“Why?”
“Trust me, please.”
She looked into his brown eyes. “I do trust you.”
“Good.” Without warning, he leaned over and brushed his lips over her cheek. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I can.
Stunned, Rebecca touched her cheek as he left through the side yard.
Chapter 42
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay tonight, Rebecca?” Erica hesitated at the door.
“I’m sure. Wilma is here, and I can call you if I need you.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“And that hunk, Nick?”
“Yes, that hunk, Nick.” Rebecca laughed. “I’ll call him, too.”
“He’s crazy about you. You know that, don’t you?”
“Don’t be silly. He hardly knows me.”
“He told me he had a crush on you in high school.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“Doesn’t matter. He’s still carrying the torch.”
Again, Rebecca said, “Don’t be silly.”
“If I’m being silly, why did he kiss you before he left?”
Rebecca blushed. “You saw that?”
“Yes.”
“It meant nothing.”
“Come on now. He’s a neat guy. I think you should dump Vernon and grab him.” She put up her hand. “I know you’re going to say don’t be silly, but—”
Rebecca laughed again. “Erica, I’m glad you’re back in town.”
“So am I.” She gave Rebecca a quick hug. “Don’t forget. If you need me, call.”
“I won’t forget.”
Rebecca closed the door. She started up the stairs, but changed her mind and went into the kitchen. “Wilma, I want to thank you for all the help you gave me today. Aunt Millicent would be pleased.”
“I’m glad I could help. And you’ll never know what the money means.”
“I’m glad. Aunt Millicent liked you a lot.”
“I know. I liked her, too. I’m going to miss her.”
“Me, too.” She smiled at Wilma. “I’ve been thinking. This house is awfully big for one person to clean. How would you like for me to hire a full time cook?”
“I like to cook. Now that I’m staying here, I can cook every day.”
“Then why don’t I hire someone else to clean? You don’t need to work so hard.”
“Are you unhappy with my work, Ms. Rebecca?”
“Not at all, Wilma. I just thought that if we had another person in the house, well… you could spend more time with me. For some reason, Nick insists that I never be alone.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was thinking selfishly. I thought you were trying to get rid of me. Forgive me, Ms. Rebecca. You go on and hire all the people you want. Just know that I’ll do anything you want me to.”
Rebecca smiled. “Wilma, you’re in no danger of losing your job. As long as you want to work here, there’ll be work for you.”
“Thank you.”
“I think I’ll go to my room and rest a while. Erica went home, so if you have to go anywhere, please let me know.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll check on you in a little while.”
When she got to her room, Rebecca didn’t want to go to bed. She wandered into her closet and on impulse pulled back the rug. She opened her safe and took out the two embroidered bags.
“Mindy,” she said aloud, “we’re getting closer to finding your killer. I promised you we’d catch him, and I’m sure it’s going to happen soon. In fact, it may have already happened. Max Garvey is a prime suspect.”
She looked at the little bags and smiled. The work her mother had done was so neat. It must have taken her a long time to complete them. Rebecca rubbed the smooth round stone that served as a dew drop on her bag.
“This is nice work, Mother.” She put her bag aside and picked up the one that had belonged to Mindy.
“I wish you could know what this bag meant to Mindy,” she said as she put her finger on the dew drop on that bag. She stopped cold and stared at it. Instead of being round and smooth, it was square and a little rough. “What the…”
Then, as if by magic, she envisioned the stone pear shaped, emerald cut, and diamond shaped. Where had she seen all those shapes?
Without closing the safe, she got up and ran down the stairs to the library. She pulled open drawers and flipped through stacks of papers. It had to be here.
She finally found it in the back of the middle drawer. A folder containing a drawing of seven shapes, with one word beside each: Alone, Crowd, DVD, Trouble, Camera, Gathering, and Phone. The square shape had the word Alone beside it.
