Half Past Mourning

by Fleeta Cunningham

  Ron all but vibrated with anxiety, and Nina was touched by his concern. “I don’t know if it will do any good, Ron. You know how hard he tries to stay independent. But I’ll talk to him. I promise.”

  Shrugging and shaking his head, Ron opened the door for her. “I guess that’s all I can ask. Just try to make him see he’s taking risks he doesn’t need to take.”

  Nina nodded, acknowledging his worry, and hurried along the cooler hallway to her uncle’s custom-made lair inside. She found him sitting behind his desk rather than in his shop surrounded by the cars he loved and lovingly restored. He was thumbing through a handful of pages as she came in.

  “Hey, Snookie.” His smile lit his worn face as she came in. “I was just going to call you. Had a long visit with Al Hayes this morning, wanted to see how you’re doing.” The brightness of his smile dimmed. “I’m sorry, Nina, I know that trip didn’t turn out the way you hoped.”

  “The sheriff told you?” In a way Nina was glad she didn’t have to go through the story again to fill in the details for her uncle.

  Lassiter nodded and pushed the pages aside. “He did, and he told me how he added it up.”

  “You agree that it looks as if Danny’s dead?”

  “I’m afraid so, Snookie. I know you wanted to believe he was coming back, but I’ve been sorta wondering if something bad hadn’t happened to him. Looks like the end of the search for him, doesn’t it?”

  Nina took the visitor chair opposite him and drew it closer. “That’s the only way it can be, as far as I can see. Only thing that makes sense. Danny’s dead and has been since, oh...” She struggled to say the words. “Has been since he walked away from the church, more or less, within hours, anyway. You think it’s that way? You see anything that says he’s alive?”

  “I wish I could say otherwise, but I can’t.” The fan whirring above was the only sound for a minute. “Don’t know what it’s going to do to Marigold when she finds out. Sure don’t envy the sheriff having to tell her, either.”

  Nina flinched at the memory. “He won’t have to tell her. She came to see me this morning, five minutes after I got home, to give me what-for for my indecent behavior and lack of respect for the Wilson name. She thinks I’m having an affair with Peter.” The ugly accusations still rankled. Nina went on. “So I told her what happened in Dallas.” Leaning her elbows on the desk, Nina massaged her tight temples. “She doesn’t believe it, refused to look at anything that might suggest Danny died.” The long sigh that escaped Nina’s lips betrayed her emotional turmoil. “She’s determined to think the worst of Peter and me, even threatened, in an indirect way, to talk to the school board about my indiscretions.” Nina shrugged. “I suppose she might do it, but surely the board wouldn’t take her somewhat biased viewpoint, would they?”

  Eldon Lassiter snorted. “Not by the time the sheriff and I got through taking them over the jumps. I don’t think they’d be that foolish.” He shifted the angle of his chair. “I’m sorry the sheriff didn’t have a chance to head her off before she tackled you, Snookie. He planned to get over there early, but a spot of trouble at the inn in Barlow took him off course.” Lassiter picked up the sheaf of pages and handed it across the desk to her. “Take a look.”

  Nina fanned the pages and found herself looking at a half dozen reports of stolen cars. She glanced up at her uncle. “What’s this? The sheriff is taking on investigations from all the counties around here? He needs more work for his deputies?”

  Rolling his wheelchair back a few inches, Lassiter turned to hand her a typed list. “Nope, he’s got work enough. What happened at the inn last night was that a couple of guests came out to go to dinner and found their MG gone. Seems they’d only had it a week or so, and they didn’t take well to finding their brand-new toy had vanished.” A wrinkle of sympathy creased the retired driver’s face. “I’d be pretty ticked myself to find somebody’d taken off with my new plaything.”

  A slight breeze stirred the papers on the desk. Nina picked them up. “And this missing MG brought the sheriff to all these other stolen cars?”

  “In a manner of speaking,” Uncle Eldon agreed. “You remember a few weeks ago a certain Jaguar somehow got out of its garage and went missing while the owners were out of town?”

  Nina thought a minute and then did recall there had been talk of the Jag one day when she ran into the sheriff at the museum. “I think I did know about that.”

