by Crissy Sharp
Jason nodded. “I’m going to see if Brent knows anything else.”
Twenty minutes later, Lotty stood in the Grantham’s backyard staring at the lake when Jason joined her. He stood next to her, close enough their arms were touching, but said nothing. She glanced sideways, wondering what he was doing. He never spent time with her unless he had to. She wanted him close, yet it worried her at the same time. Several minutes passed while they stared at the water, small ripples forming in its glassy surface.
“Well, I talked to Brent.” Jason finally broke the silence. “That writing on our wall really changes things. They’re getting a team together to comb our house for fingerprints and they need to talk to you.”
Lotty could feel the blood draining from her face. “Me? Again?”
“Yeah. Since someone is clearly targeting you.”
“But I don’t know anything. I already told them that.”
“I know, but they want to be thorough. They may be able to figure something out from things you say that you don’t even know are clues.”
Lotty nodded, but didn’t feel much better. She couldn’t imagine what she might know. “Our life doesn’t seem exciting enough to have enemies who want to light our house on fire.”
Jason turned toward her with a smile. Not a big one, but still a smile. How was it that her looks had faded so much since they’d met and he still looked incredible? His white shirt hugged his muscles and the small lines around his warm, brown eyes only added to his attractiveness. She wanted to freeze this moment. It had been way too long since one of his smiles had been directed at her. She thought back to the day she’d given birth to Aiden. Jason had looked at her like she was the most amazing person in the world. He’d watched her with awe and smiled at her so much that she was sure she couldn’t squeeze one more ounce of love or happiness into her life.
“Lotty?” Jason watched her, his eyes full of questions.
“Oh, sorry.” She shook her head, wondering what she’d missed while her mind had been stuck in the past.
“What are you thinking about?”
Lotty swallowed and debated how much to tell him. She didn’t want to bring up painful memories, but she didn’t want to wave him off either. He was actually trying to talk to her. “Uh, well, I was thinking about the day Aiden was born.”
His smile returned. The wind wasn’t cold anymore. Lotty’s body tingled with warmth from the top of her head to the tip of her Asics-covered toes.
“Hey, Lotty,” a voice from behind her yelled. When she turned around, Cade Warner was running toward her. His quick pace looked unnatural in a bulky fireman suit. She’d met Cade several years ago when she first moved to Montana. She was working as a business intern at The Lakeside Chateau on Flathead Lake and met both Cade and Jason that summer. She dated both of them, but fell hard for Jason. Cade was slow to give up and, as a result, feelings between him and Jason were still rough and it was always a bit awkward when the three of them were together. “Jason,” Cade grunted his acknowledgement before turning back to Lotty. “They’re looking all over for you up there. I saw Jason headed back here so I thought I might find you.”
“Who’s looking for her?” Jason’s eyes turned to steel.
Cade’s jaw clenched and he stood taller to match Jason’s towering height. “Everyone. A couple of the officers, the fire chief, Nikki.”
“Give her a minute. She needs some time away from all of the smoke,” Jason said.
“It’s cleared out a lot. She’ll be fine.”
“You don’t know that.”
In a normal situation, she’d be flattered Jason was standing up for her. However, right now it seemed he was doing it more because he wanted to argue with whatever Cade said than for her. She flashed the biggest grin she could, trying to lessen the tension. “I’m okay, Jason. I feel much better than I did earlier. If people are looking for me, I’ll head back.”
Cade nodded and Jason looked deflated. He shrugged his shoulders and mumbled, “I’ll check on the boys and then I’ll meet you over there.”
Her heart sank. So much for their moment. Now he was undoubtedly upset with her again. As they started up the hill, Cade set his hand on the small of her back and her muscles immediately tensed. She knew he was only trying to be comforting, but she was afraid Jason might be watching and take the gesture to mean something more than it did. She bent down and retied a shoelace which didn’t need tied so he would move his hand. Then she kept several feet between them as they walked past the Grantham’s house.
