Still Waters...

by Crysal V. Rhodes

  Bev and Ray conducted a cursory walk-through and informed the officers that they could find nothing disturbed or missing. After their departure Bev and Ray searched the place again and confirmed their original assessment. They agreed with the officers’ theory that the cleaning service might have scared the burglar away.

  While Bev moved toward the walk-in closet in her sister’s bedroom, preparing to search through it for more journals, Ray leaned against the doorway and watched her.

  “I can’t understand why the alarm wasn’t set,” he wondered aloud.

  “Nobody knows the code.” Bev started taking shoe boxes down from the shelves. “One of the cleaning people told me that even they didn’t have the code. Dana would just disengage the alarm on the days they were scheduled to come.”

  Ray thought back to the first time that he and Bev had come to Dana’s condo. There had been no alarm set that day, either. “You’d think she’d be more cautious,” he mumbled, mostly to himself. Intent on achieving her goal, Bev wasn’t listening. He sighed.

  “I’m going downstairs to wait for the people to come and install the new glass.”

  Bev barely noticed when he left the room. Restlessly, Ray wandered through the first-floor rooms, finally settling in Dana’s office. The presence of the computer that had been left untouched had been verification for the police that the burglary had been merely an attempt. Turning it on, Ray went to the internet with the intention of checking his e-mail. A sudden thought occurred to him. He wondered if the Stillwaters family had a website or blog. When he typed in the first two letters of their name, the words Stark Enterprises appeared on the screen menu. Ray hesitated. What was this?

  Curious as to whether this was one of the companies that might belong to the Stillwaters family, he entered the website address. A well-designed site appeared on screen. According to the homepage, the company sold wholesale paper products and had offices in several countries. The CEO’s name was Russell Ingram. Scanning his memory, Ray didn’t remember meeting anyone in Stillwaters with that name. He went to another page.

  “What have you got there?”

  Startled, Ray looked up. Bev was peeking over his shoulder. He hadn’t realized that she was in the room.

  “I didn’t mean to scare you.” She squeezed his shoulder, and then returned her eyes to the screen. “What’s that?”

  “It’s a website that Dana had on her computer. It’s called Stark Enterprises. Does anybody in the Stillwaters family own this company?”

  Bev’s eyes scanned the screen. “No, I’ve never heard of it. Is it an entertainment company?”

  “No, they sell paper products.” Losing interest, Ray switched his attention to her. “Did you find the other journals?”

  “Not yet. I thought I’d look in here.” She straightened and looked around at the chaos in the office. Unlike the other rooms in her house, which were well-kept, Dana’s office was bedlam. Papers and folders were stacked on file cabinets, chairs, and a desk. Nothing appeared to be in any order.

  “It’s hard to believe that this room is in the same house,” Bev marveled. Her sister was an enigma, there was no doubt about that.

  She tried to open one of the file cabinet drawers. It was locked. Abandoning the computer, Ray helped in the successful search for a key that was located in a magnetic holder on the back of the cabinet. After unlocking the drawers, Bev resumed her search. Ray was about to return to the computer when the doorbell rang.

  “That must be the glass replacement people.” Bev moved toward the door, but Ray spoke up.

  “You keep on looking. I’ll take care of it.” Clicking the computer off, he headed out of the room.

  “Thanks,” Bev called after him. “And don’t let them wander through the house.”

  As the workman repaired the glass, Ray sat and read Dana’s latest copy of Variety. He was closing the door behind the worker when Bev came out of the office. She was carrying three brightly colored journals and she was beaming.

  “Congratulations! You’d make a great detective.” Ray caught her around the waist. Bringing her body against his own, he kissed her softly on the lips, nipping the sides of her mouth.

  Bev savored his sweetness. “I must say, Mr. Wilson, you do know how to suck face.”

  He loosened his hold on her. “I’m glad you like it, Mrs. Cameron. I mean to please.”

  “And tease.” She kissed the tip of his nose. Taking his hand she led him out the front door.

