Living in Shadow

by Georgia Florey-Evans

  “No.” Will’s face was flushed as he answered a bit abruptly. “I mean, we’re doing okay. Thank you, though.”

  “Well, please let me know if things change.” Haley had helped spearhead a very successful fundraising event for Mrs. Baxter.

  “I will.” The mail carrier produced a forced smile. “Any outgoing mail today?”

  “Oh, I forgot.” Haley turned and walked to her desk and picked up the stack of envelopes that needed to be mailed. “Good thing you reminded me.” She handed them to him.

  “Have a nice day.”

  Haley watched as Will walked away. The door had just closed behind him when Hank Stone pulled it open. Hubert Belton, clad in a pair of bib overalls, walked into the building in front of him.

  “Hi, Hank. Mr. Belton.” She wondered what was going on.

  “Don’t ‘hi’ me, missy.” The older man huffed. “It’s a crime when a man can’t take care of himself in the privacy of his own yard.”

  Hank’s steady gaze met Haley’s. “I had to arrest him. He refused to stay dressed if I left.” His freckled face suddenly developed red blotches. “I need a prisoner uniform if any are clean."

  "I washed both of them not too long ago." Did he think the old man was going to try an escape?

  Hank must have seen her curiosity. If possible, his face turned even redder. “All he has on are those overalls.”

  “Oh.” Haley felt her own face warm as she realized she was at a complete loss for words.

  “I’ll just go process him.” Hank steered the older man toward the heavy door that separated the station from the small booking room and their only cell. “Could you let Mitch know what’s going on? Tell him I tried everything.”

  Still somewhat shocked by the knowledge the man in front of her was barely clad, Haley nodded.

  She waited until the two men had gone on into the other part of the building before she pushed the button to page the sheriff. He looked up from something that had him engrossed enough he hadn’t noticed Hank and Mr. Belton.

  “Hank wanted me to let you know he’s processing Hubert Belton.”

  Mitch sighed. “Does he need help?”

  “I don’t think so. Mr. Belton is unhappy, but he’s not putting up any resistance.” She just hoped he kept his suspenders over his shoulders until Hank had him in one of their two lovely neon pink uniforms. A couple of women on the county board had them specially made and then donated them.

  “Go ahead and call Samantha. She may as well come down here and bail him out.” His eyes were already back on his desk.

  “Okay.” After placing the receiver in its cradle, Haley picked up the phone book. Maybe she should make an effort to memorize Samantha Belton’s phone number since the woman had to routinely pick up her grandfather.

  After she finished speaking with the beleaguered woman, Haley finally had time to sort through the mail.

  There were several pieces of junk mail, offering everything from the newest vacuum to a specially crafted porcelain statue. She’d never understand why companies weren’t able to keep police stations off their sales lists. It was highly unlikely that a sheriff’s office would purchase a porcelain doll, even if it was a limited edition.

  After filing the junk mail in the round plastic container, Haley set about dividing the rest. It was part of her job to classify mail as urgent, routine, and staff-handled. Mitch would receive the urgent and routine mail, and take care of it accordingly. She would deal with the staff handled mail.

  One envelope was addressed to the station, and she placed it in her stack. Something about it caught her eye, so she stopped to take a closer look. There was something unusual about the envelope.

  It took her a minute to realize it wasn’t postmarked. How had a letter been delivered in the mail without being postmarked? She decided to go ahead and open it.

  Her first thought when she pulled the paper out of the envelope and unfolded it was this had to be a joke. But, there it was. A phrase comprised of words cut out of magazines and crudely pasted on a sheet of unlined paper.

  We will get even.

  Without thinking, Haley carried the letter and envelope straight to Mitch’s office. She opened the door and walked in.

  He looked up, surprised by her unannounced entrance.

  “Look.” She placed the two items on his desk.

  Mitch frowned as he picked them up. “What in the world?” He looked incredulously at Haley after scanning the sheet of paper. “This came in the mail?”

