Hardy had already considered the idea that since the man who attempted to kill his father failed, he might come directly after Hardy. “I’ll see him before he sees me.” Hardy would just have to stay on his toes.
“Okay. If anything changes, call me and we’ll get you away from there.” His brother-in-law once more sounded like the professional he was.
“I will.” Hardy pushed the button to end the call before sliding the phone into his jeans pocket. An idea came to him as he walked back to Mitch’s office. When he started to speak to Haley, he realized she was talking on the phone, so he went on into the sheriff’s office.
“Sheriff, before we go on about the Baxter case, can I ask a favor?” Hardy still held the folder in his hand.
“Sure.” Mitch and Wayne both turned their gazes toward him.
“Is there any way we can have a BOLO out on this guy without giving any details?” He slid the sketch out of the folder.
Mitch’s gaze sharpened as he looked at the picture. “Is that one of Dohner’s men?”
Hardy shook his head. “I’m pretty sure he isn’t, but he tried to murder my dad last night.” Instead of keeping the situation a secret, Hardy had decided it would be beneficial to enlist the police department’s help. “And now he might show up here—after me. I need to know if he does.”
It wouldn’t have surprised Hardy if Mitch requested more information, or even ordered him to leave town, but instead the sheriff’s reply was instantaneous and certain. “We’ll have the state issue a BOLO. We’ll just say he’s a person of interest in an ongoing investigation. That’s all anybody needs to know.”
“Can I see that?” Wayne, his eyes already focused on the sketch, held out his hand so Hardy could hand it to him.
“What?” Mitch asked his deputy curiously.
Wayne looked up from the picture to his boss. “I’ve seen this guy.” His brows lowered as he thought. “I don’t remember exactly where, but I know he was in town a few days ago.”
“Can you remember what day it was?” A ton of questions filled Hardy’s head.
“If I can think of where I was, then I’ll be able to figure out when.” Wayne shifted his gaze from Hardy back to the sketch, his frown deepening. “I remember thinking those whiskers had to itch like crazy. But where was I?”
Hardy kept his voice calm. “Think of the places you’ve been within the past few days. Maybe something will jog your memory.”
Wayne looked back at Hardy. “Okay. I’m pretty sure Lori wasn’t with me, so I need to remember where I’ve been alone.” Hardy and Mitch both sat silently while Wayne thought. The deputy finally shook his head. “I’m just drawing a blank. Maybe if I forget it for a while, it’ll come to me. That’s worked before.”
Mitch spoke before Hardy could. “That’s probably a good idea.” He turned his gaze to Hardy. “Why don’t you ride with Wayne to the Baxter house? We don’t want people wondering why our crime scene photographer is scoping out a house by himself.”
Hardy had forgotten the missing man. He wanted to know exactly when and where Wayne had seen his dad’s assailant. But, he knew the other two men were right. If a person tried to push too hard, it often made a memory even harder to retrieve. Besides, they needed to find out where this William Baxter had disappeared to.
Haley wasn’t at her station when Hardy followed Wayne out of the office. That was too bad. He’d have liked to have gotten a smile from her—to get him through the day.
Chapter 35
Haley scrutinized the selection of cookies on the shelves, determined to at least try to find something healthier than the double chocolate chip she too often enjoyed. It was difficult, though, because even the pictures on the “low-fat” packages reminded her of cardboard. Not to mention they were priced a good twenty to thirty percent higher than the regular ones.
She finally gave in and picked up her favorite brand. It wasn’t like she had to watch her weight or anything—yet. She supposed the older she got, the more difficult it might be to maintain her figure.
Her shopping cart appeared to have enough food in it for a small family, but since she only made one real grocery store visit each month, she stocked up. With a monthly salary, Haley had long ago learned how to best manage her money. Of course, that was after she tried to dole cash out weekly, which had been a certified disaster. She'd found herself taking money from the weekly grocery fund for a pizza and movie, or a blouse she just had to have. The month she had to subsist on macaroni and cheese and canned tuna for the last week and a half forever cured her of the weekly allowance method.
Haley had always hoped her husband would be good with money. She simply didn’t like it enough to try to do anything like investing. In fact, she wouldn’t mind one little bit if her husband put her on an allowance like couples did on those old black and white television shows. He could just pay the bills and give her whatever they could afford to spend. She liked that idea very much.
First, she’d need to have a husband. She sighed as she picked up a loaf of bread and placed it in her cart. Why did Beau Harding immediately pop into her head? When he’d held her yesterday, she felt more comfortable and secure than ever before. She could have stayed in his arms all day. It just didn’t seem fair they were so attracted to each other when it couldn’t work out.
“So, I hear you and Beau Harding are an item after all.” Tessa Lincoln’s voice brought Haley out of her reverie.
Haley must have been incredibly lost in thought because she was surprised to find her friend standing right beside her. Then Tessa’s words sank in.
“What do you mean, Beau and I are an item?”
Tessa leaned toward her and lowered her voice. “Jennifer Ewing was walking by the police station yesterday and saw you and Hardy ‘embracing,' as she put it.”
Haley put her hands on her cheeks, which she could already feel warming with embarrassment. “Please tell me you’re the only person she’s said that to.”
