Common Enemy

by Sandra Dailey

  Connor turned to her and shrugged. She could tell he was still angry. “I’m still here, Mr. McCrae.”

  “Jordan, I’m sorry I lost my temper with you. I should have asked for one of my b…sons instead of unloading on you that way. I worry about them. Would you please make sure Connor calls his mother today?”

  “Yes sir, I’ll do that. I’m sorry for getting them involved in this mess.”

  “Well, we’ll find some way out of it. Goodbye, Jordan.”

  “Goodbye, Mr. McCrae.”After hanging up the phone she looked up at Connor. “Well, I guess I’ve made a great first impression on him.”

  “He’s just jealous that he can’t be here to share in all the excitement,” Connor replied. “I’m sorry he acted like a jack-ass. You handled him well.”

  “Are you going to call your mother?”

  “Yeah, he was right about that. I’ll take care of it.” He paused for a moment. “He did confirm one thing for me. I’ve had a feeling Cal has something troubling on his mind. I don’t know what it could be, but it must be serious. We shared everything, until six years ago. It’s my fault he doesn’t feel like he can confide in me now. I hope we can get that back.”

  ****

  Bobby Ray sat up on the side of the bed. He looked around at the sleazy hotel room. He’d been stuck inside for days. It was time to look for the next hole-in-the-wall to hide in. He could afford better. He still had a lot of Nita’s money, but he needed a place where people didn’t look too closely.

  In the shower he thought about Nita. He was starting to miss her. She was only a whore, but she was fun. If things had started to go wrong he’d planned for her to lure the kid away. She was gone by the time he needed her help. He really didn’t want the kid, but she was the best way to get under Jordan’s skin.

  Thinking about Nita and Jordan made him horny. He wished he could have talked the bimbo into leaving with him the night before. She was older than he liked, but she would have scratched his itch. It would have been cool to drop her on Jordan’s doorstep after he was finished with her. Maybe he would give that more thought. He needed a woman soon, though.

  He looked at himself in the mirror. His hair and beard were growing in nicely. Soon he could walk around Mayville unnoticed.

  Bobby Ray pulled a bottle of water from the little refrigerator, before he sat on the end of the bed and turned on the TV. The news was on the only channel that came in clearly. He packed his clothes while they talked about the weather and traffic. He was putting together the scattered sketches on the dresser top, when he heard his name. Turning around, he saw his picture, full screen, on the TV. This was going to complicate things.

  Next, they showed the place in the trees where he had left Doris. An old picture of her was displayed in the top right corner of the screen. The roaring in his head kept him from hearing what they were saying. How had they found her? How did they know it was him? He shouldn’t have kept her damned car for so long. He cleared his mind in time to hear the reporter’s last few comments.

  “Bobby Ray Butler is still believed to be in the state of Florida. He was last seen in the Ft. Myers area. At that time, he was driving a late model, red Honda Civic with extreme body damage. If anyone sees this man, you are asked to contact the nearest law enforcement agency. Under no circumstances should you approach him. He’s considered extremely dangerous.”

  Bobby Ray drove for nearly an hour until he reached a state park near Lake Okeechobee. He left the car on the side of a small dirt road and walked through the woods. The temperature was near triple-digits; he hoped this wouldn’t take long.

  Finally he came across a man fishing at the edge of a canal. His small tent was a few feet from Bobby Ray’s hiding place. His pick-up truck was at the top of the embankment. Bobby Ray quietly made his way to the tent. By the campfire was a knife still dirty from cleaning fish. He picked it up and approached the man from behind. The fisherman reared up as Bobby Ray circled his head with his left arm. With the dirty knife, Bobby Ray quickly slit his throat. He hadn’t had a chance to utter a sound. The bleeding man kicked and clawed before losing consciousness.

  Bobby Ray dug through the fisherman’s pockets for his keys. Before he left, he took the Miami Dolphins baseball cap and sunglasses that had fallen on the ground. He found a first-aid kit in the truck that had a bottle of rubbing alcohol. He gathered some of the man’s camping gear he thought he might need. The small propane stove and cooler might come in handy. Before he left, he shoved the man’s body into the canal. The gators would finish cleaning up the mess.

