Mom lunged to her feet. “That’s just despicable! Heinous!”
“This whole situation is heinous, Mom,” Lauren said.
Her mother glared back at her. “When did you first know about the parachute? And don’t tell me you just found out about it.”
“I never lie, Mom.”
“No, you just keep life-and-death information from your mother.” Her blue eyes spat fire. “I need fresh air.” She turned on her heel and headed for the back door with clipped steps.
Lauren followed, but Kent grabbed her sleeve. “I’ll talk to her. I’m the one who told you to keep quiet.”
She shook her head. “I’m the one who decided to go along with that. I need to talk to her.”
Kent released her, and she quickly passed through the back storeroom and into the alley. Her mother leaned against the wall by the stairway, taking in deep breaths and letting them out slowly.
“I’m not sure I’m ready to have a conversation with you.” Mom turned her head away.
An invisible fist punched Lauren’s gut, but she stood her ground. “When have we had a chance to hold a conversation since our plane crashed, much less a private one?”
Mom sniffed and turned toward her. “That’s no excuse. You could have made an opportunity.”
“How about the opportunity you never made to tell me my father wasn’t coming home?”
“That’s different. You were a child.”
“And you were the adult who knew the truth, but didn’t think your daughter could handle it so you pretended day after day that Daddy was coming back to us. We just had to wait and believe, you said. ‘Maybe tomorrow,’ you kept telling me. You let me hope for years about something that was never going to happen. I had to figure it out myself at the grand old age of eight and confront you before you admitted we’d been abandoned.”
Tears filmed her mother’s eyes. “I didn’t know. I hoped he’d come back, too.”
“It was a cruel hope.”
“Only because it was based on what a fallible human being would do or not do.” Her mother’s hand gripped Lauren’s forearm. “If I could change how I handled that horrible time, I would, but I never left you. God never left you.”
“I know, Mom.” A hard place inside her softened, and Lauren placed her hand atop her mother’s. “You’re a good mom, a good person. You didn’t deserve to be hurt like that, either. I’m glad you finally got past it—better than me anyway—and found love again.”
Her mother let out a watery chuckle. “Since you’re all grown up now, I’ll tell you a little secret. I had many opportunities to fall in love while you were a little girl, but I refused to take any of them because I couldn’t take a chance on you getting hurt again.”
“What do you mean?” Lauren’s breathing hitched.
Mom’s gaze locked on hers. “I’ve never been good at picking men. I seem to be attracted to all the wrong kinds—the bad boys. I know that about myself, and I didn’t want you to pay the price ever again.”
Lauren bit back an array of remarks about her mother’s current smooth-talking husband. Her thoughts along that line were suddenly irrelevant. “So you waited until I was an adult to remarry? What a tremendous sacrifice. I’m stunned. I assumed you were as burned as I was and couldn’t bring yourself to trust another man.”
“Oh, honey, life’s too short not to take a chance on love. Or as many chances as needed to get it right. So now that you know my secret, I want you to promise to give love a chance too.”
Lauren laughed. “How did I know that any conversation with you was bound to return to my love life?”
“Or lack thereof.”
“Guilty.” She lifted her hands, palms out. “And guilty for not telling you about the parachute Kent found. I should have made the opportunity to give you a heads-up. I promise not to make that kind of mistake again.”
Mom scowled. “That’s not what I wanted you to prom—”
“I asked her to keep the information to herself until I checked out the plane,” Kent said, stepping out into the alley.
Lauren narrowed her eyes at the too-attractive pilot. How much of her conversation with her mother had he overheard?
His gaze remained fixed on her mom, allowing her no opportunity to read his eyes. “I only told Lauren about the parachute yesterday so she would understand the urgency of speaking to Mags the instant she regained consciousness. But someone made sure that never happened.”
