Shadow in Serenity

by Terri Blackstock

  Their eyes locked for a long moment, and finally, he said, “I’m sorry I caused all this trouble.”

  She gave a mirthless laugh. “I honestly thought you’d be halfway to Mexico by now.”

  He didn’t know what to say. There was no point in trying to hide anything from her. “I’m not going anywhere, Carny.”

  “I saw the suitcase and boxes, Brisco.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything.” He was quiet for a moment, thinking of all the things he wanted to say. But she wouldn’t believe any of them. Finally, he said, “You’d better get to bed. We have an early lesson tomorrow. I think I’ll be able to take off with no problem, but I need some help learning how to land.”

  Understanding flickered in her eyes, and she said, “I’m not sure you’re ready, Brisco.”

  “Sometimes it’s just easier to glide. But sooner or later, a man has to come down. I just need help learning how.”

  Logan walked back to his rented car on the street near the trees beside Nathan’s house. As he drove away, he wondered if she believed that he’d still be in town tomorrow morning.

  What would happen if he told the towns people that King Enterprises had decided to pull the plug on the park — that they wouldn’t be building it anywhere? He could give all the money back. He hadn’t spent much yet. Then he could stay here in town, get a real job, buy a house, get to know Carny better.

  No, it wasn’t that simple. Someone would learn the truth. Carny was already sniffing it out, with what she’d learned about Montague. There was no way he could stay here indefinitely without the truth coming out.

  It wasn’t that he feared the authorities. If he gave the money back, no law would have been broken. But he hated the thought of Carny learning for sure that he was a crook. He couldn’t belong in a place where people knew who he really was — even if he stopped being that person.

  He pulled back into the Welcome Inn’s parking lot, then sat in his dark car and looked up at the night sky. “God, I don’t know if you’re there or not. Maybe you don’t listen to grifters. Can’t say I blame you. But if it’s true that you can change people, then maybe you could change me.” His voice broke, and he pressed his head on his steering wheel. “If only these people could accept a man like me the way they accepted Carny.”

  He stopped himself, feeling ridiculous. What was he doing? Praying? Did he really think he could just start playing the part of a decent citizen and make it stick?

  He went back up to his room. Jack greeted him at the door, glad to see him, and Logan realized that the dog had finally stopped waiting for Slade. He depended on Logan now. In some small way, that was a victory. There was someone who cared whether he ever saw him again. There was someone who needed him. Even if it was a dog.

  Squatting, Logan petted the animal, and Jack licked his face. “Did you miss me, boy? I don’t think anybody has ever missed me before.” He stood and opened the door again. “You need to go out? Come on.”

  Together, they walked down the stairs and across the parking lot to the cluster of trees where Jack had been doing his business. As the dog sniffed around for the perfect place, Logan talked to him quietly.

  “Jack, if a guy was going to make good on a promise and do something he’d never really intended to do, where would he start?”

  The dog gave him a sidelong glance, then kept sniffing the trees. “I mean, if I built the park for real, then I wouldn’t be a fraud. And it would help the town. It really could pull them out of their slump. But where to start?”

  No answer came, and he felt the weight of Serenity on his chest. Maybe it was stupid. Maybe it was ludicrous to think that he could actually build the park and stay here in Serenity, with everyone believing he was exactly who he said he was.

  When Jack finished, they went back in, and the dog sat on the bed and watched him as he unpacked his bags. “I have to approach it like a con artist,” he said. “Look at all the possibilities, as far-fetched as they may be. I’ve done impossible things before, and I’ve persuaded people to do outrageous things. Why couldn’t I convince the bankers to actually do this?”

  King Enterprises was his own company, complete with a business license and address at a P.O. box inside a UPS store. Its phone number had a recorded greeting that made the place sound legit. But what if it became legit?

