Strength of the Heart

by Carrie Carr

  "No sir, you don't. But I'm not going to be the one who tells your wife we let you drive yourself home after you were almost killed tonight." Jeremy was relieved when Charlie released his grip. "My insides are in one big knot, I can only imagine what yours are like." It was more than professional concern. There wasn'st a man in the department that wouldn'st walk through fire for the sheriff. "Come on, humor me. You know I'm partial to Martha's sweet rolls. She'll never let me near another one if I don't take care of you."

  Charlie realized he was right. There was no way he would be able to get behind the wheel of another car this evening. His insides quaked at the mere thought. "Thanks, Jeremy. I appreciate it. I'll see if she'll fix some up in the next day or so." Charlie shakily followed Russell to the squad car, thankful he would soon be home and in Martha's loving arms.

  Chapter Seventeen

  "THAT WAS ONE of the best steaks I've had in ages." Lex leaned back in the chair and rubbed her stomach. "I won'st be able to eat anything for a week."

  Amanda took over the rubbing. "Yeah, right." She turned to their guest. "Believe me, Sherry, this woman can pack away enough food for three people and complain about being hungry two hours later." Seeing Lex's appetite return after several weeks of only playing with the food on her plate warmed Amanda's heart.

  Sherry rested her utensils on the edge of her empty plate. "I'm glad I haven'st lost my touch with the grill. I don't have much cause to cook out anymore."

  Lex dragged Amanda into her lap and wrapped her arms around her waist. "Really? Do you live out here all by yourself?" After their rocky introduction, Lex found to her surprise she enjoyed Sherry's company.

  "Yep. Been out here for about four years. Mom wanted me to live in this cabin, but it's too secluded for my tastes. That's why I bought a place on the other side of the lake. Lots of people out and about."

  "I don't mean to pry, and you can tell me to mind my own business, but what kind of work do you do?" Amanda put one arm around Lex's neck and twisted, so she could see Sherry better. "It's kind of a long commute to town, isn'st it?"

  "It would be, if I had to. But I work from home, writing computer software." Sherry stood and began to clear the table. "It's nice being my own boss. I guess you understand all about that, don't you, Lex?" While she had grilled the steaks, Lex and Amanda had given her a brief rundown of their respective careers.

  "Not anymore. I'm afraid this little thing sitting on top of me is the boss." She grunted as her full belly was slapped. "Careful, Boss. don't want to end up wearing my dinner, do you?"

  Amanda gently patted the spot she had smacked. "Oh, no. Can'st have that happen." She kissed Lex on the nose and stood. "Hold on, Sherry. Let me help you with this stuff."

  "Yeah, me, too. I need to do something to work off this meal." Lex stood and glanced at the window when a loud crash came from outside. "Maybe I'd better check that out first." She crossed to the front door, grabbing a flashlight and the shotgun, which was resting by the doorway. "I'll be back in a minute."

  Heavy clouds had moved in after the sun set, obscuring the light from the half moon and stars. The only sounds coming from outside the cabin were the chirping of crickets and the lapping of the water against the shore. Lex slowly circled the perimeter of the cabin as she shook her head at her own carelessness. Outside, in the dark, and on unfamiliar ground with only an unloaded shotgun for protection. It wasn'st one of her brighter moves.

  She continued to scour the grounds, looking for any hint of what might have caused the loud noise, which brought her out of the cozy home. Unable to find anything, Lex was about to go back inside when she caught a movement out of the corner of one eye. A quick aim of the flashlight showed the slight movement of a small sapling. "Gotcha."

  Lex rested the weapon against one shoulder and followed her beam of light into the dark woods. She could hear the break of a branch or twig somewhere in front of her, and decided to turn off the light in order to follow the intruder by sound alone.

  "Come on, where did you go?" Lex had trailed her unknown quarry for twenty minutes, but had not been able to catch up to whomever or whatever was in front of her. They didn'st seem to be in any particular hurry, doubling back from time to time, or changing direction at will. It was almost like they were playing with her. "Or luring me away from the cabin." She stopped, turning on the flashlight and looking around. "Where is the cabin?" A slow glance in every direction confirmed Lex's suspicion--she was lost. "Damn."

