Goody Goody Gunshots

by Sammi Carter

  With the two of us taking such pains not to interact any more than we had to, practice dragged on until I thought pulling the hair out of my arms with tweezers would have been less painful.

  Finally, eight o’clock came around, and I led Brody and Caleb to the Jetta. While we’d been at practice, snow had started to fall, and the parking lot and cars were already blanketed with a thin layer of sparkling white.

  Brody and Caleb reacted like boys always do, sliding on the ice that had formed under the surface and trying to pack the dry powder into snowballs. Like generations of adults before me, I walked with my head down, trying to keep my shoes dry and my hair from frizzing.

  Brody and Caleb reached the car a few steps ahead of me. Caleb opened the car door and climbed into the backseat, but Brody came to a wobbling stop at the end of an ice slide and pointed toward the other side of the parking lot. “Hey. Lookit that. Isn’t that the car that guy got into the other night?”

  I followed his finger and saw a dark-colored SUV idling next to Coach Hendrix’s truck. I could see Coach’s shadow behind the wheel of the truck, and someone else’s behind the wheel of the SUV. “I don’t know. It might be, but I didn’t see it well enough the other night to be certain.”

  “It is the same car,” Caleb said, practically tumbling out of the Jetta in his excitement. “You wanna know how I know?”

  Brody and I turned to look at him at the same time. “How?” I asked.

  “Look at the lights in front. The one on this side is broken.”

  Sure enough, where the headlights wrapped to the side of the SUV, one of the lights was missing its yellow plastic covering. My heart thumped hard against my rib cage, and my hands grew clammy. “Are you sure that’s the same car?”

  Caleb’s chin jutted out stubbornly. “I’m not a baby, Aunt Abby.”

  “I know you’re not,” I assured him. “I just want to be very sure it’s the same car. Next time I see it, I’ll give the license number to the police. Now get in the car and let’s get out of here.”

  Brody reached for the door handle, but he stopped there. “Do you want me to sneak over there and write down the number?”

  “Absolutely not. We’re leaving.”

  Caleb didn’t seem to mind, but I could tell Brody thought I was being a sissy. “How are you going to get the license plate number if we leave?” he asked.

  It was a good question, but I couldn’t take chances with the boys. We weren’t just dealing with a suspected carjacker anymore. A man had been murdered. Whatever these people were doing in Paradise, they meant business.

  I herded the boys into the Jetta, swept away a layer of snow so I could see to drive, and got the car running. Leaving the headlights off so we wouldn’t attract attention, I drove around the building so I could leave the lot by the front entrance. We might have been perfectly safe driving past the SUV, bold as brass, but it was a risk I didn’t want to take.

  This was the second time that SUV had been here, and it made me wonder what connection it had to Coach Hendrix. Did he know something about John Doe’s death, or was he in danger himself? I pulled my cell phone from my pocket, flipped it open, punched in Jawarski’s number, and hit Send. Nothing happened. I glanced at the screen and realized that once again the weather had blocked the signal. Service was patchy in Paradise in the best of times. In bad weather, it disappeared almost entirely.

  Now what?

  My tires hit a patch of black ice and we slid a few feet. Tossing the phone into the center console, I fought to steer us out of the skid. After a few seconds the tires found purchase, and I regained control of the car. It hadn’t been a dangerous skid, but it was enough to convince me that it was time to get the boys home.

  “Aunt Abby?”

  “Yes, Caleb?”

  “I think they’re following us.”

  I tore my glance away from the road and checked the rearview mirror. I didn’t know if someone was actually following us, but there were headlights behind us. “I see them, kiddo, but I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.”

  Brody strained against his seat belt to see the car behind us. “Turn around, please,” I said. If someone was following us, I didn’t want the boys to make it obvious that we knew.

  “But they’re still coming,” Brody protested.

  The headlights followed us around a curve in the road, and I saw the SUV’s outline in the glow of a streetlamp. Nervous perspiration dampened my hands. “I can see that,” I said, trying to stay calm. “Now please turn around and look straight ahead.”

