Protecting Holly

by Lynn Bulock

  “And can probably hardly wait to go home and get into something more comfortable,” the pastor said with a smile, looking over at Hannah and Sarah in their velvet creations.

  “I’ll agree with them on that score,” Liza said cheerfully. “I have a pair of slippers with jingle bells on them that I’m going to swap for these pumps the minute I get in the door at home.”

  Jake knew she would, too. His mother was very formal and put-together outside the house in her roles as civic leader, mayor’s wife and benefactor to the various charities around town, especially the Galilee Women’s Shelter, but she didn’t stand on ceremony once she was home. Ten minutes after all the cars were parked on the big circular drive of the house, Liza was wearing her slippers, and a fancy Christmas apron over her dress, and shuttling between last-minute chores in the kitchen and making sure his father had lit the huge Christmas tree where Jake, Adam and Colleen were all unloading boxes and bags of presents for the family.

  “Wow, two surprises in one morning,” Colleen said, motioning toward Jake’s neatly wrapped pile of gifts. “Since when do you get time off work to shop?”

  “I had a little help,” Jake said, unwilling to say more, but needing to tell the truth to his sister, even if it was only a partial explanation.

  “Cool. I hope it’s the same help that got you to church this morning. I wouldn’t mind seeing both of you wild men settled down, you know,” Colleen said, with more fervor than Jake thought possible. His sister, with her spiky hair, and sharp attitude, a closet romantic? It made his head spin.

  Jake knew that if he stayed long enough after dinner and presents, his mother would find him for a chat. Early in the day that sounded like something to be avoided, but by the time Colleen had left for a short shift at the newspaper and Adam, Kate and his father had settled in to start a round of the board game Frank had gotten for Christmas, Jake welcomed the chance to help his mom clean up the last of the dinner dishes.

  Liza Montgomery could have had servants and caterers to handle occasions like Christmas dinner, but she didn’t bother with anything that pretentious. Several years since his father had been elected mayor, the family had foregone Christmas dinner altogether to work together at one of the missions or centers for the homeless, serving dinner there. Until this year Jake had just figured that was a good public relations ploy on his father’s part, but now, with the mustard seed of faith growing inside him, he thought it might be something else.

  This year it had been nice to have dinner as a family without any other interference. He would have enjoyed spending part of the day with Holly, but she was still in Cripple Creek and he was here in town, and for the present their relationship had to stay that of boss and assistant, anyway.

  “I’d offer you a penny for those thoughts, but it looks like they’re of the heavier variety,” his mother said, nudging him so that he noticed the dishes piling up in the sink in front of him, waiting to be dried.

  “Yeah, you’re right,” he agreed. “I’m trying to figure out how to get my assistant to date me without losing the best office help I’ve ever had.”

  “You can’t have everything,” his mother said succinctly, pulling the stopper on the sink. “Which would you rather have, a good assistant, or the company of a good woman like Holly Vance?”

  “For the next week I’ll have to settle for a good assistant. We’re too deep into the trial prep to do anything else. But once that’s over, I’ve got to come up with a way to change our relationship. That is, if Holly will let me.” He frowned down at the dish he was drying, wondering how much to tell his mother. He couldn’t betray any of Holly’s confidences, but he needed advice from someone like his mother on how to best proceed here.

  As if she’d read his mind, his mom stopped rubbing hand lotion into her hands and looked up at him. “Holly’s an incredible woman, you know, Jake. The talks I’ve heard her give to some of the clients at the women’s shelter have demonstrated a faith far beyond most women her age.” Liza’s green eyes searched his face, trying to discern how much to say.

  “She told me about things that happened in Cincinnati,” Jake said, knowing that he wouldn’t be revealing anything from his statement that Holly hadn’t already said. “How much do you know about her life there?”

  “Most of what there is to tell, I expect. But given the context in which I’ve heard her story, it wasn’t something I could share with you as her boss.” His respect for his mother grew at that moment, if it was possible to have any more respect for her than he already had. “I figured that she would share that some day, when she was ready. What moved her to the point of readiness?” she asked, succinct as always.