  She nodded. “It’s not postmarked, but I found it while I was sorting the mail Will just delivered.”

  He looked at it again. “It’s probably a joke. Kids daring each other to do something foolish. Put it in a folder and hang onto it for a while, but I doubt if anything will come of it.”

  “Okay.” She accepted the letter from him and picked the envelope back up. “You don’t suppose any of those boys who just got back into town would be up to something, do you?” For their sakes she hoped not.

  Mitch shook his head. “I’m pretty sure four months behind bars put the fear in all three of them. Besides, they worked hard to get out after only four months of their six-month sentences. I can’t see them throwing away that length of good behavior on a silly joke.”

  “I’ll file this then.” Haley turned and walked back to her station. The boys she was worried about were three of five young men who unknowingly helped Holly Walker’s kidnapper. While they hadn’t known how big of a crime they were committing, they had used a stolen key to break into a storage room in the high school. They ended up with over fifteen-thousand dollars’ worth of equipment they used to “keep Luke Walker busy,” as their boss instructed them.

  It was only because all the equipment was returned and that Luke and Holly went to bat for them, the boys got off as easily as they did. The two who were still seventeen at the time of the crime were sentenced to three months of juvenile detention, while the three who were tried as adults received six months in jail, and all five of them were placed on a year’s probation.

  Sammy Lewis, Trevor Bayne, and Rod Hirsh had all recently returned to Shadow after being released early for good behavior. While Trevor and Rod quickly found jobs and settled into seemingly normal lives, Sammy was still struggling.

  Haley supposed it would be the most difficult for him to adjust since he’d had the most to lose. As one of the best high school quarterbacks in the state, Sammy had been looking at a football scholarship to allow him to play college ball. There had even been speculation that he would go pro. But, after his arrest, the offers disappeared, and he was left with no plans. It was sad.

  Luke and Holly exemplified true Christian forgiveness when they requested leniency for the boys. They were positive the boys were duped by a man more devious in nature than any of them had ever been exposed to before. Poor choices were the result. While the Walkers in no way condoned the boys’ actions, they forgave them.

  Haley could only hope she would have been as forgiving had she been in their shoes. Her heart was troubled by the mere thought one or more of the boys might be responsible for the strange letter. Because, if the boys betrayed the trust the Walkers had placed in them, they were evidently in need of harsher consequences.

  She said a prayer for the boys and the individual who had sent the letter as she finished her mail sorting duties. For the first time in a long while, Haley would be glad when five o’clock arrived, and with it, the beginning of Mavis Shepard’s shift. This had turned out to be a crazy day, beginning with Jan Ewing’s phone call.

  Her mind went back to Beau Harding. She pushed the attraction she felt aside and focused on her curiosity. What was his real name, and why wasn’t he using it? She most likely would never know.

  Chapter 3

  Hardy was going to die. Not in any gun-shooting blaze of glory. Nope. He was going to die from a bad fall caused by his legs being tangled in a shower curtain—while he was trying to get to his phone. And when his body was fo
und…That simply wasn’t going to happen. He braced his hands against the wall and pulled hard.

  He reached for his phone just as it stopped ringing. It was a good thing nobody could see him—a fully grown man with shampoo in his hair and a torn shower curtain draped around his body like a Roman soldier. Dripping all over the floor.

  Since it was too late to answer his phone anyway, he went ahead and finished ridding himself of the clinging curtain. Very few people had his number, so caller ID would show which one. The caller hadn’t used the emergency signal of two rings, a pause, and an immediate second call. He’d take enough time to get decent.

  Callie’s name and number came up as a missed call when a dry and clothed Hardy checked a short while later. Wondering why his sister would be calling, he pushed the buttons that would speed dial her. She picked up on the second ring.

  “I’m glad you called me back, Beau.” There was an edge of fear in his sister’s voice.

  “What’s going on?” If there were something wrong, he wasn’t going to bother with casual conversation. He and his sister weren’t chatty siblings anyway.