  Lassiter pointed at the stack of pages. “The sheriff remembered, too, and it got him to thinking. If you look at that pile of theft reports, you’ll notice that every one of them is some kind of flashy sports car. Not that there haven’t been a few other cars boosted from this area over the last thirty-six months, but it just seems like the proportion of snazzy cars to sedans is a bit high. And when that report on the MG came in, all kinds of bells went off in Al’s head. Too damn many thefts of the showy stuff for him to buy coincidence.”

  “Does that mean the sheriff is going to put Danny’s disappearance on the back burner while he looks for all these cars, cars taken from as much as a hundred and fifty miles away and three years ago?” Nina didn’t think she could endure letting things sit again.

  Lassiter held up helpless hands. “Don’t know what Al’s thinking on that is right now, Snookie. He keeps his cards close. He just asked me to put those descriptions out where the guys could see them. Men who work with cars for a living, they see things the average Joe doesn’t. If one of those stray sports cars comes along, my guys would notice. They just need to be told to look.”

  Nina fanned the pages again. The cumulative value of the stolen cars totaled a staggering sum. She could see where the sheriff would be concerned.

  “I was about to go put those out in the shop,” Uncle Eldon continued.

  “And going to the paint shop to post one, too, I suppose?” Nina caught the guilty gleam in her uncle’s eye. “I heard about you trying to move things out there while Ron was gone. You’ve got to stop that before you get hurt, Unc. We need you around here.”

  Her uncle squirmed a little in his chair. “You don’t know what it’s like, Snookie, having to wait for somebody to be where they can help you do the littlest thing. I know I shouldn’t be traipsing out there, but goldurn, it’s a pain to be so helpless.”

  “Maybe it is, but I don’t want Ron to call me some morning and tell me you knocked yourself in the head trying to move a pile of scrap or buried yourself in a bin of bolts. Maybe you could hire somebody to be sort of a personal assistant? Get somebody you could train, who’d want to learn the business. Maybe?’

  “Are you nagging me, Snookie?”

  Nina laughed. “I am, and I think I’ll keep at it till you do something. Ron’s worried about you being here by yourself and getting hurt. Now that he’s mentioned it twice, I think I should be concerned. You’re all the family I have, remember? Think about it, will you?”

  “I’m thinking, I’m thinking,” her uncle grumbled. “And while we’re talking about taking care of things, how’s this thing with Peter going? Seems to me he’s worth a look or two from some young lady I know.”

  The flush flooding Nina’s face left her no way to dodge her uncle’s question. “Peter’s been a lot of help,” she floundered. “We’re going to do the road rally next month, you know. I came out to get some old rally directions for us to use as practice. And he’s doing fine with the T-Bird.”

  “Not what I asked,” Eldon Lassiter reminded her. “I want to know what’s going on between the two of you. I noticed right off you’ve stopped wearing your wedding ring. What’s up with that? Peter Shayne have something to do with it?”

  “I took it off because I’m not married. At least...I don’t feel like...oh, damn it, Uncle Eldon, I’m not Danny’s wife. Maybe it’s too soon for me to say that, but it’s what I feel,” Nina answered. “And I know Peter...well, he’s...”

  “He’s in love with you, Snookie. And he’s a good man.” He rolled around the desk and pulled
his chair close. “He’s an honorable man, and he’s waiting for you to let him get closer. Peter Shayne won’t come forward till you let him, but I believe once you open the door, he’ll be all the man you’ve ever wanted. He’s no boy playing with a girl’s heart, Nina. He’s a grown man with strength and courage and love to offer the woman he wants. If she’s brave enough to take the risk again. Are you, Nina? Or did Danny steal your courage as well as your dreams?”

  Chapter 13

  Morning dew still glimmered in the light of the advancing day. Curled with her feet drawn up under her, Nina leaned back in the yellow rocking chair and watched the shadows grow shorter under the ancient hickory tree beside the house. Apricot and gold lantana banked solid mounds of color against the porch and down the walk, luring the first butterflies of the day.