  “Maybe I can see the license number.”

  “Brody! I said turn around, and I meant it.”

  “Sheesh. You act like we’re babies or something.”

  The snow began falling more heavily, and flakes stuck to the windshield. I turned on the wipers and hit the defrost onto high. “I don’t think you’re babies, Brody, but this isn’t a game. When you’re with me, it’s my responsibility to make sure you’re safe.”

  He flopped back in his seat, looking sullen. “Fine.”

  “Fine. Now let me concentrate, okay? It’s hard enough driving in the snow without having an argument at the same time.”

  Brody folded he arms and scowled.

  I ignored him and drove carefully down Pikes Peak to Cliffhanger Drive, and slowly, steadily, the SUV stayed behind us.

  Chapter 16

  The storm grew worse by the minute. As fast as the windshield wipers slapped away the snow, another layer covered the windshield. The defrost labored to keep a patch clear enough for me to see through, but all three of us were breathing so heavily, the fan couldn’t blow fast enough.

  “Brody, I want you to find my cell phone. Can you do that?”

  “Am I allowed to move?”

  “Don’t pout. You’re old enough to understand danger. I need you to find my cell phone and see if I have any service.”

  He dug around in the center console for a while. “Got it,” he said after a few minutes. “You have one bar.”

  “Hopefully that will be enough.” I turned onto Larkspur and waited to see if the SUV would make the same turn. We were halfway to the next corner when the SUV slowly turned behind us, and my heart shot into my throat. “Scroll through my contacts and find Jawarski’s number,” I directed, trying not to think about what lay in store along the highway between here and Wyatt’s house.

  Caleb looked out the back window, but I didn’t snap at him about it. By this time, the SUV’s driver had to know that we were aware of him.

  It seemed to take forever before Brody piped up again. “I’ve got it. Now what?” The poutiness had left his voice, and a solemn note had replaced it.

  “Try to get him on the phone. Tell him where we are and what’s going on.”

  Nobody spoke while Brody punched numbers, but I could hear Caleb breathing, and he sounded frightened. “There’s no answer,” Brody announced. “I’ve got his voice mail.”

  “Leave a message,” I said.

  Brody did, but whether or not Jawarski would be able to make sense of it was anybody’s guess. When Brody hung up, the phone beeped to indicate that I had a message, and I talked Brody through the steps to retrieve it.

  “It’s from Mom,” he said after a few seconds of silence. “She says it’s snowing too hard for us to come home. She wants us to stay here in town with you.”

  Knowing I didn’t have to make that long drive sent a huge wave of relief through me, but we weren’t safe yet. I didn’t want to lead the SUV driver to my apartment or to Divinity. I needed to find a public place and people. Not that being in the middle of town had saved John Doe, but at least it might give us a fighting chance.

  We came full circle to Silver River Road, and this time I turned east, toward King Soopers, the grocery store. Piles of snow left by a snowplow lined the road, and slush had started forming on the road’s surface.

  “Where are we going now?” Caleb asked, his voice small and frightened.

 
“To King Soopers. There should be people there.” I tossed what I hoped was a reassuring smile over my shoulder. “Try to relax, okay? I’m not going to let you get hurt.” I just hoped I wasn’t making a promise I couldn’t keep.

  One at a time, I took my hands from the wheel and wiped my sweaty palms on my pant legs. I couldn’t remember when I’d been so nervous, or when I’d had so much at stake, and I hated the SUV driver with a passion I hadn’t known I could feel.

  We crept past the Silver River Inn, a bed-and-breakfast owned by my friends, Richie and Dylan. They’d have helped us, but the front door was two full flights of stairs from street level. Even if we could find a place to pull off the road, we’d never make it up the stairs before the SUV caught up with us.

  A few feet farther along, I spotted the new antique store, the Ivy Attic. Its door was at street level, and for one brief moment, I let myself hope that it was still open, but all the windows were dark, the closed sign hanging slightly off-kilter in the front door.

