by Alice Sharpe
“At the risk of getting my head bitten off, I think you should file a complaint. The man is harassing you. You need a restraining order, but that means filling out the forms and presenting them to the court and getting a hearing date. All that takes time. Did Eddie witness the incident?”
“I think so. He tried to come to my rescue.” She was silent for a second and then added, “Isn’t that odd? Eddie just happened to be around when I needed help, and then you just happened to show up.”
“I didn’t just happen to show up, I’ve been looking all over town for you. Besides, Eddie works for George Plum.”
“Which is the same as working for you.”
“True.” He pulled up in front of the police station. “You have to report this to Chief Novak. It wouldn’t hurt for the sheriff to know about it, too.”
“Honestly, Trip, what did I do before I had you to organize my life?”
“Heaven knows,” he said. “Aren’t you curious why I came looking for you?”
“I know why you came,” she said. “You were worried about David Lee. Well, you were absolutely right to be worried about him, the man is a lowlife.” Her throbbing left leg lent passion to her words.
“You told me to back off. You told me you don’t want me worrying about you.”
“Yeah, well, you don’t always listen to what I say, do you?” she asked sweetly.
“In all fairness, I’m not sure you always mean what you say,” he responded. “Anyway, today you’re wrong. It turns out the sighting of Neil Roberts down in San Diego was bogus, a lookalike, nothing more. Some poor guy got bombarded by a SWAT team. Anyway, Roberts is still missing and now the agent I told you about who had a lead on Gene Edwards hasn’t been heard of in twenty-four hours.”
“And Gene Edwards is who, exactly?”
“The man who helped Neil Roberts kill his third victim and abduct his fourth. The missing agent worked in Idaho. I don’t have to remind you how close we are to Idaho, do I?”
“No,” Faith said with a shudder.
He put a hand atop hers. “Last night was a mistake,” he said softly. “Both of us got things wrong. But this is bigger than you needing space and me figuring out how to be a father and us dealing with our feelings for each other. This is life and death. Don’t fight me on this.”
She looked at his fingers lying across hers. He was right, of course. It was time to stop being afraid and angry and for them to work together to make sure Colin and Noelle stayed safe. “Okay. We’ll do it your way.”
THE POLICE STATION LOOKED very much the same as it had the only other time Trip had been inside. Lenny was at the desk, shuffling a stack of papers. When he got a good look at Faith, he straightened his shoulders and came to life. “Can I help you?” he asked, drinking in Faith as though she was a cold bottle of water in the middle of a 10K marathon.
“I need to fill out a complaint,” Faith said.
“Sure, oh, yeah, I got forms,” Lenny said, mumbling his words in his anxiety to please her.
“While the lady does that, I want to see Duke Perry, my former mechanic. Is he still here?”
“Yeah. I’ll take you in. Be right back, Miss. Uh, don’t leave.”
They walked past the chief’s closed door. Trip could hear voices coming from inside and hoped his luck held to the point where he got in and out of the station without actually facing Novak.
The cell block was a simple, old-fashioned situation not seen around much anymore. Three cells, two of them empty, Duke sitting on a cot in the last one. Trip didn’t know if he should credit his FBI years, or the fact that a beautiful young woman waited back in the front, but Lenny quickly left him there alone, with directions to buzz the bell by the door when he was ready to leave.
Duke was in his late thirties, long brown hair worn in a ponytail, tattoos up and down his arms. He had a scraggly beard that hung to midchest, a soft voice and red-rimmed eyes that currently had a hard time meeting Trip’s.
Trip pulled a chair up to the bars. “Duke, I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry you let this happen.”
“Me, too,” Duke said.
“I guess I want to know how it came about. I want to make sure you deserve to be here. You were doing so good.”
Duke looked at Trip and then away. He got off the cot and walked to the far corner where he found himself the shelter of a shadow. “I don’t know,” he said.
“I don’t buy that. You told me you never even went to the tavern anymore, that you’d decided to stay away from temptation.”
