“I hope so, too,” Mitch agreed.
“We’ll see you later.” Luke nodded at the group of boys and parents as he headed for the parking lot. It sure hadn’t worked out in any way he would have imagined, but it worked out, all the same. God was in control.
Chapter 25
Holly turned over in bed, still sore in a few places. At least, she was in her own bed, in her own house. Mitch agreed with her, as long as she and Tessa went back to keeping Clarence at night, it was just as safe for her there as it was with her parents. Her dad understood, but her mom was unhappy.
Jack Wallace swore he knew nothing about stalking or slashed tires, but he came right out and bragged about what he did to Holly. There were even close calls she was unaware of. He almost had her one day at her mailbox, and another time when she was pumping gas. Something always got in his way. When questioned about Tessa, he laughed and said something about two for the price of one. Mitch told Holly speaking to him was an exercise in self-control; he nearly went across the table more than once.
Even without his confession, what the police had turned up in the investigation supported the theory he had been her stalker all along. He was not only living in Connecticut during Holly’s senior year, his last-known address was less than ten miles from the Massachusetts campus. Then, he relocated to Illinois approximately three weeks before the harassment resumed. Mitch figured it would have taken him that long to get situated.
Tessa pointed out how coincidental his timing was to the stalker showing up.
Holly turned again, only to feel a sloppy wet tongue slather across her face.
“Yuck!” She sat up, wiping her face with the sheet. “Clarence, I’ve told you I don’t like your morning kisses. Go kiss Tessa awake.”
Luke claimed Clarence now considered himself as much Holly’s dog as his. Even after they knew for sure this was over, the two of them were going to work out joint custody. Luke said Clarence didn’t sleep well the entire time she stayed with her parents, instead roaming the house and whimpering. He even howled a few times. He seemed to think he lived with her during the night.
She looked at the clock. “I’d better get up or I’m going to be late for work.”
Clarence used his front leg to signal he needed to be let out. “Just a minute. Let me get my housecoat.”
A housecoat was probably unnecessary. She didn’t have any neighbors close enough to see her inside the front door. It just made her feel strange to traipse around in her nightshirt. Besides, the world didn’t need to see she slept in a Charley Brown shirt. She had Peanuts pajamas, too. So, if a man ever wanted to marry her, he better be ready to accept sleeping with a Snoopy-clad wife.
Her breath caught. A man did want to marry her. Maybe the stalking was permanently in her past. Maybe she would be able to focus on her feelings for Luke. Explore them. Give him a real answer.
She let Clarence out and stood behind the screen door, so she could let him back in. The sun was already peeking over the horizon. The world felt full of possibilities.
Thank You. I’m sorry I don’t say that enough. I come to you with pleas so often, but I forget to thank you when you answer them. Thank you for keeping me safe. Thank you for even the possibility that my life will be stalker-free. Thank you for my family. Thank you for my students. Thank you especially for giving Billy the courage to do what he did. Thank you for my friends. And thank you for Luke. I don’t know what part he will play in my life, but I can’t imagine it without him in it somewhere. A paw scratching the screen door caught her attention. She smiled. And thank you for Clarence’s love and loyalty. Amen
“Are you up already?” Tessa walked out of her bedroom, stretching as Clarence and Holly entered the room.
“Already?” Holly looked pointedly at her. “You better check the clock. If we don’t get going, we’ll be late for school.” Then she thought of something that made her giggle. “I can be late without it being a problem, but if you’re late, Mr. Graham will have to cover your first-period class. It’s trigonometry, isn’t it?”
Tessa’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, no. The time he taught my pre-algebra class it took me two weeks to un-teach the students the completely incorrect way he showed them to work equations.” She snorted. “Telling them they could ignore a number if it were taken to the zero power. Any number, no matter what it is, becomes one if it’s taken to the zero power. Now, you tell me it isn’t going to change the value in an addition or subtraction problem.”