  Peter would be along soon, and they would begin their attempt at creating a rally team. Nina glanced over the instructions she’d borrowed from her uncle. She thought this one was a fairly easy run over the low hills and country highways out in the county. Too bad the wildflowers had faded so much. Most of the bluebonnets were gone, only a few hiding in the cooler hollows of the hills. Still, the later flowers, a blanket of maize and purple covering the hills, would make a pretty drive. They should be able to finish the run by noon, before the worst heat of the day came down on them.

  Stretched out on the porch railing, Sinbad posed so the sun would pour over his tatty fur. Nina rubbed his ragged ear, eliciting a contented rumble. Below the edge of the roof, hummingbirds swooped, their tiny wings a blur of color in the light. Sinbad tensed as if to spring for one of the birds hovering around the feeder at the end of the porch.

  “Oh, no, my friend, the birds are off limits.” She gathered the squirming cat under her arm and put him firmly back in the house. Just as she closed the door she heard the distinctive rumble of the T-Bird. Peter pulled up in front of the house and unfolded his long legs from the driver’s seat.

  “Ready to teach me how to follow instructions?” he called, striding for the porch.

  “I’m ready, and here are our instructions.” Nina showed him the folder with its typed pages of directions. “This is a pretty straightforward set,” she explained. “It covers the basics. I think, for the first time out, you should drive and let me navigate. Then you’ll know how the driver needs to hear the information.”

  Peter took the folder and stepped back to look at Nina. “I thought spending the morning in an open car with a pretty girl was just about the perfect combination, but when the pretty girl has on short red shorts and a midriff shirt, it really is perfect.”

  Nina brushed his comment aside. “Just being practical, Peter. It’s going to be hot out here.”

  “Not as hot as it will be in the Princess come the Fourth of July. And you tell me we have to wear costumes for that. No shorts for you then, Miss Nina.”

  “Nor for you,” she reminded him, with a glance at his British-styled Bermuda shorts.

  “So where are we going?” he asked as he started to flip open the folder.

  Nina took it back and held it away from his grasp. “No, you don’t get told where you’re going. You just get in the car and drive where I tell you. The idea is to follow the directions, at set speeds for each leg of the trip, and match the time given. Of course, it helps if you stay on course and wind up at the finish line, too.”

  “Fortunately I have a lunch basket in the car and instructions to my landlord if we get lost for days.”

  Nina chuckled at his dire preparations. “I’ve never lost a driver yet, or at least not for more than a couple of hours.”

  They scrambled into the car, and Nina indicated an older highway leading out of town. The morning was perfect for a drive in the country. The sun warmed without burning, and a lilting breeze tumbled the high grass and brush lining the winding roads.

  “You want to average thirty-five miles an hour for the next seventeen miles,” Nina instructed. “When you get to the old red barn with the chicken painted on the side, we’ll make a time and mileage check. We have four of those.”

  Peter increased his speed a little to meet the directions. “I suppose on the day of the rally somebody will be at the checkpoints to verify our numbers.”

  Nina nodded. “We’ll have to check in and get the spotters to initial our rally sheet before we can go on. Time automatically stops while we’re in the checkpoint. And we’ll have at least an hour, maybe even longer, where we have to pull off and take a lunch break. If our time doesn’t work out to show that we took the mandatory break, we get disqualified. With the heat we’ll be facing in the July rally, it’s risky not to stop for drinks and food and get under some shade for a bit.”

  They made three of the required stops in good time. Nina had hopes for the upcoming rally if Peter handled giving directions as well as he took them. The road continued to drift through the hills, turning back on itself, leading across narrow bridges and under stands of pecan and peach trees. The sun rose higher in the sky, and the glare on the road took a toll on both driver and navigator.

  “If you have something to drink in that picnic basket, I think this would be a good time to check it out,” Nina suggested. “We’re due a break about now.”

  Peter swiped a hand across his forehead and agreed. “I can see a path into that grove of trees up the way. We might pull in and get under the shade for a while. If you have any interest, there’s fried chicken, some bread-and-butter sandwiches, and a tomato-and-cucumber salad, as well as a thermos of iced tea.”

  “You have hidden domestic talents,” Nina chuckled.