  As he talked to the dog, ideas began to whirl through his head. He could do it, if he just planned it out carefully enough. It didn’t matter that he had lied about there being other investors, or that he’d never tried to communicate with Roland Thunder, or that he didn’t even know who owned the land he was proposing to build the park on. He could find a way to make good on those claims after the fact. He could do it now.

  Plans poured through his mind as the night grew older. He worked through the night, making timelines, checking facts. And as dawn brought the first rays of sunlight through his window, he felt better than he’d felt in a long time.

  The challenge breathed new life into him. He was ready to pull the biggest con of his life. The one that wasn’t a con at all.

  twenty-six

  Carny was almost surprised to see Logan when he pulled up at the hangar the next morning. Even though he had helped her find Jason, and despite that quiet, vulnerable moment last night, she half expected that he had disappeared in the dead of night.

  Yet here he was, with Jack at his heels, ready for his lesson as if it were any other day in Serenity.

  “How’s Jason this morning?” Logan asked as he entered the office.

  She smiled. “Fine. I was going to keep him home from school, since he didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, but he wanted to go.”

  “Good,” he said. “I’m glad he’s okay.”

  It was only then that she noticed he was holding something behind his back. “What’s that? What are you hiding?”

  With an awkward grin, he brought the wrapped box around and handed it to her. “It’s for you. I hope I got the right size.”

  “For me?” She looked almost distressed as she took it. “Logan, you shouldn’t have gotten me —”

  “No, it’s really from Jason,” he said. “Sort of. Open it and I’ll explain.”

  She opened the box and pulled out the red dress that had been on the mannequin in the window of Miss Mabel’s Boutique for the past two weeks. She had noticed it, but she would never have bought it for herself. It was too expensive, for one thing, and it would definitely draw attention — something that made her uncomfortable. Still, she tried to smile. “It’s … beautiful. But … how could it be from Jason?”

  Logan leaned against her desk, smiling. “Yesterday when Jason gave me the money, he told me what he would do with his earnings. He said the first thing he’d buy was that dress in Miss Mabel’s window, so that you could wear it and find a husband.”

  Carny almost choked. “What?”

  Logan chuckled. “Yep. That’s what he said. He wanted you to look nice so you could find a husband.”

  Flabbergasted, she dropped the dress back into the box. “I hope you told him that I’m not in the market for a husband.”

  “I told him I had that feeling. He said it didn’t matter, that the dress would make husband candidates find you.”

  She moaned and dropped into her chair. “That child.”

  “It was sweet,” Logan said. “And this morning I thought it was kind of sad that Jason wasn’t going to earn that money now. I hated to think of you going through the rest of your life without finding a husband, so I thought I’d go ahead and get it as soon as they opened. Time’s a-wasting.”

  Twisting her lips to keep from laughing, Carny threw the dress at him and hit him in the face.

  “Hey, now!” Laughing, Logan caught it and shook it out. “It really is gorgeous, Carny. I think you should wear it.”

  “It’s not me,” she said. “But thanks, anyway. You can take it back now.”

  “Oh, no,” he said. “I insist that you keep it. Your son has excell
ent taste, even if his motives are a little questionable.”

  She took the dress back and sighed. “Where on earth would I wear this?”

  His smile grew more serious. “Guess someone will just have to take you out someplace fancy.”

  “I’m not the fancy type.”

  “Oh, but I think you are,” he said. “There’s a beautiful French restaurant in Houston, and it would do that dress justice.”

  “Well, Houston’s a long way from here.”

  “Not by plane.”

  She laughed. “Right. We’re supposed to hop in the plane and jaunt down to Houston for one dinner? I don’t think so.”

  “A woman who drives a Harley can’t be spontaneous enough to do that?”

  She regarded him soberly. “I like adventure, but I have Jason to think of and a business to run.”

  “What if it coincided with business?” he asked.

  She smiled at his persistence. “How could it?”

  “Easy. I hire you to fly me to Houston, and then Dallas, and later to Austin, where I have to meet with some of the bankers who want to talk to me about investing in the park. While we’re there, I take you to dinner … in that red dress.”

