Love and Arson

by Woods, Karen

  Harry laughed. “That must be interesting.”

  She sighed. “Anytime you put a mixed sex group of seventeen and eighteen year olds together overnight, it gets interesting quickly, especially for the chaperones. The struggle goes on to keep the kids together, but above all to keep them apart.”

  “I’m just glad you decided to stay, Dani,” her father said.

  “I haven’t made a decision, yet. I’ll pray about it. It all depends on how God calls.”

  Harry smiled at her. “You’ll stay. I’m confident.”

  * * *

  Dani sipped her cup of mint tea later that evening. Tonight had been an eye-opener. The whole day had been, for lack of a better term, interesting. She’d easily won the chess game her father had insisted on after dinner. Then Jase had challenged her to a game. She’d just played him to checkmate. She’d opted to finish her tea before announcing it. The expression on Jase’s face made her want to smile, gloat, and chortle. But that wouldn’t be wise. She’d had enough conflict today. All she wanted to do was to go upstairs into her room and be alone. But she had to admit it felt good to checkmate him in a very short amount of time.

  Chapter Five

  An angry female voice said over the telephone late that night, “I could simply strangle Harry with my bare hands. I really could.”

  Gilbert Jermon, Harry’s attorney, leaned back in his bed listening to the woman. “I wouldn’t recommend it, Sweetheart. But I understand the sentiment.”

  “I just can’t believe it. I really can’t. Harry talked that brat into staying here. She was all set to make this a flying visit, and he talked her into staying in this house. She could have conveniently disappeared from a hotel. I don’t need this aggravation. Not when we are less than a month away from the next stage. She’s going to be a monkey wrench in the works. I know it.”

  “Take it easy. You aren’t helping the cause by getting upset about this. We’ll deal with her. It won’t be hard to take care of her. The girl has too many skeletons in her own closet to be much of a real threat.”

  “I can’t take it easy. She’s going to dig. I know it. She’s got the Devlin disposition. Lord, Gil, you should have seen her at dinner. That brat is Harry’s daughter, through and through. There’s no doubt in my mind. Just like Harry, she won’t let this go until she’s satisfied.”

  “Do you trust me?”

  “Of course, I trust you,” the woman replied in a tone full of hurt. “How can you even think otherwise? But this is our necks on the line. I want her taken care of. Let me be clearer, we can’t afford to have her asking questions, stirring up old matters that should have been forgotten decades ago. There is no statute of limitations applicable, in case you’ve forgotten.”

  “I haven’t. But, there is really nothing to worry about. All the girl will be able to discover from the public records is that Peter died from drowning in the lake behind the house after having been beaten, and that Nancy was implicated in his death. That isn’t likely to be something that she is going to want to look into further.”

  “What are we going to do?” the distraught female voice questioned over the telephone line.

  “Just take it easy, sweetheart. There is no sense in worrying about the girl until she gives us cause,” Gil replied into the telephone receiver. “As I believe I’ve said before.”

  “By then, it may be too late, and you know it.”

  “Look, love,” Gil said after he drew on his cigar while he leaned back on the bed pillows. “If the girl starts asking too many questions, then we’ll take care of her. We’re so close to getting everything that we’ve always wanted, I don’t believe we can afford to take chances which aren’t absolutely necessary.”

  “How close, Gil? How close?”

  “Another six months, love. By the middle of January at the latest. I promise. It would have been a lot sooner if Nancy hadn’t been so greedy and demanding.”

  “Can the end really be that close?”

  “Yes, just a few more months until everything falls into place, until we have everything we’ve ever wanted.”

  “Very well. I won’t do anything rash.”

  “Promise me!”

  “I promise,” the woman assured him.

  “Thank you.”

  “Can I see you tomorrow night?”

  “Sorry. I’m entertaining the Michelson widow.”

  “I wish that you didn’t have to do that.”

  “It’s only for a little while. The Michelson estate is ripe for the plucking. Amalie won’t know what hit her by the time probate closes. Still, the estate is large enough she’ll never miss what I take from her.”

  “I still can’t help wishing you didn’t have to ingratiate yourself with her.”

  “Jealous, love?” Gil demanded.

  “Of course I am.”

  “You know you don’t have any cause to be jealous. You’re the only woman who has ever meant anything to me.”

  “Oh, Gil...”

  “Come to me, love. We could spend the night together. Then you would know you have no reason to be jealous.”

  “You know how protective Harry is about the women under his roof. A harem would be less well guarded than the women in this house. He would know I’ve gone, then there would be the devil to pay.”

  “Probably. But it would be worth it.”

  “I’m so sick of this sneaking around. Of being scared all the time. We’ve played this game for too many years. I want some sort of normal life, Gil.”

  “Trust me. We will have our freedom soon. I promise you. We’re almost there.”

  “I want to believe you.”

  “Then do. Can you get free tomorrow afternoon?”

  “Yes.”

  “Come to the cottage at one. My calendar is clear between noon and six.”

  “I’ll come at noon. I don’t want to waste even one minute of time that we can be alone. Our time together is far too valuable to me.”

  “I wish you would reconsider about tonight.”

