“Are you okay?” she gently asked.
“No,” he grumbled without looking at her. He stared at the discarded album on the floor. “I'd like to go to bed now.”
Indy quickly stood and approached. His eyes suddenly locked on her. He pointed a warning finger with an expression that stopped her in her tracks.
“No, you just stay away from me.”
Everyone was stunned by the harsh comment but none more than Indy. Harlan looked at Roman, who stood near him.
“Will you help me?”
Roman uncertainly nodded and helped Harlan from the chair. He didn’t require any assistance this time and hobbled on his cast from the room. Roman hurried after him. Indy, Margo, and Kale watched them leave with matching stares.
“What was that all about?” Margo asked softly.
“I'm not sure,” Indy said gently, wondering the same thing herself. She returned to her seat while deep in thought. “Maureen filed for divorce, but I'm sure no one told him. Something must have clicked.”
“But why was he angry with you?” Kale suddenly asked.
Indy shook her head, although her thoughts strayed to last night and what they’d done. She hoped his hostility toward her didn’t have anything to do with what happened between them coupled with the realization that he was, at least in his mind, happily married to another woman.
“I'm not really sure,” Indy replied while lost in her own guilty thoughts.
“I don't like his behavior, Indy,” Kale boldly remarked and jolted her from her trance. “You saw what happened at the party with Liz. What if he vents on you next?”
She couldn’t even look at Kale while her head was filled with last night. “He's not going to hurt me, Kale.”
“Would you have suspected he'd hurt Liz or that nurse?” Kale suddenly asked.
“He does have a point,” Margo gently announced. “He even hit Jackson.”
Indy returned to her current reality and looked at Margo. “That doesn't count. He hits Jackson all the time.”
“This isn't a joke, Indy,” Kale informed her while becoming anxious. “The man is highly skilled on ways to kill people. What if he loses it on you?”
“He's improving,” she announced. “I can handle him. Now let's just drop the subject.”
Despite her own words, Indy couldn’t get Harlan’s hostility toward her out of her mind. His actions were concerning, allowing her guilty feelings to surface once again.
†
Two hours had passed since Roman took Harlan to his room to help him change for bed. Indy, Kale, and Margo were playing a board game, although Indy was too distracted to enjoy her friends’ company. She wanted to check on Roman and Harlan, but the door was locked. Rather than knock, she left them alone, fearing she’d further upset Harlan. Her concerns over Harlan’s emotional state were getting the best of her. Roman finally returned to the living room, collapsed into his chair with a look of exhaustion, and reclaimed his drink. Her friend appeared distracted and a little intent on downing his drink in record time. Indy studied him a moment and wondered what had transpired between the two of them in Harlan’s room.
“Everything okay?” Indy asked with concern in her tone. “What took you so long? And why was the door locked?”
Margo faked a concerned look while hiding her grin. “He didn't make you give him a sponge bath, did he?”
“No,” Roman snapped hotly. “I didn't give him a sponge bath. He just wanted to talk without any interruptions.”
“Really?” Indy asked with some surprise. “What does a man with no memory want to talk about?”
Roman shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “He wanted to talk about Maureen, so I told him.”
She was a little stunned that Harlan wanted to discuss a woman he didn’t even remember. There had to be something more Roman wasn’t telling her.
“Was he okay?” Indy asked almost timidly.
“If you define fifteen minutes of turning the television on and off while complaining that it won't detonate as okay, yeah he was okay.”
“Maybe I should check on him,” Indy announced and started to stand.
“He's fine,” Roman muttered and cast an odd glare at her. “I think he needs to be by himself.”
His comment surprised her. It was almost as if he knew something he wasn’t willing to share.
“Yeah, but--”
Roman glared at her and snarled, “Just leave him alone, Indy. He's been through enough.”