  His mention of his investors took the amusement out of the moment. She folded the dress and laid it back in the box. “Come on, Logan. We both know there aren’t any investors. And I’m not interested in flying your getaway plane.”

  “Getaway plane?” he asked, throwing his hand over his heart. “I’m hurt. Carny, you’ll know my every move. We’ll get hotel rooms next door to each other, so you can hear me if I skip out. And I’ll have to leave Jack with somebody while I’m meeting with my team. He can stay with you, sort of as collateral.”

  She hesitated, wanting to believe him. “Logan, are you forgetting that I saw the packed suitcases last night?”

  “You never gave me the chance to explain.”

  “Explain what? You were on your way out of town.”

  “Yes, but why? It was for this trip, but I was planning to go by car. Your reaction made me realize what people might think if I just disappeared like that. So I’ll keep my room here, leave all my stuff, and one of Serenity’s most upstanding citizens will fly me wherever I need to go and keep an eye on me while I’m there.”

  For a moment, she only stared at him, wondering if he could, indeed, be trusted.

  “Come on, Carny. I have to meet with these people. It’s very important. I’m offering you the chance to make sure I don’t run out with the money.”

  “All right,” she said, finally. “I’ll do it. But it’s going to cost you.”

  “I never doubted that.”

  “When do we leave?”

  “I was thinking about Monday. That should give us time to get all our ducks in a row. And we won’t have to miss the church picnic Saturday.”

  She stared at him for a long moment. “Okay,” she said, finally. “I’ll make sure that time is free.”

  “And don’t forget the dress,” he said.

  She held his gaze for a second longer than she should have. “Thanks, Brisco. For the dress, and for Jason …”

  Logan shrugged. Their eyes locked, eloquent with words that shouldn’t be spoken.

  “I guess we should go out to the plane now. You wanted me to teach you how to land, didn’t you?”

  Logan smiled and followed her out.

  twenty-seven

  Carny stepped into the sheriff’s office, a slow-moving, quiet place, where a handful of men in uniform sat with their feet up on their desks, reading the paper, talking on the phone, and waiting for a call to come in so they’d have something to do. Joey sat at his desk in the corner, intent on a Newsweek article he was reading.

  “Hey, Joey,” she said, startling him.

  He jumped to his feet. “Carny. I thought you weren’t coming until later.”

  “You got me so curious on the phone,” she said, “I had to come find out.”

  “Yeah, well, we got the FBI file back on that fellow.” He set the magazine down and reached for the folder at the corner of his desk.

  “Montague Shelton,” she said. “Was there any mention of Logan?”

  “Not by name.” He sat back down and flipped through the file. “But there was something interesting. Several accounts say that Shelton traveled with a companion. Some said it was a teenage boy, others claimed it was a man in his twenties. The common description was that he was tall — around six-two. But each description has different hair color, different ages, beard, no beard, mustache, no mustache. Shelton’s sidekick went by Mark Sanders, Larry Jenkins, Skip Parker, and Lawrence Cartland. Who knows if it’s all the same guy? Could be different people.”

  Carny leaned forward, reading over his shoulder. “Look at this. One of their victims, a wealthy lady who gave them ten thousand dollars to invest in a real-estate venture, described the younger man as having ‘a charming, friendly grin, rather nice looking, brown hair, blue eyes, and a demeanor that made you trust him instantly.’ “

  Joey looked up at her. “Sounds like she still liked him, even after he suckered her. Does that sound like anyone we know?”

  Carny studied the report, frowning. “It could describe any number of people.”

  Joey looked surprised. “The only one like that around here is Logan. The smile, the eyes, the hair, the fast talking.”

  “Yeah, but it could be two different people.” She flipped through the pages in the file, stopping at one full of pictures. Most had been taken by video cameras at banks and automated teller machines, but there was no way to identify either of the men, for they were obviously wearing disguises. “How long ago was all this?”