Mom sucked in an audible breath. “I thought this mystery dweller that attacked Lauren caused all the smoke.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. It seems suspicious to me that an incident was created designed to forever silence the most injured among us. Convenient for whoever had planned to exit the plane without the rest of us.”
“Why didn’t that happen?” Nina’s brow puckered. “Wouldn’t they have wanted to jump out before the bomb went off?”
“I think they were about to do it when the bomb exploded prematurely, badly injuring Mags, and scuttling the escape plan.”
“Makes sense.” Lauren nodded.
Mom pursed her lips and cocked her head at Kent. “Am I a suspect?”
“Not much.”
“Why not?”
“I can’t see you ever hurting your daughter.”
“Lots of parents do—in more ways than one.” Mom slid a glance toward Lauren, but she pretended not to notice.
“It takes cold calculation to abandon your child to an airplane crash,” Kent said. “You have the intelligence to plan it, Nina, but not the heart.”
“Why, thank you, young man.” Mom beamed up at him. “Have you decided on your chief suspect?”
“I’m still working on it.”
“I’ll let the two of you work on it together. You make a very good team.” Mom patted Kent’s arm. “I hear a broom calling me. Time to sweep out that front room so we don’t have to keep sleeping in the dust.” She disappeared into the mercantile, wearing a tiny smile.
Lauren frowned and tapped her foot. “She did it again.”
“Yes, she did.” Kent grinned.
Their gazes locked, and Lauren gaped at him as his grin faded and a special kind of warmth grew in his gray eyes. Her mouth went stone-dry, and her heart performed ridiculous acrobatics in her chest. Was he going to kiss her? Did she have the courage to let him?
* * *
Kent lowered his head toward Lauren’s, giving her every chance to pull away. Alarm bells rang in his head, but he ignored them. This once, he’d live recklessly. His gut said the chance could be worth it. Their breaths mingled, lips brushed and—
“Lauren, come quickly!”
Neil’s urgent tones from the doorway drew them apart. Lauren jumped backward, eyes wide as a fawn on a new day. Color washed up her face. Frustration balled Kent’s fists, but he hid them at his sides as he positioned himself to hide Lauren’s reaction from an onlooker and turned to face Neil.
“It’s Phil,” the older man said. “He’s thrashing and calling for you, Lauren.”
“I’ll go to him.” She rushed around Kent, brushed past Neil and disappeared into the building.
Neil stood aside as Kent followed.
“Sorry about that, man.” Neil clapped him on the back with a knowing chuckle.
Kent took in a deep breath and let the comment slide. The guy hadn’t done anything wrong, just bad timing. Or maybe good timing.
He could kick himself for letting emotions override his better judgment. Hadn’t he learned anything about avoiding romance when a scheming parent was in the mix? Nina was kind of cute about her machinations, and she seemed to like him—something he couldn’t say about the matriarch of Elspeth’s family—but he wasn’t about to risk involvement with a woman who was inclined to side with her parent over him in any decision they might try to make as a couple.
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Then again, an almost kiss was no big deal. He’d had a moment of weakness. So what? He didn’t have to let it happen again.
Then why was he suddenly more agitated by the loss of his kiss with Lauren than the loss of his plane?
Shaking his head at himself, he entered the mercantile and found Lauren crouched down in attendance on her groaning patient. She looked up at him as he stepped into her makeshift infirmary.
“I don’t have any pain medication left other than over-the-counter pills. They aren’t strong enough to do more than take the edge off. He really needs an ice pack on that foot to reduce the swelling, but I used them on Rich and Mags.”
“The best we could do is a bucket of ice water from the stream.”
She gave a decisive nod. “We’ll have to rig up a chair so he can sit up to soak the foot and alternate between that and lying down with the foot elevated.”
“I’ll get on it with the others.”
Kent sent Dirk, Neil and Cliff down to the stream. Sending them out singly or in pairs was out of the question now with any of them under suspicion as a saboteur. Then he took the wagon back out to the plane and removed a seat from the passenger cabin using a small screwdriver in a mini-toolkit he carried around with him. They’d have to find a way to screw the chair into the floor of the mercantile without a drill, but somehow they’d get the job done.