  “It’s Dad.”

  “What about him?” He hadn’t meant to sound so sharp.

  A shaky breath came across the phone. “He’s had a stroke. He’s holding his own, but it was touch and go for a while.”

  And this didn’t constitute an emergency? Now wasn’t the time to bring that up, though. “How’s Mom?”

  “She’s doing okay, but I think she needs you, Beau.” Her voice had grown stronger as she spoke.

  Hardy drew a deep breath. “You know I can’t come up there. It would make it worse for both of them if I did.”

  “Nobody has to see you.” His little sister wasn’t giving up without a fight. “Elliott will make sure you get in and out of town without being noticed.”

  “I can’t let Elliott risk his job.” His brother-in-law had already taken enough flak.

  “He won’t be.” Callie sounded satisfied. “He has special permission from his boss. He can use whatever means necessary to get you in to see Dad.”

  Elliott had permission from the regional director of the Federal Safety Agency to sneak Hardy in and out of Chicago.

  “Is Dad that bad?” Hardy didn’t want to ask the question, but he needed to know the answer.

  There was silence on the phone for a moment. “Please come, Beau.”

  Hardy held the phone away from his ear, thinking. If anybody recognized him, it would make far more problems for his parents than whatever benefits they would receive from him being there. But if his dad . . . He couldn’t lose his father without even telling him goodbye.

  “I’ll need to set things up with Elliott, and I’ll only be able to stay for an hour at most. It’s all that’s safe, Callie.”

  “Thank you, Beau.” He could hear her relief. “Here’s Elliott.”

  “Beau, how is everything downstate?” Elliott’s businesslike facade rarely cracked.

  “So far, so good.”

  “You were on TV the other night. That show about unsolved crimes. They had some pretty clear footage of you, shot from the store’s surveillance cameras.”

  “I heard.” Why didn’t the place where Harding Davis “died” use a typical cheap camera system that produced footage so grainy the subjects looked like aliens? His life would have been much easier.

  “I had to talk myself in circles to keep you there.” If Elliott didn’t sound too upset by his confrontation with Rich Stephens, Hardy knew it was because there was no love lost between the two men. “Stephens wanted to move you out of state immediately. I told him you wouldn’t go. Was I right?”

  “As rain.” Hardy appreciated his brother-in-law’s efforts to help him stay close to home. “The local sheriff knows who I am now, and he’s watching out for me. If there’s too much notice taken, he’ll let me know so I can get out of here. But Stephens better understand I meant what I said about my location.”

  “I keep reminding him you don’t want to be farther than a few hundred miles from Chicago. The man is still stuck on Boise, though, so if we move you, it might be a battle.” For the first time in their conversation, humor crept into Elliott’s voice. “I think Stephens has something going with one of the field agents in Boise. She’s a few years younger than he is, and their names have been linked. If you were out there, he’d have a valid excuse to get in touch with her more often.”

  “Wonderful.” Hardy couldn’t keep the sarcasm from his voice. “My safety comes in a distant second to his love life.”

  “I won’t let it,” Elliott assured him. “You’re going to stay hidden for as long as it takes.”

  “Speaking of hiding, how are you planning on getting me in to see Dad?”

  Elliott immediately became the experienced agent Hardy knew him to be. “Hal Gunther is in Pattinton, less than twenty-five miles from your location. You’re to meet him in the parking lot at Mercy General Hospital, there in Shadow."

  "I suppose he'll have one of those cars that may as well post a sign saying this is a government car."

  A dry chuckle came from the phone. “No Crown Vic; he’ll be driving a blue Impala."

  "That's okay." And at most, a step away from the Vic.

  "He’ll drive you to Central City Hospital, where your dad is. I'm sending a couple of experienced agents to meet you at the hospital. Just stay with them and follow their instructions.”

  “What time do I meet Gunther?”

  “In two hours. Can you make it?”

