Along the Cane River: Books 1-5 in the Inspirational Cane River Romance Series

by Mary Jane Hathaway

“Just be calm. We’re trying to get all the information.”

  “She might be in real trouble. You have to listen to us.” Alice sounded like she might cry.

  A radio crackled and one officer turned to speak into it. Gideon knew what came next. They would advance as a team, take him in for questioning, nobody would be looking for Henry at all. It was so bright in the parking lot that he didn’t need a flashlight now. Maybe he didn’t need one in the alley, either. He moved to the hedge, and felt someone grab his arms.

  There was a lot of shouting and Gideon fought hard, but there were too many of them and after several minutes he landed face down in the dirt. Someone kneed him between the shoulder blades and jerked one arm back. Gravel pierced his cheek and the cold metal of a pair of cuffs felt like an electric shock against his wrist.

  “Stop struggling,” someone yelled in his ear and Gideon tried to shake his head. He wasn’t struggling. Or maybe he was. He couldn’t tell. Everything was noise and sound and Henry was in trouble. They weren’t going to help her.

  His other arm jerked backward and the rest of the cuffs were locked in place. Someone was still yelling and he wasn’t sure but it sounded like Tom. He inhaled dirt and started to cough. At the edge of the lot he could see a crowd gathering, their faces changing color from red to blue in the patrol car lights. He wished there was someone, anyone, who would listen to him. Henry needed him. His Henry. The only woman he’d ever―

  And there she was, like a dream. Or a nightmare. She came back through the hedge the same way she must have been dragged into it. Her hair was full of tangles and dirt smears marked her face, as if she’d been crying and wiped her cheeks with dirty hands. Her clothes were ruined and she wasn’t wearing shoes. One arm looked covered in blood. Gideon had never been so happy to see anyone in his life.

  “There. Just relax,” a gruff voice said above his head. It was probably the owner of the knee still buried in his back. “We’re just gonna ask you some questions but first I gotta say you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right―”

  Alice rushed forward and hugged Henry hard. Tom started to follow, then looked back at Gideon.

  “Go,” he tried to say through the mouthful of dirt. Tom seemed to understand and ran to Henry, looking her over for injuries. The other officers stepped closer, finally grasping that this was the woman who was missing.

  “Don’t let him up,” someone said above him.

  “Nope,” the kneeler agreed. “Looks like your lady friend wasn’t as missing as you’d hoped. Maybe you were a little sloppy this time, huh?”

  All the rage that had been coursing through him was gone and Gideon didn’t bother to answer. Henry was here. She was okay. Nothing else mattered.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant.

  The fact that you kept it does not.”

  ― Sara Gruen

  Henry tried to give as much information as she could but either the officers were asking her the same questions, or she was repeating herself. After a few minutes, someone gave her a phone to call Kimberly. Her mother’s sobs echoed in her ears, cries of relief and gratitude. She promised she’d see her tomorrow, and that everything was fine. Henry couldn’t tell whether she was fine, but she knew she was alive and that was enough.

  An officer helped Gideon up off the ground and removed the cuffs. She knew Alice and Tom were there, and a kind woman who offered her a bottle of water, but through all the chaos, she only had eyes for Gideon. She walked into his arms without saying a word. He kissed her hair, her face and murmured things she didn’t quite hear. She had another chance to tell him how she really felt. It was as if her life were starting over.

  “I didn’t expect to see you again,” she said into his shirt.

  “I’m here.” His voice was rough. “How― what happened?”

  “I did what you taught me.” She looked up. “The pins. I took out the pins.”

  An officer was still standing near. “Miss, could you lead us back to where you were being held?”

  She nodded, hating to leave Gideon’s arms. “It’s right on the corner, the place that’s up for sale. Yellow three story house.”

  “I know that place. We’ve had squatters in there before.” The officer made a note and turned away.

  “Let me go upstairs and get some shoes for you,” he said, looking down at her bare feet.