Rebecca sat in the recliner. What did this mean? Mindy had to have been using this as a signal of some sort. Had she been trying to tell Vernon things? Did the paper belong to him, or had Mindy left it here? The words were definitely in her handwriting and she’d used the library a lot when she’d lived in this house.
Rebecca’s head ached. She leaned back, closed her eyes, and continued to think about the shapes. Her thoughts grew muddled. Without meaning to, she dozed off.
Chapter 43
A commotion outside the library door woke Rebecca. She pulled the recliner into a sitting position just as the door burst open, and a uniformed police officer holding a drawn gun burst in and pointed it at her.
“What’s going on?” she screamed.
The officer lowered his arms. “Are you Mrs. Armfield?”
“Yes, I am. What’s going on?” she asked again.
“I found her,” he called toward the hall. To Rebecca, he said, “Are you all right, Ma’am?”
“Yes, except for being totally confused. Why were you pointing a gun at me?”
Nick burst into the room. “Rebecca. Thank the good Lord you’re okay.”
“Why shouldn’t I be?” She stood. “Nick, what’s happening?”
“It’s my fault, Ms. Rebecca. I went upstairs to check on you and you weren’t in your room. I called and called, but you didn’t answer.” Wilma wrung her hands. “When I saw the safe open in the closet and couldn’t find you, I got scared.”
“She called 911, and then she called me,” Nick finished for her. “She did the right thing.” He turned to Rebecca. “Why are you hiding in here?”
“I’m not hiding. I was looking at some papers when I dozed off. All the noise you made out there woke me.”
Nick turned back to the officer. “Thanks for responding, guys. Everything is fine now.”
“Are you sure you’re all right, Mrs. Armfield?” the policeman asked her again.
“I’m just fine. I’m sorry to cause you so much concern.”
“Let me show you out, gentlemen,” Wilma said.
“Thanks again,” Nick said.
“Ms. Rebecca, I’m sorry. I was just so scared,” Wilma said.
“It’s all right, Wilma. I should have let you know I was coming downstairs,” Rebecca replied.
“That’s right. You should have.” Nick scolded her. “Wilma, after you finish talking to the police, will you get me some coffee? I have a splitting headache.”
“Of course, Mr. Nick.”
“Want an aspirin?” Rebecca asked.
“That would be nice. But I need two. Maybe three.”
“Two’s enough. Please bring those also, Wilma.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Nick and Rebecca strode toward the hall. “You scared the hell out of me,” Nick said.
“I’m sorry about that.”
“When I walked into your room and found the open safe, my heart fell.”
“My safe. I’ve got to go upstairs and close it.” She turned toward the kitchen and called out, “Wilma!”
“Yes, Ma’am?”
“Bring Nick’s coffee to my room. I’m going to close my safe.” She started up the stairs, but paused and called Wilma again. “Please don’t tell anyone about the safe in my closet. It’s a secret. Well, it was a sec
ret, until today. Vernon doesn’t even know about it.”
“Yes, Ms. Rebecca. I won’t tell him or anyone else.”
“Thank you.”
While on her knees in her closet putting all the contents back into the safe, Rebecca looked up at Nick and said, “Nobody in the world except my mother and dad knew about this safe until today. Not even Vernon. Now in one afternoon, you and half the police force have been in here rummaging through my most private possessions.”
“So,” Nick looked down at her. She turned the dial and replaced the carpet. When she finished, he pulled her to her feet. “Tell you what. To make us even, you can come to my house and rummage through my closet. How’s that?”
“That sounds like an uneven trade.”
“You might be surprised. You don’t know what I might have hidden in my closet.”
“Have a seat,” she said with a chuckle, pointing to the round table and chairs in the alcove of her bedroom.
As he took a seat, he said, “Tell me one thing, Rebecca.”
“What’s that?” She took the chair opposite him.
“Why doesn’t your husband know about your safe? Most husbands would see something like that eventually.”
“Vernon seldom comes into my closet. I keep things in here that are special to me, but not necessarily of value. He’d think that was silly. So I decided to keep its whereabouts to myself.”
