Beyond a Doubt

by Colleen Coble

  Pulling the car into Brian’s driveway, she sat back and stared at the house backlit by the setting sun. Would she and Brian have a house like this someday? The Swiss chalet–style house faced Lake Superior and had its own beach. A long pier reached out into the water where their large yacht, Kitchigami Belle, was anchored in the summer. Today, of course, there was no sign of water, just ice and snow as far as she could see.

  Lauri fully intended to learn to sail that boat this summer. And she knew Dr. Parker would teach her. He liked her, even if Kade couldn’t stand Brian. She liked Dr. Parker almost better than she did Brian. He was easy to talk to and not judgmental. He said that when he retired he’d take her and Brian on a long boat trip clear to the Atlantic.

  She could be on a boat right now in California if not for Kade. She could be doing a lot of things, maybe even acting. A movie director might have seen her and signed her up if she’d just had the chance. But not here in Rock Harbor. The only thing she could do here was go crazy.

  She swung her long legs out of the car, liking the way her tight jeans showed off their shape. Holding herself erect in a way that showed her figure to its best advantage, she carried the cookies to the house. She’d almost reached the door when a wave of sadness swept over her. Why couldn’t someone love her for herself and not for her looks?

  She longed to have her friends look up to her, to be a hero like Bree. Zorro had a long way to go though. An instant image of Anu’s kind blue eyes swept through her mind. If she could help save Anu, it would be a start, even if it was only a start for her to respect herself.

  She shook off her melancholy mood and pressed the doorbell button firmly. A few moments later the door swung open, and Brian smiled at her with a look of pride. The possessive way he took her arm irritated her, and she pulled away.

  “What?” he said.

  “Don’t jerk me around like some Barbie doll,” she said. She stepped inside and pulled the door shut behind her.

  He held up his hands defensively. “Well, excu-u-se me!” He stalked toward the family room.

  Lauri, feeling oddly disconsolate, trailed after him. Brian plopped on the tan leather sofa in front of the TV. He pointedly ignored her, and Lauri knew he would stay that way until she apologized. As far as she was concerned, he could sulk awhile. She put the cookies on the counter then went to the small refrigerator behind the wet bar in one corner and got a beer.

  Kade would have a cow if he knew she was drinking. But she liked the buzz it gave her. It had taken awhile to get past the taste though. She grimaced at the first swig then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

  “Get me one too,” Brian called.

  Lauri obliged and sat beside him. She studied the curve of his jaw and the way his mustache was trying to grow in fits and starts of peach fuzz. “Brian, do you love me?” she asked softly.

  “Sure I do, babe. I’ve told you plenty of times.” He leaned over and leered at her. “And I could prove it once again. The old man is gone until at least eleven, and the sauna is just waiting for us.”

  Her eyes stinging with tears, Lauri looked away. She was the one who’d been asked to prove she loved him. If he really loved her, wouldn’t he have wanted to wait until marriage? Wouldn’t he have thought of her instead of what he wanted?

  Brian huffed in exasperation when she failed to respond to his teasing. “What is with you lately, Lauri?”

  “Sex is not all there is to love,” she said in a muffled voice. She wouldn’t look at him.

  “I thought we’d have a fun time tonight, and you’re acting like a prude. Has your brother been hammering at you to go to church again?” He sounded hurt, his little-boy act that usually brought her around to what he wanted. Tonight it left her cold.

  Lauri didn’t answer him. She got up and put her unfinished beer on the coffee table. “I think I’ll go,” she said.

  Brian jumped to his feet and ran his finger down her cheek. “Hey, don’t go. Everyone’s going to be here in a half hour. I even got some champagne. Have you forgotten it’s our six-month anniversary? We started going out six months ago today.”

  Lauri had forgotten, but it didn’t matter. All she wanted was to be by herself. She shook off Brian’s hand and rushed to the door then hurried down the driveway to her car.

  Driving away from the house, she swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. What was wrong with her? Brian loved her, and she was acting like an idiot. If she wasn’t careful, Sarah Cappo would be only too glad to move right in.

