Euphoria Lane

by McCright, Tina Swayzee

  Luke ran a finger over his brow. Everyone had a motive to kill Bernice, but no one, other than Reverend Nichols, had a motive to kill Helen. She had lured him away from his beloved church and then dumped him.

  Harry banged the gavel, calling the meeting to order. “Valerie, please note in the minutes that Helen and your soon-to-be-ex have resigned their positions and Tess Owens is not here tonight. Either she ran away or she’s dead, so she won’t be considered a board member for long.”

  He did not just say that!

  Luke shot Harry a warning look that he knew would be ignored.

  Doctor Owens’s face turned red, then stark white. Several female neighbors patted him reassuringly on the shoulder and back.

  Roxie loudly proclaimed, “Don’t worry, doc. I’m sure she’s alive. She probably just wanted a real doctor—like a surgeon.”

  His jaw fell open at the insult and Luke cringed. He was working in a loony bin. He had to find a way out.

  Since this was an emergency session, violation letters and homeowner concerns would not be addressed.

  “I called this meeting to appoint a new member to the board,” Harry stated.

  “Don’t we get a vote on who gets on that sorry excuse for a board?” the cowboy asked in his usual gruff voice.

  Harry shook his head. “Voting by the community takes place only at the annual meeting. When a member of the board vacates their seat, or in Bernice’s case, is knocked off, then the remaining board members appoint the new member to fill the vacancy until the next annual meeting.”

  “And we have no say?” the cowboy seethed.

  Harry glared at him. “That’s correct. You have NO say.” He gestured toward Valerie. “We have decided to appoint Doctor Owens to fill the vacated seat left by Bernice.”

  The crowd murmured, not sure if this was good news or bad. Luke wasn’t sure himself. He never got the impression that the veterinarian was another one of Harry’s yes-men, but then again, they never discussed rules and violations.

  With a solemn expression, Doctor Owens took an empty seat at the table. Luke wondered why he would willingly make himself a target for the killer.

  Was it worth it to him if it meant having access to information about the community? Did he think Tess was hiding in one of the condos, or was he hoping the board could tell him something that would help him find his wife?

  Luke rubbed his face. He was tired of second-guessing everyone in Euphoria and dealing with Harry.

  Meg surprised the room by standing. “I nominate Roxie to fill the other vacant seat.”

  The room exploded in applause.

  Harry glared at Meg as she sat. He pounded his judge’s gavel to quiet the room. “I make a motion we lower the number of board members from seven to six,” he stated smugly.

  Luke groaned under his breath. Meg munched loudly on her cheese puffs in either a stress- or anger-induced frenzy.

  “I second the motion to lower the number of board members from seven to six.” Valerie sent Andi a Cheshire-cat grin.

  “All those in favor . . .” Harry continued with the vote.

  In a show of solidarity, the board, including Doctor Owens, agreed to limit the number of seats on the board. The vet was off to an inauspicious start.

  The meeting ended and the cowboy marched out with red in his eyes and a wad of chewing tobacco bulging one cheek. Luke hoped he didn’t have a six-shooter hidden in his glove compartment.

  Once the rest of the homeowners left the building, the board entered the library lobby, preparing to exit. Luke followed, anticipating doom and gloom around every corner. He found Andi standing between Meg and Roxie at the library doors. She glared at Harry as if he was the devil himself, and then she gave his girlfriend an assessing once-over.

  “You know, Valerie,” Andi said, matching the gold digger’s smug and arrogant attitude, “I may have to sell way below market value in order to get out of here as fast as possible. I hope that won’t have any effect on the sale of your condo. I would hate for you to lose money.”

  Harry came up behind his pillow partner. “You can’t afford to dump your place. You’re a teacher.”

  “Never underestimate an angry woman, Harry, especially one that can move back in with her parents. I’d rather ‘dump’ my place than pay your fines.”

  “I’ll believe it when I see it,” he guffawed.

  Andi watched them leave the building. “We’ll see who has the last laugh, you tyrant.”

