A Box Full of Trouble

by Carolyn Haines

  Seconds after he shut down and got off the bike, Erin emerged from the garage, Jocko darting out in front of her to bark madly at him.

  Noah took off his helmet and squatted to pet the excited Jack Russell. "Hey, buddy. What's up?" A moment later, Trouble padded over the mulch to sit a few feet away. He looked anywhere except at Noah, and languidly switched his tail back and forth.

  "That cat sure likes to play hard to get," he said to Erin.

  "Oh, he's jealous of Jocko. You'd think he owned this house, and that Jocko wasn't here first." Erin rolled her eyes. "He's a sweetie, but kind of silly."

  Noah noticed she'd also changed her clothes since he saw her a few hours earlier. Her light blue sleeveless romper showed off her long, lightly freckled legs, and though it was buttoned all the way to the base of her throat, it gave her a sexy lean look. He liked how her hair sat in natural waves about her shoulders.

  "You look great," he said. Erin blushed. "You probably want to grab a jacket or something. And some shoes. You don't want to be on the bike in sandals. Sorry."

  Erin bent to pick up Trouble, and he put his paws on her shoulders, looking around with interest. "Do you mind if we take my car and bring Jocko and Trouble with us? They've been alone so much, and Dad and Shelby Rae haven’t been home all afternoon. I don't know where they are. These guys get lonesome. And maybe Trouble will help us out. I told you Tammy Lynn said he was good at mysteries, didn't I?"

  "You want to take them out to Zach's?"

  "It's not like he lives in town, right? We can take my car." She tilted her head and said with a smile, "You can drive if you want."

  * * *

  The drive felt too short to Noah. He could've driven the Challenger for hours. Both the cat and dog were standing on Erin's lap with their faces out the open passenger window. Erin thought it was so cute she couldn't stop taking pictures of them, and Noah couldn't disagree.

  "I've never seen a cat like Trouble," he told her. "It's almost like he's part human. Like he understands what we talk about. It's kind of weird."

  "Damn it. I forgot to bring the photos I found at Julie's house." Erin sighed. "I wanted to show them to you. Julie told my dad she saw Shelby Rae with a guy in her SUV. That she was having an affair, and that she thought it was—what was the word?" She thought a minute. "Yeah, abominable. Like the guy was a monster or something."

  "Julie's house?" Noah was confused.

  She told him about being caught by the deputy in Julie's house earlier that day, looking for the photos her father had told her about. He was surprised she didn't tell him earlier at The Village Bean. Shelby Rae might have been having an affair? If there was a stranger involved it put a new spin on her kidnapping, and Noah said so.

  "I know, right?" Erin stroked Trouble's back. "Maybe that's too much information to share with Zach. I mean, we don't know if it's true, and it would really embarrass my dad, you know?"

  Noah thought about the things he knew about his own father. Embarrassment wasn't the issue, but he felt similarly reticent because he was sad for his mom. "I hear you. It's interesting though." He didn't say anything about the way some people at work talked about Shelby Rae. It was only gossip. "So, check. No mention of Julie's gossip about Shelby Rae."

  When they turned on to the private gravel road leading to Zach's place, Jocko barked, shivering with excitement.

  "What's that about?" Erin laughed. "What a goof. He loves to go places. I think he's been lonesome."

  Noah liked the ramshackleness of Zach's two-story farmhouse. There had been nights when he slept on Zach's couch, comforted by the settling creaks of the house, as well as the scuffling of mice. A sturdy, if uneven, porch wrapped around the front and one side of the house. On the other side was a set of painted stairs leading to the second floor. Zach called it a mother-in-law's apartment, and Noah knew it was empty. He secretly hoped Zach would let him rent it one day so he could move out of his mother's house.

  As Noah parked and turned off the Challenger, Trouble sniffed the air and jumped out the passenger window. Before Erin could stop him, Jocko scrambled up onto the window, scratching the door's leather with his back nails. Then he was out, chasing after Trouble, who beat him to the porch and was sitting in front of the door as though waiting to be let inside.

