by Lara Sweety
“Hi, ladies.” He flashed the million-dollar smile they both loved, as he set down the groceries he’d gone to town for and kicked off his boots.
“Hi, Derrick,” Laurel smiled at him. “You remember Kate Monahan don’t you?”
Kate ran to him and threw her arms around him. He hugged her hard, just like a long lost friend—or lover. Laurel knew she had to keep her emotions in check, but it looked like it was going to be hard—or easy. She was confused. It was twisted to be happy and sad at the same time.
How could he forget? Kate was smart, beautiful, a great dancer, and wonderful to talk to. Derrick had found himself wanting to protect her from handsy drunks the night he’d had to get that asshole Gerry Smythe off Laurel. He was wondering what Laurel was thinking about him—about him hugging Kate.
“How are you, Kate?” He beamed at her. He realized that neither of them had thought twice about hugging each other tight. It felt good.
“Well, great now! You said I could come here if I needed to. I hope it’s okay.” She smiled up at him.
Damn straight it was okay. He didn’t think he would ever see her again after that night.
He kissed Laurel on the cheek and locked eyes with her. The language they used was unspoken. “Derrick, Kate is staying for dinner.” He raised his eyebrows at her, and she smiled back at him.
“Great, she can fill me in on school. What’s for dinner?”
Laurel laughed at that. Typical male, she thought. They are always thinking with their penis or their stomach. That was good though, he needed to be a man. Men needed to be men. Women needed to be women. It made the world go round. This man needed a good woman to see to him. At least if it has to be Kate, she’s the right kind, Laurel considered.
The three talked happily through dinner. It was surprisingly easy, Derrick thought. He loved Laurel, but this girl had never disappeared from his thoughts. How could Laurel be this at ease? She was, though, as if they weren’t what they were. What was it now? Their relationship had been changing and they were both aware of it.
Dinner had been a favorite of Derrick and Laurel’s—baked chicken, biscuits, and green beans. Kate had no trouble getting the biscuits put together and baking while they had talked. Laurel had admired her easy-going way and willingness to jump in to help. It had seemed more like she was talking to an old friend than a girl almost half her age. Kate was a smart farm girl with street sense and she fit in easily—right there in Laurel’s kitchen.
The three laughed like old friends through dinner and a glass of wine. Laurel poured herself another before she shooed them off. “Take her for a little tour of the farm, Derrick.” She smiled at the two, who were now rarely taking their eyes off each other. “I have to do dishes. Show her the old red barn.” Derrick gave Laurel an odd sideways look and then grinned at Kate.
The two took off through the mudroom. Derrick grabbed a jacket and put it around Kate’s shoulders before they headed out.
To everything there is a season; and a time to every purpose under the heavens.
Ecclesiastes 3:1
Laurel stared at it for a moment. That’s what the sign said that hung on the kitchen wall among some of Laurel’s other favorite verses, poems, and sayings. She watched the two of them from the window over the sink. Derrick and Kate were walking toward the big red barn, and it was almost dark. She smiled at the thought.
The barns great big loft doors revealed the heavens. It was such an incredible location for star gazing, too, that Laurel’s father had put a telescope there, and left it for everyone to use.
Laurel wondered if the hayloft in that old red barn really held the magic that Grandma Maralee had sworn by. Falling in love and making babies, is what it was famous for. She laughed at happy memories. It’s where Adam had been conceived—and Shannon and Tyler for that matter. She giggled.
Adam. That couldn’t have been a more magical night, she thought. She was in love with Jake, crazy in love. They had planned their future, college and then the farm and kids. Their passion was wild and crazy, completely unbridled. At eighteen, how could it have been anything else?
They would get tangled up at every chance. In the high school parking lot, at the drive-in, down quiet back roads in unused drives, in the driveway late at night, in his buddy’s basement, in a Jon boat on the river, in a field at a bon fire, in the creek out back, on a hay wagon, in his truck, in her car, and lots and lots of trips to the big, old red barn loft. She giggled at the long list. It’s no wonder she’d gotten pregnant—law of numbers, she was sure. Do it often enough, something is going to happen. Dang condoms anyway, she chuckled to herself.
