by Becki Willis
“And just where do you think you are going?” her sister demanded.
“Uh, what are you doing home so early? I thought you were doing interviews today.”
“My last appointment canceled, so I got through earlier than expected.” A freelance reporter, Makenna was doing a special series for Now Magazine, the same magazine where Kenzie was employed as a photojournalist. “But don’t change the subject. Why are you packing a suitcase?”
Kenzie was careful not to look her sister in the eye as she delivered her practiced speech. With her uncanny twin sister radar, Makenna would see right through her lie. Letting her hair fall as a veil in front of her face, she tucked a colorful selection of underwear and bras into one corner of the luggage. She had a weakness for frilly, sexy undergarments, even though they were seldom seen by anyone other than herself. “Kate called and offered me an assignment. In Miami, of all places. Can you believe it?” She glanced up just long enough to flash an enthusiastic smile. “I haven’t been to Miami in about three or four years, since I did that story on the shark attack. Do you remember that? So tragic.”
Makenna let her rattle on for a few minutes as she eyed the assortment of jeans and tee shirts going in. When Kenzie stopped chattering, she asked, “Dressing rather casually, aren’t you?”
“Oh, I haven’t finished yet. These are my causal clothes.”
“You’re seriously wearing blue jeans while you’re in Miami? Won’t that be rather hot?”
“I have some capris in here,” Kenzie lied, vaguely waving a hand over the pile of clothes. “I just thought jeans might be better if I had to do any down and dirty investigating.”
“Funny, Kate didn’t mention any assignment when I talked to her earlier,” Makenna said, still lounging casually against the doorframe, arms crossed over her chest.
“It just came up.”
“And I just talked to her. Like ten minutes ago, literally.”
Kenzie shrugged. She bent down on one knee, searching under her bed for her other sneaker. “Guess she forgot to mention it. You know how busy and forgetful editors can be.”
“Funny, though, seeing as we were talking about you.”
“Well, you never know,” Kenzie murmured, snagging the shoe by its toe and hauling it out with a satisfied grunt. “Oh, look, here’s that earring I was missing.”
Makenna rolled her eyes but made no comment about her sister’s lack of organization. “I guess the jeans will also come in handy in the mountains,” she asked dryly.
“There-There’s no mountains in Miami.”
“No, but there are in New Hampshire.” Propping her hands on her hips, Makenna snapped at her sister. “Kenzie Reese, I cannot believe you are going to stand there and lie to me! You know good and well you aren’t going to Miami. You’re planning on sneaking back to Haverhill. Admit it, that’s what you’re doing, aren’t you!”
“You seem to have it all figured out, you tell me.”
“You’re seriously going to use that tone with me? What are you thinking, Kenzie! There are people out there wanting to do you harm. Don’t you remember what happened the last time you went to New Hampshire? What happened to me just weeks before that?”
“No, Makenna, I don’t remember,” she drawled. “I don’t remember being held at gunpoint by Bernard Franks. I don’t remember watching him shoot at the man I love or seeing Travis shoot back, putting that neat little bullet hole right in the center of his forehead. I don’t remember the blood, or being trapped in the muck and the mud, I don’t remember the smell that I swear is still trapped inside my nose!”
Makenna softened, but her face was still set with disapproval. “Well apparently you don’t remember that you are still in very grave danger. We both are. We have no idea who is following us, who tampered with your brake lines, who still might come after us next. Until those charges are filed, we are still a threat to the other people involved in this mess, and therefore we are still in danger. You cannot go traipsing off to New Hampshire at a time like this.”
“And I cannot stay here. I have to go, Ken.” Makenna plopped down on her bed, sending her laptop on a nosedive toward the edge. She grabbed it just before it hit the floor.
“Why?”
“It’s eating me up, Kenna, not knowing the truth about our mother. I have to find some answers, or I’m afraid I’ll go mad,” she admitted, pressing her fingers into her aching temples. “Between having someone constantly breathing down my neck and obsessing over Travis’s safety and needing to know the truth about the past, I am just about at my breaking point. Do you know I almost made that sweet little lady who lives on the first floor cry? Her walker got stuck in the elevator and I nearly cussed her out.”
“I yelled at the person at McDonald’s for giving me back too much change,” Makenna admitted sheepishly.
“You feel it too, don’t you?” Kenzie looked at her twin with bright, burning eyes.
“I feel so guilty,” Makenna whispered. “My parents are the most wonderful people I know. I love them with all my heart. I feel like I am betraying them by wanting to know the truth about my birth mother.”
“You know they understand.”
“Do they? I don’t even understand,” Makenna said miserably. She plunked down beside her sister. “Our parents left me, Kenzie. They abandoned me. They didn’t know I would be adopted by a loving family. For all they knew I could have been sold into human bondage! Why should I want to find them? Why would I want to know more about a mother who would just walk away from her child like that?”
“Because you know there’s more to the story,” Kenzie said softly. “You saw the picture. She loved us. Both of us.”
They sat in silence for a long moment, until Kenzie said quietly, “I have to go. I have to do this.”
“It’s like a fire burning in your soul,” Makenna murmured in understanding.
“And it’s the one thing I can do right now, even though my life is spinning out of control.”
Makenna heaved a long sigh. “So what was your plan? How were you going to give them the slip?”