  ****

  “Did you ever call your mother?” Jordan asked.

  “I sure did,” Connor replied as he drove her home from work. “It scared her to death. I normally call on Christmas, Mother’s Day, and her birthday. I was off schedule.”

  “How did she take the news?”

  “She was happy. I told her all about you and Lizzy. She can’t wait to meet you both.”

  “Then you obviously didn’t tell her everything.” Jordan gazed out the window to hide her concern.

  “Let’s just take this one step at a time. Hopefully, it will be over before she has to find out the details.”

  “Did you talk to Cal?”

  “Yep, all day long. We’re thinking about building one of those wooden play sets for Lizzy.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “When he feels like talking to me, he will. And, I’ll be there to listen.” Connor hesitated. “I need to tell you about something that happened Sunday night.”

  Jordan listened intently as Connor relayed the events in the bar as Joyce had explained them to him.

  “I wish I had never come back here,” she said. “I’ve put everyone I love in danger. And, I have an awful feeling this is going to get worse.”

  “I don’t agree. You have a lot of people here who are looking out for you and Lizzy. Besides that, if you hadn’t come back here, we wouldn’t have met. You’d be alone to face this asshole. I hate to think how this would have ended.” Conner took her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing her knuckles lightly. “I don’t ever want to hear you talk that way. You’ve given me more than I’ve ever dreamed of having. No one is going to take you away from me.”

  “But look at the way we’re living, Connor. Lizzy can’t go to preschool. I can’t go to the store alone. The house is like a prison. None of us are sleeping at night. You and I have just gotten engaged and we hardly make love anymore. We’re too busy listening for strange noises or watching out the windows. I feel like this is pulling us apart.”

  “I’m sorry, Jordan. I promise this will be over soon. I feel like I have to do this. If I can’t protect you, then I don’t deserve you. I’m sorry I haven’t been more attentive. I guess I just figured we’d have a lifetime to love each other once this was over.”

  “I guess you’re right. I’m just on my last nerve. Every time I turn around, Bobby Ray rears his ugly head and we’re back to square one.”

  “No honey, we’re getting closer to ending this every day. Just try to be patient.” Connor watched the road as he thought about Ted and John going home soon, leaving them to find Butler on their own. Ted was married last year and had a pregnant wife to get back to. John had a wife and a seventeen-year-old son at home. Connor couldn’t ask them to stay any longer.

  Connor and Jordan picked up their nightly routine as if the discussion had never happened. They did their best to make life as normal as possible for Lizzy, but even she was feeling a bit restless. After she’d gone to bed, they watched the news on TV. No progress had been reported on the manhunt for Bobby Ray. The lead story of the day was a search for a man who’d been reported missing when he didn’t return from a camping trip the previous day.

  Chapter Twenty

  Jordan was surprised to find Lizzy still in bed after she’d dressed for work the next day.

  “Don’t you feel well, honey?” she asked as she knelt beside the bed.

 
“Why do I have to get up? I don’t have anything to do. I miss playing at Mrs. Rogers’s house. All my friends are there.”

  “Don’t you like to stay with Uncle Cal and Daddy?” It still felt strange to refer to Connor that way.

  “They try real hard, but I think they’re running out of ideas.”

  “I’m afraid they’re going to miss having breakfast with you,” Jordan coaxed.

  “Okay. I’ll get up.”

  Jordan went down to the kitchen and told the men about her talk with Lizzy while the men shared the newspaper.

  “This is just what I’ve been looking for.” Caleb held up a sale paper for a local hardware store. “If this doesn’t help, nothing will.” He pointed to a playground kit on sale. “We could borrow Coleman’s truck and pick one up today. I think it’d be perfect at the north end of the lawn.”

  “I’ve got an idea too,” Connor said. “There’s a carnival going on just a few miles away. We can go as soon as you get out of work today, Jordan. You’d have time to change clothes and I’ll have dinner ready.”

