Abandon the Dark

by Marta Perry

  A frozen moment. Then he gave the slightest of nods.

  “Do you still think so?”

  He wouldn’t look at her. Instead, he shrugged—an infinitesimal movement of his bony shoulders.

  That was probably better than having him convinced she was a witch, she supposed.

  “I’m not,” she said. “I promise you.” She hesitated, but she had to risk asking the question. “Who told you I was a witch?”

  Thomas wrapped his arms around himself, as if shielding himself from her. He shook his head.

  “Was it your grandfather?”

  There was no denying the surprise in his face at that question. He shook his head, more firmly this time.

  Lainey studied the boy’s face. Her instincts said he was telling the truth, but if not Zeb, then who? Who else had reason to get rid of her?

  If Jake’s theory was correct, Laura did, but somehow Lainey couldn’t see a situation that would involve Laura Hammond telling Thomas such a story.

  “Well, I wish you’d tell me. Maybe one day you will.”

  She couldn’t miss the relief on his face that she wasn’t going to press him.

  “Just remember that I love Aunt Rebecca, and I’m here because she wants me. Okay?”

  Thomas darted another quick glance at her face. “Okay,” he said.

  Maybe she’d better be content with that, because it was probably the best she could do with the boy. Unfortunately, it didn’t get her much further ahead.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  INSTEAD OF GOING home after he left Lainey, Jake detoured to the police station. Lainey had made it quite clear that she didn’t want his protection tonight, but he was still concerned. Maybe she was afraid of the gossip that would result—gossip that might reach her aunt’s ears.

  Or maybe the point was that she didn’t want to spend the night with him. She had to be as aware as he was of the attraction between them. This might be her way of saying she wasn’t interested.

  Fair enough. If his ego was bruised, he’d get over it. But he still didn’t like the idea of leaving her alone in that house at night, and he wasn’t convinced that Chief Burkhalter was taking the attack on Lainey seriously.

  Parking in front of the station, he marched inside. If Burkhalter needed a little prompting to do his duty, Jake was just the person to provide it.

  He found Burkhalter leaning on the desk in the outer office, apparently deep in contemplation of the computer screen. That was surprising. He usually relied on the dispatcher to handle anything computer-related. The chief looked up at the sound of the door.

  “Jake. What brings you here? Looking for a client?” Burkhalter’s square, ruddy face was unusually jovial.

  “I want to talk to you about that attack on Lainey Colton. What have you done about it?” He suspected that the honest answer would be nothing.

  Burkhalter grinned. “I’ve solved it, that’s what I’ve done. Surprised you there, didn’t I? You figured I’d been sitting around all day doing nothing.”

  Since that was just about what he’d thought, Jake could hardly deny it. Burkhalter was well-intentioned and honest, but he never went out of his way to look for trouble.

  “That’s fast work,” he said. Diplomacy was probably the simplest way to get answers. “Who was it? How did you find him?”

  “Good police work, that’s how.” Burkhalter puffed himself up importantly. “Fact is, we caught a guy breaking into a house over on Elm in the middle of the night. Transient, looking to support a drug habit, as near as I can tell.”

  Jake managed to hide his surprise. Somehow he couldn’t believe in a totally random attack after everything that had been going on since Lainey came to town. “He confessed to attacking Ms. Colton?”

  “Well, no. Not yet. But he will.” Burkhalter swung the computer screen around so that Jake could see it. “Seems he was wanted in Williamsport for burglaries there, so they took him off our hands. Long as he gets locked up, what difference does it make who prepares a case against him?”

  And it would give Burkhalter the credit for an arrest without the tedious groundwork. Jake leaned on the counter next to him to read the information on the screen.

  “It looks like he’s been a busy boy,” Jake said. “Five break-ins in two weeks.”

  “The officer I spoke to in Williamsport said Goren probably thought he’d have an easier time of it in a small town. He didn’t reckon on the neighbors being quite so interested in what’s going on, even in the middle of the night.”

