“Don’t!” Cassie erupted. “Don’t even say it.”
“It would be foolish not to consider the possibility,” April murmured, and rose from the table. She went to the security panel, pushed the test button. It gave off its I’m working beep. She went to the motion detector box. “I’m setting it for...” She glanced about the house. “For fifteen minute delay, giving you fifteen minutes of light. No if ands or buts. You’ll know.”
“I was going to do that,” Georgie tried to explain, but in truth, she had forgotten all about it.
“No go’na about it,” April said, sitting back down. “It’s done.”
“That’s why I love her,” Cassie said. A mere second passed before her brows pulled to the center. “Hey. Why isn’t M&M here? I really thought he would be here.”
“Cassie,” April said in a low voice.
“What?”
April sighed, shaking her head. Her eyebrows lifted high in disbelief, her eyes closing.
“What? He should be here,” Cassie insisted.
With the utmost of patience in her voice, April said, “The fact that he’s not here should tell you something, like... mind your own business.”
“Georgie, and bringing kids into the world, is my business.”
Not knowing if she could go through the whole thing again, Georgie got up and served them more coffee and tea then let Daisy out in the laundry room. She heard the little flapping of the doggie door followed by her bark, then quiet. She looked out the window. Daisy was fine, doing her thing with the perimeter of the yard. Georgie turned back to her waiting friends. As she listened to herself recount what happened between her and Mason, the logical reasoning sounded so negligible, so minor, but the pain she felt was hardly that.
“For what it’s worth, I think you were right bringing it to the table,” April said, and Georgie knew relief that someone else understood. She wasn’t being absurd or silly.
“What?” Cassie stared at April. “How can...”
“Emotions run rampant in life threatening situations,” April said. “It is what it is.”
“But M&M faces this all the time,” Cassie argued. “I don’t see him confusing every female in danger with his wife.”
“But Georgie isn’t just any other case to Mason. She was a classmate; personal, one on one. It’s an emotional adrenaline rush. That’s why a lot of female/male cop partnerships become relationships when they shouldn’t, and wind up destroying marriages. Those partnerships eventually go belly up, but by then the damage is done. They both need to examine those feelings before they get in too deep.”
Tonie, Georgie thought. April’s words hit home in a different way, different from Jenny. But Mason had stated his feelings toward Tonie. She had to take his word on that, but every relationship has a second person. How did Tonie feel about Mason? A deep sigh failed to lift the weight settling on her heart.
“Can you take me to visit Sam?” Georgie said, grabbing her coat and patted the pocket for her garage door remote. “I need to speak with him,” she said, picking up her cell phone and slipping it in her pants pocket.
~~0~~
After stopping to get a salmon pink rose, Georgie found little to say on the drive to Shady Oaks Cemetery. The road was long, winding, lined with oak and laurel trees, the ground covered with wild shrubs. It was a small cemetery, but Sam’s father and mother were buried here and so it seemed very appropriate that her Sam be with them, and it overlooked Sam’s beloved Portland. The sun broke through the dark clouds of the passing rain as they drove through the wrought iron arches, sending rays of light throughout the hallowed grounds. The affect was mystic, ethereal, enshrining.
There were a few cars parked along the circling lane, their owners visiting their loved ones even on this crisp misty day.
“Over there,” Georgie said, leaning forward; felt her cell phone slide from her pant pocket, and shoved it back in. She’d forgotten her dislike of these particular sweat pants for that one reason. “Near those oaks.”
“I remember,” April said, her voice solemn; Cassie sighing deeply.
Georgie knelt at the gravesite, ignoring the damp grass. She wiped away the various gold and yellow oak leaves before placing the rose in the little pewter holder by the marble nameplate. April and Cassie inserted their flowers next to hers. After buffing the plate to a shine with the corner of her coat, Georgie slid her fingertips over the engraved name, dates and words: One who loved and is loved.
“Don’t ever give me a headstone,” Sam had always told her. “I don’t want you tied to a cold unfeeling monolith.”