Upon his return to town, the other passengers were delighted to see the chair and wanted to know when they could have one. He promised that if they could get this chair fastened to the mercantile floor they could bring the rest back with them, after properly burying Magdalena Haven. The planking proved a challenge but with perseverance on Cliff’s part eventually the chair was sturdily in place without a drill. Teeth gritted, Phil was soon soaking his swollen, discolored foot in icy stream water.
Kent tasked the trio of Dirk, Cliff and Neil with chopping or scavenging more wood for the stove and seeing if they could find branches that could be turned into crutches for Rich, then he pulled Lauren aside. “I have to talk to Phil about the detonator and the parachute just like the others. If he’s the guilty one, I need to see his reaction. If he’s not, he deserves to know about the danger.”
Up to that moment, she had studiously refused to meet his gaze. Probably as uncomfortable as he was about their near-kiss. But now she stared up at him, eyes dark and fierce. “I hate having my patient placed under more stress. Let’s get this over with.”
Kent retrieved the items and rejoined Lauren with her patient. He held the misshapen detonator toward Phil. “This was under the plane.”
The man looked at the object, and his brows puckered. “You found a detonator? We were sabotaged! I knew it!”
“How do you know what a detonator looks like?”
Phil shrugged. “Straight out of high school, I did a four-year tour with the army. Never saw combat though.”
Kent showed him the parachute. “Do you know what this is?”
“I’ve seen one before. Never used one. Some kind of odd-looking parachute?”
“It’s a tandem chute. Two people jump in it. This was in the cargo bay not labeled as anyone’s property and not supposed to be there. The cargo bay can be accessed from the lavatory.”
Kent fell silent, giving Phil an opportunity to put two and two together.
In a few seconds, the man’s jaw fell open then he began shaking his head like a dog throwing off water. “Oh, no, you don’t! You’re not pinning that on me.”
“You’re a quick study.”
Phil glared up at Kent. “You don’t get far in arbitrage by being slow on the uptake.”
“Fair enough, but now you know that we have to guard against each other, as well as whoever attacked Lauren.”
Phil gave a grim nod. “If you want my opinion, keep an eye on Cliff. He’s way too eager to help all the time—even in the office at Peerless One. The Boy Scout act is a little over the top.”
“Noted.”
Kent met Lauren’s gaze. Her lips were pressed together in a thin line. He inclined his head toward the storage room. She offered a slight nod and headed in that direction. He motioned for Nina to join them, and she rose from her cushion by the stove.
In the dimness of the storage room, Lauren squared off in front of Kent. “That was just the first of many accusations between ourselves that we’re going to be dealing with from now on.”
“I know. It can’t be helped.”
Nina laid a hand on her daughter’s arm. “It’s frustrating, honey. I hate this, but it’s not Kent’s fault.”
Lauren dropped her gaze. “Of course not. I just want answers. Like yesterday.”
Looking from mother to daughter, Kent crossed his arms. “We’re going to have to think this through. Who do either of you consider a top contender?”
Nina looked away and shifted her feet.
Lauren lifted her eyes to his. “It’s got to be one of the Peerless One executives.”
Nina flinched.
“Why do you think so?” Kent asked.
“They’re the only ones who know each other well enough to have developed a reason to want one or more of the other ones dead.”
“Spot-on. My conclusion exactly.” His estimation of Lauren just rose another notch from its already high position.
Lauren’s mother let out a little whimper.
Kent fixed her with a stern gaze. “What do you know that you’re not telling us, Mrs. Barrington?” He purposely confronted her with the formal address.
