by Lynn Bulock
“Sure. But how long do you think we’re going to have this house to ourselves this way? You know we’ll have a kid or two up soon, and Mom with them.”
“True. Just about the time I pour milk on this stuff most likely. You get used to it after a while.” Of course Lori was still getting used to having two children depend on her, but she wasn’t about to let Mike know how vulnerable she felt. If he saw her as a competent, together person and mother, that was great.
She got more than halfway through her cereal before Tyler bounded into the room. “Can we watch cartoons? Is it Saturday?”
“And good morning to you. How did you sleep?”
“Great. But ’Kayla squeaks.”
“Uh-oh. Is she squeaking now?”
He shook his head and Lori eased back into her chair. “Not now. But she sure did last night, didn’t she? Is she gonna do that all the time?”
“For a while. But soon you’ll be back in your own room and you won’t hear her as much. Will that be better?”
“A lot.” Tyler pushed his shock of blond hair out of his face and looked relieved. “Can I watch cartoons now?”
“It’s not Saturday. Mike has box cereal every morning for breakfast.” Lori looked at her confused breakfast companion. “See, at our house sugared cereal in a box is a Saturday-morning treat. The rest of the time it’s toast or oatmeal or something more nutritious.” And cheaper, she could have added in honesty.
She turned back to Tyler, who was wide-eyed and grinning. “Box cereal every morning? This is cool.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get too used to it. When life goes back to normal, you’ll get this sugary stuff only on Saturday morning.”
“Then I hope we stay here a while. I like cereal every morning!” Tyler got up on a chair, sharing a grin with Mike.
“And I like having company. How long do you think we can talk your mom into doing this?” Looking between the two of them, Lori wasn’t sure who was having a better time. She grinned. Two and a half miracles already and breakfast wasn’t over. It was starting to be a pretty good day.
Chapter Eight
“You sure you’re up to this?” Mike cast a worried glance Lori’s way across the car seat.
Lori thought he looked less comfortable driving his mother’s car than his own truck. It touched her that he was willing to go through some discomfort just to have Mikayla’s car seat fit better here than in the truck. Another example of his care and concern for them. “If I weren’t, I’d tell you. Rest assured of that.”
“Okay. I guess I’m not used to new babies or new moms. I mean, I’m still surprised you’re up and around already.”
“Believe me, women have been doing this for centuries. And most of us get right up and do stuff. And you said if I was good for a week we could get moving.” Lori looked out the window. The winter scenery didn’t offer much to make conversation about. “I still think it’s a little silly telling the sheriff about all this.”
“Well, I don’t. And Carrie doesn’t. So we’re going to tell him. We don’t have to go through all the details of filing an official report unless you find something missing later. But Hank ought to know.”
“All right.” Agreeing was easier than arguing with him. “Then afterward we’ll stop and get the things I need from the store and go home.”
“Where everybody will take a nap.”
“Not me. I don’t take naps!” Tyler protested loudly from the back seat.
“I know that. I should have said everybody who needs one will take a nap.”
“Okay. While they’re taking a nap, can I help Miss Gloria with the goats?”
Tyler and the goats were old buddies by now. Lori wondered how much Mike’s mother was altering her normal routine so that she and the little boy could visit with the goats every afternoon. She was grateful to her for the time she spent with her active son.
“Looks like we got lucky,” Mike said, rousing Lori out of her thoughts. “We’re not even going to have to go to Hank’s office to make that statement.” He pulled the car into a space in front of the Town Hall Restaurant.
Lori had never been inside the local landmark. She was probably the only person within fifty miles of Friedens that hadn’t been there for at least one cup of coffee. “How can you tell Hank is here?”
“His car’s parked out front. And he never leaves it anyplace he can’t see it” was Mike’s succinct reply.
It took a moment to get everybody out of the car, including Mikayla in the car seat, and to caution Tyler that even though they were going into the restaurant, it did not mean he was having ice cream at ten in the morning.
