Silence in the Dark

by Patricia Bradley

  Oh, but he did. He stared down at the dark liquid that had grown cold. God couldn’t use him when he was to blame for his mother wrapping her car around a bridge abutment. If he’d only gone to the store when she’d asked him, she wouldn’t have driven herself on icy roads. He shoved back from the table and dumped the coffee in the sink.

  She pushed her Bible toward him. “Ever read this?”

  He turned around. “Some of it.” When he was a kid, his mom had read it to him and taken him to church. Then, he’d tried to read it again when Bailey made it plain she wouldn’t date him if he didn’t.

  “What did you think?”

  “What I understood sounded good, some of it even like a fairy tale, but I just can’t buy into it.”

  “One day, Danny, you’ll discover the Bible is true. That God’s forgiveness covers everything.”

  He started to protest, but the look in Kate’s eyes stopped him. It was the same look his mother had given him when he’d disappointed her. “You don’t understand. I wanted to believe it because it means so much to Bailey. Jesus healing all those people and preaching about love and raising that guy from the dead. Talking about forgiveness. I’m sorry, but I believe some of the things I’ve done are unforgivable.”

  “Like your mother’s death? You were just a kid, Danny, and you made a mistake.”

  “How did—”

  “Bailey told me a long time ago what happened.” Her eyes softened. “Do you think your mother would forgive you if she had the chance?”

  His throat tightened, making it hard to swallow. “She did—in ICU before she died.”

  “Do you think she’d want you to still carry that burden?”

  She wouldn’t, but that didn’t make it any easier to let it go. “Why did she have to die so young?”

  “Christians aren’t promised a long life or one without problems.” She refilled her cup and held the pot up. “Would you like more?”

  “No, I’ve had enough.”

  She tapped the worn book on the table. “I have to start breakfast in a minute, but first I want to ask you to do something for me.”

  Whenever his mom had said those words, he’d known he wasn’t going to like what came next. He tilted his head to one side. “And what’s that?”

  “Read the Gospels.”

  His heart sank. “I don’t know if I can wade through all those thees and thous again.”

  “Hold on a minute.” She left the table and in a minute came back with a book in her hand. “Try this one. It’s written in today’s language and in the order it happened. Might be a little easier for you to understand.”

  She held it out, and he took it and flipped through the pages. He would read it, but he wasn’t promising anything.

  At eight, Danny pulled into the Maxwell Industries parking lot and waved at one of the employees as he shut his car door.

  “Aren’t you going to lock that?” Ian asked from behind him. “And why aren’t you in Mexico?”

  He turned. Mr. Bright and Early was dressed in a Hickey Freeman suit and probably a two hundred dollar tie. He ignored his cousin’s questions. “Do you know where Dad is?”

  “He’s in the boardroom, waiting for us to join him. Edward Montoya is arriving midmorning, and I assume you’ll be here to meet him since I’ve never met the man.”

  “You assume wrong. I have something I need to do.”

  “But we’re starting negotiations on the contract this afternoon.”

  “Sorry. You can handle it without me. You’re better at negotiations than I am, anyway.”

  “Does it have to do with Geoffrey Franks? Because if it does, you need to let it go. You’ve spent entirely too much time on this Mexico connection. The lawyer called yesterday, said you were at Franks’s place last week.”

  “So? I never saw or talked to him.”

  Ian sighed. “He saw you, and you know you’re not supposed to go around him.”

  Danny keyed in the door code, then opened the door and let Ian go first. “My business has nothing to do with Franks, but I still can’t stay. Bailey needs me to take her to Corning.”

  “Bailey’s home?” Ian’s expression added the question he didn’t ask. And she’s talking to you? “When?”

  “She flew back with me yesterday along with a couple of friends.”

  “Why does she need you to take her?”

  He shrugged. “Why not?”

  “I thought—”

  He grinned. “That’s your trouble, cuz, you think too much. And be prepared to conduct the negotiations ’cause I’m out of here in five minutes.”