Okay. Holly had asked for that. She knew better than to get Tessa going about anything to do with math. It wasn’t that Holly didn’t understand the subject; it was simply too early in the day for an in-depth analysis of algebra. Or, she shuddered to imagine, trig.
“I’m going to get dressed. You can have the bathroom first.” Before Tessa could spout off any more mathematical words of wisdom, Holly scooted into her bedroom.
Her cell phone rang just as she was fastening her skirt. She was afraid for a moment before she remembered Jack Wallace was in jail. Regardless, she checked caller ID.
“Good morning, Luke.”
“Good morning, Holly. So, you’re finally getting in the habit of checking your caller ID?”
“Nope.” The dog edged as close to Holly as he could get, being nosy. “Clarence said he had a feeling you were going to call.”
A chuckle emanated from the phone. “Well, did Clarence tell you Mrs. Pickler’s goats somehow made it all the way to my yard last night?”
“How did they do that?” Mrs. Pickler’s property abutted the south edge of his farm. The goats would have either had to come through a big soybean field and pasture or around on the road. It didn’t make sense either way. “Do you think they had some help?”
“If they did, I think it was a prank, plain and simple.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “I checked everything, and besides the daffodils Mom planted, nothing was bothered. I guess the goats thought they were dessert.”
“It’s a good thing it’s too early for your rose bushes to bloom. The goats would have ended up with their mouths full of thorns, and you’d be calling Dr. Waters. You’re too soft-hearted to let them suffer.”
Yeah, well, I called because I can’t get there to pick Clarence up before you leave. Can you tie him somewhere outside for me?”
“No.” She didn’t mean to be so abrupt. “I’m sorry, Luke. It’s just I can’t imagine tying Clarence. I’ll leave him in the house.”
“How will I get him?” His voice was laced with amusement. “You have to lock your house, and while my dog has many talents, I don’t think opening doors is one of them.”
Holly thought for a minute. “I’ll leave a key outside the back door. It’ll be under the mat. You may as well keep it. That way, we won’t be on such a tight schedule every morning.”
“I don’t like the idea of you leaving your key outside, Holly.”
“You won’t be that long. And Jack Wallace is in jail. I’ll put it beneath the northeast corner of the mat, and if it’s moved, you’ll know it. Okay?”
“I still don’t like it.” For a moment, Holly thought he was going to argue, but then she heard him sigh. “I’ll get there as soon as I can. Leave it where you said you would, and if it’s not in that exact location, I’ll do a walk-through of your house before I leave.”
“That sounds like a good plan.” It was a beautiful day, and Holly refused to let her buoyant mood change.
“Okay. I’ll get off here so I can take care of the goats.”
“Bye, Luke.”
“Good-bye."
She turned and looked at Clarence. “You will be all alone in my house. If I find out you were on my bed, I’m going to hold you down and tie ribbons all over you. You’ll look like a girl dog. Got it?”
Holly impulsively hugged the dog when he appeared to nod. Sometimes she had to wonder exactly how much he understood.
“Are you talking to that dog again?” Tessa stuck her head in the door. “I
believe Luke’s right. You’re part owner of a dog.”
“Luke just called.” Tessa stepped the rest of the way into the room as Holly went on to explain the goat dilemma.
“Does he think somebody brought them to his house?” Tessa frowned. “I mean, Mrs. Pickler’s goat pen is a long way from his house. The goats would have had to pass lots of tempting shrubbery along the way, whether they came through the field or on the road.”
“Can’t you see it?” Holly had a sudden vision of the scenario. “All those goats walking down the road, intent on visiting Luke.”
“Holly, what about somebody bringing them?” Tessa’s frown grew.
“I asked that, too.” She sat on her bed and slid her heels on. “Luke checked everything, and nothing has been bothered. Except the goats ate some flowers Anita planted.”
Tessa still seemed skeptical. “I guess it would be pretty pointless to drop off a herd of goats.”
