-a carp, I think-and the water would come out the carp's mouth and fill the bowl.”
“Oh, I see. Class work.”
“You bet. He sold a bundle of them.”
“Good for him. I don't work in concrete.” She couldn't help it-it irked her that he wouldn't have heard of her work or seen her name. “I guess you guys don't get People or Newsweek around here.”
“Get Soldier of Fortune,” he said, tongue in cheek. “That's real popular.” He watched her take another chug of beer. Her mouth, and he still remembered her mouth, was full and wide. Yeah, she'd grown up nice all right. Who would have thought that shy and skinny Clare Kimball would turn into the long, sexy woman sitting across from him. “Heard you were married.”
“For a while.” She shrugged off the memory. “Didn't work out. How about you?”
“No. Never made it. Came close once.” He thought of Mary Ellen with a trace of sweet regret. “I guess some of us do better single file.” He drained the beer and set the empty bottle on the step between them.
“Want another?”
“No, thanks. Wouldn't do to have one of my own deputies pick me up DWI. How's your mother?” “She got married,” Clare said flatly.
“No kidding? When?”
“Couple of months ago.” Restless, she shifted and stared out at the dark, empty street. “How about your parents, do they still have the farm?”
“Most of it.” Even after all these years, he couldn't think of his stepfather as a parent. Biff Stokey had never and would never replace the father Cam had lost at the tender age of ten. “They had a couple of bad years and sold off some acreage. Could have been worse. Old man Haw-baker had to sell off his whole place. They subdivided it and planted modulars instead of corn and hay.”
Clare brooded into the last of her beer. “It's funny, when I was driving through town I kept thinking nothing had changed.” She glanced back up. “I guess I didn't look close enough.”
“We still have Martha's, the market, Dopper's Woods, and Crazy Annie.”
“Crazy Annie? Does she still carry a burlap sack and scout the roadside for junk?”
“Every day. She must be sixty now. Strong as an ox even if she does have a few loose boards in the attic.”
“The kids used to tease her.”
“Still do.”
“You gave her rides on your motorcycle.”
“I liked her.” He stretched once, lazily, then unfolded himself to stand at the base of the steps. Looking at her now, with the dark house brooding behind her, he thought she seemed lonely and a little sad. “I've got to get on. Are you going to be all right here?”
“Sure, why not?” She knew he was thinking of the attic room where her father had taken his final drink and final leap. “I've got a sleeping bag, some groceries, and the better part of a six-pack of beer. That'll do me fine until I locate a couple of tables, a lamp, a bed.”
His eyes narrowed. “You're staying?”
It wasn't precisely a welcome she heard in his voice. She stood and kept to the stairs where she was a head taller than he. “Yes, I'm staying. At least for a few months. Is that a problem, Sheriff?”
“No-not for me.” He rocked back on his heels, wondering why she looked so edgily defiant with the gingerbread veranda at her back. “I guess I figured you were passing through or opening the place up for new tenants.”
“You thought wrong. I'm opening it up for me.”
“Why?”
She reached down and gathered up both empty bottles by the neck. “I could have asked you the same question.
But I didn't.”
“No, you didn't.” He glanced at the house behind her, big and empty and whispering with memories. “I guess you've got your reasons.” He smiled at her again. “See you around, Slim.”
She waited until he got in his car and pulled away. Reasons she had, Clare brooded. She just wasn't completely certain what they were. Turning, she carried the bottles into the empty house.
By two o'clock the next afternoon, everyone in town knew that Clare Kimball was back. They talked about it over the counter in the post office, as sales were rung up in the market, while ham sandwiches and bean soup were consumed in Martha's Diner. The fact that the Kimball girl was back in town, back in the house on the corner of Oak Leaf Lane, touched off new gossip and speculation on the life and death of Jack Kimball.
“Sold me my house,” Oscar Roody said as he slurped up soup. “Gave me a fair deal, too. Alice, how ′bout some more coffee down here?”
“That wife of his had one fine pair of legs.” Less Glad-hill leered, pushing back on the counter stool to get a load of Alice's. “Mighty fine pair. Never could figure why the man took to drinking when he had such a spiffy wife.”
