by Cait London
“I didn’t give Fly-Weight here, anything,” Moses grumbled. “I was minding my own business when she pulled over to the curb in this ice cream wagon. She gave me a tub of More Berry ice cream and a spoon. I should have known something was wrong then—or when she started asking questions about where I was going—well, I had to ask directions from someone, didn’t I? Anyway, while I was digging in, she grabbed the shoe box and drove off in that wagon. All I had to do was to follow the sound and it was parked outside this guy’s place. She was yelling at him.”
Jada scowled at him. “I could’ve have handled myself. I was all set to marry the guy and bear his children—”
“Poor guy,” Moses mumbled. “I almost feel sorry for him, all burned like that and being attacked by a woman throwing things at him—looked like expensive things, too. Your sister has a good aim. Got him a couple of times with fancy cups and saucers with gold and roses on them. I’d say that Chinese vase cost a pretty penny, too. I’ve never seen a woman that small topple a full-size china cabinet—never would have believed it.”
Kyle studied Rachel’s raised eyebrows, “who-me” innocent expression. “Would you happen to know how Shane got burned, Rachel?”
She blinked a couple of times. “I think a teapot may have fallen on him.”
Jada finished the scenario: “Shane said she hit him with a teapot for no reason at all—my ass. There were tea stains all over the love seat.”
“You were on a love seat with him?” Kyle asked carefully. He didn’t like the image of Rachel being attacked.
“I—wanted to see how he reacted to—um….”
“To things Mallory might wear? Short skirts, tight sweaters, those kinds of things?” Kyle filled in slowly.
When Rachel pressed her lips together, that dimple showed again. “Um…maybe.”
“That’s even dumber than taking Mallory’s stuff back alone,” Kyle exploded.
“I…am not dumb.”
Kyle listened to the telephone ring and when neither he nor Rachel moved, Jada asked, “Um…should I get that?”
“That would be nice. Thank you very much,” Rachel said, her eyes still locked with Kyle’s.
“Maybe you’d better think about telling your mother and sister,” Kyle suggested while Jada was talking on the telephone. He took the insurance investigator’s call and opened the door to two police officers, motioning them to come in. He spoke quietly with them, and then as Rachel came to his side, her arm around his back, Kyle said, “I need to go with them to make another statement. They want a doctor to look at my bruises, take some pictures, that kind of thing. They just might be agreeing that someone actually did work me over. It had rained and it wasn’t likely that the barbeque grill still had live coals, or that it tipped to start the fire. Moses needs to come, too. And Rachel, think about what I said, okay?”
“I’m going with you,” she said as she began to take the new clothing out of the packages. Kyle almost smiled. Rachel the Fearless, champion of the downtrodden was set to protect him, and the feeling was pretty damn good.
“I thought you would want to be in on the excitement, but I’d rather you stayed here and rested. And think about how to tell your mother about Mallory—and other things. Trina could be in danger, too.”
“I will. It just may be one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done.” She shook the short-sleeve summer shirts, choosing one to slip onto Kyle. She stood in front of him and buttoned his shirt. Kyle realized briefly that no one had ever buttoned his shirt, or straightened his collar.
Funny how a man noted things like that, amid the terror that the woman he loved was probably on someone’s hurt-and-kill list.
“Kyle shouldn’t have left the gun on the table in the first place. What was I supposed to do with it? And I am not dumb.” Rachel frowned as she parked Buttercup in Bob’s Handy Hardware parking lot. In talking to her mother and Jada, Rachel discovered that her sister had been the first one into the apartment after Rachel had gone to Idaho. She’d cleaned, but saw only Kyle’s handwritten list of names on the table where the semi-automatic should have been.
Rachel collected the box of Bob’s favorite candies from the front seat and walked into the hardware store. Bob was behind the cash register, tapping in the purchases of a woman standing in front of the counter. He looked tired and drained, but familiar and loved.