The bell over the door clanged when Mike pushed the door open, motioning them through. Lori walked in to the welcome warmth of the place. There in the first booth was a man in uniform who had to be Hank. He looked just as she expected him to.
The sheriff could have been someone’s grandfather. He probably was for all she knew. A burly man in uniform with silvering hair, he had a face she could only describe as kind. That was a comfort. It was his companion across the booth that gave her a start.
The other man looked up from their conversation. “Well, I’ll be. Here I sit talking about the little lady and in she walks to the Town Hall.” Gary’s boss stood up. “That is you, isn’t it, Mrs. Harper? And you did go and have that baby. I was telling Hank I thought we needed to put out a search party or something.”
Lori smiled weakly. “No search party needed, Mr. Hughes. I didn’t even know you were looking for me. I guess I didn’t think to let you know what was going on.”
Hughes gave the sheriff one of those telegraphed looks that seemed to say “Women. Do you believe this?” and Lori’s blood pressure rose. Everyone else always thought this man was so wonderful. Why did he set off her alarm bells all the time?
He motioned one well-manicured hand toward the next table. “We can’t leave you standing up. Why don’t you and your…friend take a seat?” His lifted eyebrows begged an introduction to Mike.
The sheriff spoke up before Lori had a chance. “You don’t know Mike Martin? Runs Martin Properties with his mother, and is one of our best fire-and-rescue volunteers. How’s that dog of yours, Mike?”
Mike leaned across the table to shake Hank’s hand, and made his hellos to Hughes, as well. “Just fine, Hank. And we’ve met, but not so Mr. Hughes would probably remember me. What’s your connection with Lori?”
His stern expression made Lori feel like he was grilling the other man. Or maybe she was the one on the spot. She hadn’t thought to tell Mike about Gary’s boss and his ownership of the trailer they were renting. Before Hughes could answer, something dawned on her.
“Mr. Hughes owns the trailer we rent, Mike. And he may have been checking up on us. This whole trip into town might be a waste of time after all.”
“It’s your place?” Mike’s normally friendly brown eyes were narrow. He didn’t seem to have much more use for Hughes than Lori did.
“Sure. Not much else out there on that patch of land I got from my uncle. He left me the place when he passed on a couple of years ago.” Hughes smiled and Lori was reminded of something reptilian. Why didn’t anybody else see the man that way?
“So you rented it to the Harpers?”
“When Gary came to work for me. You did know he was working delivery for me at the feed store, didn’t you? When he had his, uh, accident I thought the least I could do was let Lori and the little boy stay for six months, rent free.”
“And give them a car.” If you could call it that, Mike’s unspoken words finished the sentence.
This was almost too much. Lori didn’t trust the man who had employed her husband. But he was a good Christian, a successful business owner and everybody else in Friedens seemed to think the world of him. “It was very kind of Mr. Hughes to do everything for us that he did. Somehow I never thought about him looking for us when Carrie asked who might have a key to the place.”
“Why don’t
we all sit down, and explain this to me before my coffee gets cold,” Hank said. “I see at least one fella who could probably use a doughnut.”
Tyler bounced from one foot to the other. “Can I? I’m hungry again, Mom.”
“What a surprise. Yes, Tyler, let’s get you something to eat and I’ll find a pencil so you can draw on the place mat.” Between the two things, he could stay quiet for the few minutes they would need to talk to Hank and Mr. Hughes.
They settled in at the table, Mikayla’s seat taking up a large portion of it. The efficient waitress cooed over the baby and got Mike’s coffee and glasses of milk for Lori and Tyler. Once she was done serving them, Hank leaned over toward their table.
“Now, why don’t you explain all this to me. Mike, you seem to have tracked me down on purpose. What for?”
Lori could barely look Mike in the face. He seemed unhappy to be explaining all this, and it was her fault that he was on the spot. “Lori’s been staying out at our place. We went by Christmas Day to pick up some things for her and the kids, out to the place she’s renting from you,” he said, motioning to Hughes. “Somebody had been there since she had the baby.”
