by Marta Perry
Turning back to the cozy room, she rubbed her arms, chilled even under the sweatshirt. “Maybe a cup of hot chocolate,” she said to the cat. “It’s that kind of night, isn’t it?”
Cat seemed to have no opinion on the subject, but he followed her to the kitchen. Lainey was reaching for the kettle when something that might have been a strangled cry sounded in the backyard. The wind, she told herself. It’s just the wind.
But when she turned, the cat was standing in the middle of the kitchen floor, his back ridged, his hair standing on end, his gaze fixed on the back door.
Another sound. A thud. And her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears it nearly blocked out the wind. Someone was out there.
She took a step back, grabbing for the cell phone that lay on the counter. The door is locked. No one can get in. Go back to the living room and call for help.
But the sound that came from beyond the back door pierced her heart. A child. Or a hurt animal. She couldn’t think only of her own safety.
Cell phone in one hand. Flashlight in the other. She was as ready as she could be. She bypassed the hissing cat and approached the back door. Grasped the curtain. Pulled it aside.
Her heart jolted. Something...someone...made a dark shadow at the foot of the steps. It moved slightly, a weak cry sounding.
Lainey fumbled with the cell phone. The police? She quailed at the thought of trying to explain to a stranger. Instead she hit Jake’s number.
He answered on the first ring, as if he’d been waiting for her call.
“Lainey?”
Just the sound of his voice, and she didn’t feel so alone.
“Outside. Someone is lying there. At the bottom of the steps. Hurt, maybe badly.”
“Stay on the line.” She could hear movement at his end. “I’ll call the police on my other phone. I’m on my way. Don’t hang up. And don’t open the door.”
She nodded, as if he could see her, and stared mesmerized at the door. She didn’t want to look again. But she had to. She had to know.
“Lainey? Are you still there?” He sounded afraid. For her.
“Yes,” she managed to say.
“Don’t open the door until I get there,” he said again. “I’m in the car. The police are on their way.”
A faint, mewling cry reached her ears. She had to look again. She pulled aside the curtain. A dark figure loomed over the person on the ground, stooping, raising its hand, curiously elongated, threatening—
“No!” She grabbed the knob, wrestling with the lock. She could hear Jake’s voice from the cell phone, shouting at her, telling her not to open the door, but she had to, she couldn’t stay inside and watch murder done—
The door gave to her frantic fingers. She swung it open, grabbing the broom that stood just outside. “Get out! Get away!”
Shouting, brandishing the broom, praying that would be enough to scare the figure away. “The police are coming!”
As if in response to her words, she heard the distant wail of a siren. The figure hesitated, hand upraised with something—a club, a bat—ready to swing.
And then it was gone, melting into the shadows.
Letting out a strangled breath, Lainey bolted to the prone figure, kneeling, shivering as the cold rain hit her. Not an animal, a person. Her fumbling fingers closed on the flashlight. Switched it on.
The figure lay facedown, ominously still. A slight figure. Dark clothing. Lainey forced her fingers to obey her brain, turning the circle of light onto the head.
Fair hair, darkened now by the rain. For an instant she thought it was Laura.
Then she realized her mistake. No. Not Laura. It was Thomas, lying sprawled at the bottom of her porch steps, his face deadly white, his skin cold, his body motionless.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
IN ALL THE confusion of police, paramedics, getting Thomas to the hospital, and assuring himself that Lainey was really all right, Jake didn’t have much chance to talk to her. Once things calmed down, he told himself. Then they’d talk this over calmly.
Lainey wanted to go to the hospital with Thomas, but Burkhalter insisted he had to hear her account of things first. Rachel had been a rock, promising to see that Thomas’s family was notified and to go herself to the hospital to stay with him until they arrived.
Burkhalter ushered her into the kitchen, closing the door firmly on his own people, who were searching the backyard, and the cluster of neighbors who’d gathered at the sight of police and paramedics.
