Dead Air

by Robin Caroll

  Nothing added up.

  Eric let out a long sigh, laced his fingers behind his head, and stared at her. “See what I mean? The only thing that makes sense is embezzlement. And who could it be but Robert?”

  “I don’t know.” Think, Gabby, think. There was a piece of the puzzle right here—just out of her grasp. What wasn’t she seeing?

  Her cell phone chirped. She dug into her purse for it. “Hello.”

  “Are you standing me up?”

  Her heart faltered at the sound of his voice. “Clark.”

  “The one and only. I’m sitting here at Ms. Minnie’s.”

  She checked her watch—11:22. “I’m sorry. I lost track of time.” She cut her gaze to Eric, who made shooing motions. “I’m on my way now. Be there in five.”

  Gabby slammed the phone closed and slipped it into her purse. “We’ll talk tomorrow.” She moved toward the door.

  “Sure you don’t want to work tonight?” His tone had shifted to light and teasing. “I’m sure Harry would enjoy the break.” Harry, a part-time deejay, filled in on the regulars’ days off.

  “My one day off? Are you kidding?” She hitched her purse strap over her shoulder. “I have a lunch date. Later.”

  His laughter followed her out of the station, into the parking lot and inside her car. She wanted to take comfort in it, but couldn’t. Eric was her friend, she trusted him, and yet…was it really just a coincidence that the deposit slip she’d found matched one of the withdrawals from the station’s accounts?

  She headed toward where Clark sat at a table near the window, her steps light.

  “Sorry I’m late.” Her words came out in a burst as she dropped into the seat across from him.

  “No problem.”

  Ms. Minnie ambled up. “Hi there, Gabby. What can I get y’all?”

  “What’s today’s special? It smells divine.”

  “I made some crawfish étouffée fresh this morning.”

  “That’s what I’ll have.”

  Clark smiled at the diner owner. “Make that two, Ms. Minnie.”

  “Iced tea?”

  After agreeing to the drink, he waited until the proprietor had left to readdress Gabby.

  “So, guess what I found out.”

  Oh, so it was serious time already. She swallowed the knot of fear. “What?”

  “Aunt Beulah was right. Amber Ellison, back then Stevens, did have a baby out of wedlock the summer after her high school graduation.”

  Her heart began to beat in double time. “What else?”

  “Amber Stevens gave birth to a healthy, bouncing baby boy in September at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana.”

  “Oh my.” She ran a finger over her bottom lip. “What happened to the baby?”

  “Here’s where it gets tricky. The baby was adopted by a Paul and Jane, no last name. It’s listed as a closed adoption, so no further information is available.”

  Ms. Minnie chose that moment to deliver their savory and aromatic bowls. “Here ya go. If you need anything else, just holler.”

  They quickly offered up grace and then Clark grabbed a piece of garlic bread.

  “But that’s it? A dead end?” She leaned back in the booth, the vinyl squeaking. “I don’t even know why it’s important, but I just feel that it is. And now to have hit a roadblock.”

  “I said the adoption was closed. I didn’t say my source gave up digging.”

  Did this mean there could be evidence of a connection? “So there could be more?”

  He smiled as he dipped the tip of his bread into the thick souplike meal. “I told him to keep looking until he’d found everything possible.”

  Gabby smiled and lifted a spoon to her mouth. The sharp and stinging spices warmed her mouth, exploding in a melody of bite and flavor.

  After breaking his bread in half, Clark slipped a bite into his mouth.

  Her stare shot to his mouth…the strong jawline…the perfect symmetry of his features. He was a beautiful specimen of a healthy, red-blooded male. Gabby’s stomach rumbled as she brought her analysis to a screeching halt. His unpretentious speech from last night still rang in her ears.

  “So, did you think about what I said last night?” Was he a mind reader, too?

  She set down her spoon, lifted her glass and took a long, slow sip. Anything to stall this conversation.

  “Gabby?” His eyes were so open, so honest.

  “I did.” She set her glass down with a shaking hand. Tea sloshed over the side and onto her hand. Just what she needed to cool off. “I won’t lie to you, Clark. I’m very interested in you.”