  * * *

  Noah had an urge to grab hold of Erin's hand as they walked to the door. This isn't a date, this isn't a date he told himself. Her friend just died. It's not the time. The urge was strong and difficult to resist, but resist it he did, and settled for resting his fingertips gently on her back as they walked up the porch stairs, as though to steady her. She didn't startle or jerk away, as he feared she might. Would he ever stop being so nervous around her?

  Zach opened the door. Noah always felt glad to see him because he was a real friend. It didn't matter that his dad despised the fact that they were friends—especially now that Noah was twenty-one. Zach was still in his uniform, though his collar was unbuttoned and his face was peppered with dark, end-of-the day whiskers. He was taller than Noah, about six two, and although he was bulky with muscles, his face was long and thin, and he had deep brown eyes, rimmed with lashes Noah's mother said she envied. If there was anything off about his face at all it was his pointed, narrow nose that was a shade too small. But it had been broken once, which at least had made him look impressively tough to the younger Noah.

  "Come on in, but leave the animals outside. I'm allergic to cats, and I've got the General shut in his crate, but he'll smell the terrier and piss all over the place later."

  Erin nodded and scrambled to grab Trouble as he tried to slink past Zach's legs. "Come on, Jocko. Let's go. Come on!"

  Jocko looked back at her and was eventually convinced.

  "They can hang out on the porch. I doubt it will be full dark before you leave, so nothing should get them."

  "The General's a boxer mutt," Noah said by way of explanation. "He's a great dog. But he would probably try to chase Trouble off."

  "That's a fact." Zach led them inside after Erin set Trouble on the porch swing.

  Noah and Erin settled on the couch, and Zach brought them glasses of lemonade. He opened a beer for himself and poured it into a glass.

  "So, what's up?"

  Noah shifted. "There are actually two things we'd like to ask you about. I know you probably can't tell us a lot about Julie Berry. Not sure if you even know anything yet."

  "Well, now that it's a murder investigation, there's not much I can share. We're looking for her Mercedes and doing a lot of interviews with folks to figure out who saw her last. You already know she was shot." He gave Erin an apologetic look. "What's the other thing?"

  Beside Noah, Erin straightened up. Noah waited for her to speak.

  "This is really confidential. My dad and Shelby Rae didn't want to tell Sheriff Bowen. Shelby Rae says she's afraid to."

  Zach raised an eyebrow. "And?"

  She told him how Shelby Rae was nowhere to be found after the fireworks and there were signs of a struggle in one of the cabanas. Then how her father found the note, and she found Shelby Rae's bloody white cover up on the path to the field.

  "Wait. Shelby Rae was at the lake this morning. So she was kidnapped, and came back okay?" He looked confused, but also, Noah thought, shaken.

  "My dad paid the fifty thousand dollars right away. She was back Tuesday morning."

  "He paid? Jesus. Why didn't you people call us? It's a miracle she wasn't killed anyway. Or your father wasn't hurt. Talk about idiotic."

  Noah bristled. "They were doing the best they could. The police don't always get people back. Shelby Rae got released, didn't she?"

  "Yeah," Zach said. "She got released. This time. Now whoever it was knows your old man's a soft touch. She could be taken again. Or you could, Erin." He looked at her, but it was a look without compassion. Noah had rarely seen Zach so irritated.

  Erin stood up and walked to the window. Jocko had leapt onto the porch swing and barked wh
en he saw her.

  Zach sighed. "All right. Water under the bridge. What did Shelby Rae say about whoever took her? Was it one person? Two? Where did they take her?"

  "She's not sure about where." Erin turned from the window. "She says she thinks it was a man and a woman—something about the way the woman wasn't quite as strong and her hands were smaller. But they didn't talk or give her anything to eat. Just water. After my dad paid the ransom they dumped her out on our road, blindfolded. They made the bindings on her hands loose enough that she could get out of them when they were gone."

  "Does she still have them? We can maybe trace them. What about DNA? Did she scratch them or something? I'd like to talk to her." Zach was earnest. "People shouldn't get away with shit like this. Unbelievable. Maybe it was someone with a beef against your father. Everybody likes Shelby Rae. I can't imagine anyone wanting to hurt her."