“Sorry, sister.” Tessa smiled sympathetically. “She’s telling everybody. Apparently she thinks it’s wonderful the two of you have found each other.”
“Is this a ladies’ chat, or can anybody join in?” Matt Ashford’s voice came from right behind them as he stuck his head between their faces.
Haley looked at him. “How much did you hear?”
His smile widened. “I’ve already heard about you and Hardy straight from Mrs. Ewing herself.” He drew back and shook his finger at her. “Shame on you, demonstrating such public displays of affection.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Haley automatically protested. “I mean, he was . . . comforting me. A man had come in and upset me, and Beau was just trying to make me feel better.”
Matt’s eyebrows waggled as he spoke to Tessa. “I sure hope Beau doesn’t ever try to make me feel better.”
Tessa laughed and shook her head. “You are incorrigible, Matt Ashford.”
“I’m pretty sure I’ll be insulted by that as soon as I get a chance to look it up and see what it means.” He casually threw an arm around each woman. “I’m sorry, Haley. I shouldn’t give you such a hard time. I think you and Hardy are perfect for each other.”
Haley had managed to regain most of her composure. “We’re not together.”
“Are you sure about that?” It was Tessa who asked.
Haley pulled out from under Matt’s arm and pushed her cart a few feet away. They were drawing curious glances. “I’m not having this conversation here. Apparently, there’s already enough talk going around.”
“Meet me at the diner in a half hour. Dinner’s on me.” Before either woman could respond, Matt turned and ambled away.
“Looks like you have a dinner date,” Tessa observed.
“He invited both of us, didn’t he?” That’s what Haley assumed anyway. “He was speaking to both of us.”
Tessa shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Mitch is taking me to Pattinton for the evening. We haven’t had an uninterrupted date in a
ges, and he promised to leave his cell phone and radio both at home.”
Even though Haley protested, she found herself, after having hurriedly taking her groceries home and putting them away, sitting at a table with Matt.
“So, tell me about the man who upset you.” Matt unexpectedly broached the subject as soon as Nancy had left with their orders. “Who is he, and what did he do?”
“I doubt if you’d know him. He’s new to town.” Matt spent a lot of time in Shadow since the trucking company was based there, but it wasn’t really his home.
“What’s his name, Haley?” he asked in a firm voice.
She sighed. “His name is Wyatt Millan. He moved here from up by Chicago, to work at the bank.”
An unidentifiable emotion flashed in Matt’s eyes for an instant before it was replaced by concern. “What did he do?”
Haley drew a ragged breath and looked at her friend. “He asked me out and didn’t want to take no for an answer. He was being really pushy and ignoring what I told him, and Beau made him leave. Then I was upset, so Beau . . . comforted me. That’s what Jennifer Ewing saw. That’s all it was.” Even if it had felt like so much more.
Chapter 36
The first thing Hardy saw when he walked into the diner was Haley and Matt, huddled together, appearing to be deep in conversation. An unfamiliar feeling flared within him, and it took a minute for him to realize what it was. He was jealous. He was envious of the man sitting too near her and speaking privately to the only woman Hardy had ever felt drawn to like this. It was as though she were a powerful magnet, and he was a weak piece of metal, pulled ever closer to her no matter what he did to try and stop it.
He didn’t have the right to be jealous, though, so he quietly walked past their table to his usual one. He had just pulled out his chair when he heard Matt’s voice.
“Hey, Hardy, we’ve got room over here. Don’t sit over there all by yourself.”
Hardy looked up and directly into Haley’s eyes. The look he saw in them nearly stopped his heart. It was true; she felt the same way he did. But he could do nothing about it. Not with the ever growing disaster his life was.
“I don’t want to interrupt your evening.” Before either Matt or Haley could speak, he turned and sat, facing away from them. He almost preferred jealousy to this frustration over knowing Haley wanted to be with him as much as he did her.
“Fish is good tonight.” Nancy’s voice drew his attention.
Hardy didn’t look at her. “I’m not hungry enough for the special tonight. I’ll just take a loaded cheeseburger and fries.”
“And soda?” The hesitation in the waitress’s voice caused Hardy to give her his attention. He had been horribly impolite.
“Yes, please.” He forced a smile.
He found himself wishing he’d sat at a different table a short while later. One farther away from Matt and Haley. He could hear their voices, but not their words, giving their conversation an atmosphere of intimacy. It was too late now. He couldn’t very well pick up his plate and drink, and make a big to-do about changing tables. It would be pretty obvious why he’d moved.
Instead, he focused on his hamburger and let his mind wander to the cases he was helping to investigate.
The break-ins and murder were no closer to being solved today than they had been when he agreed to help. So far there hadn’t been any more of them, but there also hadn’t been any further evidence pointing them toward the culprits.
And the missing postal worker, William Baxter. The one thing he found that had been overlooked the first time his house was swept had been some correspondence using a different name. After he and Wayne looked closer and did some good old fashioned investigating, they discovered William Baxter had gone by his middle name when in social circles. His partying friends knew him as Harvey or Harv. And it appeared Baxter lived a double life.
