by Jule McBride
“Only if the jokes involve dreaded diseases,” he assured her.
He was filling a last tube. “If the bug’s in the water, and that’s the cause of the town shutting down in the past,” he continued, “and if the increase in births is true, after those periods, then it follows that there would be rashes of death, as well. If the bug had long-term lethal effects, that is. And there’s no such documentation in town records.”
“That’s a relief.”
Being with him wasn’t, however. She could only hope the night passed uneventfully. With him next door, she couldn’t trust herself. In the morning, he’d be gone, though, and then she could concentrate on finding the recipe book. On the way to this area of the spring, he’d insisted on stopping at the sheriff’s office.
Still, she’d reasoned, she was bound to run into Studs Underwood eventually, and she did want to see if he’d made any progress. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to have a man in tow for her inevitable showdown with Studs. She hadn’t seen him since a visit three years ago, but she wasn’t about to con herself into thinking the man had changed.
“That figures,” Rex had said dryly when they’d found a sign on the door, indicating Studs was out.
“It’s a small town,” she’d offered. “The police station’s not exactly teeming with employees. There’s a woman who’s here when Studs is out, but it looks as if she ran out for coffee or a snack.” She’d debated telling Rex of her past association with the sheriff, but had refrained. “Is it really that important that you talk to him?”
“It’s protocol,” Rex had returned. As he’d stared at the door, considering his next move, he’d explained the CDC’s rules regarding contacting local law enforcement officers before conducting tests in an area.
“Maybe he’s at Pappy Pass’s,” she’d suggested.
Since Pappy’s was on the way, they’d driven there next, only to find Studs hadn’t bothered to question him yet. Pappy had been sitting on his front porch, smoking a cob pipe and reading a hunting magazine, and he’d looked surprised to see her.
“Hello,” he’d said, eyeing her with seeming approval. “Why, Ariel, you look…good.”
As much as she hated how he’d implied that she’d once looked bad, she’d thanked him. After all, she really had blazed down Bliss Run Road at least a thousand times, looking like the worst kind of tramp. Even now, she cringed when she thought of the tight shirts she’d worn. She’d gone braless, too, so the outlines of her ample breasts had been there for all the world to see.
When questioned, Pappy had said Hammerhead’s red bandanna was missing, so it might be the one found at the crime scene. “But that’s a long way for him to roam, Ariel,” Pappy had pointed out.
And it was. Besides, if the truth be told, Hammerhead seemed happiest curled at his master’s feet, and the few times Ariel had seen the mutt, he’d been sleeping in the back of Pappy’s pickup. He wasn’t exactly frisky, and Mountain Drive was a hike, both from Pappy’s and town. “Maybe he was in a car with Jeb?”
“I thought about that,” Pappy had said, “but Jeb swore he didn’t take the book. I was in town when I heard about the break-in, so I asked him. You know how kids…”
She’d nodded. Ever since she could remember, kids had dared each other to visit Terror House at night. Ariel knew people wanted to get their hands on recipes for the love teas, too. Some thought there were secret teas in the book never made available to the public by the Anderson women. And, well…about that much, they were right. So, heaven only knew what somebody was home-brewing today.
“You might try talking to Jeb yourself, Ariel.”
“Maybe I will. Thanks for asking him, Pappy,” she’d returned, wondering if he really had. Not that Pappy was the type to lie. His reputation around town was every bit as good as hers was bad. Still, he loved his grandson, and if he suspected any wrongdoing on his part, he might cover for him.
Sliding the last tube into the tray, Rex stood. “I’m going to run these up to the lab and grab some slides. I forgot to bring them down. I’ll be right back. Mind waiting?”
She shook her head, then watched him walk to the end of the dock and uphill, his long legs easily making a path to the road. He really was a fine specimen of a man, and just watching him made her throat tighten, especially since she could still feel his hot mouth on hers.