  Noah didn't look at Erin. He knew she wouldn't agree, and he wasn't sure he agreed himself.

  "What about Bryn Owens?" Erin asked. “She was there at the party, right? Well, not at the party, but she was waiting out front in her car."

  "You think Bryn Owens would do something like this? Really?" Zach was skeptical. "I guess it's possible. I did have to run her off, and your father said he's been getting unpleasant notes from her because of Tionna and the lawsuit. But it's hard to believe she'd resort to kidnapping. According to her, she wasn't even after money in the lawsuit. She believes the dealership shouldn't have let Tionna drive that car away. That it was gross negligence."

  Noah interrupted. At least he was familiar with these details. "Earl said she refused to wait. The negligence was on her part. I know it sounds harsh, but there's no reason Earl would lie about it."

  "I think it's important that she was at the house," Erin said. "She had to be trying to see who was there and when everyone would be gone."

  "I ran her off," Zach said. "She didn't hang around."

  "Maybe she came back." Erin was adamant.

  "I followed her all the way to the bakery and watched her go inside. Before she went upstairs, she flipped me off and shouted she'd report me for harassment. It wouldn't have gone anywhere of course, but it was unpleasant enough. I left on patrol, but I drove by her place a couple of times. Her car was still there when it got dark."

  Erin sat down again. "Someone could've picked her up."

  "Possible, but unlikely." Zach took a long drink of his beer. "I can look into it more. But I'd really need to talk to Shelby Rae first. She's the one with details."

  "You can't. Let me try to talk to her again to see if she'll change her mind. She doesn't act much like it, but she has to be worried that they'll come after her again. I doubt she's all that worried about them taking me." Erin gave a wry laugh that made Noah feel bad for her. It sucked that she had a stepmother she didn't get along with. What if his own mother did get divorced and remarried? It's possible she could get together with someone even worse than his father. He thought back to the way she’d looked up at Bruce Walsh. Had she really been flirting with him? The thought made him uncomfortable. No way. She couldn't think about his boss that way. But if he thought he could possibly have a relationship with Erin, wasn't it only fair that his mother should be able to pursue someone like Bruce Walsh? Not actually Bruce Walsh of course. No. Erin's voice startled him out of his wayward thoughts.

  "Um, where's your bathroom?" she asked Zach, sounding a little embarrassed.

  "Past the kitchen. First door on your right."

  * * *

  The floor of Zach's old farmhouse creaked as Erin went to the back of the house in search of the bathroom. Things had gotten too intense talking about Shelby Rae. Shelby Rae's insistence that none of them should talk to the police was maddening, and Erin felt like she couldn't rest until she knew what had really happened. And somehow she was certain it had to be connected to Julie's death. Even though she had no proof, she felt like Shelby Rae was lying about something.

  One never knew what to expect of guest bathrooms, especially those in houses belonging to bachelors, and Erin was pleasantly surprised that this one wasn't too bad. It could almost be called retro. The vanity and walls were all of the same rough knotty pine, and the decoration was mostly framed certificates and photos of Zach with various dignitaries. There was even one that showed he'd been made an honorary Kentucky Colonel the year before. Her father kept his certificate in his office at work, saying it was good for business.

  As she was washing her hands she read the large, gold and black lettered certificate on the wall beside her. LOUISVILLE WESTERN HIGH SCHOOL. It was dated fifteen years earlier. She hadn't known he was from Louisville. Who else did she know from Louisville in New Belford? A few kids from her high school who had transferred. And, of course, Shelby Rae, who had been—as she told everyone who asked about her life—homecoming queen, a sometime model, and a pageant winner. But Erin had no idea which high school she'd gone to, so she made a mental note to ask.

  That would be a fun conversation, given the way they were getting along these days.

  When she was done in the bathroom, she took a wrong turn and ended up in a hallway with several dim rooms along it. At first she thought to hurry back and find the living room, but she was too curious about Zach not to look. He was, after all, the man who’d killed her mother.

