Once they were back on the road, Gray had directed him out of town and finally up a mountain on a winding dirt road. The SUV dipped and curved over and around rolling hills covered with dense forest. The sky was an incredible blue, almost the color of Courtney’s eyes.
It was a gorgeous day, and the sun shone brightly, reflecting off shiny, freshly washed leaves. An occasional breeze bent the stalks of tall weeds growing in the ditches alongside the poorly maintained road. The rains of the last few days had disappeared, leaving the earth fresh and the humidity high. He pulled the collar of his dress shirt away from neck. Beads of sweat accumulated on his flesh, despite the roaring blast of the air conditioner in the SUV.
When Gray finally indicated the turn toward a run-down shack, his heart sank a little. Maybe Tori was right. He pulled to a stop on the only patch of level dirt smooth enough to park his SUV. The shack clung to the side of the mountain, barely hanging onto the edge of what appeared to be a steep cliff. The creek below cut a deep gorge through the mountainside. Across the valley, the hills began their relentless rolling and dipping again.
Gray lifted the huge Baby Ruth bar from the cupholder. “Let me do the talking.”
Good idea. Shaw didn’t know what to say. Gray obviously had a plan. Before he could raise his hand to knock, a withered, old woman pushed open the screen door. Large gaps in the mesh rendered the screen useless against any pests that might fly into the woman’s home. From what Shaw could see, she kept the inner door open. Great. She probably had no air conditioning except the fresh mountain breeze, which wasn’t very breezy at that moment. There would be no relief from the humidity inside the house.
The old woman greeted Gray with a warm, gappy smile. “Mitchell, you’re back.”
Mitchell? It seemed everyone in Hill County called him Gray.
“Miss Timna, it’s good to see you again.”
Shaw halfway expected them to hug, but Timna made no move toward Gray.
She motioned them inside the house. Gray sat on the far end of a ratty sofa. It might have once had a pattern on it, but the print had long since faded. Large patches of brown spotted the material. Shaw didn’t want to think about what had soiled the furniture. Timna swatted at a cat and then deposited her small frame into a chair that appeared to have once been a part of a dinette set. The vinyl seat was done in a weird, speckled-green color. Chrome supports. Dilapidated. Just like everything else. Just like the house.
Shaw took the other chair. A wood chair. The only thing in the whole place that appeared clean and sturdy.
The old mountain woman grinned at him. “I heard you was comin’. I brought that out of the back because I figured a military man like you would want something he could sit up straight in.”
Her precise evaluation of him set him back. “You know who I am?”
“I know about everybody, young man. Now why has Mitchell brought you to see me?”
Her eyes strayed to the Baby Ruth bar. Gray handed it over, and she unwrapped it. The stares between Gray and Timna held for a long moment, apparently a silent communication. She nodded.
Gray asked his first question just as the woman took her first bite. “Is Courtney Crenshaw still in danger?”
Not the question Shaw would have led with. To him, it was obvious Courtney was still in a heap of trouble.
Timna blinked. “You mean the Jepson girl. She’s in over her head. She should have never took that book.”
Not the answer Shaw expected.
Gray paused as if the woman’s comment had stunned him. She lifted the candy bar to her mouth again, and Gray hit her with another question. “Who is the danger coming from?”
“The spirits, son. They don’t want their secrets told.”
Another bite, another question. She’d eaten half of the bar.
“Is Haskins mixed up in that?”
A hot, dry wind blew through the damaged screen.
“No, he’s after her for a different reason. The same reason he wants you, Mitchell. He doesn’t have long.”
Gray shifted in his seat, but Shaw was too mesmerized by the back and forth to even twitch.
“Who’s working for him?”
She smiled. Shaw could see down her throat through the gaps between her missing teeth.
Another bite. This one smaller than the last.
“She better watch out for that whole Richards clan. They all bad and old man Fred owns ‘em.”
The bar was almost gone now.
“Is Cherish Duncan dead?”
