The Cold Wife

by Ruth Ann Nordin

  Having managed to catch him off guard, she swung the board straight for his head. Unfortunately, the horses got spooked and backed up so her aim was off as she wacked him. She lost her balance, fell off the side of the stagecoach and landed in the grass. Her right shoulder and hip hurt but she could easily move so nothing was broken. She struggled to stand up since her dress wrapped around her legs. If she could wear pants, this would go so much easier!

  She didn’t see Harrison Sr. anywhere, but she did see Harrison Jr. riding up to them on a horse. That explains why Franklin’s horses jerked back. She wondered why the father hadn’t locked the wheels in place. She saw a tree branch that had fallen off one of the trees and grabbed it. It wasn’t as good as the club, but it was something she could use to defend herself and Ryan. She gasped. Was Ryan still in the stagecoach? Before she had a chance to look, Harrison Sr. appeared from the side of the stagecoach. She cringed. The nail had swiped his left eye and part of his nose. He began to walk toward her when he noticed his son. He stopped.

  She braced herself as she watched Harrison Jr. walk up to his father.

  “Tell me you’re not doing what I think you’re doing to Mrs. Monroe. Tell me you didn’t do what I think you did to Mr. Allen, Mr. Rivers, Mr. Dean and the Monroes,” Harrison begged his father.

  “Mind your own business, Junior,” his father warned. “Get back on that horse and return to town.”

  His son closed his eyes and shook his head. “I didn’t want to believe Julie when she told me what you were doing. I stood up for you. I told her that there was no way you would sabotage other people’s businesses, but here I am and here you are and Mrs. Monroe looks like she’s fighting for her life.” He looked at her. “I’m sorry. For everything.”

  “I told you not to ask questions and not to believe what women tell you,” his father angrily spat.

  “I spent my entire life trying to please you. Just once I wanted to hear you say that you were proud of me. Just once! But you never did. I pushed myself hard to earn your respect and treated other people as objects to get things done for you.”

  “You don’t understand how the real world works, Junior! You think it’s all dinner parties and business meetings? It’s survival of the fittest. You have to be tough and do whatever it takes to make it if you’re going to be successful.”

  “I used to believe that. But now that I see what you’re doing, I’d rather have my integrity back. I’m going to start by turning you into the police and telling them what you did to Carrie.” His voice cracked.

  Carrie realized that this was probably the hardest thing Harrison Jr. ever had to do. He reached for his father who ran off. She didn’t bother to watch them as he chased his father. Instead, she raced to the stagecoach and looked inside. Tears came to her eyes when she didn’t see Ryan. As stupid as it was to do, she opened the box and peered inside. There was no way he could fit in there but suddenly, she wasn’t thinking clearly. Where could he have gone? He couldn’t even run anymore.

  She quickly checked under and around the stagecoach but he was nowhere in sight. This is like a nightmare! The fear she experienced when Harrison Sr. came after her was nothing compared to losing a child. “Ryan!” she screamed as panic gripped her. She was half aware of the fact that the father had punched his son in the nose. She cried and screamed the boy’s name again. She frantically went to each side of the stagecoach, wiping her tears so that she could get a clear view of the landscape in front of her. There were so many trees that anyone could easily get lost in them. She didn’t even know where to begin.

  Harrison Sr. managed to untie a horse and jumped on it. His son swore and ran to his own horse. As the son chased his father, she spotted the blue blanket tangled up in a large fallen tree branch. She eagerly ran toward it.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Gone. All his business documents were gone. Justin examined his office with a mixture of disbelief and dread. His entire life work had vanished overnight.

  “Where is your briefcase?” his uncle asked him.

  He looked at Jonathan as if he didn’t understand what he was asking him.

  “The proposal for tonight,” the older man clarified. “I need that proposal if I’m going to present it.”

  “It was in my briefcase,” Justin dumbly stated.

  “Where is the briefcase? Did you leave it in your parlor at home?”

