Cornered in Conard County

by Rachel Lee

  “That’d keep you busy.”

  “It sure does. Some training is far more intensive and time-consuming that other types.” He walked down the row, opening the kennels and letting the dogs free. At once they entered a joyous chase all over the unfenced acreage, to the ramshackle barn and back. Their joy was infectious, and both Cadell and Dory smiled as they watched.

  “So,” he said, risking it, “who took care of you afterward?”

  He watched her suck her lip between her teeth, and he regretted spoiling the mood. Still, he needed to know her better. Wanted to know her better. He had not the least doubt there was more to this woman than the graphics designer and the frightened little girl.

  “My godparents,” she said after a moment. “They’d been good friends of my parents for a long time, and I knew them somewhat. Better than foster care, I imagine.”

  “The only judge is you. Did you feel loved?”

  “They tried. I can’t have been easy. Like I said, I didn’t talk for over a year. They took me to therapists and doctors. But even when I started speaking again...well, I told you I don’t trust people. All the way back then, I lost my trust. It had to be hard on them. They gave me so much, and when I look back I realize I gave them very little in return.”

  “I doubt they were doing it for what they could get out of it, Dory. I’m sure it was more about what they could do for you. Anyway, Betty became your friend. How did that happen?”

  Dory’s face lightened. Relief flooded him. He hadn’t ruined today for her. Enough that he’d ruined last night.

  “She was my English teacher my sophomore year of high school. How well do you know Betty?”

  “In passing. We’re not tight, but we talk from time to time. Why?”

  “I just wondered if you had any idea of how persistent she can be.”

  At that he laughed. “I’ve heard about it.”

  Dory’s smile grew. “She was persistent with me. I don’t know why, but for some reason she wouldn’t let go. She kept working on me, talking to me in odd moments. Finally she started inviting me and my godparents to have dinner at her house, and then they reciprocated and... Well, she never gave up on me. Even after I went to college, she’d drive over on a Saturday and take me out to lunch. Like water dripping on stone, I guess.” She gave a little laugh, and her gaze met his. “I don’t know when or how it happened, but she became my friend. My only friend. After my godparents died, Betty was the only person I had left.”

  He nodded. He was beginning to get a real clue about how truly alone this woman was. “What happened to them? Your godparents?”

  “A tornado,” she said simply, then directed her attention back to the mountains.

  God, he thought. She’d been through a hell of a lot. The murder of her parents, the betrayal by her brother, then the loss of her godparents in an extreme act of nature? Without giving it a thought, he stretched out an arm, wrapped it around her shoulders and drew her to his side.

  He wanted to find a way to express how bad he felt for her, but he suspected she wouldn’t want that. She had made peace with most of her life, as far as he could tell. With everything except her brother. Anyway, sympathy didn’t make up for the losses. So he offered what comfort he could with his touch.

  After a couple of minutes, she surprised him by turning toward him and resting her cheek on his chest. “I’m such a mess,” she said. “I don’t know why anyone puts up with me.”

  “I don’t think you’re a mess.”

  She shifted a little against him. “How can you say that? I told you I can’t trust. I’m afraid so much of the time...”

  “I don’t blame you for either. What your brother did would make it hard for anyone to trust again. As for being afraid... Well, he’s a coldhearted murderer, isn’t he? I wouldn’t want to run into him any more than you do.”

  A thin laugh escaped her. “No machismo?”

  “I’m not going to promise you something I have no right to promise,” he said firmly. “I’m here for you, but that doesn’t mean I can guarantee anything about your brother or your safety. All I can promise is that I’ll do my damnedest.”

  Slowly her arms wrapped around his waist. He had to close his eyes against the sudden surge of passion. It had been simmering since he’d met her, and he’d been dumping cold water on it because that was probably the last thing she needed or wanted. Some problems were too big to be answered with a roll in the hay.

  “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you.”

  “For what?” He couldn’t imagine.

  “For being honest with me. Last night you told me things you knew I didn’t want to hear, and now today you’re not making wild promises. Not that I’d believe them.”

  The dogs were beginning to tire from their romp but weren’t quite ready to quit yet. He stood there with one of the most beautiful women he’d ever met and wondered if he were capable of letting his own guard down enough. She freely said she found it hard to trust. Well, he did, too.

  They made quite a pair. A hopeless one.

  * * *

  THE SURPRISE HE had promised her came in the form of Betty. She arrived midafternoon while Cadell was still checking the dogs for ticks.

  “I need some help,” she announced.

  “Betty!” A smile bubbled up in Dory. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. I just have a car full of food this young man asked me to buy, and I’m danged if I’m going to carry it all myself.”

  “One more dog,” said Cadell, looking up. “What did you do? Shop for an army?”

  Betty put a hand on her hip. “Clearly you don’t shop for groceries here often. Shopping for two or three is impossible. So I hope you have some freezer space.”

  Dory felt a spark of curiosity. “Why is it hard to shop for small numbers?”

  “Because an awful lot of people hereabouts have large families or shop for a couple of weeks at a time so they don’t have to drive into town.”