  Bailey burrowed deeper under the quilt, not quite ready to get up yet. Maybe it wasn’t even time. She lifted her left arm to check her watch. Ten o’clock? No! She was late for school. She threw back the fleecy blanket and sat up.

  Wait. She rubbed her eyes as her pounding heart slowed. She wasn’t in Mexico. Yesterday’s events came flooding back. Beside her Maria stirred and reached for the blanket. “I’m cold,” she said in Spanish.

  Funny how even with an American mother, the child defaulted to Spanish. Bailey tucked the blanket around her and slipped out of bed. There was so much to do today, and she hated that she’d overslept. Coffee. That’s what she needed. Slipping on a terry cloth robe she’d found in her closet last night, she padded downstairs in her bare feet.

  Her mother stood at the sink. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

  “I wish I’d told you to get me up by eight. Now I’m way behind.”

  “It’s just barely eight now.” Her mom pointed at the kitchen clock. “And I put your favorite mug out.”

  Bailey stared at her watch. She’d somehow managed to move her watch forward three hours instead of just the one that Chihuahua was behind Logan Point. She poured coffee in the earth-toned mug and opened the refrigerator. “Any cream?”

  “Half-and-half is in the back.”

  She’d been hoping for something hazelnut. Or French vanilla. Another item to put on her list to pick up. “Is anyone else up?”

  “Danny came down earlier. We had a nice talk.”

  Uh-oh. “About?”

  “Oh, he sort of filled me in on what’s been happening.”

  Double uh-oh. Bailey stirred her coffee, hoping her mom would drop the subject.

  “What are your plans?”

  She took a sip of coffee. “First, I have to shop for more clothes for Maria and Solana. I’m sure Danny told you we didn’t bring anything other than what we had on.”

  Her mom nodded. “And those are on the dryer, ready for them.”

  “Thanks. I really appreciate that you washed them.”

  “What do you plan to do about Maria?”

  Bailey rubbed the back of her neck. “First thing I’m going to do is call Ben and see if he got in touch with Joel. Then I’ll try the grandparents again. I don’t understand why they’re not home. If they still don’t answer and we have no word from Joel, I have the directions to their house in Corning. It’s only an hour and a half away—I’ll leave Maria here, and Danny and I will drive over to see what’s going on.”

  “And if you find the grandparents, are you going to take Maria to them?”

  “I don’t know. I’m hoping they’ve heard from their son.” Bailey sipped her coffee. Not quite strong enough to walk but strong enough, just like she liked it. Cupping the mug in her hands, she walked to the double windows that looked out over the pasture. Frost blanketed the field where she and her friends had ridden horses. That seemed so long ago.

  Her mom joined her at the window. “I’ve missed you.”

  Bailey leaned into her.

  “You’ve been through a lot since you left.”

  Tears sprung to her eyes. Her mother didn’t know the half of it. “I’m okay.”

  “Are you? I know that first year was bad.”

  Bailey stepped back. The eight months she spent in Copper Canyon haunted her, but the way she ran from the problem haunted her even more.
“How—”

  “Your letters.”

  “But I didn’t say anything.”

  “I know—it’s what you didn’t say. Anytime you want to talk, you know I’ll listen.”

  “I know, but not right now. I better go check on Maria.” Bailey didn’t want to confront yet another of her failures just yet or how she’d let Father Horatio intimidate her. She stopped at the hall door. “Is Danny still here?”

  “Charlie took him to get his SUV. Angel’s upstairs, though.”

  Bailey stepped back into the kitchen. “What do you think of Angel?”

  “He’s very intense.”

  “I know, and he’s so protective of Maria. Solana too, for that matter. But I think Danny trusts him.”

  “He must,” her mother said. “He left Angel here to go get his SUV.”