“Are you okay?” Cade asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“You’re quiet.”
“Well this has all been a bit of a shock. And now, this is somehow linked to me. It’s a lot to take in.”
“I’m sure.” He reached toward Lotty again, but she sidestepped and pointed toward the entrance.
“Why would they burn down the sign? And those pretty little bushes. I loved those. They bloomed into these perfect pink bursts that smelled like lilacs, and in the fall the leaves on them were the brightest orange I’ve ever seen.” Cade was silent. She hoped he realized she was staying well out of his reach on purpose and he would stop trying to comfort her by setting his hand on her.
The silence was awkward so she kept rambling. “I heard that before this was Strawberry Lake Estates, it was awful. There was garbage everywhere and people dumped metal scraps here. It’s hard to even imagine that now, isn’t it?”
“Mm hmm. It actually used to be a steel processing plant back in the seventies and eighties,” Cade said.
“Really?” Lotty wanted to keep him talking. This was much better than the uncomfortable silence.
“Yeah, my grandpa worked there. People were upset when it closed down and they trashed the site.”
“They used this beautiful lakefront land as the setting for a steel processing plant? That seems like a waste.”
“Yeah, well, with Flathead so close by, I don’t think people cared much for Strawberry. Land was so easy to come by on the big lake back then.”
“Ms. Brooks, how nice of you to join us,” Officer Netley appeared out of nowhere. His face was glued in what seemed his trademark scowl. “Would you mind answering a few questions?” Though the words were a question, the way he said it was not.
“Uh, n-no, of course not,” Lotty answered. She hated that she wasn’t better at hiding her fear.
“Great. Follow me.”
They walked past the firetruck, where Cade joined several other volunteer firefighters, and on to Lotty’s house. Officer Netley strode through the garage and mudroom and Lotty had to jog to keep up. There were several people inside, including Officer Carlson and Brent. Netley marched straight to the writing on the wall and jammed his fleshy finger at it. “Have you seen this?”
She nodded. “Yes, a couple of officers showed it to me and already asked me a bunch of questions.”
“What does it mean?”
“I-I don’t know.”
“Someone is threatening you and you’re telling me you don’t know?”
“I don’t.”
“Ms. Brooks.” He said her name as if he were scolding a toddler. “A woman lost her home today. She could have easily lost her life.”
Lotty started to point out that that woman was with her at the gym when the fire started, that they ate tiramisu together every Sunday afternoon, and that she was one of her closest friends whom she would do anything she could to protect, but it seemed moot. Instead, she said, “I know.”
“Then perhaps you’d like to try again.” He jammed his finger back on the wall. “What does this mean?”
Lotty shook her head.
“Okay, we’ll try this another way.” He lowered his face to hers and spoke slowly, enunciating each word. “Is. There. Anyone. Who’s. Angry. With. You?” His breath was a pungent mixture of fish and garlic, which burned her nostrils far more than the smoke.
Lotty held up her hands. “No,” she squeaked out, fi
ghting to hold tears back.
Officer Carlson forced Netley to take a step back ,and, in a kind, calm voice, asked “Ms. Brooks, do you have any idea what they might have been looking for?”
Lotty’s brows furrowed. “Looking for? I didn’t know they were looking for anything.”
Officer Netley gave an exasperated sigh, but Officer Carlson continued, “Yesterday when your house was broken into, your desk was ripped apart. Today, your husband told us there was nothing left of the metal file cabinet in the workroom off the garage. Doesn’t it seem like you have something that someone is interested in?”
Her head spun. What could she possibly have? Her most extravagant purchase in the past year was a Baby Bjorn and the most exciting paper located in her desk was a coupon for five dollars off a twenty-five-dollar purchase at Target. As for the file cabinet, it was Jason’s. She thought it was mostly user manuals and warranties for his tools and yard equipment. Again, Lotty held up her hands. “I have no idea.” Both officers’ eyes were glued on hers, waiting for more. She shook her head. “I know it looks like there’s something they’re after, but I don’t have anything interesting enough for someone else to want.” She folded her arms across her chest so they couldn’t see her shaking.