Why was Gray changing the subject? Shaw wanted to interrupt, but a sharp glance from Gray warned him to remain silent.
“No. Why would you think that? Because of that driver’s license that was on the dead girl? That was faked.” The woman looked disappointed. “I thought you were a better cop than that.”
The candy was gone. Gray rose to his feet. “Thank you for your time, Miss Timna.”
That was it? The interview was over, but Shaw had a million more questions. He glanced at the empty candy wrapper and understood what had happened. A question per bite. Maybe they should have brought her two. By the looks of her teeth, she’d consumed a lot of candy bars.
Shaw stood and started to follow Gray out the door.
“Mitchell?” she called to them as Shaw had his foot over the threshold.
Gray turned back, and Shaw stepped aside.
“Be careful with Fred Haskins. Just because he’s your daddy don’t mean he don’t mean you ill.”
Interesting. The old woman had given Gray a freebie. The two of them must have had a long and mutually profitable business relationship.
Gray nodded his understanding. “Yes, ma’am. I’m aware.”
“Whatever game you’re playing with him, he makes all the rules.”
“I’m gonna change a few rules, Miss Timna.”
She smiled as if he’d answered well.
When they were seated in his SUV again, Shaw blurted the question that bugged him the most. “How did she know you were Haskins’s son? Who’s been talking? The only people who know that are…” He reviewed them in his head before he verbalized the list, but Grayson cut him off.
“She knows things, Shaw. Just knows them. She collects information. I don’t know how.”
Shaw stuffed the key into the ignition, but didn’t turn it yet. “She mentioned the spirits. Do you suppose the spirits talk to her?”
“Hadn’t thought about that, but it makes more sense than anything. I never could understand how she knew so much unless people visited her and told her their secrets all day every day.”
Shaw finally started the engine. “She’s an interesting character. You got any more like her around here?”
Grayson chuckled in answer. “We have plenty of characters, and most of them are more than willing to tell each other’s secrets. Miss Timna doesn’t tell me anything that she doesn’t think will help someone out.”
Shaw grunted his opinion of that. “How do you know that? Have you ever had a conversation with her that didn’t include a Baby Ruth bar?”
Grayson smiled as if he had a secret. “Oh yeah. A few times.”
He could see he wasn’t going to get any more information out of Grayson about the old mountain woman, so he concentrated on getting them back down her mountain without driving his SUV off the side off a sharp curve.
Chapter Sixteen
Courtney stood in the middle of the kitchen and stared at Victoria Hamilton’s diary still sitting on the bar. She wished Shaw had taken it with him. The book seemed downright evil. The more she stared at it, the more sinister it became. She placed her hand against her chest and took a few deep breaths. Of course she was being silly. How could a book hurt her?
Last night, she’d obviously gone to sleep reading it and had dreamed the book had come alive. A nightmare. Just as her mother had said.
She’d only been alone in the apartment for maybe half an hour, but she was already bored. What did Shaw do when he was he
re? There was no television. No telephone. No computer. Nothing. Not even some old paperback books. She pulled the door of the refrigerator open. At least there was food.
“Gray said he’d be back tonight.” Her voice sounded abnormally loud in the quiet of the place as she tried to reassure herself she wasn’t going to have to stay there alone. At least until Gray got in with Haskins. Then he probably wouldn’t dare come back to the Landing and expose her hiding spot or risk letting Haskins know they were plotting against him.
She finally allowed her mind to wander to the place it had been heading all morning, ever since she woke up. It had been good to see Shaw again. He’d also promised he’d be back. Would he spend some time with her? How much could he hang around? He couldn’t stay long because he had work to do. The man was knee deep in the on-going secrets and unsolved mysteries of Hill County.
Her heartbeat revved up at the thought of getting to know him better. But did he want to get to know her? Maybe he knew enough about her already to know he didn’t want to know any more.
