In Memory's Shadow

by Linda Wisdom

  “Home ownership can be a bitch, can’t it?” Chloe laughed throatily. “Last winter I replaced the furnace, the hot water heater and my dishwasher. By then I was ready to sell the house for fifty cents to anyone who was crazy enough to take it. But then I figured the day someone would offer to buy it we’d have the major earthquake that would leave my house as the only casualty.”

  Keely relaxed under the humor that effectively dispelled the unease running through her mind. She leaned forward and picked out a glazed donut.

  “What, no bears and wildcats in the woods?”

  Chloe leaned forward and whispered, “Only if you count the cute ones wearing khaki and a badge. You know the kind who just happens to have a daughter the same age as yours.”

  “Do you mean Sheriff Barkley?”

  “He’s the only cute one around I know of.” Chloe sipped her coffee and eyed her speculatively. “You are going to do something about him, aren’t you?”

  “Men are not at the top of my list,” she protested.

  “Honey, when a woman is single and as nice-looking as you, men are always at the top of the list” She chuckled.

  Keely started to protest even further when a song from the sixties came out over the radio. The moment she heard the haunting voice sing about the white rabbit she felt icy shivers travel down her spine and her mind went completely blank. Fear wrapped around her like an arctic blanket.

  “Keely. Keely!”

  She blinked several times and stared at Chloe, whose expression was worried at best.

  “What happened?” Chloe demanded. “You suddenly turned as white as a sheet.” Even she looked uneasy. “I was afraid you were going to faint.”

  Keely tried to dig down deep within her soul. She wanted to know why she felt so afraid and what could have brought it on, but nothing came to mind. She slowly shook her head.

  “I don’t know,” she said in a low voice.

  They said she still didn’t remember, but that damn song affected her. The same song that was playing while the Davis’s died She must have heard it even though she was upstairs. Maybe because she’s back up here she’s starting to remember everything. Now it’s a question as to when she’ll remember everything. It would be perfect if she remembers everything just before she dies.

  She shouldn’t have been allowed to live that night. Too many people suffered through hell because of her. But that’s all right. I’ll make sure she suffers a very personal hell before she dies.

  Chapter 5

  “He’s looking at you.”

  “He is not looking at me.”

  “Yes, he is. No, don’t look. You don’t want him to see you noticing he’s seeing you.”

  Keely expelled a deep breath. “Steffie, while you might be in high school, I am not. So we will not sit here and discuss Sam as if he was the football captain and I was the head cheerleader hoping he’d stop by and ask me to the prom.”

  Steffie threw up her hands in disgust. She leaned across the scarred dark red Formica table in the town’s favorite hangout.

  “He’s out there looking at you. I can’t see what else he’d be looking at but you. What’s so wrong with that?”

  “He’s looking at the window deciding it’s time for lunch and nothing more,” Keely argued.

  Sissy’s Diner was known for its greasy hamburgers, crispy French fries, spicy chili, thick malts and towering hot fudge sundaes. Cholesterol and fat grams were blissfully ignored here and the customers happily filled the booths during the rush hours.

  Keely had suggested they stop here for lunch after a trip to the library so Steffie could pick up books for a school project due in a week.

  “Frowns make wrinkles, Steff,” Keely teased. “And just because you’re in a snit because your teacher said all of you had to do your research manually instead of over the Internet doesn’t mean you can try to run my life.”

  “That wouldn’t be too easy since you don’t have a life.”

  “One more nasty little comment and no dessert,” Keely said with a broad smile.

  Steffie arched an eyebrow. “That threat hasn’t worked since I was in the sixth grade.” She sat back and drummed her fingers on the tabletop as she glanced out the window. She immediately brightened up and straightened her posture. “It looks as if he and Lisa are coming in here for lunch.” She smirked at her mother.