  “Uh-oh, I hear a but in there.” He steepled his hands over his bowl.

  She gave a little chuckle. “But I don’t know if I want to risk becoming involved with you or anyone right now.”

  “Why?”

  “Because…” Why didn’t she want to take a chance? She deserved to be happy, to have love.

  “Because why?” He rested his chin on his interwoven fingers, peering across the table at her with those piercing eyes of his.

  She fisted her hands in her lap, then jerked them and laid her palms flat on the table.

  “You were hurt before. Tell me.” His voice was smooth, as if coaxing a kitten down from a tree.

  Could she trust him? With her heart? She studied his face, his eyes…Was he as sincere as he appeared, as he sounded?

  He laid a hand over hers. Warmth filled her.

  Whether or not she trusted him, she owed him the truth. He’d shared his past with her.

  She took a deep breath. “In college, I was interning at a local news station. Reporting.” She smiled at him, hoping it didn’t look as wobbly as it felt.

  “The station manager, and son of the owner, befriended me.” The memory of Blake’s attention still haunted her. “We actually began dating.” She took in another deep breath.

  Clark squeezed her hand, his smile brightening her dark recollections.

  “Then, some college girls began being stalked. On campus, at their apartments, at jobs. Letters, pictures, phone calls—things that weren’t exactly harmful, just frightening.” Gabby paused, the memory washing over her. “Of course the news station ran a special feature on the issue. I was the reporter.

  “My boyfriend, Blake, encouraged me to be visual in my reporting. To make the public aware, he swore to me.” She ran a hand through her hair, wishing she could whisk away the past as easily.

  “What happened?” Clark’s hand released hers.

  “Oh, I did all the reports. I mean, I was informing the public, helping these young women be smart, right?” Gabby took a sip of her tea, then stared into the cloudy liquid.

  “The station’s ratings soared. But that was it. I’d done my job.” She shrugged. “Blake wanted more. He encouraged me to provoke the stalker. To try and annoy him publicly. To get him to make a mistake, at least that’s what Blake said.”

  An icy finger traced her spine. “And me being the naive and trusting person I was then, I did it. I deliberately set out to enrage a stalker.”

  “Oh, Gabby.”

  “It gets even better.” She tossed a caustic smile across the table. “Without warning me, Blake concluded my segment with a couple of personal details about me. Just enough information that the stalker could find me.”

  “Oh, no.” Clark’s eyes darkened a shade.

  “Oh, yes. At first I was livid, but Blake told me how great the ratings were, how I was coming to his father’s attention, how this could make my career in broadcast journalism.” She shook her head, dismay pounding against her temples. “I bought into it. Hook, line and sinker. All of it.”

  He interlaced his fingers with hers, warming the chill from her.

  “Blake went even further. He’d planned for the stalker to come after me, and he kept me under close observation, with a camera crew no less.” Gabby dusted imaginary crumbs from the table. “All without me knowing.”

  “What happened?�
��

  “Just what Blake had wanted. The stalker came after me. Upped his actions from his previous victims. No cards or pictures or calls for me. No, he came after me physically. Caught me in a parking lot. Grabbed me, threw me against the hood of my own car.” Tears erupted from her eyes, but she didn’t blink them back. She’d come this far, and now she couldn’t stop the release of water over the dam even if she tried.

  For good, bad or indifferent, Clark McKay was going to hear the whole sordid ordeal.

  She sniffed, but kept her attention focused on her glass. “The stalker spit in my face, called me horrible names and threatened to show me just how much of a coward he wasn’t. And my knight in shining armor, the one who wanted this to happen and was supposed to save me? He sat back and recorded the incident. He let this man humiliate and terrify me so he could air it.”

  “What happened?” Clark’s voice came out heavy. “What’d this stalker do to you?”

  “Well, after the yelling and spitting, he ripped my shirt.” She closed her eyes, her words coming in bursts. “Blake, I suppose, figured that was enough. He came rushing on the scene—the cameras still rolling, of course—to be my hero.” She opened her eyes and stared at Clark. “And he succeeded—the ratings for that airing went through the roof.”

