A door slam startled Mary. She leapt to her feet, knocking the album to the floor.
The woman who’d just come in through the front door yelped at the sight of Mary. The grocery sacks in her arms slipped free and crashed with the sound of shattering glass at her feet. Still breathless, she demanded, “Who are you? Where’s Thom?”
“Thom’s upstairs. I’m his…” Mary faltered. She wasn’t Thom’s anything, she realized with a jab of regret. “Thom is investigating my case.”
The woman shook her head, “Bringing his work home again, is he? He’s such a crusader.” She crouched and collected the grocery sacks. “Sorry if I frightened you. I heard he was on a tough case and I knew he wouldn’t think to eat healthy.”
Mary followed the woman into the kitchen. As she unpacked, the woman continued, “I’m Thom’s mother, by the way. Edith Brady.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Mary offered her hand, “Mary Seeton.”
Edith took her hand and gave Mary a long, appraising look before shaking her hand. The amazing emerald glint in her eyes matched Thom’s exactly. Despite the casual design to her pastel slacks outfit, it screamed designer quality. The slight aristocratic bearing with which she held herself, suggested Edith came from money.
Edith returned to unpacking the groceries. “Oh look. I broke the pickle jar.”
“Sorry about that.”
“It’s not your fault.” Edith finished removing and wiping the cans and the bag before tossing the bag, pickles, glass and all, into the garbage. As she stacked the cans in the pantry, Edith paused and glanced around. “Something is not right,” she said, cocking her head. “I know. The scanner is off.”
“Thom turned it off.”
“Thom turned it off? You’re kidding.”
“Not at all.”
“Thom never turns it off.” Edith tapped her chin and then glanced at Mary with one eyebrow cocked thoughtfully.
“What?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Have either of you eaten dinner yet?”
“No.”
Edith lifted a package of frozen lasagna from her remaining sack. “Like Italian?”
Chapter Fourteen
After grabbing a quick shower, Thom dressed in fresh jeans and a navy sweatshirt with the department’s emblem silk-screened on the left breast. Out of habit more than anything else, Thom clipped his badge and gun to his belt.
Thom plucked his cordless phone from his bedside table and dialed Officer Brad Macosa’s cell phone. When he answered, Thom didn’t bother with any preamble. “Any news?”
“We’ve had a hit on Miss Seeton’s phone.”
“Go.”
After a moment’s pause, Thom heard the click of the tape player, followed by a few seconds of ominous tape hiss before the message emerged. Thom gripped the handset of the phone so hard the plastic creaked. The voice on the message snarled, “You broke your promise. Now, I’m going to keep mine.”
“Get a trace?”
“It came from a pay phone. We’re asking around to see if someone saw him but no luck so far. Forensics is checking for prints.”
“Brad, have the parents been warned of the situation?”
“This afternoon. What about Miss Seeton?”
“She’s staying with me.”
“Thom, we have to catch this guy.”
“I know. Call me if anything develops.”
Thom clicked off the phone and returned it to the nightstand before slumping down onto the bed. “Damn that bastard,” he hissed and punched his pillow. Warning the school and the families had been the right decision, despite the message left on Mary’s answering machine. If this creep planned to snatch a child, Thom intended to make it as difficult as possible. Despite the promise the kidnapper insisted upon, Thom suspected Mary would remain his primary target and Thom had no intention of allowing her out of his sight.
The tantalizing aroma of cheese and tomato sauce drifted to Thom. Had Mary decided to take advantage of his kitchen and cook something? The thought of her rummaging through his cabinets and whipping up a meal unaccountably pleased Thom.
Following the fragrance of Italian spices, Thom hopped down the back steps with a smile growing on his face. As he emerged in the kitchen he said, “Smells delicious.”
“Thank you, dear,” his mother replied.
“Mom, what brings you by?” Thom bent down to the older woman and kissed her cheek.
“Just making sure you don’t starve to death. I wish I could say I brought some home cooking but you and your new friend will just have to settle for a frozen dinner tonight.”
Thom grinned at Mary, contemplating her “friend” status and wondered if it had the potential to develop into something more. “My mother hasn’t been embarrassing me, has she?”
“Not at all,” Mary assured him.
“Thomas, dear, I can’t stay,” Edith told him. “Walk me to the door and I’ll leave you two to your dinner.”