  “Then what do you do?”

  Betty’s eyes twinkled. “I flirt with the butcher. He’ll give me a single steak or chicken breast when that’s all I want. However, he wasn’t there today, so I had to get what’s available. We could feed six or eight easily.”

  “I’ve got the freezer space,” was all that Cadell said.

  For a second, Dory had feared one of them would suggest inviting others over. She knew Betty wanted her to meet people, but not right now. Please, not right now. She was still feeling too stirred up.

  “I’ll help you,” she said, ready to follow Betty to her car. She could at least do that much.

  “I’ll be along in just a minute,” Cadell said. “Just go ahead and put everything on the table. You know your way, Betty, right?”

  “That house isn’t so big I could get lost,” Betty answered drily. “Yes, I’ve been here before, that time you had that barbecue.” She eyed Dory. “The man is popular. I think a couple of hundred people showed up for that one. He had to send runners to the store for more burgers.”

  Cadell’s laugh followed them. “It was the free barbecue,” he called.

  “More like the ostriches,” Betty commented as she led the way around to the trunk. “They’re the talk of the whole damn county.”

  “I’ve been missing you,” Dory said truthfully as she helped Betty pulled the reusable bags from the trunk.

  “You’d miss me a whole lot less if you weren’t always working,” Betty retorted. “Those times I dropped in, I felt like I was interrupting.”

  “You probably were, but that doesn’t mean I minded.”

  Betty laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.” They climbed the front steps together. The house had a wide porch, and the front door was unlocked. “How are you and that dog making out?”

  “I love him,”
Dory said simply. “I hardly have to tell him what to do. He seems to know.”

  “Cadell’s a great dog trainer, from all I’ve heard.” Betty turned left into the kitchen. She’d been right: the house wasn’t big enough to get lost in. They put the bags on the kitchen table—much bigger and sturdier than Dory’s—and began unpacking.

  “You sure went to town,” Dory remarked as she began to stack items. “You could feed an army!”

  “Hardly,” Betty said. “But I figured you could take some of this home with you. What have you got in your refrigerator? Soda. In your cupboard? Popcorn. Really, Dory.”

  “Hey, it’s not as bad as all that.”

  “Right,” Betty drawled.

  Cadell joined them and separated out the three steaks, the potato salad and the bag of frozen broccoli. “For our meal?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” said Betty. “Then I’m thinking Dory can take home most of the rest. I just don’t want it to spoil in the meantime. Have you seen her refrigerator?”

  Cadell grinned at her. “An awful lot of raw vegetables. And soda pop.”

  “Ha.”

  Dory smiled. “What is this, a conspiracy to feed me?”

  “Somebody has to. You’d forget to go to sleep if you could.”

  Being here with the two of them made Dory feel even better than she had upon awakening that morning. The not knowing must have been making her feel worse than knowing. Cadell had certainly answered one of her most pressing questions about the murder, and that was a relief, too. The whole thing had been so horrific. Facing her brother’s capacity for such acts removed all the doubt that had plagued her over the years.

  He’d never loved her. He’d used her. And he’d use her again if he could. Strange as it seemed, that made her feel stronger. Made her feel that she could face the moment when he came for her. If he came for her.

  Or maybe it had simply taken love out of the equation, relieving her of the torment of wanting to understand because she still remembered loving George. Her unwillingness to face what he really was in the hope that he wasn’t that bad. Yet terrified of him at the same time.

  A royal emotional mess, she thought as she helped make dinner. Clarity, after all that, was welcome.

  Not that it killed her fears. She suspected they’d always be there if George was on the loose. But at least she didn’t have to feel guilty and confused because he’d loved her as a child. He’d never loved her at all.

  * * *

  AFTER A DELICIOUS DINNER, they settled on the front porch with cups of coffee to enjoy the late-afternoon breeze.

  “So,” Betty asked after a while, “any news on George?”

  “Not exactly,” Cadell answered when Dory remained silent. He looked at her, not Betty, as he spoke, hoping he wouldn’t see shadows chasing across her face again. So far her face remained untroubled. “He went to a halfway house in his hometown, then vanished from it after only two days. There’s been no trace of him since. I’m keeping my ears and eyes on it, though.”

  “Good,” said Betty. “Although if that man has a lick of sense, he’ll stay far away from her.”

  Dory turned her head. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because you’re the one person he can reasonably be expected to contact. Does he think no one would be watching out for you?”

  Betty had a point, Cadell thought, but she was reckoning without knowledge of the inheritance. George had been willing to steal to get what he wanted, to lie to keep it secret. And to kill when something went wrong. Right now he was out there with nothing. Why would he pass up a chance to go for all that money if he thought there was any way to get it? Cadell seriously doubted he would just show up and ask for it. After all, Dory knew who had murdered their parents. Why would she turn all that money over to him?

  If he’d been keeping tabs on Dory, he probably knew she hadn’t married and didn’t have children. But even if he hadn’t, he wasn’t above taking out her whole family to get what he wanted. Of that Cadell had not the least doubt. He’d seen it in that graphic Dory had made. Clear as crystal.

