by Debra Webb
Sometimes Colt wondered if his ex-wife allowed the boy to run wild just to get back at Colt for the divorce. God knew Colt had never been allowed to behave this way, and he damned sure hadn’t intended for his son to end up on this plunge into stupidity. But Karen let the boy do anything he wanted. She’d named him after her daddy, Keyton. Colt had been good with that, since his son would carry the Tanner surname. He’d wanted to be fair. But Karen Wilhelm had never played fair in her life. Key hadn’t been a year old the first time Colt caught her cheating. He’d put up with her lies for ten years in an attempt to hold his family together. Then he’d had enough.
He peeled off his shirt and reached for his belt. Key’s cell phone blasting a rap tune stopped him. Mom appeared on the screen. Colt tapped the screen and answered with the same “yo” his son always used.
“Baby, I just wanted to make sure you got home all right. You were a little drunk.”
Outrage coursed through Colt’s veins. “You allowed our son to drive when he’d been drinking?”
Silence screamed across the line.
“Why do you have Key’s phone?”
The cold fury in her voice was nothing compared to the white-hot rage gushing through Colt at the moment. “Because he dropped it while he was climbing through his bedroom window. At the moment he’s passed out on the floor.”
“I’m... I’m sure he wasn’t drinking that much when he left here. He must have stopped at a friend’s on the way home.”
Liar.
“He won’t be driving for a good long while. And he won’t be available by cell, either.”
“My father gave him that truck. You don’t have any right to take it.”
“You would rather I arrest him for driving under the influence? I can definitely do that, and I don’t need your or your daddy’s permission to do it.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
He laughed. “I arrested you, didn’t I?”
Of course, her rich daddy had hired the best lawyer in the county to take care of the situation. So far, he’d managed that feat five times. No wonder their son felt no fear of consequences. He’d watched his mother skate out of trouble his whole life. Including ten years of Colt looking the other way while she screwed her way through the county’s male population.
“My father will be calling you in the morning.”
The call ended.
Colt turned the phone off and shoved it into the pillowcase of the pillow he didn’t use. His boy would never think to look there. God knew his momma wasn’t coming anywhere near Colt’s bed.
He shucked his jeans and boxers and headed for the shower. While he waited for the water to warm he thought of the biggest mistake of his life.
Hurting Rey.
Each time he saw her he was reminded of the enormous mistake he’d made. How the hell had he let her get away? He almost laughed at the idea. He hadn’t let her do anything. Audrey Rose Anderson did what she damned well pleased, then and now.
She had been his everything since he was a kid. If he was honest with himself, he had been fascinated with her since the first day of kindergarten when she kicked the boy who laughed at him for crying. Cutting the other kid some slack, he had no idea Colt’s mother had been dying with cancer. No matter that she’d been so sick, she’d wanted to take her little boy to his first day of school. When she’d left him in the classroom the tears had streamed down his face. Colt had been terrified she would die before he was back at home with her.
After kicking the laughing kid in the shin, Audrey had walked up to Colt and said, “I like your boots. You want to sit at my table?”
They had been friends from that day on. And then he’d fallen in love with her. Head over heels in love. Even now, thinking of her made it hard to breathe.
“You screwed that up, dumbass.”
Colt stepped into the shower and drowned the memories beneath the spray of hot water.
There were some transgressions for which there was no forgiveness. Rey reminded him every chance she got.
Chapter Four
Tuesday, February 26, 8:00 a.m.
“Adding the plea for information was genius.” Audrey laid this morning’s edition of the Gazette on her desk. “Good call, Brian.”
Brian Peterson grinned. “I learned from the best.”
His enthusiasm was contagious and Audrey felt her own lips pull into a smile, no matter that she was utterly exhausted this morning. As her mom would say, “as tired when she got up as she had been when she went to bed.” “My uncle was a good mentor.”
“I meant you,” Brian clarified.
Audrey laughed. “You were helping my uncle run this paper long before I came back to take over.”
“I watched your career,” Brian argued. “Learned a lot from your approach to a story.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere,” she pointed out.
“I know.” He lifted an eyebrow at her. “I survived kindergarten through senior year with you as one of my best friends. I think I know you pretty well.”
“It’s a miracle either one of us survived.”
Brian was a good friend, had been since they were kids in school. She would never forget freshman year sitting at his side, just the two of them, at a table in the school cafeteria the day another former friend announced to the world that Brian was gay. One of her best memories of that entire year happened on that day. Colt, big football star, had swaggered over to their table and sat down on the other side of Brian. Her chest filled with remembered pride. What had happened to the guy who stood by his friends through thick and thin to make him break the heart of the girl madly in love with him?
“You’re thinking about Colt.”
Brian’s words snapped her back to the here and now. She blinked, rearranged her expression into a frown. “What?”
But her faux look of surprise didn’t fool her old friend for a moment. “Uh-huh. That’s what I thought.”