All three stared at Roman with surprise. Roman avoided looking at them, sipped his drink, and stared off at nothing in particular. Indy slowly returned to her seat and attempted to search for an explanation. Harlan had to have remembered last night. He remembered, and he was angry with her. Roman was attempting to protect her feelings. She resisted the temptation to talk to Harlan. She needed to listen to her friend and just leave him alone for a little while, even if it was eating her up inside.
†
Midnight was indicated by the chiming of the large grandfather clock in the foyer. Indy thought she heard a car door from outside and entered the foyer from the family room. The front door opened to reveal Flynn, Jackson, and Nate returning from their lengthy game, undoubtedly followed by a few hours at a local bar. All three were more than likely intoxicated, indicated by their laughing as they entered. Her father saw her and attempted to put on a sober appearance for her benefit.
“Oh, honey,” he announced louder than he intended. “We didn't wake you, did we?”
“No, I was just going to check on Harlan then go to bed,” she replied. “FYI. Roman and Kale are sleeping it off in the family room, and Margo took my bed.”
“Where are you sleeping?” her father asked.
“With Margo?” Jackson asked as a devious smile crossed his face, which was then followed by a snicker.
Flynn backhanded him in the abdomen without even looking back to line up his shot. Jackson rubbed his abdomen while groaning softly.
“No,” Indy snarled at Jackson. “I’ll sleep on the sofa in the study.”
“No, I'll take the sofa,” Flynn announced. “You take my bedroom.”
“I'll take the sofa,” Jackson offered. “She can have my guest bedroom upstairs.”
“You three work it out,” Nate announced without care and headed up the stairs. “I'm going to bed.”
Jackson and Flynn watched Nate climb the stairs while never once looking back.
“There goes the last of the true gentlemen,” Jackson muttered under his breath.
“I'm fine with the sofa,” Indy informed them. “I'm shorter. I fit better than either of you. Don't worry about it.”
“If you insist,” Flynn finally gave in, appearing exhausted from their night out. “How was Harlan tonight?”
Indy frowned in response while insecurely crossing her arms over her chest. “Not good,” she replied gently. “He remembered Maureen, so Roman told him everything.”
“Oh, God,” Flynn muttered while shaking his head. “Do you think he'll remember in the morning?”
“That depends on whether or not he wrote it on his cast,” Indy replied.
Flynn continued to shake his head, unable to mask the disappointment and hostility on his face. “I wish he’d listened to me about getting that prenup,” he muttered. “Now he’ll probably lose everything his parents left him.”
Flynn patted Indy on the shoulder and headed up the stairs with less enthusiasm. Jackson frowned then looked back at Indy as if feeling his commander’s pain.
“You know,” Jackson announced drunkenly, “I was so close to stopping that wedding, but I just couldn’t bring myself to break Harlan’s heart like that.”
“You wanted to stop the wedding?” Indy asked with surprise. “Why?”
It was the first time she’d heard anyone complain about Maureen or her union to Harlan. Then again, they were both drunk and not thinking clearly.
“Not all women are equipped to marry soldiers,” Jacks
on informed her. “Maureen should have married a dentist or a lawyer. Someone who could afford the lifestyle she wanted.”
“I don’t get it,” Indy remarked while attempting to rationalize Maureen’s thinking. “She knew he wasn’t rich. Why would she want to marry him?”
“She got great odds.”
Indy stared at him without understanding. She wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean. Jackson placed his arm around her shoulder and walked with her to the base of the stairs. She was aware that he was basically using her as a crutch in his drunken condition.
“High mortality rate; big insurance policy,” Jackson replied. “You do the math.”
“You think she was hoping he’d be killed in combat?” she suddenly gasped, not grasping the concept of anyone wanting to do that to someone as adorable as Harlan.
“She’d stand to gain a million dollars in insurance alone,” he replied. “That’s not including his pension and other death benefits. She’d be set for life.”
“Please tell me you’re joking,” Indy gasped softly.
Jackson offered a tiny smirk and shrugged. He kissed her quickly on the cheek.
“Night, Indy.”