  “At least fifteen years,” Joey said. “When Shelton died, they must have closed the file.”

  “And they never looked for the other guy?”

  “Oh, they convicted a guy named Lawrence Cartland, but it couldn’t have been Logan, because that guy was convicted and sentenced to fifteen years. He would still be serving. Might get out early for good behavior or work off some of his time, but not that much.”

  “Besides,” she said, “Logan really did graduate from college during that time, and I talked to people who worked with him at A&R Marketing.”

  Joey looked puzzled, and she understood his confusion. She was the one who’d urged him to investigate Logan in the first place, convinced that Logan was a crook. Now she was arguing against it. Why? Because, she admitted to herself, she didn’t want to believe Logan was a two-bit thief. She thought about the things Logan had told her the other night, when she had confronted him about Montague. What if he had been telling the truth, and his con-artist history had died with Montague Shelton? What if he’d been on the level ever since? She, of all people, had to believe that people could change.

  “Carny, I’m thinking about sending a picture of Logan to the FBI, so they can check with other scam victims to see if they can identify him.”

  “No,” Carny said quickly. “I don’t think that would be right.”

  He looked at her as if she were crazy. “Why? You’re defending him, aren’t you? I don’t get it.”

  “No, it’s just that … I’m having my doubts now. And I’d hate to start some big FBI investigation on him if he’s changed.”

  His jaw dropped. “I thought you didn’t believe the deal was really going to happen. What’s up?”

  She sighed. “He gave back Slade’s check. He could have kept it but he handed it over to Slade’s daughter. And last night, it was Logan who brought Jason home. Logan didn’t have to look for him, but he did. The dog confuses me a little too. Why would a con man take on the responsibility of a dog? It doesn’t make sense if he constantly has to skip town and doesn’t want to be identified. And then there’s the trip he’s scheduled for next week. He has meetings, he says, with his big investors in Houston, and he’s hiring me to fly him.”

  Joey’s face changed. “You’re falling for him, aren’t you?”

&
nbsp; Carny gasped. “No! Of course not! How could you even suggest that?”

  “If he’s a swindler, Carny, then he’s a good one. If he can make you believe in him, then he can fool anyone.”

  “Maybe he’s not fooling us, Joey. Maybe this is all for real.”

  “Do you really think so?”

  She paused for a long moment, trying to decide. Who was she kidding? There were still doubts in her mind. “No, not really. Go ahead and send the picture in. I guess it couldn’t hurt too much to find out.”

  “All right,” Joey said, pleased. “Now all I have to do is get one. I’ve asked around — nobody seems to have the man’s picture. But it shouldn’t be hard to get one.”

  “What about his driver’s license picture? Can’t you pull that up?”

  “I tried. Haven’t been able to find one in his name. Do you know what state it would be in?”

  “Alabama or Virginia, maybe?”

  “Nope. Checked both.”

  “Well, you could pull him over for a traffic violation. He’d have to show you his license then.”

  “I’ve followed him already, but the man never speeds.”

  “You don’t have to wait till he does.”

  “Yeah, I do. The mayor invested, and he asked the sheriff not to harass him. He was afraid he’d choose another town.”

  “Then take a picture of him on your phone.”

  “Yeah, I’ll try that.”

  As Carny left the station, a sense of dread washed over her. It suddenly occurred to her that she didn’t want to know who Logan Brisco really was. She liked the illusion he had painted in her mind. The one where he was just a nice guy with a big idea and a talent for persuasion. The guy who would take her out to dinner someplace worthy of a red dress.

  Jason seemed pensive that night at supper. Worried that he was still angry at her, Carny took his hand and made him look at her. “What’s wrong, Jase? Let’s talk.”

  He shrugged. “Nothing. I was just thinking about Logan. It’s sad about his mom.”

  “What about her?”

  “Well, he told me he loved her and she died when he was five. Mom, no one told him, and for all those years, he just waited and waited for her to come get him. He didn’t know what happened to her.”