Will Baxter was a friendly, soft-spoken, all-American man. People on his mail route all described him the same. Even the word trustworthy was used more than once. Harv, on the other hand, liked to party. He hung out in a couple of pretty seedy bars and was known to have a soft spot for a good game of poker. Junior Biggs, the owner of Biggs Bar and Grill, had been very forthcoming. It seemed the evening before Baxter went missing, he’d been at the bar. According to Biggs, Harv had been more intoxicated than usual, and his mouth was in high gear. He’d been excited about some money he was going to come into soon. He was even going to move his mother to an expensive cancer center out of state. Nobody they questioned had any idea what Baxter was talking about. They had hit a dead end.
Then came the man who tried to kill his father. Wayne still hadn’t remembered exactly when or where he’d seen him, but one thing was certain. The man in the sketch had been in Shadow days before he attacked H.B. And if he was after Hardy, why hadn’t he even gotten close enough that Hardy saw him? None of it made sense.
Once again, Hardy felt like he was on the edge of something. There was a puzzle here, waiting to be solved, but he had no idea how to fit the pieces together. What was he missing?
“Can I join you?” Haley’s soft voice brought him out of his thoughts.
He turned and looked for Matt, only to see an empty table. “Did your date already leave?”
Fire flashed in her eyes. “I wasn’t on a date, and you know it. But if that’s how you want to be, I’ll leave you to enjoy your dinner.”
She started to walk past him, but as though against his will, he gently touched her arm to stop her.
“I’m sorry.” His voice was husky. “Please stay.”
She slowly turned to face him, and he found himself looking into eyes full of emotion. He would never have trouble knowing what Haley was thinking. “Stay,” he repeated.
For a few moments, he watched an inner conflict on her face. She slowly walked over and sat down across from him, though.
“Did you have a nice dinner?” he made himself ask.
Haley shrugged. “More like a lecture, but the food was good.”
A lecture? That surprised him. “What would Matt have to lecture you about?”
“Us.” She seemed interested in the paper placemat in front of her. “You and me, I mean.”
“Us?” he echoed, feeling foolish. “What about us?”
Her eyes remained steadily focused on him. “It seems you and I are too caught up in our feelings to behave appropriately. Everybody is ecstatic that we’ve found each other, though.”
“What?” Hardy was confused. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
Her cheeks began to turn pink as she spoke. “Yesterday, after Wyatt left, when we . . . when you comforted me, one of the biggest gossips in town happened to walk by the station. She saw us, and now it is all over town we’re an item. Not only are we together, we're also not concerned if we make a public spectacle of ourselves.”
Hardy knew there was more to address than this, but there was one thing he wanted to make perfectly clear. “I didn’t hold you to comfort you, Haley.” He reached across the table and placed his hand over hers. “I held you because I wanted to.”
“I know,” she whispered. Her eyes widened. “What are we going to do?”
“Be together.” He had no idea where the words came from; they had just appeared. And now that they were spoken, Hardy found himself unable and unwilling to take them back. “We have to figure out a way for us to be together.”
A tear trickled down her cheek. “You’ll leave me. You won’t stay here.”
“We’ll figure it out.” He spoke with determination. Something—God pulled us together.”
A tremulous smile appeared on her face.
Hardy wasn’t finished. “We both want this, Haley. We’ll make it work . . . somehow.”
All sense of trepidation showing in her eyes was slowly replaced by wary joy. “Really? You won’t break my heart?”
Hardy’s voice gentled as he reached across and wiped an errant tear from her fac
e. “I’ll never intentionally hurt you.”
Haley’s dimples appeared with her slowly growing smile. “Then we’re really together?”
It was too late for second thoughts, even if he wanted to have them. He had already made a commitment. “We’re together.”
Her smile faltered. “Will you come to church with me this Sunday? Just once, Beau, and if you can’t again, I’ll learn to live with it. I promise.”
At that moment, if she’d have asked him for the moon he would have gone outside and tried to lasso it. "What time should I pick you up?”
His heart swelled as he realized he was responsible for the look of happiness on her face. “You can just come to the church at about nine-forty-five. I have to be there at nine to teach my Sunday school class.”
“Okay.” Hardy reluctantly slid his hand off hers, missing the contact of her skin as soon as they parted. “So, now what’s this about gossip?”
“It doesn’t matter now,” she replied.
“Good.” He found he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. “I have tomorrow off. Can we spend the day together?”
Haley’s eyes grew wide. “The entire day?”
Hardy enjoyed seeing her blush. “I want to make up for lost time.”
“But what will we do?” She didn’t look put off by his suggestion, just curious.
He searched his mind for an all-day activity and hit on what he thought would be ideal. “I’d like to surprise you. Okay?”
Her cheeks grew rosier. “Okay.”
And for the first time in what seemed like forever, Hardy found himself feeling okay, too.
Chapter 37
“Get out of here before I shoot you myself,” he ordered Weiss’s employee before slamming the door in the man’s face. He had paid good money—money he couldn’t afford—for this man to kill H.B. Davis, and he failed miserably. A woman, in her sixties, had managed to stop him!
Living in Shadow Page 21