  “I can’t. Harry would ask questions. You know it has never been easy for me to lie to his face.

  “Ah, my dearest, I think you’re underestimating your considerable skills in the area of deception.”

  “I’ll see you at the cottage when you get there, tomorrow. Don’t be late.”

  Gil laughed. “I do love you.”

  “You’d better.”

  Chapter Six

  Early the next morning, just after dawn, Dani set out for a long run. Normally, she ran at least ten miles each morning. Most mornings of the last few years that run had been as coach of the cross country team from the High School. It would take some time until she had a good route for her morning run established here. The only question in her mind was whether she would be here long enough to bother with exploring various routes.

  The beauty of the day filled her with optimism. Charlie, the day man on the security gate, had been whistling when he had let her out of the gate and wished her a good run. She certainly needed the uplift to her spirits.

  Jase disturbed her. She would like to believe he was simply looking out for her father, his stepfather. Somehow, she rather doubted Harry Devlin needed to have anyone look after his interests. Her father was a strong man.

  Yet, a strong man was also a good description for Jase Wilton. She wanted to believe his heart was in the right place in his desire to protect his family. If that were so, she couldn’t really fault him for being defensive of his people. It would be very nice to have someone love her enough to want to be that defensive of her. Nice, but she couldn’t see it happening.

  The sun felt pleasantly warm as she ran. Warm. Some-how, that was a word she had always attached to family life. Yet this group of people whom she had met last night could hardly be called warm. Perhaps, she allowed as she continued to run, it was simply that they were as nervous around her as she was around them.

  Partially because of the warmth, or rather the lack thereof, of her ne
wly found family, she was now glad to be out running in the early morning sunshine. Maybe the exercise would clear away the cobwebs and dark shadows from her mind.

  She’d dreamed last night, or rather early this morning. In her dream, she had been compelled by curiosity to enter a maze. At the end of the maze was a wonderful reward. If she made it through, she would be given the reward. If she didn’t, she would die. There was no way to backtrack. She couldn’t return to her starting point. Those had been the rules. Distorted mirrors lined the walls. She ran into dead ends. Sections of floors gave way as she started to cross them, leaving her to scramble to safety. Then there were the pits of hungry lions she had to leap over with only the aid of frayed ropes. The maze, as she went deeper into it, became darker until the only thing she could see were dark shades of gray. The only illumination was the weak, badly focused, beam of the battery-powered light on her miner’s hard hat. Even that small amount of light was swallowed up by the darkness as she went deeper into the maze. Then there had been blinding flashes of light at irregular times, usually but not always, just before a serious hazard. The curiosity that had compelled her into the maze had quickly given way to fear, then the fear shortly became pure terror.

  She’d awakened, shaking, in a cold sweat at four o’clock.

  She knew a Freudian analyst would have had a field day with that dream. But, she didn’t need the assistance of a dream analyst to understand it. Her mind was simply working overtime, thinking about her coming to her father’s house. The problem was, she wasn’t convinced the threat was totally within her own mind.

  Something, or someone, had been responsible for her mother severing ties and fleeing the area. Given the conversations last evening — before, during, and after, dinner — she was well aware that everyone knew more about why her mother had left than she did herself. Or at least, they knew a version of the story that painted her mother in an extremely bad light.

  She categorically refused to believe her mother had been unfaithful to her father. Obviously, everyone here thought so. Whether anyone knew the truth or not was another question entirely.

  Not pacing herself, needing to think, she ran flat out. She thought best while running. She always had. Her mother had never been a runner. Yet, during Dani’s early years of running, Nan had ridden a battered old coaster bicycle to accompany her.

  Whatever her mother’s faults, a lack of love had never been among them. No matter what Dani learned about her mother, Nan Devlin had been a good mother. Nothing could ever change that.

  “Oh, Mother, forgive me,” she whispered as she continued to run. She unsuccessfully fought back the tears.

  There was nothing, nothing at all, she could do to change what had happened to her mother. Nor could she continue to wallow in her pain. All she could do now was try to pick up the pieces of her own life and move on.

  Dani wondered if she really should agree to stay in the area. Frankly, she wasn’t at all certain she wanted to be in this place, long term. There were too many undercurrents at her father’s house she failed to understand, and far too many she understood only too well. Besides, she wasn’t at all certain God wasn’t calling her to a consecrated life.

  What had frightened Nan so much that she ran away, severed all ties to the people here? Maybe now was not the time to be asking questions. Dani wasn’t even certain that she wanted to know. What possible good could be served by digging up the past?

  Yet, from some of the things said last night, it was obvious that the past was not all that deeply buried. She wasn’t at all sure she wanted to continue in this situation where everyone apparently knew more about the facts than she did.

  What these people knew was directly related to why her mother had left. From the comments last evening, it was clear her mother was not held in high esteem among several family members. That lack of esteem had been passed on to her, at least in the eyes of some of the members of the family, a bitter inheritance from her mother.

  There had to be a way of finding out what she needed to know without stirring up trouble and even more hard feelings. This situation was tricky enough that the last thing she wanted was to stomp, unknowingly, on an emotional landmine. Surely, there existed a way of getting the answers to her questions. But how?