  “I’ll go,” Alice said and rushed away.

  “Here,” Tom said and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. “I keep this in the trunk for emergencies. I shook it to make sure there weren’t any spiders. Just in case.”

  Henry managed a smile. Tom looked as shocked as she was and probably needed a blanket of his own. “How did you two know?”

  “You didn’t call,” Gideon said.

  She felt something under her fingers and looked at his hands, seeing the scrapes for the first time. “What did they do to you?”

  “You said you’d call.” He wasn’t making any sense.

  “We came to check on you and he saw your shoe in the bushes,” Tom offered.

  “Did they follow you back from Oakland?”

  Henry shook her head. “No, it was just an accident, I think. I heard them when I got out of the car.”

  “Accident?”

  “They didn’t know I was there. But I heard them talking about Barney Sandoz. Well, not exactly his name, but I knew what they meant, and they mentioned you, so I snuck up on them and ―”

  Gideon put a hand to his eyes. “You what?”

  “I crept up to the hedge, trying to hear what they were saying.” Now, in the flashing lights of the patrol cars, she could see how stupid she’d been. “I was trying to get information. I knew that if I could hear who killed Barney, it would prove your innocence.”

  The look on his face chilled her to the bone and she clutched the blanket tighter.

  “You risked your life for that?”

  She’d risked her life for him. “They couldn’t see me. I was right behind the―”

  “But they did see you, obviously.” His face was tight with anger. He stepped back from her. “You asked me to take care of myself and I agreed. You said when I went into the fire to get those boxes, that it was like I carried your heart. How do you think I feel? You could have gotten yourself killed.”

  Tom put a hand on his arm. “Everyone’s had a really hard evening. Let’s not talk about this right now.”

  Henry felt her eyes burn with tears and part of her was surprised she had any left to cry. She had gone through every emotion possible in only a few hours and now, she felt Gideon’s utter disappointment in her. He was right. She’d asked him to not act like a hero, then she’d gone and tried to be one herself.

  “Here you go,” Alice said, coming up beside her. “I grabbed the tennis shoes near the door, I hope that’s okay.”

  She nodded and tried to slip her foot into one, but lost her balance and fell against Alice. “Sorry. I’m just…”

  “Miss, maybe you should come and sit down.” An ambulance had arrived sometime while they were talking and a young woman in a blue uniform gently took her hand. “We’ll check out that cut on your hand.”

  “It’s not a cut.” She held up her hand and her right thumbnail was mostly missing. “But I guess I should get a band aid.”

  “I’ll help you,” Alice said, and bending down, she got Henry’s feet into her shoes and then propelled her toward the ambulance.

  She looked back, hoping to see Gideon following but he was still facing the hedge. Tom seemed to be talking to him.

  The ambulance technician chattered pleasantly while she swabbed Henry’s arm with disinfectant and Henry was glad of the distraction. After a few minutes she asked, “Are you almost done? I forgot there was something I needed to ask my friend.”

  “Sure am.” She offered Henry several packets
of gauze and gave her directions on keeping the wound clean, then helped her down from the ambulance.

  Alice looked pale and there were dark rings around her eyes. “I can’t believe this happened. I didn’t hear a thing. I sleep so deeply now.”

  Henry nodded. Alice hadn’t heard anything because Henry had been careful not to wake her. “You don’t have to stay. I think we’re almost done. I’m going to get a hot shower and go straight to bed.”

  Her eyes widened. “Alone? You can’t stay alone. You need to stay with me tonight. The guest room is made up and―”

  “I’m okay. And I’ll sleep better in my own bed.”

  Alice turned to Gideon and Tom, then back Henry. “Okay. Do you want me to go with you to the basement, or wherever, the place they were holding you?”

  Henry shook her head. “I’ll be fine. It’s that old yellow house on the corner. Not far.”

  Something in her tone must have told Alice she was serious because she reached out and gave her a long hug. “I want to insist you let me stay,” she said.

