Eye of the Storm

by Hannah Alexander

  “Your brother, Hans, runs the plant in Texas?”

  “He’s grooming someone to fill his shoes so he can take a more active role in the rehab center and manage the setup of the new plant.”

  “So he may be coming here? I’m warning you, Gerard, if he’s anything like you he may need to watch out for the cougars.”

  “Cougars?”

  “You know, older women who like younger men. You saw how shamelessly Carmen behaved this morning.”

  “She was charming. Don’t talk about your best friends that way.”

  “I heard Hans was widowed a few years ago,” Kirstie said.

  “He’s never quite recovered.”

  “One never does recover completely from losing a spouse—no matter the loss.”

  “You miss your husband?”

  Kirstie shook her head. “I’ve never recovered from losing him, but I lost him many years ago. Want some lemonade?”

  “No, thanks. You should rest.”

  “I think you should warn your brother that there are some beautiful women in Jolly Mill who look forward to meeting him. Throw him to the cougars. If he’s as tough as you, I believe he can handle them.” She led the way up the steps to her front door. “Any sales in the offing?”

  “Sales?”

  “Sorry, I get like this sometimes. Sleep deprivation. My mind flitters from place to place like a moth surrounded by candles. Be glad you’ll never be a menopausal woman. I was merely wondering if you and Uncle Lawson had worked out any kind of agreement, and I distracted you with the subject of Megan, and of course you seem to always be distracted by Megan. Any sales in the works?”

  “Not yet. Lawson wasn’t what I expected.”

  “I know. He doesn’t act sick. He’s tough as a boot, but he’s been given two months at most.” Kirstie opened her front door.

  “I like him,” Gerard said. “I like to take my time and study things, but he made some good suggestions, and he seems engaged. He did warn me I may have some conflict from the townsfolk.”

  “Of course, but I think you’re the kind of man who thrives on deftly handling conflict.”

  Gerard chuckled as Kirstie disentangled Data’s claws from her blouse and dropped him to the carpet in the entryway.

  Kirstie fingered her wavy blond hair from her eyes. Some women aged well; some didn’t. She was the kind of person whose age didn’t show on her face but whose maturity showed in the wisdom in her eyes, in her laughter, her ability to see past the present trials of her life.

  “You’ll need to talk to the town council about zoning changes,” she said. “I imagine when folks find out what you’re up to, you’ll have some strong supporters and some powerful naysayers, but Uncle Lawson will definitely be an ally, I can tell you that. He wouldn’t have asked you so many questions if your plans didn’t interest him. He’s not the type to waste precious time on being a people pleaser.”

  “I think he’s excited about the thought that his resort might be used to help so many.”

  She led the way to the kitchen. “Having all those empty rooms sitting there for so many years has weighed on him, I know. I asked him several times why he didn’t sell it, but he always loved that place and didn’t want it to go to just anyone. It would take serendipity to make it sing again. That’s why I wanted him to meet you.”

  “You think this is serendipity?” Gerard asked.

  “I think it could be. I want it to be. I want Uncle Lawson to feel that his final weeks on this earth counted for something before he goes on to Heaven.”

  Gerard understood. He had seen providence at work a few times in his life, and he knew how to recognize the signs of God’s handiwork, but he didn’t want his hopes to get ahead of God because he’d done that before and been busted. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to start the process of talking up his plans to the townsfolk and see about rezoning.

  “You have a few hours to work on that before Megan’s off,” Kirstie said. “Meanwhile, I’m going to take a nap so I’ll stop scaring you with my stream-of-consciousness chatter. You won’t have to babysit me because the only times I’ve had my blackouts I’ve been tired from lack of sleep. Obviously, I don’t black out when I’m sleeping. Don’t wait for Lynley to come home. You’re not here to be my guardian.” She reached into a cabinet and pulled out a keychain with several keys on it. “These are for you.”

  He took them from her. “What are they?”

  “Entrance to the resort. The keys are labeled. Uncle Lawson would want you to look it over carefully. Maybe you and Megan can check it out later this evening.” She gave him a little wave and turned toward the hallway to the master suite. “If the cats disturb you,” she called over her shoulder, “just stick them in the basement. That’s where they sleep at night.”

  The door slid shut, and in spite of Kirstie’s instructions he sat in the recliner at the end of the hallway where he could watch for a while…just in case. Data rubbed against the leg of Gerard’s chair, stared at him for a moment with those beautiful gold foil eyes, then leapt up onto the wide chair arm and settled himself, purring softly.

  Gerard stifled a yawn. It was so tempting to lie back in the chair and take a nap himself, but his talk with Lawson and Kirstie, and his eagerness to see Megan later this afternoon, kept him awake. And now he had the keys. This couldn’t be coincidence. Could it? This seemed more like an answer to prayer.

  He yawned so deeply he dropped the keys, and Data jumped down.

  Later. He could sleep later. After he had a long talk with Megan.