“I see.”
She changed the subject. “I’m sorry you have a headache. Wilma will be here… Ah, here she is now with your coffee and aspirins.”
Wilma set down a tray piled with food, set a brimming cup of coffee on the table beside his chair, and then dropped two aspirin onto a napkin beside it.
“I brought you a cup, too, Ms. Rebecca, and I made a few sandwiches. Mr. Nick looks hungry, and some food may help his headache. It wouldn’t hurt you either.
“I am hungry, Wilma. And I think a cup of coffee would be great,” Rebecca said.
Wilma left after apologizing again for calling the police.
“Excuse me, Rebecca,” Nick said as he stood. “I need to tell Wilma something.”
Once he left the closet, Nick said, “You did the right thing, Wilma. I want you to call them and me again if you ever can’t find Rebecca. If we embarrass her enough, maybe she’ll always tell us where she’s going.”
“Yes, Mr. Nick.” Wilma laughed. “Just don’t get me fired.”
Rebecca called out, “I told you, Wilma. I’m not going to fire you. Please take that word out of your vocabulary.”
“And I’m here as a witness.” Nick smiled at Wilma.
“Thank you, Mr. Nick.”
Nick said something else to Wilma, but they had reached the top of the stairs and Rebecca couldn’t hear anymore.
When he returned, he smiled at Rebecca. “Did you tell Wilma to call me Mr. Nick? She used to call me Mr. Quimbley.”
“No. She must have decided to do it on her own. She calls people she likes by their first names. She calls me Ms. Rebecca. Would you prefer she not call you Nick?”
“No. I want her to. I’m pleased she’s doing it.” He swallowed the aspirin with a gulp of coffee.
“Are you all right, Nick?”
“I’m just rushed. You really gave us a scare, Rebecca. Tension caused my headache.”
“I’m sorry I frightened you. It makes me feel good to know you care.”
“I care very much. You’re a special person. I knew that back in high school.”
She smiled. “That was a long time ago.”
“I know, but sometimes it doesn’t seem that long ago, does it?”
“Not at times. Again, it seems like ages.”
“Did you know I wanted to ask you out when we were in school?”
“Erica said something about that. Why didn’t you?”
“I was afraid. You were the beautiful rich girl from the fancy side of the tracks, as my mom used to say. I didn’t think you’d go out with me.”
“I would have gone with you if I hadn’t been afraid.”
“What would you have been afraid of?”
“You.”
“Me? Why?”
“You were the handsome football hero. I was very naive in high school. I was afraid of most boys.”
He shook his head. “I can’t imagine that, but it proves the old cliché is true, doesn’t it? We live and learn.”
“That we do.” She refilled his coffee cup. “You’d better eat those sandwiches. Wilma’s feelings will be hurt if don’t.”
“I can’t eat them all.” He chuckled and picked up one of them.
“Do you know anything yet about Gordon Jones’ death?”
“We found an order for one of the porno films in his trunk, along with an iron rod. We think it was probably used to knock him down or out before he was stabbed. He has a bad gash on the back of his head. We’ll have to wait and see if he was killed by the blow or if the stab wounds killed him after he was put into the trunk.”
“The situation is getting scary.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Does this prove Max Garvey didn’t kill him?”
“Yes. He couldn’t have done it. He was in the hospital.”
“Maybe Max didn’t kill anyone.”
“I don’t think he did.” Nick smiled at her. “I think the police have just found it convenient to hang Mindy’s murder on him.”
“Do you know who committed the murders?”
“No, but I have a pretty good idea.”
“Really?” She widened her eyes. “Who?”
“The person who made the DVD. I’m not sure if he performed in it or not. He could easily have set up a business making copies to sell and telling Max he had only one.”
“Do you have any idea who it is?”
“Not yet. I think Gordon and Mindy knew, though. I’m not sure, but Mindy might have told your aunt.”
“Then why would I be in danger? I didn’t know anything about it.”
