Expired Cache

by Lisa Phillips

  “It’s not from a distance.”

  “Because you’ve chosen to get involved. To be a part of your students’ lives.” Jess paused. “The way you could also do here. Teaching at the high school.”

  “As if.”

  No one had invited her to think about doing that. Or simply told her to. She wasn’t just going to…what? Put in an application? That was crazy.

  Her sister pinned her with a knowing stare that Ellie didn’t like that much, and said, “Stay here.”

  Ellie started to object.

  “No. I want you to think about it. Not just because I could use the company from family right now. I also have to deal with repair on the house. And you could oversee fixing up the cabin.”

  If she even wanted to do that. Ellie wasn’t sure if it was worth salvaging, especially considering Dean owned the land all around it. Who knew what would happen with that?

  She knew what she wanted. But when had that ever happened?

  If she had hope—the kind that ignored reality—then she would be back with that childish faith. The one that trusted God despite everything around her. She’d lost that after Ed Summers cornered her with his friends. Now she’d been through far worse.

  She was here. They weren’t.

  Ellie realized she could be thankful for that much. There was a lot to think through right now, and a lot that might never be resolved unless they could get Doctor Gilane to tell the truth. But faith?

  “On Sunday,” she began, “do you think I could come to church with you?”

  “I haven’t been in a while. I work a lot on Sundays. But I can ask for it off, and we can go together. Safety in numbers.”

  Ellie felt the same way. Then she realized that her sister was right. It was what her life would be like if she remained in Last Chance.

  Even if it was only for a few months while she took her sabbatical.

  She reached for her sister’s hand then. “I’ll stay in Last Chance.” She gave Jess’s hand a gentle squeeze. “Before I’m due back to the university, and I’ll reassess then.” She even added, “Maybe the position at the high school will still be open.”

  Jess’s expression lit up. “That would be…” She let out a noise that sounded like a squeal.

  Ellie tried to ignore her. Apparently younger sisters were the same whether you were thirteen or almost thirty.

  “Dean will come around. I just know he will.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m doing this for me.” For us.

  Ellie needed to stay. This time, instead of leaving, she was going to let being here heal her. This town wasn’t going to scare her anymore.

  They would find the doctor. She would figure out what to do with her feelings for Dean. Help her sister rebuild her home. See if faith was something she wanted to resurrect. Finally put her grandfather’s legacy to rest.

  And start building the rest of her life.

  Thirty-Seven

  Dean closed the door to Stuart’s room quietly, trying not to wake him. Conroy was headed down the hall toward him. When he spotted Dean, the police chief gave him a chin lift.

  “Anything?”

  Conroy shook his head. “No sign of Gilane. He’s in the wind.”

  “He nearly killed her. And Stuart.”

  “I know.” Conroy said, “How is he?”

  “Calm now. He probably saved her life.”

  “Seems like a good guy—with a lot of stuff to work through.”

  Dean said, “So…pretty much like all of us then.”

  Conroy cracked a smile. “I guess that is true.”

  Dean’s phone rang. He pulled it out but didn’t recognize the number. “Probably about the car warranty I don’t have.” He swiped to answer the call. “Cartwright.”

  “So she’s alive?” The voice was shaky. Nothing like the man he thought he knew.

  “Gilane.”

  Conroy whipped out his phone and punched a button. If Dean had to guess, Conroy was calling Ted for another trace on Dean’s phone.

  Dean said, “Yeah. She’s alive. So is the man you shot.”

  “Well. That’s that I guess.”

  “Tell me where you are.” Dean wasn’t pulling any punches. “I’ll come and get you, and we can go together to explain all this to Conroy.”

  Gilane huffed, audible over the phone line. “It’s too late for that. I’ll be gone by the time you get here.”

  Dean heard the unmistakable sound of the slide being pulled back on a Sig. “Don’t do this.”

  “I’m not going to jail. For a boy who meant nothing? Coming here with the ridiculous notion that he’d get revenge?” He exhaled against the phone mic again.

  Conroy made a circle motion with one hand and mouthed, “Keep him talking.”

  Dean nodded. He figured Ellie would want to know, so he said, “And Chief Ridgeman? What was his part in all this?”

  Gilane was quiet.

  “Might as well set the record straight.” At least until the police found him, and he was arrested and given the right to a lawyer. “Tell your side of the story.”

  “My side? You sound like Ridgeman, trying to get me to confess. Like he was my priest? He should’ve just kept his mouth shut. Like Holmford should have. Old men and their weak stomachs. Now, suddenly, they can’t handle what they’ve had to live with all these years.” His tone shifted higher, and he mocked someone whining. “Oh, they had it harder than me? Please. I was the one who started this whole town. It was my idea. And when I started handing out the money to do it? No one had a problem then. Did they?”