  “You still like hot stuff, right?” Megan climbed into Gerard’s car as he held the door for her after work. She had loaned her car to Carmen while Carmen’s truck was in for repairs.

  He looked askance at her. “Hot stuff?”

  She glanced up at him. “You do, don’t you?”

  “What kind of hot stuff are you asking about?”

  “Food, dummy.” She grinned and reached to close the door. When he finally circled the car and slid behind the steering wheel, she said, “I can see spending the day with Kirstie knocked you off-kilter. Did she have one of her spells?”

  “Nope, no spells, just stream-of-consciousness chatter.”

  Megan nodded as if she knew exactly what that meant. “I’m sure you discovered she can be quite the entertaining lady.”

  “She knows Springfield well and she guided me to your favorite restaurant. Unfortunately, it’s not there anymore.”

  “No! The Hut? Lynley and I used to hang out there all the time during college.”

  He spread his hands. “There you have it. Long time ago.”

  Megan narrowed an eye. “You’re older than me.”

  He chuckled as he switched on the engine and backed from his parking spot. “Will you need me to pick you up for work tomorrow?”

  “No, Carmen’s just running an errand to Monett. She’ll leave my car at the clinic, so if you’ll just drop me off there later I can get it.”

  “It’ll be safe there then, I presume.”

  “This is Jolly Mill, not a scary section of Corpus Christi.”

  “Forgive me if that doesn’t impress me the way it once did.”

  “There hasn’t been a car theft in the history of Jolly Mill.”

  “Horse theft, maybe? I’ve read some history of the town. It goes back quite a ways. Any other criminal acts?”

  “I’m only interested in attempted murder.”

  “We’re still only working on one possible theory. Kirstie’s suspicions may be wrong.” He pulled from the parking lot onto the charming Victorian three-block main street of Jolly Mill. “Do you think her husband is capable of killing?”

  There was a short silence, and Gerard glanced at Megan’s silhouette, hal
f in shadow as she watched out the side window. “Megan?”

  “I don’t think I’m the person to ask about that.”

  “Meaning you do.”

  She continued to stare at the buildings as the car moved past them. “I know too much about him, Gerard.” Her voice softened, but it also gained an edge he hadn’t heard in some time—not since he’d questioned her once before about her family. “I’m serious when I say that I’m biased. I dislike him. He’s not just a weak man who can’t stay away from women. He’s also a fiend. I think he’d be capable of anything.”

  “I never met the man, but I trust your judgment.”

  Megan waved at several people on the sidewalk, and then she turned to Gerard. “No, you don’t understand. I have a very personal reason to despise the man, and in this case my judgment can’t be trusted.”

  As soon as Megan said the words she was sorry. Gerard was never one to back down from a challenge, and she’d just challenged him to question her. Maybe deep down she really did want him to ask her about it.

  “And?” He wasn’t demanding an answer. His voice was gentle, even encouraging.

  “It’s too personal.”

  “Megan, this is you and me here. We’ve talked about a whole lot of personal things. You can’t be forgetting we broke down and cried in each other’s arms when… After we had to deliver Daria from Joni’s body.”

  Megan’s eyes smarted with the tears that always burned her eyes when she was forced to think about that day. “Please, Gerard, don’t.”

  “You can tell me anything. You can trust me with—”

  “My life? I know.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. Get it over with. It’s only the truth. “My mother. She was…lonely a lot.” Megan glanced through her eyelashes at Gerard, then back out past the buildings toward Capps Creek below the mill. “Dad was great, and he spent a lot of time with my brother, Jared, and me when he was home, but he traveled a lot, often overseas. Mom hated it, and it seemed like she resented us for having so much of Dad’s attention when he was home.”

  “You’ve told me before you had a hit-and-miss home life.”

  “Yeah, well, Jared was always into cars and girls and didn’t have a lot of time for his little sister. I think Mom was angry with me a lot.”

  “Why? Did she blame you for your father being gone?”

  “No. I think she blamed me because he spent more time with his kids than he did with her, and she doted on Jared, so I was the only one left to be mad at.” Megan knew she wouldn’t even be sharing this private part of her mother’s life if it hadn’t also become a part of her own life. “Anyway, one day we had an all-school meeting in the gymnasium. Some visiting senator or something. I didn’t feel well, so I skipped out and went home early. Dad was in Europe. Mom was supposed to be home alone. But I walked in on her with Barry, and they weren’t playing Scrabble. They were in my bed.”

  The car slowed, speaking to Gerard’s shock. “By saying ‘with Barry’ you mean—”

  “The whole bit. The worst I could have imagined. My mother saw me and her eyes went all buggy. Barry saw me and I thought he was going to laugh out loud. From then on any time I saw him he gave me a knowing smile, almost as if he knew a secret about me instead of the opposite. He never said anything to me about it, and I made sure I was never alone with him because I didn’t trust him not to touch me.”

  “Never a sign of remorse?”

  “Never. He was a pervert. He had a rep, you know? Lynley and I had a classmate he seduced, and then she died.”