Rather than have that conversation, she moved on. “Have any calls with useful information come in this morning?”
“A few,” he said, “but don’t try changing the subject. How long can you hold an eighteen-year-old’s drunken mistake against him?”
Okay, so he wasn’t going to let it go. Winning the football championship senior year had culminated in a party at a cabin belonging to the family of one of the players. Everyone had gone. Except Audrey. She’d had the flu. The following spring the whole school knew the rest of the story—Karen Wilhelm was obviously pregnant. Karen was only too happy to name Colt as the father. Audrey barely managed to finish out the school year and stumble through graduation. If not for Brian and Sasha, her two best friends, she would have skipped the ceremonial stuff altogether.
“Forever,” she said in answer to Brian’s question—the one he asked about once a month. “Have any of the calls offered leads we might want to follow up on?” she asked again.
He sighed and shook his head. “Not yet.”
“We need to know more about this Wesley Sauder.” Audrey walked over to the large chalkboard her father had used. It took up the better part of one wall. Her father had kept all sorts of notes on it, but he’d always kept one small corner free for her to draw and doodle whenever she visited his office. By the time she was in sixth grade she generally walked to the paper rather than go home. She’d done her homework right here in this office.
“You have basically everything we know outlined.” Brian joined her at the chalkboard. “Sauder moved here ten years ago from Illinois. The way I heard the story, he came upon Melvin Yoder in a pasture being charged by a bull or something like that. Saved his life. Yoder took him under his wing in the community, and the guy married the older man’s daughter. Ten years and four kids later, he’s way up the hierarchy in the Mennonite community. Mr. Yoder is very ill, and rumor has it, everyone is looking to Sa
uder to hold things together moving forward.”
Audrey scanned the notes they’d taped to the board. “Sauder is forty-eight, more than a decade older than his wife.”
Brian tapped a photo of Sarah he’d dug up from an article done on the Yoder Bakery a couple of years ago. “She is the only daughter Yoder claims and his middle child. At twenty-four and unmarried when the accident happened, she was bordering on old maid status. Giving his daughter as a wife to the man who saved his life killed two birds with one stone, so to speak.”
“Seriously?” Audrey couldn’t believe anyone still considered an unmarried woman in her midtwenties an old maid.
Brian held up his hands. “Their views are less progressive. We all know you’re not an old maid just because you’re single and thirtysomething.”
Choosing to ignore the subject, she said, “You said the only daughter he claims. Does he have another one? I don’t remember another one.”
“Bethany. She’s several years younger than us. She’s thirty-one, maybe. She dropped out of school at sixteen and disappeared. Ran off to Nashville to be a singer.”
“What happened to her after that?” Maybe that was why Audrey didn’t remember her.
“Fame and riches weren’t in the cards for her, I guess. Eventually she came back, but her family shunned her or maybe she shunned them. She works as a waitress at one of the bars on the other side of town. Never married. Just lives her life.”
Like you, Audrey.
She thought of the birth announcement she’d noticed in today’s paper. Another of her high school classmates was having a child. She and Sasha Lenoir were the only ones left who hadn’t married. Even Brian had a husband. Last year they had adopted a little girl. Audrey had shoes. Lots of shoes. And a huge house that felt so very empty. At least Sasha still had her career. She was the best crisis manager in the Northeast. It had been far too long since she and Audrey had spent time together. They needed a girls’ weekend. Time to catch up and relax. Time to just be.
“Back in elementary school there was a girl from the class above us who spent a lot of time with Sarah,” Brian said.
Audrey dismissed the notions of getaways and looked at Brian in surprise. “Really? Someone from our school?” The Mennonite community had their own school. They didn’t socialize with outsiders beyond what was necessary to conduct business.
“Remember the old Yarborough place?”
“The abandoned house that used to be a rental?” The Yarboroughs were long dead when Audrey was a child. Whoever had inherited the place lived in another state but opted to keep the home. One of the local real estate companies had maintained and rented the house until a few years ago. The property was right next to the Yoder place.
Brian nodded, a glint in his eye. “Nikki owns the diner now. She lived in the old Yarborough house all during elementary school. I wouldn’t be surprised if she and Sarah have remained friends.”
“Nikki Wells?” Audrey vaguely remembered the older girl.
“She’s Nikki Slater now. Two kids.” Brian sent her a pointed look. “I say this not to remind you that everyone we know is having babies, but because she will show off the pictures, so you might as well be prepared.”
“Thanks. I’ll head that way. I could use a decent cup of coffee.” Audrey smiled as she rounded her desk and reached for her purse. She loved her old friend, but the man did not know the first thing about making coffee.
Brian crossed his arms over his chest. “I make a perfect cup of coffee. Unless you’re one of those people who prefer coffee capable of being substituted for asphalt patch.”
She flashed him a patient smile. “See you later.” Audrey headed for the door.
“One more thing,” he called behind her.