  We crept along two more blocks before a tiny voice broke the silence again. “Aunt Abby?”

  “Yes Caleb?”

  “I think they’re gone. I can’t see the lights anymore.”

  My eyes shot to the rearview mirror. I couldn’t see the headlights either, but that didn’t mean we were in the clear. “Did you see the SUV turn off somewhere?”

  “Nope. He was there one minute and gone the next.”

  “What about you, Brody?”

  “I didn’t see anything either.”

  Had the SUV really stopped following us? Or had the driver done something more sinister, like turning off the headlights to keep us from knowing what was coming? “Keep watching,” I ordered. “If you see anything back there—anything at all—tell me immediately.”

  But for the next three blocks neither of the boys said a word. I pulled off the road into the King Sooper’s parking lot. It wasn’t crowded, but there were enough cars there to make me feel safer than I’d felt in an hour. I found a spot that gave us a good view of the road, but it was close enough to the door to let us escape inside if we had to.

  We sat there for almost thirty minutes before I let myself believe that the SUV had given up on us. As the realization that we were safe finally hit, the adrenaline pumping through my veins drained away, and bone-deep exhaustion hit like a sledgehammer.

  Back home, I circled the block to make sure nobody was lying in wait for us, then dragged myself up the stairs behind my two silent little nephews. It was the first time I’d ever seen them so subdued, and I hoped it would be the last.

  I woke the next morning to a thick blanket of snow covering everything in sight. The storm had moved out, leaving clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine behind. The boys were still sleeping when I took Max out for his walk, so we didn’t go far. Seeing that no other tracks marred the snow made me relax even further.

  Last night, I’d placed calls to both Elizabeth and Jawarski once we got home. I’d told Jawarski about the SUV, but the driver hadn’t actually done anything or made any overt threats, so there wasn’t much the police could do. I had to be satisfied with Jawarski’s promise to act immediately if the driver ever crossed the line. We’d talked briefly about the murder investigation, but there wasn’t much Jawarski could tell me. The police still hadn’t identified the victim, and they were up to their eyeballs in interviews with people who’d been near the drug store the night of the murder—none of whom seemed to know anything helpful.

  I’d been honest with Jawarski, but I’d played down last night’s danger when I talked to Elizabeth. I’d have to tell her the truth this morning, but I’d seen no reason to upset her in the middle of the night with a snowstorm raging. I knew Elizabeth. She’d have risked her life to drive into town after the kids.

  I made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, then loaded the boys into the car. This time, I let Max come along. In fact, it would probably be a long time before I’d go anywhere without him again.

  After dropping the boys at school, I drove to my brother’s house to have the conversation I’d been dreading all night. Elizabeth saw me pull into the yard and stepped onto the porch while I gathered the boys’ uniforms and equipment from the backseat.

  It was barely eight thirty, but I could tell that she’d been hard at work already. She’d pulled her hair into a ponytail, which she never did unless she was baking, and she wore a flour-dusted apron that told the rest of the tale. “You didn’t have to drive all the way out here to bring that stuff,” she called. “We could have picked it up.”

  “No problem.” I slid on an icy patch of snow and almost lost my footing. “I need to talk to you about last night.”

  Elizabeth took Caleb’s bag as I climbed the steps to the porch and ushered me into her big, warm kitchen. It smelled of coffee and yeast, which probably meant that she was making bread.

  Motioning me toward the table, she cleared a spot for me to sit. “Actually, I’m glad you came,” she said. “I’m still not clear about what happened.”

  “That’s probably because I wasn’t very clear.” I left my seat and poured a cup of coffee, then carried it back to the table. “It was a bit more involved than I told you on the phone.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. Somebody followed us, Liz. We came out of practice—later than the rest of the team because I had to put away equipment—and the SUV I told you about seeing the other night was in the parking lot.”

  Elizabeth took a slab of bread dough from a bowl, dusted the table with flour, and began kneading. “Are you sure it was the same SUV?”

