“That’s kind of what I figured,” I said.
“However, that’s not to say you can’t take precautions, Marcella. Sky might’ve scared him off, but I wouldn’t feel good about you staying here by yourself. He could come back. Maybe he’s on drugs. Maybe he’ll try to break into the cabin and steal things. Or he might hurt you.”
My eyes widened. “You think so?”
“It’s possible.” She pursed her lips. “How long are you planning to stay?”
I shrugged. “I really don’t know.”
“Is Quinn coming up any time soon?”
I shook my head. “Um. He came last night. We had a fight. He left.”
“Before or after the intruder showed up?”
“After.”
She frowned again. “Did he go back to Honeoye, or is he staying around here?”
I kicked the snow at my feet. “He said he was going to a hotel. But I don’t know if he planned to head home this morning or stick around.”
She nodded. “Okay. Let’s go inside to talk about it. You could come up to stay with Callie and me, or Sky could stay here with you. But you really shouldn’t be by yourself.”
We stepped inside and stomped the snow off our boots. Once inside the living room, Copper sat beside Callie on the couch, gently waking her in the way only tender lovers do. I started the coffee, using Roberta’s special blend, and took out the eggs and bacon I’d bought at Charlie Johns the day before.
While the coffee brewed, I checked on Sky. He slept soundly. Flat on his back, he sprawled across the entire length of the bed, arms and legs akimbo, bare feet sticking out from the blankets. I avoided looking at the part of his body affected by morning.
I tiptoed in and spread another quilt on his legs and feet. It was cold in the bedroom with the door closed; there weren’t baseboard heaters in any of the bedrooms.
I had turned to leave when his deep voice stopped me.
“Marcella.”
I swiveled toward him. “Oh! You’re up.” I blushed, realizing that he might take it the wrong way. “I mean, um, you’re awake.”
He smiled, but his eyes seemed sad and wistful. He patted the bed. “Come sit for a minute.”
I shuffled toward him.
He moved over to make room for me and took my hand in his. “I wanted to talk to you. Just us.”
My heart lurched. “Oh?”
“Yeah. About two things.” He rubbed his fingers against mine. The contact felt more sensual than if we’d lain together under the sheets.
“What’s the first?” I looked toward the door. There was no telling when Quinn might suddenly appear like he did last night.
“I want to say I’m sorry for kissing you last night.” He glanced toward the window. “Well, I don’t mean I’m sorry I did it. It was lovely.” With a sigh, he looked back toward me. “I mean, I’m sorry I took you by surprise, and that Quinn walked in on us.”
I blinked. “It was lovely.”
He stared at me. “I hear a ‘but’ coming.”
I gave him a rueful smile. “But…I’m still married, and I can’t throw myself at you because Quinn and I are going through a rough patch. I need to be careful. I don’t want to get your hopes up, and then have everything work out with my husband.” I swallowed. “That would be cruel.”
A sensual smile slid over his lips. “You know what? At this point I wouldn’t care if it only lasted an hour. I love you, Marcella. You know that. I’ve loved you since we were sixteen years old. It’s never changed.”
“Sky.”
“I don’t care if I shouldn’t say it. I’m saying it. And I’ll leave it at that.”
“What do you mean, exactly?”
He slid closer to me, drawing my face near his. “I’m saying, sweet woman, that if you want me to stay here while you and Quinn are on the outs, I’m yours.” He kissed me, lightly this time. “And if you get back together with him, well, it is what it is. I’ll walk away when you tell me to.”
I flushed. “I don’t know what to say. I feel so…”
“Conflicted?” he said.
“Exactly.”
“Come here. Let me help you get over that.” The man who’d been my lover for so many years pulled me into his arms.
I didn’t fight him. “What’s the second thing you wanted to say?”
“I’m staying here with you until Quinn returns. Or you’re staying at my place. I won’t leave you alone with that bastard running around in the woods.”
“Which one? The killer or the wood thief?”
“Either one.”