  James Goren, mid-thirties, six foot, two hundred pounds. A string of arrests for break-ins, several stints in rehab and in the county jail.

  “Ms. Colton said the person who attacked her wasn’t that much bigger than she is. Goren sounds pretty hefty.”

  Burkhalter shrugged. “Easy enough for the victim to be confused when something like that happens. The way I figure it, he probably thought the house was empty. An easy target.”

  Jake stared at him. “The lights were on,” he pointed out. “And he knocked on the door.”

  “Checking to be sure it was empty. He could easily have heard somebody mention that the owner was in the hospital.”

  “Doesn’t it seem needlessly violent for a burglar? Why attack Ms. Colton when she came to the door?”

  Burkhalter reddened. “Look, I don’t have to account for what’s going on in the fried brain of a junkie. Who knows? Who cares? The point is that he was caught a few hours later breaking into a house just a couple of blocks away. You’re not going to tell me that’s a coincidence.”

  “A random break-in doesn’t account for all the other odd things that have happened since Ms. Colton came to town.”

  “Yeah, I know, you told me. Anonymous phone calls, minor vandalism.” Burkhalter waved his hands. “Easy enough to see somebody was annoyed that Rebecca left a stranger in charge. You’re not going to suggest that was Zeb Stoltzfus rigged up in a Halloween costume, are you? Because I can’t buy that.”

  “What if it has something to do with Aaron Mast’s murder?” Jake knew the minute he said the words what the chief’s reaction would be.

  Burkhalter’s face reddened to a dangerous level. “Aaron Mast? That’s ridiculous! You think everything that happens in this town is connected with Aaron Mast. That case is dead and buried. Victor Hammond killed him. He confessed. We all heard him say it. That case is over and done with.”

  “That’s what you’ve been saying for twenty years, but it wasn’t true, was it?”

  Burkhalter looked on the verge of an explosion. “I don’t have to listen to this garbage. We caught the guy, and there’s an end to it. I’m going to call Ms. Colton and let her know the good news. And unless you have other business with the police department, you can clear out.”

  Burkhalter was as stubborn as the proverbial mule. Jake had to admit he had cause. They had all heard Victor’s confession. As far as the law was concerned, that case was closed. So where did that leave Lainey?

  * * *

  THE CAT HAD appeared at the back door right on schedule, just as Lainey was thinking about getting something to eat. Instead, she opened a can of the cat food she’d picked up at the store and leaned against the counter, watching him eat.

  “I should have mentioned you to Aunt Rebecca. She might want to know that you’re eating well.” Talking to the cat was better than listening to the silence, despite what she’d implied to Jake about being fine alone.

  Thinking about Jake was certainly counterproductive. “You’ve got the right idea,” she informed the cat. “Stay independent. That way you don’t get hurt.”

  Not that she intended to allow Jake to get close enough to hurt her. She couldn’t, not without telling him about Phillip, and everything in her cringed at the thought.

  Enough of that fruitless longing for something that was never going to happen. Lainey went back to the table, where she’d opened the scrapbook once again. Turning to the last page, she frowned. It somehow seemed so...unfin
ished to her.

  But she’d been through all that already. Her mother had appeared the day after the tragedy, ready to whisk her away to yet another new life.

  Had her aunt and uncle realized how much Lainey wanted to stay? But even if they had, even if they’d wanted to keep her, there would have been nothing they could do. A ten-year-old wasn’t allowed to make such decisions for herself, and Mom had been determined.

  Heaven only knew why. The fresh start had lasted no longer than any of the others had. If...

  Her cell phone rang. She picked it up and checked before answering. A local number, although not one she recognized.

  “Hello?”

  “Is that Lainey?” A female voice, vaguely familiar but not instantly identifiable.

  “This is Lainey Colton.”

  “I have to talk to you.” The voice dropped to a whisper. “Please, I have to talk to you.”