  That would give him time to come up with some kind of cover story for Luke. He was technically off work for the day anyway and would be back in plenty of time to take care of his

  morning chores. He figured a total of seven hours in transit, with a stay of no longer than two hours, would be okay.

  “I’ll be there.” Hardy had one more question for his brother-in-law before they said goodbye. “What’s the word on Dohner?”

  “Undercover says he still thinks you’re dead. There hasn’t been any hint that he’s interested in your family, so they’re all safe, too. If there’s the slightest chance he’s coming after your parents or Callie and my kids, they’ll disappear faster than you did.” Elliott spoke assuredly. “You have my word I’ll keep your family safe, Beau.”

  “If I didn’t believe that, I would be there instead of here.” Hardy spoke the truth. His brother-in-law would use every means at his disposal to protect his family. “Thank you.”

  “Just be careful,” Elliot advised him. “Your family needs you.”

  As Hardy hung up, for the first time in a long time he wished he were a praying man . . . like he’d been before Kari. But he just didn’t believe God listened to him anymore.

  After he took a few minutes to rehang his newly duct-taped shower curtain, Hardy went in search of Luke. He didn’t like bothering his boss in the house, so he was relieved when he saw Clarence cavorting about in the field toward the pond. Luke wouldn’t be too far away.

  Hardy stood still as the dog ran to him and shamelessly rubbed against his legs, begging to be petted. Luke was barely visible in the twilight as he walked steadily toward him.

  “I think my dog likes you,” Luke observed when he was within a few yards of Hardy.

  Hardy scratched behind Clarence’s ears. “I think he likes anybody who’ll pet him. Have you ever thought of getting a real watchdog?”

  Luke’s grin belied his stern words. “I’ll have you know Clarence has chased off bad guys more than once. And heaven help you if you ever try to hug my wife. He won’t even let my dad do that. In fact, I feel fortunate he lets me.”

  Clarence’s tail thumped the ground as his owner talked about him. Hardy looked at the dog for a moment before addressing Luke again.

  “I have some personal business I need to take care of tonight. I’ll be back in time for morning chores, but I didn’t want you or Holly to worry when you saw my truck was gone all night.”

  Concern
filled Luke’s eyes. “Is something wrong?”

  Hardy wasn’t sure how to answer him. Even though he had spent nearly five years living a lie, he wasn’t by nature a dishonest man. But he didn’t want to do anything to place Luke and his wife in danger.

  “I just have something I need to see to.”

  It appeared like Luke wanted to ask more questions, but then he slowly nodded. “Just let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you. You’ve done me a solid, working the farm as well as you have.”

  Hardy returned his gaze. “That’s what you and your dad pay me for.”

  Luke shook his head. “We don’t pay you nearly enough. You’ve done as fine a job as I would have.” A wry grin formed on his face. “In fact, you patched the west side of the barn roof better.”

  “It’s a good thing you weren’t out here to see me do it.” Hardy couldn’t help but smile at the memory. “The wind caught a wide sheet of tin, and I had to do quite a little dance to keep from being blown right off the roof.”

  “Too bad we didn’t have a video camera pointed at you.” Luke chuckled. “Holly could have taken it to school and showed it to the kids.”

  “She could let the science class figure out how fast the wind was blowing.” Hardy joined in with Luke’s kidding.

  “Next time you get up on the roof, let me know.” Luke patted his leg. “Come on, Clarence. We’re keeping Hardy from leaving.”

  “I’ll be back for morning chores,” Hardy reminded his boss.

  “I can call my dad to come do them if you get held up.” Luke didn’t seem the least bit concerned about the possibility. “So, if you need to be away longer, go ahead.”

  Hardy was once more touched by the kindness and consideration the other man was showing to somebody he really didn’t even know. “Thanks, but I’ll be back in time.”

  He watched for a few moments as Luke and Clarence headed for the house. Then Hardy walked over and climbed into his truck. He didn’t have to meet Hal Gunther for a little over an hour, but he had some preparations he’d need to make before then.