  She resisted the impulse to return to Brian’s house and apologize. His attentions held no antidote for her pain. Anu would welcome her, but in spite of looking up to the older woman, she wasn’t who Lauri wanted. She wanted her mother, and she wanted someone to love her. Weeping softly, she drove out to the cemetery.

  Snowdrifts covered most of the headstones and should have made it difficult to find the one she wanted, but Lauri had been here so often she could have found it in the dark. She battled her way through the drifts to her parents’ stone. Dropping to her knees, she brushed away the snow. She didn’t want her parents to be the way she was, so cold and alone.

  She looked at the graves. THEODORE JAMES MATTHEWS. LUCILLE MARIE MATTHEWS. When she had a baby, she was going to name it after one of her parents. No one had ever loved her like her mother and father.

  She threw herself on top of the snow that mounded her mother’s grave. “Mom, why did you leave me?” she wailed. “I’m so alone without you.”

  7

  The sheriff and his men were out in force the next few days looking for Quentin Siller, but he’d gone into hiding. Bree didn’t care about Quentin. He was likely out of the state by now. She had much more important things on her mind, like seeing Anu now that she was back from Finland and preparing for Davy’s first Easter back home with his family.

  This was Bree’s first Easter as a Christian, and though she’d been a part of the traditional dinner at Anu’s ever since marrying Rob, this year the religious holiday held special meaning for her. Jesus had come up out of the grave, and he’d done so for her. She still couldn’t fathom that kind of selfless love, especially when she thought of the way she’d treated Rob.

  With Davy on her lap, and Kade and Lauri on either side of her, Bree couldn’t imagine being any happier. The family deliberately avoided all mention of Quentin Siller and the body in the basement and concentrated on enjoying the day and one another.

  Bree had attempted another apple pie. It was lopsided and a bit scorched on one side, though everyone assured her it was good. One bite of it herself and she got up and dumped it in the trash.

  “It’s not fit to eat,” she said. “Next year it will be perfect. I’ll listen to Julia more carefully next year. I was out of foil and didn’t cover the edges.”

  She saw the grin Kade tried to hide and burst into laughter herself. “Just wait and see,” she promised.

  “Can I help you with the dishes?” Bree got up to follow Anu.

  “I was about to challenge Davy to a game of Fish, so we’ll pass,” Kade said.

  “Yeah!” Davy said, jumping up to run to the table where Anu kept his games.

  “I’ll help.” Lauri followed them to the kitchen.

  “I have the dishwasher,” Anu said. “But I always want your company.”

  Bree began to scrape scraps onto a paper plate for Samson. “Does missing your husband at holidays get easier with time?”

  Anu paused with a dish in her hand. “Abraham never enjoyed family meals. Sometimes I look back and wonder how we ever got together. We were so different. And after I became a Christian, our differences grew even more.”

  “I thought you’d always been a Christian,” Lauri said, handing a plate to Bree. Her grin showed she wasn’t serious.

  Anu smiled. “Ah, I was a wild thing in my youth, though I know it is hard to imagine now when you see me as an old woman.”

  “You’re not old!” Bree and Lauri said at the sa
me time.

  “You see through the eyes of love,” Anu said, touching Lauri’s nose. “But I wanted many things when I was young—pretty clothes, a nice house, perfect children. Things that should not have mattered. And Abraham liked having other men admire me, so he let me buy whatever I wanted. One day I went to church with a friend and saw for the first time how shallow my life was. My desires began to change when I met Christ a few weeks later. I often wonder if that is what really drove Abraham away. He knew the old wife was gone forever.”

  “A better one replaced the old,” Bree said.

  Anu smiled and began to load the dishwasher. “Not better, just redeemed.”

  Lauri didn’t feel like staying home. Kade was parked in front of the television, and she aimlessly wandered through the kitchen. Though the day had gone well at Anu’s Easter celebration, Lauri felt as if she’d been cooped up all day. She could bake cookies or make popcorn, but neither idea held any appeal.

  “I’m going for a drive,” she told Kade. She grabbed her keys and coat and went toward the door.

  “Now?” Kade glanced at his watch. “It’s nearly eight.”