  “I feel awful that everybody is up at three in the morning.” Henry looked around. “In fact, I’m going to ask if I can go down to the station tomorrow.”

  “Good plan,” Alice said. She gave her one last squeeze and walked toward the back door.

  Henry watched her for a moment then headed across the parking lot toward Gideon. He had his back to her, so Tom saw her first.

  “Can I talk to Gideon alone?” Her voice sounded odd to her own ears.

  Tom didn’t look like he was going to be as compliant as Alice but after a second or two he nodded and stepped away. Gideon turned to her, his face lined with utter grief.

  “I’m so sorry, Henry. I just…”

  “I know. And you’re right. I shouldn’t have tried to be a hero.” She squared her shoulders and gripped the blanket a little tighter.

  He stepped forward and held her face in his hands. “I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you.”

  The parking lot was still illuminated with flashing police lights and officers walked in groups around them, but Henry felt as if they were all alone for a moment. Gideon had always made her feel that way. Gideon and Henry, against the world. Or maybe it was Gideon against Henry. She hesitated, wishing she didn’t have to ask the question.

  She gently tugged his hands from her face. “There was something the bigger man said. You know, the guy with the tattoos and―”

  “Rick LaRule,” Gideon supplied. “I’ve met him before.”

  Henry felt her stomach drop. “Well, he said that he told you something and you were going to take the bait. He said you couldn’t pass up a chance at revenge.”

  There it was. The slight widening of the eyes, the fraction of a second blank expression before he found one that was appropriate. “I’m not sure what he meant.”

  Lie.

  Henry closed her eyes for a moment. It was physically painful for her to watch the progression of emotions cross his face. Fear, panic, embarrassment. There was a long silence where all she heard was the squawk of police walkie talkies and the crunch of gravel as people walked around them.

  “Gideon, don’t.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper.

  He had never looked so trapped and it tore at her heart. “He told me Duane Banner had plans to kill someone as soon as he was released.”

  “But how does that―?” Her sentence broke off as the pieces fell into place. “You were going to go stop him.”

  He nodded.

  “How?”

  He looked back at her and she saw the struggle in his eyes. He didn’t want to tell her the truth, but she would know if he lied.

  “Oh.” The answer hit her harder than LaRule’s open-handed slap. He had been planning to murder Duane Banner. “But what did you think I would say about that?”

  He gave the barest shake of his head.

  “You didn’t expect to see me again,” she said.

  Henry pressed her fingers to her eyes for a moment. Her worst fears had come true. He’d been planning to leave her. Her stomach rolled.

  It would be so much easier to step into his arms and let him kiss her until she couldn’t remember what they were fighting about. Everything would be fine. They would pick up where they left off. But if she did, the real betrayal would haunt her forever. It was more than thinking this murder would have been justified.

  “Did something keep you from going?”

  “Tom. He helped me understand. I was in a bad place, Henry. I was confused. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. It would solve so many problems. And then I realized after a day or so that I wasn’t thinking straight.”

  “When did Tom convince you?”

  “The day you came to see me with Blue. The same day I bought the tickets. But, see, I couldn’t return them. Giving them to Bix and Ruby was the best solution.”

  As soon as he was done explaining, Henry watched realization dawn in his eyes. She hadn’t really been asking about Tom or how the tickets were transferred.

  “Were you ever going to tell me?”

  There was no more struggle, no more fight left in him. Henry looked into his eyes and knew his answer before he spoke.

  “No.”

  Of all the ways she imagined how it would end, Henry never thought it would be in a lie. Stupid not to have seen it coming, really. Her whole life was filled with them. Every friendship, every memory was polluted with nuances and shades of gray. But Gideon had been different. He had been the first, the only one, to speak plainly to her without pretense. And she’d loved him for it.

  “All I ever wanted was the truth,” she whispered, and was surprised to taste tears on her lips.

