by Curry, Edna
The long, quiet evening at home stretched ahead of her. She’d stayed at Dee’s house before, but never alone. She hated getting used to a new place and this one sat off in the woods by itself. No one lived within shouting distance. The prospect of staying there alone sent a lump of panic curling in her stomach. She glanced across the street. Lights shone from the library windows.
On impulse, she jaywalked across. Something new to read would fill the evening hours. The little white frame building looked much the same as it had in all the years she’d grown up here. The metal book return box next to the sidewalk badly needed a new coat of paint. Did the library have anything new?
Loni hesitated in the doorway when she spied Mrs. Saunders at the desk. As a teen, Loni had crossed horns with the crusty librarian more than once. She squared her shoulders and stepped inside. The familiar musty odor of old books met her nose.
Mrs. Saunders looked as short and slim as ever and her white hair held a touch of blue tint. She sat in front of a desktop computer, peering at the screen. Looking up, she smiled as Loni walked into the book-lined room.
“Loni Jacobs! I heard you were back in town, but haven’t gotten over to see you yet. How’s Dee doing? Did she make it out to California okay?”
Ah, she sounded friendly. Had time mellowed her? “Hello, Mrs. Saunders. Dee’s doing fine and says Mindy is improving and should be coming home from the hospital soon.”
“That’s good. How’re you doing at your gift shop?”
“Busy. I think half of the people in town stopped in to say hello today.”
Mrs. Saunders’ head bobbed. “Well, I hope some of them bought a thing or two.”
Loni laughed. “Some did. It’s so nice that everything seems the same here in our little town.”
Mrs. Saunders eyed her critically. “You’ve cut your hair shorter. Filled out a bit, too. Not quite as scrawny as you were in high school.”
“Thanks. I think. You don’t look a day older than you did back then. Do you have any new romances on the shelves?”
“Yes, the new ones are in this rack.” She indicated a vertical rack of hard covers beside her desk. “I remember you used to read them by the dozen. I do have a little more money to buy books now than I did a few years ago. We have a couple of new people on the town council now who aren’t so tight fisted.”
“Great,” Loni said, picking one up and reading the blurb on the back cover. “I see they bought you a computer, too.”
She pursed her lips. “Yes, well, I’m not so thrilled about this thing. It was a pain to learn at first, but I’m managing okay now. They even bought a second one for the public to use.” She waved a hand toward the back room. “It’s by the children’s books. People want to come in and access the internet, you know. Of course most of the younger ones in town have their own computers at home. Occasionally, tourists drop by to check their e-mail.”
“I’m sure,” Loni said. A public computer! She could check out Jolene’s tale of a stalker near here, to see if there were any similarities to her own experience. “In fact, I think I’ll check my own e-mail right now. I don’t have internet access yet.”
“No, Dee didn’t use a computer, did she?”
Shaking her head, Loni headed to the back room. She spent a half hour researching Jolene’s tale, but she couldn’t find any similarity or connection to her own situation. She needed to talk to the sheriff. She hated revealing details of her life to others. But in case something happened to her, she didn’t want the SOB to get away free. Someone should know about her problem and the sheriff was the logical choice. Then if something happened to her, Ben would be suspicious and go after him. With a sigh, she went back to the front to pick up a couple of novels to read.
Mrs. Saunders looked up and continued her conversation as though Loni hadn’t left her. “Public access isn’t so wonderful, you know. I had some grungy looking bikers come in to use it today. Black leather jackets, long dirty hair, yuck. I’d rather not attract those kinds of people.”
Loni glanced at her, then continued reading back cover blurbs. “Really? Campers, I suppose?” Or were they the same bikers who had been in her store? Were they looking up information about local people or were they just people passing through checking their email? She had biker friends who didn’t shave and looked grungy while out on a camping trip without access to showers, but were very clean, hard-working people in their normal lives. Was she over-reacting to these bikers?
Mrs. Saunders shrugged and rambled on, “I even learned to use e-mail myself. It’s cheaper than long distance phone calls to my grandkids.”