“Listen,” Duke said. “I could blame it on the nice guy buying me rounds of drinks, I could blame it on the cold night or the fact my woman took up with her boss last month. What difference does it make?”
“None,” Trip admitted. “I just wish you hadn’t gotten behind a wheel.”
“Yeah, well, me, too. Hindsight and all that. Tell you the truth, I’m glad someone called me in, glad I didn’t hurt no one.”
“Absolutely. I’ll get George Plum to cut you a check for what we owe you.”
“I appreciate that. Maybe I can make bail, go stay with my brother for a while.”
Trip put the chair back where it belonged and buzzed his way out. Faith was waiting for him, papers filled out, ready to leave as soon as Lenny finished telling her what she should do next. Trip looked up as he heard a door open, and then grimaced to himself. He’d stayed too long. Novak and another man were coming out of the chief’s office.
Novak towered over a much younger, smaller man, a guy with shaggy brown hair and a dark gaze that slid over both Trip and Faith. Besides the scowl on his face, he wore scruffy blue jeans and a flannel shirt, a padded denim jacket tucked under one arm.
“You stay in town, you hear?” Novak snarled.
“You got nothing against me,” the man said, flinging up the section of the counter that was hinged to allow passage and letting it bang down in his wake, brushing close to Faith in his haste. “I’m as worried about Gina as anyone else,” he shouted. “I don’t know where she is.”
“Gina?” Trip said, staring hard at the man. “Are you Peter Saks?”
“What’s it to you?” he snapped.
“My name is Luke Tripper. I’m Gina’s boss.”
The man Trip assumed was Peter Saks seemed to swell in size as he threw a punch at Trip’s face. Trip caught his fist midair and twisted his arm behind his back. Leaning over the smaller man’s shoulder, Trip said, “What’s your problem, buddy?”
“Let go of me.”
“Not if you’re going to start a fight,” Trip said. He looked around to see Faith backed up against a wall, Lenny gawking and Chief Novak grinning.
“I won’t start nothin’,” the man grumbled as some of the fight seemed to drain from his body. Trip released him. The man took a few steps, rubbing his hand on his jeans. “Yeah, I’m Peter Saks,” he added, “and this is all your fault.”
Trip leaned over, snagged the fallen jacket from the floor and tossed it at Saks. “What’s my fault?”
Saks caught the jacket and shrugged it on. “Gina breaking up with me and then running away. What did you say to her?”
“You’ve lost me,” Trip said.
“She had the hots for you. She was going to tell you. Did you make fun of her?”
Trip was pretty sure he would have known if Gina was truly infatuated with him—but maybe not. He hadn’t given her a second thought beyond her responsibilities as the babysitter, so he supposed she might have indulged in a fantasy or two. But he sure as hell knew she’d never said anything to him about it. That he would remember. “I thought the consensus around here is she went camping with you.”
“Not with me. She wouldn’t give me the time of day. I barely got to California before my dad called and told me everyone thought Gina was with me. So I came back here to clear things up and to tell the cops they should be looking at you, not me.”
Running a hand through his hair, Trip said, “Gina never said a word to me
. And even if she did harbor…well…feelings for me, why would she abandon her car like that? It doesn’t make sense.”
Novak finally spoke up. “And that’s why Mr. Saks is going to stay here in town while I look into this more closely.”
Novak had already wasted two days, and worse, as far as Trip was concerned, so had he. He’d gotten so tied up with Faith and his concerns about Neil Roberts and David Lee that he’d let Gina’s disappearance fall by the wayside.
“Gina was my girl before you came to Shay,” Peter Saks fumed.
Trip lowered his voice and stared right into Saks’s eyes. “I know you hit her before. She told me.”
Saks’s fists balled at his sides, but he apparently thought better of expressing his outrage. He turned abruptly and pushed his way through the door.
“See there, Lenny,” Novak said with a chuckle as the door slammed behind Saks, “that there is how the FBI handles a suspect. Thanks for the lesson, Trip.”
