Sunset Over Misty Lake

by Margaret Standafer

  That afternoon, she kept her promise to herself. She nearly chickened out before making the phone call, then again before getting in the car, and most definitely before getting out of that car and making the walk to the door. But there she was, forcing her feet to take one step after the other on her way up the stairs of the old, brick building on Main Street. The office was at the end of the hall. She hadn’t been inside before, but if she knew anything about Cort Mackenzie, she expected understated chic.

  She wasn’t disappointed.

  The carpet was a soft grey and cushioned her steps as she crossed the threshold. In the seconds as she closed the door behind her and before Cort greeted her, she let her eyes drift over the posh furnishings and exquisite artwork. Soothing, she thought. While not to the same extent, the feeling when walking into Cort’s office was similar to that she’d gotten walking into Anchored Yoga and Spa.

  “Karen. Nice to see you.”

  “Thank you for fitting me in to your schedule. I know you’re busy and you don’t have time—”

  “I have time.” His voice was calm, reassuring, and left no doubt in Karen’s mind that he meant the words.

  “Thank you.”

  “How is your grandfather?”

  “He’s better. A little longer in the hospital and he’ll be moved to a rehab facility. He’s not crazy about the idea, but he has no choice.”

  “I’m glad to hear he’s doing well. I’m sure he knows the facility is for the best, but it can be difficult when it feels as though a decision is being forced upon you.”

  “Yes. Um…” She faltered. She didn’t know where to start and even if she did, wasn’t sure she could. Cort let her struggle for only a moment.

  “You said on the phone you thought I might be able to help you with something. I’ll do my best. What sort of help do you need? Something to do with your grandfather?”

  “No, it’s not that. It’s…before I get into it, I need to ask you to do something. Or rather, not do something. I need this to stay between you and me. Shauna can’t know anything about our conversation.”

  Cort leaned back in his chair and tapped his chin with the pen he held. “If this is business, outside of the business Shauna and I share, then I see no reason to discuss it with her. If it’s personal, if it involves her or her family, it will be more difficult to keep it from her.”

  “I know I’m asking a lot. I’ve known Shauna since she was a child. Keeping anything from her isn’t easy. Besides that, asking a husband to keep something from his wife, or an almost-husband from his almost-wife, goes against just about everything I believe in. But, in this case, I need things kept from the McCabes.”

  “When you say McCabes, does that mean all the McCabes? Including Joe?”

  Karen dropped her eyes to her lap. She twisted her hands until her knuckles cracked. “It does,” she whispered.

  “Karen, much like you, I don’t know of many exceptions to the rule that couples shouldn’t keep things from one another. Especially things that, as I’m sensing might be the case here, are serious. I won’t tell you what to do, and I’m sure you didn’t come to the decision lightly, but are you certain keeping this from Joe is the right decision?”

  “I have no choice.”

  “I’d say there’s always a choice.”

  Karen looked at him. His eyes were patient, understanding, but she sensed a trace of reluctance. She knew she was asking a lot, but she wouldn’t turn back now. With a deep breath, and with her hands grasping the armrests of the chair to keep them steady, she launched into her story.

  “My sister got married last year. She wanted her bachelorette party in Vegas. I didn’t love the idea, but I arranged it. We spent a weekend there, saw a couple of shows, spent some time by the pool, pampered ourselves at the spa, and did some bar-hopping. No one on the trip was much of a drinker, but we had fun trying the silliest drinks the bartenders could dream up.

  “One night, we started talking to a particular bartender. He was good looking, friendly, and laughed at our stupid jokes that I’m sure he’d heard hundreds of times before. At one point, I found myself alone at the bar with him.”

  Karen tried to swallow, but her throat was like sawdust and she succeeded only in coughing. From somewhere, Cort produced a bottle of water and handed it to her. She took a small sip, then carefully recapped the bottle.