“Okay.” I lay there, tense and unmoving. It felt good, like the protective cocoon I’d craved for days. I settled against his chest. “Thank you.”
Callie appeared in the doorway. “Oops. Sorry.” She smiled mischievously. “Just wondered if you wanted me to start scrambling the eggs?”
I jumped up and hurried past her to the kitchen, my cheeks flushed. “No. It’s okay. I’m on it.”
She shot me a little smile. She loved Quinn, but always wished I’d been with her brother. Especially if I couldn’t be with her. “You okay, sweetie?” she asked.
I leaned forward to turn on the rear burner. “Sure.” I grabbed a cast iron skillet from the wall hanger. “You want fried, or scrambled?”
“Surprise me, Marcie.”
She returned to the living room and snuggled beside Copper while I scrambled and toasted and poured coffee. As long as I kept busy, I couldn't think about it. That was the best thing, right now. Definitely the way to go.
Chapter 14
After breakfast we formed a caravan up to Speculator. Callie stopped to shower and change at her house on Lake Pleasant, and Sky continued to his loft apartment just above Charlie Johns store. I pulled into the donut shop to wait for Sky, ordered a cup of coffee, and met him there thirty minutes later. After he bought himself a cup of dark roast brew, I followed his black Highlander up the hill to the new Project Hope laboratories and distillery. Callie’s timing was perfect, and she got in line behind my van.
The track was bumpy, but my van made it with no problems. We pulled into a dirt parking lot near the first building. The whole place looked brand new, and I shuddered to think back to last summer when the entire place was shelled by helicopters flown by MedicuRx thugs bent on destroying all evidence of the curly pondweed whose essential oils had proven so promising as a possible cure for leukemia.
The devastation I’d witnessed had been completely cleaned up, and many new metal lab buildings stood proudly under the pines.
What a difference.
Project Hope actually did project a feeling of inspiration. Maybe they’d really confirm the cure. Maybe they’d save millions of lives in the future. I felt a chill of excitement trace my spine. I noticed Callie had pulled around us and parked her yellow Jeep in front of another building.
Sky called me over to the second building. “Callie works in the medical trials facility,” he said. “You’ll be in here today. In the lab with me.” He motioned me inside.
The clean and orderly lab held neat arrangements of test tubes and equipment on the counters. Dak snuffled around the floor for a while, then found a sheepskin dog bed in the corner. He sniffed it, circled three times, and promptly lay down, snoring in seconds.
A willowy woman bent over a microscope, her strawberry blonde hair pulled back in a sleek ponytail. She wore jeans, a neat white blouse, and boat shoes with bright red woolen socks.
Sky brought me to her side, introducing us. “Virginia, this is Marcella Hollister. She’s volunteering this week. Ready and able to help wherever you need it.”
Virginia glanced at me, then back at the slide under her microscope.
No “hello,” no “nice to meet you,” no nothing.
I wondered what I’d already done wrong.
“Marcella, this is Virginia Joolston, head chemist at Project Hope. We call her Ginny.”
I held out my hand and Ginny waved at me, as
if to shoo me away. “Sorry. Time sensitive measurement.”
I nodded and backed up. “Oh, I didn’t mean to...”
She didn’t answer, and her face remained stone cold as she bent over the scope.
Sky shrugged an apology. “Well, you can say hi later, I guess. Okay, let’s get you set up over here.” He led me to a table in the corner with a computer and phone. “How about some data entry? You up for that?”
“It’s better than sweeping, I guess,” I laughed.
“Don’t get too comfortable, we might ask you to do that later.”
His smile reached his eyes, and I felt a tug at my heart. He really was a good man.
“Sky?”
He turned. “Yeah?”
“You’re walking really well now.”
He looked down at his legs, rubbed his lower back absent-mindedly, and grinned. “Damn right I am.”
“I’m so happy the oils worked for you.”
He flashed a brilliant smile. “Me, too. I owe my life to Gary Young and his research.”