  Keely could figure that out for herself as she watched Sam and Lisa walk into the diner. She felt a distinct drop in the pit of her stomach as he came across the room. What was there about him that affected her so strongly? She certainly couldn’t say he was drop-dead gorgeous the way Jay was. But there was something about the man that hit her at a level very different from the way Jay had affected her in the beginning.

  Maybe she was affected by him because he seemed so different from Jay. One smooth-talking gorgeous man was enough in her life, thank you very much.

  Now she knew why Steffie suggested she wear her blue chambray sleeveless top edged with red-and-white gingham and gingham shorts. Her daughter had even magnanimously offered to loan her mother her precious red leather sandals and sat her down to French braid her hair.

  “Well, hi,” Lisa greeted them with patently false surprise. She glanced over her shoulder and up at her father with that same look of incredulity. “Look Dad, Keely and Steffie are here.”

  Sam’s slow smile told Keely he easily saw through the ruse. “Don’t worry, Lisa, I don’t need glasses yet.”

  “Why don’t you sit with us?” Steffie asked as if the idea had just occurred to her.

  “Dad?” Lisa acted as if it would be up to him.

  “I think we should leave it up to Keely,” he drawled, still standing.

  Keely was so engrossed in the very nice male package of khaki shirt and jeans that she almost lost track of the conversation. “It’s fine with me. We just ordered.” She shot Steffie a telling look ordering her to scoot over to this side of the booth. Steffie ignored it and suggested Lisa sit next to her. Which left Sam sliding into the booth next to Keely.

  “Do you want your usual. Dad?” Lisa asked.

  “That’s fine.”

  “I’ll go up and tell Sissy then.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Steffie offered, quickly following her.

  Sam glanced at Keely, noting the faint rose color in her cheeks that had nothing to do with makeup.

  “Do you think they wanted to leave us alone?” he mused.

  “I think my daughter will have to listen to a very stern lecture when we get home,” she said softly.

  Sam shifted a little more so he could see her better. He was right. The last person she wanted to be around was him. “I’m sorry if they’ve embarrassed you.”

  “I should think if anyone would feel uneasy, it would be you.” She glanced at him under lowered lashes. “The fast woman from the big city chasing after the poor sheriff. My my, what fodder for the gossips.”

  He grinned. “Gossip is the best sustenance for a small town. There are some very sweet little old ladies who know a lot of people’s dirty laundry.”

  “Maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t grow up here. I was a pretty wild teenager,” she confided. “Smoking on the sly, trying beer because it was the thing to do, staying out late.”

  “My dad was sheriff and believe me, no one got away with anything around here,” he told her.

  “Not even you?”

  “Especially not me. I was the perfect one to hold up as an example to the others.”

  Keely nodded. “Is that why you became a cop?”

  “Actually, I’d thought about becoming a lawyer, but it didn’t take long to discover I wasn’t in the mood for more school,” he admitted. He glanced up and smiled as a waitress deposited a cup of coffee in front of him. “I took a lot of courses while I was with the force and soon realized I was more cut out for bringing in the criminals than defending or prosecuting them.”

  Keely smiled. “Somehow I can’t see you weari
ng a three-piece suit and pontificating at great length before an awed jury.”

  Sam chuckled. “Truth be told, I can’t see myself doing that either. I’m happy here.”

  “In a town where there’s little privacy and everyone knows everyone else?”

  He nodded. “Exactly.”

  Keely was already aware of the interest directed their way. She silently cursed the two girls who still hadn’t returned to the booth. She privately resolved to have a good long talk with Steffie once they got home. Why couldn’t

  the girl realize the last thing she needed was a man in her life! Even more so, she had trouble believing someone so solid and down to earth as Sam would be interested in her. She hated to believe that her self-esteem took a battering during the divorce, but what woman could handle the idea her husband was doing more than working late with his secretary? Or working late with his new partner? Not to mention his other partner’s administrative assistant

  “Is there a reason you’re curling your lip or should I be crass and ask you if you’ve had your distemper shots lately?”

  Keely grimaced “Sorry, bad memories.”

  “Ex-husband?” he guessed.

