On Her Trail

by Marcelle Dubé

  Then he was gone.

  Laura blinked again and scanned the trees slowly. There was nowhere for him to disappear to. But there was no trace of him.

  She let her breath out slowly. Somebody had been there. She wasn’t crazy. So where was he?

  A thrill of fear coursed through her, thoroughly displacing her anger. She began running again, stumbling at first until she found her pace. She settled into a ground-eating lope, trying to watch the path and the woods at the same time. Maybe he was another neighbor…He hadn’t had a gun that she could see. Maybe she was overreacting, but she didn’t stop running until Fay’s house was in sight.

  She slowed to a walk, gasping and holding her side, trying to breathe through a stitch. She glanced over her shoulder at the trail, but nobody followed. The garage door was open, and Fay’s car was there. Relief washed through her.

  The front door opened and Fay stepped into the dying light. Her face was pale as she stared at her daughter.

  “Fay?” said Laura, suddenly afraid. She looked down and saw that Fay was clutching a magazine.

  “It’s not there, Laura.” Fay took a deep breath. “Your article isn’t there.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Fay came down a step and stopped. She wanted to reach out to her daughter, but the weight of the words they had thrown at each other that morning pinned her down. She wasn’t at all sure Laura would welcome comforting from her.

  A sudden noise made her glance up just as Laura spun around. Someone was pounding up the path. Laura looked about frantically and finally dove into the open garage. Fay stared after her, expecting the car to roar to life, but Laura returned with an axe just as Mack emerged from the trees. Fay looked from Laura to Mack, baffled.

  Mack eyed the axe warily but was too winded to speak. He bent over, hands on knees, and concentrated on catching his breath.

  Fay stared the question at Laura.

  “There was a man in the woods,” said Laura. “Not Mack. Someone else.” She let the axe head drop to the ground and leaned on the handle, as if she no longer trusted her legs.

  Fay scanned the trees surrounding them, acutely aware of their vulnerability. The wind riffled the treetops and swirled leaves around the gravel driveway.

  “I didn’t see anyone,” said Mack, finally straightening.

  Laura eyed him coldly. “Well, I did.”

  “Let’s go inside,” said Fay. She didn’t know what had sent both her daughter and Mack running up the path, but if someone was out there, she wanted to be inside. All this anxiety over an article…She hoped John Tucker would spend a long time behind bars.

  Fay stepped back and allowed them to precede her, then locked the door. They trooped up to the kitchen and Mack immediately went to stand by the window, staring out. Laura took the magazine from Fay and sat down at the table to look through it. She kept her back to Mack.

  It’s distinctly chilly in here, thought Fay.

  “What did he look like?” she asked her daughter. As she spoke, her question conjured up a tingling suspicion. Then Laura described him, and Fay closed her eyes. Sawyer.

  Relief robbed her legs of strength and she sat down heavily. “He’s no danger to you,” she managed to say. Dear God, Laura had seen Sawyer.

  She wasn’t crazy after all.

  “You know who it is?” asked Mack, turning from the window. Concern and curiosity radiated from him. “How long has he been hanging around? Why didn’t you tell me about him? Does he live around here?”

  Fay realized he had a right to know if strangers were hanging around, but she couldn’t think of anything to tell him that wouldn’t sound crazy, so she smiled at him and shrugged.

  If she tried to explain, she knew she would start crying. Sawyer had come for her, and James had stopped him. The Yukon River had swallowed him up and never released him.

  His death had been an accident and clearly both men had wanted her to know that. But all those years she had wondered…

  Had James truly been that angry at her?

  Mack looked from Fay’s smile to Laura’s frown with frustration.

  “Will someone please tell me what’s going on?”

  “Yes, Fay,” agreed Laura. “What’s going on?”

  Fay couldn’t tell them. How could she? They would think loneliness had unhinged her. Maybe it had. But it was her madness, her past, and she chose not to share.