  “I’m positive. Caleb recognized the broken light on the side. Anyway, I was a little nervous, so I got the boys into the car and took off out the front entrance of the parking lot. The next thing we knew, the SUV was coming after us.”

  Elizabeth’s hands stilled in the ball of dough. “Why didn’t you call?”

  “I tried calling Jawarski, but I didn’t have any service because of the storm.”

  Apparently forgetting about the bread, she sat across from me. “Why would they follow you? My kids were in the car.”

  “Believe me, I know.” Briefly, I told her the rest and watched confusion and fear battle it out in her eyes. “I don’t know what they wanted, Liz. The boys are fine, but I wanted you to know.”

  She nodded slowly. Just as slowly, the fear and confusion were replaced by anger. “Why would they follow you?” she asked again. “Have you been ‘investigating’ again?”

  Her venom surprised me. “No. Not this time.”

  “Then why? Why you? Why my boys?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Oh come on, Abby. They didn’t just pick you out of the air.” She gestured wildly, almost knocking the bowl off the table. “There must be some reason they targeted you.”

  I gaped at her. “You think I’m lying?”

  She stared at me for a long moment, then shook her head. “I don’t know. No. Yes.” She stood and turned away, rubbing her forehead with one hand. “I mean, look at what’s happened in the past. Can you blame me? What would you think in my place?”

  “I’d like to think that I’d believe you. I didn’t have to tell you what happened, you know. I could have kept quiet.”

  Elizabeth came back to the table and directed her frustrations into the bread. “Okay. I believe you. You wouldn’t lie to me. I know you wouldn’t.”

  “Thank you.”

  “But that still doesn’t explain why somebody followed you.”

  “I can only guess, but maybe it’s because we saw the SUV near Coach Hendrix’s truck. Maybe the driver recognized us from the other night.”

  Her eyes shot to mine. “You think Coach Hendrix is mixed up in all of this?”

  “I don’t know. He could be, or he could be in some kind of danger.”

  “And he’s coaching my kids? Putting every single one of the boys on the team in danger?” She dropped the dough on the table and reached for the cordless
phone on the counter behind her.

  I caught her arm and pried the phone from her fingers. “Don’t do anything hasty,” I said. “We don’t have any way of knowing what’s going on. There might not be any connection between them at all, and even if there is, Kerry may not know about it. I doubt he’d purposely put the kids at risk.”

  Elizabeth hesitated, so I pressed my advantage. “Let’s not jump to conclusions,” I said, “or we could make things worse. Let me talk to Jawarski and see what he says. You know he won’t suggest anything that will put the boys in harm’s way.”

  “And in the meantime, I just let the boys go to practice and games as if nothing’s happening?”

  “Unless Jawarski thinks there’s a reason not to. But just in case someone is watching me, I think either you or Wyatt should take the boys to their practices—just until we find out what’s going on.” It just about killed me to make that suggestion. I loved the time I spent with the boys, but it was the right thing to do. “If it makes you feel better, stay for the practices. Kerry doesn’t like parents to hang around, but he can’t kick you out.”

  Elizabeth gave the dough a final punch and put it in a loaf pan. “I’ll think about it, but I can’t make any promises until I’ve talked to Wyatt.”

  “Understood.” I checked the time, realized I had less than an hour until Divinity opened, and stood. “Are we okay?”

  Elizabeth nodded. “Of course. I’m sorry I went off on you that way, but you have to understand where I’m coming from.”

  “It’s no problem,” I assured her. “I’d feel the same way if I were you.” We hugged briefly, and I followed my footsteps through the snow back to the Jetta. I was exhausted already, and the day hadn’t even started.

  Chapter 17

  I was almost back to Divinity when I spotted Coach Hendrix’s truck idling outside the Stop-N-Go, a large cloud of smoke pouring from its exhaust into the chilly morning air. In spite of my caution around Elizabeth, I thought it was time somebody asked the man a few questions.