by Ann Yost
“Are you happy to see me, Lucy?”
“More than you know.”
“Are you goin’ to stay with us forever?”
It would have taken a harder heart than Lucy’s to admit the truth. That she couldn’t stay forever.
“I’ll stay, honey. I’ll stay as long as you need me.” She meant it, too.
****
It gave Jake a queer feeling to watch Lucy’s Jeep disappear down Molly’s lane. He didn’t want to let her go. He knew it had hurt her to see him with Hallie and the baby. Hallie must be right. She must care about him. She probably thought she was in love. Twenty-two-year-old women always thought they were in love. He sighed. He didn’t know what to say to her. He was no longer sure that it was right to marry Lucy. She really did have her whole life in front of her. Who was he to tie her down?
At least her brother was off the hook.
He drove over to the Trading Post-slash-community center to touch base with Davey Tall Tree who hadn’t yet figured out who had taken the war arrow off the display. He spoke, once again, to several of the young males gathered there to play pool. They were typical, bored kids, underemployed and a little rowdy. He couldn’t convince himself that any of them had a motive to kill Nate Packer.
Jake handed Davey a few bills for a sandwich and a soda and got some advice back with his change.
“You might want to talk to Molly Whitecloud,” he said.
“Already did. Just now.”
The chief’s pudding face creased into a thoughtful look.
“She’s a fine woman, Molly. Been single a long time.” He paused. “You single, Sheriff?”
Single. Widowed. Divorced. Jake didn’t try to explain his marital situation. He nodded.
“I heard you got a coupla kids.”
“A boy and a girl.”
“Molly’d make a fine mama.”
Jake bit back an exasperated sigh. Why hadn’t he seen that coming?
He nodded, not wanting to encourage the conversation.
“Don’t look like Cam Outlaw’s gonna do nuthin’ about her. Thought mebbe they’d get together but it seems like they’re finished.”
Jake nodded again but he didn’t agree. Whatever was going on between Cam and the midwife, it was far from finished. He drove out to the casino site, got out of the Blazer and leaned against it as he ate his lunch. It was so quiet out here. He closed his eyes and imagined that it was two hundred years earlier, that the wooded area was still filled with tipis and campfires and the sounds of children playing. What had Molly heard out here that night? Birds? Maybe an owl? Or had the murderer been waiting for Nate, either in his own car or in the construction trailer? Why had Packer stopped here in the dark, after the meeting? He was the kind of guy who might have had a woman on the side but Jake thought that was unlikely considering his apparent devotion to Paula.
He might have had a deal on the side, too.
If he was working with the Jersey mob, he might have met a representative out here but Jake didn’t think so. Packer wasn’t the sharpest arrow in the quiver but he knew how to look out for himself. He’d have known better than to plan a clandestine meeting with a mobster.
Jake opened his eyes and gazed at the budding leaves on the deciduous trees on the site’s perimeter. Budding leaves. He could hear birds singing and chirping but there was no rustling sound.
Damn. If Molly was telling the truth, she had heard somebody out here. It had to be someone who’d arrived in his or her own car and departed the same way. It had to be someone Packer had arranged to meet. Not Cam, apparently. Not Moore, who’d been with him at the Tribal Council. Paula? Shirley? Claude? X?
Jake unlocked the construction trailer and took a look around. Nothing had been touched since last week when he and Homer had searched it thoroughly. Not that there had been much to search as construction hadn’t yet begun.
He stepped outside and drew in a deep breath of fresh air. The area had been gone over with a fine tooth comb but Jake did it again, this time pretending he was stalking a victim who’d parked not far from the trailer. Molly said they’d heard the sound of one car engine. Did that mean Packer and the murderer had arrived in the same vehicle? Or, had the murderer arrived earlier, hidden his car on the old logging road and lain in wait for his victim?
They’d found no tire tracks on either of the dirt roads but the heavy rain, followed by the next day’s snowstorm would have obliterated any trace.