  Yet Laura had seen Sawyer. Was this folie à deux? Was the haunting going to extend to her daughter now? She had to put an end to this.

  “He’s no danger,” she repeated. Laura looked as if she would pursue the matter, but Fay cut her off. “Why were you running, Mack?”

  Mack looked uncomfortable. His color was still high from the run, and now it deepened. “I wanted to talk to Laura.”

  Fay glanced at her daughter, who resolutely refused to look at Mack. So. They’d already managed to quarrel. Was that a good sign or a bad one?

  “What are you going to do now?” she asked her daughter.

  A curious mix of emotions flitted across Laura’s face—determination, desperation, anger. But all she said was, “Can I borrow your car?”

  Fay hesitated. “To do what?” Was she going to run again?

  “I need to call Adam,” said Laura, “and I don’t want to call from here. I’ll find a pay phone downtown.”

  “Who the hell is Adam?” asked Mack, frustration making his voice sharp.

  “My boss,” said Laura. She turned back to Fay. “I want you to get out of here. Go to Sally’s, stay there for the night. Just in case.”

  “Sally’s?” Fay repeated. Go to her friend’s house and maybe drag along whatever troubles were following them? “No,” she said firmly. “I’m going with you.”

  Laura took a deep breath. “Fay…” As if at a loss for words, she stood up and began pacing. The gloom in the kitchen was becoming more pronounced and Fay stood up to turn on the overhead fixture, flooding the room with cheerful light. Mack stepped away from the window to watch Laura.

  Laura looked very young in the light, and Fay remembered that particular expression from when her daughter was a child, and trying to persuade her. Earnest. Laura looked very earnest.

  “Fay,” began Laura again, stopping in front of her mother. To Fay’s shock Laura reached out and took her hands. Laura stared at her mother’s hands for a long moment, then looked up.

  “Mom. Please. Please trust me when I ask you to do this. You say that man in the woods isn’t someone to worry about, but I am worried. You don’t know these people. I wonder now if the phone calls haven’t been from Adam trying to warn me, although I don’t know how he could have found me. Please believe that I have cause to worry. I…I don’t think I could stand it if something happened to you.”

  Fay’s throat tightened as the hurtful words she had thrown at her daughter came back to her. How could she have been so cruel?

  She couldn’t remember the last time Laura had called her Mom. At that moment she would have done anything her daughter asked. Except abandon her. She had worried about Laura when she was in Kiev, about the political instability and the chronic food shortages. Even the care packages she sent were constantly intercepted. But at least Laura hadn’t been in physical danger. Now that she was back home, where she was supposed to be safe, Laura chose to write about biker gangs and smuggling.

  Fay shook her head. She freed a hand and cupped her daughter’s cheek with it.

  “Laura, I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you either.”

  Laura looked confused. She let go of Fay’s hand and moved to the window, staring past her reflection into the deepening gloom.

  “I can move faster by myself, Fay,” she said to the glass. “If worse comes to worst, I can run. Could you keep up?”

  The logic of Laura’s statement hung in the kitchen like a pall. No, she couldn’t keep up. She was in good shape, but she wasn’t a runner. If worse came to worst, she would be a liability to her daughter.

/>   “I’ll drive Laura into town,” said Mack, startling both women. He faced Laura, arms crossed. “Nobody will associate you with my truck. Fay can stay at my place.”

  But Laura was already shaking her head.

  “The danger is just as real for you,” she said sharply. “If they see you with me, you could be hurt.”

  “I’m willing to take that chance.”

  “I’m not,” retorted Laura. “I go alone.”

  “Then you’ll have to walk,” said Fay, smiling gently to take the sting out.

  “Fay!” Laura frowned at her mother. “Would you really make me walk?”

  No, thought Fay. But this is one fight you’re not going to win, my darling daughter.

  “Is she always so contrary?” asked Mack, addressing the comment to Fay.

  “Worse,” warned Fay. “She’s toning it down because of you.”

  Laura’s mouth tightened. Then she caught her mother’s smile and a sheepish grin slowly erased her frown.

