Abandon the Dark

by Marta Perry

  Maybe that was just as well. She’d be better off communicating the plans for Rebecca to a less antagonistic member of the family.

  Lainey turned to the room to find her cousin Katie standing at the door. Obviously she’d heard, and dismay was written plainly on her round, normally cheerful face.

  “You heard?” Lainey took her arm and guided her back into the room. She didn’t intend to have another family wrangle in the hallway where anyone might hear.

  “Lainey, you are not thinking of putting Aunt Rebecca in a nursing home? You wouldn’t.”

  “No, I’m not. Really.” She ought to try and have some members of the family on her side, and Katie was a good place to start. “The doctor said that if she improved, she should go to the rehab center. That’s where she’ll get the help she needs to start walking and talking again. You see?”

  Katie nodded a little doubtfully. “But couldn’t we do that at home? I’m sure she’d rather be in her own house while she gets better.”

  “I know how you feel.” She pressed Katie’s work-roughened hand. “But we haven’t been trained in how to help someone who’s recovering from a stroke. The rehab place has people who understand all that, and they have all the equipment, as well.”

  “Ja, I see that, all right. But Aunt Rebecca should have people who love her around her.”

  “I’m sure the nurses and therapists will let us help. They can even show us what to do when Aunt Rebecca does come home.”

  Some of the worry eased out of Katie’s face. “I would like that, that’s certain sure.” She glanced toward the hospital bed. “But I don’t see that she’s much better today.”

  “She was yesterday,” Lainey said, moving to the bed. She leaned over to kiss her aunt’s cheek. “Aunt Rebecca, it’s me, Lainey. And Katie is here, too. Won’t you open your eyes for us?”

  Nothing happened. Katie clasped Rebecca’s hand in hers. She murmured something softly in Pennsylvania Dutch.

  Rebecca’s eyelids fluttered. Her brow creased a little, as if she struggled to understand something. Then she opened her eyes.

  “There, see?” Pleasure mingled with relief. “It wasn’t just a fluke yesterday. She’s getting better. You are, aren’t you, Aunt Rebecca?”

  Rebecca’s hand moved, and Lainey clasped it warmly in hers. She glanced at Katie.

  Tears were spilling down Katie’s face, and she didn’t make any effort to wipe them away. “Ach, Rebecca, I am sehr glad you are waking up.”

  Rebecca’s frown deepened. Her gaze flickered around the room.

  “You’re in the hospital,” Lainey said quickly. “It’s all right. You had a bad fall, but you’re better now.”

  Aunt Rebecca’s lips curved in a smile. “Lainey,” she murmured.

  “That’s so,” Katie exclaimed. “She’s come all this way to take care of you.” Her smile glowed through her tears. “Ach, it’s a shame she didn’t open her eyes when Zeb was here.”

  Lainey nodded, although it occurred to her that Rebecca might not have been eager to see her brother-in-law. But that was probably just prejudice on her part.

  Katie was talking in Pennsylvania Dutch again, leaning close to Rebecca. Lainey studied her face, showing such pleasure at the smallest step. Katie was probably about her mother’s age, but there the resemblance ended.

  Her mother’s face had been touched up as she’d said so many times that she could no longer show much emotion at all. Perfect hair, perfect makeup, perfect weight—Mom was fighting every inch of the way to stay young.

  Katie was frankly middle-aged, and it didn’t seem to bother her in the least. Her face, free of makeup, showed the life she’d led in her plump cheeks, natural color and honest wrinkles.

  Katie returned her gaze suddenly, her eyes filled with tears. “You were right,” she said. “Rebecca must go to the place where they can help her best, and we’ll do all we can.”

  Lainey could practically feel her longing to do something positive for Rebecca. “You know, they might need someone who speaks Pennsylvania Dutch to help with her speech.”

  “Ach, that would be a joy to do.” Katie’s face beamed. “I’ll come every day.”

  She looked ready to start any second now.

  “We’ll have to talk to the doctor about when they’ll be ready to switch Aunt Rebecca to the rehab unit,” Lainey cautioned.