  “I know,” he said.

  There was nothing left to say. She turned on walked blindly toward the back door, not caring if she was leaving officers waiting or where she was supposed to go next. She wished she could simply accept the lie and move forward. If it was Gideon who fed her fairytales from his hand, surely she would be happy.

  But Henry knew that was madness. Even more than when she first met him, she needed honesty, and now it seemed the one thing she truly needed, he couldn’t give her after all.

  ***

  Gideon stood completely still, except for the movement of his chest rising and falling. Henry walked away and didn’t look back.

  In the seconds since she left his side, he saw how his whole life had changed. Henry had drawn him out, coaxed him into making changes he didn’t see until they were already in motion. There was something about her that made him want to be more than a prisoner, an ex con, a murderer. No, that wasn’t quite right. He’d always wanted that. He just hadn’t believed it was possible.

  “Where did she go?” An officer rushed up, pen in hand. “We’re headed to that old house. I thought she was coming with us.”

  Gideon shook his head, not knowing what to say.

  “I think she’s tired. Does she have to go tonight?” Tom asked. He was standing close to Gideon but he hadn’t noticed.

  “Huh. Probably not. They just picked up LaRule and a few other guys he had with him. Looks like they didn’t count on her being able to get outta that basement.” The officer grinned.

  Gideon felt a surge of relief. “Thank God.”

  “Can we come with you? If we don’t touch anything?” Tom asked. He nodded toward By the Book. “I want to see how our clever friend got herself out.”

  Gideon shot him a look. He didn’t want to see anything like that.

  “I guess. We’re heading over. They might stop you at the door, but you’re welcome to walk over with us.”

  As soon as he was gone, Gideon turned to Tom. “What’s that about?”

  “Facing your worst nightmare.”

  They started down the alley. “I’ve never been afraid of basements.” Gideon was so tired. He thought of turning around and heading home, but knew he wouldn’t sleep tonight anyway.

  “Someth
ing they do in therapy. A traumatic event happens and you return to the scene right away, if you can. You walk around it, reclaim it. Make sure it has no power over you.”

  The truly traumatic event was that Henry had discovered his lie but there was no way to erase its power.

  “Every time she’s late, you’ll worry. Every time she comes home a few minutes after she said she would, every time she doesn’t call by a certain time, you’ll think back to this moment,” Tom said.

  Henry wasn’t going to be calling him. She certainly wasn’t going to be coming home to him.

  “Spend as much time as you can near where she was held. Just let it soak in.” Tom pointed out the house as they turned the corner. “You need to reclaim the spot or every time you drive by this place, you’ll get anxious.”

  Gideon was less worried about the big yellow house than By the Book. He would never be able to walk by again without thinking of Henry and of the poetry section.

  A few minutes later they were peering through the doorway. Officers set up large floodlights with extension cords and although at first they made them stay back, after a while, it seemed obvious that all there was to be found was Henry’s other shoe. A crime scene photographer took pictures as the officers talked to each other. It seemed so simple, so ordinary. Gideon started to understand what Tom meant. This basement was like hundreds of others in the city, but it could have been the scene of Henry’s murder.

  He shivered. It wasn’t that cold in the basement but he felt chilled to the bone. Looking around, he saw the pins Henry had pulled from the hinges and the marks she’d made in the wood as she worked. He remembered the long streak of blood on her arm and felt his stomach clench. She had worked hard to save herself. She had wanted to live.

  “Take your time. Or as long as they’ll give us,” Tom said. He stood close enough to talk but not close enough that Gideon felt crowded.

  He let out a slow breath and looked around. He could imagine the despair she must have felt, the desperation. A long time ago he had felt those same emotions and been utterly helpless to save anybody except himself. Gideon glanced at the ceiling. It seemed closer than before. He focused on the far side of the room and tried to stay calm. Henry had suffered in here but she’d triumphed, too. She had kept her wits about her and―