  Luke placed his hand on the small of Andi’s back and led her outside. “You only have to scare Valerie to make his life miserable, and I think you accomplished that.”

  The cool evening breeze ruffled Luke’s hair as he took in the surrounding parking lot. He had expected to see a heated discussion of that night’s events going on, not a gathering of residents reading yellow sheets of paper. Harry snatched one from under a sedan’s windshield wiper and bellowed with laughter.

  One woman leaned into her husband and then pointed in their direction. Not a good sign. Andi marched to her car, where a yellow paper waited for her. Meg and Roxie rushed to her side. Luke angrily tugged one out from under the windshield wiper of a van. The picture on the flyer featured Andi’s sister Jessie. She wore a skimpy outfit and was accepting money from a man. At the bottom of the page, someone had scrawled CALL ME along with Andi’s home telephone number.

  “That horndog is behind this.” Roxie’s features twisted into a scowl.

  Meg rushed to Luke’s side. “I saw Harry hand a shaggy-haired teenager an envelope before the meeting. I think he paid that kid to put these on our cars.” She pulled a handful of jelly beans out of her jeans pocket and popped them into her mouth.

  He had noticed she was stress eating more often since forming the anti-board.

  Andi held out her hand. “Got any more of those?”

  Meg reached into her other pocket and handed over an assortment. Andi shoved over a dozen into her mouth. Luke watched her chomp down on her hatred before it boiled over into rage.

  Roxie held the flyer with Jessie’s picture up to the circle of light provided by a streetlamp. “I didn’t know your sister was a hooker.” She tilted her head and examined it from another angle. “I have boots just like those.”

  “My sister is not a hooker. She’s a cocktail waitress.”

  Roxie handed Andi the flyer. “We believe you, dear.” Her tone didn’t match her words. “What do you want to do about Harry? I can hold his head under the water spout over there until he confesses. It’s some sort of torture they do to terrorists.”

  Meg swallowed her candy. “Terrorist, President of the Euphoria Homeowners’ Association—all the same to me.”

  * * *

  Andi heard a knock on her door an hour after she had slammed her purse on her dining room table and screamed obscenities at the ceiling. Luke had said he would be over after the meeting. If he told her to run for the board again, she couldn’t be held responsible for her actions. Yanking the door open, she shot him a warning glare.

  “Harry is evil. Pure evil!”

  “Okay . . .” he answered, obviously wondering if it was safe to enter the premises with her temper flaring. Stepping cautiously into the foyer, he carried a video camera in one hand and a bottle of her favorite white zinfandel in the other. He had changed into jeans and a white polo shirt that showed off his tan. “Sorry about the flyers with the picture of your sister. I would have never guessed Harry could sink that low.”

  “She’s not a hooker.”

  “I didn’t say she was.”

  “She’s not a hooker,” Andi repeated, tears welling in her eyes. “Take my word for it.” His opinion of her and her family mattered to her more than she cared to admit, even to herself.

  The house phone rang for the fourth time since she had arrived home. Reading Unknown Number in the caller ID box, she picked up the receiver and dropped it back down onto its cradle.

  “At this hour, it has to be another prank caller
wanting to book a ‘date’ with Jessie.” She unplugged the cord and let it hang against the wall.

  He set the camera and bottle of wine down on the dining room table before placing a strong hand on her shoulder. “I believe you. The last time I saw you in college, Jessie had joined the police force.”

  Andi’s breath caught in her throat. He remembered.

  “Don’t worry. I haven’t told anyone.” He wiped away the tears born of anger that were sliding down her cheeks. “I figured she might be working undercover, so I kept my mouth shut.”

  “You’ve known all along and never said anything?”

  “The truth is, it came back to me about an hour ago. When I saw the picture of Jessie on the flyer, my first thought was that James Stevenson would never allow one of his daughters to become a hooker. He’d lock her in a closet first.”

  Andi nodded her agreement.