“Yes, I know. What are your grandsons doing these days?” Loni remembered the big, boisterous twins who’d been her classmates.
“Jim and Jon are both so busy I hardly see them anymore. They’ve both got good computer jobs at the college in St. Cloud,” Mrs. Saunders said proudly.
Loni smiled and nodded. “I’m glad to hear it.”
Mrs. Saunders eyed her sharply. “Are you really? You didn’t seem to care about their feelings when you beat them out of the top honors in your senior year in high school.”
Loni’s smile faltered at the sudden venom in Mrs. Saunders’ tone and the anger flashing in her blue eyes. She thought of the two red-headed boys she remembered as devil-may-care hellions. Yes, she’d beaten them out for the top honors spot in their class. But the boys had never taken their studies seriously, regardless of what their grandmother thought. They’d had plenty of natural intelligence, but didn’t always do their work. She on the other hand, had spent many lonely evenings with her nose in text books or writing reports.
She bit her tongue to keep back the sharp reply she wanted to give the librarian. Instead she said quietly, “Someone had to come out on top. I worked hard for every grade point I got.”
Mrs. Saunders’ wrinkled lips twisted slyly. “Maybe. Or did you act out some of that romance stuff you always read about?”
Loni swallowed back another sharp retort. The old biddy would believe what she wanted to, regardless. Coming in here had been a bad idea. It was stirring up old feelings she’d thought were long buried.
Loni turned away to hide her anger. Quickly, she picked out a couple of books and laid them on the desk. Forcing politeness into her tone, she asked, “Do I need to fill out a new library card?”
“No, yours is still here in my file,” Mrs. Saunders said. She pulled Loni’s card out, wrote the due date in the books and Loni’s number on the card and handed the books to her.
Making an attempt to end the unpleasant encounter on a light note, Loni said, “Nice that you thought I might be back.”
The old librarian shrugged. “I just never get around to throwing any old ones out, I guess.”
* * * *
Mrs. Saunders watched Loni leave. It just wasn’t fair that Loni should be doing so well and be enjoying life when she didn’t deserve it. Her grandsons should have had that top spot in high school and made that Valedictorian speech to the whole town on graduation night, not Loni.
How proud she would have been to see that! The garden club ladies would have had to admit her boys were the best. They wouldn’t be turning up their noses at her then.
Instead Loni had gotten the honor and the scholarship to college.
Mrs. Saunders opened her email and sent a message to her boys. It was long past time to even the score.
* * * *
As Loni drove out to Dee’s house, her hands still trembled with frustration on the steering wheel. She’d return the books she’d gotten via the night return box outside the library. And buy a Kindle and download her reading material from the internet or drive to a bookstore after this so she wouldn’t have to encounter the woman again.
The very idea anyone could think she’d been romantically interested in any of her teachers was ludicrous. Or that any of them would dare to romance a student in a small town where everyone knew everyone else’s business. Surely no one else in town had thought
that?
Perhaps coming home hadn’t been such a good idea after all. She’d forgotten about all the petty jealousies and angry undertones abiding in a small town.
Still, the quiet countryside was calming, much more so than the constant hum of traffic and the wail of sirens which had often interrupted her sleep in the city. She rolled down her car window, needing fresh air. The pine-scented breeze cooled her hot cheeks.
The hum of a motor behind her made her glance into the rear view mirror. A dark van followed her. Her pulse pounding, she sped up a bit, but the vehicle stayed about the same distance behind her. Was it the one that had almost run them off the road on the way to the lagoon? It looked similar, but she couldn’t be sure. She wasn’t good at remembering the differences between vehicles and often couldn’t identify the make or model.
Should she go past Dee’s house in case he was following her to see where she lived?
She passed the next crossroads and once again glanced back at the van. Then it swung around the corner at a side road and disappeared. She sighed in relief, willing her heart to slow its pace to normal. Probably only a workman returning to his home after a long day at work. Nervous energy had her imagining problems when there were none.
