His father raised a hand as he stepped down from the porch. Ozzie followed, but obeyed Robert’s motion command to sit. “Everything’s fine, son.” Then his dad turned his attention to the blue car. “You can get out, Sally.”
Sally, his cousin, whom he hadn’t seen since she was probably five or six, but whom he recognized immediately because her face hadn’t changed much, climbed out from behind the wheel and rushed to his father. She still resembled his Aunt Dorothy. Ozzie still sat but scooted closer so he could sniff her.
His dad gathered her into something close to a hug while still managing to face Jake Swornson.
Jake had packed on perhaps twenty-five pounds since high school, and it wasn’t muscle. He tugged on his pants, hiking them up as he climbed out of the car. His face was pudgy, jowls where there hadn’t been any at the bottom of his football helmet back in high school. He had lost that “I’m a football jock” look. Mac was willing to bet none of the previous cheerleaders showed him much attention these days. And Mac was pretty certain he wouldn’t have been able to climb to the top of the water tower with him and the others earlier that evening.
“Would you care to explain what this is about, Officer Swornson?”
Mac recognized his father’s tone of voice. He was again the Chief of Police, or at least a man whose authority no one questioned. Mac imagined his father would be on his deathbed and still manage to have that don’t-mess-with-me-and-give-me-a-solid-answer tone. Mac gave his healing thigh an absent rub before stepping over next to his father, Sally and Ozzie between them, his mom still on the porch.
“Sir, I put on my lights to pull her over, but she never did.”
“She didn’t have to pull over until she reached a public or familiar place. When she got her license, I gave her instructions to come here if she ever had a concern. When she saw your lights, she called to tell me she was on her way.”
“I see. She used her cell phone? Driving while talking on a phone is illegal in this state.”
“I have Bluetooth,” Sally interceded. “I didn’t touch my phone.”
“Why were you pulling her over?” Robert asked.
“Speeding,” Swornson said.
“I wasn’t—”
Mac’s father shushed her. “And what did you clock her doing? I’d like to see the number on the radar gun, please.”
“I don’t have that anymore.”
Mac glanced at his dad to see Robert’s brows raise in question. “You don’t have it anymore?”
“No, sir.”
“I suggest we let this go, then.”
This was a first for Mac. His dad didn’t let things go. Had never let things go. “After all, I doubt you want to waste your time trying to write a ticket when you don’t have an exact number for the speed at which she was traveling, right?”
Jake Swornson stared at them for a long moment. Mac wondered again just what the hell was going on here. Then the officer shrugged. “I suppose that would be best.” His attention moved to Sally. “Drive safe going home. Keep it under the speed limit.” In the bright lights of the headlights, he met Mac’s gaze. “Nice to see you, Mac. We’ll have to get together for a drink or two before the reunion this week.”
Mac nodded. “That sounds like a good plan.” Something in his gut told him it wasn’t going to happen, though.
Sally said nothing, but Mac noticed his dad tightened the arm he held around the girl. “We’ll see that my niece gets home safely,” he said.
The flash of surprise in Jake’s eyes was quick, but it was there. He hadn’t known Sally was related to the former Chief of Police. With a nod and a forced smile, Jake opened the driver’s door of his cruiser and got in. The flashing red and blue lights went off as he drove out of the orchard. There were only the sounds of his tires crunching on the gravel. Within seconds, that faded into the night and was replaced by the songs of crickets.
Then his dad let out a heavy sigh, and Sally burst into tears.
“I wasn’t speeding,” she said through sobs.
“It’s okay,” Robert assured her. “What were you doing driving out so late on a school night?”
“I was driving home from work.”
Mac swallowed hard. He felt like the big brother protector here. No one made his little cousin cry. No one picked on anyone in his family. Ever. He might have a few words for Jake next time they were eye to eye.
Robert smiled at her. “Oh, that’s right. Your dad told me you started flipping hamburgers.”
She grinned through subsiding sobs, tears shiny on her cheeks in the glow of the porch light. “My parents…”
“Are on their way,” his mom said from behind them.
“Oh, Aunt Ginna, no…” She slipped out of Robert’s embrace.
“It’s okay, honey. They aren’t mad. You did the right thing. They’re just glad you’re here and safe.” Ginna hurried down off the porch and put an arm across the girl’s shoulders. “Let’s go inside and wait. I’ll make you some cocoa.”
“But…”
“But nothing, everything’s fine. You’re fine and you’re safe.”
“And,” Robert continued, “why don’t you give up your job at the burger joint? So you don’t have to work until midnight.”
Together, they started heading into the house, up the steps and onto the porch. Ozzie’s tail swished against Mac’s legs.
“I can’t do that,” Sally insisted. “I need the money to pay my insurance.”
“You could come here and work in the orchard. I’ll pay you, and you’ll only have to work daylight hours.” Before she might argue more, Mac’s dad continued. “At least tell me you’ll think about it. And talk it over with your parents.”
“Okay.”