Walking down the hall to her room, she smiled at the thought of Adam. What a man he’d grown up to be, she wondered where he was at that moment and if he was safe, just like any military mom would.
Lying in bed that night, for a brief time, she allowed herself to relive what she had felt for Jake, to revisit the passion of her youth, to relive their time together, imagining his tender touch on her body.
He’d been so good to her up until the week he walked out of her life. It was something she hadn’t allowed herself to consider for over twenty years. Just as soon as she’d considered it, she put it back out of her mind; but not before she wondered where Jake LeGrande was on that cold, clear, starry night.
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She found them the next morning in the living room. Derrick in shorts and Kate in his old sweats, curled up tight, asleep on the sofa. His arm tucked under hers, hand resting on her breast, her arm curled back up around his. She smiled and tiptoed to the kitchen.
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Chapter 22
“So that was it?” Jen looked puzzled and shook her head in disbelief. “How could you just let him go?”
“I let him go because I loved him, Jen.” This time there were no tears, just smiles. “We were together one more time after that. It was special, slow and sweet. He left for college about three weeks later. Derrick and Kate were at the house a lot together. They still visit quite a bit. I love them both.”
“Does she know?” Jen asked.
“Yes. Not details, but yes, she knows. One evening, she asked me about it. I told her it was a tender, passionate love affair that he initiated and that we would always have a special place in each other’s hearts, that it was over, and that I knew she had his heart. Simple truth.”
“Wow, what did she say?”
“Thank you.” Laurel had spoken with her after Valentine’s Day, toward the end of that winter. “Kate gets it like I do, I guess; love and sex. I think we have a lot of the same views. She understands, I think. I’ve never felt jealousy from her. Any jealousy I had left when I saw them that morning in the living room. He is in love with her. Real, deep, complete. The first time he came to the farm from college, she came with him, and always after that. The two of them are crazy in love, just like I was with Jahn. I understand that kind of love.”
“Your capacity for love amazes me.” Jen realized that there was definitely something genuine and different about Laurel; something few people possess.
“Laurel, you said three children, but I have only heard you talk about Shannon and Adam.” She looked at Laurel for a minute to see if she would be forthcoming.
“Story for another day.” Laurel’s voice was cool. Jen left it at that.
Jen was deep in thought; Laurel studied her, not interrupting. Somehow, she knew what was coming next was important to Jen.
“How did you know? How do you know when you have found the right set of arms to hold you?”
“Oh, Jen, honey, you just know. It’s not that you can’t have love for a season, that you can’t enjoy a man just to enjoy him, you can. Sex can be intoxicating, but in the end, if that’s all that is between you, boredom and resentment will take over. When your mind craves him as much as your body, when you want to stay in his arms and never leave, when you find yourself good with giving and receiving, when he makes you scream in ec
stasy, when you find yourself comfortable doing nothing with him, when he loves you hard and fast when you need it and slow and tender when you don’t, when he makes you laugh, when he holds you when you cry, when he holds you just for the sake of holding you, then you might consider that you’ve found the right arms to hold you for the rest of your life.”
Laurel chuckled, “That’s not to say that they won’t irritate the shit out of you. They will. All of them. They’re men, it’s the law of the ages, it can’t be helped. Finding the one you can live with, now that is something amazing.”
Jen considered her words carefully. How is it, she wondered, that this woman inspired so many men in so many ways? She was beautiful in a regular sort of way, Jen supposed. “Laurel, how is it that you have inspired so many men, I mean a woman....” Jen’s voice trailed off, she had painted herself into an uncomfortable corner.