  “I’d love to say “may he rest in peace”, but that means he’d have to be dead and I haven’t been that lucky yet,” she murmured.

  Sam drew back a few inches. “Bloodthirsty lady, aren’t you? That part of you must be hard to keep from Steffie.”

  “I keep it to myself only because I want to be the better person, but Steffie knows more about her father than I’d like her to know.”

  His brown eyes softened with sympathy. It wasn’t hard to guess that Keely had been the injured party in the marriage and she still carried a few scars.

  “Is that why the move?”

  “Partly. We both wanted a change of pace and moving into my old house seemed like a good idea.” A memory of her family house and how it affected her sent chills skittering along her spine.

  Sam noted Keely’s haunted expression and easily guessed its source. How could he explain to her that he knew why it upset her? He sensed that the memories were starting to return.

  The townspeople’s unspoken agreement not to mention the truth about the Davis family to Keely held even to this day, but now he wondered if that was a good idea. He dreaded to think what her reaction would be when the truth materialized in her mind. He only hoped she wouldn’t be alone when that happened.

  He had to grin when Keely looked toward the counter.

  “Steffie, Lisa, why don’t you two come over and join us?” she said pleasantly, but it was clearly an order rather than a request.

  “I’m impressed,” he admitted as he watched the girls climb off their stools and head in their direction.

  “It’s a gift,” Keely said haughtily. “Mothers have this inborn way of getting their daughters to behave.”

  “No offense to you two, but we wanted to have lunch by ourselves,” Steffie informed her mother as she slid into the booth.

  “And deny us your company?” Keely shook her head, making a tsking sound. “We can’t allow that.” She smiled at Lisa. “So tell me, Lisa, what horrible things about me has my daughter told you?”

  “Oh, Steffie never says anything about you.” The girl looked horrified. “I mean…”

  “I know what you mean.” Keely immediately took pity on her and reached across to pat her hand. “I just know Steffie. When she was six she told her teacher her father came from another planet and that we would move back there when she turned ten and would be considered an adult.”

  “M-o-m.” Steffie screwed up her face and wiggled in her seat.

  Sam nodded. “Lisa liked to tell her friends that I was a spy and there were hidden cameras all over our house. I used to come upon these kids with their noses practically stuck to the walls as they tried to find those fictional cameras.”

  “This is really sick,” Lisa moaned.

  “Sick? This is disgusting,” Steffie told her. She glanced up when their plates were deposited in front of them. She reached across her mother to grab the bottle of ketchup and promptly drowned her French fries in a pool of red. “Next thing you know they’ll be dragging out our baby pictures and arguing over who looked cuter naked,” she confided to her friend.

  Lisa was equally horrified at the idea. She looked up at her father who, catching on to Keely’s game, just smiled at her.

  “There is that one picture when you were about eighteen months old and we had gone camping,” he teased. “You looked so damn cute in that droopy diaper.”

  Lisa moaned piteously and buried her nose in her cheeseburger.

  “I’m so glad you suggested our sharing a booth, Steffie.” Keely picked up her BLT and bit into it

  “They love to psyche us out,” Steffie said to Lisa.

  “Yeah, but you don’t have a dad who keeps muttering he remembers what it was like when he was my age and the boys better watch out,” she replied.

  “And at your age I was dating those boys so it’s a wonderful idea your father is so conscious of looking out for your well-being,” Keely told her with the pious smile only a mother can bestow on a child.

  “Amazing how we’re supposed to feel so grateful for their experiences back in the Dark Ages,” Steffie lamented.

  Keely shared a smile with Sam, and she couldn’t help the warmth spreading throughout her body at his slow answering smile. She picked up her glass of iced tea but it didn’t help cool her all that much.

  She was glad Sam didn’t argue with her after he tried to pay for their lunch and she insisted on paying for hers and Steffie’s.

  “And now on to the hardware store,” Keely announced, looping her purse strap over her shoulder.

