“I suppose he could have picked something else, like chickens. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it, and it is his tradition.”
“It’s deviling that not one speck of evidence points to Silas Koole. Everybody knows he did it.” Those hard eyes settled on her. “Except you. You’re his little defender. Wonder how you’ll feel when he turns that axe on you.”
“That’s Katie’s choice,” Ben said. “She’s into making choices these days.”
“Ah, well, here’s a choice for you: would you rather be killed by someone you knew or by a stranger?”
She was startled by the question and that it was aimed at her. “I’d rather not be killed at all.”
Both men laughed, but she had the sense it was at her and not with her.
Dinah and Maybel joined them. “Hey, Ben. How’s it going?” Dinah said. Both women slid her a look of disregard. “Sure is smoky. But I think this’ll be good for everyone, getting out and socializing. Seems like all we think and talk about are those poor girls. At least we know what happened to them now, as horrible as it is. I think one person here has a lot of nerve showing up.” She sent a pointed look Katie’s way before nodding toward the water dunk tank where Silas stood talking with Bertrice. “It enrages me that he’s allowed to walk around free.”
Katie said, “There’s no evidence that he killed anyone.”
“And what are you, the president of his fan club or something?” Maybel said.
Dinah patted Ben’s arm. “Must be hard living with a traitor in the ranks. We’re here for you, you know that. We’ll see you around. We’ve got to get over to the cakewalk. It’s our turn to help out.”
It definitely wasn’t her imagination. These people despised her. Why? Her gaze went to Bertrice and Silas, who both looked over at her. Bertrice looked away and continued talking to Silas, who hadn’t shifted his gaze from her. She felt some easing of the tension inside her, and at the same time, a different kind of charge ignite in her stomach.
Bertrice’s mother, Treena, tapped her daughter on the shoulder, then pulled her away. They argued for a few seconds, with Bertrice glancing toward Silas. Of course, her mother didn’t want her to socialize with a suspected killer. Bertrice stomped off in another direction, and Katie walked over to Treena.
“There she goes,” someone muttered.
“I feel so bad for Ben.”
Katie didn’t even look to see who was talking. She glanced at Silas, but trained her gaze back to Treena, who just now realized Katie was heading in her direction. She started backing away.
“Treena, I’d like to talk to you.”
“I’ve got a booth to take care of. Some of us have to help keep this thing going, you know.”
“I just need a few minutes.” Katie followed the woman who was weaving through people. “Why does Bertrice think I told you about her belly ring?”
“Look, I’ve heard about you. You like to tattle on people. And while I’m glad I know about the ring, I wish it had been my own daughter who told me. Excuse me.”
Katie grabbed Treena’s arm to halt her escape. “I didn’t tell you about that ring. Who did?”
“Let go of me!” Treena yelled, catching everyone’s attention in the vicinity.
Katie had no choice but to release her, and Treena backed through the crowd and headed off. Those who had gathered around just stared at her.
Sheriff Tate wasn’t in uniform, but he stepped up beside Katie. “You causing trouble?”
“She was assaulting Treena!” someone shouted.
Tate’s wife shot her a venomous look from what had become an audience. This was like a nightmare. Katie swore they were closing in on her. She glanced toward Ben, who was flanked by two other women as he just stood there. She couldn’t see Silas.
“What is wrong with you people?” she said, circling around to take them all in. “How can you hate someone you don’t even know?”
“We know enough about you,” Marion said. “And we don’t like what you’re doing to Ben. You’re trash and you always have been. Possum Holler trash.”
Maybel had stepped up to the inner circle. “You’re ungrateful and selfish. Even the Emersons said you didn’t appreciate what they did for you, giving you a home after your mama killed herself. Ben has given you everything, and you spit in his face time and again. Who are you saving your babies for? A killer?”
“Look, she’s even wearing his necklace,” someone else whispered.