“Besides, smelling like apples and outdoors has to be better than smelling like a French fry,” Mac teased her. “Unless, of course, you want me to start calling you small fry.”
She chuckled and gave him a half-hearted hug. “Oh, James, it’s good to see you.”
“It’s good to see you, too, squirt.” He smiled at his mom. “I think we could all use some cocoa.”
Ginna and Sally disappeared into the kitchen. Mac touched his dad’s arm and kept him outside. “Care to tell me what just happened?”
“Something I’d heard as a rumor, but that I hoped it wasn’t true.”
“Oh?” he said softly so his cousin couldn’t hear from the kitchen in case the door wasn’t completely closed.
His dad backstepped onto the porch and allowed the screen door to close. “I heard one of the officers in the department was demanding sexual favors in lieu of tickets. I couldn’t believe it. That shit would have never happened when I was in charge. Daniels is scared of being shorthanded, he’s scared people might side with the officer, divide the town, and make bigger problems. At least I think that’s the reason he does nothing. Then again, I thought he did nothing because these were just that—rumors.”
“And then you did what?” Mac asked, knowing full well the steps his father probably took.
“I told Sally and all your cousins, as well as your aunts and your mom, to not stop if they saw flashing lights behind them. I told them to come here. The law states you now don’t have to pull over right away but can drive with flashers on to the police station or to a public place.” Robert shook his head as he spoke, as if it was hard to face, much less believe it could happen in his town. Then he let out a heavy, painful sigh.
Mac knew his dad would always think of this as his town. “It sounds to me that he’s not even trading sex for tickets if the girl isn’t speeding.” Saying it left a sour taste in his mouth was a huge understatement.
He leaned against the rail of the porch and stared out at the yard and part of the orchard through the darkness as he tried to remember Jake in high school. He knew him on the playing field, but he didn’t hang out with him and never really knew how he treated members of the opposite sex. Maybe he needed to investigate that.
He’d
come to heal, to see which direction he should go, spend his time trying to solve a cold case, or at least make some headway in it. It appeared he had his work cut out for him if he was going to clean up a few other things in town. Because this was his town, and like his dad, he thought of it as such. Also like his dad, he could never turn his back on something wrong. He thought of his sweet cousin as a little girl.
And he’d be damned if he could ignore this or pretend it didn’t happen.
Chapter Eight
In the early gray light of dawn, Lizzy sat cross-legged beside the bakery counter, the box of letters open, many scattered around her like fallen leaves. A butter knife, which she’d used as an envelope opener, rested on the floor near her knee.
She’d thought it might be easier to read them down here, in this public place that comforted her in its rich scent of yeast and bread and apple fritters. That wasn’t the case. She was pretty sure there was no place on earth that might make it easy to read them. Except perhaps up near Marston’s Tunnel with Mac there to hold her and read them to her like the poet he obviously was. His written words ripped out her heart. Time and time again, she blinked back tears as she read them. She’d shed enough tears over James McLane. Now, she held one hugged to her chest and breathed as those tears threatened to spill over to her cheeks.
Please. I need you.
Just four words, but they had the power to touch her soul. Mac’s last letter, according to the postmark.
She understood the why—her parents wanted her safe. What she didn’t understand was the how. How had they managed to keep these from her? How had she missed this? She’d poured her attention into the bakery and to college, that’s how. He’d pined for her for a year, then he’d obviously found something more appealing than pouring out his life’s story to her by the way of letters. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The pain in her chest was so real, so deep, deeper than it had been even all those years ago when her father had come to fetch her at the police station.
“So you found them?”
Tony’s voice startled her, made her gasp, though it sounded more like a sob. She met his dark gaze. “You knew about them, too?” She was closer to him than she was to any other person, and his knowing and keeping them from her cut another slice through her tortured heart.
He shrugged and sat down cross-legged next to her. “I stumbled across them by accident when I retrieved something from the storage unit about two years ago.”
“You didn’t think they might be something I’d want to know about? Or need to know about?”
He sighed heavily. “Years had passed. I didn’t think you’d still care.”
“It was all so long ago. Now after reading his words, it feels like yesterday somehow.”
“Yeah.” He dragged out the word before he took her hand. “What do you think he’s back in town for, anyway?”
It was her turn to shrug. “Closure, maybe.”
After he’d kissed her up by the tunnel, she doubted if he was here for closure. If he were, he wouldn’t have admitted writing letters. That was more like opening up old wounds, not closing them. At the same time, why the hell would he want to venture into Marston’s Tunnel? That made no sense at all. She didn’t share that part with her brother, or she’d have to share why she’d followed Mac there.
She wiped her fingers against her cheek and discovered a tear or two had managed to escape her eyes. She still held the open letter. “Hell, maybe he’s just here for a picnic and a reunion.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“This is where he grew up. This is where his family lives. That’s all the reason he really needs, right?”
“Right. So what are you going to do, little sister?”
“I should try to avoid him,” she replied, even though she was certain—especially after reading a few of what had to be a couple hundred letters—it wouldn’t be possible.