“I still think I should have gone with Thomas.” Lainey sat down, shivering a little. “He’s just a boy. He should have someone there.”
“Rachel won’t leave him,” Meredith said, patting her hand. “I’m sure she’ll call us as soon as they know anything.”
Burkhalter sat down, opening a small notebook on the table. He eyed Meredith. “You might as well go home now. Excitement’s over.”
Meredith responded with a steady stare. “I don’t have anything else to do, and Lainey can use some support after all she’s been through.”
Jake exchanged glances with Meredith. They were both only too aware of Burkhalter’s habit of seizing the obvious answer in every situation. Meredith, having undergone the effects of his mistaken assumptions herself, was a good person to have around.
Burkhalter, apparently resigning himself to the fact that he wouldn’t get rid of either of them, turned to Lainey. “Now, Ms. Colton, the way I get it is that you’d found Thomas playing some tricks on you before.”
Lainey frowned slightly. “Yes, but once I...we...confronted him about it, that had stopped.”
“So when you heard someone outside your back door tonight, you maybe thought it was Thomas up to his tricks again.”
“No.” Lainey’s head came up as if she scented danger. “I didn’t think that at all.”
Jake moved casually around the table and put his hands on the back of Lainey’s chair—not touching her, but close enough to sense her every reaction. “What Ms. Colton thought is neither here nor there, Chief. She heard someone out back, and she called me for help.”
“Seems to me it’d make more sense to call 911,” Burkhalter said, his square bulldog face watchful.
“I did that for her.” Jake kept his tone even and casual. No point in making this confrontational unless he had to. “She told me she looked out and saw someone lying at the bottom of the steps. I cautioned her to stay inside, called you, and came right over.”
“That right, Ms. Colton?”
Lainey nodded. “Yes, I think that’s what he said.”
“Then why did you go outside?” Burkhalter shot the question at her.
If he’d hoped to unnerve Lainey, he didn’t succeed, but Jake felt her stiffen at his tone.
“I heard something that might have been a cry for help. I looked out, and I saw someone standing over the person lying on the ground. It—he or she—held something up as if about to strike. I couldn’t just stay in here and watch.”
“If what you say is true, the attacker might have turned on you,” Burkhalter observed.
“If—” Lainey’s voice rose.
Jake put his hands on her shoulders, feeling her tension. “That remark is verging on the improper, Chief Burkhalter.”
Burkhalter glared at him. “Just trying to get to the truth. Seems to me Ms. Colton might have gotten a little confused, hearing someone out there, trying to defend herself—”
“Ms. Colton has told you the truth.” The pressure of his hands urged Lainey to be silent, and she seemed to get the message. “She went out at considerable risk to herself to defend an unconscious boy from further attack. I’m sure an unbiased, thorough investigation will confirm her report.”
Their gazes clashed for what seemed a long time. Then Burkhalter’s fell. “Well, we’ll see what the boy has to say once the doctors let him talk.” He stood, hesitated for a moment as if he’d like to say something more, and then went out, slamming the back door.
“Every
time I think Burkhalter can’t possibly jump to any more wrong conclusions, he outdoes himself,” Meredith said. She stood. “I’m going to spend the night, so don’t even bother trying to argue about it,” she said briskly. “Jake, suppose you stay here while I run next door and get what I need. Then you can take yourself off.”
“Bossy, aren’t you?” He grinned, relieved at her automatic defense of Lainey.
“It’s the only way of dealing with stubborn people.” Grabbing her jacket, she let herself out the back considerably more quietly than Burkhalter had.
“She believes me.” Lainey sounded faintly surprised.
“Of course she does.” He let himself squeeze her shoulder and then sat down across from her. “Now, just a couple of things before Meredith comes back and kicks me out. You have no sense of who the other person was?”
“Don’t you think I’d tell you if I did?”
He smiled. “I’m glad to see your spirit is back, but save it for Burkhalter. If he should come by for any more little chats, even if he calls, you say you can’t talk to him without the presence of your attorney, right?”