We chatted for a few more minutes about the oils and their miracles, then I turned to the computer and the stack of paper sitting beside the laptop. I worked for the next two hours straight, putting data from hand-written forms into the columns Sky showed me. The titles included items like sample number, date, time, and lake name. There were other items with abbreviations I didn’t understand, but I dutifully copied the data from the forms to the spreadsheet. After Sky checked my work, he moved me to labeling and counting the samples stored in nearby racks. I was supposed to match the entries with the samples, but I kept having to recount because the numbers weren’t coming out right.
At ten-thirty, the phone rang. I got the okay from Sky to pick it up, and answered in the best receptionist voice I could summon. “Project Hope, Marcella speaking.”
The lady on the other end sounded worried. “Is Mrs. Joolston there, please?”
“Yes, she is. May I ask who’s calling?”
“This is Superintendent Stephens from school. It’s urgent.”
“I’ll put her right on. Just a sec.” I brought the portable handset to Ginny’s side and held it out. “Ginny? It’s for you. The school.”
She brushed me away. “Not now. I have to finish this. Tell them I’ll call back.”
I stood my ground. “She says it’s urgent.”
With a start, Ginny raised her wide-set pale blue eyes to mine. “Oh. Well, in that case, don’t just stand there, give it to me.”
I wanted to give it to her, all right. But I just smiled and let her take the phone from me.
She took off her glasses and held the handset to her ear. “This is Mrs. Joolston.”
I started back to the desk, listening to her side of the call, but she didn’t say much. She turned a strange shade of green. One hand flew to her mouth.
Sky looked up from the experiment he was setting up in the back of the lab.
I shrugged in response to his quizzical glance.
Ginny shrieked and dropped the phone, slumping to her chair near the microscope.
“Ginny?” Sky ran toward her, gently taking her arm. “What’s wrong?”
I picked up the phone and a small plastic piece on the floor that had apparently cracked off the receiver. Sky leaned over the chemist, who dropped her head onto her arms on the desk. Her shoulders shook, and although her crying was soft, I knew something was terribly wrong.
Sky looked helplessly at me.
I hurried to her side and patted her shoulder. “Ginny?” I said. “How can we help?”
She looked up with tear-stained cheeks, and for one wild moment I thought I saw adoration in her eyes for Sky. Totally insane, and most unexpected. Then grief filled her eyes again, followed by terror. She clutched my arm, cried out in primal pain, and slowly turned back to the phone I held in my hand, pointing to it.
Dak thumped his tail on the dog bed, whining. I called him to my side and patted him. He snuggled close to my feet.
“They said…” Ginny tried hard to speak, but the sobs bubbled up and stopped her. “They said my Aria is missing from school. She…she was running in the ball field during gym, and another girl saw her talking to a man on the edge of the woods. She didn’t come…come back inside for her next class.”
Sky and I exchanged looks of horror.
Had the killer struck again?
Chapter 15
We’d called the cops immediately. Copper and another police officer had shown up to question Ginny. We’d taken her to a back room in the lab—just a coffee alcove, really—and through tears and hiccupping sobs, Ginny had basically told us nothing out of the ordinary.
She and Aria had started their day as always. Up at six-thirty. Special prayers and anointing with essential oils. Showered and changed for breakfast by seven. Ginny had dropped Aria at the front entrance to the school at seven forty-five, where a local sheriff sat in his patrol car, keeping watch. Ginny had arrived five minutes later at the lab, where she’d been working ever since.
Although the woman had treated me pretty badly, I’d sort of ended up as her guardian. She’d fallen apart, this very proper lady who’d seemed so cool, collected, and professional. Well, she’d been incredibly rude, too. But I tried not to think about that.
I sat beside her on a loveseat wedged into the corner near the coffee pot. She now leaned against my shoulder, weeping.
Copper waited patiently to ask the next question, and when the storm subsided a little, she touched Ginny’s sleeve. “Mrs. Joolston? Is there anyone else we should notify? Aria’s father? Your parents?”
Ginny shook her head, her ravaged face twisting. “Her biological father is…out of the picture. And my parents are dead.”