“A woman like me, you mean?” Laurel finished the thought for her. Jen blushed and shook her head. “No sweetie, it’s all good. I know full well that I am no striking beauty. Not like a movie star or Bunny or anything like that anyway.” She chuckled at the thought, “Inspire—huh—yeah I guess I have done that, in a couple different ways. I’m myself, I suppose. I am what I am and I’m okay with it. I do the best with what the good Lord gave me and I’m not afraid to flaunt my best features. I’m not afraid to enjoy everything a good man has to offer. I’m not afraid to talk about things other people can’t—and I have great boobs!”
With that, Jen relaxed and joined Laurel in bubbly laughter, as Laurel cupped her breasts jiggling them to prove her point.
“I love your sense of humor.” Jen smiled and giggled, relaxing into girl mode.
“You’ll need that, honey, if you are going to let a man in. We’re talking about men here. And too, you have to open your heart and not be afraid to get hurt in order to find those arms that are so right for you Jen Delaney.”
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They had talked for what seemed like hours. Jen made notes on each of the people who had helped at the farm.
Laurel went on to tell her about finding Robert in a compromising position with Steve, another young man who had come to the farm to work.
“Jen, I’ve always kept this in the strictest confidence. I don’t want to hurt these men. It’s not up to me to choose how and when someone addresses their choices about their sexuality. Steve bolted, and I never saw him again.”
“Robert and I had lots of discussions about sexuality. I have always tried to look at it like this: everyone deserves happiness and love. They don’t deserve hate. I love Robert as if he was my own son, and I decided that sexuality alone, was not going to separate me from people I loved or make me hate others. He was and is too valuable to let anything ruin that.”
“Steve who?”
“Jen, all this stuff that I am telling you is to try to solve our situation. I trust you to treat this information appropriately. If I didn’t think all of these stories about the past were going to help, I wouldn’t be telling you this. I believe I can trust you.”
“Why do you think you can trust me?” Jen wondered if her capacity to keep things in strict confidence was as transparent as everything else about her.
“I see it in your eyes.” Laurel said intently.
“I understand completely. I have an ethics code to uphold and legal parameters to stay within, but I’m not out to hurt people. Things like this stay with me unless it becomes a necessary element of a case. Officially, I’m on leave anyway.”
“Steve who?” She added.
“Steve Laughlin. The senator’s son. Governor Laughlin’s grandson.”
A cold chill ran down Jen’s spine.
“Jen?” Laurel had watched her sit down hard.
“The Senator’s first name?” Jen demanded. “Arnold, or possibly Arnie?”
Laurel shrugged, “Yeah, I think that’s his nickname, why?”
“Laurel, he was the main suspect in my parents’ death. The report says he had a rock solid alibi for his whereabouts that night. I never bought it, but I couldn’t find anything to tie him to the crash.”
“Oh—oh my gosh.” Jen saw puzzle pieces falling into place behind Laurel’s eyes. “What?” Jen wanted to follow her thoughts.
“Steve Laughlin, the senator’s son, is gay. Jen, in the middle of your case web it just says ‘Arnold’; so are we really talking about the same person—Senator Arnie Laughlin?” Laurel’s wheels were turning.
“Yes, I think we are. That’s got to be the common element somehow. If Steve is gay, that would be a problem for the Senator. The Laughlin stands against gay marriage, so we can assume he doesn’t want anyone to know he has a gay son. Maybe he is responsible for the barn fire and the brakes? Trying to scare you or get rid of you, maybe?” Jen posed the solution out loud.
“Steve is too young to be the driver that hit your parents, though. Sorry, this doesn’t solve a thing, does it?” Laurel was uncomfortable; she knew how much Jen needed an answer for her parents’ death.
“There has to be an answer here somewhere.” Jen’s jaw was clenched.
Laurel needed answers, too, and was sick of waiting for them. She barged out of the conference room and began making her way down the hall to the command center. “Jake, JAKE!” Laurel was pushing down the hall, yelling at the top of her lungs, Jen not far behind. Several of the guards tried to slow her down, finally holding her back.