  He cringed. “No. I left it here.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I was done with it. I figured that you would pick it up today and review it before tonight.”

  His uncle was quiet for a long moment while Justin mentally kicked himself for being stupid enough to leave his briefcase at work. He never imagined that the Grants would be able to break into the Monroe Investing Firm since they had a security guard watching the place.

  “It’s alright,” his uncle finally said. “Maybe I can wing it tonight. Thankfully, we have backup documents at home.”

  “Backup what?”

  “You do have copies of everything at home, don’t you?”

  A new wave of nausea washed over the young man.

  “Alright,” Jonathan slowly replied as he understood that Justin hadn’t thought to make a copy of his work. “If we act fast, we may be able to find everything. If I’m right, those documents and the proposal are at the elder Grant’s residence. Come on. Let’s get them back.” He walked over to a police officer and asked for permission to check the man’s place for their stolen materials.

  “We’ll need to get a search warrant in order to do that,” the cop told him.

  “How long will that take?”

  “It depends on which judge we go to and how busy that judge is.”

  “Which judge do you recommend?”

  “Judge Wayne would be my first choice if I were you.”

  “Great. We’ll go with him.”

  ***

  Two hours later, Justin and his uncle sat in a courtroom, waiting for their case to be heard before Judge Wayne. Mr. Walker, Mr. Conrad Leroy, and Mr. Dean joined them. Police officer Osmund was sure that they had an airtight case with the witnesses and the suspicious activities that Mr. Mitchell had collected over the past week. Now it was a matter of waiting. And the waiting was driving Justin insane. Every second that ticked on the clock was one more second of time that Harrison Sr. had to destroy the evidence.

  He couldn’t shake off the feeling that something wasn’t right. Wasn’t it odd that Franklin hadn’t returned in the time that it took for him and Carrie to fill out the adoption paperwork? He hadn’t known Franklin to take long in any store since he hated to shop. I should have waited until Franklin returned. He was so startled that someone broke into his office that he hadn’t even bothered to think of anything but going to check out the crime scene. He was beginning to regret that decision.

  After another half hour of waiting, he turned to his uncle. “Do you mind if I give Carrie a call to see how things are going with Ryan?” he whispered.

  “Go ahead,” his uncle replied. “If we get called up, we can manage without you.”

  He nodded and went outside the courtroom so he could call his home on the telephone. When Constance answered, she told him that Carrie hadn’t been there since she left with him for the orphanage. He hung up the phone and tapped his fingers on the wall in front of him. Then he dialed the orphanage. Mrs. Tobias reported that Carrie hadn’t returned for anything she might have forgotten. A call to the nursing home and Mary’s house reported the same thing. No one knew where Carrie or Ryan were.

  “It’s not like Carrie to run off somewhere without telling someone where she went,” Mary told him.

  At this point, he didn’t hide his apprehension. “I’ve been at the courthouse for the past two and a half hours. If she’s been trying to find me, she wouldn’t be able to.” Lord, if there’s an emergency and I’m not there to help her... He didn’t even want to consider the consequences involved with that scenario.

  �
�Why are you at the courthouse?” Mary asked.

  He quickly explained the fact that someone broke into his uncle’s firm and stole important documents. “So we’re waiting to get a search warrant from the judge in order to see if the person we think did it is guilty,” he concluded.

  “If you need someone to help with presenting the proposal you and your uncle worked on, I can help with that. I remember everything I read, and I worked on it with your uncle this past weekend. I was adding and subtracting numbers, but I recall the words in the document too.”

  “You have a photographic memory?”

  “Yes.”

  She had no idea how much this was going to help his uncle. “My uncle could definitely use your help tonight. You can help him remember the key points he planned to discuss. I will tell him to call you once we get things taken care of.”

  “I understand. I’ll stay by the phone and leave a message at the courthouse for you if I hear from Carrie.”

  “Could you leave a message with Constance instead? I’m going to go home but need to stop somewhere else first.”