  The first room she came to was a cluttered bedroom with a low platform bed piled with messy sheets and a quilt. A trail of men's clothes littered the floor—socks and underwear and T-shirts, sweat clothes. Though a second deputy's uniform hung in a clear dry-cleaning bag on the door like a rebuke to the mess around it. Erin wrinkled her nose. It smelled like sweat and despair.

  What a funny thing to think. Like something from a novel. But still, that's what it smelled like. Sadness.

  She knew she should hurry back to the living room, but she quickly peeked into the next room, where the light from the hall shone eerily on the stuffed creatures on the wall: a duck and an antelope, and the head of a buck with an eight-point rack. As someone who couldn't wait to be a veterinarian, the sight of those dead animals broke her heart. She understood hunting for food, but Zach had probably not eaten the antelope, and obviously hadn't eaten the duck. She whispered an apology to the remains of the animals, glad that her father wasn't a fan of hunting trophies. On either side of the windows sat two large gun safes. Besides the safes and trophies was a reloading rig where Zach obviously filled his own shells for hunting. MacKenzie's father had a similar one, and he’d shown MacKenzie and Erin how to load 12-gauge shells. Erin had thought it pretty fun because then they got to go out and shoot clay pigeons.

  One long wall was lined with hooks hung with hunting and fishing clothes: waders and coveralls and camo jackets and pants, mostly green and tan. But there was plenty of gray, white, and black, too, for winter hunting. She noticed a single, dark hoodie, but couldn’t tell if it was blue or black, like the one the man who had picked up the ransom had been wearing.

  Then she heard a low, threatening growl from deep inside the room, and she jumped back into the hallway.

  "What are you doing?"

  Erin gave a nervous laugh. Zach stood at the end of the hall, silhouetted in the light. Noah came up behind him.

  "You okay, Erin?"

  "Just a little embarrassed." She smiled awkwardly at Zach. "Took a wrong turn."

  "You're lucky the General's in his crate. He's not fond of strangers." Zach reached past her and firmly closed the door.

  "He wouldn't hurt Erin," Noah said good-naturedly. "The General's a good guy."

  Zach gave a kind of a grunt and followed Erin and Noah back into the living room. Erin's pulse was pounding. Lots of men had dark hoodies. If she suspected every guy with a dark hoodie of being the kidnapper, she'd probably have to suspect half the guys she'd known in high school, including Noah.

  Once they were seated again, she tried to catch Noah's attention to let him know she wanted to leave. There were more questions she wanted
to ask, but she was spooked. Zach didn't seem as nice as he had. Of course nobody liked strangers snooping around their stuff. Maybe she wasn't being fair.

  "How are things at the house?"

  For a moment Erin thought Zach was talking to her, but Noah answered.

  "You know. Weird. As usual." He cast a shy look at Erin and shrugged.

  "You tell me if Jeb gives you a hard time. Have you thought about moving out? He's got a number of job possibilities, I'm told. Your mom and he should be able to manage without you."

  Erin wondered what sort of jobs an ex-convict like Jeb Daly could have waiting for him, but she didn't want to ask. Beside her, Noah seemed uncomfortable. She already knew he didn't like to talk about his father, so she interrupted.

  "Not to change the subject or anything, but do you know Shelby Rae's uncle? His name is Travis, and he was acting kind of strange at the party. Super touchy with Shelby Rae. But I guess he always is." Erin found it hard to keep the distaste from her voice. "When I was younger, he always talked to me like I was a little girl even though I was like fifteen. He creeps me out. And I know Shelby Rae gives money to her family."

  "What are you saying? Did he assault you?" Zach leaned forward.

  "No, no. Nothing like that. I just wondered if he maybe wanted more than she was able to sneak to him and her family. Maybe he knew fifty thousand dollars was what my father kept on hand in his safe. It would explain why Shelby Rae was let go unharmed, right?"

  "Yeah, Travis isn't major league. Did a little time for forgery, but not much. He's a gambler, and spends a lot of time on the riverboats. It's possible he could owe folks some money."