Katie could hardly breathe. It was as though their anger had sucked the oxygen from the air. They may as well have stabbed her in the tenderest places deep inside. How did they know so much? She pushed her way out of the crowd and walked toward the edge of the festivities.
“Hey, you’re not allowed in this area,” one man said when she stepped over the ribbon enclosing the fireworks section.
She kept on walking, right out to the streets that were nearly abandoned. Ben had been telling her for years that the people in town didn’t dislike her, that it was her own paranoid imagination. That had not been her imagination.
When she was a safe distance away, she dared a glance backward. She expected a mob to be following her, carrying pitchforks and calling for the burning of the witch. No one followed. She didn’t slow down her pace, though. Sweat poured off her as the sun burned down and danced off the asphalt. She wound through the streets and out of sight of the fair altogether. The tears were pushing to burst out, but she held them in. Fear edged in, too. God, she was that little girl all over again, with no one to love her or help her.
She heard an engine and glanced behind her. Silas’s Navigator cruised the empty streets toward her. She ducked into a small alleyway, and his engine faded away. She’d only taken a few turns through the streets when she came face to face with him.
“Why are you running from me?” he asked, exasperation lacing his voice.
“I told you I needed some time.”
He ran his fingers through his hair as he tilted his head up. “I threw a lot at you.”
“And I threw myself at you.”
“Don’t be embarrassed about that. What happened between us was the most astounding thing I’ve ever experienced.”
She met his gaze on that, hating the flutter in her stomach. “You said…it was like making love to an angel.”
“It was. It was like having your light inside me.” He brushed her hair back from her face. “I know you need some time away from me. No, I didn’t feel it,” he said when she gave him an annoyed look. “I believe the words, ‘Leave me alone!’ were enough.”
She overcame the urge to apologize and nodded instead. “Maybe I’m a selfish person for wanting to push away the people who want to help me.”
“Not really.”
She met his gaze. “Maybe I’m selfish for wanting something I don’t have, and not wanting what I do have.”
“We’re all selfish in one way or the other. We all want things we can’t or shouldn’t have.”
“What about you, Silas? What do you want?”
“I want you…to be happy.”
She wasn’t afraid that Silas was a serial killer who fed his victims to pigs. She wasn’t even afraid—bothered, yes, but not afraid—that he could read her innermost feelings. What scared her down to the bone was that she’d found the one person who filled her soul, and he was so lost in the dark that he couldn’t see how much she loved him.
“What happened at the fair?” he asked after a few moments of silence.
“I was trying to clear up a misunderstanding. It backfired. Look, it’s no big deal. I just need to be by myself. Can you understand that?”
Stupid question. He could understand everything about her probably.
“I just wanted to make sure you were all right.”
She smiled. Her protector. “I’m all right.”
She watched him walk to the corner of the building, take one last look at her, and then disappear around the corner. When she heard his engine fa
de away, she continued on.
She reached the quiet, coolness of the cemetery at last. Her fingers wrapped around the iron spikes that circled one section of gravestones. She felt as dead as any of these people. Even dead, they fit in more than she did. She slid down to her knees next to the fence, curled up, and closed her eyes.
Silas stood in the shadows of the oaks and watched her. He felt her agony and confusion, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. She obviously didn’t want to be with him, didn’t want the comfort he could provide. She didn’t want that comfort, because she knew she’d break down and cry if he so much as touched her. She was too close to the edge.
He’d known she was heading to hang out with the ghosts, so he’d given her time to get there before walking over. He slid down to the base of the tree and stretched out. She wasn’t crying at least. He wouldn’t have been able to stay away from her if she’d been crying.
Now she was sitting among the dead. He could only see the top of her head where patches of sunlight washed over her. He’d give her time alone, and when she left, he’d make sure she didn’t know he’d ever been there. For now, he watched over her. She was right; that was his role. He’d loved Katie from a distance for most of his life. He wasn’t sure he knew how to love her close up.
CHAPTER 20
The next morning, Katie and Ben drove to the hospital as usual.