  “Mom has decided we need the proper small tools for home repairs,” Steffie explained.

  “Go to Rainey’s Hardware on the outskirts of town,” Sam advised. “He carries a little bit of everything in that bam of his and he’ll get you all fixed up if you tell him you’re looking for a basic tool set,” Sam told Keely.

  “Thank you, I’ll do that,” she said as she headed for her truck.

  Sam followed her, holding the door as she climbed inside and fastened her seat belt. He paused a moment before closing it

  “Lisa and I are barbecuing steaks this Saturday night,” he told her. “We thought you and Steffie might like to come over.”

  Keely silently admitted it wasn’t the most graceful of invitations, but she was curious to see where the man lived.

  “We’d like that, thank you.” She smiled.

  He nodded. “About six?”

  “Anything I can bring?”

  “I’ll leave that up to you.”

  Keely grinned. “Good. I like surprises.”

  For a very brief moment heat flared up in Sam’s eyes. Just as quickly, it was masked and he looked as calm and solid as he had before.

  “Don’t let Rainey’s gruffness put you off,” he advised as he stepped back Keely nodded her head in a jerky movement and quickly backed out. Luckily, she had her wits about her enough to double-check there was no oncoming traffic as she straightened the truck.

  “Well, that was fascinating,” Steffie said sarcastically. “You two really need to learn how to communicate.”

  Keely hid her smile and her relief that her daughter

  hadn’t picked up on the vibrations zinging between them. Steffie might be growing up, but she wasn’t growing up too fast

  When Sam had referred to Rainey’s Hardware as being an old barn, Keely hadn’t realized he meant it literally. The weather-beaten wooden structure looked as if it needed a face-lift, but she noticed it didn’t lack for customers, if she could gauge by the number of pickup trucks and utility vehicles parked in front and along the side.

  “They even sell saddles and tack,” Steffie commented, gesturing toward one side of the building. She wrinkled her nose. “It smells like a dirty cow in here.”

  “It might have something t
o do with the clientele,” she replied, glancing at more than one pair of boots encrusted with what she doubted was mud.

  After a clerk pointed them in the direction of tools, Keely and Steffie were lost among every tool known to man. And many unknown to many women.

  “This is nuts,” Steffie moaned, picking up a mallet, staring at it and putting it back down. “Why can’t we hire a handyman when something goes wrong?”

  “Because it’s not always possible,” Keely replied, staring at more screwdrivers than she thought possible. Why did there have to be so many different kinds?

  “You look confused.” A gruff voice intruded on their inspection.

  Keely turned to face a man who was probably in his late sixties. Iron gray hair stuck out at odd angles on his head and a heavy beard highlighted deep lines around his eyes that seemed to bore into her soul. His faded blue plaid shirtsleeves were rolled to the elbows, revealing stringy arms, and faded coveralls covered the rest of his rangy body. Dark eyes blazed at her as he looked her up and down then turned his gaze toward Steffie.

  “She don’t look much like you,” he told Keely, jerking his head in Steffie’s direction.

  “Hey!” Steffie stepped forward but Keely’s upraised hand stopped her.

  “You must be Rainey.”

  “I know who I am and I know who you are. What are you doing here?”

  Keely chose to ignore his rudeness. “We came in to buy some tools. I didn’t realize there were so many types of hammers and screwdrivers and everything else.” She held her hands up. “I just want to pick up the right tools to have on hand for emergencies.”

  He made a face that could only be described as rude. “Women and tools don’t mix.”

  “Really?” Keely murmured. Nothing raised her hackles more than a patronizing male. Even if he was one who had lived a majority of his years in a world where women were considered second-class citizens. But with this man, she felt something different emanating from him. And whatever it was wasn’t pleasant. “Still, I hope you’ll be willing to advise me on what tools to buy,” she said in the pleasantest voice she could muster.

  He brushed past her and picked up a screwdriver. “Your girl better get a basket from the front,” he said brusquely. “You’re going to be spending a lot of money today.”