Wings Of The Dawn

by Tracie Peterson

  The man grinned good-naturedly, and Cheryl found the entire matter uncomfortable. She didn’t want to smile or laugh. She didn’t want to feel good for even a single minute. Feeling good meant that there was a reason to go on living, and she didn’t want there to be a reason to go on. She wanted to end her life, and the sooner she arranged for all her affairs to be properly in order, the better.

  Leaving the men to make short work of her affairs, Cheryl took herself into the family room and switched on the television. Two children danced and giggled while their mother snapped pictures of them and advertised the quality of her particular film. Cheryl watched the little girls, their faces beaming smiles at the camera, their eyes lit up in anticipation of the moment.

  “I might have had a daughter,” she murmured to the empty room.

  The commercial passed and another came on advertising, “What to do when those morning aches and pains got you down.” Cheryl flipped the switch off and went to the window. Staring out over the backyard, she noticed the sorry state of things for the first time. Weeds grew around the fountain and fishpond. This had been the centerpiece of her father’s landscaping, and Cheryl couldn’t let it be consumed by neglect.

  But if you’re dead, what will it matter? a voice seemed to question inside her head.

  “Cheryl?” Erik called out.

  Cheryl swallowed back an angry retort and returned to the living room. “Why are you still here?”

  “I didn’t want to just leave without saying good-bye,” Erik said with a smile.

  “Good-bye, then,” she replied and turned to go.

  “No, wait,” Erik called after her.

  “I have nothing more to say, Mr. Connors. Please show yourself out.”

  She refused to look back, and only after she was out of sight, did Cheryl pause to listen for the sounds that would signal Erik’s departure. His footsteps sounded on the marble in the foyer, and then the closing of the door echoed in the stillness around her.

  Good, she thought. Let that be the end of it.

  four

  So how’s the investigation going?” Erik asked.

  Curt looked up from his newspaper and shrugged. “Okay, I guess. There’s a great deal that remains a mystery. Maybe Cheryl will be able to shed some light on it for me.”

  “Cheryl? You mean you plan to interview her?” Erik grew hopeful. This would be the perfect way to see Cheryl again. He’d actually be there for a reason.

  “…Later today,” Curt finished and resumed reading his paper.

  “Wait. What did you say?”

  Curt gave up on the paper and folded it back together. “I said that Cheryl may have information that will be key to our investigation, and I’m going to her house later today.”

  “Can I come along?” Erik asked.

  “No way. This is DEA business.”

  “But Cheryl’s in a fragile state of mind. I told you what happened the other day and how she hyperventilated. You know from your own sister that she blames you for Grant’s death and that she never wants to see you again.”

  Curt frowned. “It doesn’t matter. I have to go. I can read Cheryl like a book, and no one else has that advantage. And although it sounds rather cruel, I can also use her dislike of me to get the answers I want. People under stress often blurt out things they’d never consider speaking of in calmer times.”

  “That is rather cruel,” Erik agreed. “Especially when it’s a friend.”

  Curt sighed and pushed out of the overstuffed chair. “Look, drugs are dirty business and people get hurt. You know from what Christy has told you that even when she was suspected of aiding that same drug ring, I couldn’t just drop her off the list of suspects. Even though I ‘d fallen in love with her and was certain she had no knowledge of what was going on, I still had to investigate her, and I still have to investigate Cheryl.”

  “But it’s so soon,” Erik protested. “Don’t you care about her recovery?”

  “It’s been four months,” Curt replied. “She was left alone as much as possible during the last few months because I stuck my neck out for her. And because I’m one of the owners of O&F Aviation and have worked from the beginning to keep the feds in the middle of the organization, they were a little more sympathetic to my suggestion. That’s not going to carry her the rest of her life, however. She’s going to have to answer some very detailed questions. After all, our records show that Ben Fairchild transferred all of his business interests to Cheryl some time ago. That makes her as much a part of this as it does me or CJ or even Grant. Ignorance isn’t going to carry a great deal of weight in a court of law, and I, for one, hate to see O&F property remain under seizure for much longer.”