  Lizzy stood at the door looking like she’d just found Santa under her Christmas tree. She ran across the room and threw herself into her new daddy’s arms, hugging him as hard as she could.

  “I guess he wins,” Caleb chuckled “I’d better get you to work. He can’t possibly drive with that monkey around his neck. I have a feeling she won’t let go for a while.”

  The carnival wasn’t as crowded on a Thursday night as Jordan had feared it would be. They enjoyed walking in the evening breeze, listening to the sounds of tinny music, pinging game machines, and boisterous barkers. The bright lights and sweet greasy food smells took their minds off their usual train of thought. The grown-ups watched Lizzy ride the carousel and feed the baby lambs. She ate cotton candy and played the ring toss. Connor and Caleb competed in winning her the biggest prizes.

  When the evening wound down, Caleb took Lizzy from Connor’s shoulders.

  “Why don’t you two lovebirds take a turn on the Ferris wheel while Lizzy and I check out the face painting booth?”

  “I want to make a suggestion,” Connor said to Jordan while they waited for more riders from the top of the ride. “But, I know you’re going to throw a fit. It’s been such a great evening that I hate to ruin it. If you get mad at me, do you promise to leave it on this Ferris wheel?”

  “I hate when a conversation starts out like this. Okay, I promise. What’s on your mind?”

  “I want you to think about taking some time off from your job. You know as well as I do that we don’t need the money. It’s getting harder to keep Lizzy entertained, and you have more experience with that than Cal or I put together. Also, it’s going to get harder to keep you both safe after Ted and John leave. Charlie would understand. Would you think about it?”

  “I guess it would be better if we stuck together. I hate to bail on Charlie, though. Let me talk to him tomorrow. I’ll miss getting out of the house and being around people, but I guess that’s what you and Cal have been doing for a while now. It’s a fair suggestion. I can’t expect the two of you to stay at home with my daughter while I go out every day.”

  “It’s not like that, Jordan. She’s our daughter now. I’d live closed up in a cave with her if that’s what it took.

  “I’m starting to wonder what Cal’s motives are though. He never takes his eyes off her. I knew he’d love her, but he seems almost obsessed with protecting her. It’s not like him to be away from the office this long. He’s always been a workaholic.”

  The ride came to a stop.

  “Speaking of Cal and Lizzy, I guess we’d better get over to the face painting booth. It’s getting late,” Jordan said. “We should head back to the house.”

  “Yeah, let’s see what they’ve turned our little monkey into.”

  As they walked toward the three-sided shelter Caleb had headed for, Connor’s expression grew dark. He walked more quickly and stretched to peer over people’s heads in front of him. Jordan could almost feel his pulse quicken as he led her along the path. She didn’t ask questions, but hurried to keep pace with him. She was developing a feeling of panic from his sudden change of behavior.

  “Something is wrong, I can feel it. Cal’s in trouble.”

  They found Lizzy sitting on a stool inside the booth. The clown smile painted around her lips did nothing to hide the worry in her eyes.

  “I don’t know where Uncle Cal went,” she groaned when they reached her. “He was right over there, and then he was gone.” She pointed to the side of the booth to her right.

  “Stay with her and don’t leave this booth,” Connor demanded in a stern voice. He headed in the direction Lizzy had pointed. Jordan was torn between keeping Lizzy safe in the tent and following Connor.

  ****

  Connor found his brother only a few feet off the path between the booth he’d taken Lizzy to and the next one. He was laying facedown across the cables that ran along the ground. A broken board had been left beside him. He’d been struck across the left side of his head. He was bleeding.

  As Connor turned him over, Cal moaned and reached up to feel the gash swelling on his head. With his eyes still closed, he spoke only one word. “Lizzy...”

  “Lizzy’s fine. We need to get you to a doctor. What happened?”

  “Hell if I know,” Caleb groaned. “I was watching Lizzy, and then the lights went out. Now, my head hurts like crazy.”