Trip swallowed an oath and said nothing.
Lenny smiled. “That guy was mad, all right.”
“He’s a hothead,” Novak said.
While Trip agreed with this assessment, it was impossible not to speculate if that’s all he was. One fact was undeniable: Gina was gone and no one seemed to know where she was.
“Something I can do for you folks?” Novak added.
“Miss Bishop here said David Lee pushed her around on the sidewalk today,” Lenny said.
“Another hothead,” Novak muttered. “Harmless, though.”
“And Mr. Tripper wanted to see Duke Perry.”
“You siding with a drunk?” the chief asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Of course not.”
“That’s smart. We got a Good Samaritan call about him leaving the tavern, weaving down the sidewalk, getting in his damn car. Blew point ten, couldn’t walk a straight line—we got him dead to rights so you can just—”
“Go back to my ranch, I know,” Trip finished. Taking Faith’s hand, he added, “Let’s get out of here.”
“IS THERE SOMETHING IN the water around here?” Faith asked as they once again rattled over the cattle guard and came to a stop on the other side. Faith turned to witness a man get out of a truck parked beside the fence. The man proceeded to close a gate Faith had never been aware of before. He carried a rifle with practiced ease.
“What do you mean?”
The clang of steel banging against steel sent a reassuring surge through Faith. The man waved them off. Turning to face forward again, she said, “David Lee, Peter Saks—they’re about the same age and they’re both spooky.”
“Isn’t the new guy about the same age, too, and he seems calm enough.”
“Eddie what’s-his-name…Reed. Yeah. Wait, he didn’t grow up in Shay. Maybe it’s the school system and not the water.”
“That’s why we need good teachers like you,” Trip said as he parked between the house and Faith’s cabin. There was no sign of the red sedan. “Before you go,” he added, “I don’t think it’s a good idea for Noelle to leave the ranch tomorrow.”
She looked at him closely. “Because of Neil Roberts?”
“Yes. Frankly, I wish you’d call in sick, too, but I know better than to try to stop you.”
“It’s the last day of school before break.”
“I know. Will you at least let me or someone else drive you? I’ll have the sedan delivered to the school by the time you’re ready to come home.”
As she’d all but destroyed her car two days ago and been indirectly responsible for the tire incident with the sedan, she didn’t figure she had much ground to stand on when it came to protest. Anyway, now that his demands had become requests, she was finding it easier to go along with him. “Okay, that’s fine. Thank you.”
“I put an ad in the paper, to start running Saturday,” he told her as they got out of the truck. “There’s an existing phone line into the cabin, so you can get calls there or in the house. That way, you can organize interviews. But I want to ask you to schedule them all for later next week. Let’s give this mess with Roberts a few more days before we start inviting strangers out here.”
“Whatever you say.” He looked surprised by her cooperation. “I’m not an idiot,” she added.
“I never thought you were. Do you know how to handle a gun? Because if you do, I’ll see to it you’re armed, at least while you’re here on the ranch.”
“I never learned about guns. It never seemed important to know how to handle one. My brother tried to get me to learn, but I was too stubborn.”
Was that a smile he turned away to hide? They got out of the truck, and at the point where Faith should veer off to head to the cabin, she caught Trip’s arm. “I’d like to see the kids. If it’s okay with you.”
“Sure.” He waited until she’d preceded him into the front hall to add, “Would you like to stay and eat supper with us?”
She knew she shouldn’t because she knew she wanted to. But she also admitted to herself she didn’t want to go sit in the cabin with a belly full of fear, waiting for something to happen when darkness descended.
But those weren’t the only reasons, and she admitted that, too. She craved Trip’s companionship as well as time with the children, and that was a fact. She was a family girl, a homebody, a people person trying to be a loner. It was tricky to go against nature, hence all the advances and retreats.
As Noelle ran down the stairs, Faith mumbled, “Actually, I’d like to stay,” and felt like a dismal failure.