Once again Jake closed his eyes and, taking advantage of the afternoon’s peace, he employed a trick taught him by his mentor back in L.A., one Patrick McGillicuddy. Mac had said that to solve a murder, study the victim. Jake let his mind drift and swirl, focusing generally on what he knew about Nate Packer.
The guy was sixty, outgoing, charismatic and self-centered. He flaunted his wealth with a gaudy mansion and an even gaudier trophy wife. He flaunted his athletic prowess, too, with those safari kills. He’d wanted a son to carry on his name badly enough to jettison a smart and loyal wife and to humiliate his lifelong best friend. The weird thing was, neither of those two seemed to have put up much of a fuss. Why?
Jake had thought from almost the beginning that the murder seemed personal. Claude’s role in Packer, Inc. had changed but he was still Packer’s personal attorney and friend. Shirley Packer was the woman scorned. She’d struck him as a sensible woman with a somewhat chilly personality. Had that extended to the bedroom? Had Packer wanted a more enthusiastic sexual partner? If so, he may have been disappointed. In Jake’s experience, overtly sexual women tended to be bored or boring when push came to shove. That’s the way it had been with Ariel.
His mind kept reverting to the first Mrs. Packer. She was lean and fit. What if the legend of the great white hunter was just that? What if Shirley had been an archer, too, but, to placate her husband’s ego, she’d lied about her own participation in the safaris?
The same could be true of Moore, although Jake considered that less likely. The attorney did not seem athletic in the least and, in any case, he’d shot the photos.
The case was coming together. It was like working a jigsaw puzzle. If you stared at the shapes of the pieces and the slight variations in color long enough, a picture began to emerge.
At the moment, Jake’s money was on Shirley. She had an alibi, of course, but they all had alibis. That’s what he’d check next. Those alibis.
The sun dropped below the tree line and the budding branches splintered the sunlight. Jake realized he’d been out here for hours. Time to head home. The prospect filled him with a warm anticipation which he knew was only partly because of the children. Lucy would be there tonight. Lucy would be in his home.
With Lucy there, they seemed like a family.
He needed her, dammit and the kids needed her. Suddenly he didn’t care that she was only twenty-two and had her whole life in front of her. He wanted that life to be spent with him.
Suddenly, at five-fifteen on a May afternoon in the middle of M-15, Jake Langley faced the truth.
It had started out as infatuation but this thing between him and Lucy, well, it had grown into something else. He shook his head. Jake wasn’t a man who believed in happily ever after but this twenty-two-year-old, this fledgling woman trying so hard to prove herself, had changed his mind.
He was in love with Lucy.
The sun had disappeared beneath the horizon by the time Jake turned off Third Street and onto Cypress. It was that mystical time when day was ended but night had not yet begun. The neighborhood was quiet, the children back in the houses getting ready for bed. Parents were getting their second wind and looking forward to an uninterrupted evening of television or reading or talking or making love. Jake felt breathless, strangely alive and, to tell the truth, turned on. He was going to tell her tonight. He was going to propose again. And this time he was going to do it right.
He pulled up in front of his house and blinked. Everyone in Eden seemed to be on his front lawn. He scanned the crowd fo
r Lucy but it was Hallie Scott Outlaw who caught his eye. Her face was gray with worry.
An uneasy fist pounded into Jake’s gut.
Something was very wrong.
Chapter Ten
It was Moonbeam’s tear-streaked face that converted Jake’s uneasiness into pure terror. The sobbing girl, her fingers gripping Lillie’s hand, stuttered an explanation he couldn’t begin to understand.
Luckily, Hallie was right behind her.
“Sam didn’t come home from school.” The veterinarian was trying to keep her voice calm. “Homer, Baz, Cam and half the town are out looking for him. We’ve checked with all the neighbors and all his friends.”
Sam was missing.
Jake heard a buzzing in his ears and Hallie’s voice receded. It was the sensation he’d had back in L.A. while he watched a teenage drug kingpin pull a gun on him. This couldn’t be happening. Only it was. Where the hell was his son?