  “Although I never believed she was a hooker,” he continued, “looking at the picture, I did notice she was in good shape. That’s when I remembered you once told me Jessie was running every morning to prepare for the police academy.”

  “You can’t say anything to anyone, Luke. Promise me.”

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I promise.”

  “No matter what?”

  “No matter what. If there’s one thing I learned dating you all those years ago, it is don’t mess with the Stevenson women.” The twinkle in his eye told her he was half-joking.

  “True.” She felt a smile tug at her lips while she studied his warm expression. He was a good man and would do the right thing to protect Jessie. She should have trusted him back in college to keep his sisters’ secrets. They were never life-or-death issues—usually overspending at the mall or a love gone bad. Andi never told because of the oath she shared with them. The sisters once swore to never tell anyone what they said in confidence. They should have made an exception to the oath for fiancés and husbands.

  Feeling the warmth of his hand on her shoulder brought on a yearning for better times between them. The temptation to relax into the feeling was overwhelming, but the need to avoid emotional pain remained strong.

  “Luke?” Andi stepped away from his touch. “I kept the fact Jessie was working undercover a secret, but you’re not upset.”

  Realization reached his eyes. “In this case, I understood because I knew the importance of your secret. Back in college, I was kept totally in the dark.”

  “I see.”

  He had a point. How could he gauge the importance of the secret unless he knew the subject matter?

  She realized she should have at least told him what her sister’s secrets were about, even if she left out the details.

  Maybe then he would have understood. I might have saved our relationship.

  Her gaze landed on the flyer she had left on the dining room table. Anger turned to rage. “Harry! He has to be stopped!”

  Over the last hour, she had plotted Harry’s pretend death a hundred different ways. Her sister was her role model, her hero. No one was going to turn her into the joke of the neighborhood and get away with it.

  “I have an idea.” Luke joined her at the table and held up the video camera. “This is going to nail Harry for you.”

  So this was the real reason he had wanted to come over tonight. “Why is this camera going to be any more effective than the one we already installed on the porch?”

  “Location, location, location. I’m going to plant this one out back, in the bushes, at the corner of the building. If Harry tries to dump anything on your porch again, we’ll catch him with this camera before he gets to your patio. I’m betting he won’t hide behind the umbrella until he gets near your condo.”

  Andi eyed the camera in his grip. “Aren’t you afraid Harry will fire your company for siding with the enemy?”

  “If we catch him, he won’t be in a position to fire anyone.”

  He sent her a warm smile and her heart ached. If he lost his job because of her, she could never forgive herself. He ought to remain neutral in this war. His mother’s retirement depended on it.

  “You don’t have to do this for me.”

  “Yes, I do.” He tapped her chin with his finger. “I’ll have this up and running in no time.” He strode over to the sliding glass door with the camera in his hand and a screwdriver sticking out of his back pocket.

  She grabbed a flashlight from under the kitchen sink, then followed him outside to act as lookout in case Harry showed up. The cool air sent goose bumps over her arms. Scanning the sky, she spotted an isolated star flickering in the night sky.

  Luke held her hand to keep her from falling when she crawled over the porch’s half wall and into the grassy common area. When they reached the bush, she held the flashlight as he set to work on installing the camera. The circle of light illuminated his biceps, which flexed with each move. She swallowed the lump forming in the back of her throat.

  He glanced her way, and she felt her cheeks blush.

  When he finished, he worked on her computer. “I set the monitor to a split screen so you can see the view from both cameras.” He swiveled the laptop for her to see. “Harry is as good as caught.”

  “Thanks. That was nice of you.” She held out a glass of wine for him.

  A guilty expression flickered over his face. “Nice has nothing to do with it. Harry has gone too far. I promise you, I’ll stop him.”

  Luke cupped her cheek with his palm. His eyes grew dark with unspoken thoughts. His intensity drew her in, capturing her like a spell. She felt her body lean toward him. He closed the distance and his lips touched hers. Her heart skipped a beat. Memories of kisses just like this one flooded over her. She kept her eyes closed long after the kiss ended, allowing the sensation to linger.