Chapter Twenty-four
Early the following morning, there was a firm knock on the front door. The overzealous use of the brass knocker immediately announced who was outside the door, at least to those living within the Stryker home. Indy hurried down the staircase. She was obviously fresh from the shower with her hair still damp and unkempt. Indy opened the front door to reveal a stately police officer in his early fifties, Sheriff Lerner. The sheriff was a stern, intimidating looking man with a prominent scar on his left cheek. Despite being rumored it was from a scuffle with his seven-year-old cousin when they were in the second grade, the scar commanded respect from the town’s citizens.
“Morning, Indy,” Sheriff Lerner announced in his most pleasant, gruff tone.
Most people believed the sheriff was an unpleasant, surly man, but Indy knew his gruff tone was little more than a façade. She’d met plenty like him over the years in the military. That he’d never been a soldier was almost surprising.
“Morning, Sheriff,” she announced and offered her customary smile while greeting Sheriff Lerner.
A hint of a smile crossed his face, although it immediately disappeared. He hated showing emotion, but she always managed to drag a little out of him just to remind him that he had them. He gently cleared his throat and again turned official, which normally wasn’t suspicious, but he seemed more distracted than usual.
“Sorry to bother you so early the day after Christmas, but we have a little problem on your road,” he informed her. “We found a dead girl in the swamp.”
The news nearly stunned Indy. Had she heard him correctly? “What?”
“Since it's just your house and the mortuary on this road, I thought maybe your father could have a look at her,” Sheriff Lerner informed her. “She's not from around here, or I would have recognized her, and she had no identification. Between us, I think she was murdered.”
“Murdered?” Indy gasped and stared at him a moment almost uncertain how to respond. “I don't think we've ever had a murder around here before.”
“No, we haven't,” he proudly announced, as if the low crime rate was due to his effectiveness as sheriff. “Unofficially, it appears as if her neck was broken.”
Indy suddenly felt a cold chill run down her spine as she stared at the sheriff. A horrible thought struck her.
“Nate's girlfriend was here on Christmas Eve,” she informed him with concern. “She left early Christmas morning before the others were out of bed. I hope it wasn’t her.”
“Twenty-something; looks to be a blonde. I’m guessing she was quite attractive,” he announced. “Sort of hard to tell with the condition we found her.”
Further concern swept over Indy. “You just described Nate’s girlfriend,” Indy announced in a slight gasp. She felt a sense of urgency to find out if the dead woman was, in fact, Nate’s girlfriend. “The guys are still sleeping it off. Maybe I'd better go with you to identify the woman.”
He nodded and stepped aside, allowing her to exit first. Indy was concerned over the dead woman they’d found so close to her home. What if the murdered woman was Nate’s girlfriend? Who’d want to kill her? Was it a carjacking gone bad? Who’d attempt a carjacking on a deserted back road? Even though Nate’s girlfriend was technically just a ‘girl in port’ to him, he’d still be upset by the news, and it was never good to upset Nate.
†
The coroner's wagon and several police cars were parked alongside the deserted back road. It seemed Sheriff Lerner called in every officer on their roster for their first murder since the town had been established. As Indy got out of the sheriff’s cruiser, she could see a police officer taping off the entire swamp with yellow police line. As they got closer, Indy could see the empty body bag on the ground, although she didn’t see the body. The coroner, a man who looked more like a country vet, squatted alongside the body bag beyond the yellow tape. Sheriff Lerner and Indy approached the coroner from behind. Indy then saw the body on the other side of the body bag. The once attractive woman wearing black pants and a mud stained, white tank top was slightly bloated and showed signs of rigor mortis. As Indy stared in shock at the condition of the woman, the reality of who she was suddenly hit her.
“Oh, my God,” Indy gasped with alarm. “That's the visiting nurse.”
Sheriff Lerner looked at her with moderate confusion. “The what?”
“The nurse who came out to care for Harlan when we first brought him home,” Indy informed him, unable to take her eyes off the dead woman. Although she recognized the nurse, decomposition almost kept her from identifying the woman. “She quit almost a week ago.”