  “We’ve been working very closely on this trial. And working out on her brother’s ranch we got even closer. One night I ended up taking her in my arms, and my emotions got the best of me when we kissed. I don’t feel very good about that. If I’d known what I know now, it never would have happened.”

  “Perhaps it was supposed to happen, Jake.” His mother’s voice was soft, yet confident. “I don’t believe in too many coincidences in the Christian life. I believe God puts us in certain situations for good reasons, even though they’re beyond our understanding. Maybe that was one of those times. Would you be willing to entertain that possibility?”

  “I guess so. It certainly isn’t any stranger than anything else I’ve seen or thought about in the last few weeks, including being willing to consider that God is working in my life to begin with.”

  “Good.” His mother put an arm around him for a brief hug. “And I’ll keep praying that He goes on working in your life, and you stay just as open to that work.”

  “Mom, I can’t think of anybody else I’d rather have praying for me,” he said, meaning every word of it. Well, perhaps there was one other person he’d love to have praying for him, but he wasn’t sure she’d be praying for him all that much in the near future.

  On Sunday afternoon, Holly drove to Rose’s office, feeling oddly nervous about seeing Jake. By the time she got to the office, Jake and Rose were deep in conversation about the evidence from Barclay’s computer, with Jake going over the data. “Try to explain it to me as if I’d never done more with a computer but turn it on and perhaps check my e-mail or play solitaire,” she could hear Rose saying.

  “That’s going to be hard,” Jake grumbled. “Surely we can assume a higher degree of computer literacy on the jury pool than that.”

  “Surely we can’t,” Rose said. “It would be great if we got more, but it certainly isn’t something we can count on. In fact, there will probably be at least one in the twelve or fourteen, with the alternates, who doesn’t even go that far.”

  She looked up to the doorway where Holly stood. “Hi, there. Come on in and try to help your boss out. He needs it.”

  “She’s got that right,” Jake said, pulling out the chair next to him. “You have any ideas on how to explain this simply?”

  “Hey, if she could teach you to make coffee, she can explain this, no problem,” Rose cracked, giving Jake a sassy grin. Holly had to hide one of her own in answer. It wasn’t fair for both of them to pick on Jake at the same time. He already looked frustrated enough.

  Holly sat down next to Jake, aware of her closeness to his long, rangy body in the next chair. He looked as good in his khakis and sweater as he would have in the suit he usually wore to work. She’d enjoyed seeing Jake in casual clothes for a week. Tomorrow morning in the office it would be strange to see him with his standard white shirt and conservative tie again. But of course he’d be wearing them, because the trial would start before day’s end and they’d both be going to court.

  Sitting there, Holly had an idea. “How about trying to explain the evidence on the same level that you explained to Aunt Lidia how to work the ordering system on the café’s computer terminals? You did that just fine.”

  Jake’s smile brightened. “Yeah, I did, didn’t I? And the two of us were facing the double barrier of you
r aunt’s reluctance to touch the computer and the fact that she says she still thinks in Italian, although her English is better than anybody’s I know.”

  “Except Aunt Marilyn’s,” Rose added, wrinkling her nose. Holly’s mother was the only person ever to give Rose a challenge in Scrabble.

  “Yeah, but Holly’s mom probably has better computer skills than this theoretical juror we’re using, given that she works for the newspaper. From what my sister says about things at the Sentinel, everybody is computer literate down there.”

  “She’s right. I’d definitely go with Aunt Lidia as a model here,” Holly said. She watched Jake think about the problem, running one hand through his already rumpled blond hair. Now there was a task she’d like to help him with, she thought. It almost made her blush to consider it. After talking to her mother yesterday, she wasn’t going to totally give up on Jake yet. First they had to get through the trial, and then they could think about other things.

  “Jake, you coming up with a plan here?” Rose did everything but poke him across the desk. “We’ve got a lot to cover in a few hours, and I’d like to go home eventually.”

  “I’m sure you would,” Jake muttered. “We’ve all got a big day tomorrow. How much of this is your boss letting you handle, anyway?”