“But what if I die before you?” she had laughed.
“Don’t you dare.” Those few words lingered like his after-shave, his laugh, the weight of his arm on her shoulders.
Somewhere behind her, Georgie felt, more than heard, Cassie and April walk away, leaving her and Sam alone.
“Oh, Sam,” she whispered, after a heartbeat of silence. “Why didn’t you let me go with you that night? Oh, never mind. I don’t want to hear it.” Her shoulders, heavy, burdensome, dropped. “He’s very nice, you know, this Mason Montgomery; very kind. I think the kids like him.” A smile tugged at her mouth. “Well, Paula almost likes him. But she always was your little girl. That hasn’t changed. Steven? He’s still listening to that drum beat only he can hear. What a doctor he’ll make.”
Autumn leaves sailed across the cemetery grounds, a few landing on Sam’s grave. Georgie smiled and picked them off, rolling one between her fingers.
“I wish you could give me a sign, give me the okay to move on, tell me I’m not somehow being unfaithful to you by letting this man in my life.” A breeze brushed across her cheeks and fluttered her lashes. “We had a love, you and I, didn’t we?” She waited. No thunder. No lightening. No grand message, and the weight would not leave her. “You’re letting me make this decision, aren’t you?” Still no answer, and she stood to look down at the plate, exasperation overwhelming her. “Then you shouldn’t have done such a good job of taking care of me, damn it! You should’ve prepared me... somehow... to deal... to...”
Moments drifted with the clouds before a strange quiet laugh rumbled in her, and she found it comforting in a way that puzzled her. She knelt once more and touched her fingers to the plate. “Okay. I hear you.”
Georgie felt, but didn’t turn at the gentle touch on her shoulder. It was Cassie. “Georgie,” she said. “We should go. April wants us in the car.”
“What’s wrong?” Georgie asked, looking about.
The few people who had been visiting gravesites were gone or walking back to their cars, the rays of sunlight also gone. The rumble was low, distant, but growing more threatening.
“She says it looks a like a downpour.”
“Okay, Sam,” Georgie smiled down at the marble plate. “I hear you. I’m leaving.”
They ran to the BMW whose motor April already had running. By the time they closed the doors, raindrops began dotting the windshield. Georgie hadn’t even buckled her safety belt when she saw April look in the rear view mirror, side mirror, and pushed the gas pedal. The jolt forward pressed Georgie into the seat with a tilt. Her cell phone slipped out of her pocket and she shoved it back in.
“April,” Cassie scolded, while Georgie struggled with the buckle.
“Are we trying to outrun the rain?” Georgie asked, swaying with the swerving April was doing.
“Sure, why not?” April asked, driving through the wrought iron arches and onto the highway.
Cassie poked her head between the seats to look back at her. “Well? Did Sam give you the answers you were looking for?” she asked.
“True to form,” Georgie sighed. “He’s letting me make the decision.”
“Good for him,” Cassie smiled. “You know the answer. Otherwise you wouldn’t be asking the question. You just wanted Sam to tell you not to, but he would never do that.”
“I know,” Georgie murmured, more to herself than to answer Cassie
.
They moved along the long winding road, their speed now and then rising then slowing. Georgie noticed April kept looking into the rear view mirror, the side mirror, then back into the rear view mirror. Just as Georgie turned to see what April was so concerned with, April stepped on the gas and Georgie was thrust back against the seat. All Georgie caught was a quick peek at the front end of a dark vehicle making its way around the bend behind them. A long wide turnout came up, and April pulled the car off the road.
The Durango, Georgie thought. This was enough! She pushed the door open and was half out when April, already out of the car, shoved her back in and slammed the door. She put her weight against it, keeping Georgie in.
“April! Let me out, goddamn it!”
“What is going on?” Cassie asked, unsnapping her seat belt.