He smiled at Rachel, took the woman’s money and placed a receipt into the sack of mouse traps and door hinges. When she left the store, he moved around the counter. “Are you all right, Rachel? I was so worried, and your mother—”
“I’ve talked with her this morning, and I’m going over to her office right after this.”
Bob shook his head. “Terrible thing. I didn’t like Scanlon, but I wouldn’t want to see him financially ruined—or put away for insurance fraud. That’s what I hear around town, that it was arson and he’d just upped the insurance on his place. You should know that he’s being investigated now. Rachel, it doesn’t look good for you to be associated with him. Surely he can find someplace else to live—and not with you. I’m worried, Rachel. Think of your mother.”
“He didn’t set that fire, Bob—”
“Arson and insurance fraud are serious criminal actions, and you could be involved.”
“I am involved,” she said softly. “I think I love him.”
Bob let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s the same thing as always. You find a cause and you fight for it. He’s down on his luck, so naturally that makes him the underdog, and you’re going to stick by him. That isn’t love, Rachel.”
“Maybe not….” She handed him the box of chewy fruit and nut candy. “But he’s in my life, and I want you two to be friends.”
“You want me to invite him over to my barbeques, actually do that?” Bob asked savagely. “He’s a punk, Rachel. He’s got women all over the place, criminal types staying with him, and some big goon running his errands now. Jada told me about this guy—Moses Fry.”
“Did she tell you about Shane Templeton?” Rachel asked carefully, uncertain of Jada’s temper and her fast mouth when angered. The childhood nickname of “Freeway Mouth” sometimes still applied to Jada, the adult.
“She said he was on her ‘poop-list’ or something like that. She’s mad at him. Jada is always having boyfriend problems…. I warned her not to marry that one—Larry Something—but she wouldn’t listen. She probably just fixated on Shane and—”
“He was involved with Mallory, Bob, and it wasn’t always sweet.”
Bob was fiercely adamant: “I do not believe that. He’s respected in our community. You know how Mallory was, just like Jada in a way—always running after men.”
“I found something that linked them together. Shane seduced Mallory.”
Bob shook his head. “You’ve got to be wrong,” he stated fiercely. “He’s in Neptune’s Landing’s finest social set, comes from a good family—I’ve known him for a long time. When it came to men, you were always the sensible one, independent, on your own, a smart thinker—now you’re tied up with this Scanlon character. He’s just plain trouble, Rachel. Look what just happened—he’s probably involved in some drug trafficking that went wrong, and who knows what kind of criminal activities he’s into.”
Rachel had expected Bob’s adamant rejection of Kyle, but it saddened her. She understood that years of Bob’s negative opinions about Kyle wouldn’t change easily, and that it was best not to push him now. She hugged him and kissed his cheek. “I think this will work out for all of us, given time.”
Bob caught her close and nuzzled her hair in the familiar way he’d done with all of the girls. His next words reminded her of when her sisters and she were going down to the beach, when she was finally taking the car out on her own. “Be careful, Rachel. Promise?”
“I promise. I love you, Bob.”
“I love you, too,” he returned in the old familiar way.
Or was it?
His embrace, his soft pau
nch against her, triggered warning flashes that she didn’t understand. Unsettled, Rachel couldn’t pin down her emotions, but she eased away. “Better go. Mom is expecting me.”
“Give her a kiss for me.”
“I will. Bye.” Rachel left the hardware store, aware that Bob was watching her.
It was an uneasy sensation, and one she couldn’t understand….
Sixteen
“BOB? WE’RE OKAY WITH EACH OTHER,” TRINA STATED. “HE’S just worried about you, that’s all. Jada heard us arguing about you letting Kyle stay at your place overnight.”
“Kyle is staying longer than that, Mom. There are things people don’t know about him. Good things.”