  Lainey’s fingers tightened on the phone. It was Laura Hammond. How had she gotten this number?

  “What can I do for you, Laura?” She wouldn’t let her voice show apprehension, even though her mind was filling with Jake’s suspicions of the woman.

  “We have to talk. In person, not on the phone. I have to see you.”

  A chill seemed to work its way down Lainey’s spine. The woman was unstable. Everyone said so. Still, Lainey could hardly refuse to talk to her on that basis.

  “Maybe we could meet for coffee tomorrow. Say at Miller’s Store?” A nice, safe, public place in the daytime—that was the only meeting site she intended to agree to.

  “Not there.” Laura’s tone sharpened. “No one must know.”

  “If you want to come to the house...” She let that trail off, not especially eager to entertain the woman here, either.

  “I can’t do that. Someone will see.” Laura sounded almost panicked at the thought.

  “Does that matter?” What was so terrible about the two of them talking?

  “You’ll have to come to my house,” Laura said rapidly. “Not now. There are still people here. Later tonight. Come around eleven.”

  “I can’t do that.” Well, she could, but she certainly wasn’t going to. Jake’s suspicions might be totally wrong, but she still didn’t intend to be alone with a potentially dangerous woman on her own territory late at night.

  “You have to. It’s the only way. I have to tell you—” Laura’s voice broke off, and it seemed to Lainey that she heard another voice in the background. Did Laura have a housekeeper or a nurse? It seemed doubtful that she was living alone.

  “Laura?” She said questioningly, and found she was staring at the “Call ended” notification.

  She clicked off, dropped the phone, and rubbed her arms. Did an encounter with someone who was not quite rational always leave you feeling chilled? Or was it that she couldn’t dismiss Jake’s theories about Laura from her mind?

  “I need something to warm me up.” Cat, cleaning himself after his dinner, looked unconcerned. “Maybe a cup of tea.” She set the kettle on the stove and switched on the gas, busying herself getting out a mug and finding a tea bag.

  But when she turned back to the table, she found a young Laura’s face staring up at her from the scrapbook page. That Laura had been young, alive, in love. Not at all like the Laura she’d just spoken with.

  Why would Aaron’s death have affected Laura so badly after all these years unless she’d had something to do with it? Even if she’d been there and witnessed it, surely she’d have told someone by now. But if Laura had been the one to push him into the dam that night—

  A sharp knock on the back door startled her, sending the mug clattering to the table. It couldn’t be Laura, her rational mind insisted. She couldn’t have gotten here that quickly, not if she’d been at her house.

  Still, Lainey picked up the cell phone, holding it ready to dial. Foolish or not, if the person outside looked in the least suspicious or threatening, she was calling 911. She peered through the small pane of glass in the door.

  But it was Jake, looking neither suspicious nor threatening. She opened the door quickly. “You startled me. Why did you come to the back?”

  He stepped inside, lifting his brows in surprise. “I could see you were in the kitchen. What’s happened?”

  “Nothing happened exactly.” Belatedly she realized that she’d intended to keep Jake at arm’s length, and here she was turning to him the instant there was a problem. “Laura Hammond called.”

  Something shrieked. It took a moment for Lainey to realize it was the kettle. The cat, affronted, raced toward the living room.

  Jake reached out to move the kettle off the burner and turned back to her, very close. “Suitable sound effects,” he said, and his smile eased some of her tension. Or at least replaced it with another kind—that intense awareness of his presence. “Why did she call?” His smile vanished. “What did she want?”

  “To talk. But not on the phone. She wanted me to come to her house tonight. Late.” Lainey rubbed her arms, feeling that chill again. “She was very insistent.”

  Jake took her hands in his, warming them with his touch. “I trust you refused.”

  “I did.” She tried to repress a shiver. “It was odd. But then, Laura always seems odd, just from the little I’ve seen of her. Doesn’t she?”

  He nodded. “She hasn’t been what anyone would call normal for years, although she’s been much worse since Rachel returned and the talk started about Aaron’s death.” His fingers stroked her hands. “You were smart to turn her down.”