Tony gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m not talking about Mac. I’m talking about Stan.”
“Oh…” It sounded more like a moan, as if she suddenly remembered he still existed. “I’m letting him off the hook today. We make great friends, but I know now we can never be more than that. The chemistry just isn’t there. The spark…”
“Like the spark I saw when Mac shuffled in?”
Hesitantly, she folded up the letter she held and placed it carefully back into the envelope where it had remained for a decade. She was hesitant to put any of them back into their respective envelopes. For some stupid, immature reason she couldn’t push aside, she wanted to stack them up in order and read his words every day. She didn’t share those thoughts with her brother, but she had the feeling he’d somehow know. “How do I put out that spark? Especially when it’s more like a bonfire. Or maybe even an explosion.”
Yes, Tony did know her. “Do you really want to?”
“Am I wrong to say no?”
He shook his head. “I think everyone deserves to have what they want—sometime in their life.”
He spoke as if there was something he wanted he thought he could never have, but she couldn’t dwell on it just then. Not with Mac tugging at her soul in the form of old letters. “Even if it disrupts the lives of others? I mean let’s face it, I doubt Daddy will be happy if I tell him Mac’s back.”
“Dad’s not here. And you’re not seventeen anymore.”
“I’ve worked so hard to make this into more than just a bakery.”
He chuckled. “Oh, don’t I know it. You’ve done little but work. I think you’ve worked hard enough to open five bakeries, and I think you did it to put Mac behind you, or maybe just that night.” He looked around. “And you’ve turned this into a great place. Did you ever think it might be time for a vacation? Besides, what does working the bakery have to do with following your heart and pouring your feelings out to Mac?”
“Why am I even talking about this? Why would I think I should pour my feelings out to Mac? It’s been ten long years. We’ve both gone our own direction. Why would we go back? He’s probably not interested.” Again the idea of his kiss fluttered through her thoughts. That kiss told her he was definitely interested.
Tony looked right at her, hard. “I’m not talking about going back. I’m talking about stepping forward. I think you’ve been stalled long enough. I bet the day’s bakery receipts he is interested.”
“How would you know?”
He grinned that grin she knew melted women’s hearts. “I work IT. I know everything. About everybody. And I’m not blind, deaf, or stupid. I saw the way he stared at you today when he saw you. And I just saw the way he watched you from the top of the water tower where we were all sitting.”
“You climbed the water tower?”
“Yep.”
“Don’t let Mom know.”
He still grinned. “She never knew about all the other times I climbed it.”
She studied him for a long moment. “So what do you know? About Mac?”
“I know where he’s been for the last decade.”
“Because you searched his name on your computer?”
Lizzy could have done that. She never had. It would be more painful to know about him than to not know about him. At least that was what she continued to tell herself. She knew for certain she didn’t want to see him with a pretty wife and a couple of kids who shared his blue eyes.
“No, I know all about Mac because he wrote letters to me, too, and emails. Only I wrote him back.”
****
Deep into the night, Mac pored over his father’s notebook, reading and re-reading Robert’s journal entries and notes and thoughts until the words blurred and a headache settled behind his eyes. Absently, he rubbed the bridge of his nose. The small lamp on the night stand was bright enough, but he was tired. It was exhausting just trying to concentrate when Lizzy and Sally filled his thoughts. He considered turning it off and simply sleeping among the notes, open files, and his dad’s notebook.
His dad and officers of the Major C
ase Squad had questioned almost everyone in the high school, students and faculty, himself included. The only thing that had been determined was that Kelly Mattis was promiscuous. The question wasn’t who had Kelly screwed, it was who hadn’t she screwed. Even back in high school, he bet everyone knew that.
Okay, he planned to read one more page, and then he would close his eyes for a while. He was not going to think about his cousin or Lizzy. He needed to let everything he’d read sink in. The next page was a list of names, mostly Mac’s classmates, Stan, Kyle, Harry, Ford, Grant, Jackson, all crossed through as if his father had considered everyone in his high school to be a suspect and then had one by one systematically crossed them off the list. Yes, his father had questioned him, but his name wasn’t listed. It must have floored his father when he admitted he’d taken Kelly parking at Marston’s Tunnel. The only problem was, it wasn’t everything his father thought. In fact it wasn’t anything like his father probably thought. When he thought it about now, even with only himself for company, the entire episode left him a bit embarrassed.
If Kelly had ever told anyone about his time with her, he would have been the laughing stock and certainly not thought of as the hero of the class or the idol of the football team and super shooter of the basketball team.
The thought stopped him short. And he flipped his own notebook to a page with the headline Motive. Kelly had a mean mouth. She was spoiled with a catty attitude, as confirmed by Lizzy with the “fucking bore” comment. He hadn’t really wanted to be with her, hadn’t been turned on by her kiss. It was just that all the other guys on the football team were talking about her and comparing notes. He wanted to be in the loop, too. After he’d gotten alone with her, it seemed all he could think about was getting done and being away from her.
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