Johnny’s expression darkened. “Laurie?”
Her scarlet-colored lips pressed into a thin line. “After you were arrested and I went to tell him you were innocent . . . ” Her voice quavered. “He said he would let you go, if . . . ”
Daniel’s palms grew damp. “If what?”
Johnny’s hands closed over the chair back, his nostrils flaring. “You’d better not be saying what I think you’re saying.” His back tensed, as if he were preparing to leap over the table.
Daniel thrust an arm across Johnny’s chest. “Easy.” He took a deep breath. “Laurie, what did you . . . ”—he swallowed, acid crawling up his throat—“what did you promise the man?”
Her skin paled, but she lifted her chin in defiance. “I only said that I’d keep seeing him. Nothing else.” She pushed up from her chair.
“I’ll kill him,” Johnny growled.
Daniel lowered his arm, fire crawling through his chest. Brown had extorted him, arrested him, and trashed his office. And now he had the gall to threaten Laurie? He clenched his jaw. “You might have to beat me to it.”
Laurie’s blue eyes flashed. “I make my own choices, remember?”
“This wasn’t a choice. You were bullied into it.” Johnny banged his hand on the table.
She settled a fist onto one hip. “I tell you what. I’ll stop seeing him—on one condition.”
Johnny’s brow furrowed. “Oh, you’re going to stop seeing him, all right.”
“Listen to me.” She glared at them. “I’ll stop seeing him, if you two agree to stop selling—or giving—Dad any more booze.”
“We’re not cutting bargains here, Laurie.” Daniel braced one hand on the table. “I don’t think you understand the risks you’re taking.”
“I choose who I see and who I don’t.” She narrowed her eyes at him.
The implied threat in her words came like a punch to the stomach. He pulled his coat from the back of the chair. “I think it’s time for me to leave.”
Johnny grabbed his arm. “Hold it. I need you on my side, here, Daniel.”
Daniel crushed his coat in his grip. The floor swayed as if he stood in a canoe. He could no longer deny the depths of his feelings for Laurie Burke, but he refused to allow her to trifle with him. Save those tricks for Brown.
Daniel’s jaw ached. “I’ve already stopped supplying your dad with liquor. You really expect Johnny to stop providing him whiskey just so you’ll stop socializing with Samuel Brown?”
Laurie nodded.
Daniel shook his head. He’d expected more from her. Maybe he didn’t know her at all.
Johnny growled, running a hand across his chin and neck. “Done.”
37
I ain’t going to no hospital.” Her father threw the chair back from the table.
Laurie kept a safe distance, choosing not to argue. Plant the seed and give it time to grow.
“Hospitals are for sick folk. There ain’t nothing wrong with me.” He grabbed another biscuit from the platter and trudged from the room.
She cleared the table, consumed by thoughts of Daniel. A sharp pain gouged through her heart every time she pictured his distraught face and remembered the door closing behind him.
Lord, you sent me an honest man and I shattered any chance I had with him.
“You’ve forgotten that your mother died in one of those places. Like I’d ever step foot there, again.” Her father’s muffled voice echoed from the far end of the house.
Laurie carried the dishes to the sink and stopped to gaze out at the darkening sky. She hadn’t dared stop in at the drugstore this morning. And the curb outside the exchange remained empty.
Her lips tingled with the memory of their evening on the bluff. One kiss. That’s all she got? She blinked away the tears. No good would come from dwelling on it.
Johnny would be going on his second-to-last shipment tonight and he’d promised not to bring any of the whiskey to their father. She stopped and closed her eyes. Lord, keep him safe. A lump formed in her throat. Was it wrong to pray protection over someone who was knowingly committing a sinful act? She opened her eyes and swished a hand through the warm soapy water, tiny waves splashing over the dirty dishes.
“No hospitals!” Her father hollered down the hall.
Maybe she was praying for the wrong family member.
The telephone rang, causing Laurie to jump and splash suds across the floor.