“I told you. She isn’t hiding anything.” Brent joined them by the front door. She was relieved to see a friendly face and moved toward him.
“We’re going to take her to the station to adequately question her,” Netley said.
“No, you aren’t,” Brent replied. “She has nothing to offer as far as clues in this case. We’re done here.”
Netley’s mouth stayed open in protest, but he said nothing. Brent opened the front door and turned to Lotty. “It will probably be another two or three hours before everyone clears out of here and you guys can return. Why don’t you just plan on staying at our house through dinner?”
“Thanks, Brent.” Lotty moved toward the door. Officer Carlson nodded at Lotty, but Officer Netley stuck his face in hers again.
“I’m going to find out what you’re hiding,” he whispered.
She leaned back and covered her nose to shield herself from the putrid odor seeping out of his mouth. She walked away and spent the next thirty minutes thinking through every person she knew and wondering if she trusted them.
Chapter 5
Jason typed in the security code on the new state-of-the-art security system he’d installed. After he’d read the threatening words left for Lotty, he wanted to hire her a personal body guard. She was more realistic when she suggested an alarm system. He’d searched for a company to install one, but there were no such companies in Walden and the ones in Kalispell couldn’t come until next month. He couldn’t wait that long.
He’d bought an elaborate system online, complete with wireless surveillance cameras. Today was the third morning he’d spent installing it, but he figured he’d easily be done by ten, when he was scheduled to meet with a new client. A series of loud beeps pierced the silence and the control box flashed red.
Ty ran to him. Swim goggles sat on his forehead, aluminum foil wrapped around his wrists, and several kitchen utensils were tucked into his pants. “Dad, that’s perfect. I’ll use my blaster to get rid of the bomb before it gets you.”
“Thanks, Ty,” he said, before entering the security code one more time.
“No, keep the sound going.”
“Don’t keep the sound going,” Lotty yelled from the kitchen.
Jason smiled as he double checked the wires to the back of the unit and headed upstairs, where the main screen for the cameras was.
Things with Lotty were slightly less tense than usual. They still didn’t say much to one another, but they also weren’t constantly throwing angry words back and forth. They both seemed to be trying harder since the robbery and the fire and he didn’t want to jinx anything by questioning it too much. When he’d joined her in the Grantham’s backyard the day of the fire, he’d seen a glimpse of the Lotty he married. But then Cade interrupted. His stomach twisted as he thought of it, of Lotty walking away with him.
He wondered for the hundredth time if she regretted choosing him over Cade. When they’d first starting dating, he’d had no doubt she preferred him to everyone else. She’d moved to Montana for the summer. Her plans were to complete her internship and return to Santa Barbara. Then Jason showed up at The Lakeside Chateau with a few friends and her plans slowly began to change. Even with Cade in the picture, Jason had never felt threatened. Not until after she and Jason were married and had two children. Their rocky marriage made him question everything.
He turned on the monitor and it flickered. Then it perfectly displayed eight rectangles, each one a different area of the house. The master bedroom rectangle caught his eye as Lotty walked several extra steps to avoid close proximity with his mirror. He wondered what it was with her and that mirror. She’d been fine with it when his Dad gave it to him, but lately she acted really strange about it. She walked to the dresser and glanced side to side, checking to make sure she was alone. She had been so jumpy ever since the charcoal message on the wall, but this seemed like more. What was she up to? She opened a drawer and pulled out a colorful stack of papers several inches high, then jammed them into a garbage bag.