“I’ve already suspected that. He helped Mallory as much as she would let him. I’ll always be grateful for that. If Kyle hadn’t stayed with you, he was welcome here. I would have taken care of him, so would have Jada. As it is, he came to you, and I’d say that is for a very good reason—because he loves you. He said so last night, didn’t he?” Trina slowly stood up from kneeling and slid her gardening gloves from her. She tossed them down into the carryall of her hand tools, then eased her bandanna away from her hair. In the last week of May, she looked young and slender against the Pacific Ocean. She riffled her blond multi-length cut with her fingers, freeing it to the ocean breeze.
“He doesn’t remember that part, Mom. I’m not reminding him. A man on medication and in pain can’t always be responsible.”
“Kyle is always responsible.” Trina’s eyes searched Rachel’s. “You’ve checked on me several times today, and I suppose that is because of the trouble afoot. I’m safe here and Jada, too. I stayed in my house as usual last night. Bob stayed at his.”
“Mom, I really need to talk. Serious stuff.” Rachel admired the timeless cheekbones of her mother. Trina’s clear blue eyes were untroubled, as if she’d met the worst of the world on her terms, and had come to a confident level of much needed peace.
“I’ve been waiting for this visit. I thought you might come by and I closed the office early. It’s about what happened to Kyle, isn’t it? Let me get some iced tea and we can sit and look out at the ocean. Beautiful day for late May, isn’t it?”
“I’d like that.” Rachel looked out at the oceanfront property that her mother had purchased after leaving low-income housing. Trina had repaired and improved the property where the girls had grown up, the back yard familiar with swings and picnic table, and the flower garden she called “Therapy.”
Rachel sat in one of the three swings that Bob had made for the girls. She swung slowly and looked out at the ocean’s waves…. “Once upon a time there were three sisters—”
Trina came outside and smiled at Rachel as she lowered a tray onto the weathered picnic table. The earthen-look pottery teapot and mugs reminded Rachel of the china at Shane’s, of the spotted burns he’d been wearing at the businessman’s luncheon earlier, of the way his eyes threatened revenge. He’d looked down her suit jacket, short skirt and high heels as if she were touting whore’s wares, the same as Mallory. Rachel had smiled at him, the professional cool smile that carried her own threat: she knew what he was now—how he’d snared Mallory and used her for a side that he couldn’t reveal to others. And if Shane were responsible for Kyle’s beating and the fire, Rachel was determined to find evidence.
“Bob gave me one of those in-a-minute hot-water pots, the latest in his hardware,” Trina explained as she poured tea into the mugs. “He knows that I love a cup of tea, sitting here with my daughters. You’ve been so busy. It’s so special to have you here, Rachel. And I know you want to get back to Kyle. You might be having Jada around. She seems to have shifted her attention to Moses.”
“What did she tell you?” Rachel held her breath, because Jada, alias “Freeway Mouth” was apt to reveal everything she knew.
Trina’s fingertip circled her mug. “This is about Shane, isn’t it? I never liked that man,” she said quietly. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but Mallory was in love with him for a while…then Jada, and I knew a little about him—”
Rachel studied her mother. “Mom, did Shane make a pass at you?”
“It’s the oddest thing. One day, he was shopping for a car at my place. We were in the office, and he seemed fascinated with my heels. According to Jada, he has his own high heels. And it seems he has a thing about the Everly women, doesn’t it, Rachel?” Trina asked tightly.
Furious with Shane now, Rachel decided to skip the details of her meeting with Shane and that of Jada’s. “You could say that. I think he is a dangerous man.”
“I agree. He came to me, worried about Mallory, and—”
“And? And what happened?”
Trina’s blue eyes were dark with anger before she turned to look out at the ocean. A child’s kite appeared white and stark against the waves. “I’m still mad when I think of it. He wanted to conduct Mallory’s funeral, and I shouldn’t have let him. I didn’t want to tell Jada that then, but we were all so grieving and she had her sights set on him. I thought maybe there was something she saw in him that I had missed. But I do not like being pushed, admonished, or told what’s best for me. There’s something else I can’t define—something creepy. And he made the mistake of—Let’s just say that while arranging Mallory’s funeral with Shane, I used a few things I learned about protecting myself while I was playing for dollars in low places.”