  Erik realized his mistake in suggesting that Curt might not care about Cheryl. “Hey, I’m sorry. I should have known.” He quickly moved the conversation forward. “So you’re going there this afternoon?”

  Curt glanced at his watch and headed over to his desk to pick up some papers. “Yeah, in fact, I need to put in about two hours over at the office before I see Cheryl, so if you don’t mind, I’m going to leave you to lock up.”

  “That’s okay. I’ll just leave now.”

  “You want me to drop you somewhere? Home?” Curt asked.

  Erik glanced down at his jogging clothes and shook his head. “No, I need to run. I should never have weakened and stopped by. It’s just that I saw your car here and wanted to know about Cheryl.”

  “No problem.”

  They parted company, and Erik considered his brother-in-law’s words all the way back to his apartment. He might not be able to accompany Curt in a professional way, but what if he just happened to be at Cheryl’s house when Curt showed up? A plan began to formulate in his mind. Curt had said that he’d be at the office for a couple of hours. That would give Erik time enough to clean up and get over to Cheryl’s before Curt arrived. He picked up speed with each passing thought. She might not want my company, he thought, but once she finds out that Curt is on the way, she’s going to need the extra support. He smiled to himself and, without even feeling winded, jogged up his apartment stairs. His plan would work.

  Erik rang the doorbell and waited for Cheryl to appear. When she did, he had to hide his surprise at her appearance. She didn’t look like she’d had a bath all week, and her hair was matted and lifeless. Her face registered only mild disgust at seeing him, and Erik played upon her surprise.

  “Hey, how are you doing?” he said enthusiastically. “I thought I’d stop by and see if you felt like some company.”

  “I told you to stay away from me,” Cheryl responded. “What do I have to do—get a restraining order?”

  Erik laughed and tried to keep matters lighthearted. “I’m not stalking you, if that’s what you think. I just wanted to offer you a day of sunshine.” He waved behind him and added, “And a pleasant companion.”

  Cheryl’s expression remained the same. “I’m not interested in seeing you or anyone else for any reason at all.” She began to close the door.

  “Then you’d better rethink your plans because Curt O’Sullivan is on his way over here right now. I thought you could use some moral support.”

  Cheryl threw open the door. The color had drained from her face and her blue eyes were wide in fear. “Curt is coming here?”

  Erik nodded. “I asked him if I could come along, and he refused. Said it was all business and I should keep out of it. But you know already how persistent I am. I just didn’t want you to have to face the DEA’s questions alone.”

  Cheryl’s gaze darted back and forth, and she craned her neck forward to see if Curt might already be there before she yanked on Erik’s shirt to drag him inside the house. “I can’t deal with him,” she said flatly. “Will you take me away from here?”

  “Take you away to where?” Erik asked, so stunned by this sudden change of events that he didn’t know what to do.

  “Anywhere! It doesn’t matter.” She glanced down at her clothes—cutoff jeans an
d a baggy black T-shirt. “I need shoes. Wait here.”

  Erik stared after her without quite knowing what to do. As she ran upstairs, his mind raced with the implications of what he’d just done. He’d blown Curt’s surprise visit, and he’d inadvertently interfered with a DEA investigation. It wasn’t something he relished admitting to.

  Cheryl returned quickly, socks and blue hiking shoes in hand. “Hurry, he’ll be here any minute.”

  “There’s no way of knowing that—” Erik began.

  Cheryl interrupted him, flailing the socks for emphasis. “Then you don’t know Curt like I do. I feel it in my bones. Come on.”

  “But Cheryl, he’s with the DEA. You can’t just walk away from them. You and your father have a great deal to answer for.”

  Cheryl gave him a stunned look of disbelief. “You think I had something to do with this?”