  Katie nodded. “That’s so. But I think it’ll be soon.” She smiled at Rebecca and got a smile in return.

  Rebecca still clasped Lainey’s hand, and Lainey was heartened by the strength of the grip. Her aunt really was doing better. Maybe Lainey ought to bring up the possibility of selling the mill property.

  Still, that might just worry her, and there wasn’t a need to have an answer so quickly. Even once it was advertised, the property would take time to sell.

  “I don’t know where Zeb got that idea about a nursing home.” Katie shook her head. “Just getting upset for no reason—that’s Uncle Zeb all over.”

  That was an interesting question, it seemed to Lainey. She hadn’t discussed it with any of the family, so what had made him make that accusation?

  A memory slid to the surface of her mind—of herself hurrying into the dining room, getting ready to go to Rachel’s for supper, and finding the folder with the list of nursing homes misplaced. She might have done it herself, of course. Or—

  “Do many people have keys to Aunt Rebecca’s house?” she asked.

  Katie looked surprised. “All the family does, that’s certain sure. So we can get in when she needs help. Is something wrong?”

  “No, nothing.” She thought fast, not eager to offend Katie, of all people. “I’m just accustomed to locking the door when I leave and at night, and I wouldn’t want to lock anyone out.”

  “Ach, no need to worry about that. Goodness knows how many keys there are floating around the family.” Katie was cheerfully unconcerned.

  Lainey wished she could have that reaction. No doubt Zeb had a key, and if he’d wanted to take a look at Lainey’s papers, he could do so easily.

  And not only that. There was Thomas, his grandson, working right across the street, in a perfect position to keep an eye on her.

  * * *

  JAKE PERCHED ON the edge of his desk, nursing a mug of coffee and watching his father pace to the window and back again. It was obvious Dad had something on his mind, and his conversation about the weather had been a sort of verbal throat-clearing.

  From lengthy knowledge of his father, Jake suspected that meant there was something Dad wanted to bring up but was reluctant to do so. If Jake didn’t make an effort to move this along, they could be here all day.

  “What’s up, Dad? Did I insult a client or behave in a manner inappropriate to an attorney?”

  Dad blinked. “No, of course not. Sorry. I have to confess to a bit of curiosity about the situation with Lainey Colton. Has she indicated how long she intends to stay in Deer Run?”

  “Not really.” Jake made setting his coffee mug down an excuse not to meet his father’s eyes, afraid his face might betray too much of his feeling about Lainey and that kiss. “But she seems committed to help her great-aunt as long as she’s needed.”

  He glanced up to find that his father was studying his face.

  “You find her...um...attractive, do you?”

  Jake tried to hide a grin. Dad had been so reluctant to discuss the facts of life that he’d handed off the traditional father/son talk about sex to Jake’s mother, which had been embarrassing for both of them.

  “Lainey is attractive, yes.” Beautiful, even. Was Dad assuming something based on the amount of time Jake was devoting to her? “I don’t plan to do anything inappropriate with a client, though.”

  That wasn’t a lie. He hadn’t exactly planned on that kiss.

  “Properly speaking, it’s Rebecca who is our client. Our responsibility is to her.”

  Jake studied his father’s face. Poor Dad, tiptoeing around the subject.


  “Look, whatever it is that’s bothering you, why don’t you just come out with it? It’s obvious you have some reservations about the situation.”

  His father sighed. “I suppose you’re right. I may be misjudging the young woman, but given her mother’s behavior, I can’t help being concerned.”

  “Her mother?” Jake’s eyebrows lifted. “What does her mother have to do with anything?”

  “Maybe nothing. Maybe...” Dad sighed. Shook his head. “Deanna Colton was always a problem. Rebecca worried about her, and Isaac worried about Rebecca’s caring for her.”

  “I’ve gathered that Lainey isn’t especially close to her mother.” Now that he thought of it, he wasn’t quite sure how he had come by that impression, but there it was.

  “That might be all to the good. Deanna was hardly a candidate for mother of the year. She made several efforts to get money out of her aunt, and more often than not, Rebecca shelled out. She couldn’t bear to think of the little girl—Lainey, that is—doing without, from what Isaac told me.”