  “The others wanted to play some slots, but I was done with it all by that point. I stayed and chatted with the bartender. I don’t know how much time passed, but he made me another drink. I really didn’t want another, we’d been sipping at drinks all evening and while I don’t think I ever drank more than a few sips of any of them, I felt like I’d had enough. He said this drink was a new drink he was perfecting, and he wanted some feedback. He assured me I’d like it and he said it wasn’t particularly strong. I remember trying it, telling him it was good, and then…”

  Karen stared at the wall over Cort’s head. Like every time, she willed herself to remember more. The answers, the truth, had to be there somewhere if only she could remember. But, like every time, the answers floated just out of reach on the edges of her hazy memories.

  “Then?”

  She jumped at Cort’s voice. “Then?”

  “You were telling me what happened at the bar.”

  Karen nodded. Her hands, though they still gripped the chair, shook. Her stomach roiled and every cell in her body was telling her to run while running was still an option.

  “I don’t think I can do this…What you’ll think…”

  “Tell me how I can help you.”

  She met his eyes. “It will stay between us?”

  “Yes.”

  She debated, but only for a moment. She needed help and Cort was the only one she knew who might be able to provide that help.

  “I don’t know what comes after ‘then.’ I don’t remember. I don’t remember anything more from that night. I woke the next morning, in the hotel room I was sharing with my sister, wearing a skimpy little nightgown I’d never seen before to find a note tucked under my pillow thanking me. Thanking me.”

  Her stomach lurched. She stood on shaky feet. “Is there a restroom I could use?”

  When Cort pointed the way, she bolted from the room. She made it, but barely.

  Leaning back on her heels, she swiped a hand across her mouth. Under normal circumstances, it might have been the most embarrassing scenario she could imagine. Given the story she had to finish telling, throwing up in Cort’s bathroom hardly registered on the Richter scale of embarrassment.

  After splashing water on her face and digging a mint from her purse, she slunk back into Cort’s office. He jumped to meet her.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Yes. Embarrassed, but that’s only going to get worse, so why mention it, right?” A wild-sounding laugh escaped her mouth and surprised her as much as it did Cort.

  “Come. Sit down.” Cort took her elbow and guided her to her chair. He pushed the bottle of water into her hand, then leaned back to rest against his desk and to face her. “Karen, I told you I’d help you, and I will try, but from what I’ve heard and from what I’ve surmised, this is a matter for the police.”

  “No.”

  “You have to know you didn’t do anything wrong. You were a victim. This is definitely a police matter.”

  “I said no.”

  She started to stand, but Cort pushed away from his desk and stood in front of her.

  “Please sit. Don’t leave.”

  “I won’t go to the police.”

  “May I ask why?”

  “Why? Because the police means Jake. Do you really think I can talk to Jake about this? It took every ounce of courage I have to talk to you and you’re not fam—” She dropped back into her chair. “That didn’t come out right. You’re family, you know I see you that way, but if I talk to Jake, there’s no way in the world it won’t get back to Joe. And even if by some miracle it didn’t, I could never look Jake
in the eye again. Not that I’m sure I’ll ever be able to look you in the eye again, but I need help and you have, well, you have resources that others don’t. You know people all over, you have businesses all over, you know how to get things done.” Karen lifted her hands and let them drop. “I’m making a horrible mess of this. I’d never take advantage of you if I knew of any other way, if I thought I could do this on my own. I tried…”

  “I’m glad you came to me.”

  “Oh, somehow I doubt that.”

  “I am. I’m glad you felt you could. Will you tell me the rest?”

  Karen sighed, then nodded. “Like I said, I don’t remember anything after sitting at the bar. I don’t know how I got to my room, I don’t know how I got into that nightgown, I just don’t know. I woke before Kelly, thank God, and once I sort of had my head together, showered and got rid of that horrible nightgown. I don’t know how I got through that day, how I got to the airport and home without going crazy. I told myself I had to put it out of my mind, try to forget the whole thing, tried to convince myself I could do that, but I was only home for a few hours before I got the first text.”