  Erik felt in his heart that she couldn’t possibly have known about her father’s dirty deeds. He smiled. “No, I don’t believe you did. But,” he tried to give her what he hoped was his most sympathetic expression, “it doesn’t matter what I think. The DEA has their own idea about things and—”

  “Will you stop talking? Are you going to take me away from here, or am I going to have to take myself?”

  Erik felt that in some way he owed her. “All right.” He motioned to her shoes and socks. “Get those on and we’ll go.”

  “I’ll put them on as we go,” she insisted.

  She started to push him forward, but Erik was still torn. “Look, Curt understands your situation. He kept the feds pretty much at bay while you were sick these last months.”

  Cheryl laughed, and the sound was hollow and bitter. “If you call plaguing me day after day about my relationship to Grant Burks and whether my father had any hidden assets at bay, then, yes, I suppose they were most congenial.”

  “But they have to know the truth.”

  Cheryl’s expression grew angry, almost hateful. “The truth has never mattered as much as making themselves look good and my father look bad. Now come on.”

  With Cheryl pulling him to the truck, there was little he could do but flat-out refuse. But he didn’t want to refuse her. She was reaching out to him, even if it was for all the wrong reasons, and he wanted to help calm her and make her realize that he cared greatly for her well-being.

  He opened the pickup door, noting that she didn’t think twice about scrambling up into the cab. A lot of women frowned upon realizing that they were going to be expected to ride in what he called “Ole Blue.” But not Cheryl Fairchild. At that moment, Erik realized that he could have been driving a garbage truck and her response would have been the same.

  He jumped into the driver’s seat and fired up the engine, cautiously keeping an eye out for Curt’s arrival. If they managed to make their escape before Curt pulled into the drive, Erik knew he’d have a great deal to explain later. Throwing the truck into gear and praying at the same time that God would somehow intervene and keep his actions from causing too much trouble, Erik pulled out onto the street.

  “Where to?”

  “It doesn’t matter, so long as you get me away from here,” Cheryl said, forcing her foot into the shoe. She glanced up to give the neighborhood a quick once-over before resuming her task. “Can’t this thing go any faster?”

  “This is a residential district,” Erik replied, pushing the speed as much as he dared. “I wouldn’t want to break the law any more than I already have.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that I’m sure to be breaking multiple laws by helping you escape DEA questioning.” He pulled up to a stop sign and turned to catch her doubtful expression.

  “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” she answered softly. “I’m sorry. I never meant for this to happen. I shouldn’t have asked you to take me away.”

  “No, I suppose you shouldn’t have.” Erik grinned. “But I’m glad you did.”

  “You are? Why?”

  “Because now maybe you’ll believe that I’m really on your side and that I care about you and what you’ve been through.”

  Cheryl nodded but turned away to look out her window. Erik smiled to himself and set the truck in motion. Just don’t let me mess this up, God, he prayed. I only want Cheryl to see that someone cares enough about her to be there for her. I only want to help her.

  Cheryl barely noticed the passing scenery. She saw places in Denver that she’d never before ventured into and probably never would again. And before long, Erik had wound through the city and was headed up into the mountains via a small, gravel back road.

  He’s a strange man, she thought, still not knowing quite what to make of him. He just waltzed into her life and with no more than a few well-placed words had somehow assigned himself her guardian angel. In this case, however, she was grateful. The last person in the world she wanted to have to deal with was Curt O’Sullivan. Just thinking about him made her boil. She balled her hands into tight fists and silently wished she could plant each one squarely into his face.

  It seemed far easier to hate Curt than to deal with her loss. So long as she focused on the anger she felt for him and the revenge that she one day hoped to have against him, Cheryl could make her way through the day and night with some semblance of order. Curt was the reason she was alone. Curt was the one who should pay.

  “Look, now that you’re my captive audience, so to speak, I’m hoping to say a few things.”

  Cheryl glanced up and noted the determined set of Erik’s jaw. Even though his face almost always seemed to be on the verge of an impish grin, this time there was something more serious about his expression.

  “Well, say what you want. I suppose I owe you for getting me out of there,” Cheryl replied.