Driving would have calmed her nerves and made her feel more in control, which was why she’d suggested they take her car, but as it had turned out, he’d flown into Charleston, picked up a mobile lab unit in a hangar there—it was the big, black RV she’d seen in the lot—then he’d driven to Bliss. Apparently, such vehicles were kept all over the country, for use by the CDC and military.
Now her nerves still felt jittery. It didn’t help that they were standing on a dock near Panty Point, the town’s best-known make-out spot. On the opposite side of the spring, she could see the teahouse, and to the left, she could see the town. Definitely, Panty Point was the most isolated spot around. Though, she’d expected to see kids at least, exploring the bike trails that snaked across the rocky terrain and strip of muddy beach.
She watched sunlight dappling the magical waters. For a moment, she almost felt at peace, despite how Rex was unsettling her. The spring always calmed her. Maybe it was the only thing on earth that really could. Trees rocketed toward the sky, and the hills were vivid with color from the wildflowers. For all the pain it had brought her, she’d always felt Bliss was the center of the earth. Just like the spring, Ariel had come from it, and the town—for better or worse—was her source.
Nothing had ever made her feel so grounded. Except maybe Rex’s kiss. Her knees had weakened when he’d kissed her, her skin had burned, but she’d felt grounded, too, even as her mind had floated far above the room. She’d been flying yet solid on her feet. The kiss had felt so right, like part of her homecoming.
While they’d kissed, the weight of the past had been lifted, and she’d forgotten how she’d felt growing up, teased by kids who thought her family was weird. Adults, too. She’d forgotten how she used to beg her mother for information about her father, how her mother would only say she’d had an affair that hadn’t worked out. She and the man had never been married, leaving Ariel with the impression that he’d been a visitor who’d skipped out, leaving town quickly, and that the rejection had deeply wounded her mother.
Later, in adolescence, she’d quit asking her mother about him. What man would want a child by a woman he’d rejected? Besides, she’d never been able to bear the pain that came into her mother’s eyes whenever she’d brought up the subject. Gran and Great-gran knew more about him. Ariel was sure of it.
But as time went on, she’d decided her mother knew best. And sleeping dogs were better left to lie. Ariel had started concentrating her energies on making her great escape, leaving town and making a different life for herself.
Hearing Rex behind her, she took a deep breath, bracing herself before she turned around. At the house, it had taken all her resources not to simply lock the door, strip and get down to business. She’d craved a man like Rex Houston for so long. Wasn’t that what this trip was all about? Coming to terms with the past? Sure, she wanted to show the town that she wasn’t really the sexpot they’d assumed, but only to better help her claim her sexual self. Her reputation had been hurtful, but she’d worn a brave face, and in doing so, had lost touch with the sensual woman she was meant to be. For so long, she’d felt her unfinished business in Bliss was in the way of moving on….
With her boss, Ryan? That had been her idea hours ago. But now…Yes, tonight maybe she really would let go with this man, enjoy just one night of abandoned sex. One kiss, and she knew he could give her more pleasure than anyone ever had. Just as she turned around, the breeze lifted her dress and she gasped, not catching the hem in time. The dress fluttered, flying nearly over her head, exposing white bikini panties. Embarrassed, she batted down the fabric, pressing it against her thigh, fighting a blush. “Damn,
” she mouthed as she looked up—and then felt the breath leave her body, entirely.
“Studs.”
“Did I surprise you, honey?” he said, his dark eyes lascivious. He was wearing tan shorts with a uniform shirt; a gun belt was around his waist, a hand on his weapon.
He knew he had. And it had been intentional. “The name’s Ariel.”
“Who’d know that better than your lover?”
She wasn’t proud of it, but she glanced toward the hill, half hoping she’d see Rex. No such luck. And when she glanced to her right, she realized Studs had come down to the water by a different path, judging by the mountain bike lying on its side a hundred yards from the dock. The word Police was emblazoned across the bike’s top bar.
“Already,” she said, “I can see you haven’t changed a bit.”
“And from what you just showed me, sweet girl,” he countered, “you haven’t, either. Nice panties.”
“Don’t start,” she warned, backing up a fraction, until she hit a pole behind her, so she could use it to steady herself. Why did she let this piece of trash get to her?