“Our girl’s only been dead twelve or so hours,” the coroner offered as he stared at them and straightened.
Indy immediately made a face and couldn’t take her eyes off the woman’s condition. She looked to be dead days not hours. Her condition was truly unsettling.
“She reported back to the agency after she'd left. We hadn't seen her since,” Indy announced then spun toward the sheriff and gave him a curious look. “Wait. That means she was killed around eight o’clock last night. That doesn’t make any sense. What was she doing out here last night?”
“Good question,” the sheriff remarked and raised his brows. “Just to cover our asses, can you account for the folks at your place from about--?”
Sheriff Lerner eyed the coroner.
“Between seven and ten o’clock last night,” the coroner replied to the silent question.
Sheriff Lerner looked back at Indy and awaited a response. It was the first time his look sent a chill through her. She was positive he’d never accuse her father of something like murder. Her mind immediately strayed to Harlan’s altercation with the nurse during her first and only visit. Indy had never been so thankful for Harlan’s ironclad alibi. She attempted to remain composed, despite her initial thoughts.
“Well, my father, Jackson, and Nate were together at that paintball place, probably pulverizing their opponents,” Indy informed him. “Kale, Roman, Margo, Harlan, and I were at the house together all evening. We weren't out of one another's sight for longer than ten minutes from dinnertime until around midnight. They're all still sleeping it off at my house.”
“I guess that explains why Roman didn’t answer his phone this morning,” Sheriff Lerner muttered. He stared at Indy, again with a coldness she’d never seen before. “I heard some scuttlebutt that the injured man, Harlan, is a bit psychotic.”
“He's not psychotic,” she snapped hotly, immediately wishing she’d responded with less hostility. She didn’t know why she was so defensive. Harlan couldn’t have done it. “He was in a coma and suffers from severe memory loss. He doesn't even know his own name without being reminded.”
Sheriff Lerner remained motionless with his eyes fixed on her. �
�I heard he attacked your father's girlfriend.”
Indy wished he’d stop staring at her that way, and she didn’t appreciate what he was insinuating. She didn’t know why his look was sending fear through her.
“He knocked a drink from her hand. That’s hardly an attack,” she scoffed and folded her arms across her chest, a defense mechanism she wished she hadn’t done. “I assure you, he wasn't alone for more than ten minutes last night, and he'd hardly be capable of carrying or dragging a body half a mile from the house. He has two broken arms, a broken leg, and several broken ribs. He can barely walk on his own.”
“So you're positive he wasn't alone and could not have moved a body?”
“Absolutely,” she replied.
The sheriff slowly relaxed his stance and seemed less threatening. Apparently, he was stepping out of the role of ‘bad cop’.
“He was with the four of us until around eight when Roman helped him get ready for bed,” Indy announced. “Apparently, they had some sort of guy talk until well after ten.”
“Roman was with him, huh?” he announced then grinned with what Indy could only describe as relief that he wouldn’t have to arrest her father’s friend. “Thank God for airtight alibis. Makes my life a lot easier.” He drew a deep breath and looked back at the dead woman as the coroner and his assistant picked her up and placed her inside the body bag. Sheriff Lerner looked back at Indy. “I'll let you know what we find after the autopsy. I’ll have one of the guys give you a ride home.”
“Thanks, Sheriff.”
Chapter Twenty-five
Later that morning, Indy entered Harlan’s room and found him sitting up in bed while watching cartoons with a fixed expression on his solemn face. He obviously wasn’t watching the cartoon, but instead he was off in whatever world he frequented. Indy approached the bed and studied his transfixed stare at the television. He didn’t even seem to notice she had entered or approached his bed. She felt some apprehension after his mood from last night, particularly regarding her. There was an excellent chance he wouldn’t remember any of it, but it still troubled her that his hostility seemed to have been directed at her. She stood over his bed with no reaction or acknowledgment to her presence.
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