“Anything missing?”
“No, that was the odd part. Plenty of stuff disturbed, but nothing gone. Still, I told her that we needed to report the disturbance, in case something else happened.”
“And you’re right. Did whoever went through the place break in, Mrs. Harper?”
Lori shook her head. She felt so silly now. “No. And when Mike and Carrie asked about who else had a key, it didn’t dawn on me that Mr. Hughes might have come out to check on us and tried to find out where we were.”
Hughes smiled. It was still not a smile that she trusted. “And that’s what happened. But we still have a little problem, because I didn’t touch much of anything. I was concerned that nobody was there, and it looked like you folks had left in a hurry. But aside from opening a drawer or two looking for an address book or something that might tell me where you went, I certainly didn’t disturb anything. It’s not my right, even as a landlord, to just root through things.”
How did he know things had been rooted through unless he did it? Lori’s head snapped up and she looked at Hughes. His bland expression challenged her. What was she thinking? How could she accuse him of anything, when he was the trusted wealthy man who’d lived here for a lifetime and she was at the receiving end of his charity? She looked down at the table again.
Mike had caught the change in her expression and seemed to be asking her something silently. She refused to look straight at him. There was nothing she could do about this situation of her own making. Better to just keep quiet.
“I don’t know what else to say,” she finally said quietly. “Nothing was taken, and I didn’t think about Mr. Hughes having a key, or looking for us when we were gone. I guess I wasted everybody’s time.”
Hughes laughed. His chuckle set her teeth on edge with its oily smoothness. “I don’t consider my time wasted. I was just telling Hank that my tenants were missing and I was concerned. I didn’t know whether to start calling hospitals looking for you. Now that you’ve shown up here, I don’t have to worry.”
He stood up, and the other men stood with him. Lori reached out a hand to Mikayla’s infant seat to give her a reason to stay sitting. The baby was stirring, but not fully awake. “Well, I’m glad the trip was worth something. And we won’t be bothering you again.”
“Definitely. Lori and Tyler and the baby are moving in with us. It’s been very decent of you to let them have your place for this long, but I’m sure you understand. Do we need to settle anything up?” Mike looked at Hughes with a challenge that made Lori flush.
Who was this man? Why did he think her welfare was his concern? If she had other options she would walk out of the diner right now and prove to him she was capable of supporting her family just fine, without his constant help. But she wasn’t. Her options besides staying at the Martins’ were few and unpalatable. So Lori closed her mouth on the angry words she was tempted to let fly.
“No settling needed.” Hughes waved a hand. “Let me know when they’re officially moved out. If you’d come by the feed store and turn in the keys, Mrs. Harper, I’d be obliged.”
“Certainly. As soon as I make sure everything’s out of there.” Lori hadn’t intended on that being very soon, but now she was determined that another week would not pass without seeing Hughes and giving him back his key. The sooner she could owe the man nothing, the better.
Of course she would still have the Martins that she owed plenty to. But at least she could work for Gloria. And unlike Hughes, she trusted both of them. It was a better situation, even though she wasn’t totally comfortable.
“Well, I’ll let you all get on with your breakfast,” Hughes said. “Thanks for listening to me, Hank. Glad I wasn’t any trouble after all.”
“You never are, Clyde.” The sheriff waved away the other man’s thanks. “I’ll catch up to you later.”
Hughes went to the cash register, exchanged pleasantries while he paid his bill and left. “Well, I’m glad you showed up,” Hank said. “There was something about that whole situation that struck me as odd. Meaning no offense, Mrs. Harper—”
“Lori, please,” she interjected.
“Lori, then…but Clyde Hughes usually isn’t that concerned about anybody. You sure nothing is missing in that place?”