“You’re not happy to see me?”
“Hardly.”
He flashed a grin—bright white teeth in a tan as dark as his personality. “Could have fooled me, the way you lifted that skirt.”
She started to say the breeze had lifted it, but that was what he wanted, to push her into defending herself. “So I guess you haven’t been doing anything useful,” she said. “Like your job.”
“I figure I can handle my job just fine.”
“Guess not. Gran called me this morning about the recipe book. She said it was stolen last night, and I just talked to Pappy Pass—”
Now he was moving toward her. “You can’t breeze into town and start questioning my suspects, Ariel.”
“Apparently somebody has to,” she said hotly. “That book’s been in my family for years, and we all want it found. It’s valuable. It could be destroyed.”
He stopped in front of her. In high school, he’d been good-looking, a strapping, dark-haired jock. Quarterback of the high-school football team, as well as prom king with the woman he’d married, Joanie Summers, at his side as queen. But that had been years ago. Joanie had held up better than him. Even after three kids, she’d kept her figure. Studs had put on weight, though, and the broad, once-handsome, wide face that had dazzled schoolgirls was now creased with lines. He had a beer belly and looked ten years older than he really was. The nickname, Studs, was no longer fitting. That was, Ariel decided, at least some small satisfaction.
He was leering at her. “Miss me?”
“You know better.”
Edging closer, he dropped his voice to a near whisper. “Oh, c’mon now, Ariel, when you’re up in the big city, I bet you wonder about me all the time, don’t you? Lying in bed, you still think of me. Admit it. You dream of the good old days.”
“There were no good old days.”
“What did you get, amnesia?”
“If I had, I would have forgotten you.”
“You mean to tell me that you don’t remember how I loved you so good in the back of my daddy’s pickup truck? Why, everybody in town knows what went down in the parking lot of Jack’s Diner, and how we drove to Charleston and got a motel room, so I could watch you getting it on with that woman. I told Joanie I hadn’t wanted to. But then, everybody knows you can be damn persuasive, Ariel. You had it bad for me, didn’t you, Ariel? Everybody in town knew you were my fantasy girl. And it made Joanie so jealous. My, oh my. How she hated you….”
And turned all the other girls against Ariel, out of spite. On the school bus, which had picked her up at the bottom of Mountain Drive, no one had ever talked to her. Thanks to him.
Too much of the past was flooding back. She hated him…just as she hated how she used to fantasize about a father who never came to protect her, and a mother who’d never been able to understand how the teasing was affecting her daughter. “Oh, you’re right, Studs,” she muttered, stepping toward him and offering a shy smile. She put her hands on his waist. “Maybe I did miss you more than I admit. Those stories about you and me got so out of control….” His eyes widened as she traced a pink fingernail down his chest. “But they got me to thinking…”
“They did?”
“But you’re married now….”
“Uh…yeah.”
“But we won’t let Joanie get in the way. Now, will we?” Broadening her smile, she grabbed a fistful of his shirt, then spun. “You sick bastard,” she whispered, then flattened her hand on his chest and pushed hard.
He was facing her when he flew off the dock, and if she hadn’t been so furious, Ariel might have laughed. His eyes were bugging, his arms were flailing, and under the circumstances, even a saint wouldn’t be sorry that the dunking would ruin the fancy, animal-skin cowboy boots on his kicking feet. She leaped back as he hit the water, but not in time. She groaned as a freezing wave of springwater drenched her. “Twice in one day,” she muttered.
“You could stand to lose a few pounds,” she said to Studs. “That splash could have hit Bliss Run Road. In fact,” she added as he came back up, sputtering, “I think it’s started a tidal wave. Whoa! Call in the coast guard!”
Deciding she’d better reach the mobile lab before Studs got out—after all, he was packing a weapon—she whirled, intending to go down the dock, then saw Rex standing in front of her, a small briefcase-style kit in his hand and an uncertain expression on his face.
“Old boyfriend?”