“Maybe you’re not.” He smiled at her again. “Maybe I just like coming over here to see you.”
She smiled back. “Maybe I want to stay in danger so you’ll keep coming.”
“Well, isn’t this cozy?” Vernon’s voice boomed from the door. “So my wife entertains men in her bedroom while I’m out busting my ass to keep her living in the style she likes.”
Rebecca whirled to face him. “Vernon, you’re being ridiculous. We’re just talking.”
“Can’t you talk on the patio, or in the living room or the sunroom? Or do you prefer to have your talks here because it makes it easier to jump into bed together afterward?”
“That’s enough, Armfield.” Nick stood.
“I should be the one saying that, Quimbley. And it is enough. You have no business coming into my house and spending time in my wife’s bedroom. I want you out of here immediately, and I don’t want you to ever come back again.”
“There’s no reasoning with you, Armfield.” Nick put down his napkin. “I’ll see you, Rebecca.”
“No, you won’t,” Vernon said. “I forbid you to ever speak to my wife again.”
“Your wife’s old enough to decide for herself who she speaks to.” Nick strode toward Vernon. “You may intimidate a lot of people, but you don’t scare me.”
“Who do you think you are, talking to me like that? Get the hell out of my wife’s bedroom and my house before I call the cops.” Vernon seethed.
“I’ll see you to the door, Nick.” Rebecca followed him.
“No, you won’t!” Vernon grabbed her arm and jerked her backward. “You stay right here, Rebecca.”
“Take your hand off my arm, Vernon. I said I’d see Nick to the door, and I will.”
“Damn you. I don’t want you going downstairs with him.”
“Don’t you think you should calm down?” Nick demanded.
“Why don’t you get out of here? Since they’ve caught the killer, you have no business being in my house. It’s time
for me to get back to a normal life with my wife.”
As they left the room, Nick ignored him and turned toward Rebecca. “I’m not sure you’re safe with him. Do you want me to stay?”
“No. He’ll calm down in a minute. I’ll be fine.”
Vernon followed them and pushed Nick toward the stairs. “I’ll take care of my wife. It’s none of your business what goes on between us.”
Nick whirled and gripped Vernon’s shirt collar with both hands. “Listen to me, Armfield, and listen carefully. Your wife is a friend of mine. A very good friend—and I had better never see another bruise, scratch, or anything else on her now, or anytime in the future. If I do, you’ll answer to me. And let me assure you that you won’t enjoy the experience.”
Nick let him go, and Vernon staggered backward.
“Did you see that, Rebecca? He just threatened me. I’m going to call my lawyer.”
“Call all the lawyers you want. I’m not threatening you. I’m making you a promise. And rest assured, I always keep my promises.”
“He did it again.”
“For heaven’s sake, Vernon. Go to your room and leave us alone.” Rebecca walked in front of him. “Let’s go, Nick.”
“How dare you try to send me to my room like some misbehaving child?”
“Well, you’re acting like one.”
Vernon shook with anger. His eyes had gone dark, and he’d set his jaw. “Then go downstairs with your lover, Rebecca. I don’t know you anymore.” He stalked off down the hall.
At the front door, Nick said, “I don’t think I should leave you with him. Why don’t I go hang out in the kitchen with Wilma for a little while?”
“I’ll be fine. Wilma’s here, and she knows what’s going on. I’ll call you if I need you.”
“She’s in another part of the house.”
“No, I’m not, Mr. Nick.” Wilma’s voice came from the area under the stairs. “Don’t worry about Ms. Rebecca. I’ll take good care of her.”
“I know you will, but just in case, let’s you and me go into the kitchen for a little while.”
“If you say so, Mr. Nick.”
In a few minutes, Vernon came downstairs. “Well, is he gone?”
“He’s not in here,” Rebecca said from her seat on the sofa.
“I’m sorry I got so angry. It blew my mind to see him in our bedroom.”
Murder in North Carolina Page 17