“Pretty sure.” Did this mean the sheriff didn’t like Hughes any more than she did? “There just wasn’t much worth taking. I’m not proud of saying it, but we were living pretty close to the bone.”
Hank nodded. “I got that impression. Mr. Hughes comes off as being the generous soul for letting you have the place rent free, but if I remember correctly, it wasn’t much better than a fish camp. Definitely no place I’d put a family to live.”
The sheriff paused for a moment. He seemed to be thinking while he drank his coffee. Setting down the cup, he went on. “If you’ll pardon me for bringing up something painful, I still have more questions than answers about the way your husband died. Since he was working for Hughes at the time, and driving his vehicle, it makes me a little curious.”
Lori cleared her throat. “I wanted to ask you something about that. At the hospital I overheard something that makes me think there was suspicion that Gary was dealing drugs. Then when we were going through my things after the break-in, we came across Gary’s death certificate. When they came to tell me, the officers said he drowned when his car ran off the road. It seemed simple.”
“Nothing ever is, though.” Hank stopped talking while the waitress refreshed his coffee and Mike’s. “Thanks, Katy.” When she moved on to the next table, he began again. “The medical examiner said the primary cause of death was drowning, but he had a lot of reservations. The tox screen he ran was kind of strange, and it looked like somebody could have helped your husband off the road.”
“Why didn’t anybody tell her this before?” Mike broke in before Lori could ask.
“None of it would have brought the man back,” Hank said bluntly, looking more stern than grandfatherly. “And the less anybody knew, the less whoever had a hand in this would be suspicious.”
“And you couldn’t rule out the fact that I might have had a hand in it myself,” Lori said quietly.
“There was that, at first. Once I’d met you, and my investigator had, that wasn’t a concern. But yes, it’s always a factor,” Hank admitted. “Most people are killed by someone they know well.”
Killed. The word dropped like a rock into the charged atmosphere between them. “Are you sure about this?”
“No. That’s the other reason that I didn’t say anything to you. No offense, ma’am, but I don’t have any firm proof that whatever your husband took that made him go off the road wasn’t self-administered. Or that he knew all about the things we found in that trunk.”
“I understand. But I told you then, and I’ll say it now, that whatever G
ary’s other faults, I never knew him to use drugs or drink.” He always said that was for other suckers, Lori added silently. Besides, he didn’t have the money.
“I know. And you would probably know best.”
“Which means you’re left with a lot of unanswered questions, including who besides Hughes tossed that trailer,” Mike said. “Makes me glad to be out of the loop.”
“I’ll take you as part of my loop anyday, Mike. Just say the word and your mother will be out a vice president in that company of hers.”
Mike’s smile seemed weak. “Thanks for the offer, Hank. But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it now. I really like the property-management business.”
“Which is why you spend more time volunteering for fire-and-rescue than you do at a desk.” Hank’s eyes twinkled, but his face was solemn. Lori could tell it wasn’t the first time the men had sparred verbally on this subject.
She felt uncomfortable being in the middle of the discussion. When Tyler upset his milk a moment later it was a welcome distraction. She could have hugged him for providing the diversion. And of course, by the time the milk had been cleaned up, Mikayla was awake and any calm time for discussion was over.
Lori hurried out of the diner. “These kids came in handy,” Mike said softly as they left. “They got me out of a bind in there. Hank just will not believe that I would rather write up property contracts and deeds than look for missing people with Dogg.”
“I’m glad you’re grateful for the disturbance,” Lori said, jiggling the infant seat on the way to the car. “But why do I have as hard a time believing the part about property deeds as Hank seems to?” His expression said Mike didn’t have a good answer. He unlocked the car and motioned her in silently, and Lori busied herself looking after her daughter instead of grilling him.
Chapter Nine
Lori was a human dynamo. What she accomplished in a short amount of time continued to surprise Mike. When she cleared out the trailer in less time than he thought one human could, and settled in at his mom’s house in fewer than ten days, he marveled at her stamina.