  The T-Bird bumped over a patch of leaves and twigs as Peter headed into the narrower path. “No domestic talents, hidden or otherwise, sweetheart. I just happen to be on good terms with the ladies in the faculty dining room. They took pity on a poor bachelor and put up the picnic for me.”

  Peter was able to park under a canopy of trees and leave room to unfold a frayed blanket alongside. While Nina sorted out the various containers, he filled metal tumblers with tea and handed out gingham napkins to serve as placemats.

  “So, do you think we can make an acceptable showing for your uncle next month?” Peter asked as they spread their picnic over the blanket and relaxed from the demands of the road.

  “I don’t know if we can win for him, but I’m fairly certain we won’t embarrass him or run the Princess into a bar ditch.”

  With her attention totally focused on the rally sheet in her lap, Nina continued to share with Peter the finer points of directing the driver in an event. She went on about double-checking time, using the stopwatch, and looking for tricks in the instructions that could be misinterpreted. Several minutes passed before she realized Peter wasn’t listening. She looked up from her typed pages to find him watching her with an amused gleam in his grey eyes.

  “What?” she asked in confusion. “Am I going too fast or repeating myself?”

  “Nope,” he answered, brushing a stray leaf from his lap and unkinking his long legs. “You’re doing just fine. In fact I think you’re about the cutest driving instructor I ever saw.” He held out a hand and, without knowing exactly why, she put her hand into his. With a firm grasp he pulled her to her feet and rested both hands on her waist. Seeing a twinkle of intent in his eyes, she took a quick step back only to find herself caught between a pecan tree and a purposeful man.

  “Peter, I don’t think...” she began to protest, when one hand strayed from her shoulder to tilt her face toward his.

  His thumb traced the line of her lips. “I don’t want you to think right now, Nina. I just want you to let this happen.” His lips brushed hers with warmth, a sweet, innocent kiss. The first one was, anyway. The second suggested more desire, an undercurrent of passion held firmly in check. Nina couldn’t keep from responding. Peter’s kiss touched the closed-off places in her heart. All the need, the longing, the hunger she’d denied for two years broke free, and Nina wrapped herself in Peter’s embrace. His kiss heat
ed her blood, left her heart pounding till she could hear nothing else. His tongue stroked the seam of her lips, and she opened them to his tender assault.

  “My sweet Nina,” he murmured pressing a kiss above each eye before returning his attention to her lips. His long fingers traced the edge of her knotted shirt and one fingertip slipped beneath the red print to touch the trembling flesh beneath the cotton. “You’re shaking like a leaf, sweetheart. You’re not afraid of me, are you?”

  Her face nestled against his shoulder, Nina clung to him. “No, I’m not afraid of you, Peter, but I’m scaring myself to death. You kiss me and the whole world goes fuzzy. Like there’s nothing real except you and me, right here, right now.”

  “That’s all there is, just the two of us. If you let it be that way.”

  “Uncle Eldon said...” Nina stopped in dismay. She couldn’t repeat that conversation.

  Peter tumbled her hair back with a gentle hand. “He told you I was in love with you, didn’t he?” Nina felt the blood rush to her face. Peter’s wide mouth twisted with wry humor. “Well, he’s right, of course. I think I’ve been in love with you since I saw you with that pack of young hyenas in the schoolyard. You were pitching softball to the kids, and you looked about fifteen years old, the tallest kid in the game. And you were having the time of your life. You walked off with my heart right there on the school grounds, Nina.”

  “But, Peter,” she protested, “I don’t know if it’s right, if you should...or I should...or...”

  He stopped her words with another kiss. “No, we don’t know, do we? And I probably am getting ahead of things by telling you that I love you when we don’t know what your immediate future looks like. But whatever it is, Nina, you’ve got to know that I’m right here. I’ll be with you, thick or thin, good or bad, until this thing is resolved. You can’t give me the promise I want from you, not right now. But I can pledge you my support, my help, and all the patience I have until the time comes that you’re free of all entanglements. At that point, young lady, hold on to your hat, because I’ll be the whirlwind waiting to carry you off.” He kissed her again, slowly and with a barely leashed passion that left Nina limp against the tree.