Lainey looked as if she’d argue, but then she nodded. “It doesn’t matter. As soon as he talks to Thomas, Burkhalter will have to acknowledge that I was telling the truth.”
“About that.” He hesitated, not wanting to deliver bad news, but also not wanting her unprepared. “It looked to me as if Thomas had had a solid whack to the head. It’s entirely possible he won’t remember what happened. And even if he does, he may not have seen who hit him.”
Lainey pressed her lips together, as if to keep a protest back. “I suppose you’re right. If so...is Burkhalter seriously considering charging me with a crime?”
“I doubt it.” He couldn’t seem to keep himself from reaching across the table to clasp her hand. “Even if he could convince the district attorney that you hit Thomas, which I doubt, there would still be a presumption that you were defending yourself.”
She seemed to shiver, as if even the heavy sweater Meredith had insisted she put on wasn’t enough to warm her. “It’s crazy. I wonder—”
“What?” he prompted.
Her gaze met his. “I didn’t have a chance to tell you. I had an encounter with Laura this afternoon.”
“Laura. If we’re looking for someone unbalanced, she certainly fits. Did she threaten you?”
“Not exactly.” Lainey frowned. “The more I go over it in my mind, the more uncertain I am of her motives.”
“Tell me.” He held her hand in both of his.
“She was waiting in the parking lot when I came out of the rehab facility—soaking wet. I don’t know how long she’d been there. She kept saying we had to talk, and frankly, I kept trying to get away from her. Or at least, get her someplace where there were other people around.”
“I don’t blame you. What did she want to talk about?”
“Aaron’s death, I suppose. She wasn’t exactly making sense.” Lainey looked down at their clasped hands. “She kept saying that I knew what happened. Then she said I had to know, because I was there.”
His fingers tightened on hers. “That’s just what I was afraid of.”
“But I don’t remember anything. I’m not a threat to anyone.” She sounded as if she didn’t even convince herself.
It was his turn to stare at their hands, trying to see a path through this tangle. “She could have been the person who attacked Thomas.”
“But why? He has nothing to do with her or with Aaron’s death.”
He shook his head, frustrated that he didn’t have answers, only questions. “I don’t know. Maybe she came here hoping to get at you, and somehow he was in her way.” His jaw clenched, and he knew what he had to say. “Maybe the safest thing is for you to leave Deer Run.”
“No.” Her response was immediate. “I won’t leave.”
“For your own safety—” he began.
“No,” she said again. Her chin set stubbornly. “I promised Aunt Rebecca I’d stay as long as she needs me. I’m not leaving.”
“If Rebecca knew all the circumstances, she’d be the first person to want you to be safe.”
“She doesn’t know, and you can’t tell her. I won’t have her recovery upset by worrying about me.”
Jake studied her face. Did she even realize the contradiction between her determination to stay and her apparent conviction that she was just as lacking in commitment as her mother was? Probably not. He’d have to tell his dad that he could stop worrying about Lainey carrying her mother’s genes in that respect.
“You are one very determined woman, you know that?” He stood, bending over her, and tipped her chin up, letting his fingers move along the soft, warm skin. “Okay. We’ll fight it out together until we find the truth. But in the meantime, don’t go wandering off by yourself.”
“I’ll try not to.”
Her eyes seemed to grow darker as he leaned closer. He closed the distance between their lips, trying not to move too far, too fast, but she was responding, her arms going around him...
The back door sounded. With what seemed a lot of needless clatter, Meredith came in, juggling a grocery bag and a small overnight bag. Without looking at them, she put her belongings on the counter. “I had some breakfast rolls, so I brought them along in case you weren’t all that prepared for company.”
By the time she turned around, Jake had managed to take a step away from Lainey. Still, it was probably very obvious what they’d been doing.
“The perfect guest, aren’t you?” he said. “I’ll get out of your way. Lock up behind me, okay?” He touched Lainey’s cheek lightly. “I’ll call you in the morning.”