  “He talked to you about it?” That was surprising.

  Dad nodded. “I don’t suppose he’d have brought it up, but he wanted to be sure that if something happened to him, Rebecca would be protected.” Dad shrugged. “Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could suggest that he was willing to do.”

  Jake considered that. “The summer Lainey came to stay—how did that come about?”

  “That was a perfect example of the woman’s attitude.” He father sounded annoyed, even after all these years. “She just showed up with the child in tow, no notice, no letter, nothing. She claimed she’d just dropped by for a visit. And then she slipped away in the night, leaving the child behind.”

  “Does Lainey know that?” Jake asked, his tone sharp.

  “I doubt it. Certainly Rebecca and Isaac wouldn’t tell her. They made her welcome, of course, but Isaac worried about how attached Rebecca became. He was afraid she’d be upset if Deanna turned up and took the child away. Which, of course, was exactly what she did.”

  “Poor kid,” Jake said softly, an image of a small Lainey in his mind. “She got shortchanged in the parent department, didn’t she?”

  Dad nodded. “Apparently the father was completely out of the picture, and as for Deanna...well, she was a taker. Always was, always will be, most likely.”

  “You’re probably right,” Jake said. “But what does all this have to do with what Lainey’s doing now?”

  Dad looked unhappy. “It’s not that I don’t trust your judgment. I’d just like to know you’ll be cautious in your dealings with her. Rebecca is our responsibility, after all. And Lainey...well, what if Lainey turns out to be just like her mother?”

  CHAPTER TEN

  IT HAD BEEN a mistake, Lainey decided, to start looking through the scrapbook when she was going to bed last night. She glared at her reflection in the mirror. A night haunted alternately by sleeplessness and nightmares didn’t do much for one’s appearance.

  She patted a touch of concealer on the dark circles under her eyes, decided that looked worse, and wiped it off again. People would just have to take her the way she was.

  People, in this case, referred to whoever she might find visiting in Aunt Rebecca’s room, followed by the physician and the social worker again this afternoon. If all went well, they’d be able to finalize Aunt Rebecca’s move to the rehab facility, tentatively set for Monday.

  She turned away from the chest of drawers and her gaze fell on the scrapbook where she’d left it the night before, lying open on the oval hooked rug next to the bed. Stooping, she picked it up, smoothing the page. Rachel probably wouldn’t appreciate it if the scrapbook was damaged while in her care.

  The page facing her was one of her drawings from that summer. She’d apparently imagined a castle scene, with an unmistakable Laura dressed as a princess and Aaron her handsome knight. There was a certain amount of subtlety to the drawing that surprised her. She’d only been ten, but she’d managed to suggest that Aaron and Laura saw only each other, ignoring the supporting figures that looked on.

  Too bad that early talent hadn’t matured as she might have hoped. Dreams of being an artist in Paris had been shunted aside by the necessity of earning a living, and her imagination had been channeled into commercial art, persuading people to buy certain products and eat at certain restaurants.

  Lainey frowned. The picture seemed to be trying to tell her something. The jester was apparently meant to be Victor Hammond. A bulky guard with a vacant face stood behind the princess, while in the shadows lurked a wizard. Laura and Aaron saw none of them—only each other, caught in their romantic dream of happily ever after.

  Lainey closed the scrapbook firmly and slid it into the top drawer of the dresser. Happily ever after was a child’s dream—not something that occurred in real life unless, perhaps, one was either very lucky or very good. And she wasn’t either of those.

  Trotting down the stairs, Lainey grabbed her handbag and jacket from the hook in the front hall and hurried outside, locking the door carefully behind her.

  Making a mental list of all that had to be done, Lainey hurried to the car. As she reached for the door handle, she stopped, heart sinking. Both tires on the driver’s side were flat.

  Both tires? This was stretching the long arm of coincidence a bit too far. It might be time to report this harassment to the police.

  A door closed, and she turned to see Meredith coming toward her across the lawn. “Problems?” she asked.