  THE WEARY WOMAN sat on the tattered sofa, a small toddler perched on one knee. She appeared much older than her thirty-five years, having struggled all her life only to end up living in the tiny house her parents left her when they died. Angela Thompson realized long ago she would never amount to much. She had dropped out of high school when one of her older brother's friends got her pregnant. Just as she was getting her life back together, Angie became pregnant again. Four children and no husbands later, she was resigned to her fate of living off the state and raising her kids the best she could. "He's dead?" she asked the deputy across from her. "You're sure it's my brother?" The little girl on her lap started to fuss, and Angie absently handed the child a cookie to chew on.

  "Yes, ma'am. I'm afraid so." Deputy Jeremy Richards hated this part of his job. But he would have hated to subject the sheriff to it even more. "Is there anyone you would like me to call to come sit with you?"

  "No, I'm fine." She gave him a wan smile. "I shouldn'st speak ill of the dead, but my brother Rick was a waste of skin. He was always getting calls all hours of the night, and never once apologized for disturbing the rest of us. He didn'st mind eating our food, but didn'st have the decency to bring groceries home, or offer to pay for what he ate. Deadbeat." She chuckled at her own play on words. "I guess he is for real, anyway." The child squirmed, and she gently nudged her daughter off her knee. "I finally had enough and kicked him out of the house. Do you think he was dealing drugs, or something?" Angie's tired eyes lit up at the prospect. "Maybe he left money behind in his apartment. Wouldn'st it be mine?"

  Jeremy struggled to keep the surprise from showing on his face. It was possible that drug use could have been a contributing factor in the wreck. He'd have to look into it. "I'm not sure, Ms. Thompson. But do you have his address? I'd like to go by and check it out."

  "WHERE ON EARTH could she be?" Amanda muttered, casting another worried glance through the darkened window. She checked at her watch and then turned around to look back at Sherry. "It's been forty-five minutes. I think we need to go out and look for her."

  "Lex seems capable of taking care of herself. The last thing she needs is for us to be stumbling around in the dark making noise." She sat at the table and gestured to the chair next to her. "Come on, have a seat. If there is something out there, you shouldn'st be near the window, anyway." At Amanda's stricken expression, she mentally cursed herself. "What I meant was, I doubt Lex would want you to spend all your time worrying, when she's probably being extra sure nothing's there."

  Hoping their new friend was right, Amanda stepped away from the window. "Ten more minutes, then I'm going to go look for her. With or without your help." Unable to sit motionless, she paced across the hardwood floor. "I think there's another flashlight out in the truck."

  "If it comes down to searching, I'll go." Sherry stood. "There's an old lantern around here somewhere we can use." She was about to go look for it when the back door opened, and a very angry woman stepped into the kitchen.

  "Of all the ridiculous, idiotic, harebrained things I've had to do in my time, this has got to be on the top of the damned list." Lex stomped across the floor and tossed the flashlight onto the table. She ran her hands through her hair, leaves and small chunks of debris falling to the floor.

  Amanda reached out to her, but pulled her hand back when she saw a wet, dark stain covering most of Lex's shirt. "What happened to you?"

  Lex washed her hands and face, then turned and leaned against the counter. "What didn'st happen would be easi
er to explain." She looked down at her soaked shirt. "I need to go take a shower."

  "Not until you at least tell us where you'sve been." Amanda stepped closer and wrinkled her nose. "You smell like the lake."

  "I should; I washed up in it before I came into the house." Lex tried to pull the cotton shirt away from her body. "Didn'st help much, though."

  Laughter from the woman on the other side of the room caused both heads to turn her way. "I'm sorry. But you must have run into Gus." Sherry started laughing again, wiping her eyes. "I'd forgotten all about him." She sat, trying to control her amusement.

  Amanda looked from Lex to their friend. "Who's Gus?"

  "An orangutan, right?" Lex drawled in disgust. "One that likes to play hide and seek?"

  Sherry seemed over the worst of her laughter. "He does. His family lives in a house not too far from here, although they only stay here during the summer. I didn'st think about him because it's too early in the year for them to be here."