“Not Marlin’s company! I can’t believe it...! Well, yes, I can believe it. I must!” She lifted her chin. “The FBI has been covertly sniffing around Peerless One. Even Marlin wasn’t supposed to know about it, but he’s got contacts. You know how it is in big business. You keep an ear to the ground.” She shrugged. “He’s been beside himself about it. To think that one or more of his executives might be doing something illegal!” She infused the last word with a wealth of repugnance. “If it were proven, the whole company and everyone connected to it would suffer, perhaps even be ruined.”
Lauren frowned. “If the guilty executive or executives died in a plane crash, would that stop the investigation and save the company?”
“That’s an awful thing to say!” Nina turned fierce eyes on her daughter. “We were on that plane!”
“I wasn’t implying—”
“Yes, you were. I know you don’t like Marlin. He can be overbearing at times, and he’s got a ruthless reputation in business, but he’s good to me, and that should mean something to you.”
“It does, Mom. More than you know.”
“Here’s another possibility we need to consider,” Kent interrupted. “Someone aboard that plane was planning to get off covertly before it went down. Probably to make it look like he must have died in the crash. Maybe one of the white-collar crooks wanted to kill his accomplices and disappear with the loot.”
“That’s a solid theory.” Nina nodded.
Lauren scowled. “If you’re right, Kent, we must be dealing with someone completely without conscience. He didn’t care about the innocent lives on board.”
Nina pursed her lips. “Or maybe he hates Marlin and wanted to hurt him by killing Lauren and me along with the others.”
“You, anyway.” Lauren’s tone was wry. “I doubt anyone thinks I’m anything more than baggage that came along with the marriage.”
“Daughter, I love you more than life itself, but sometimes I want to smack you. If you don’t let go of that cynicism, you’re going to wind up a lonely, friendless old lady one day.” Nina stomped back into the front of the store.
“Ouch!” Kent rocked back on his heels.
Lauren’s stare seemed focused on her toes. “On the rare occasion when my mom takes off the kid gloves, she knows how to land a knock-out punch. Unfortunately,
she’s more right than I’d like to admit. I just don’t know how to fix myself.”
“None of us can do that. Not on our own, anyway.”
She jerked her head up, nostrils flaring. “Don’t you think I’ve asked God a million times?”
“Probably. But do you keep Him at arm’s length, too?”
Without another word or glance, she imitated her mother’s rigid-backed stomp away from him. Kent let out a heavy sigh. Another home run with Lauren Carter.
He set about organizing the transportation of his copilot’s body to her hopefully temporary resting place. He insisted that every able-bodied person accompany the hearse to the burial site, except for Lauren, who stayed with her patients. Neither one was able to be a threat to anyone at the moment, though either of them could have been in on the sabotage of the plane, and Phil, at least, could have been the one who stopped up the mercantile stove and set the booby trap at the blacksmith shop.
After their sad chore, the group returned to the mercantile with all of the seats from the plane. The couch didn’t need to be screwed into the floor in order to be stable for seating. Nina settled on that piece of furniture, gaze faraway and pensive. Cliff and Dirk worked at fastening the chairs around the perimeter of the stove.
Kent took Neil and headed to the stream for another bucket of water. They all needed hydration again soon. The older man went without complaint, but flagging steps and dark smudges highlighted the slight bags under his eyes, betraying bone-deep weariness.
When they were out of earshot of the others, he glanced up at Kent. “Since you didn’t take off alone with your trusty sidearm but requested my humble presence, I assume you need to talk to this old mossback privately.”
Kent chuckled. “No moss growing on your intellect. I’ll get around to picking everyone’s brain eventually. So, what’s your theory? How did we end up here and by whose hands?”
Neil offered a toothy grin. “I appreciate your directness, though you stopped short of asking me if I’m the culprit. A confession would certainly help the course of justice along, though if we can’t get back to so-called civilization, it wouldn’t be worth much. Unless, of course, we form a lynch mob.”
Rocky Mountain Secrets: Rocky Mountain Sabotage ; Rocky Mountain Pursuit Page 9