She paused at the door. Brian really was her best friend in the world. She adored him despite his inability to understand the purpose of coffee. She needed it strong enough to make her pay attention and packed with enough caffeine to keep her that way. “Yes?”
“Braden House wants to know if you’re interested in spearheading another fund-raiser this year. They’re still praising you for surpassing their goal last year. No one has ever raised as much money as you did.”
Braden House was a refuge for abused women. “I would love to spearhead this year’s fund-raiser. It’s not until October, right?”
He nodded. “I knew you would. That’s why I told them yes yesterday.”
Audrey gave him a thumbs-up. “Thanks.”
“You are such a do-gooder, Anderson.” He rolled his eyes. “You need to funnel some of that energy toward a personal life.”
“I am extremely happy with my personal life just as it is—personal.”
She managed to get the door open this time before he interrupted. “We really need to have someone find out where that water in the basement is coming from,” he called after her. “I checked last night and there’s a little more than last time. It’s not that much water, but it worries me that it’s more than just dampness seeping up from the concrete. It’s actual water standing on the floor.”
Even as her heart pounded harder, Audrey held up a hand and produced a decisive tone. “I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry. This building is more than two hundred years old. There’s probably an underground spring or something. We just need to get all that concrete resealed with that whatever-it’s-called stuff that stops water penetration.”
“You’re the boss.”
Audrey laughed at the comment before walking out of her office. In many ways Brian was far more the boss than she was. She didn’t mind sharing that title with him. She descended the stairs and walked directly to the rear exit, grateful the lobby was empty and the receptionist was tied up on the phone. By the time she reached the small employee parking lot just out the back door, her heart rate had settled to some semblance of normal. She would call someone about the basement. There was no denying the issue any longer. Just not today.
She drew in a deep, calming breath of the cool morning air. She was grateful for the matching sweater she’d chosen to go along with her plum-colored trousers. The high temperature would reach into the sixties by noon, but this morning it was well below that mark.
Settling into the driver’s seat, she fisted her fingers to rid them of the lingering trembles. For a moment she stared at the building that had been in her family for more than two centuries. She rarely came in through the front lobby. The offices were set up the old-fashioned way, in a ring around the second floor overlooking the expansive lobby. There was a large and a small conference room. Downstairs, the lobby was filled with Gazette history. Third graders from the elementary schools toured the exhibit every year. Beyond the lobby, the supply room, the break room and the massive space where the papers were printed consumed the rest of the square footage. The basement had never been used for anything other than storage of unused equipment or ancient files. The maintenance parts of the building, like the heating and cooling systems, were housed there as well.
No reason to be overly concerned about a little water in a basement. It had happened numerous times before.
Not a priority for now.
* * *
THE CORNER DINER was on the southeast corner of the square. It was a lunch staple of the downtown square and courthouse crowd. Nikki Wells Slater’s family started the diner in the 1940s. At eight forty-five in the morning the breakfast crowd had dwindled.
Audrey sat down at one end of the deserted bar and ordered coffee. Several other business owners smiled as they passed on their way out or paused to say good morning. Audrey sipped her coffee while Nikki took an order at a table. Once she’d delivered it to the order station and turned back to the bar, Audrey smiled.
Nikki wandered over. “You ready for a refill?”
Audrey shook her head. “I’m good. How are you, Nikki?” She had grabbed a quick lunch in the
diner on several occasions, but she and Nikki hadn’t actually talked beyond a hello or thank you.
“I’m great.” She smiled and gestured to the wall next to the order window where photos of her two children, a girl and a boy, formed a cheerful collage. “My kids are happy and healthy and so far my husband is still trying to impress me.”
Audrey laughed. “You can’t ask for more than that.”
“That’s the truth.” Nikki considered her a moment. “So, how are you, Rey?”
“I’m settling in. Circulation is up in print and in online subscriptions. I’m happy.”
The other woman’s expression shifted to a more serious one. “How’s your momma?”
Audrey shrugged. “Some days are better than others, but all in all she’s okay. Thank you for asking.”
Nikki grabbed a towel and wiped the counter next to Audrey. “That’s good. She used to come in here all the time for my momma’s lemon pie. She said it was the best pie in the world.”
“I’ve taken it to her a few times since I’ve been back.” One of these days Audrey might even try a slice herself. “How are your parents?”
Nikki’s parents had retired and moved to Florida last year. Even though Winchester was a small town, a lot had changed since Audrey left for college. Thank goodness for Brian. He had spent days when Audrey first moved back to Winchester bringing her up to speed on who had died or moved or married, and anything else he considered relevant. People around here expected you to ask about their kin. Weddings, baby showers and funerals were necessary social events. Miss one and your name was tarnished.
“They miss their grandbabies but they love life on the beach. We go down four or five times a year and spend a week. They come here a couple times a year so it’s not so bad. They’re happy, that’s what matters.”