  “Your testimony is the biggest thing,” Rose said. “That in itself is a huge deal, because after the preliminary stuff you’ve given me, Kirk is sure that you’re going to blow the defense out of the water.” She stood and stretched. “I could use another cup of coffee. Any other takers?”

  Holly demurred, but Jake took her up on her offer, and Rose went into the outer office to pour two mugs. “Thanks for returning my Jeep in such good condition,” Holly told Jake while Rose was gone. “If I didn’t know better, I would have said it had been washed and detailed.”

  “Just a little quick touch-up in my parents’ driveway,” Jake said. “And there’s one other thing I need to tell you about it, while we’re on the subject—”

  “Okay, here’s the coffee, with cream, no sugar. And I thought of a way to explain these layers of codes and passwords to a jury,” Rose began, putting down Jake’s mug as she talked rapidly. Whatever Jake was going to say about the Jeep got lost in the shuffle. In moments they were deep in conversation as the three of them bent their heads over Jake’s reams of testimony for the trial that would begin in earnest in the morning.

  Chapter Nine

  On Monday morning Jake hardly had time to take his coat off and settle in before he had a small squabble with Holly. “I should probably stay here and keep things going while you go to the trial,” she said, looking around the office.

  Jake shook his head. “Not a chance, Holly. Not that much is going to happen in the next two days. The time between Christmas and New Year’s isn’t that busy to begin with. Everybody who could find a way to stay home this week will do so. And until I’m positive that Barclay’s hired help has given up, I’m not letting you out of my sight during daylight hours.”

  “I hadn’t thought about that part. Do you think there’s still somebody out there?” Holly looked more worried than she had in several days. Jake almost felt bad for bringing up the stalker. Still, it was important, and he was already uncomfortable just letting her drive to and from the office alone.

  “I can’t say for certain that there isn’t. Just because we’ve had two days back in town without him latching on to me, or you, doesn’t mean he’s given up. Until the trial is over and Barclay’s in prison someplace, I’m not going to rest easy.”

  Jake didn’t tell her that he wouldn’t truly rest easily on this subject until they’d hauled somebody in on charges, but they didn’t have to go into that now. For now he needed a little help getting the last-minute things ready for the trial, and then they’d go over to the courthouse. “Have you talked to Rose or Kirk yet this morning?” Holly asked.

  “They’re planning to make opening statements before the noon recess, so we need to get over there soon,” Jake said. “And I do mean we. No more arguments about staying here, okay?”

  “If you say so. I do want to see you testify, anyway. And I want to see Rose in her lawyer mode,” Holly admitted. “I haven’t gotten a chance to do that very often, and it’s quite a show.”

  “I can imagine. Was she this, uh, focused as a kid?”

  “Always. My mother told my uncle by the time she was eleven that he might as well plan on sending her to law school, because she could argue the leg off the dining room table.” It was fun seeing Holly grin with the memories. “Of course I suspect my mother would have gone to law school herself if teaching English hadn’t been the much more acceptable route in the 1960s.”

  Jake shook his head. “I can only imagine the terror she would have struck in an entire generation of lawbreakers. Of course, she did that in her own way, didn’t she?”

  Holly sighed. “She still does. She takes the copy editors to task from the reception desk of the Sentinel if they mess up on anything and she finds it. But enough of this family stuff. You need to get ready to go to court. What can I do before we leave besides make sure the portfolio of printouts is in order?”

  “That should do it,” Jake said. “Stick your head in my office no later than ten-thirty, will you? I want to make sure my tie’s on straight and I’m presentable before we head over there.”

  Now it was Holly’s turn to shake her head. “Oh, you’re always presentable, Jake. That’s the least of your worries. But I’ll come in at ten-thirty anyway.”

  She left his office and Jake could hear her computer click and whirr as she turned it on and busied herself with work. He looked back at the screen saver in front of him, trying to remember what he’d been doing before. He’d called up a search engine to do something…. What was it?