“Aren’t you going to answer that? Isn’t that what they pay you to do?” Dad’s voice floated in between rings.
She grasped the receiver and lifted it to her ear. Out of habit, she straightened her neck and summoned her most melodic voice. “Hello, Burke residence.”
“Hello, Miss Operator.”
“Johnny?” She sputtered, all pretense vanishing. “What are you doing? I thought you were out—working, tonight.”
“Johnny?” Her dad stuck his head into the kitchen. “He ain’t working tonight. Is that him on the telephone?”
She covered the mouthpiece. “Just a minute, Dad.” She lowered her voice and moved her fingers away. “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t talk, Sis. But I need help. One of our guys can’t make it.”
Her heart lurched. “Why are you calling me? What can I do?”
“We need a spotter. I don’t know who else to ask.”
Laurie leaned against the wall, trying to catch her breath. “I couldn’t possibly . . . ”
“It’s just one night, Laurie.”
She tugged on her earlobe. “No. Just call it off for tonight.”
She could hear Johnny’s breathing through the receiver. “Not possible. We already put in an order; we’ve got to be there to get it. All you got to do is take Dad’s Ford and drive out to the water. When you spot our light, flash the headlamps to show us it’s safe. Come on, Laurie, I’m desperate.”
She dug her fingernails into her palm. “Johnny—”
“Let me talk to him.” Her father stomped into the room, gesturing for the telephone.
Laurie’s stomach dropped. “Dad—”
“Give me the telephone, Laurie.”
She passed it to him, her fingers trembling.
His large hand closed over the receiver. “Johnny?” He stopped and listened as Laurie stepped backward.
“Yeah, you got more for me?”
She turned and walked back to the sink, the muscles in her neck tightening into a hopeless knot. Her father’s voice rose in pitch as he talked.
This was shaping up to be a rough night.
She rinsed the last dish and lifted it from the dripping water just in time to hear her father return the receiver to the telephone with a disgusted grunt.
“Johnny said he’d meet you at 3 o’clock at Freshwater Bay.” He turned and scowled at Laurie. “You two got a picnic planned or something?”
Laurie stood mute, water dripping from the plate suspended in her hand.
He rubbed his shoulder and grimaced. “I’m going out. Don’t wait up.”
Laurie shut her bedroom door, her heart hammering in her chest. She paced to the window and laid her forehead against it. God, what do I do?
The half-moon shone its thin light down on the side of the house and across the empty spot normally occupied by the Model T. Now, even if she wanted to help Johnny, she had no automobile.
Laurie pressed her hand against her stomach. She needed to do something, but every choice seemed impossible. As soon as her father had left, she’d tried telephoning Johnny, but the line had gone unanswered.
I can’t let him land without a spotter. She pulled away from the window and stumbled back to the bed. She could call Daniel, but he didn’t approve of the rumrunning any more than she did. Did she want to admit to him that she was considering helping out with it?
How could she not?
Laurie pulled her sketchbook from under her pillow. It lay open to the portrait she had drawn of Daniel at Crescent Beach. Rather than the shadowy figu
re of that first night, in this one he stood on the shore, a rock in his hand and arm cocked to skip it along the top of the water. His handsome face shone with a trace of little-boy glee.
She closed the book and pushed it back under her pillow.
Could she now call him and ask him to return to the beach to help with a whiskey delivery?
What choice do I have?
Laurie drove her fist into the pillow. How dare Johnny put her in this position? She hit the pillow a second time, momentarily placated by the lovely “thwump” sound it made. Picking it up, she slammed it hard on the bed, feeling the tightness in her arms easing with the movement.
Casting the pillow aside, she strode to her closet and pulled out an old wool sweater and a scarf to wrap around her head. Somehow, she was going to be on that beach by the time the boats arrived—even if she had to steal a car to do so.