April stood in the drizzle, leaning on the door, arms crossed, looking at the road behind them, waiting. Georgie tried to look out the back window as she slid across the seat to get out on the other side and saw the dark SUV sitting there just at the tip of the bend.
“April!” both Georgie and Cassie shouted. At that same moment they heard the gunning rev of an engine and the squeal of tires on the damp payment. The massive vehicle roared toward them. April leapt over the short hood of the BMW as the dark Durango sped by, almost sideswiping them, and would have struck April if not for her fast action.
Cassie screamed, but April was quick on her feet. Georgie froze, seeing April reach behind and beneath her jacket at the waist to draw out a gun. But she never fired.
“Dammit!” April swore as the Durango rounded the far curve and disappeared.
Georgie and Cassie bolted from the car. Cassie wrapped her arms around April. The tall willowy April leaned into Cassie’s embrace as she shoved the gun back into the waist holster. “I’m fine,” she told Cassie.
Georgie stared after the dark SUV, blinking as raindrops landed on her lashes and cheeks.
Chapter twenty-three
Georgie and Cassie tugged at April to get her out of the rain that was now turning into the predicted downpour and back into the car. But even as they coaxed and prodded, the tall quiet woman kept her eyes fixed on the winding road that had swallowed up the Durango. As Georgie looked into April’s eyes, she saw a glint of something she had seen only a few times; once in Nicks eyes when Blake Hartz, a high school senior, had her pinned to the lockers, pressing himself to her. Her angry fists were hardly a deterrent. Nick came around the corner of the hall, yanked Blake off, threw him to the far wall, slamming him into the lockers there. The week’s suspension didn’t bother Nick. His parents and her dad made certain Blake got the same amount of suspension time.
Okay. But I’m telling you. She’s a kick-ass my kind’a gal. This time, Nick’s words were more difficult to shove aside as she and Cassie urged April into the passenger seat. Cassie hurried to the driver side and got behind the wheel.
“Well, I guess one question’s been answered,” Cassie said, easing the car onto the road. “It wasn’t Shyness doing this.”
“I should have been faster!” April burst out. “Dammit!”
Georgie could hear the voices, words, but wasn‘t really listening. All she could think of was, now her friends had been pulled into this madness. “I am so sorry to drag you guys into this,” she said, “God, what have I done?”
“Both of you, stop!” Cassie ordered. “Damn, I can’t see past this down pour.” Cassie pulled off to the roadside.
“Nick should never have called you,” Georgie said, hand over her mouth, letting herself jostle with the abrupt stop, then covered her eyes. “God what have I done? He should never have called you.”
“Just stop,” Cassie said, then reached over and squeezed April’s hand. Cassie then looked back to Georgie. “And you, back there. Listen to me. I would have hammered Nick if he hadn’t called me. So just stop, the both of you.”
Cassie reached below the dash and pushed a button on the car phone. “What’s M&M’s number?”
Georgie dropped back into the soft seat. Mason’s card with his number was on the kitchen table. She meant to put his number into her cell, but Nick coming in from the outside, asking about Mason leaving, had erased that promised intention.
“Tell me you have it,” Cassie said.
“He gave me his card,” Georgie said, “but it’s sitting on the kitchen table. God, I am so stupid!”
Cassie gave her a glance through the rearview mirror. “When you get through taking all the blame for something you have no control of, you can keep an eye out for that Durango. It was a Durango, right?” she asked April, while reaching over to give her soul mate’s hand another squeeze.
April nodded. “Tinted windows. I couldn’t see who was driving and I’m sure there was no plate... front or back. It’s long gone by now. I can’t believe how slow I was. Dammit!”
What was it Nick said? Georgie tried to remember. “You know why I didn’t get anything off the plates? There were no plates, nothing.” Well, whoever was doing all this was definitely lethal and... bolder; no longer hiding in the dark of night.
“April,” Cassie was saying, her voice carrying that gentle bedside manner she was known for. “Cut yourself a break here. Okay?”
