“I want an explanation for this, and then you’ll explain again to the sheriff.”
The toughness dissolved and desperation took over the young man’s expression. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t break into anyone’s place. You don’t get it. I’m dead if I don’t deliver this stuff.”
“You’re the carrier?”
“So?”
“Why would you do such a stupid thing? Are you out of your mind?” Ely hissed.
“I needed the money. My mom is about to lose the house. Dad took off with his girlfriend, and he’s not paying the alimony or the child support. She can’t even afford a lawyer to go after him. She’s so depressed, all she does is stay in bed all day. I had to do something.”
“Ever think about getting a job? Talking to a teacher or Sheriff Granger, and getting some help for your mom, too?” Ely felt bad for the kid, but he needed to know there were sensible options in life.
The boy sneered. “Who’s going to hire me? Anyway, they would never pay enough. Not nearly. Then where will we go?”
Ely took a breath and let loose of the kid’s coat. He bent down to take the gun. If Roger was telling the truth, he was in a hell of a bind and needed more help than he realized.
“I’ll tell you what you’re going to do, Roger. You’re going to pick that crap up and we’re taking it to the sheriff. Then you’re going to tell him what you know so that he can close that lab down.”
“It’s not that easy. You don’t understand. These guys are big, and they’re all over the county. They can get to me wherever I am.”
“That’s exactly what they want you to think to keep you in line. Don’t fall for it.”
“Let me deliver this first, please. I need the cash. Then I can tell him anything he wants to know,” Roger bargained, but Ely could see he was just playing an angle.
“No way. This goes no further. You might be broke, but you’ll be alive to tell the tale. C’mon, we’re going right now.”
Roger appeared to cooperate, but they were halfway down the alley when the kid ripped the bag from Ely’s hands and took off.
“Damn,” Ely spat, taking off after the kid, but losing him almost immediately. Roger had the benefit of knowing the town a lot better than he did.
Taking out his cell, he dialed the sheriff, but as it turned out, Granger wasn’t in. He left a message where Granger could find him. Suddenly, his visit to Clear River was getting way more complicated than he ever expected it to be.
* * *
LYDIA HEARD Ely arrive, his boot step on the porch already familiar, making her smile. Until she saw he wasn’t alone.
Steve Granger was with him.
Ely walked in with the sheriff and Lydia froze, unsure what to say. Had Ely told him what was going on? This was what she had known from the start—Ely cared. He got involved and did the right thing. It was just how he was built.
Steve looked up and saw Lydia.
“Hi, Steve,” she said.
“Good to see you, Lydia.”
She swallowed hard, finding that hard to believe.
“Thanks. You, too.”
“Things been okay out here?” he asked, and she saw something tense in Ely’s features.
Dammit.
She straightened her spine. “Things are fine.”
He grunted in response, looking at Ely, confirming her suspicions.
“Well, let me know if you need anything.”
“I will, sure.”
She listened as Ely told the sheriff what happened and handed him the gun. Steve’s face grew tight.
“Damn kid. He’s going to get himself or someone else killed. I can’t believe he landed himself in the middle of this mess.”
“He’s trying to help his mother, the only way he thinks he can. But yeah, it’s bad,” Ely said, and Lydia approached, also concerned, especially after what Geri had told her about Faith.
“You don’t have any idea where he was delivering the stuff?”
Ely replied, “No. He didn’t tell me anything that would help, except that it was a large operation. He said they could find him wherever he was, so he couldn’t talk to the cops.”
Steve let out a breath. “He’s probably right. I’ll have to look for him quietly. If they know we know, they’ll get rid of him sooner than later.”
Lydia was horrified. “Poor Faith. Does she know?”
Steve looked at her in surprise. “You know Faith?”
His eyes turned a little bleak at the mention of the name. He clearly still had feelings for Faith.
“Only just met her. They’re having the festival here,” Lydia explained.
“Oh, that’s right. Well, she can’t seem to understand I’m trying to help the kid, and brushing it under the carpet won’t do that. Although, I’m not sure what I can do for him now, except try to keep him alive,” Steve said. “I should go. I appreciate your help, Ely.”
Ely showed him to the door. Steve turned back to Lydia.
“Ginny told me she saw you at the store.”
Lydia froze, aware of Ely’s close attention.
“Yes.”
“She said it didn’t go well, and she was feeling terrible about it.”
“I’m sorry for that,” Lydia said, waiting for more harsh words of recrimination.
“Charlie can be protective,” he said. “But he’s a good guy. And she’s doing well. Maybe you two should try to talk again.”
Lydia tried to smile. “I don’t think so. I have a lot going on here, and I’ll be leaving soon.”
Steve watched her closely for a few minutes, and then nodded. “All right, you know best, I imagine.”
When he was gone, Lydia turned her back to the door and closed her eyes.
“You okay?” Ely asked.
“Yeah.”
“The other day—at the store—when you were so upset. Is that what he was talking about?” he asked, putting two and two together.
“I don’t really want to get into it.”
“Okay,” he said, but she could see in his face that it wasn’t okay.