  Conroy’s brows lifted. Dean saw the earbud in the police chief’s right ear. He was following the conversation.

  “Ridgeman suspected who the boy was, but he could never prove anything. Besides, what was the point? Back home no one cared. Until the boy showed up. Tried to kill me. I knew Ridgeman wasn’t going to accept money to keep that quiet as well, so I had Holmford help me bury the kid.” Gilane pushed out a breath. “Only, Ridgeman found us before we could get him in the ground. By that time, it was too late for him to save the boy. He tried to arrest me but halfway back to town, he gets a call. His wife is in labor and bleeding everywhere. So who is going to help her?”

  Gilane started to chuckle.

  “He let you go.”

  “I was the only doctor. I managed to save the baby, but his wife died. Never forgave me for that. Tried for years to prove I’d done something to her.”

  “Did you?”

  “I didn’t need to. By the time we got there, all I could do was save that baby.”

  Dean squeezed the bridge of his nose. He pleaded with Conroy, without words, to be able to hang up and be done with this conversation.

  “Ridgeman had nothing, and we gave him everything. All he had to do in return was keep his mouth shut about it. Couldn’t even do that when he was dying.”

  “Did you help him end it?”

  Conroy’s face lost all its color.

  Dean said, “Well? Did you?”

  “It’s not illegal everywhere. Helping someone drift into the beyond, at peace.” Gilane paused. “Mine won’t be quite so peaceful.”

  “Surely there’s a statute of limitations on murder? You can’t still be held responsible.”

  Conroy shook his head, and mouthed, “There is.”

  Gilane just chuckled. “What’s dead is my reputation. I’ll never practice again, and no one will ever look at me to heal them.”

  That was all he was concerned about? “You have done good in this town.”

  “Your father was right about you.”

  “What—”

  “I’d rather die than live losing everything I’ve worked for.” The line crackled. A sudden blast of sound that was much too loud. Gunshot. Dean winced, moving the phone away from his ear.

  Conroy pulled out the earbud. “He killed himself.”

  Dean tossed his cell phone onto the nearest chair. It bounced on the seat, tumbled over, and landed on the floo
r.

  There was satisfaction in the crack as his screen shattered.

  But it would’ve felt even better to have kicked the chair. Or punched the wall.

  Instead he strode toward Ellie’s room.

  “Dean!”

  He ignored Conroy and let himself into her room. Jess lifted her brows and stood. “I’ll give you guys a minute.”

  Dean paced. He didn’t even look at Ellie, he couldn’t just yet. Too many thoughts swirled in his head. The doctor. What had happened. The chief. His father. Dean shook his head.

  “I know. I look hideous, right?”

  He whirled around to her. It wasn’t a shock, seeing the bandages. He’d checked on her before he went to sit with Stuart. When she was still out.

  “What happened?”

  “I should be helping you feel better.”

  “Dean.”

  “What?”

  She held out her hand. “Come here.”

  Dean took her hand and sat on the bed in the spot Jess had vacated. No doubt she was hearing the whole story from Conroy. Hopefully they’d recorded the conversation. Dean could explain it to Ellie, but if she could listen to the conversation herself, then she’d be able to think on each of the things Gilane had said. She would finally be able to put this to rest. To know she was finally safe.

  “He’s dead.” Dean swallowed. “He killed himself.”

  Ellie closed her eyes for a second.

  “You’re safe now.”

  “I know.” She tugged on his hand.

  Dean leaned in, and Ellie wrapped him in her arms. He sighed and laid his forehead on her shoulder. “Ellie.”

  “It’s over.”

  “I should be telling you that.”

  She chuckled. “When I forget, you can tell me.”

  “I’ll always protect you.” He lifted his head so he could look at her. He wanted to see her face. “I think I’m halfway in love with you at this point.”

  “We haven’t known each other long.”

  “You think that you’re not exactly the kind of person I would be interested in?”

  She didn’t answer. Not that it was really a question. He didn’t mind if she wanted to guard her heart while he said what he needed her to hear.

  “I’ve never met anyone like you. And I don’t think I ever will, because I won’t be looking anymore.”

  He wanted to ask her to stay. It was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t bring himself to put that much pressure on her.

  Instead, he said, “I’m going to look at selling the land your grandfather gave me. I can start my therapy center anywhere. People can travel to me, and I’ll get to be where I want to be.”

  “Which is here.”

  She didn’t want him to move. He said, “Ellie—”

  “Which is where I’ll be.” She held onto his hand in a strong grip. “I’d love to spend more time with you. Maybe when we’re not in danger.”

  He returned her smile, wanting to kiss her but also content to let her finish.

  “Get to know each other better when crazy isn’t swirling around us.”

  “Are you sure?” Not only with what she’d just said, but about moving to Last Chance.