  She agreed and hung up.

  He returned to the courtroom where the men were still waiting for the judge to hear them. He explained the situation to his uncle who assured him that he could take care of everything.

  Justin didn’t waste any time. His first stop was the shoe store where he asked the owner if Franklin had been there. The owner confirmed Justin’s fear. He hadn’t seen Franklin. He went by Franklin’s house and his wife hadn’t seen him since he left for work that morning. With nowhere else to go, he went to his house to see if Carrie had shown up or if Mary had left a message.

  As soon as he entered the house, he saw Franklin sitting on one of the benches in the hallway, looking disoriented. Constance and Geoffrey had given him a glass of water and were asking him what happened. When they saw Justin, they stopped talking and stood up straight.

  “Are Carrie and Ryan here?” he asked them.

  “No, sir. They’re still gone,” Constance replied. “Franklin’s horses and stagecoach are missing too.”

  “I was on my way to the shoe store when someone grabbed me and pulled me into an alley,” Franklin explained. “The person put a cloth up to my nose. I suspect chloroform was on it, for I passed out. When I regained consciousness, nearly three hours had passed and my horses and stagecoach were gone. I came right over here to see if you or Mrs. Monroe could tell me what happened.”

  “No, I can’t, and she’s nowhere to be found. I checked with everyone who’s close to her, and she hasn’t been seen since I left her in front of the orphanage.” Justin was regretting that decision more and more by the minute.

  He didn’t know what to do next. Finally, he realized the only thing he could do, besides run through the town and knock on every door he came across to see if Carrie was there, was to call the police. When they seemed hesitant to begin an immediate search on her since she was an adult, he requested a search to begin for Ryan. This, at least, got their attention. Maybe now he would begin to get some answers.

  ***

  Three hours later, the phone finally rang, and Justin didn’t wait for the second ring before he picked it up. It was the police.

  “We don’t know where Carrie or Ryan are, but Harrison Grant Jr. said his father took them about five miles out of town in a stagecoach. He said that Carrie appeared to be fine, but she apparently had to fight his father. We saw his father when he brought him in, and she got him pretty good in the eye. Anyway, Harrison said that the last he saw of Carrie, she was running into the trees looking for someone. He thinks he heard her calling for Brian.”

  “That’s Ryan.” The pounding in his head was getting worse. He had developed a headache over the past hour.

  “So chances are, the boy ran off and she went to look for him. They are both probably fine though it’s possible that they got lost in the woods. We’re sending out some officers to look for them.”

  “What road did he take them out on?”

  “They went north on Washington Avenue.”

  He took a deep breath before he was able to thank the police officer and hung up. Turning to Geoffrey, he said, “I need a horse and I need it now.” He couldn’t sit by the phone and wait for word to reach him. He needed to be active or he’d go insane. The past three hours had been the longest of his life. The only thing that gave him peace of mind was knowing neither Carrie nor Ryan had been hurt. Though it sounded like Harrison Sr. tried to harm them. He knew if he saw the man at that moment, he would try to kill him. Such rage shocked him since he hadn’t experienced it before.

  Just as Geoffrey brought a saddled horse and a compass to him, his uncle showed up on a police horse with Office Osmund beside him.

  “We got the search warrant, but we have to move quickly. Harrison Grant Sr. set fire to his house before the police were able to apprehend him,” his uncle told him. “The firemen are trying to put the fire out, but it’s going to take awhile to accomplish.”

  “I can’t go. Carrie and Ryan have been missing for about six hours. I just got word on where they probably are. I have to find them.” He got on the horse. He hadn’t ridden one in over a year so it felt unnatural to be on it, but he adjusted to its movements the best he could.

  Jonathan gave him a long look. “You do understand that if your documents burn up, you stand to lose all your money since you don’t have backup copies on hand. Conrad Leroy said your file showed that you dropped your sound investments this morning. Unless we find those papers proving otherwise, you could be facing bankruptcy.”