  It didn’t surprise Bailey that Danny wanted someone here to protect them. Her heart fluttered. Yesterday she’d seen a different side to him. Just thinking about how he risked his life for her . . . Why couldn’t things be different? Why couldn’t she give him what he wanted? And why did he have to tell her last night that he still loved her?

  Because that was Danny. Honest. Plainspoken. She ought to be more like him. She pushed the thought away and grabbed the clothes on the dryer. “I’ll take these upstairs.”

  A moment later, she tapped softly on Solana’s door, and in less than a minute it opened. “Yes?”

  “Mom washed your clothes. Later today we’ll go shopping.”

  “Gracias, but I have no money.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  Solana lifted her chin. “But I do. I want to pay my own way. And I want to return to Mexico.”

  Bailey didn’t know how to answer her. In her place, Bailey would feel the same way. “Let’s just take one day at a time. And I don’t know how safe it would be for you to go back.”

  “Then I will go to my sister’s.”

  “You’ll have to talk to Angel and Danny about that.”

  When Bailey came back downstairs half an hour later with Maria, Danny had returned, and he and Angel and Solana were in the kitchen, eating breakfast. “Hey, leave something for us,” she said, then turned to Maria. “Would you like biscuits and eggs or cereal?”

  Maria pointed to Angel. “What’s he eating?”

  “I’m eating the best biscuits in the world,” Angel said. “Would you like to taste?”

  She nodded and ran to him, surprising Bailey. The two had bonded from the start. Something that had taken her a good week to accomplish with Maria.

  “Can I sit on your lap?”

  “Most definitely.” He pulled her up. “This biscuit has butter. You want?”

  Maria glanced at Bailey, a question in her eyes.

  “You don’t have to ask,” Bailey said. “Eat all you want.” She had to have a talk with Joel. Maria was not a small adult, she was a child and needed to be treated like one. An arrow struck her heart. What if he was dead? No. She wouldn’t think about that. “Has Ben Logan called this morning?”

  “A few minutes ago. Joel still doesn’t answer, but Ben left him a voicemail.”

  She walked to the phone mounted on the wall and dialed the grandparents’ number from memory. After more rings than she could count, she hung up. “They still don’t answer.”

  “What time do you want me to drive you to Corning?” Danny asked. “Angel and Solana can stay here with Maria.”

  “In thirty minutes?”

  “Sure, but aren’t you going to eat?” Danny asked.

  “Cereal.” She poured little squares of frosted shredded wheat in a bowl and cut up a banana. “Robyn said she’d help out with Maria and should be here before we leave.”

  “She doesn’t have to bother,” Angel said.

  But Bailey wanted her here. Angel’s secretiveness disturbed her. Even though he’d helped save their lives yesterday and he’d totally captivated Maria, she felt he was hiding something behind those dark eyes. “It won’t be a bother for her.”

  Forty-five minutes later, she and Danny had left Logan Point behind and traveled eastward in his luxurious black Escalade.

  “There’s something for you on the backseat. It’s in the white bag,” he said.

  “For me?” She twisted around and found the package he was talking about. “What is it?”

  “A new phone. The rep said she was able to retrieve your contacts and set up your email from the cloud.”

  “Yes!” Bailey hated to admit she’d been lost without her phone. She opened the package and gasped. “This is the latest version!” If he wasn’t driving, she’d plant a kiss on his cheek.

  “It has all the bells and whistles.”

  “I don’t know what to say, except thank you.” She turned the phone on and scrolled through the emails that showed on the screen. One was from the school where she taught, and she started to open it when she saw one from Elena that came yesterday. Pastor Carlos must have helped her get an email account. Bailey slid her finger across the screen, opening the email, and grinned at the greeting.

  My first email!

  Her grin faded as she read on.

  I hope everything is good. I am continuing the Bible classes at the church, and many of the women come. Father Horatio is very angry. So angry I think maybe his blood will boil. But the women are so happy to be here. I will need more material when you return. Email me when you come back to Mexico!

  Love, Elena

  P.S. Please do not report what we saw.