“Irish.” Oscar pounded a fist on his chest and brought up a rumbling belch. “They gotta drink-it's in the blood. That girl of his is some kind of artist. Probably drinks like a fish too, and smokes drugs.” He shook his head and slurped some more. He figured it was drugs, plain and simple, that was screwing up the country he'd fought for in Korea. Drugs and homos. “She was a nice girl once,” he added, already condemning her for her choice of career. “Skinny as a rail and funny-looking, but a nice little girl. Was her who found Jack dead.”
“Musta been a messy sight,” Less put in.
“Oh, it was.” Oscar nodded wisely, as if he'd been on the scene at the moment of impact. “Cracked his head clean open, blood everywhere where he'd stuck himself on that pile of garden stakes. Went right clean through him, you know. Speared him like a trout.” Bean soup dripped on his grizzled chin before he swiped at it. “Don't think they ever got the blood all the way out of them flagstones.”
“Haven't you two got anything better to talk about?” Alice Crampton topped off their coffee cups.
“You went to school with her, didn't you, Alice?” Kicking back in the stool, Less took out a pack of Drum and began to roll a cigarette with his stained and clever mechanic's fingers. A few flakes of tobacco drifted down to his khaki work pants as he let his gaze perch like a hungry bird on Alice's breasts.
“Yeah, I went to school with Clare-and her brother.” Ignoring Less's glittery eyes, she picked up a damp cloth and began to wipe the counter. “They had brains enough to get out of this town. Clare's famous. Probably rich, too.”
“Kimballs always had money.” Oscar pushed back his frayed and battered cap with its lettered ROODY PLUMBING just above the brim. A few of the gray hairs he had left kinked out from below the sides. “Made a bundle on that sonofabitching shopping center. That's why Jack killed himself.”
“The police said it was an accident,” Alice reminded him. “And all that stuff happened more than ten years ago. People should forget it.”
“Nobody forgets gettin′ screwed,” Less said with a wink. “Especially if they was screwed good.” He tapped his cigarette into the thick glass ashtray and imagined putting it to the wide-hipped Alice right there on the lunch counter. “Old Jack Kimball pulled a fast shuffle with that land deal, all right, then he suicided himself.” His mouth left a wet ring at the base of the rolled paper. He spat out a couple more flakes of tobacco that clung to his tongue. “Wonder how the girl feels about staying in the house where her daddy took his last jump. Hey, Bud.” He waved with his cigarette as Bud Hewitt walked into the diner.
Alice automatically reached for a fresh cup and the pot.
“No, thanks, Alice, haven't got time.” Trying to look official, Bud nodded to both men at the counter. “We just got this picture in this morning.” He opened a manila folder. “Name's Carly Jamison, fifteen-year-old runaway from up in Harrisburg. She's been missing for about a week. She was spotted hitching south on Fifteen. Either one of you see her on the road, or around town?”
Both Oscar and Less leaned over the picture of a young, sulky-faced girl with dark, tumbled hair. “Can't recollect seeing her,” Oscar said finally, and worked out another satisfying belch. “Would've if she'd come around here. Can't hide a new face in this town for long.”
Bud turned the photo so Alice could get a good look. “She didn't come in he
re during my shift. I'll ask Molly and Reva.”
“Thanks.” The scent of coffee-and Alice's perfume-was tempting, but he remembered his duty. “I'll be showing the picture around. Let me know if you spot her.”
“Sure will.” Less crushed out his cigarette. “How's that pretty sister of yours, Bud?” He spat out a flake of tobacco, then licked his lips. “You gonna put in a good word for me?”
“If I could think of one.”
This caused Oscar to choke over his coffee and slap his knee. With a good-humored grin, Less turned back to Alice as Bud walked out. “How about a piece of that lemon pie?” He winked, as his fantasies worked back to humping and pumping on Alice amid the bottles of catsup and mustard. “I like mine firm and tart.”
Across town, Clare was polishing off the last of her supply of Ring-Dings while she turned the two-car garage into a studio. Mouth