She turned into Dee’s driveway, no, her driveway. She found it hard to start thinking of the pretty white house among the evergreens as her home. The sun shone a brilliant red, setting behind the tall trees, making a peaceful, serene sight. She parked her car in the garage and hurried inside, securely locking the door behind her.
After heating and eating a frozen prepared dinner, Loni turned on some soft music to break the silence and settled down in her favorite stuffed chair to read. Gradually, she relaxed. It seemed a long time since she’d spent such a lovely, quiet evening at home.
* * * *
He sat at his computer in his new apartment in Minneapolis and ran a pleased eye over the roomful of new computer equipment he’d just set up. The speed and performance of it was hands down better than anything he’d worked with before.
As a website builder, he could live and work anywhere he had proper internet access. He liked the availability of faster access and the anonymity of large cities, however. No one paid any attention to their neighbors in a city. He seldom knew them and preferred it so. He crossed to the tiny kitchenette along the far wall and poured himself a fresh cup of coffee. He hated the hassle of moving, but it had been time to move on, anyway. He never stayed in one place long. Too dangerous. And he’d never connected to two women in one city before either. He’d always moved on to a new city immediately afterward to avoid detection.
But he’d been so high that night, he’d stopped at a bar for a couple of drinks. There he’d run into Loni, asked her to dance and been hooked. It was her fault he couldn’t resist her. He’d started pursuing her too soon after the last one. That was another of his rules he’d broken for the blonde bitch and then she’d rejected him. Nobody rejected him. She had to pay for that. First he had to find her.
He eyed the last stack of boxes the moving men had placed along one wall. They contained his pride and joy, his shelves and collection of hand carved wooden animal figurines from around the world. As soon as he had some free time, he’d arrange them on the shelves. He enjoyed spending hours dusting and rearranging them, as well as shopping for new ones on the internet. A guy needed a good hobby, especially when he lived alone and moved a lot. But the figurines would have to wait.
He pondered the new client he’d just taken on and the complicated website they’d discussed for his company. They wanted him to include an extensive, detailed catalog. He grinned to himself. That catalog would require a lot of repeat work keeping the information on the pages current, assuring him a good income for a while.
Yeah, it was demanding work, but paid well. He loved the challenge of it all and would need to work on it day and night to meet his new deadline. But, damn it, he wouldn’t have time to check on Loni Jacobs for a bit. Oh, well. Let her worry a little longer. All in good time.
Gulping the coffee, He returned to his computer and opened his e-mail. He missed the days when he and Loni had been dating and sent little notes back and forth. She’d been so loving and nice for a couple of weeks, and then everything had blown up in his face.
Ha! She thought she could just say no to him and walk away. Nobody said no to him and walked away unless he wanted to be rid of them. His choice, not theirs. He wondered where the bitch was now. The last e-mail address he had for her bounced back to him. He’d been unable to find a new one for her.
Somehow she’d slipped out of his tracking range. The stupid digital implant a friend had talked him into buying hadn’t lasted a week. “It’s almost as tiny as a grain of rice. You can implant it with a syringe and track it by GPS.” Ha. What a waste of money that had been. He’d taken a big chance slipping her a Mickey to implant the damn thing, too. He’d never taken such a risk in public before. Luckily, the bartender had been too busy to remember he hadn’t served her enough drinks to get drunk. No one had gotten suspicious when he’d had to help her out to his car to take her home.
He’d had lousy luck with this blonde. Maybe she had a guardian angel? The bug he’d used to track her car had stopped working after only a couple of days, after all the hype the salesman had given him about how wonderfully reliable those new GPS monitors were. He’d claimed they were the coming thing. Bah. What a liar he’d been. Its last signal had been here in Minneapolis, so he hoped she’d settled here. But where? It was a big city and people moved around a lot. He hadn’t found a phone number for her yet.