She wanted to die, right then and there. It didn’t help that yet another outfit was soaked, or that it was white and she was braless. Or that Studs was having difficulty hauling himself out of the water. He was going to catapult over the side of the dock any second now, dripping like a creature from the blue lagoon.
She wanted to laugh, but fury was coursing through her. Everything was going wrong. When he’d kissed her, Rex had seemed different. Unconnected to the town, but in under two hours, he’d been roped into her past. If only for a moment, he’d felt like a part of her here-and-now, and maybe even her future.
He raised a hand. “Sorry. It’s none of my business.”
“He’s not an old boyfriend,” she assured.
Disbelief clouded Rex’s eyes.
“You heard everything?”
“I didn’t want to interrupt. The conversation seemed kind of…”
Intimate.
“But…” He considered. “When it looked like things were getting out of hand, I figured I might step in and toss him into the lake. And then…” He looked toward where Studs was sloshing in the water. “You beat me to the punch.”
She swallowed hard, trying to fight her pique. “So, I guess you’re the kind of guy who believes everything he hears.” She paused. “Some scientist.”
“Believe everything I hear,” he echoed, as if his mind was trying to catch up.
Just like everyone else in this backwater that always knotted up her insides! One minute, she loved this town. The next, she wanted to run as if the hounds of hell were on her heels and never look back.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she said again.
“Who is he then?”
“Studs Underwood,” she said. “The sheriff you were looking for.”
She hated seeing the mortification on Rex’s features. She didn’t blame him. He’d explained that local law-enforcement officers sometimes gave the CDC trouble. A visit from the organization was one of the bigger events in a small-town sheriff’s career, sometimes, so the CDC had to be diplomatic and make a show of involving them. And Rex really did have a job to do.
Studs was rising to his feet, his uniform shirt and shorts jeans plastered to his body. “Sheriff Underwood,” she found herself saying, once more slapping down the hem of her dress, “this is Rex Houston. Dr. Rex Houston. From the CDC.”
Somehow, she wasn’t surprised when Rex moved quickly forward, his hand outstretched. “I know we’r
e meeting under real strange circumstances, Sheriff,” he began. “But I want you to know I stopped in town, at your office….”
The words propelled Ariel forward. She didn’t look back, but kept her eyes fixed on the top of the hill, in the direction of the mobile lab, which was her destination. This was too much. Had it been only hours ago that she’d driven into Bliss, wearing her beautiful silk suit?
Ariel was breathing hard when she reached the mobile lab. Opening the passenger side door, she got in and stared in back. The sides of the RV-style vehicle were lined with metal shelves, and two washing-machine style tumblers were visible, as well as other equipment, the functions of which Rex had explained on the drive. A roller chair was seat-belted to the side, so it wouldn’t roll toward a makeshift desk.
Through the windshield, she could see a canopy of green leaves that made her long for the city. The encounter with Studs hadn’t left her shaken. She felt dirty now. Like she wanted to get out of here and take a shower. And so, when she saw Rex had left the keys dangling in the ignition, she found herself saying, “If Dr. Rex Houston wants to make friends with local law enforcement, I think we’ll let him.” As far as she was concerned, he could catch a ride back to town on Studs Underwood’s mountain bike.
Scooting to the driver’s seat, Ariel turned the key in the ignition and then she simply drove away.
5
ANGER WAS STILL FLOODING Ariel when she reached her room. It didn’t help that she’d gotten home just in time to see Great-gran getting out of Eli Saltwell’s old jalopy, having clearly accepted a ride back from town from her archenemy, or that her mother was in the kitchen, openly admitting to swimming in her bra and panties, where she might have been viewed by guests. “Now, Ariel,” she’d said, “I’m sure no one saw me. You need to loosen up, sweetie.”
Loosen up? “This town’s coming unraveled,” she’d muttered. How to explain? Her mother usually wore black, long-sleeved dresses, even in summer. Even worse, Gran was chatting about how charming Rex Houston was, and what a good husband he might make for Ariel, which was why she’d put him next door to her, even though other rooms had really been available.