“What else did you talk with Granger about?”
Ely’s mouth flattened. “I mentioned to him that you had a few problems around the place, and that I wasn’t sure it was coincidence. He said he’d keep an eye on things, and that was it. Unless you wanted to do more, that’s all he can do.”
Lydia’s anger was harsh and immediate.
“You had no right. I told you I didn’t want him involved.”
“Why is that, Lydia? Because he’s your friend’s brother, and you two had some kind of fight? He seems like a good enough guy, a decent cop—why not let him know you’re having some trouble?”
“I’m not talking about this with you,” she said, heading for the kitchen. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Ely followed, as she knew he would, coming up behind her and making her turn to face him.
“He said he was the brother of your best friend, and that things had ended badly. He wouldn’t say more, but is that what you’re hiding, Lydia? Why you took off? Why someone might be harassing you now?”
Feeling cornered, she shouted, “You need to just mind your own business.” Desperate to escape she quickly grabbed her jacket and rushed to the door.
She was out to her car before he could catch her, heading down the driveway. She just needed to get away for a while. Away from Ely’s questions and concern, and everything he made her feel.
Out on the road, she switched on some music, and just drove. The roads were more or less dry, and the night was clear. Her heart stopped pounding and her mind settled.
Finally, at the edge of town where all she could see was the endless expanse of snowy fields and starry skies, she stopped and looked out over the emptiness.
What was she doing?
She would have to go back home and face Ely sometime, and that seemed to be the case with everything in her life. There was no more avoiding it. Steve had been fine, an
d there was no reason to fly off at Ely and run.
Except that there was. She could deal with the way her old friends or people in the town felt about her and what she’d done—she deserved what they thought of her.
But she wasn’t sure she could deal with losing Tessa, Ely and the life she’d built for herself now because of it. What would they think if they knew what she had done?
Her cell phone rang and she looked down to see Ely’s name glowing in the bright blue screen.
She had to go back. Turning the car around on the isolated road, she drove in the direction of the ranch, and as she got closer, noticed someone had pulled off of a side road behind her. The pickup came up behind her fast, its bright headlights nearly blinding her. She hit the gas, trying to get some distance, but it stayed with her.
Nervous, she looked down again as her phone brightened, Ely calling again. She reached for the phone just as the guy swerved around her, roaring up on her side.
Lydia yelped as the truck pulled closer, crowding her. She held the wheel tight and tried to speed up, but he kept up with her. Then the truck did exactly as she feared, side-swiping her and sending her little Subaru pitching off the road.
She slid into a snowy field, hitting the breaks just as she plowed the front of the car into a massive snowbank, burying the car up to the windshield. Recovering from the impact, which fortunately wasn’t hard enough to set off the airbags or hurt her, she looked behind, fearing the person in the truck had stopped and was coming back for her.
No one. Silence and snow was all that surrounded her. The phone’s final ring cut through her panicked haze, and she searched for it, locating it under the passenger’s seat. She picked it up, trying to control her breathing.
“Lydia, what’s going on? Where are you? Why didn’t you answer your phone?” Ely asked, sounding at the edge of reason.
“I’m okay, but I’m off the road, and I need help,” she said, feeling extraordinarily calm—too calm—until she noted that she couldn’t open the doors—snow held them shut.
“What happened? Where are you?”
“About two miles west of the ranch on the main route. Someone ran me off the road, and I can’t get the doors open. I’m trapped,” she said, panic setting in again.
“Are you hurt?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Just breathe, and sit still. Shut the car off, in case your exhaust is plugged. I’ll be right there, with help,” Ely said.
“Okay.”
Lydia stayed on the line with Ely the whole time he was on his way to her, and he arrived just seconds before Granger did, his lights flashing. Another vehicle came lumbering up from behind, Smitty in the tractor.
That helped enormously as Smitty dug a path to the car, which she could see now was at least twenty feet from the edge of the road, and the guys took shovels to dig around her door, getting her out quickly.
Lydia launched herself into Ely’s arms, and stayed close as Steve investigated the scene.
“Can you remember anything about the truck?” the sheriff asked.
“It was big, a double-duty, and black or dark blue maybe,” she said. “I never had an angle that I could see the driver or the plate.”
Granger frowned. “Trucks like that are probably a dime a dozen out here. I’ll check it out, and there is some paint on your car, so we can look for damage on the passenger side of local trucks, but it’s a long shot.”
Lydia nodded and thanked him as the men attached a chain to her car, and Ely turned it on so that they could back it out of the field. It would be brought back to the police impound, just for a night or two, Granger told her. They’d take pictures of the damage, and see if they could find anything that would lead them to the truck she tangled with.
Getting in the truck with Ely, Lydia was still shivering even though she was warm. They didn’t say anything as they returned to the house, but paused in the truck before he shut it off, looking at her with an expression she hadn’t seen before and couldn’t quite make out.
“You scared the life out of me, Lydia.”
“I know. I was scared, too.”
“Can you tell me what this is all about?”
“C’mon, let’s get inside.”