  Justin felt as if he was being squeezed from all sides. No matter what he did, he was doomed. But he couldn’t afford to lose Carrie. “I have to find her and Ryan or at least make the effort.”

  The older man nodded. “I’m proud of you, Justin. I’ll do what I can to find those papers for you.”

  “Oh, before I forget, I talked to Miss Duff earlier and she said that she remembers the investment proposal word for word. Apparently, she has a photographic memory. She said she would be willing to help you recall parts of it during your presentation tonight.”

  His uncle shook his head in awe. “She never ceases to amaze me. Alright. Keep me informed about Carrie and Ryan.” He urged his horse to run down the street toward Harrison Grant Sr.’s house.

  Justin turned his horse toward Washington Avenue and went north. Once he was out of town, he let the horse run as fast as it could. It didn’t take long for him to find two other policemen. They were inspecting the stagecoach and the area around it. It was Franklin’s stagecoach, and judging from the tear in the roof of it, Harrison Sr. and Carrie had a confrontation.

  “My wife and child are the ones lost in these woods,” he told the officers. “Do you know which direction they went?”

  “I believe Mr. Grant said they went that way.” The officer motioned to the direction he was talking about. “We have three men looking for them.”

  Justin thanked them and took the horse into the trees. Thankfully, it was mid-afternoon so the sun was still out. He heard the other men call her name, and he added his own voice to the chorus. By dusk, his nerves were shot. How could a woman and a child disappear? Certainly, between four men looking for them, they should turn up somewhere.

  When he finally did find them, it was almost dark. Carrie seemed to have given up on walking for she was sitting against a big tree and held Ryan who was sleeping in her arms. Though Ryan was sweating because of the summer heat, he was content to have his favorite blanket wrapped around him. Justin was so relieved he found them that he had to fight back his tears. He wasn’t one to cry but the desperate fear of not finding them was catching up to him.

  As soon as she saw him, she jumped up and ran over to him.

  He quickly got off the horse and held them tightly to him. “Carrie, I was beginning to think I wasn’t going to find you.” His voice choked, preventing him from saying anything else. She felt wonderful. He kissed h
er on the top of her head and rested his cheek against her hair.

  He heard her softly crying as she clung to him and Ryan. “I was going in circles. I thought I kept passing the same tree, so I made a marker and passed it three times before I gave up. I thought I lost Ryan. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life.”

  “You think you were scared? I thought I lost both of you. I love you, Carrie.” He reluctantly pulled away from her and saw that Ryan was awake. “And I love you.” He widely smiled and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Have you ridden a horse before?”

  “A couple of times,” she replied.

  “This saddle will only seat one person, so I want you to ride him. I’ll carry Ryan.”

  “Do you know how to get out of here?”

  He took out the compass Geoffrey had given him. “The town is a mile in that direction. You managed to get far from the stagecoach, which is why the police and I didn’t find you for so long. I’m going to take you and Ryan home, and then I’ll let the police know that you two are safe.”

  She looked exhausted. She let him take Ryan before she got on the horse. “This isn’t a sidesaddle.”

  He suddenly understood her hesitation. It wasn’t proper for a woman in a dress to ride on a regular saddle. “Once we’re in town, you should get off and walk with me.”

  “It’ll be good to get home.”

  His heart constricted as he wondered what she had gone through. “Will you tell me what happened?”

  As he led them to town, she did as he requested.

  ***

  Though Harrison Grant Sr. was put in jail for arranging his competitors’ bankruptcies, Justin was unable to reclaim his wealth. In one day, he went from being one of the wealthiest people in town to being one of the poorest. Jonathan tried to save as many documents as he could, but the fire had been rampant and only Mr. Dean and Mr. Rivers were able to rectify their economic standings.

  “I’m sorry, Justin,” his uncle told him as they sat in the parlor in the house that Justin would have to move his family out of in a matter of days. “Mr. Grant put your belongings to the other side of his parlor, and it was closer to where he started the fire.”