  Ray was in nirvana as he followed her. “I hope that it’s helping me work my way into your heart.”

  Looking back at him over her shoulder, Bev threw him a seductive smile. “It is.”

  * * *

  “You don’t have an iPod?” Bev looked at Ray incredulously. “You’ve got a Blackberry but no iPod? How can you live in the twenty-first century and not have an iPod?”

  “I guess I’m just a dinosaur.” Ray shrugged.

  And a sexy one, too, Bev thought. She studied his clean-shaven profile. This was the first time that she’d actually noticed how thick his lashes were, and she was becoming addicted to his wide smile. There was a masculine quality about Ray’s persona that made her feel safe. With a satisfied sigh, she turned her attention to her surroundings.

  They were near the hospital where they were going to visit Dana and meet the latest contingent of the Stillwaters clan. They had been arriving all day, or perhaps a better word was invading. There were cousins from four different branches of the family who had come to L.A. to support Ginny and Bev. Each planned to sit with Dana until no longer needed, and it looked as though that might be soon. Ginny had been nearly giddy with happiness when she had called Bev to report that Dana showed signs of awakening. Bev hadn’t mentioned the attempted burglary to her mother, and had asked her uncle and cousin not to do so, either. Everyone was in a good mood and she didn’t want to inject any negativity. Even she felt better than she had in a long time and one of the reasons for that change was sitting in the car beside her.

  Bev wasn’t the type of woman to dwell long on regrets. There was no further need to brood over the time that had been wasted in not nurturing a relationship with Ray. Instead, she thought about the things that she had discovered about him, how funny, attentive, and caring he was. She wanted to enjoy the present with him, and looked forward to a future getting to know him better.

  Ray couldn’t help noticing how playful and upbeat Bev had been all day, especially since they had left Dana’s house. Her sense of humor was proving to be as sharp as her mind. He enjoyed every minute that he spent with her. This woman was everything that he wanted and needed. There was no way that he was letting her out of his life.

  After parking the car, Bev and Ray headed hand-in-hand toward the hospital, jostling and teasing each other, unaware that the happiness that they radiated was causing passing strangers to smile. It was in the hospital lobby as they were passing the information desk that Bev and Ray became aware of one of those strangers. She was a well-dressed woman who was asking the desk attendant about Dana’s condition.

  Her sister’s name caught Bev’s attention. She approached the woman.

  “Excuse me, did I hear you ask about Dana Mansfield?”

  It was when the stranger turned to face Bev that she noted how attractive she was. The woman appeared to be in her mid-thirties, and her caramel-colored complexion matched her caramel-colored eyes perfectly. Her small, oval-shaped face was framed by reddish brown hair that was cut in a contemporary hairstyle, and every hair was in place. Her eyebrows were professionally shaped, her makeup was flawlessly applied, her nails were manicured, and her toes were pedicured. The diamond studs in her ears were expensive, and the heart-shaped diamond in her engagement ring and the circle of diamonds in her wedding band were very large. Everything about the woman screamed money—lots of it—even the exotic perfume that she wore.

  Bev and the woman scrutinized one another thoroughly before the younger woman spoke.

  �
�Yes, I did ask about Dana. Do you know her?”

  “I’m her sister, Beverly Cameron.” Bev stuck her hand out. “And I recognize your voice. You’re Renee Ingram, aren’t you?”

  A tepid smile replaced her quizzical expression. “I am.” She shook Bev’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you.

  Bev turned toward Ray. “This is a friend of ours, Ray Wilson.”

  Renee and Ray exchanged greetings. He recognized her last name as the same as that of the CEO of Stark Enterprises, the company that was on Dana’s computer. Storing that bit of information in the back of his mind, he returned his attention to the conversation between the two women.

  “I called earlier to see about Dana’s condition,” Renee was explaining. She stated that she was staying at her beach house in Malibu but had business in L.A. and had stopped by the hospital to see if she could get an update on her friend.