Thom followed her to the front door, where his mother reached up to hug him goodbye. Softly she whispered, “I like her, Thom.”
“I like her too.”
“Give her a chance, will you? You work too hard.”
Avoiding that old argument, Thom muttered, “Thanks for the food, Mom. I appreciate it.”
“I opened a bottle of wine for you to have with dinner.” She stepped back from her son and smiled. “Have a pleasant evening.”
Thom watched her until she drove off. Mary, a bottle of wine and a hot meal awaited him in the kitchen. He looked forward to enjoying each of them. As he turned, Thom spotted the photo album resting on the floor in front of the sofa. He stepped around the furniture and collected the album.
How had it found its way there? Thom cut his eyes toward the kitchen where Mary set the table. She’d been snooping, no doubt. Thom flipped the pages. How long had it been since he’d perused the album himself? Years, at least. Thom closed the album and returned it to the shelf. He didn’t need to reopen that old wound. He carried the scar of his experience around with him everywhere he went.
Thom’s melancholy seeped away during dinner. They avoided unappetizing topics of conversation and instead covered their various likes and dislikes. Mary told him about her childhood growing up as the only child of an art history professor and a piano teacher. She’d been raised with an appreciation for the arts and could still play several complicated pieces on the piano although neither pursuit inflamed her passion like teaching had. On a rare reference to the case, she confided that she hadn’t the heart to tell her parents about the incident while they were both enjoying a sabbatical in Paris.
The excess of wine after so stressful a day wore on Mary. She yawned twice as they straightened the kitchen after dinner. “Come on,” Thom held out a hand to her. “You’re beat. I’m putting you to bed before you fall down.”
“I’m fine really.” Despite her weak protest, Mary accepted the hand he offered.
A surge jolted through Thom at the contact but he squashed his urge to lead her to his bedroom for nefarious purposes. Mary followed him upstairs and after she kicked off her shoes he tucked her in. As he turned to leave, she reached for him. “Don’t go. Please. I don’t want to be alone.”
Thom stretched out on top of the covers on the other side of the bed. Mary curled with her back to him, giving him a perfect view of the curves from her shoulder, down her waist and back over her hips. She reached back to him and he slipped his hand into hers. Without comment, she tugged him close up against her back so they spooned together, his arm curled around her waist and his fingers intertwined with hers by her stomach. He ached all over with the desire to press her more firmly against himself but Mary sighed contentedly and seemed to drift off to sleep immediately.
Thom e
xpected to find sleeping so close to Mary without having her pure torture, but the poor sleep and long hours of the previous days caught up to him. The ringing of his phone at five in the morning woke him from a sound sleep.
Groggily, Thom reached over and hit the speaker button on the phone. “Brady,” he said.
“Brady, you need to come in. We’ve got another one.”
“Another one?” His sleeping mind struggled to recall to what his captain referred.
“The librarian from the school is missing. There are signs of a struggle.”
“Nancy!” Mary exclaimed. “No!”
###
Thank you for reading Episode 2 of
Her Dangerous Promise!
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~A taste of~
Episode 3 of
Her Dangerous Promise
“Go.” Thom ordered into his radio, “Now!”
With the yell, “Police! Open up!” the front door smashed in. Thom and the others rushed up the basement stairs.
The house flooded with noise and movement. The SWAT team spilled through the front door and began checking rooms, shouting, “Clear!” as they secured areas.
“We’ve got a locked room,” one shouted. Thom hurried down the hall. While the others covered the entryway with their rifles, Thom reared back and kicked the door in. They all rushed into the large bedroom.
Someone was obviously under the covers, even though the comforter completely obscured the bulk of the person’s shape. Thom grabbed the fabric and while everyone aimed at the person, he yanked back the covers.
The smell, which had permeated the entire atmosphere of the house, exploded without the blanket to encase it. Despite their toughness two SWAT guys choked and recoiled.
Thom cursed, stepping back as if that might spare him the brunt of the odor. “He’s not here,” Thom said. “Check the rest of the house and the locked shed. See if there are any more. Have forensics begin their sweep; including the fields out back, there is potentially other evidence back there.”
The SWAT officers seemed relieved by the order and retreated quickly.
Thom stared down at the body, obviously dead for a while, laid out on the bed.
###
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Her Dangerous Promise - Part 2: (Romantic Suspense Serial) Page 6