  “Look,” she said, glancing from Fay to Mack, then back to Fay. “I know you’re both worried. So am I. I need to get to town, but I won’t risk either of you. Fay, spend the night at Mack’s. You’ll be safe there. And Mack, please look out for my mother.”

  To Fay’s surprise she found herself fighting back tears. Laura was concerned about her. In her own prickly way, Laura was trying to protect her.

  “So it’s agreed.” Mack looked at Fay. “You’ll stay at my place tonight. I’ll drive Laura to town. She can make her phone call and we’ll be back before you’re ready for bed. Deal?”

  “Deal!” agreed Fay, immensely relieved.

  “Wait a minute,” said Laura. “I made it clear…”

  “Don’t bother arguing,” said Fay. “You’re outvoted.”

  ***

  They left Fay in the basement of Mack’s unfinished house. He even had a television set, which Laura hadn’t noticed earlier.

  Mack made a fire in the woodstove and placed a chair and a light close by for Fay. Then he laid a loaded shotgun on the floor by the chair. Fay stared at it a long time before finally nodding. She had brought along a partly completed hand-quilted pillowcase and was already concentrating on it when Laura and Mack drove off.

  They bumped down the driveway in the darkness toward Wild Rose Lane. Something in the back of the pickup clanged noisily every time they hit a pothole. The floor of the big Ford was littered with hoses, clamps and so many tools that Laura finally decided to rest her feet on top of the mess rather than try to clear a space.

  She glanced at the man sitting next to her. She wished she could see his face.

  She was grateful that he hadn’t told Fay about their fight. Two fights in the same day, she thought glumly. And what did those fights have in common? Her. Why had she been so brutal to Fay? And why run when she should have stayed behind and tried to fix things?

  A wave of shame swamped her and she closed her eyes, remembering Fay’s harsh words. What is the point, Laura? That the wrong parent died? Was that what Fay thought? Was that what she had allowed her mother to think for three months?

  Mack was right. She was too old to keep punishing her mother for the failures of the past. Fay had done her best, and if she hadn’t loved her daughter as much as Laura felt she should, well, it wasn’t too late to try again. Was it?

  The ride smoothed out as they turned onto Wild Rose Lane and Laura opened her eyes. It was too dark to distinguish anything more than the silhouettes of fir trees against the lighter sky. The moon wouldn’t be up for another few hours. A rumble in her stomach reminded her she hadn’t eaten supper yet. The dashboard clock read just shy of seven o’clock.

  “You’re a good runner.” Mack’s voice came out of the dark.

  Is he reaching out, she wondered, or just trying to be polite?

  “I usually run every day,” she replied, then winced. Don’t be such a coward, she berated herself. Apologize to the man and get it over with!

  “Laura, I shouldn’t have said what I did,” said Mack. “I was way out of line and I apologize.”

  Oh great, now he beat you to it.

  “You have nothing to apologize for,” she said. Her tone was stilted, even to her ears, so she continued. “You were right, and I was asking for it.”

  “Hm.”

  “Hm?”

  He turned to look at her, a shadowy movement.

  “Exactly what were you asking for?”

  Heat rose to Laura’s cheeks and she was suddenly glad for the dark. They reached the highway and turned toward town.

  “I should tell you a few things, since you insist on coming along.”

  “About time,” he grumbled.

  She sighed. “I wish you had stayed behind.”

  Stop it, stop it, stop it, she told herself. At least be honest with yourself, if you can’t be honest with others. You could have insisted or waited until he was gone and taken Fay’s car. You didn’t because you wanted him with you.

  “Actually,” she said, before he could speak, “that’s not true. I’m glad you came.”

  A quick turn of his head in the dark indicated surprise. “Really? I thought I forced myself on you.”

  “You did,” she pointed out. “But I’m glad of your company. Although you may change your mind when you find out what’s going on.”

  “Which is…?”