  Bev was touched. “How nice of you. Ray and I were just going to see her. You’re welcome to come with us.”

  Renee shook her head. “I don’t want to impose.”

  “It’s no imposition at all. Just follow us. I’m sure that my mother would love to meet you.”

  Bev steered her toward the bank of elevators that would take them upstairs. Luckily, they got one that took them up nonstop.

  “My mother called me a little while ago and said that Dana was showing signs of waking up,” Bev told Renee happily as they arrived at their destination and stepped into the hospital ward.

  Excited by the possibility of Dana’s recovery, neither Bev nor Ray noticed the look of anxiety that crossed Renee’s face as the three of them headed down the hall to the patient’s room.

  CHAPTER 14

  It was the next day and Bev and Ray were having lunch at a restaurant near his home when her cell phone rang and she received the good news that she had been waiting for. After disconnecting, she looked up at Ray. Her smile was effervescent.

  “Dana’s awake.”

  Abandoning their meal they hurried to the hospital, where they found the family jubilant. Ginny was beside herself.

  “She’s responding,” she reported to Bev with tears glistening in her eyes. “Whatever the doctor asked her to do, she did it. There doesn’t appear to be any brain damage.”

  “Is she talking?” Bev was as emotional as her mother as she silently thanked God for sparing her sister’s life.

  “She tried,” Gerry answered. He had been sitting with Dana when she awakened. “But she couldn’t quite manage it.”

  Bev and Ginny hugged, grateful that their small branch of the family still remained intact. Four years ago they had lost the head of their family, and the pain was still fresh. If the same had happened to Dana, neither woman could be certain of their recovery from that.

  The next few days were a whirlwind for Bev. She ran her Chicago based business on the telephone and through e-mails, while continuing to monitor Dana’s progress with stints at her bedside. The feeding tubes were removed and her sister began to speak in a soft, hoarse voice that was barely audible. She couldn’t remember what had happened to her, but she was determined to get better and impatient to go home.

  Bev and Ray had established a routine when they were together. The car service took Bev and Ginny to the hospital, and he spent his mornings working at his Beverly Hills office. However, his afternoons belonged to Bev, and so did his evenings.

  Ginny spent most of her time at the hospital, leaving Bev and Ray alone most of the time. Those were the times that they most enjoyed.

  Ray was a connoisseur of L.A.; there seemed to be nothing that he didn’t know about it. Because of Darnell and Thad’s occupations, Bev had been to this town many times and had never been impressed. Yet through Ray’s eyes she saw the City of Angels in a whole new light.

  He took her to the La Brea Tar Pits, which she had never visited, and gave her a history lesson about ancient dinosaurs. She had been to the Museum of Art many times, but a display of Greek sculpture took on new dimensions when Ray explained the dynamics of some of the pieces, topping it off with a few fables about Greek gods. Bev was impressed. One evening he picked her up from the hospital and took her roller skating, then to a Mediterranean restaurant where, after a delicious meal, they both took belly dancing lessons.

  The more Bev was with him, the more she wanted to be with him. Ray Wilson was a Renaissance man. He was highly intelligent with a variety of interests. He wasn’t adverse to new experiences or ideas. Communicating was something in which they both believed, and they talked constantly about everything. They were both well traveled and delighted in exchanging stories about their adventures. When they discovered that they both spoke French, they spent an entire day speaking nothing else.

  Bev hadn’t felt so alive with a man in a very long time. Ray was opening doors to her heart that she thought had been nailed permanently shut. There were parts of her that wanted to continue to resist him, but she was determined to defy them. She wanted to see what was on the other side of the door that had recently opened.

  Ray wanted the same thing. Being with Bev was exhilarating. In his lifetime he had been with a lot of women and had enjoyed quite a few relationships, but Bev was different. The bits and pieces that he had found in other women hadn’t equaled the whole for which he had been looking. She encompassed all that he desired. The time that he spent with her was his fantasy come to life. What she had come to mean to him was hard to put into words, but he could feel it in his heart.