  Cort’s eyes narrowed. “Text?”

  Karen’s head jerked in an attempt at a nod. “It said a bunch of disgusting stuff and there was…there was a picture. It was me, in bed, wearing that nightgown.”

  Karen put her hand over her mouth and nose to try to quell the sob that rattled her body. Cort held out a box of tissues, but she shook her head. There would be no tears. She refused to cry.

  “I deleted the text immediately. A few days later, I got another. This one demanded money.”

  “What did you do?”

  Karen heard the resignation in Cort’s voice. He knew the answer. “I paid him. I believed, or I tried to make myself believe, if I gave him some money, it would all disappear. I was willing to do anything to keep Joe from finding out. It would’ve killed him.”

  “But it didn’t all disappear.”

  “No. I didn’t get any more texts, at least not for a long time, but I found out I was pregnant.” Karen looked away. The pain was unbearable.

  “I see.”

  She answered his unasked question. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. I’ve wanted to do paternity tests, but I can’t bring myself to go through with it.”

  Cort didn’t say anything right away. He seemed to be weighing his options. “You said you didn’t get any texts for a long time. I take it you’ve gotten another?”

  “Yes. It started again around the time the twins were born. He wants more money. I’ve ignored him, but today he texted again, and his threats are getting more frightening. I know he’ll find a way to get the pictures to Joe.”

  “Has he provided you with any evidence that he even knows who you are aside from your first name or that he knows where you live, knows your family, anything?”

  “Um, no, I guess not really, but how hard can it be to find out? It seems like anyone can find out anything about anyone else these days. There are no secrets on the Internet.”

  “Maybe, but he could be bluffing.”

  “I can’t take that chance.”

  Cort nodded. “You were just in Vegas.”

  Karen raked a hand through her hair. “I tried to find him. I thought I could fix this. I thought I could, I don’t know, tell him I’d pay him once more, but that was it, threaten to go to the police if he contacted me again.”

  “And did you find him?”

  “No. He’s no longer working at the casino where we met him. A couple of his former coworkers seemed to think he’d left Vegas, but I talked to one woman who told me he was still there. I looked, I looked all over, but I didn’t find him.”

  Cort leaned back and his eyes widened. “You went all over Vegas looking for this man? This criminal? You asked people about him? Karen, that was very dangerous. I wish you hadn’t done that. I wish you’d come to me earlier.”

  “Well, I didn’t. Nothing happened.”

  “Still.”

  “Okay, it was probably stupid, but do you know what it’s like living with something like this hanging over your head? Do you? I don’t think so. It’s awful. It’s killing me. Seriously, I feel like I’m dying a slow, painful death. Every day, it’s all I can do to get out of bed, to face another day of lies, of pretending, of wondering if it will be the day that Joe finds out what I did. It’s hell, Cort. I don’t know how else to describe it. Honestly, I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.”

  She pushed to her feet to pace, unable to sit any longer even though she wasn’t entirely certain of her legs’ ability to support her.

  Karen was confident that anyone who knew her well knew she was not one prone to histrionics. At the moment, though, she was also confident that most who knew her well would be hard pressed to even recognize her. The shrill sound coming from her mouth was foreign to her. When she ran a hand through her hair, she felt the dry, split ends shooting from her head in directions hair shouldn’t go. When she moved that hand to her cheek, she found it heated with equal parts frustration and embarrassment. She could picture the red blotches standing out on her otherwise pale complexion like bad clown makeup. No, not many would recognize the person she’d become.

  She stopped in front of the window and watched her town go by. What she wouldn’t give to have nothing to worry about but what she was going to make for dinner or when to find time to take Dylan shopping for new shoes. Even concerns about tight finances seemed like a walk in the park compared to this.

  Karen closed her tired eyes and tried to regain some composure. She couldn’t take up any more of Cort’s time, so needed to get herself back on track. She turned around to find him watching her.