  So she gave him the bare bones. She told him about Johnny Tucker and his growing network of informants and thugs. She told him about the drug smuggling on two coasts and the car bomb, and hitchhiking to Whitehorse, and the phone calls. She told him about the magazine and how her article wasn’t in it.

  He listened in silence until she was through, and then kept silent for a few minutes more. She let him digest the information.

  There was more traffic coming from town than going—the last stragglers, working late. Every set of headlights blinded her as she herself chewed over a few puzzles.

  What was going on in her mother’s life that a strange man in the woods was no cause for worry? Where had he disappeared to? What was Fay keeping secret?

  Tonight, she decided. As soon as all this was settled, she would sit down with her mother and ask her.

  She looked away from the road, staring at the sky and waiting for the first stars to appear.

  Finally Mack stirred. “How is phoning your boss going to help anything?”

  “It isn’t,” said Laura. She took a deep breath. “I’m not going to phone Adam. Something went wrong, obviously, or the article would be in the magazine. Phoning him won’t change that, and it might help Johnny T. pinpoint where I am. I’m willing to bet he’s got Adam’s phone tapped.”

  “Then why are we going to town?”

  She hesitated. Did she really want to tell him everything? He seemed trustworthy, but what if he wasn’t? Johnny Tucker was a powerful man. She thought about how she and Mack had met, and how long Fay had known him. He couldn’t be involved with Johnny T. The coincidence would be incredible. And she needed him to get where she was going.

  “To see Seth Howell.”

  “Howell. The editor of the Daily Trib?”

  She nodded, then remembered he couldn’t see. “Yes. I worked summers for him while I was at college and his son is a friend of mine. They’re both newspaper men. I’m hoping Mr. Howell will put the story on the wire.”

  “Why not find a computer and send it out yourself? I know Fay doesn’t have one but we could stop by my office…”

  Laura was already shaking her head. “A good option, and thank you. Seth will have all the addresses to the news desks. One quick e-mail and it’ll go out to everybody.”

  She could just make out his nod in the dark.

  “You’ve got it with you?”

  “It’s easy to access,” she hedged. Why didn’t she tell him the flash drive was in her pocket? It hadn’t been out of her reach since she left Montreal. Maybe she had grown paranoid. “Friday’s a heavy paper day. He’ll still be in t
he office, since he always works late on Wednesdays and Thursdays.”

  “To the Trib it is,” said Mack, and he fell into an easy silence.

  Laura also didn’t tell him about sending copies of the article to three different people. Those copies were supposed to arrive by courier tomorrow. Adam would miss out on the scoop. That was too bad, but she wasn’t waiting around anymore. She wanted out of this quagmire.

  Her name still needed to be on the article, or she would have no protection from Johnny Tucker’s revenge. She doubted the Crown Attorney’s office would publicize her name for her. Even the RCMP would have other things on its mind. And the reporter in Vancouver would probably be miffed she had inadvertently fed Laura the scoop of the decade. She certainly wouldn’t announce it.

  And if Seth refused to help or wasn’t there?

  Well, there was always Mack’s office.

  Satisfied that she was doing everything she could, she forced herself to relax and watched the stars appear in the night sky. The man sitting next to her smelled of fresh air and wood smoke and she spent long minutes considering the aphrodisiac qualities of both. Finally she shook herself. Time to think of something else.

  “Is Mack short for anything?” she asked.

  The quality of the darkness changed subtly, and her reporter’s instincts instantly sat up.

  “No.”

  Hm. “You mean you were named Mack at birth?”

  She could now identify the elusive quality that permeated the air. Panic. She was definitely close to something.

  It took him a long time to answer.

  “No.”

  Laura turned in the seat to face him. Even though it was too dark to make out his exact expression, enough light emanated from the dashboard to reveal the bunched muscles at his jawline.

  Laura smelled blood and closed in for the kill.

  “What’s your birth name, Mack?

  He remained very quiet, and she started to grin.

  “Come on, Mack. You know my middle name.”