Now the tracker he’d put in the cell phone he’d given her wasn’t working either. Hmm. He’d heard some kids talking, sounded like teenagers. Had they stolen it from her? Or had she lost it? Either way, she’d report it to her insurance company. If so, he could find her insurance claim and see if it had her new address.
He hoped she was somewhere near Minneapolis, so he’d moved here to be close to her. Only he needed to find out exactly where she was living. She’d left Chicago with no forwarding address. Her employer at the jewelry store said she hadn’t asked for references, either, claimed Loni quit because of a family emergency, whatever that meant.
Well, she wouldn’t be able to hide from him for long. People always followed certain patterns. If he couldn’t track her one way, he could another. Sooner or later, her name would show up on a utility bill or she’d file a tax statement. Good thing he was a good enough hacker to check those. Loni usually worked in gift shops or jewelry or department stores. She’d find a new job and then he’d find her sooner or later. The bitch needed to pay. He grinned. He’d make her suffer awhile first, before he killed her.
* * * *
The next evening Loni closed her gift shop with a sigh of relief. Again today, she’d spent more time talking to curious local people than waiting on customers. The townspeople hadn’t wanted to admit they’d only come in to gossip, so most claimed someone needed a birthday or wedding gift. She grinned. Guilt purchases, but sales, nevertheless. They’d added up nicely today. Her tired muscles ached, but she was pleased her little business was getting off to a good start.
She hurried down the block to the bank. As she crossed the bank’s drive through road, a vehicle suddenly whizzed past, almost hitting her.
Flattening herself against the nearest building, she stared after it, shaking, her heart thudding in her chest. A dark blue van with muddied license plates, just like the night on the way to the restaurant. What were the chances that two similar vehicles would almost hit her in a couple of days? The van circled the bank in the drive through lane, came back out the other side and sped on up the street. She tried to see the driver, but could see only a hat or a hood covering a head. Was it only kids racing around town playing games? Or had someone deliberately tried to hit her? The street was quiet now. Most of the businesspeople had closed up and gone home.
Still shaking, she dropped her money bag into the nig
ht box, walked quickly back to the parking lot to her blue Chevy and drove home. Were these incidents only a coincidence? Was she upset for nothing? Or was it past time to see Sheriff Ben?
Aunt Dee’s little rambler sat against a hillside, almost hidden by tall trees. Her nearest neighbor, Janet Bowers, lived half a block away through the woods. The quiet, peaceful area seemed an impossible setting for an attempted murder. She couldn’t believe whoever drove that van deliberately wanted to hurt her. The very idea was ludicrous. Wasn’t it?
Pulling into the garage, she shut off the engine and got out. She rolled her stiff, weary shoulders, wanting nothing so much as a hot soak in the tub and then bed. But she’d agreed to attend Maria’s pool party. She glanced at her watch and unlocked her door. Jolene would pick her up in half an hour. Barely time to change and get ready.
Aunt Dee’s house felt deliciously cool as she stepped inside. The phone rang as Loni walked through the kitchen. She grabbed a soda from the refrigerator and popped the top open as she warily moved toward the phone.
Catching her breath, she stopped and eyed it, waiting for the machine to pick up. She’d hooked up her answering machine the first day, and so far the only calls had been for Aunt Dee from telemarketers. All Dee’s local friends knew she’d moved away.
Had her mystery caller found her again so soon?
When she heard Aunt Dee’s voice, Loni let out a relieved sigh, grabbed the phone and sank onto the sofa. Forcing a cheerful tone into her voice, she said, “Hi, Aunt Dee. How’s everything going in Sunny California?”
“So far so good, Loni. Mindy says hi, too. She’s home from the hospital.”
“Wonderful!”
“She seems to be doing better, though she’s having some trouble using her left arm and her speech is still not back to normal. I’m to drive her to therapy three times a week, so we’ll be busy.”
“Yes, I’m sure you will. I’m glad she’s home.”
“I’m sorry I had to leave in such a hurry. Did you have any trouble getting the utilities changed over to your name, and mail and so on?”