“That’s what he thinks.” Holly slid her watch on and picked up a hairbrush. “He’s going to be late picking Clarence up, so I’m leaving a key under the mat for him.”
Tessa’s frown was back in full force. “Holly, we don’t know for sure Jack Wallace is the man stalking you. Leaving your house key outside is inviting trouble, if you ask me.”
“Luke and I have a plan.” She grimaced as the brush caught on a tangled mass of hair. “I told him exactly where I’m leaving the key. If it’s not there when he gets here, he’s going to check the house. I imagine he’ll check the house even if the key is where I left it. Just to be safe.”
Tessa still didn’t look too happy about it. “It’s your house." She produced a small smile. "You can have the bathroom now.”
Holly returned her friend’s smile as she headed for the other room. Today was going to be a spectacular day. She just knew it.
Chapter 26
This had to have been one of the craziest weeks Luke ever experienced. On Monday, he spent two hours loading goats into the trailer and hauling them back to their pen at Mrs. Pickler’s. And unless the eighty-seven-year-old woman decided to free her goats, he couldn’t figure how they got out.
Then yesterday, he went to take his tractor to the north field only to find it parked facing forward inside the locked machine shed. He was positive he backed it in. He always did. But his bedroom window was open the night before so he would have heard if anybody started it. And there was no way at all a person could have pushed it. It just didn’t make sense.
Now, to top it off, he was looking at his ATV—parked smack dab in the middle of the pond. It had been locked in the machine shed, and the key for it was hanging on a hook in the mud room. At least, the pond was shallow enough it hadn’t damaged the motor. Somebody had to have driven it out there, but there were two problems with that theory. Keys to the machine shed and vehicle had been inaccessible, and the driver had left no footprints. No human being was going to walk out of a pond without leaving footprints.
As silly as all this seemed, he called Mitch anyway. Maybe he’d see something Luke was missing. To his credit, Mitch didn’t act like Luke was overreacting. He said one of those things might be a strange fluke, but all three together suggested tomfoolery. Luke should head for the house to wait on Mitch, but he couldn’t seem to stop staring at his Gator, trying to determine how it got there.
He must have lost track of time because Mitch’s shouted greeting broke his concentration. He turned to see his friend nearly there, having walked from the house.
“Now there’s something you don’t see every day,” were the first words Mitch spoke upon arrival.
“Tell me about it.” Luke started to walk around the pond again, keeping his eyes focused on the muddy edge of it. “Am I missing something here? Wouldn’t a driver leave footprints?”
Mitch, studying the pond’s edge as they walked, nodded. “Unless they had longer legs than either one of us.”
Luke turned and looked at him. “We’re both pretty tall.” Luke was six-two, and Mitch a couple of inches taller. “What would this guy have to be? Seven feet?”
“The ground is too hard up here, but I don’t see how even a tall person could have a long enough stride to step over the mud.” Mitch seemed as perplexed as Luke was.
“It’s almost like somebody drove it out there and floated away.”
Mitch appeared to ponder the concept. “You know, Luke, I’ve seen kids figure out how to do a lot of strange things. Remember last year, when Mr. Graham’s car ended up on the roof of the school? I know students did it, but I never figured out how.”
“But why would teenagers want to play tricks on me?” He felt like he was missing something important, but it was just out of reach. “The youth group went fine. Ronnie was even telling those other boys who helped hold onto Jack Wallace, they should come to our bowling tournament next week. I think he called it cool.”
“Those were six freshmen.” Mitch knelt and seemed to study something on the ground. “Looks like a log impression,” he muttered before raising his voice. “There’s a whole high school full of teenagers. Just ask your girlfriend.”
“Please don’t call Holly my girlfriend.” As good as it sounded to Luke, he was afraid of what Holly’s response would be. “She knows how I feel now, but she wants to get past all the stalker drama and know it’s over for good before she figures out how she feels. I have to be a patient man if I want that woman to marry me.”