He went out, taking the memory of her bemused smile with him.
* * *
THE FACT THAT Meredith was still carefully not looking at her after Jake left brought Lainey’s defensiveness to the fore.
“I guess you saw that.” She might as well bring it out in the open. Meredith was bound to feel much closer to Jake than to her, wasn’t she?
Meredith’s steady brown eyes assessed her for a moment, and then she smiled. “Jake’s a good guy. If things work out for the two of you, I’m glad.”
“He is a good guy.” Lainey’s throat tightened. “But this whole situation...” She wasn’t sure how to go on.
But Meredith nodded as if she understood. “I don’t know if it helps, but much the same thing happened to me. When you get tangled up in a dangerous situation, emotions can run high.”
“So what did you do?”
Meredith shrugged. “Tried to wait and see if the feelings lasted once life got back to normal.” Her lips curved. “They have.”
Good advice. Lainey just wasn’t sure how well she’d do at the wait-and-see part.
“Strange, isn’t it?” Meredith’s thoughts seemed to be running along a different track. “That what happened that summer should come back to cause so much grief after twenty years.”
Lainey pushed her hair back wearily. “It’s hard to believe. Maybe I’m really like Chief Burkhalter—looking for an easy answer.”
Meredith took a pan of what seemed to be cinnamon rolls from her bag and paused, holding it in one hand. “If I’d been home that night Aaron died, maybe things would have been different.”
She was probably thinking of her mother’s death, Lainey realized, and she felt awkward, unsure what to say. She settled on a question.
“I don’t think I knew you were away. Where were you?”
“Staying overnight with some of my Amish cousins.” Meredith set the pan on the counter and smoothed the plastic wrap over it.
“Even if you’d been home, what could you have done differently that would have changed things? We were just kids, after all.” It seemed wrong that Meredith should blame herself or have regrets for something she couldn’t possibly have prevented.
“Nothing, I suppose,” Meredith admitted. “But if I’d been awake, maybe I’d have seen or heard something t
hat would have brought things out into the open.”
“Maybe. But honestly, I wish I hadn’t been here.” She shook her head in immediate denial of the thought. “No, I don’t really mean that. I wouldn’t trade my summer here for anything.”
“I’m glad. Rebecca feels the same, I know. To say nothing of Rachel and me. We wouldn’t want to do without our friendship.”
“Okay, don’t make me get all misty.” She smiled through a haze of tears. “To go back to that last day—” She paused and shook her head. “It’s frustrating how little I remember. When did you find out about Aaron?”
“The first I knew of his death was when I found one of my teenage cousins crying. I’d never seen anyone I considered an adult cry before. Then my aunt told me about Aaron.”
Lainey leaned back against the counter, trying to piece together her own memories of that day. All she could come up with were fragments: Aunt Rebecca looking tense and drawn, her great-uncle with a face set like stone; her mother hustling her to finish packing so they could leave.
“Did we see each other the day my mother came?”
Meredith shook her head, looking troubled. “I ran over here as soon as I got home. Rebecca stopped me on the porch. She said your mother was there to take you away. She looked...” Meredith paused, shaking her head. “I’m not sure how to describe it. Devastated, I suppose. I told her I had to see you to tell you about Aaron, but she said no.”
“She didn’t let you tell me?” Everything in her rebelled at the thought. “Aunt Rebecca wouldn’t lie to me.”
“I don’t suppose she thought it was lying. She was trying to protect you. It was strange, though. She said—” Meredith stopped, and Lainey wanted to shake the words loose.
“What did she say?”
Meredith looked troubled. “She murmured something in Pennsylvania Dutch. I didn’t speak it except with my cousins, but I understood. She might not have realized I did.”
A chill worked its way down Lainey’s spine. “What was it?”
“She said, ‘She doesn’t remember. She doesn’t know. It’s best that way.’”