  Maybe the thing to do would be to simply keep her eyes and ears open. If the past was as close to the surface as she suspected, then by piecing together bits of what people said to her, she should be able to gain the answers which she so desperately wanted. A low key approach like that might work.

  About three miles from her father’s front gate, Dani became aware of the sound of a barking dog. She continued running. The barking grew louder as she passed a large house that was fairly close to the road.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a Doberman on an anchored tether in the front yard of the house. Then she realized that the dog had pulled the tether’s steel spiral anchor free from the ground and was headed toward her, growling, barking, and showing his teeth.

  Dani began to frantically search her mind for a way to defend herself against the dog. She wished she had brought the small pepper spray canister she had always worn while running in Illinois, or even her pistol. Either would have stopped the animal. But she’d hate to be charged with carrying an illegal weapon. If nothing else, that would give Jase more ammunition to use against her with her father.

  There was a big tree in the meridian about fifteen feet ahead. She reached the tree and managed to swing herself up into the boughs and out of the reach of the dog, just in time to avoid a nasty bite. Dani forced herself to catch her breath as she stood on a big branch. For now, she was safe. How long she would have to remain on this thick limb, she didn’t know. Clearly, she would be here until someone rescued her. Even if the dog went away by himself, she knew she would not climb down out of the tree. Unless it started raining, this was the safest place she could be at the moment.

  She laughed as the words from an old camp song came into her head, “The Bear Song.” The verses of the song told of a man meeting a bear on the mountain and the man running in fear for a tree, jumping for a high branch, missing it, but catching it on the way back down. Dani took it as a good sign she still could find something humorous in this situation.

  The dog continued to bark and growl. He stood on his back paws and jumped in an effort to get higher up on the tree. Dani scrambled onto a higher branch just to be on the safe side. She sat down on the branch, figuring she’d have to be here for a while. The dog showed absolutely no sign of going away. If anything, the animal was growing more upset with each passing moment.

  She spoke as calmly as she could to the dog, “Hey, fella. You’re probably a good dog. Go away. Go chase a rabbit or something. Shoo. Scat.”

  But the dog remained at the base of the tree, eyeing her malevolently. Dani thought she had never seen such sharp teeth on any animal. On occasions like this, having been a ‘tomboy’ had its advantages.

  The dog continued to bark, growl, and jump up, trying to get to her.

  She took her cell phone from the case clipped to her waistband, checked her location on the GPS feature of the phone, then dialed 9-1-1.

  “What’s your emergency?” a woman answered the phone.

  “I’m eight foot up in a tree, having been forced here by a Doberman. The animal’s still down there, at the base of the tree, looking up at me like cross country runner is his favorite breakfast. I need someone to get this dog under control.”

  “Where are you?” the female dispatcher asked.

  Dani gave the dispatcher the address her cell phone GPS had given it to her. “Please send help?”

  “Sure thing. Chief Hunter lives out that way. I’ll call him for you. Do you need an ambulance? Did Buster bite you?”

  “No. I scrambled up the tree just in time. Aside from some small scrapes on my hands and knees from the tree bark, I seem to be fine. Scared, but fine… You named the dog. You know this animal?”

  “Oh,
yeah. We know him. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time we’ve had trouble with Emily Chance’s Dobie, Buster. That dog usually chases horses, bicyclists, and cars. This is the first time he’s come after a runner.”

  “Think we can make it the last time?” Dani demanded.

  The dispatcher chuckled. “We can only hope. Who am I talking to?”

  “Dani Devlin.”

  “I’m Michelle Gray. Hold the line, I’m calling Chief Hunter on the radio. I’m sure he’ll be there in a few minutes. Stay on the line, I’ll be right back.”

  Dani overheard the radio call to Chief Hunter. When that was done, Michelle kept her on the line, talking, for the fifteen minutes or so it took for help to arrive. Still, the elapsed time seemed like hours, as the dog continued to growl at her and jump trying to get to her. She heard the sound of a car coming down the road. Looking around, she saw it was a police car.

  “Your Chief Hunter has arrived, Michelle,” she said. “At least, there’s a marked patrol car coming.”

  “You’re in good hands, then, Dani. Take care. We’ll have to do lunch one day. I’ll introduce you to a bunch of people you ought to know, since you’re new to the area.”

  “I’d appreciate that, Michelle. You have my number logged, I’m sure.”

  “I’ll call you. Got to go. Another call coming in.”

  Then the dispatcher hung up.

  The car stopped. A sixtyish uniformed police officer and a much younger man both climbed out of the vehicle.

  The front door of the house opened. A thin elderly woman dressed in deep blue quilted satin robe and slippers came out of the house. “Buster, come!” the old woman commanded with more force than Dani would have otherwise thought the old woman capable. The dog immediately obeyed, going immediately to the woman’s side.

  “Sit. Stay,” she heard the old woman command.

  “Come on down from the tree, Miss,” the police officer commanded. “The dog is under control. You don’t have to remain there any longer. How did you get up in the boughs, anyway? That bottom branch has to be more than six foot off the ground.”