  “I was serious when I told you that I cared. My family has suffered a great deal in this, too. There’s a baby without her parents because of this.”

  “A baby?” This was the first Cheryl had heard of it.

  “You remember the baby Grant had you watch for him at the mall? The day of the shooting?”

  Cheryl remembered quite well. She wrapped her arms around her waist and hugged them close. “Yes.”

  “That little girl is my niece Sarah. She was my sister’s baby. My sister and Grant’s.”

  Cheryl swallowed hard, remembering that Grant had told her they were watching the baby for his sister-in-law. Curiosity got the better of her. “Why was she there?”

  “Sarah? Grant was using her as a trading piece. Christy, my older sister…” He paused and smiled. “I forgot that you know Christy.”

  “She was making my wedding dress,” Cheryl replied offhandedly.

  “Yeah, well, Christy was supposed to adopt Sarah. Just before she died, Candy begged Christy to keep Sarah from Grant. She knew that he would only use the baby to get whatever he wanted, and Candy had given her life for that child.”

  “What do you mean, she’d given her life?”

  “Candy had an inoperable brain tumor. The doctors could have given her chemo or other treatment, but she refused because she was pregnant. Candy wanted nothing to interfere in the life of that unborn baby, and she was willing to take the chance that she’d not give birth in time to receive treatment for the cancer. I thought at first she was crazy, but the more I thought about it, the more I understood, and I think you can, too. A child is a sacred gift from God.”

  “Then He seems to be quite contradictory in His giving,” she muttered.

  “I know you lost a baby, Cheryl,” Erik said, lowering his voice al-most reverently. “And while I’m a man and can’t possibly know what it is to carry life inside me, I grieve for you and your loss.”

  Cheryl’s eyes filled with tears. No one had ever said such a kind thing to her before. CJ had said that God had a purpose in everything, and the doctor had assured her that she could have other children, as though she’d lost her choice of a new automobile, instead of the life of her baby. But Erik said he grieved with her. Er
ik offered to bear the burden alongside of her, instead of relegating her to a hidden corner where unwed mothers should bury their faces in shame.

  “So you don’t think God killed my baby because I was evil?” Cheryl said sarcastically.

  “No, I don’t think God killed your baby. I think Grant did. Frankly, I think it’s possible he knew exactly what he was doing.”

  “How dare you!” Cheryl exclaimed.

  “I dare because Curt told me the details of the shoot-out. You threw yourself between Grant and Curt. Grant had plenty of time to recognize that you were there. Maybe too much. After all, if you think about it, he had to redirect his line of fire in order to hit you in the abdomen. He’d already grazed Curt’s arm, so shooting you in the head could have been explained away as accidental. Your head was in the line of fire from which Grant was already shooting. But if you’re honest about it, you’ll realize the truth in what I’m saying. Grant had to deliberately lower his aim to hit you low enough to end his baby’s life.”

  “Stop it!” Cheryl cried out, putting her hands to her ears. What he said made startling, ugly sense, and she couldn’t deal with the thought that Grant had purposely tried to kill not only her, but their baby as well.

  Erik pulled into a short dirt turnaround beside a rushing stream. He turned off the engine and rolled down his window. Then shifting to better look at Cheryl, he suggested she do the same thing in order to enjoy the fresh air. Reluctantly, she did as she was told.

  “Please listen to what I want to say. Then, I promise if it absolutely makes no sense, not even one thread of sense, I’ll drop it. But I won’t stop caring about you, and I won’t just go away as easily as you put every-one else off.”

  Cheryl shook her head. “Why not? No one else needs to be told twice. Why are you such a hard case? Are you some kind of nut, or what?”

  Erik laughed. “I suppose in a way. When I was a teenager, there was a popular saying in our youth group. ‘I’m a fool for Jesus, whose fool are you?’ I thought it made a lot of sense. You sold out to one thing or another in life. What mattered was which thing you chose. But I suppose the biggest reason I’m determined to stick this out with you is that I feel a sense of responsibility for you.”