  “But what about you?”

  She slapped the tears from her face. “I survived. I learned my lesson—that ratings are the most important thing. Made the decision that if that’s the way the business worked, I didn’t want to be a party to it.” Gabby let out a long breath, not as broken and harsh as before. “I switched majors, went into communications. And here I am.”

  Did he have a clue how much it had cost her to tell him all this, relive such a painful event?

  Clark slipped from the seat and moved around the table. He knelt beside her, staring into her eyes. “I’m sorry that happened to you, Gabby.” He wrapped his arms around her, tugging her to him. “And I’ll never hurt you like that. Ever.”

  He lifted his lips to hers, softly brushing against them. Her heart pounded so hard he must be able to feel it against his chest. He deepened the kiss, burying his hands in her hair. She liked the feeling of security and acceptance she found in his embrace.

  Most of all, she liked the way her heart lifted as he kissed her.

  Clark fought against holding Gabby tighter, afraid to scare her off. He ran a thumb against her chin, wanting to take away all the pain she’d endured.

  The acid ate at his stomach lining as he reflected on what she had shared. This ex-boyfriend was below disgusting, beyond selfish. The urge to hit someone hard—this Blake person in particular—had Clark tightening the muscles in his biceps. But Gabby needed him, needed him to understand her past.

  He cuddled her closer, to where he could feel her heartbeat against his chest. No, he’d never hurt her. All he wanted was to keep her exactly as close and exactly as safe as she was at that moment.

  Somehow, the idea of a life with Gabby Rogillio didn’t scare him, didn’t make him want to pack up and run back home. Just the opposite. He wanted to share his life with her, and hers with him. But as he held her and rested his chin against her head, he knew he had to take it very slow. She’d been hurt so badly before.

  He’d tread carefully with her heart. But one day, it would belong to him and him alone.

  EIGHTEEN

  Hair was a messy thing. Gross, if one really thought about it.

  Gabby watched Tonna sweep up stray bits of hair. She’d brought Clark with her to meet the girls at Tonna’s Tresses and bring everyone up to speed on what Gabby and Clark had discovered. Gabby’s mind still drifted to him and their agreement to give the romance between them a fair shot. She smiled at him from across the room.

  “So, how does this illegitimate child of Amber’s play into everything?” Rayne studied her perfectly manicured nails.

  “We don’t know yet.” Gabby fought back the sneeze. “I’m wondering if Sam knows anything.”

  Clark moved to stand behind Gabby. “He didn’t say anything to us the other morning.”

  “But wasn’t he drunker than Cooter Brown?” Immy straightened the pens in the cup beside the appointment book. “I mean, he could have omitted details.”

  “True.” Gabby folded the last clean cape and set the stack on the shelf. “Maybe Sam knows what happened to the baby.”

  “Again, this is important why?” Rayne glanced out the window. “I just don’t see how it connects.”

  “It’s like a really big puzzle with lots of missing pieces, that’s for sure.” Gabby moved toward the stack of clean towels. An idea smacked her across the face. “Y’all, what if…Now play along with me for a minute here, but just what if that’s why Robert and Amber were having marital problems—he found out about the baby?”

  “Good point.” Tonna swept the hair into the dustpan. “Unless Amber told him before they got married.”

  “Wouldn’t she have?” Sheldon slicked lipstick over her lips and popped them together. “I mean, they got married pretty quickly after she would have had the baby. She’d have been still pudgy and stuff.”

  “Oh, for pity’s sake, Sheldon. She was young. She probably popped the baby out and got her figure back the next day.” Tonna shoved the broom into the storage closet. “I see plenty of younger women in here who do that. Makes me sick.” She shook her head, her wild auburn curls flying around her shoulders. “My luck, when I finally settle down and have a baby, I’ll still be carrying around baby fat when the kid starts college.”

  Clark gave a laugh.

  “So, what now?” Immy asked, always the peacemaker.

  “To be honest,” Gabby said, folding the towel and setting it atop the stack, “we really want to do a little investigating. We need to put the pieces together, figure out what’s what.”