“I’m not that Dr. Phil guy Missy watches.” Mitch straightened and grinned. “But if Holly’s not in love with you, I’d like to see how she acts when she does fall in love.”
Luke’s heart soared. “I pray you’re right, Mitch.”
Mitch’s grin faded. “How are you planning on getting your ATV out of that pond?”
Reality came crashing back as his gaze returned to the green vehicle. “I’m going to wear my waders out there and drive it out. Can you stick around a few more minutes? I might need to hook a chain to my truck and pull the thing out. I’m afraid I’ll bury it to its axles if I try to drive it without help.”
“Sure.” Mitch keyed his radio to make sure it was on. “Do you want me to go get the truck?”
“I will. I have to get my waders anyway.”
Thirty minutes and with what seemed like a ton of mud and water spewed all over the place, they finally had the ATV back on dry ground.
“Okay.” Mitch put his hands on his hips. “Now I’m convinced they used a different way to put it in there. Look at the mess we made getting it out. It wouldn’t have been much easier driving it in.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Luke was at his wit's end. “Whoever this is, they’re not damaging anything. They’re just making extra work for me. And I’d like to know how they’re getting my keys. I double-check the locks on all my buildings since the spray-painting incident.”
“I’ll have the guys keep their ears open. If kids are doing this, I guarantee they’ll be bragging about it. We should have Tess and Holly listening, too.”
“I’m not sure if I want Holly to know.” Luke had considered it carefully, but still not made a decision. “She’s so happy right now. She really believes Jack Wallace is her stalker, and this is the first taste of freedom she’s had in a while. If I tell her this, I’m afraid she’ll start worrying all over again—over something harmless.”
Mitch frowned. “It’s up to you, of course, but I think you should tell her. She knows kids better than either one of us. She’ll understand what’s going on, and probably be able to make suggestions we would never think of.”
“I hadn’t thought about it like that at all. Besides, I’m not going to win her heart by keeping secrets.”
“That’s for sure.” Mitch looked at his watch. “I’d better get back to work. I need to get my day finished early if I want to make it to Bible study with Tessa this evening.”
“You’re starting Bible study?” It surprised Luke. He knew Mitch was a Christian, but with Mitch’s hectic work sched
ule, he wasn’t able to attend church functions regularly.
“You’re not the only one trying to win a woman’s heart.” He winked at Luke before he hopped in the truck. He was driving it home so Luke could drive the ATV. At least, neither Luke nor the vehicle could get any muddier. He’d have to use the shower in the mud room and throw the clothes he was wearing right into the washing machine. He’d still probably smell like mud at Bible study this evening.
Oh, well. Such was the life of a farmer.
Chapter 27
“So, will everybody please keep your ears open? Somebody is playing some pretty elaborate tricks on Luke Walker’s farm, and Sheriff Landon thinks it may be some of our students.” Holly sat back down beside Tessa. She had just addressed the entire faculty during their weekly meeting. Hopefully, they would get some results. Things weren’t slowing down at Luke’s place.
Thursday, he found every electrical cord in the machine shed braided with others. It took him most of the morning to untangle his drills and saws. He even had to unsnarl the portable generator’s cord, which somebody had to have plugged in since he only ran the outgoing cord if he needed it.
Then, this morning he walked out of his house to discover every piece of lawn furniture and decor he owned turned upside down. The only thing damaged was the huge flowerpot his mom planted petunias in every summer. It had fallen over and busted. Luke didn’t think the destruction was intentional. Someone was simply having fun at his expense. Luke was the most patient man Holly knew, but she had to wonder how many more stunts even he could handle without it getting on his nerves.
“I didn’t get to finish telling you about my talk with Jen after Bible study Wednesday night,” Tessa said so only Holly could hear her. Not that anybody was paying any attention to them. The meeting was over, and this was the time everybody caught up with each other.
“I’m sorry.” Holly felt guilty. “I saw her headed for you and Mitch, so I steered Luke in the other direction. I just wasn’t up for her enthusiasm when I dread the reunion.”
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