She let him lead her back into the house, but as she walked up the porch and opened the door, they both froze as they realized the door was already open, left ajar by just the smallest sliver.
Someone was in the house.
9
ELY MADE LYDIA stay by the door as he checked the house to make sure the intruder was gone.
“It’s clear,” he said to Lydia, noting that the new lock he’d installed had been broken by the forced entry.
Walking out to the lot, he only then noted the larger tire tracks in the snow—two sets, coming and going—so whoever had been here was long gone.
“Can you check around to see if anything is missing? Maybe we can get some clue as to what they’re looking for.”
“It doesn’t look like anything was taken, but then again, the place is kind of a wreck at the moment. It might be hard to tell.”
She was right. With her clearing out the house, and the festival preparations going on, there were boxes and piles of decorations and other things just about everywhere.
“The door looks kicked in, so we probably won’t find a fingerprint,” he said, closing it all the way and blocking it with a heavy cast-iron umbrella stand.
“I just can’t figure out what anyone would want. Why they’d do this,” she said, and he noticed her hand shook as she pushed it through her hair.
“Hey, come here,” he said, pulling her in close. “We’ll figure this out.”
He took her coat and hung it, then led her to sit on the sofa.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, and went to pour them both a large glass of wine.
When he came back, she looked better, some color returning, and he handed her the wine.
“There’s more where this came from,” he said, hoping for a smile, and getting a shadow of one as he sat down across from her.
“It seems like you might have some idea of what’s going on.”
Lydia appeared to consider what he was saying and finally, after drinking some of her wine, she started talking.
“Steve’s youngest sister, Ginny, was my best friend, but more like my sister. We’d been friends since pre-school.”
“The girl in the picture?”
“Yeah. We were...inseparable.”
“So what happened?”
“There was a boy I liked. I wanted him to ask me out. There was a spring homecoming dance coming up and all I did was think about him taking me. Ginny knew I was crazy about him, and she promised to see if he liked me, too, in that stupid way we do in high school,” she said, with sarcasm in her voice.
“And? Did he?”
“No, she said he said he wanted to ask someone else. I was crushed. So, one afternoon, I had to stay late to take a test I’d missed and when I was leaving, I saw Ginny—and this guy—kissing by the bus stop. I was so hurt. Even more crushed that she would do that, even more so than him not asking me out. My ego took a hard hit.”
“Those are rough years. Something like that, a betrayal, is pretty strong stuff.”
“Yeah, well, she tried to tell me that she hadn’t done anything. She said he kissed her, not the other way around, but that she liked him, and wanted to go out with him. I was pissed, and should have said fine, but I told her no, if she did that, we weren’t friends anymore. After a few weeks of not speaking to her, she begged me to tell her what she could do for us to be friends again,” Lydia said, shaking her head in regret, looking down at her tightly clasped fingers.
“Ginny was softer than me, easier-going, tender-hearted. I know now—and I knew then—that I was punishing her for the fact that he didn’t want me, but I couldn’t seem to control it.”
“You were a teenage girl. I don’t know firsthand, but I hear they aren’t great
with self-control,” he said with a smile, pushing some hair back from her face.
She didn’t look at him, and just shook her head.
“I know it seems silly, but it got worse. I told her that the only way I could forgive her was if she rode her father’s prize Thoroughbred. No one was allowed to ride him except for Mr. Granger. The horse was big and high strung. Unpredictable. Very valuable. I had a grand plan.”
“You wanted to get her in trouble.”
Lydia nodded. “I figured if Ginny was caught even trying to ride that horse, she would be grounded from the dance, and probably for the entire summer. Ginny was always such a good girl, did everything she was told, that I never expected her to agree, really. But she did.”
“What happened?”
Lydia swallowed hard. “I should have told her that it was enough that she was willing. I should have stopped her then.”
Ely pulled in closer. He had a sick feeling he knew how this story ended, but he wanted to hear it from her.
“What happened, Lydia?”
“She was afraid. We were there with a few of our friends, and we egged her on. Mostly me.” Lydia swallowed, her throat tight. “She managed to saddle the horse and get him out to the field, and she was actually doing okay with him. In fact, we were all really impressed. I was...proud of her, and I wasn’t even angry anymore. So we clapped, applauding her, and the horse reared. Threw her hard. It just...lost it. The horse was so frantic, she was trampled underneath. I thought she was dead. She was just laying there.”
“Oh, babe, come here,” he said, trying to provide some comfort, but Lydia was too caught up in the past, and pushed him away. She closed in on herself as if she didn’t deserve his comfort. Ely gave her the space, and listened.
“She wasn’t dead, but she was paralyzed from the waist down. Permanently. I snuck in to see her at the hospital, to try to tell her how sorry I was, and her father was there. He let me have a good look at what I’d done. He had the horse put down, as well, and he told me his wife was on sedatives. She’d come running to the field when it happened, and saw Ginny after she fell. She had a nervous breakdown. All of it, because of me being stupid and selfish. He told me to go and to never come back.”
Hers for the Holidays Page 11