  Turning amused eyes up at Lex, Amanda tried to fight back her giggles. "You chased down a monkey?" She sniffed when she stood closer to her. "What happened out there?"

  "Umm," Lex backed away a step, "you don't want to get too close. I really do reek."

  "And you reek because?"

  Lex lowered her head in defeat. She bet herself she would be tortured about this night for a long time to come. "Have you ever tried to track something in the dark, when the tracks kept disappearing?" She looked at Sherry, to see if she would help.

  "He took to the trees, didn'st he?" Understanding crossed Sherry's face. "Oh, no. You caught him by the creek?" Like most of the year-round residents of the area, she knew that the orangutan had a certain area of the woods he liked to hide in, and where he kept his stolen "booty"--bags of garbage the weekend lake goers tended to leave behind. His owners would go out every few days and gather up the bags and dispose of them.

  "Yeah." Lex trained her eyes on the floor. She was embarrassed by the ordeal. "I didn'st even realize the little creep was that close, until he started bombing me with trash." She tried to brush it off matter-offactly. "Scared the hell out of me. And on top of it all, I was hopelessly lost."

  Amanda felt her mirth disappear at the quiet admission. She picked what appeared to be a piece of Styrofoam from Lex's hair. "I'm glad you're safe. He didn'st hurt you, did he?"

  "Nah." Lex closed her eyes for a moment when Amanda's hand started stroking her cheek. "I yelled at him, though." She opened her eyes and looked across the room at Sherry. "I think he laughed at me."

  Sherry stood. "Sounds like Gus, all right." She noticed Lex was unarmed. "What happened to the shotgun?"

  "I locked it in the truck before I went down to the lake to wash the garbage off of myself. Didn'st want to lay it down in the mud."

  "That's fine." Sherry decided it was time to leave. "As much fun as this evening was, I think it's time for me to head back to my place. Why don't you two stop by on your way back to town? You can drop off the gun then."

  Amanda turned to face her. "Sounds like a great idea. I think I need to get the Great Hunter into the tub." She flinched when she felt a poke on her ribs from behind. "Hey."

  "I'll show you a great hunter, you brat. Just you wait."

  "Definitely time to go," Sherry decided, seeing the glint in Lex's eyes. "Goodnight."

  THE FRUMPY LANDLADY jangled her keys and limped down the cluttered hallway. "Figures the sorry bastard would go and get hisself killed," she grumbled, the burning cigarette bouncing dangerously around her lips. "He owed me a week's worth of rent." She kicked an empty soda bottle out of the way and stopped in front of the last door. She turned to the young man in uniform behind her. "You wouldn'st be needin's a place, would you? I'd give you a discount, you being a man of the law, and all."

  "No, ma'am," Deputy Richards politely declined, fighting the urge to cough. "I stay with my mother." He looked around the decaying apartment building. He had no idea they had dumps like this one in their small town. There was no way the dilapidated old place was up to code. A call to the fire chief was definitely in order. "If you'll let me in, I'll lock up and bring the keys back down to you." He hoped he could get away from the chain-smoking woman before his lungs started to beg for mercy.

  "I don't know if I can do that, hon. I have a duty to my residents to protect them. Just like you do." She pushed the old wooden door forward and stepped inside the room. The mess wasn'st a surprise to her. "I told him no parties. Damned worthless man. Not a one of them worth the amount of crap it would take to cover em up. Present company excluded, course."

  Jeremy suppressed a shiver and hurried into the cluttered room. When the landlady lit another cigarette, he decided to take matters into his own hands. "ma'am, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to step out into the hallway, and not touch anything on your way out. I'm conducting an official police investigation." The smell of her cheap cigarettes had all ready soaked into his uniform. He hoped his mother wouldn'st hose him down in the front yard when he got home.

  She took another look around the room and hacked a phlegmy cough. "All right. But I'm going to be right out in the hall."

  "Thank you." He took his notebook out of his pocket and began to take notes. Jeremy slipped on a pair of rubber gloves and looked through the living room first, careful not to disturb too much. Not finding anything of importance, the deputy brushed off the knees of his pants and moved to the kitchen.