  Dory spoke, surprising him. “Cadell says the murder was premeditated.”

  Betty drew a shocked breath. “How can he know that?”

  “Because I made a three-dimensional graphic of the kitchen and murder scene.”

  “Oh, my God,” Betty breathed. “Why? Didn’t it just make everything worse?”

  “No. I was using it to try to understand. My therapist taught me to draw things I couldn’t cope with. It just continued. So I had this graphic.”

  “Amazing,” Cadell intervened smoothly. “She wanted her answers, and it was right there in her drawing or whatever it’s called. Clear as day if you knew what to look for. The man’s a psychopath, Betty. And yes, as a cop, I would call the murder impossible unless it was premeditated.”

  Betty leaned over and seized Dory’s hand. “How are you coping with this? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, actually. Knowing is better than not knowing. Especially now that I don’t have to wonder any longer if George loved me. He never did. He used me. I can’t tell you why, but that makes this easier somehow.”

  “But you’re still afraid?”

  “Of course.” Dory regarded her from eyes that suddenly looked hollow. “At least there’s nothing left to muddy the waters if he shows up, but I think I’ll be living with fear for a long, long time.”

  Cadell ached for the woman. He hadn’t thought her good mood could survive the day, not as last night’s blows began to sink in. But he did understand what she meant about it being easier knowing George had plotted the murder and had used her. It gave her permission to throw out her last lingering hopes about her brother. It gave her permission to hate him if she needed to.

  It gave her permission to do whatever was necessary to protect herself.

  He stared out over the rolling plain, the dry summer grasses, the tumbleweed caught on his neighbor’s fence, feeling the weight of the mountains behind almost like a physical force. An energy. If they had lived and breathed, he wouldn’t have been surprised.

  Part of him hoped George Lake would show up here. Part of him wanted to wring the man’s neck for all the suffering he had caused Dory.

  Another, more sensible part of him hoped George was next seen somewhere in South America.

  He didn’t feel a lot of hope.

  A little while later, Betty stood up. “I’ve got to get home. Dory, do you want to come with me?”

  “I’ll take her,” Cadell said. “Her dog is here, too.”

  “Well, don’t forget the food. I mean it, girl, you need to eat better. You’re too thin already.”

  Dory gave a little laugh. “That’s a matter of opinion.”

  Betty simply shook her head. “I don’t know how anyone can stay that thin sitting at a desk all day and evening. Which means you’re not eating enough. I’ll say no more...until next time. So it’s okay if I drop in?”

  “Absolutely.”

  A short while later, Cadell watched the dust cloud rise behind Betty’s small sport utility vehicle. It sat high enough to get over the rough roads around here but was just big enough to carry her, one passenger and her groceries. Putting Flash in there would have been ridiculous. A seventy-five-pound dog wasn’t exactly small.

  “It’ll start getting dark soon,” Cadell remarked.

  “The mountains really suck the light out of the afternoon.”

  “I kinda like it. Anyway, let me know when you want to head home. You seemed to enjoy the day.”

  “I did.” She gave him the full force of her lovely smile. “I really did. I didn’t expect to, but...well, it was a relief. I suppose it won’t last long.”

  “You never know. You could move your stuff out here if you think you’d feel more comf
ortable. The thing that bothers me, though, is that you’d be really isolated out here when I’m at work. In town, you can always get help.”

  All of a sudden, maybe because of the words in town, she slammed back to the little girl standing in the street screaming. She’d gotten plenty of help. Out here, no one would hear her scream.

  “Thanks, but I’ll stay where I am. Generous offer, though.”

  “Not entirely without ulterior motive,” he admitted.

  Startled, her eyes widened and she uttered a totally uncharacteristic “Huh?”

  He chuckled quietly. “You know I’m attracted to you. Admit it. I’ve even let you know. From the first moment I saw you, I thought you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.”

  He could see her cheeks redden. “Don’t exaggerate.”

  “I’m not. It’s my personal opinion. You’re absolutely beautiful. But it’s more than that. The better I get to know you, the more I want you.”

  He paused, watching a rapid play of emotions run across her face, too quickly to read.

  “Anyway,” he said, rising. “I don’t want to scare you more. Let’s pack up the groceries and the dog and get you home. You can decide if you want me around tonight.”

  “I’d like you to stay with me,” she said.

  Well, his heart leaped a little at that. Down, boy, he said to himself, as if he were one of his dogs. “Okay. Let me pack what I need for tomorrow, check the dogs one last time and then we’ll load up.”

  * * *

  DORY WONDERED WHY she’d asked him to stay. Flash was a great protector, but for some reason she felt safer with Cadell around. Crazy, since the last people in her life to make her feel at all safe had been her godparents, and it had taken them years.

  Cadell brought out his uniform in plastic from a dry cleaner, neatly pressed on a hanger. His gun belt and all those accoutrements went in the back end with what looked like a whole bunch of other law enforcement stuff.

  She peered in. “I never saw what was in a policeman’s trunk before.” About the only thing she recognized was the body armor.