  “I’d like you to help me find him. I’m hoping you might know someone in Las Vegas or have some connections there that might be helpful. I’ll give you what information I have, but I’ll tell you right now, it’s not much. I will do my best to cover whatever expenses come up, but it might take some time to get the money together. I’m sorry about that.”

  “I won’t take any money from you. And I won’t discuss it further,” Cort added when Karen opened her mouth to protest.

  Karen scowled at him. “We’ll see.”

  Cort ignored her. “I’ll do what I can to help you. I know someone. I’ll get in touch with him, but I still think we should get the police involved. You might not be the first woman he’s taken advantage of; you might not be the last. He deserves to be in prison.”

  “I understand all that and I know it sounds selfish, but I can’t think past what he’s done to me, what he’s doing to me, and that’s what I need to fix. I need to fix my life.”

  “It’s not selfish. I didn’t mean to imply anything of the sort. We’ll take it one step at a time. If we’re able to resolve things, maybe then…well, one step at a time.”

  Karen blew out a breath. Relief flooded through her body. She had reason to hope again.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “I THOUGHT VEGAS was scheduled for August,” Shauna said. “You were supposed to be in New York this week.”

  “I was, yes, but Robert called to tell me he has to spend a few days in Dallas, so our meeting got pushed back. I was able to reschedule Vegas for this week. That way, I won’t have as much travelling to do as October gets closer.”

  Shauna’s hands stilled on her keyboard and a smile blossomed on her face. “October?”

  “Yes, October. More precisely, four months from today.”

  Cort crossed the room and stood behind Shauna’s desk chair. He spun her around to face him and delighted in the love he saw in her eyes. He’d never lie to her, but right now he had to toe a fine line between keeping his word to Karen and lying to his future wife.

  Shauna stood and leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Four months. Seems like forever.”

  “You could come with me to Vegas. I know of a place where we can be married by Elvis.”

  “And how do
you know of this place?”

  “Driven by. I promise you I’ve only seen it from the outside.”

  Shauna laughed. “As much as I’d love to be your wife tomorrow, I think I’ll pass on Elvis.” She kissed him before easing from his arms.

  “When are you leaving?”

  “This afternoon.”

  Her shoulders slumped. “Oh.” Then she shrugged. “I guess the original plan was for you to leave for New York tomorrow morning. Not that much difference, I guess.”

  “I’ll miss you too.”

  Shauna looked sideways at him. “I don’t recall saying I’d miss you…”

  Cort chuckled. “I’ll choose to believe you will. Do you have time for lunch before I head to the airport?”

  “I think I can squeeze you in.”

  Cort boarded the company jet feeling better than he’d expected to feel. His lunch with Shauna had played a big part in easing the anxiety surrounding his upcoming trip. He hadn’t lied to her; he hadn’t even stretched the truth. He was going to Las Vegas to check on Mackenzie Industries’ business interests, just as he did every six months, or so. That was true. He’d moved up his trip due to his meeting in New York being postponed. Also true. He wanted to have as little travel as possible on his schedule as the wedding date grew closer. Definitely true. The fact that he’d been able to arrange to meet the person he thought might be able to shed some light on Karen’s problem had also played a part in adjusting his travel plans. Again true, but he assured himself that the promise he’d made to Karen to keep those details from the McCabes was, at least for the time being, justified.

  In the ten days since Karen had shown up in his office, pale, shaky, and terrified, he’d spent a great deal of time thinking about how best to help her. He still felt going to the police was the right thing to do but understood her reluctance. Depending what he learned, he may suggest again, somewhat more forcefully, that she involve the police.

  For now, his first step was meeting with Dave. Cort had first met Dave six years ago when Mackenzie Industries set out to purchase its first property in Las Vegas. It hadn’t taken long to learn doing business in Vegas had its own set of rules. To get things done in a timely manner and without an endless series of hoops through which to jump, you had to know the right people. Dave, it turned out, knew the right people. And for the right price, Dave would say the right things to those right people.