  “Does Kirstie know about this?”

  “I never told her anything. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I think she was in denial for a long time. I mean, who wants to believe her husband’s not only a player, but also possibly a killer? That’s why she’s finally beginning to suspect Barry. Lynley and I think he killed our classmate, Mara, because she was going to out him.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She was drunk, and she flat-out told Lynley he’d dumped her. The next morning she was dead. I think Kirstie’s finally accepted that as the truth. It may be what she’s working through right now with her blackouts. Lynley told her about Mara, even though I tried to convince her not to.”

  Gerard pulled to the side of the road and stopped. He brushed his fingers through the pale strands of his hair and leaned back against the headrest. “I need to meet him.”

  “Why? Do you think your cop genes will kick in and you’ll be able to read guilt in his expression?”

  Gerard shot her a humorless grin. “I could question him.”

  “You could try. Who besides Barry might have a reason to hurt Kirstie? She’s going to inherit a ton of money, apparently within two months if Lawson’s doctors are guessing correctly.”

  “And yet he left her,” Gerard said. “That’s the mystery. He’s taking a huge risk of being cut from the will.”

  “Kirstie and I can’t figure that out either, except Kirstie can’t bring herself to tell Lawson that Barry abandoned her. He could be banking on her tender heart.”

  “That’s a huge risk for a man who wants that money. He’s also risking that, if Kirstie dies, his daughter will contest the will. Poison is considered a woman’s method of murder.”

  “I thought about that. It was a woman who poisoned Stud at Christmastime, but it was also a woman who tried to kill Tess last year in a speeding automobile,” Megan said. “I don’t think we can depend on statistics.”

  “How many women in Jolly Mill have been involved with Barry?” Gerard asked.

  “I haven’t been keeping track. What are you saying? You think he’s seeing another woman who’s decided she wants the inheritance money?”

  “Kirstie told me he moved to Neosho to be closer to work. Do you think he’s living with someone down there?”

  “Lynley says no.”

  “Wishful thinking, or is she sure?”

  “Lynley would make sure. Gerard, you’ve gotten to know her today, and you’ve met her friends. Any vibes there? You think one of the women connected to the clinic could possibly be poisoning Kirstie? Please tell me no. Those are my friends, and I can’t imagine any of them hurting Kirstie.”

  “I don’t know many people in Jolly Mill, but a sociopath is incapable of having compassion for anyone, even a woman as likeable as Kirstie, and you’ve described Barry as a sociopath.”

  Megan didn’t want to hear that either. “This is Jolly Mill. It’s hard to believe we might have a sociopath in this tiny town.”

  Gerard pulled back onto the road. “Don’t retreat on me. This is still part of a fallen world, idyllic as it may be.” He reached the end of Jolly Mill’s main street and turned left onto the county road toward Megan’s house. “It’s estimated that four out of every hundred people are sociopaths. That doesn’t mean they’re killers, but it means they don’t have normal compassion for other people. They are incapable of affection or conscience. If Barry is a sociopath and wants Lawson’s money, he won’t have the typical sociological—and certainly not spiritual—controls in place to keep him from doing what he feels needs to be done to get that money.”

  Megan shivered and crossed her arms. “I don’t think I ever saw Barry show true affection for either his wife or his daughter unless he wanted something. Lynley complained about it when we were growing up.”

  “Then maybe you should seriously consider what the man could be capable of doing.”

  Megan closed her eyes for a moment. Oh, yes, she could do that. She had no trouble doing that. In fact, thinking about that hideous man’s capabilities could make her past nightmares seem like swimming in Capps Creek.

  TEN

  Gerard watched Megan close her eyes and saw her face go pale. He knew what she was thinking. Murder was suc
h a frightening word when it became personalized.

  “What can be happening to Kirstie?” she whispered.

  “We need to keep searching for answers. Kirstie’s lab results should arrive within a couple of days.”

  She looked around them. “Gerard, where are we going?”

  “Your place to eat, then because Lynley has a class tonight I thought we could come back into town and have a strategy session with Kirstie if she’s awake by then. She was taking a nap when I left the house. I also want to have a look at the Lawson property.”

  “I forgot about Lynley’s class. Kirstie’s alone?”

  “She was asleep.”

  “What if she wakes up disoriented?”

  “Relax, Megan. Apparently she’s never done that. She only has problems when she’s tired. I made sure her doors were locked, and she told me she recently had the locks changed.”

  “Yes, but there’s always a chance—”

  “She usually has her blackouts in the evening, right?”

  “Yes, and it’s evening.”

  “But she’s sleeping, and she told me she never wakes up from sleep into a blackout.”

  “I’m not sure about this.”

  “We’ll check on her as soon as we eat.” He wondered if there was something she took in the evening or before bed, some supplement they hadn’t considered that might interact with the medicines she’d taken for the cancer she’d had two years ago. But Megan, Kirstie and Lynley were smart women, and they would have thought of those things already. Still… “You’ve checked all chemicals she works with, takes, et cetera?”