  “I won’t be gone long. I’ll just run by the convenience store and get a soda and a candy bar. Want something?”

  “Nah, I’ll make popcorn if I get hungry. Want me to come with you?”

  That was the last thing Lauri wanted. Being around him all day had been enough of a chore. She managed to bite back the retort hovering on her lips and merely shook her head. “See you later.”

  Lauri’s thoughts turned back to the cedar chest as she made her way along the dimly lit streets. She needed to find out about those pictures, but who could she trust? Bree? She rejected that idea at once. Bree’s first loyalty would be to Kade. Maybe Naomi would help her. Or Anu. But she hated to worry Anu until she knew what was going on. Naomi would be her best ally. Maybe she could find a time to talk to her when Bree wasn’t around.

  The gas pumps of Honkala Service Station were in sight when she saw Brian’s car go whizzing by in the other direction. He was talking with obvious animation to Klepto, and neither one noticed her tentative wave. She pulled to the side of the road and turned around, intending to catch up with them and join in whatever plans they had for the evening. As she turned the car around, she saw Brian’s taillights wink then go out. He was either driving with no lights or he’d stopped the car.

  Curious now, Lauri put out her own lights and let the car inch forward along the side of Whisper Road, turning onto Echo Canyon Road. She had little trouble seeing in the bright moonlight. This road led to a dilapidated boat ramp no one used anymore. Lauri couldn’t remember the last time she’d been down this way.

  She thought the boat ramp was only a few more yards, so she killed the engine and got out quietly. What were the boys up to? Spying on them gave her the same rush as looking through other people’s belongings. Brian would wig out if he knew what she was doing. She’d have to be careful.

  She veered into the muddy grass where her footsteps would be muffled. The shape of Brian’s car loomed in the darkness, and she slowed. She didn’t see or hear either of the boys. Maybe they were still in the car.

  But as she slid down a hill that led to the dock and Lake Superior, she heard voices. Angry voices. Her heart pounded in her ears. She dropped to her knees and crept to a thicket where the vegetation stopped and the sand began. Brian stood with hunched shoulders while another man berated him.

  The sound of the waves hitting the beach muffled the inflection, but the words carried to where Lauri lay.

  “This is the biggest haul of your career. I could have gotten any number of guys to help, but you swore I could trust you.” He said something else, but the surf obscured the words.

  Lauri couldn’t make out the speaker’s face in the darkness. Swathed in a heavy coat, he stood with his back to her hiding place. Maybe it was that Neville Brian had been talking about.

  “It won’t happen again,” Brian mumbled.

  “If it does, you’re going to be feeding the fish in the lake. You just cost me nearly twenty thousand dollars.”

  “I ran out of gas.”

  The man slapped his palm against his forehead. “What was I thinking? That I expected you to be old enough to check stupid details like whether you had enough gas? I must have been crazy.”

  Lauri winced. Poor Brian. What had he missed by running out of gas?

  “I’m sorry,” Brian said. “I can go out now.”

  The man pushed Brian, and he fell to the ground. “It’s too late now.” The man swore and kicked Brian where he lay.

  Lauri curled her fingers into her palms. She couldn’t help him. Should she get back to her car and call for help on her cell phone? Was Brian in real danger?

  Before she could decide what to do, the man swore again and grabbed Brian by the arm, hauling him to his feet. “I’ll try to set it up again for Saturday. Don’t disappoint me again.”

  “I won’t, I swear.” Brian was practically stammering.

  “Saturday night. Nine o’clock. If you’re late, you’d better turn tail and run.”

  Which was exactly what Lauri decided she’d better do. She shuddered to think what they’d do if they caught her here. She knew about part of Brian’s “business,” but this sounded more serious. She grabbed a root and tried to pull herself up the hill then lost her balance and tumbled into a bush. The vegetation rustled loudly.

  “What’s that?”

  Galvanized by the alarm in the man’s voice, Lauri shot to her feet and launched herself up the hill, all thought of maintaining secrecy lost. She heard feet pound after her, but she had a head start and reached her car in time to speed away as two figures crested the hill. Hopefully, they were too far away to identify her or her car.