“Daddy?”
Lillie’s small voice cut through the clouds of panic.
Jake scooped his daughter into his arms. It wasn’t anxiety he saw in the green eyes. It was guilt. Jake sucked in a breath and deliberately softened his expression.
“Where did Sam go after school?”
“We was upset about Lucy.”
Jake frowned. “What about Lucy?”
“She went away.”
“She went to work, like she always does.”
Lillie’s curls bounced as she shook her head.
“She’s not coming back.”
Jake frowned. “What makes you think so?”
“We heard her talking on the phone.”
He ignored the wrench in his heart. He couldn’t think about that now.
“We’ll talk about that later. Tell me about Sam. Where did he go after school?”
Her eyes, like Lucy’s, were easy to read. He knew she was trying to calculate what the truth would cost her and he forced himself to wait.
“We want Lucy to come back,” she said.
The cell in his pocket rang and he answered it.
“Langley.”
“It’s Lucy.” She spoke quickly. “Sam’s here with me.”
He felt a bolt of knee-weakening relief but it was quickly followed by fury. He deliberately enunciated his words. “Where. Are. You?”
“At my apartment. We’ll be there in a few minutes. And, Jake, I know you were scared out of your wits but don’t be too hard on him. They overheard something I said to Hallie on the phone and thought I was going to leave. This was our fault.”
Fear and frustration flashed into fury. His arms tightened around his daughter and he lashed out.
“Sounds like it was your fault.”
“Daddy, you’re hurting me.”
He hung up the phone and reported the news to the others. Hallie contacted her husband and the other searchers then sent the neighbors home while Jake planted himself at the end of the driveway. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on Sam and Lucy. He wanted to strangle them both.
Minutes later Jake watched her park the Jeep, unbuckle the child’s seatbelt and hold his hand as they crossed the street. He didn’t think he’d ever been this angry in his entire life. Not even when Ariel decided to take off leaving him with the babies.
He ignored Lucy and knelt down to speak with the boy.
“I’m glad to see you,” he said, annoyed to hear the tremor in his voice. “Tell me what’s going on here, son.”
Sam’s eyes were swollen from crying but his grin was proud.
“I brung Lucy back.”
Dear God. Sam thought he’d rescued the little witch. Like father, like son. And Lucy, well, she should be ashamed of herself. What kind of a mother figure needed to be rescued all the time?
“All right, Sam.” He hugged the boy and kissed him. “We’ll talk about this later. Let’s go inside and get some supper.”
Jake knew he needed to talk to both of the twins. He needed to explain exactly why it wasn’t safe for them to take off without telling the adult in charge. He needed to make clear to them that the stunt they’d pulled was unacceptable behavior. He knew he couldn’t have that conversation tonight.
He was too damned mad.
He met Lucy outside Lillie’s room after the twins had been tucked in.
“On the porch,” he said.
She lifted her little pointed chin but she didn’t argue. They stood at the railing, side-by-side and gazed into the backyard. There was enough light from the house to give the trees a pleasant glow. The evening air felt welcome against Jake’s heated skin. In more than a dozen years as a cop he’d learned how to be cool in a crisis. This afternoon he’d felt like Mount Vesuvius in the days of Pompeii.
Not cool at all.
He turned his back to the railing and studied his temporary nanny. Her dark curls were wind-tossed and her cheeks were as pale as the new moon rising behind the apple tree. Another wave of fury swept through him. Jake’s fingers curled around the railing and he fought for control and waited for her to speak.
“The twins made a plan. After school, Sam was to go to Walnut Street to find me and Lillie was to cover for him. Only I wasn’t there. He waited on the landing outside the apartment for more than an hour. The clinic was closed and I guess it didn’t occur to him to go up to the house. I am so terribly sorry.”
He heard the genuine remorse and his anger softened. Slightly.