  “Maybe somebody was after your wallet.”

  “The surprise is on them,” Caleb grimaced. “I never carry a wallet in a place like this. My money is in the front pocket of my jeans. I guess there’s a pretty disappointed mugger somewhere around here. Are you sure Lizzy’s okay?”

  “Yeah, she’s fine, but you could use a few stitches. Let’s get the girls out of here.” Connor pulled off his shirt to staunch the bleeding.

  The hospital was close by, but the ride seemed to take forever. Inside the emergency room, Caleb was taken straight to x-ray. Connor took care of the paperwork.

  “Thank God it wasn’t Bobby Ray,” Jordan remarked. “We’d have known it if it had been. He’d have left something to take credit for catching us with our guard down.”

  “I think it was a mugger, like Cal said,” Connor agreed. “We got lucky this time. From now on, we stick together. Dammit, this was my fault.”

  “I wonder if that’s what Cal said when you got hurt. You know you guys aren’t super heroes. Sometimes things happen that we don’t have control over. This was the fault of the man who hit him, not you.”

  A doctor came out of the double doors and walked to the corner where they were waiting, his long white lab coat swishing around his thighs. They were relieved to see a smile on his face.

  “That brother of yours has a hard head. He does have a slight concussion, though, so we’d like to keep him overnight for observation.”

  “Can I see him before we go?” Connor asked.

  “Sure, but only you,” the doctor insisted. “They just started stitching him up.”

  Connor walked into the room the doctor had indicated. A paper shield covered Caleb’s head with a hole over the injury. Connor winced when he saw the needle sink into his brother’s skin.

  “Well Cal, it looks like you’re still going to be as pretty as ever after the hair grows back in that spot.”

  “I guess you’re pretty glad it was me and not you.” Caleb laughed.

  “Why would you say something like that?”

  “Because, I don’t mind getting a hair cut once in a while. You’d be going apeshit on these poor nurses.”

  Connor let out a laugh. “I’m going to take Jordan and Lizzy home. I’ll be back in the morning to pick you up. Try to stay out of trouble, okay?”

  “Okay Con. You be careful too, and watch out for our girls.”

  The nurse tied off the last suture and removed the shield. Connor stood by the door with a grave expression.

  “You know I’d shave my hea
d if it meant keeping you out of harm’s way, Cal.”

  “I know bro, me too.”

  Connor turned and walked away.

  ****

  Jordan set the security alarm then led the way upstairs as Lizzy slept on Connor’s shoulder. She was glad that she’d washed the grease paint off her face at the hospital. She removed Lizzy’s shoes after she’d been laid in her bed, but decided to let her sleep in her clothes. It had been a long night. The morning would be soon enough for her to take a bath and change.

  Connor was already in the shower when she left Lizzy’s room. She hesitated in the hallway for a moment before walking into the bathroom. Stripping away her clothes she joined him under the steamy water. He was just rinsing the shampoo from his hair, letting the lather slide down his muscular body to the floor of the tub.

  “I knew I’d get you in here with me sooner or later,” he said as he soaped a sponge. He wrapped his arms around her and ran the sponge up and down her back.

  Jordan leaned her head into his shoulder as the water cascaded over them both. She hadn’t realized how tense she’d been until her muscles began to relax.

  “I’ve never done this before,” she murmured. “I mean, showered with anyone.”

  “Let me show you how it’s done.” After a long warm kiss, he stepped back just enough to rub the sudsy sponge over the rest of her body. She took the sponge from his hand and began washing him while he shampooed her hair.

  “I could get used to this. As a matter-of-fact, it could become a habit.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping.” He kissed her again.

  She was disappointed when he turned off the water. “Let’s save the rest of this lesson for the next time. It’s been a long night and I need to lie down.” He wrapped a large bath sheet around her and led her by the hand to the bedroom.

  “You’re a tease, Mr. McCrae.”

  “Who said I was lying down to sleep? I’m not finished with you yet.”

  “Are you sure the house is secure? Maybe I should check on Lizzy.”