Was it actually possible Lotty was hiding something? Maybe she knew more than she was saying. He’d assumed she was innocent before, that he knew the type of woman she was, but did he really? She’d fooled him before. He still remembered the shock of returning home to an empty house a year and a half ago. For days, Lotty wouldn’t answer her phone. The only communication was a couple of texts telling him she and the boys were at her parents’ house and had no immediate plans to return to Montana. His stomach rolled as he replayed those days in his mind. He’d been terrified, afraid something sinister had happened to his family. He couldn’t be sure those texts were actually from Lotty. They were so formal and void of personality. So, he went to Santa Barbara to her parents’ house to make sure she was okay. And when he got there, he felt like his entire marriage had been a fraud.
He turned his attention back to the monitor and spotted her on the square showing the kitchen. She walked toward the door, with the garbage bag swung over her shoulder. Jason jumped up and moved quickly down the stairs. If she was hiding something, he was going to figure out what it was. As he entered the kitchen, Lotty jumped.
She held her hand to her heart. “Oh, you scared me,” she said, letting out a deep breath. “Why are you running?”
He tried to act as casual as possible. “I’m testing out the system and wanted to get down here to the control panel before the alarm went off.” His explanation made no sense, but he was pretty sure she wouldn’t know that. He nodded at the bag hoisted over her shoulder. “What’s that?”
“It’s ah, just you know, a bunch of papers.” He locked his gaze on hers and she looked uncomfortable. Her eyes darted to the floor.
“What kind of papers?”
She groaned. “You’ll think I’m terrible.” She set the bag on the counter.
“It can’t be worse than what I’m imagining,” Jason mumbled.
Lotty stared at him with wide eyes. Her shoulders drooped. She’d heard him. Now he wanted to wrap his arms around her. Stop it, he chastised himself. She was hiding something. Why did he care if her feelings were hurt?
She opened the bag to reveal a jumbled mess of construction paper, popsicle sticks, stickers, pom-poms, and straws. He put his head closer. The papers were covered in little doodles and messy writing. Jason pulled some of it out of the bag. His brows furrowed together as he turned to her for an explanation.
“I can’t keep all of it. There’s too much.”
Jason looked at Ty’s artwork and crafts again. “So, why the secrecy? What’s the big deal?”
She raised an eyebrow. “He thinks I keep every treasure he ever makes me. It would crush him to see me throwing it out.”
Jason shook his head. Guilt filled his
body as he thought back to the awful things he thought she was capable of. If she felt this bad for throwing out a four-year-old’s artwork, she probably wasn’t capable of anything too menacing.
“I know. I’m awful,” she said. Jason started to laugh, but bit the inside of his cheek when he saw how serious she was. “Trinity has canvases made of all of her kids’ stuff and the whole playroom is covered in their artwork from over the years.” She set her face in her hand. “Nikki takes pictures of everything and then gets it made into a book. A lady at the gym was talking about how she uploads the images of her children’s drawings and turns them into postage stamps or placemats or something.” Her voice picked up volume as she spoke. “Then she makes sensory bins to help brain development and feeds them an organic snack of homemade crackers and hummus because she doesn’t want her children to be toxic. And me? I forget the paper is artwork and end up using it to wipe frosting, which is non-organic, by the way, off my face before I greet the UPS man. Then I throw everything away because I know I’ll never be organized enough to turn his dinosaur doodles into custom wall paper for his bedroom.” She let out a deep breath. Then she looked at Jason with apprehension like she’d done something truly wrong.
He couldn’t believe the confident woman he’d married was so worked up about throwing away some of Ty’s doodles. And he was slightly hurt that she thought he’d think so little of her for doing so. Yet, a part of him was excited. She had opened up to him about something. It may have been tiny, but for once she didn’t shrug and turn away angrily. Usually when he asked what she was doing or why, she was offended and stormed off.
“Lotty,” he said with a smile. She stared up at him and he forgot what he was going to say. Her eyes seemed brighter than usual and there was something hypnotic about the amazing blue. She looked at him expectantly. Whatever wonderful comforting words he was going to say were gone. “Uh, it just seems that, um, Ty doesn’t care about postage stamps or placemats. He cares about time with you.”