  “Bad news?” Danny asked.

  “Sort of. My friend Elena has angered the village priest, and he can be very nasty. She says she’s made his blood boil.”

  “What kind of priest is this?”

  She frowned. “He’s not really a priest, more of a shaman. He’s the man I saw in the restaurant.”

  “Do you think he’ll harm her?”

  “I don’t know. He’s involved with the Calatrava, so he’d have the means. But Elena’s husband has some standing in the village, and I don’t think he will let Horatio hurt her.” Unlike the woman who accused the priest of fathering her child. She’d been beaten so badly she was permanently crippled, not that it could be proven that Father Horatio did it.

  She reread the email. “She’s asking me not to report a poppy field we stumbled on when I was there.”

  “Poppies? As in opium?”

  “Yes. It’s a poor village, and the farmers there are growing them so they can take care of their families.”

  “But don’t they know what that stuff does?”

  “They do. But I think they justify it when they see their babies’ bellies swollen from not having enough food to eat.”

  “That’s sad too.”

  “Yes, it is. I’ve learned some hard things in Mexico. But I did mean to report the field when I got back to the States, not that it would do any good. I need to talk to Ben about it. Let me answer this, and I’ll put my phone away.”

  “No hurry. We still have at least an hour.”

  It hit Bailey just how much Danny had altered his schedule to accommodate her. “I just realized I haven’t thanked you for driving me to Corning.”

  “It was better than the alternative.”

  “Alternative?”

  “You coming by yourself.”

  She rolled her eyes at him, but at the same time part of her bristled that he thought she couldn’t take care of herself. She’d seen this protectiveness earlier, and she understood where he was coming from, that he was scared for her. But she was thirty-one years old. He wasn’t her father, and he couldn’t tell her what to do . . . or not do. Not that her dad ever had any luck with that, anyway.

  With a sigh she responded to Elena’s email and put her phone away. As soon as they returned, she needed to report the poppy field to Ben. He’d know the right authorities to contact in Mexico.

  Without the phone to distract her, silence settled between them, a silence that became increasingly uncomfortable.
All she could think about was Danny’s declaration last night. “I still love you, Bailey, even if you don’t love me.”

  “Do you mind if I turn the radio on?” she asked.

  “No.”

  At least the music drowned out the silence or rather it and Danny’s fingers tapping on the steering wheel.

  She couldn’t stand it any longer. “About last—”

  “Bailey—”

  Silence again. “You first,” she said.

  “No, ladies first.”

  He would pull that card. She sucked in a deep breath. “It’s . . . not that I don’t love you.” There. She’d said it. Admitted to herself as well that she still loved him.

  “But we don’t share the same values.” He finished her sentence.

  She smoothed a wrinkle from the pants she’d found in her closet. The shape her faith was in, it wasn’t even that. “I can’t . . .” She moistened her lips.

  He turned his head toward her. “You can’t what?”

  “Some things happened that first year I was in Mexico. I—”

  “Did someone hurt you?”

  She shook her head. “Not physically.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  That made two of them. “It’s not something I want to discuss. I just want you to know, you’re not the problem. It’s me. I just don’t know who I am anymore.”

  13

  Joel sank into the leather seat of the corporate jet. He’d slept little last night and hoped to catch a nap. Across from him, Edward worked on his tablet. The man never let up, and Joel was certain his passion to succeed was one of the reasons the man had never married. A relationship took an investment of time, and Edward Montoya only had time for making money.

  Joel cleared his throat. “Can you tell me why my password didn’t work when I tried to access my backed-up files?”

  “There was an attempt to hack into the system. When we return, you’ll get a new password.”

  “What if I need my files before then?”

  “Why would you need them? You won’t be working while we’re in the States.”

  Joel dug his fingers into the armrest. When Montoya was like this, it did no good to try and change his mind. Even if Joel’s whole world was crumbling before him. He settled back in the seat and closed his eyes and tried not to think about his problems.