Laurie sprinted toward town, the road flying by under her hurrying feet. Once she decided, she didn’t want to give herself a moment to doubt. She clutched a cloth bag against her side, her father’s military flashlight nestled cozily with his old army knife. She might as well have pulled on his uniform while she was at it, since she raced toward an impossible battle.
Daniel, I need your automobile. I’ll bring it back, I promise. The very idea made her laugh, tears stinging her eyes. Daniel, think how romantic the beach is by moonlight.
Maybe she could just borrow the Buick and have it back before he even missed it.
As she approached the edge of Lincoln Park, she slowed to a stop and clutched at her sweater in aggravation. “I can’t do this,” she whispered. First a liar, then a bootlegger’s assistant—now a thief?
Her insides roiled. Wrapping both arms around herself, she rubbed hands up and down her sleeves, shivering in the cool night air. Stars dotted the sky, an example of God’s artistry at work. Her heart slowed.
Daniel had said, “People make their own choices. You can’t protect them from the consequences.”
Just as she’d made her choices and lost him.
She pulled her eyes away from the stars and noticed a Model T parked askew in the shadows of the trees. A man’s arm—clad in a familiar twill sleeve—dangled out over the door, his head lolled back on the seat as if asleep.
Or worse.
A prickle raced up her neck. She crept up and peered in at her father’s sleeping form, his snores rattling the seat springs. The stench of alcohol was unmistakable, even if she hadn’t seen the empty bottle splayed across his lap.
She blew out a hissing breath. As if this night couldn’t get more complicated. Laurie prodded his arm. “Dad, wake up.”
Her father slumped to the side, the bottle rolling from his lap onto the floor. He mumbled a few unintelligible words into the seat cushion.
She banged a hand against the door and reached for the handle. “Move over, I’ll drive you home.”
Laurie yanked the door open. “I should leave you here. It would serve you right.” With a sigh, she tossed her bag onto the floor and wedged her arms under him. Grunting, she dug her shoes against the earth and heaved. Managing to slide him a few inches, she braced herself against the car door and jostled him a little further before collapsing against his shoulder.
Walking to the far side, she pulled open the passenger door and leaned across the seat. Pushing aside his jacket and vest, she hooked her fingers on his waistband. Jerking hard, she managed to slide him across the seat. His head lolled toward her and landed heavily on her shoulder. Pushing upward, she goaded him back into a sitting position.
Closing the door, she leaned against it, panting. God, can this night get any worse? She wiped her hands down her skirt. Forget I asked that.
She settled herself in the driver’s seat and glanced over at her father, his head lolled to the side and his mouth hanging open. “I’m not responsible for your choices, Dad.” She blew a wisp of hair out of her eyes and adjusted her hat with one hand, keeping the other locked on the wheel. “And yet, somehow I’m always the one forced to pick up the pieces.”
She gripped the wheel. Now that she had the automobile, Johnny’s desperate voice tugged at her heart. How could she just leave him out there without a light to guide him? She wouldn’t really be breaking the law, would she? She’d just be flashing the headlamps a few times, bringing some sailors home. Who would know?
God would know.
Laurie pushed her fingers against her eyes. A man of honor—that’s what she kept asking from God. She lowered her head against the cold wooden steering wheel. I’d be breaking the law as surely as if I were holding the oars.
Her father coughed and shifted in his sleep, making Laurie jump and open her eyes.
A woman of honor, she thought. I’m sorry, Johnny. She reached for the ignition and cranked the Ford’s engine. Turning on the headlamps, she inched backward onto the road and turned toward home, the twin beams cutting through the murky blackness.
The dark image of an automobile parked a block ahead, caught her eye. As she drove past, her headlights glared off a memorable grill and illuminated the face of the man sitting inside. Laurie’s heart lurched. She jerked her gaze back to the road.
Samuel.
38
Daniel sat on the stool, leaning his back against the counter. His eyes wandered across the drugstore to the artwork his grandfather had displayed on the brick wall. Words spun through his head, but none traveled as far as his mouth.