  When she finally opened her lids, she found herself confronting doubt. His doubt.

  “I’m sorry,” Luke whispered.

  “No. Don’t.” She turned away, unwilling to be hurt again.

  Why is he doing this to me?

  She fought back the tears threatening to spill over. “Let’s pretend it never happened.” She allowed her mind to drift to the day he had left her. The hurt. The excruciating pain in her heart. How she cried for hours. He was right. It was best to stop the insanity before history repeated itself.

  “It’s getting late,” she mumbled. “You should probably go.”

  The air grew thick with awkwardness and uncertainty as he left without looking back.

  TEN

  Andi forced herself not to think about Luke after he left. Out of habit, she picked her iPhone up off the dining room table to check her emails. Instead, she discovered Meg had left a message. Her perky voice sounded louder and even more excited than usual.

  “Andi, you have to get over here! Harry egged our garages and Roxie is out for revenge. She’s going to destroy his back porch and I can’t stop her!”

  “Oh no,” Andi moaned. No matter what the anti-board did, Harry blamed her. He would probably flatten her condo with a bulldozer after Roxie messed with his porch, and she would never be able to prove he was guilty. He was always careful not to leave evidence. She shrugged on a black sweater and rushed out the door to stop Roxie before it was too late.

  Andi crept behind Harry’s building, keeping close to the bushes. The moon slid behind the clouds, making it difficult to see, but the sound of hushed conversation gave away Roxie and Meg’s location. She ran from tree to tree until she reached the bushes behind the HOA president’s porch.

  “Psst. Meg! Roxie!” she whispered.

  Roxie scooped something out a bucket and slung it at Harry’s porch. Andi could see only small, dark objects.

  Curiosity and the need to stop Roxie forced her from her hiding place. She ran to the eccentric woman and grabbed her bony arm before she could launch another scoopful.

  “Stop!” Andi glanced at down at . . . worms. The fish bait slithered on top of one another in a paint bucket that had to be half-full. �
��Gross! Where did you get that many worms?”

  “Who’s out there?” Harry yelled in his usual coarse voice. Lights flipped on in the bedroom, then in other rooms as he traveled through the condo. Finally, the living room lights illuminated the back porch.

  Roxie swung the bucket toward Harry’s sliding glass door, emptying the contents. Slimy worms flew through the air and then fell. Some hit the glass, most fell onto his patio furniture. Meg took aim with her camera, snapping one picture after another.

  Andi could hear the voices inside coming closer. Her stomach lurched. “Let’s get out of here!”

  Roxie, having thrown the bucket into the bushes, already had twenty yards on them. Andi ran to catch up. Meg sprinted past them both, holding her cell phone high in the air.

  The din of their feet pounding the grass made it difficult to determine if Harry was in hot pursuit. A mental picture of him searching high and low for them fed adrenaline to her legs, forcing them to move faster.

  Rounding a corner, she ran smack into Meg’s back, bounced off, and fell onto the grass. Rubbing her knee, she caught sight of the cowboy ushering Meg and Roxie inside a condo. Andi picked herself up, quickly swiped at any grass that might be clinging to her pants, and then followed the two women.

  The cowboy, dressed in his usual faded jeans and long-sleeved shirt, pulled the door shut after her. The deadbolt locked with a resounding clack.

  What if he’s the killer?

  A shudder of alarm traveled up her spine, leaving the hairs standing up on her neck.

  The cowboy strode into his living room and over to a bar in the corner. “Can I get you ladies a drink? You must be thirsty after your exploits.”

  She raised her brow questioningly.

  He grinned in response. “I went outside to have a smoke and witnessed the whole shootin’ match.”

  “You mean Roxie’s shenanigans,” Andi clarified.

  Roxie looked at her like she was yesterday’s garbage. “Wimp. You and Meg are both wimps.”

  Meg shrugged off Roxie’s comment. “Water would be great,” she told the cowboy. “Got anything to eat?”