  “I want to spend more time with Jess as well. And I trust my heart, so I want to find out if this thing between you and I could be something.”

  “It can. It is.”

  She smiled wider. “There has to be a reason why you suddenly feel like this is what ‘home’ should feel like.” Ellie had found something with her sister. A lot had changed for their relationship over the past week.

  He realized she was right to tread cautiously. Even as they were making a huge promise to each other just now with this simple conversation.

  “Can I kiss you?”

  She nodded.

  Dean laid his lips on hers. He let it go on as long as he could before he had to pull back, before it would be too much for right now. It was new, and early. If they took care of this delicate love sprouting between them, then it would grow deep roots and stretch high with strength. Like a tree that could withstand all the storms that came its way, finding itself so much stronger than if it had never faced a single drop of rain.

  Epilogue

  Eight Months Later

  “I don’t see why we have to go so far. It’s almost dark, and the food is going to get cold.”

  Dean smiled to himself. Ellie was right behind him, trudging up the path to the spot where her grandfather’s cabin had exploded.

  She’d had a long day at her computer. It was probably just as tiring after all that mental exertion than how he’d felt after a day of training in the Navy. “It’s not too much farther.”

  “I know where we’re going. You aren’t fooling me, mister. Let’s just eat right here.” She motioned toward a downed tree.

  He glanced over his shoulder. “Ants.”

  Her eyes widened.

  She didn’t know there were no ants out when it was this cold, and tonight was the last clear night before a big snow storm was going to roll in. Thanksgiving and Christmas had come and gone. She was still here and had begun talking to the principal about the history teacher position that was available for the next school year.

  He knew she was waiting for him to commit. Truth was, with everything that’d happened before the holidays, he was more than ready to commit. Forever.

  Ellie was all the family he needed.

  And he wanted to make a life with her that was just theirs.

  “It’s just a little farther,” he said again, grabbing her hand so he could tug her along.

  She hadn’t been up here since he came up with her several months prior so she could see with her own eyes just how thoroughly it had been damaged. There had been little to salvage, and she’d asked him to oversee it being cleared away.

  At the clearing where her grandfather’s cabin had stood, another structure had been built.

  Ellie gasped. “Dean.” Beside him, she lifted a hand and covered her mouth.

  In the spot where the cabin had been now stood a gazebo. A sign above the steps on this side of it read, For those we have loved and lost.

  Her voice was full of wonder. “What did you do?”

  “I’ve been busy.” He walked her over to it and set the cold bag containing their dinner down, along with his backpack which had the blanket in it.

  “It’s beautiful.” She stared in wonder at the gazebo.

  Dean flipped a switch and the inside illuminated with Christmas lights he’d strung up.

  Ellie swiped a tear from her face. “I love you.”

  He was very glad she’d said that.

  Dean waved her to one side. “Come here.” They stood at the rail, and he pointed out the markers that had been staked into the ground. “That’s where the therapy center will be.” Beyond it was an ATV they would use to get back to town after dinner. “I had the road paved first and the parking area graveled over so the construction guys can get in and out easily.”

  “It’s going to be amazing.”

  Dean took her hand. He turned her to face him. Then he pulled out what was burning a hole in his pocket and lowered to one knee.

  Her eyes widened, and she shoved her glasses up her nose. “You made me walk all the way up here. I’m all sweaty, and now I’m crying!”

  Dean chuckled. “Every time I look at you, I think to myself that you can’t possibly be any more beautiful. And every time you prove me wrong.”

  He lifted her hand. “When I put this ring on your finger—?”

  Dean slid it on. “And when we say, ‘I do’—?”

  He touched her shirt, right over her stomach. “And when our baby is growing in here—?”

  Tears rolled down her cheek.

  “There won’t be one second of the rest of my life that I won’t know in my heart that you proved me wrong.” He stood, pulling her close. “Because you were right. This is home.”

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  About the author

  A British ex-pat who grew up an hour outside of London, Lisa attended Calvary Chapel Bible College where she met her husband. He’s from California, but nobody’s perfect. It wasn’t until her Bible College graduation that she figured out she was a writer (someone told her). Since then she's discovered a penchant for high-stakes stories of mayhem and disaster where you can find made-for-each-other love that always ends in happily ever after.

  Lisa can be found in Idaho wearing either flip-flops or cowgirl boots, depending on the season. She leads worship with her husband at their local church. Together they have two children and an all-black Airedale known as The Dark Lord Elevator.

  Lisa is the author of the bestselling Sanctuary (WITSEC town series), the Double Down series, and more than a dozen Love Inspired Suspense novels. Her 2019 series of Northwest Counter-Terrorism agents was a big hit.

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  Lisa Phillips also writes Christian thriller supernatural novels under the name JL Terra