Laurie’s spoon clinked against the sides of her coffee cup, the only sound in the quiet store. She lifted her head, her eyes like two round pools glistening in the morning sunlight streaming in through the front window. “I’m sorry, Daniel.”
He exhaled, his anger streaming away before he could catch hold of it. “Laurie—”
“I won’t see Samuel again.” She touched the sleeve of his jacket with her tender fingers. “I just . . . ” She bit her lip. “I’m not sure what he’ll do when he finds out.”
Daniel set his jaw. “Let me take care of that.”
“I don’t want anything to happen to you.” A pinched line formed between her brows.
“I’m glad you didn’t go along with Johnny’s scheme.”
She sighed. “I just hope he’s all right. I thought my heart would stop when I saw Samuel parked on the side of the road.” She took a sip of coffee. “I could have led him straight to them.”
Daniel frowned. “Do you think Brown is following you?”
“Either me or my father.” She rubbed her arms. “I’d like to think that information would be enough to make Johnny stop, but he’s so obsessed with this debt business, I don’t think anything is going to convince him.”
“And . . . ”
She sighed for a second time. “I’m not responsible for his choices.”
“Do you want me to talk to Johnny?” He sat forward and touched her arm.
She placed her fingers over his hand. “I don’t think it would do any good.”
He laced his fingers through hers and squeezed. “Then can I interest you in another sunset drive tonight?”
A smile crossed her face—the first he’d seen that morning. “I’d love that.”
Since the store was still empty, he brushed a kiss across her forehead before she left, breathing in the lavender scent of her hair. That whiff would have to hold him until this evening.
Laurie smiled as she walked to the exchange, pushing away thoughts of her family in exchange for anticipation of another evening with Daniel.
The exchange door opened as she arrived, Samuel’s wide shoulders filling the doorway. He stepped out onto the sidewalk, a smile lifting one corner of his mouth. “Hello, Beautiful. Fancy meeting you here on this lovely morning.”
Her throat suddenly dry, she swallowed hard. “What are you doing here?”
Samuel squinted as the morning sun topped the foothills and scattered out over the town. “Just having a little chat with your boss. Trying to follow up on some possible leads.”
Her heart quickened. “My boss?”
Samuel lifted his hat and settled it on his head, running his fingers along the brim. “Rumrunners use telephones, too, don’t they?”
Laurie’s mind raced. Is that how he’d known last night? Was he listening in on calls? On her calls? “I suppose they do. I wouldn’t know.”
He reached out his hand and ran his fingers up her arm, causing gooseflesh to race across her skin. “Of course not. You are the picture of innocence.” He cocked one eyebrow. “So, we have a date tonight?”
She stepped back, squeezing her arms around her midsection. “I’m afraid that’s out of the question.”
He let his hand drop to his side and then tucked it into his jacket pocket, pulling out his gold watch and checking the time. “I thought we had an understanding.”
Laurie moistened her lips and folded her hands in front of her for confidence. “I’m afraid I made that agreement before I had all the facts about you, Mr. Brown. Under duress, shall we say?”
His brows shot upward. “Duress?” He stepped closer, causing her to back up against the brick building. “You showed up at my home in the middle of the night. I didn’t see any concern then.” He shook his head. “It would be a shame if that little story got around.”
Sweat broke out across her skin, bathing her in a clammy chill
His gaze lingered, locking on her face for a long moment before traveling the length of her frame. “I suppose it gives me more time to focus on this case.” He stepped back. “I believe I’m getting very close to a breakthrough.”
Laurie’s throat tightened, like a noose closing. “I need to get to work.”
Samuel stepped to the side with a gallant sweep of his hand. “Please, do not let me distract you. I know how important is to focus on one’s job.”
Daniel glanced up from his work just in time to see Johnny saunter past the drugstore window. “Marcie, I’ll be right back.” He grabbed his hat and headed for the door.
Daniel quickened his pace, calling out to his friend.
Mistaken Page 21