She glanced out the kitchen window at the lowering sun and wished he’d come back soon. Night would descend on the creek, and she knew from past experience how creepy Ashley Creek could be after dark. If someone was coming for her out of the woods, that would make being alone all the more unnerving. The anxious anticipation was killing her.
What if Haskins already knew where she was? Just because she thought she’d lost her shadow, didn’t mean she’d managed to ditch him. She’d caught a glimpse of the dark car in the rearview mirror as it had followed her from her mother’s house. Thankfully, she’d spent enough time with Jared that she knew how to lose a tail.
She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to disentangle a few knots. “My skills are awesome.” Her sarcasm was lost on her loneliness.
Haskins’s blood ran through her. She hated that. How much of a person’s personality and character was genetic? She didn’t want to be like her birth father. Cold. Manipulative. Self-absorbed. Ruthless. Calculating. She didn’t believe she’d ever been any of those things, but she wondered if the inclination lay dormant in her psyche. Certainly, she could see the seeds of his twisted psychology in her own character. She’d coldly assessed a situation before and done what she felt she had to do, and at times, what she’d wanted to do, despite the circumstances or how her decisions affected everyone around her. Was that the Haskins’s heritage? If it was, she didn’t want any part of it any longer. Courtney wanted to be a better human being than that.
With sudden clarity, she realized that it wasn’t all about her. That her life intersected with other’s lives, and what she said and what she did not only affected her relationships with other people, but also had the potential to change their lives.
Visions of taking a knife and letting the Haskins blood drain from her filled her mind for a moment. Her eyes shifted toward the cabinets where surely she could find a butcher knife.
She backed away from the kitchen drawer. What had she been thinking? She shook the emotions off like droplets of acid rain. No way could she allow that kind of thinking to corrode her heart and soul. She wouldn’t let the Haskins blood she carried defeat her.
With nothing else to do, she decided to go down to the dock to watch the sunset, if for no other reason than to get away from the strong emotion that had overwhelmed her in the kitchen. She was halfway out the door when she remembered the gun Shaw had left for her. Perhaps she shouldn’t wander outside without taking the weapon. Shaw probably wouldn’t like her leaving the apartment, but she was getting claustrophobic.
She shut the door behind her and stood still a moment. The wind had picked up since earlier that day, but it hadn’t brought cooler temperatures with it. Moisture still hung in the air. She scanned the woods behind the rear of the restaurant. Nothing seemed to be stirring on the ground. The shrill cry of a lone mockingbird disturbed an otherwise quiet evening. Across the way, the beginning of a footpath meandered into the overgrown brush near the edge of the clearing. For a moment, she wondered where it led. No matter. It would be foolish to go into the woods alone at night. Like a stupid person in a horror movie.
She shielded her eyes against the sun. Was that movement? She stared a long time at the spot where she thought she’d seen something black cross the trail.
“You know, I’m tired of being messed with,” she fussed to herself. Then she shook the tension out of her arms and legs. “Just my imagination. The woods must be full of animals. Just because I thought I saw something, doesn’t mean one of Haskins’s men is out there watching me.” She laughed at herself. She was talking to no one just like Trudy did sometimes when she was agitated.
If one of Haskins’s men was out there in the woods, he wouldn’t hesitate to present himself. None of them would expect her to be packing a gun. They would expect her to cower like a scared little girl. The only bunch of idiots left in Haskins’s circle of influence was the Richards clan. They probably all thought she was weak and easily taken. After all, she’d let Jared abuse her.
When Jake Richards had approached her near Cooley’s shed, he hadn’t tried to hide from her. He’d come out of the woods so fast and acted so quickly that she hadn’t had time to yell for help. Actually, it hadn’t occurred to her until it was too late that she needed to scream. She’d never before felt threatened by any of the Richards. But of course, she’d become the enemy unless she gave in to Haskins’s dreams of building a dynasty.
The gun rubbed against her skin in the waistband of her jeans. She puffed out her cheeks and braved the unknown. “If someone’s out there, you’d better show yourself.”