“I need Jake LeGrande, NOW! Captain LeGrande right now!” From the speed of the guards searching for the Captain, the standing order to interrupt him if she even so much as breathed his name received quick attention.
__________________________
Jake stormed into the hallway, barking at guards and making his way through the congregation in the hall. “What? What is the damn emergency?” Jake said flatly. Adam was right behind him, wondering what had happened and looking for Jen.
Laurel spun on her heel and moved back down the hall with the entire entourage in tow.
“Laurel, you can’t be doing this on a whim.” He followed her into the conference room. Adam filed in after.
“Look at this!” She directed his attention to the case webs on the boards. She took the dry erase marker and finished Jen’s suspect name, which was circled in the center of Jen’s case board, Arnold (Arnie) Laughlin. Then, she stepped over to circle Steve Laughlin, son of Arnie Laughlin on her own chart as well. “Are they trying to kill me—us?”
Adam moved to stand by Jen, thinking she looked a little pale. He studied the case boards intently. His hand moved to her back. Adam was seeing now what plagued Jen’s thoughts, tearing at her.
“There has to be something else here.” Jen thought out loud.
Quick tapped key strokes were heard as Brian queried for more information on Steve Laughlin.
“Well I don’t think it’s Steve trying to kill you.” All attention was now turned toward the intelligence officer. “At least, not anymore. They found him dead this morning in East St. Louis, according to the police reports.” He scrolled and reported as he went.
“Supposed carjacking gone bad. Audi 500 and it’s missing—don’t think it was a carjacking—CSI photo shows bullet centered in his forehead. Looks like an assassin's shot to me guys.” He swiveled the laptop around to show proof to the group.
“Ugh, okay Brian, thanks for sharing; TMI,” Laurel snorted in disgust at the photos. “That tells us who it’s not. It’s got to be a common thread though.”
“Shut the door.” Jake directed the guards.
“Ladies, after we cleared the two of you out of the police station, we also defused a bomb in Captain Delaney’s office. Steve Laughlin was supposed to be brought in when you were. We couldn’t find him. This is serious, ladies. I cannot release any more information. The two of you need to settle down for a while.” That information alone, he was hoping, would make them appreciate the protection they were getting and chill out.
The women gasped,
wide-eyed. Brian and Adam looked at each other. Brian raised his eyebrows and gave a knowing nod to Adam, affirming the new information. Adam could tell Brian knew much more than he’d let on to Jen and Laurel. Jen caught the exchange out of the corner of her eye.
“Captain LeGrande, something else I don’t understand. Why is the United States Navy handling this? By all rights, a threat to Laurel’s safety and mine is a civilian police matter.” Jen was now asking too many questions, making Jake uncomfortable.
“Ms. Delaney when you have worked for the Navy as long as I have, you learn to utilize resources. This is a training mission in which you have been provided your security. You are along for the ride. Nothing more.” He took a breath and hoped she would take the hint.
Jake really wanted the two to work harder, think more. Something in the women’s past wasn’t surfacing yet. Telling them what he knew would put them in more danger.
Jen shook her head.
Ben had entered the conference room and had listened to the summations. “We know about as much as you do. This connection is obvious, but right now, it’s just circumstantial. They are related, live in the same area, son worked on the farm for a short while, what else? It’s pretty big to accuse a United States Senator who is getting ready to run for President, of attempted murder. Jen, you said the senator had a rock solid alibi, and you had been over it a hundred times or better. Why would he want either of you dead? The son is not a threat anymore, obviously. We have to come up with something a little bit stronger, ladies.” Everyone listened to Pisano’s statements intently. The investigator’s calm demeanor didn’t help the ease the minds of Laurel and Jen.
“Jake,” Laurel gave him a disapproving stare, “I know you aren’t telling us everything you know.”
“Laurel, I can’t. It’s....”
“Classified. Damn it, my life’s on the line and it’s classified? Thanks a hell of a lot!” Laurel’s frazzled nerves had just about come to the breaking point.