  There were several unopened envelopes strewn about the countertop, many of them marked "final notice". One had been flipped and scrawled writing covered the back. "What do we have here?" On the upper half were the initial "H" and a phone number, which Jeremy quickly wrote down. Another phone number could be seen under the name, "Bobby." It could be either a drug connection or a friend. He decided to report it to Charlie. First thing tomorrow would be soon enough.

  MARTHA HEARD TWO cars pull up in the driveway, and looked through the front window to see who it could be. She watched in confusion as her husband climbed out of the passenger side of one of the police cars. To add to her mystification, the young deputy driving the cruiser walked around and handed the keys to the sheriff, then patted him on the back and climbed into the other vehicle.

  The front door opened a moment later, and a haggard Charlie walked in. He glanced around the room and spied his wife, and went quickly to meet her rush halfway. Wrapping his arms around her body, he tucked his face against her head.

  "Charlie? What's wrong?" Martha tightened her embrace and felt her husband shudder. Clearly upset, the normally talkative man hadn'st spoken a word since he came into the house. "Honey?"

  He pulled back enough to look into his wife's worried eyes. "I'm sorry. It's been a rough evening." The shaken man allowed Martha to guide him to the sofa. "Rick Thompson is dead."

  In shock, Martha dropped down next to him. "Dead?" Her brain worked furiously to try to figure out why her husband would be in such a state over the death of the man. "Oh, no. You don't suspect--" She knew Lex and Amanda had a history with him.

  "No, no. Nothing like that. He slammed his car into a light pole this evening. Apparently the man was drunk." Charlie felt his stomach clench, remembering with startling clarity the bright headlights as they'd rocketed toward him.

  Martha tugged Charlie close to her. "Shhh. It's all right, sweetheart. Tell me what's wrong."

  With her love blanketing him, Charlie calmed down enough to talk. "I was driving home, and remembered I needed to pick up a few things at the store. So, I turned to go down Timberwood Boulevard, the residential section."

  "Right. With the tree-lined median, before the shopping center," Martha added. "Go on."

  "I hadn'st gotten very far, when I noticed bright headlights up ahead. Took me a minute, but then I realized they were on my side of the street." He looked into his wife's shocked face. "I didn'st have anywhere to go, Martha. There were cars parked all down the street." Charlie raised one hand and cupped the side of her face
tenderly. "All I could think about was what this was going to do to you. I couldn'st let that happen."

  Hot tears began to stream down Martha's face. "Sweet Lord! How did--" She felt his shaking fingers gently wipe the moisture away.

  For the first time all evening, Charlie smiled. "I spun out in someone's yard, almost took out their front hedge." He shook his head. "I'm not sure what happened next, but Rick must have seen my car and tried to maneuver out of the way. He missed the trees in the median, but lost control and slammed full speed into one of the electric poles." Calmness suddenly descended on Charlie's soul as he realized he was alive, and in the arms of the woman he loved. "There's not one scratch on me, or my car. But Jeremy wanted to have the cruiser checked out, to be on the safe side. And he absolutely refused to let me drive myself home."

  "I owe that boy some sweet rolls, I think," Martha decided, pulling her husband back into her arms. "Tomorrow."

  AMANDA ROLLED OVER and felt cool sheets beside her. "Lex?" Not receiving an answer, she got up and padded through the living room on her way to the kitchen. It was early morning, and there was enough sunlight coming through the windows to make her squint as she looked around the small cabin. She entered the kitchen and saw Lex standing at the large bay windows that looked out onto the cove. "There you are. Is everything okay?"

  "Everything's great." Lex turned around. The lines of stress had almost completely disappeared from her face, and the dark circles that had been under her eyes for the past month were gone. Even the bruise above her lip had faded. "I figured you would sleep longer." After Lex had gotten out of the tub the night before, they had gone to bed, then decided they weren'st quite sleepy yet.

  "My favorite pillow disappeared." Amanda stood in the doorway and raised her hands over her head to stretch slowly. She wasn'st wearing any clothes, and the cool morning air caused chill bumps to rise all over her body. "Have you seen my pillow?"