“Why did you tell Hallie you were going to leave?”
The big-eyed gaze met hers. He couldn’t see the summer sky-blue tonight, just the clarity and youth. It made his heart ache.
“I was frustrated. This situation is difficult for all of us, Jake. But I made a mistake. The twins need stability.”
“They have me.”
“They need more than that.” He controlled the flare of anger. She was right, of course. They needed another parent.
“We should have made it clear to them, right from the start, that I’m only here to fill in. I was pretending that I belonged to them and to you and, of course, they sense all of that.”
He was unaccountably hurt, partly because he knew she was right. He and Lucy had been playing at being a couple and the kids had misunderstood.
“The obvious solution is for you to remarry.”
He struck his forehead with the heel of his hand. “I never would have thought of that!”
Lucy ignored the sarcasm.
“I’ll stick around until you figure out a permanent arrangement.”
“You’re gonna live with me while I’m dating the next Mrs. Sheriff Langley?”
“This isn’t about us, Jake,” she said, her eyes steady on his face. “They need to see the same face every day when they get up in the morning and when they get home from school. It’s up to you whether it’s a wife or a housekeeper or whatever.”
“I’ll get right on that. How do you advertise for a ‘whatever’?”
The heat had gone out of his voice. Suddenly he felt her hand on his forearm. It was just a sympathetic touch but it sent sparks of heat ricocheting through his body.
“Why don’t we get engaged?”
He hadn’t meant to say that and she clearly wasn’t expecting it. But he knew, immediately, that it would solve all his problems. His life was a shambles and he could no longer afford to worry about whether marriage was right for a woman as young as Lucy or whether he could even make the engagement stick. He needed this now to get Maxine off his back, to settle the household so that he could focus on his work and to placate the kids. And he could move Lucy into his bed. That was the cherry on top. He excused himself for a moment and returned with a small box that he handed to her. She opened it and appeared to study the one-carat princess-cut diamond in the platinum setting.
“Did this belong to your ex-wife?”
He wasn’t going to lie to her.
“Yes.”
She nodded but said nothing.
“What d’you say, Lucy?”
“I’
m thinking.”
At least she hadn’t rejected him out-of-hand. He decided to plead his case.
“We get along well.”
“Most of the time.”
“We’re attracted to each other.”
“This would be a fake engagement, Jake. Attraction doesn’t count.”
“You love the kids and I think you love being in a family, too.”
“All right,” she said, straightening her shoulders as if preparing for battle. “I’ll do it, but with two conditions.”
There was a broad grin inside him and it kept trying to break out. She’d said yes.
“Anything.”
“You have to agree to talk to Maxine Slocum.”
“What?”
“The Slocums are the twins’ grandparents, Jake. Sam and Lillie need them.”
“Well, hell. What’s the other condition?”
“It’s a temporary arrangement.”
“Of course, it’s temporary,” he snapped, still focused on her first ridiculous condition. “It’ll end as soon as we marry.”
Her eyes, older and sadder, wrung his heart.
“Not in this case. The engagement is a bridge to more stability for the twins. Once that’s in place, we’ll call it off.”
He felt a weird hollowness under his heart. He’d wanted Lucy for keeps. But Jake, thirteen years her senior, knew that circumstances often took on a life of their own. Today, she was fake engaged. By next week, it could have turned into the real thing. Jake realized he wanted Lucy enough to take that chance.
“Deal.”
His cell phone rang and he held Lucy’s gaze while he answered it.
“Langley.”
“Hey, sailor, you’re an hour late.”
He grimaced. Christ. He’d forgotten about the make-up date he’d planned with Marilyn Hart.
“I’m sorry, Marilyn.”
“I hope you’re still planning to come. Believe me, I can make it happen.”
Her crude joke elicited nothing in him but a vague distaste.
“I can’t make it tonight or any other night,” he said, staring into Lucy’s hooded eyes. “You might as well be the first to know. I’m going to marry Lucy Outlaw.”