  “And you plan to do that how?” Rayne crossed her arms over her chest. Even the defensive pose looked model-perfect when she executed it.

  “We want to talk to Sam, Amber and maybe even Martin Tankersly.” Clark squeezed Gabby’s shoulders.

  “You know, this is like one of those mysteries we got in not too long ago at the library,” Sheldon said as she leaned on the counter. “See, what happened was this couple’s house was broken into, and the local constable didn’t have a clue who the—”

  Tonna snapped her fingers in front of Sheldon’s face. “This isn’t some novel, this is important.” She turned to face Gabby and Clark. “I think that’s a great idea. Count me in.”

  “Shouldn’t we leave this to Sheriff McGruder?” Immy’s expression matched her tone. “I mean, he is the law enforcer in town.”

  Sheldon’s laugh came out as a snort. “Please. That man would have trouble finding his hand in the dark with a flashlight.”

  “What is it about him that rubs you raw? I mean, we all agree he isn’t the brightest bulb in the light fixture, but you make it sound almost personal.” Tonna shoved Sheldon’s arm. “Why the sudden sarcasm toward him, sistah?”

  Cheeks flaming, Sheldon pushed Tonna’s arm back. “I’m not being sarcastic about him.”

  “Oh, yes, you are.”

  “You most certainly are.”

  “Oh, come on. You’re being downright snippy toward him.”

  She held up her hands. “Okay, okay.” Sheldon tossed her head. “We went out a couple of weeks ago.”

  “What? When?” Gabby asked for the entire group.

  “Just a couple of weekends ago. It was nothing big, just supper at Steamboat Annie’s.”

  “What happened?” Despite her keen interest, Rayne’s posture never slipped from pageant-perfect.

  “I thought we had a nice time. He kissed my hand goodbye and told me he’d call me.” Sheldon let out a long sigh. “I haven’t heard from him since.”

  “He’s been a bit busy with the murder investigation, Sheldon,” Clark volunteered.

  “Maybe, but he could have still picked up the phone and called me. Oh, well.
You know, we actually went to our high school prom together. I thought we would start dating, but then I went on to college.”

  “Oh, that’s so sweet,” Immy practically gushed.

  “Obviously it’s not going to happen, Immy. Don’t go getting all Hallmark-y on me.”

  Clark’s admission that he’d been scared to approach her, but more scared not to, flashed through Gabby’s memory. “Maybe he’s scared.”

  Leaning down, Clark planted a kiss on her temple. Heat burned Gabby’s face as Sheldon whipped around. “Scared? Of what? He’s a big sheriff, not afraid of anything.”

  Clark shrugged. “Maybe he’s scared of what he’s feeling for you.”

  “Oh, please. This isn’t a daytime soap. The man blew me off, plain and simple.” Sheldon straightened her shoulders. “So, let’s go visit Sam.”

  “Are you sure you want to?” Gabby stared at each of her best friends, one at a time. Each nodded. “Alrighty then, let’s roll.”

  Gabby whipped her SUV into Sam’s driveway, parking behind his old Ford pickup truck.

  “What’re you going to say, Gab?” Immy blinked those caring eyes of hers.

  All the nice phrases she’d mentally rehearsed on the drive over flew out of Gabby’s brain. “I really don’t know. Guess I’ll just play it by ear.”

  “You can’t just go in and try to pry details about this man’s painful past without an idea how to do it.” Tonna clicked off her seat belt. “Even I wouldn’t do that.”

  Gabby opened her door. “Well, I’ll be tactful, for goodness sakes.” She stepped onto the loose gravel, then slammed the door behind her. She made her way up the stairs. The bam! bam! bam! of the other truck doors shutting let her know the others were right behind her. Clark wove his fingers with hers.

  Gabby jumped when the door opened with a loud creak.

  “Ms. Gabby, what brings you here this evening?” Sam’s eyes were bloodshot as he glanced over her shoulder. “Ladies and Mr. McKay.”

  “We need to talk to you, Mr. Sam. It’s important.”

  He let out a grunt. The stench of stale liquor on his breath nearly gagged Gabby. “What about?”