A FEW HOURS LATER, she rocked Colin to sleep, his baby warmth so at odds with the internal cold she couldn’t shake. For a long while she stood over his crib, studying his face in repose, trying to see him as his mother must have seen him, must have thought she’d always see him. There was a picture of her on the wall nearby, and it almost looked as though her gaze were focused on the crib. As this wasn’t Colin’s nursery at the time of Susan’s death, it meant someone else had put the picture there after she died.
A terrible sadness swelled in Faith’s heart, both for Trip’s sister and for the children she left behind. How cruel and arbitrary life could be.
But at least Colin had his uncle, and Faith smiled as she touched the baby’s spiky, reddish-blond hair. She’d been amused when Trip rescued Colin from his high chair during dinner and suffered bits of mashed potatoes and strained carrots flung every which way. When he’d caught her eye and smiled, she felt a giant lump in her throat.
She finally returned to the living room and found Trip cuddling Noelle on his lap. He was reading to her, the huge decorated Christmas tree a backdrop. Trip was assuming voices as he read, which made Noelle relax back against his chest where she giggled.
In a couple of weeks, Faith would move away from here and these people would continue their lives without her. Trip would run the ranch, maybe even growing to appreciate it as the years went by. The children would flourish, the three of them would continue to knit themselves into a family. And one day Trip would meet a woman who fit their lives. He would marry her and they would all live happily ever after.
The story ended, Noelle all but asleep. Trip’s cell phone rang, jarring the child from her stupor. As he took the call, Faith led Noelle upstairs. The taut nerves of earlier had mellowed as the evening progressed without incident, but they came back as she recalled the wary look in Trip’s eyes as he walked into the den. She’d heard the curt tone of his voice and the silence with which he listened to his caller.
Now what?
Noelle pulled Faith from her distressing thoughts when she uttered in a drowsy voice, “I don’t want to miss school tomorrow. Alicia is bringing cupcakes.”
Faith tucked Buster in beside her. “I’ll save one for you,” she whispered.
For a few minutes, she sat by Noelle’s bed, holding her hand until the little girl’s fingers slipped from her grip. With a final kiss to the child’s forehead, she half closed the door against the slanted light from the hall. She f
ound Trip in his small bedroom, standing at the window, sliding home the lock. “That’s the last one,” he said, turning, but one look at her face and he added, “You okay?”
“I’m a little on edge. I told you I was a giant coward.”
“Only fools don’t have nerves,” he said gently. “Or maybe the innocent. Like the children. I hope they didn’t sense the tension.”
“I think Noelle was too busy enjoying you reading to her.”
“I’m not very good at it.”
“You sell yourself short. I thought your aardvark voice was brilliant.”
He smiled, and then his expression grew serious. “I know you’re curious about the phone call,” he began as he approached her.
“I’m almost afraid to ask.”
He stopped beside her in the doorway. He was standing too close. There was no reason for such intimacy except for the most basic reason of all. Despite their heated accusations, there was something between them and had been from the beginning. That something made personal boundaries obsolete. Somehow, within the last twenty-four hours, they’d moved forward with each other, though Faith wasn’t sure how it had happened.
“Colby called,” he said, leaning toward her, bracing himself with a hand on the doorjamb above her head. It took her a second to remember that Colby was his old boss at the FBI. Her heart skidded to a stop. “They found the missing agent,” he added, “the man I told you had a lead on Gene Edwards. He’s dead, shot through the heart.”
“Oh, no! I’m so sorry.”
“He was a family man. Left a wife and a little girl. Damn it to hell.”
Not that many hours ago, she’d chastised him for not staying in the FBI once he became guardian to Colin and Noelle, and now an agent was dead. How could she have been such a know-it-all?
“Faith, maybe you should leave.”
“No,” she said.
“I don’t want something happening to you or the children.”
“What about you?”
“No, I have to stop him. If he’s coming here, I have to stop him once and for all.”
“But there are others who can do that.”