  Lainey gestured. “As you can see.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I could change one, but two—”

  Meredith’s gaze flicked from one tire to the other. “This can’t be an accident.”

  “No.” It couldn’t be.

  “Rachel told me about the problems you had while I was away.” Meredith’s frown deepened. “I don’t like this. Halloween pranks are one thing, but deliberate vandalism is another. Do you have any ideas?”

  Lainey shook her head. Oh, she had ideas, but none she wanted to share. “I had hoped not to involve the police, but I think I’ll have to.”

  Meredith’s smile was strained, reminding Lainey that she’d apparently been under suspicion at the time of her mother’s death. She sought for something tactful to say, but nothing came to mind.

  “Yes, I think you should. In the meantime, let me call a local garage for you. All right?” Cell phone in hand, Meredith raised her eyebrows in a question.

  “That would be great, thanks. I don’t really know anyone.” And she suspected that Meredith, with her take-charge manner and businesslike incisiveness, might get better results.

  Meredith was crisp and brief on the phone, and she clicked off with a satisfied smile. “I called Armstrong’s Garage. Someone will be right out.” She paused. “Would you like me to wait with you?”

  Lainey shook her head. If was obvious, given the neat pants outfit Meredith wore and the portfolio she carried, that she’d been heading out on business.

  “I’ll be fine. Thanks again so much.” She paused, but surely Meredith would realize Rachel had told her where she’d gone. “I hope you had a good time in Pittsburgh.”

  Meredith’s face softened, eyes sparkling. “Wonderful. You’ll have to meet Zach. He’s coming here in a couple of weeks.”

  Lainey managed a smile. Would she even be here in a couple of weeks? She felt oddly adrift at the thought.

  “I’ll look forward to it.”

  “Good.” Meredith started toward the garage on the far side of her house, and then turned back. “By the way, Rachel and I are hoping you’ll go to the Apple Festival with us on Saturday. It’s a Deer Run tradition you shouldn’t miss.”

  “Sounds like fun. If I don’t have to do anything for Aunt Rebecca, I’d love to.” Doing something just for fun? That would be a break from routine.

  “Good. I’ll check with Rachel and set up a time. See you later.” With a quick wave, Meredith hurried off.

  Lainey
wasn’t sure what happened at an apple festival, but she appreciated the offer, though she had to admit that she still felt as if this friendship with Rachel and Meredith was rather lopsided. They seemed perfectly ready to pick up where they’d left off twenty years ago, while her memories weren’t much clearer than the night she’d arrived back in Deer Run. Still, despite that lack, she felt a bond with them that she’d seldom experienced.

  A blue pickup with Armstrong’s Garage emblazoned on the side pulled up a few minutes later. The man who climbed out wore the usual blue-and-white pin-striped coveralls with a black-and-gold Pirates ball cap. Coveralls, she decided, must come in extra-large sizes, because the man was massive—big, broad-shouldered, and running to flab.

  “Hear you have a flat.” He approached, fixing her with the curious stare that she’d begun to get used to.

  “Two of them.” She pointed out the obvious. “I could have changed one, but I don’t have an extra spare.”

  “Don’t s’pose so. Let’s see what we got here.” He squatted, peering at the nearest tire. “Not so bad as all that. Looks like somebody just let the air out.”

  The relief that swept over her took her by surprise. “Just a prank then,” she said.

  He stared at her for a moment. “Not a very nice one.” He took the ball cap off, wiped his forehead, and settled it again. “Kids are getting meaner about Halloween and starting earlier, seems like. Shoot, it’s not until Monday.”

  “I’m glad they didn’t damage the tires any worse.” She glanced at her watch, mindful of her appointment with her aunt’s doctor and social worker. “Will it take long to fix, Mr....?”

  “Armstrong,” he said, nodding to the name on the truck. “You can call me Moose. Have it done in a few minutes. Just let me get the pump.”

  That was the name embroidered in red on the coveralls, then. Moose. It seemed familiar. He seemed familiar, for that matter.

  And then she realized. Of course he seemed familiar. She’d just been looking at her own drawing of him. He’d been the guard in the picture of Laura.