“I looked for you,” Ben said for the fiftieth time. “I drove all over the place looking. So did your buddy, Silas. But even he gave up after a while. He parked by the cemetery for hours. Guy’s spooky, just like they say.”
She lifted her head at that revelation. He’d been there, watching over her, just like always.
“Say something, Katie. You can’t just not talk about this.” He let out an exasperated sigh at her continued silence.
Ben had come in later that evening, once she’d gotten home. And amazingly, he’d tried to convince her it was all some big misunderstanding.
“Gary was looking for you, too. Maybe you were right to be wary about him.”
Now he believed her! She got out of the van without commenting. When they’d listened to the radio, he had tried to talk to her about the fires that were moving closer. The air was thick with the smell of smoke, and the winds had picked up. Residents of the Flatlands were warned to be on the alert and monitor the radio for further reports.
She had barely turned on the computers and coffee maker when their first customer pushed open the door: Silas.
He was carrying The Boss, which was no small feat. She rushed forward and held the door open.
“What happened?” she asked, taking in Silas’s disheveled appearance and the dog’s short, panting breaths.
“He went out this morning and came back like this.”
“Ben!” She led the way to the examining room, and Silas laid The Boss on the metal table. The dog shuddered and twitched, and she saw the pain in his brown eyes. When she looked up at Silas, she saw the pain there too as he watched his dog.
Ben walked in and visibly stiffened when he saw the two of them together.
Katie took The Boss’s vitals. “There’s something wrong with the dog. Silas, how long was he outside?”
“About an hour. He dragged himself to the front steps. I don’t know when he started acting like this.”
“It looks like he got into something, or maybe it’s a snake bite.” She met his gaze. “It doesn’t look good, Silas.”
“Do you want us to proceed with treatment?” Ben asked Silas.
Silas met Katie’s eyes. He knew the real question was, try to save him or let him die? “Proceed.”
“Then you’ll have to leave,” Ben said in a cold voice.
After a pause, Silas left the room. Ben checked the dog’s mouth while she checked for signs of snakebite. When she found nothing, she started an IV drip of lactated Ringer’s solution. She and Ben worked well together in cases like this. They both maintained a calm, efficient speed. He showed more compassion this time as he checked the dog. The Boss was having a hard time taking a breath. His mouth stayed slightly open and his tongue lolled out. Something bothered her, but of course, everything about his condition bothered her. She was about to induce vomiting when the dog’s vital signs started dropping. They were losing him.
“Silas!”
“What are you doing?” Ben hissed.
Silas appeared in the doorway with a worried expression.
“Be the last face he sees,” she whispered, and he rushed to the table.
He positioned his face in front of The Boss’s and massaged his paws. “Goodbye, buddy,” he whispered.
The Boss closed his eyes, shuddered one last time, and slipped away.
Ben glared at her over the improper procedure.
An apology, an explanation, hovered on the tip of her tongue. Instead, she looked at Silas and said, “I’m sorry.”
The pain was evident in his features, and she felt it so fiercely, she wondered if the connection between them went both ways now. It was probably her pain.
“Do you know what happened to him?” Silas was looking at Katie, but slid a glance to Ben, who answered in a clinical voice, “My guess would be an internal bleed-out from a ruptured splenic tumor. I could do an autopsy, but it’s expensive and it doesn’t change the outcome. He was an old dog.” He gently closed the dog’s eyes.
She couldn’t help but reach out and touch Silas’s arm. “You did everything you could.”
He stared at her hand, a raw mixture of pain and need in his eyes. Had anyone ever held him when he’d hurt? When he’d lost Celine? He’d probably never been held or comforted, which was why he was reluctant to allow anyone to do it now. He pulled away from her touch as though he’d read her mind.
Her heart melted when he walked out carrying his dog. The Boss’s legs jiggled with each step Silas took as he headed to his vehicle. He returned a few minutes later and paid the bill in cash. Ben had already escorted the next patient into the examination room.