“He’s disgusting, a real letch. I think he may have had something to do with Kyle’s beating and with setting the garage and cars on fire. The insurance investigators think it’s probably arson. I just wanted to touch base with you that Shane could be dangerous.”
Trina tilted her head and studied Rachel. “I’ve seen you do programs before, and you were always dressed in classical business, maybe slacks, a white blouse over a jacket, practical pumps. Bob said you were wearing tight clothes and a short skirt today. Was there a reason for that? To bring Shane out, what he really is—that old wolf in sheep’s clothing thing?”
“The word is slime-ball, Mom.”
“Where did you go—really, when you closed ‘for repairs’?”
Her mother was way ahead of the game, Rachel decided, as she sipped her tea and tried to think of a way to tell her about Katrina, her granddaughter. Instead, Rachel asked carefully, “Mom, did you come into my apartment while I was gone?”
Trina shook her head. “No, but Jada borrowed my keys and went over to bring the cake and to do a little cleaning. I was tied up with a trade-in, a sweet little Buick. Is there a problem?”
“A big one. Kyle’s gun is missing and Jada said she didn’t touch it.”
Her mother’s hard “oh, shit” cut across the late afternoon air. “I mean, oh, dear me,” Trina corrected curtly. “You had all the locks changed.”
“I did, but anyone with access to Jada’s could have made a copy…if she were housecleaning and left them around.”
“Mmm. She’s bad at that, leaving things lying around. She did mark your keys with your name. I saw her.”
“She cleans for Shane—or did. He could have used her keys to get that gun.”
Rachel briefly explained the Kyle-leaving-gun scenario, which only made it worse, raising Trina’s fears. “If he left it with you, that means he thinks there is real rough stuff involved. What would make him think that? You were gone for two whole days, so someone could have—”
Trina rapped out the time sequence and finished with “They came while you were gone and took it. But why would Kyle leave you a semi-automatic unless—?” she asked again.
“Okay, there’s a few missing pieces that maybe you’d better know—” Rachel didn’t look forward to telling her mother about the tape and Mallory’s threat: You hurt my family and I’ll haunt you forever….
But Trina was looking past Rachel to Kyle who was walking from the driveway to the backyard, a three-legged dog at his side. Trina moved quickly, gracefully, toward him. “I want you to sit in that lawn chair righ
t now, Kyle Scanlon,” she ordered in a no-nonsense motherly tone.
He was pale and obviously in pain, but he grinned at Rachel as she came to his other side. “I must still have it. Two good-looking women running to meet me…. Trina, would you mind getting me a glass of water?”
Pup licked Rachel’s hand and she patted him before taking Kyle’s. She turned his hand in her own, then took the other, inspecting it, before looking at him. “You smell like smoke and you’ve got soot on your clothes and hands. You were at the garage working, weren’t you?”
“They don’t build ’em anymore, honey,” Kyle stated logically. He was mourning his loves, the old classics, the parts that couldn’t be replaced, and Rachel ached for him.
“I’m not using all of our garage. You can store whatever you want there,” Trina offered. “Leon would be thrilled.”
“You shouldn’t be working now, Kyle,” Rachel said, concerned for him.
“Yeah, so? I was there anyway, going over things with the insurance investigator.”
After her mother had gone inside, Kyle asked softly, “Did you tell her everything?”
“I was just getting to it. She knows that Shane isn’t exactly a prince. I don’t know how to tell her about the tape. I just can’t—”
Kyle bent to kiss her lightly. “Tell her. She could be in danger, too, and has to be in the loop. Mallory was protecting all of your family—or trying to. I think I could kill this guy if he’s the same one who attacked you—and Shane was out of town that weekend, at some retreat.”