  Looking at the screen, he thought for a moment, then remembered. He was going to track down that creep in Ohio to make sure he wouldn’t be adding to their woes any time soon. After a few tries he found the database for the Ohio Department of Corrections, and got to their tracking program, where he had to enter a name. Now was the time when he wished he’d taken a minute to write down the name she’d mentioned. He should have done it the moment they separated Christmas Eve, because Jake knew even then that he wanted to track this guy down and make sure he was behind bars. Was it Conroy? No, that wasn’t it…close, but not quite. No, wait. It was Convy. In his mind, Jake could hear Holly talking about the creep.

  Of course the program was asking for a first name, too, and an inmate number if possible. Well, he didn’t have any numbers, and he suspected there couldn’t be too many Convys in the system, even if he couldn’t remember the guy’s first name. It wasn’t something he wanted to ask Holly right now. She probably wouldn’t be comfortable with knowing that he wanted to track down her assailant. Jake entered his own e-mail address, name and phone number in the appropriate spots in the program, and went on to other things on his computer. With any luck the Ohio Department of Corrections would be quick, and before they left for the trial he’d have an answer.

  In a few moments he was immersed in his possible testimony on Barclay. It was only when he and Holly were both in the red Escalade heading for the courthouse that he realized he’d never gotten an answer to his e-mail. By then he was focused on two things: testifying against Barclay and keeping Holly safe while he did so. They drove to the courthouse in relative peace, not seeing any dark-blue SUVs or any other vehicles that were obviously following them.

  “Maybe hiding out for a week was the right thing to do after all,” Holly said as they got out in the covered parking garage at the courthouse. “At least Big Red here is back in one piece and so are both of us.”

  She looked him up and down, and Jake felt quite complimented until he realized that she was just checking his appearance before he got into court. Still, he couldn’t think of anyone else he’d rather have straighten his tie. “You’ll just have to do that again once we get our coats off and go through th
e metal detectors,” he reminded her.

  “I know,” she said, sounding almost a little dreamy. “But that’s okay….”

  Jake whistled on their way into the building. If he didn’t know better, he would have said his reserved assistant was looking for reasons to touch him. Maybe there was hope for the two of them outside work yet.

  Holly smoothed the skirt of her dark print dress as she sat down in the courtroom bench. The room felt charged with a quiet excitement as she surveyed all the different participants in the trial. As Rose had predicted, the jury was chosen and instructed by midmorning, and the attorneys were ready for opening statements before lunch.

  The district attorney’s offices had been full of potential witnesses when she and Jake had arrived. Almost all the participants were familiar faces by now. Many, in fact, were related to her. The witness list Rose and her boss had put together was starting to look like a Vance family reunion, especially now that Tricia Streeter had become Tricia Vance. The beautiful, sharp-witted air force investigator made a great addition to family gatherings, and the difference in her cousin Travis since Tricia had come on the scene was incredible. He seemed like a happy, fulfilled man again for the first time in years. Now with their mutual parts in testifying against Barclay, Holly was looking forward to seeing just what kind of team-work Travis and his new bride were capable of.

  Her uncle Max looked every inch the CIA handler he was as he stood over in the corner talking to district attorney Kirk Callahan. Meanwhile Jake chatted with her cousin Peter, the two of them looking more like best buddies than a couple of government intelligence agents pitted against a major crime boss. They looked handsome in their dark suits, and Holly thought that Alistair Barclay was going to start sweating buckets when he saw what was arrayed against him.

  Now they were in the courtroom, with Jake taking his place in the front row of seats behind Rose, Kirk and the rest of the prosecutor’s team. He was still next to Peter Vance, who had his father Max on the other side of him. Tricia and Travis filled out the row. Holly noticed that when Barclay looked over at the crowd behind the district attorney, there did seem to be a fine sheen of perspiration glazing his forehead, making his sparse pale-red hair appear even sparser. The handkerchief he mopped his brow with may have been fine linen, but he just didn’t cut the same kind of figure in his designer suit that the witnesses against him did in their less expensive versions. Holly had to smile at that, wondering if the integrity and dignity they wore with theirs made the difference.