  It was useless trying to conceal the blossoming relationship from her family. The affection that had developed between them was visible to all. Ginny had spotted it the day that Dana awakened. Bev informed Ray that her mother said that the two of them looked like they were “glowing.”

  “I told her that was because we were,” Bev relayed with a mischievous grin.

  “I like that answer,” Ray informed her. The two of them were in his family room, relaxing on the sofa. “Not that we need it, but I think that we have your mother’s approval to become a twosome.”

  “Why do you say that?” Bev looked down at him as he lay with his head in her lap.

  “Because before we left the hospital that day she kissed me on the cheek and told me to ‘glow on.’” Ray closed his eyes and enjoyed the pampering as Bev stroked his brow. “Now I know what she meant.”

  “And are you doing like my mommy told you?” She tweaked his nose.

  Ray purred, “I sure am trying.”

  “Good.” Bev burrowed deeper in the sofa and let the soft sound of the jazz that they were listening to move through her. “When I was little more than a girl and pregnant with Darnell, I used to do this, sit and listen to music and think about what the future would bring.”

  Ray opened his eyes to look up at her. Her countenance reflected such peace.

  “What did you think that might be?” he asked softly.

  Bev gave a plaintive sigh. “I hoped that it would bring a healthy baby, a long and happy marriage, and a prosperous life.” She looked beyond him back into the past. “I guess two out of three isn’t bad.”

  Ray could hear the pain in her voice. He knew that she was thinking about the death of her husband.

  Bev returned her attention to Ray. His mellow expression had changed to one of concern.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Ray pulled himself upright. “How do you think that your life would have been different if your husband had lived?”

  The question caught Bev off guard. No one had ever asked her that. She rarely discussed her late husband, except with Darnell. After his burial no one ever mentioned him again. It was if he had never existed, and she became comfortable with that. She had her memories, and that was all that she needed. But Ray was asking that she turn those memories into something more concrete, and she wasn’t sure that she wanted to discuss that part of her life with him. They were in the early stage of their relationship. It was a fragile time. Avoiding this subject might be best.

  Ray
noted her hesitancy. “Of course you don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.”

  Bev considered his words. “I’m not sure how to answer your question.” She paused to gather her thoughts. “It’s hard to speculate on something that never happened. When Darnell was growing up she used to ask me about her father and I would try to give her some semblance of who he was. I think that she used to fantasize about how it would be if he had lived.” The thought of that had always saddened Bev. “I would have given anything if she had gotten to know him and vice versa, but at least she has a picture of him and knows how he looked.”

  “A picture?” Ray raised a curious brow as he wondered what the love of Bev’s life looked like.

  As she answered him, Bev retreated to her unconscious habit of playing with the ring on the chain around her neck. “She has the only picture of him in existence. Colton was notoriously camera-shy.” She smiled nostalgically as she recalled his aversion.

  Ray was sorry that he had brought the subject up. The romantic mood that they both had enjoyed only moments ago had vanished. He welcomed the reprieve when Bev’s cell phone rang and she got up to retrieve it from her purse. He used the opportunity to gather the dishes which had held the snacks they had devoured earlier and took them to the kitchen.

  As he loaded the dishwasher, his mind was on Bev. It seemed that she was all that he thought about lately. Making her happy had become his priority. Wanting her mind, body, and soul had become his obsession. He wanted her to want him as much, but Colton Cameron continued to stand in his way. He didn’t like it, but he felt helpless to do anything about it. It was up to Bev to make the decision to move the ghost of his memory out of their way. Patience was the key. All he could do was stay the course.

  Closing the dishwasher door, he turned in time to see Bev’s long-legged stride as she entered the kitchen. She glided across the room gracefully as she completed her phone call. Ray couldn’t take his eyes off her. This woman was more than worth the wait.

  Disconnecting, Bev walked up to him and put her arms loosely around his waist. “You look like you could use a hug.”