Nothing. No further movement. Since none of the Richards boys were the kind to sneak up on a person, Courtney relaxed. Most of the rest of Haskins’s operation were already dead. Omar Cooley. Jared Crenshaw. Lucy Kimbrough. James Standridge. Zeke Richards. Jake was in jail, and she hadn’t seen Sam Richards in days. He was probably dead too. A lot of killing. A bad feeling sank to the bottom of her stomach. The killing wasn’t over yet. She felt it down to her bones.
She descended the stairs that clung to the side of the restaurant and strolled down the short path toward the creek. When she reached the dock, she paused and took in the view. A big sun shot fingers of orange-red-gold-pink light into a darkening sky. The scene stole her breath. This place had to be special to Shaw.
She sighed and wished Shaw could watch the sunset with her. Closing her eyes, she imagined him sitting with her on the dock, dangling their feet in the murky waters of Ashley Creek, laughing when they pulled back out of the water for fear of water moccasins. She sighed at her daydreams. Courtney dropped onto the edge of the dock, kicked her shoes off and placed them on the wood behind her, and then pulled her knees up under her chin. No way was she sticking her feet in the water after she’d imagined a snake.
The gorgeous evening sky seemed to settle the roaring tempest in her soul. She closed her eyes and thought about Shaw Bennett once again. How it would feel to have his arm around her. What it would be like if he leaned closer and allowed his mouth to hover near hers. Tempting and teasing her. Feeling deep inside her core the anxious anticipation of a kiss, a lingering, full, devouring kiss. If he pulled her closer, if his hands found their way to all places that made her groan with lust. If she arched her back toward him and let him know with her body… Know what? She wasn’t sure how she felt about the man? Whatever she was feeling it was a long way from love, and she’d never given herself to a man she didn’t think she was in love with. Actually, she’d only ever been with Jared. What did she know about love?
She chopped her thoughts off, regretting the intense discomfort of her indulgence in daydreaming.
The sun dipped lower in the sky. The loss of daylight was not going to be her friend. A glimmer caught her attention just as the sun was sinking into its bed for the night. She reached over and lifted a pendant dangling from a gold chain off the closest piling. It twisted and glittered from her fingers. She s
pun the pendant around and studied it. A phoenix rising.
****
There was only one bed in the small apartment, and it was obvious that Gray and Tori had been using it, so Courtney camped out on the sofa. It wasn’t too lumpy or too hard. She’d slept on worse.
The long night dragged on and on. She turned on her side, hoping to get more comfortable, and her eyes strayed toward the kitchen where she’d left the diary. Once she’d laid it down, she hadn’t wanted to pick it back up again. So it stayed on the bar, mocking her. If she hadn’t been such a weenie, she could have read some more of Victoria’s entries and maybe gotten sleepy. She felt a little stupid that she’d let a book scare her.
She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost midnight, and neither of the men had returned. She pulled the blanket she’d found in a closet around her neck. Her eyes refused to grow heavy. Maybe she’d gotten caught up on her sleep at her mother’s house.
The sofa was too short for her, so she propped her feet on the arm. She pushed her shoe off with one foot and then toed the other one off. The high tops were her favorite shoes she’d ever worn, but they were getting ratty, and she had no clue where she was going to get the money to buy new shoes. Tapped out. Jared had left her nothing but bad memories.
She couldn’t think about that. Not when there were so many other problems to deal with first. She closed her eyes, and Shaw’s face came into focus once again. Courtney imagined running her fingers through his thick hair, imagined reveling in the deep rumble of his voice, imagined pressing her hands against his chest and sliding them over his shoulders while she gazed into his dark eyes, and finally imagined his strong arms around her. Her obsession with him had become a painful indulgence. Where he’d slid his arm behind her back that afternoon, her skin tingled. She felt a surge of longing to her very core, and she clamped her legs together to keep the sensation from overwhelming her.
Shaw's Landing (Haunted Hearts Series Book 4) Page 18