  Lainey drew her hands away slowly. Reluctantly. The sad fact was that she couldn’t think straight when he was doing that.

  “But what if Laura knows something? Should we really pass up the opportunity to hear what she has to say?”

  “Maybe not, but I still don’t think you should risk talking to her alone.” He frowned. “Burkhalter would have a stroke if he heard about it. He’s determined that whole story was buried with Victor.”

  “Was that why you came back? Because of Burkhalter? He called me about the burglar, you know.”

  “I figured he had.” Jake’s frown deepened. “I tried to talk to him about the situation, but he was so pleased with himself over catching a burglar that he wouldn’t listen.”

  “Maybe he’s right.” She could tell she didn’t sound very convinced.

  “Why would a burglar attack you when you opened the door? That’s not typical behavior. The man is six foot, two hundred pounds. Does that sound like the person you encountered?”

  Burkhalter hadn’t mentioned that detail. “No. I might not be able to identify him, but I’m sure he wasn’t nearly that big.” She might have known it wouldn’t turn out to be that easy.

  “I told Burkhalter that, but of course he wouldn’t listen. He just keeps saying we heard Victor’s confession. Which we did.” Frustration evident in every line of his body, Jake drove his hand through his hair. “He can’t see that Victor would have done anything for Laura, including take the blame for Aaron’s death.”

  “What started out as our fairy tale really was a tragedy.” Lainey stared down at the drawing in the scrapbook.

  Jake shifted position to follow her gaze. “No one found a happily ever after, that’s for sure.”

  “If things had been different...” She touched the pictured young faces. “They really seemed to be in love, but would it have lasted?”

  “First loves.” He sounded nostalgic. “My first love was Amy Waller. She wore her hair in a ponytail and sat in front of me in math class. I’d stare at it, mesmerized right through long division.”

  Lainey smiled, as she suspected he’d intended. “That can’t have helped your math grade.”

  “No, I can’t say that it did. As I recall, the teacher moved me to the front row after the first marking period.”

  “And that ended your romance?” She leaned back against the table, enjoying this glimpse of Jake’s early life.

  “I’m afraid it did.”
He shook his head. “Maybe just as well. She married Seth Michaels, had five boys, and rules the roost with an iron fist.”

  “She probably has to, with all those males in the house.”

  Jake grinned. “Well, we were only nine when I fell for her ponytail, so I had plenty of time to get over it. What about you?”

  She shrugged, not eager to talk about her early years. “We moved so often that I was always the new kid. By the time I made friends, my mother was ready to move on.”

  “Why?”

  A simple question that didn’t have a simple answer. “Who knows? She was restless. She’s never been able to stay in one place for long. Or with one man.” Might as well get that out in the open.

  “Maybe she wanted something she didn’t find.”

  “Or someone.” She shrugged. “She always claims she’s unlucky in love.”

  “What about you?” Jake’s voice seemed to drop. “Are you unlucky in love?”

  “You might say that.” She tried for a lightness she didn’t feel. “My love life has been one disaster after another. Maybe, as I’m sure my Uncle Zeb would say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

  “I can’t buy that,” he said. “Certainly Rebecca doesn’t believe it about you, and I have a lot of faith in her judgment.”

  Somehow she thought neither he nor Aunt Rebecca would look at her the same if they knew exactly how much grief she’d caused with her last relationship.

  “What about you?” she said quickly, hoping to divert him before she was forced into lying. “Don’t tell me you’ve gotten to thirty without any serious relationships.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “You really want to hear my sad story?”

  She nodded. “Of course.”

  Jake leaned back against the counter. “I met her when I was in law school. Fell head over heels, and there was no ponytail involved.” He shrugged, seeming to lose the half-teasing mood he’d had when he started. “We were engaged before I realized we wanted entirely different things in life. Not much of a basis for marriage, so I broke it off.”