Georgie loosened her safety belt and leaned forward to touch April’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, yeah,” April said with a return pat. “But I’ll tell you right now, and we won’t take no for an answer; if Nick doesn’t come home tonight, we’re spending the night, or you’re coming home with us. One or the other.”
Georgie ground her teeth. “No.” She would not have those close to her in danger. But isn’t that what just happened?
“She doesn’t listen worth a damn, does she?” April asked, while sucking in air then let it gush out as she rolled her head on the seat headrest.
“She’s never listened to Nick or me,” Cassie said, steering the car back onto the road. The cloud burst had past and the rain was all but gone.
“Don’t you understand?” Georgie asked. How could she make them see? “Someone killed Jeffrey because of me; because he somehow got in the way. I will not have anyone else...”
“This is insane,” Cassie said. “Stop and absorb this. You, Georgina Gainsworth, are not responsible for the actions of some nutso.”
A nutso, Georgie thought. Where does a nutso come from? What sets them off? She’d seen many movies and read so many books about stalkers, obsessive personalities, and in each case something big or insignificantly small sets all things in motion. She wanted to melt into the car seat, become invisible, redo the last five days of her life and undo whatever had been the cause of all this... if she only knew what that was.
Other than muted traffic sounds, the drive was easy and quiet until April looked back at her between the seats and said, “Georgie. Since you won’t take the gun I offered, you might keep that slugger bat of yours handy.”
“I never realized you actually carried a gun,” Georgie said, and though the picture was still hard to form, the idea of April being in special forces was... an interesting scenario to play with. She wanted to ask, but figured if April wanted her to know, she would have told her long before now, but then again, maybe not.
“I don’t normally carry one, but I thought the situation being what it is, it might be a good idea to bring backup”
“I don’t like you carrying that thing,” Cassie said.
“And that’s why I didn’t tell you I was bringing it,” April said, pressing her head back against the headrest. “Makes life so much easier and quiet when I don’t tell you things you don’t want to hear.”
“Are you telling me to shut up?”
“I would never dream of telling you that,” April said softly. “I’m asking that you drop the subject. That’s all.”
Georgie caught Cassie’s look in the rearview mirror. “I think she was telling me to shut up.”
“Is it going to work?” was all Georgie w
ould venture to ask, and made sure she held back any show of the tiny bit of humor she found in the moment.
A loud over-done growl erupted from Cassie as she slapped the steering wheel. “I just hate it when you two gang up on me. Really I do.”
“Then don’t make us gang up on you,” April murmured, eyes closed while she put a fingertip at her lips to shush Cassie.
Georgie had to admit her mood was lifting hearing her friends’ banter, and seeing Cassie frown benignly at April.
“Hummp,” Cassie murmured.
By the time they neared Georgie’s street the rain had stopped completely. After Cassie made the turn she pulled to the side of the road and stopped.
“You sure you don’t want to grab a quick lunch somewhere?”
Georgie shook her head. “Nick’s breakfast is still with me.”
“Okay.” Cassie steered back onto the street and drove on until they came to the mouth of her driveway; made the turn and went up the slope.
Mason’s black 4Runner sat in front of her house. Every nerve in Georgie’s body screamed for her to jump from the car and run to him, feel his nearness, nestle in the safety of his arms, and taste his lips once more. But it was she that built the fence, and she had to honor it.
“Guess you won’t have to call him,” Cassie said, and turned off the ignition.
“Can you behave?” April asked of Cassie.
Georgie saw the impish glint brighten Cassie’s eyes, and decided to get out of the car and talk to Mason first. No telling what would come out of Cassie’s mouth in the mood she was in.
By the time Georgie unlatched her safety belt and opened her door, Mason was out of his car and leaning against it.
“How long have you been waiting?” Georgie asked him.
“Just a couple of minutes, but I’m glad I waited,” he said. He wasn’t quite smiling, but there was a hint of one, and Georgie was warmed by the small flame. Perhaps her own doubts had not destroyed a friendship.
Point of Attraction Page 19