“Was it a bleed out, Katie?” Silas asked quietly.
“I don’t know.”
Ben returned to stand guard as Katie returned his change. “We can cremate him if you want,” he said.
Silas didn’t even answer, just turned around and walked out. She wanted to go after him, to give him a hug and make him accept it.
“Katie, I need you to prepare Mrs. Turner’s cat’s vaccinations.”
“Was it a bleed out, Ben?” she asked, stopping him as he returned to the examination room. It didn’t feel right.
“That’s what I said it was, didn’t I?” His eyes looked cold and as gray as the steel of the examining table.
In her mind, she saw the dog panting, and then The Boss turned into a raccoon pleading with her to help it. It was the same panting action, the same pain in his eyes. “He was poisoned. Just like the raccoon.” Cold dread filled her chest as though someone had poured cement mix down her throat.
“Maybe he got into the stuff I left for the raccoons.”
“That dog has never been near our house. He stays near Silas at all times.”
Ben looked right at her and said, “Get the vaccinations ready.” He returned to the room. “All right, Mrs. Turner, we’ll have Fuzzy ready for another year in no time at all.” His voice was once again warm.
Her hands shook as she readied the shots. Ben gently stroked the white cat while he spoke with Mrs. Turner. Then it was Katie’s turn to hold the cat while he administered the shots.
“Weigh her and see what we’ve got,” he asked in his nicest voice. She set the cat on the table and noted the cat’s weight. “Up a pound and a half. Might want to think about putting her on a senior diet now that she’s slowing down.” He gave the cat a friendly pet. “Don’t want her to get to be called Tubby.”
Mrs. Turner chuckled and patted her own sizable stomach. “Fuzzy’s not the only one who needs to go on a diet.” She settled up her bill, and Ben hoisted the bag of ca
t food.
“Did I ever tell you that my brother is a veterinarian? He’s been practicing in Macon for thirty years. You kind of remind me of him, you know, when he was younger.”
“That’s very nice,” Ben said with a sweet smile. “What’s his name?”
“Ken Buchanan. Do you know him?”
“Don’t think so.”
“He’s dying of testicular cancer. I’m going to miss him. It’ll be nice to have you around as a reminder.”
He patted her shoulder. “I’d be glad to be your surrogate brother, Mrs. Turner.”
“I’m going to Macon tomorrow for their annual Independence Festival. It’ll probably be his last one.”
Their conversation trailed off as the door closed behind them. Katie tried to remember where the box of rat poison had been recently. When he stepped back inside, she was waiting for him.
“Ben, we need to talk.”
His expression was as open and friendly as it had been for Mrs. Turner. “Yes?”
“Good morning, Dr. Ferguson,” Mrs. Lane said as she guided her German Shepherd into the waiting area. “Thanks for getting us in this morning. With this fire coming in, and possibly having to put poor Duchess in a shelter, I want her vaccinations up to date.”
Ben guided Mrs. Lane and her dog into the exam room. She was going to confront him about The Boss. It wouldn’t matter whether he confessed or not—it was over between them.
Even though The Boss had been old, even though he’d been a hassle to take on his travels, his loss left a hole inside Silas. He’d gone home to give him a proper burial.
Silas would never forget Ben’s sense of smug satisfaction and vengeance when his dog died. Ben had had something to do with The Boss’s death. As strongly as he felt Ben’s malevolence, he felt Katie’s compassion. She’d wanted to comfort him, to protect him from pain the way he tried to protect her. As much as he’d wanted to accept that comfort, he’d wanted to run from it, too.
He searched the yard for the right place to inter The Boss. He found the perfect spot nowhere near his house, but at the old cemetery. The place hadn’t been touched in years, evident by the sprawling vines and the broken, rusted fences. Something about the place comforted Katie, and in an odd way, comforted him, too. No one would ever notice the new grave.
Unforgivable (Romantic Suspense) Page 29