  Her throat tight with fear, she slammed her foot to the accelerator and pointed the Plymouth toward home.

  The strobe of the Fresnel lens in the lighthouse guided Bree home. The holiday had been as perfect as Anu knew how to make it. Bree thought of the way Anu shone Jesus’ light to everyone she met. If Bree could be a light that led others to Jesus, her life would have meaning and purpose. It was all very well and good to rescue lost people—how much more lasting to rescue their souls. Stopping the car in front of the lighthouse, she resolved to do better at emulating Anu.

  Samson began growling softly when Bree opened the car door. “What’s wrong, boy?” she asked. The hair on the back of her neck prickled, and she stared into the darkness. Was it Quentin? She’d never been afraid here in Rock Harbor.

  Bree looked around for something she could use as a weapon, but all she found was a flashlight. It would have to do. She ran the window down and listened in the darkness. The last two days had brought spring temperatures, and Lake Superior was beginning to thaw. The sound of the ice cracking in the lake mingled with the howling of wolves in the forest, a familiar but spine-chilling sound.

  She was getting spooked for no reason, though Samson continued to growl. Maybe she should let him out. She leaned across the seat and opened the passenger door. Barking, the dog leaped out and ran off into the darkness.

  “Hey!” A man’s voice came from the bushes across the street.

  Should she get out? She glanced into the backseat where Davy lay sleeping. She heard Samson yelp, and that settled her dilemma. She jumped out of the car and pressed the remote to lock the Jeep. With the flashlight held high, she rushed to help her dog.

  “Samson!” Her dog’s barking grew to a frenzied pitch; then he yelped again. A man’s deep voice swore viciously, then the bushes parted, and she saw Samson tackle a dark form. Samson had his feet planted as he tugged at the man’s jacket. The dog skidded on the melting snow, and the man pulled free. He raced toward the woods and disappeared into the trees.

  Bree called Samson to her when he would have chased the man. Samson barked and pranced back to Bree with his head and tail in an obvious victory stance. “Good boy.” She knelt and ran her h
ands over him. There was no sign of any injury, and she was thankful for that. He’d probably been kicked, but he was burly and hard with muscle. Glancing around into the dark night, she shivered. It had been too dark to tell for sure, but she thought it might have been Quentin. Something about the man’s outline seemed familiar.

  Her hands shook as she unfastened Davy’s car seat and carried him inside. He’d somehow managed to sleep through all the commotion. She placed Davy in bed and pulled off his new cowboy boots. He murmured but didn’t awaken as she undressed him and slipped him into his pajamas.

  Leaving Samson on guard, she went downstairs to call Mason. But first she turned on every light in the house. Maybe it wasn’t the smart thing to do, but it made her feel safer. Mason promised to be right over. His worried tone made her own uneasiness grew.

  She started to go out to unload the Easter baskets and leftovers she’d brought home from Anu’s, then hesitated in the entry hall. Her neck still prickled, and she tried to tell herself not to be silly. She glanced out the door window, but there was no sign of movement. She might as well wait for Mason. No sense in taking any chances.

  The phone rang, and her pulse kicked into overdrive at the sudden sound. She put a hand to her stomach and laughed hollowly at the way the ring had spooked her. She grabbed the receiver. “Hello,” she said. There was only silence on the other end. “Hello?” Bree said.

  “You’re gonna pay,” a man’s voice growled. “You’re gonna wish you’d kept your pretty nose out of my business. Thanks to you I’ve lost everything. I’m going to see you do the same, starting with that dog of yours.”

  Her heart slammed against her ribs with the force of a ship hitting the rocky Superior shore. “Quentin? Listen, there’s no need to go trying to scare me. We all just want you to get some help and get back home with your family.”

  He gave a harsh laugh. “Scared now, aren’t you? You’re going to be even more scared by the time I’m through with you.”

  She heard the phone slam down on the other end, and Bree gripped the receiver with white knuckles as the dial tone echoed in her ear. She clicked off the phone and put it down on the table. That must have been him outside. She saw headlights through the window and grabbed her coat and went outside.