Either the topic of Aria’s father or her deceased parents elicited a fresh wave of tears. I patted her shoulder and she suddenly looked up at me, as if surprised to see me there. “Who are you, again?”
“I’m Marcella. Just volunteering here for a while.”
She sighed, shuddering. “Oh, right.” She glanced at Sky, then back at me. “You’re the one he’s in love with, aren’t you?”
I blushed and glanced at Sky, who’d suddenly busied himself at the coffee pot. “Um. I’m married.” I know it sounded lame, but it’s all I could come up with.
Copper’s eyes darted back and forth from Sky to me, then she pulled a chair closer to Ginny. “Do you have a photo of Aria I could borrow, Mrs. Joolston?”
“In my purse. Over there.”
Sky opened a cupboard and handed Ginny a black leather bag. “Here you go.”
“Thank you, Sky.” She glanced at him gratefully, and again, there were those lovesick big blue eyes, full of the same kind of wanting and hope and yearning I saw so frequently in his eyes for me. Seconds later, she handed over a photo of a pretty dark-haired girl with her mother’s eyes and an easy smile.
My heart lurched. This woman’s daughter was ripped from her life—just like that. Just like my Kimi.
I shook myself. No, not like Kimi. Poor Aria could be in the hands of a murderer. Maybe dead already.
I put aside my feelings of distrust for Ginny and tried to help her. Copper handed the photo to her partner, who whisked it away to presumably scan and distribute over the police network.
“Mrs. Joolston?” Copper sat down again. “Is there anything we need to know about Aria? Anything special that might help us find her?”
Ginny sat up straighter, locking eyes with Copper. “She’s a fighter, a real fighter.” She sniffed and dabbed at her eyes. “And she’s one helluva runner.”
Copper smiled. “Well, that’s good then. Maybe she can run away from this prick.”
Sky crooked a finger toward me, nodding toward the lab. I followed him out into the now empty room.
“What happens next?” I asked, speaking in a low whisper. “We can’t leave her alone. Will the police assign someone to stay with her?”
“I doubt it. They’re short-staf
fed as it is.”
“Does she have any friends?”
Sky leaned close to me, shaking his head. “She just arrived a month ago. Keeps pretty much to herself. She’s either peering into a microscope all day or at home with Aria. No family. No friends to speak of, really.”
I glanced back into the break room, watching Ginny pick a fresh tissue from the box on the table beside her. “Sky?”
He hadn’t moved but an inch from my face, and I could feel his warm breath on my lips. “Yeah.”
“She’s got a crush on you.”
His eyes flared. “No. Not possible.”
“Yes. It’s possible. Matter of fact, it’s for sure. I saw it in her eyes.”
He shook his head again, this time making his long blond locks tumble back and forth across his forehead. “You saw wrong. There’s no way.”
I wanted to say, “Way,” but I refrained. He’d figure it out sooner or later. “So, what are we going to do with her? Could she stay with someone on the staff?”
“Maybe Callie would take her,” he said, staring at me with new purpose. “Hey. Maybe you could stay with her at Callie’s. You know, keep an eye on her. Help her through this.” His expression suddenly dropped. “No, that’d be way too much to ask of you. You just met her.”
I touched his arm, pressing my fingers into his strong bicep. “I could do it. I need a place to stay, anyway. I’m not going back to Tall Pines alone.” I didn’t tell him I’d almost been ready to accept his invitation to stay with me. But something deep in my bruised heart told me I might succumb to his charm. I couldn’t stop thinking about our past. Our times together. And a secret part of me—one I’d never admitted existed—really wanted to re-discover him in that special way.
I willed the thoughts away.
It was safer to put distance between us, though. I knew it. He knew it. And if Callie and Copper, and now Ginny, were around, then chances were I’d not jump into his arms at the next emergency. Or so I hoped.
I’d just explained to Sky about the numbers I couldn’t get to match up on the oil samples when my cell phone rang.
Tall Pines Mysteries: A Mystery/Suspense Boxed Set Page 75