Kenzie grinned. Her sister knew her so well. “I was going to tell them I had an assignment in Miami. I was even going to buy a plane ticket to Florida, so that anyone monitoring my credit cards would think I went south. After the bodyguards followed me to the airport and saw me safely on a plane to Miami, I was going to sneak off, pay cash for a ticket to New Hampshire, and be merrily on my way.”
“Another infamous Kenzie Reese scheme,” Makenna muttered. Secretly, she admired her twin for her spunk and creativity.
“And it will still work. You just have to pretend you know nothing about it.”
“There is no way I am letting you go through with this far-fetched plan of yours!”
“But I have to go!”
“Then you have to take me with you.”
Stunned by her sister’s response, she drew in a sharp breath. “Are you- are you crazy?”
“Apparently so, sister dear,” Makenna sighed. “But if you’re going, I’m going. This involves me just as much as it does you.”
“Hardin will never agree to this.”
Uncertainty crossed her face before it was replaced with a look of defiance. “Hardin is my fiancé, not my keeper.”
“He’s also a Texas Ranger and likes his rules and regulations about as much as Travis does. He’ll never let you go.”
“Then we won’t tell him.”
Kenzie stared at her sister in surprise. Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, she asked, “Where is my sister and what have you done with her? Why are you agreeing with me on this? Why are you not throwing a fit, telling me what a crazy scheme I’ve created this time?”
“It is crazy. Crazier than the original scheme that started all this mess to begin with, when you convinced me to pretend I was you and go to New Hampshire three months ago. But I started this, and I’m going to finish it. I don’t like lying to Hardin, and I would avoid it if I could. But we both know he’d never
let me go, just like Travis would never let you go if he knew what you were planning.”
It was Kenzie’s turn to falter. Maybe this scheme was too crazy, even for her…
“So how do we pull this one off, Oh Master Schemer?” Makenna asked. “I guess I could pretend to be covering the print aspect of your assignment, whatever it was supposed to be.”
“Knowing Hardin, he would call Kate and confirm our precise schedule, right down to the minute.”
“So how do we get past our jailers?” Makenna challenged, using the term Kenzie favored for their bodyguards. “We can’t just sail off into the wild blue yonder without them following us.”
“That’s it!”
“That’s what?”
“We’ll take a cruise!” Kenzie grabbed her computer and began typing. “Look! There’s a cruise that leaves out of Boston day after tomorrow, and cabins are still available. This will be perfect.”
When Makenna looked at her in confusion, Kenzie elaborated. “We’ll say this is just the break we need after so much stress and worry, blah, blah, blah. I’m sure our jailers will be thrilled to have us out of their hair for a few days. Since they will most likely fly us to Boston on a private jet, there will be no credit cards or flight manifests to flag our whereabouts. No one will ever know we are in Boston. Even if someone actually discovered we were booked on a cruise, they would be looking for us on the ocean or in the ports where we were scheduled to stop. And best of all, Hardin won’t worry about not hearing from you, because there’s limited contact on-board a cruise ship.”
“Okay, so we con the government into secretly getting us to Boston. How do we get to New Hampshire? Our credit cards would show renting a car.”
“Not if we pay cash.”
“They’ll still take out a hold on the card,” Makenna insisted.
“We aren’t going to rent a car.” Kenzie’s eyes twinkled. “We’re going to buy one.”
“Are you serious? Buy a car?”
“Not a new one. Just some old junker that can get us to where we’re going. What is it, about four, five hours away?”
“About half that. It’s not like Texas, where it takes thirteen hours or more to get across the state,” Makenna reminded her.
Kenzie flashed a brilliant smile, her green eyes glowing with pleasure. “So there you go,” she said smugly. “The perfect plan.”
Makenna stared at her twin, her expression equal parts admiration and horror.
“What?” Kenzie asked defensively.
“It is absolutely amazing how your mind works,” Makenna murmured. “Scary, but amazing.”
“Thank you,” she preened.
“That wasn’t necessarily a compliment.”
Chapter Sixteen
Two days later, they puttered along the New Hampshire highway in a vintage Volkswagen Beetle.
“So it won’t win a Nascar race,” Kenzie said. “At least it runs smoothly.”
“I’m surprised this car doesn’t seriously cramp your style.”
“Oh, it does, believe me. But the price was right and the man didn’t ask many questions. Besides, I don’t know anyone up here, so I don’t have to worry about my image.” Her playful grin dulled the superior ring in her words.
“Good thing,” her sister muttered.
On one side, the car was mostly sun-bleached blue, if you did not consider the rusty panel behind the rear wheel. On the driver side, the old panels had been replaced and the new ones painted a bright, happy blue to match the hood. Or was that the trunk? Makenna thought she remembered the original models had their engines and trunks switched around. At any rate, the front was bright blue and the back was not. She thought the paint on the rear hood panel might have been yellow at one time, but it was difficult to tell beneath the dozens of colorfully painted peace symbols.
“Besides, it has character,” Kenzie said, pressing her foot to the accelerator and waiting for the engine to receive the signal. As they belatedly surged forward, she grinned as she thought of the yellow Volkswagen Travis had ‘borrowed’ in Wyoming. “And I have a new fondness for Bugs.”
“I thought the idea was for us to slip into town unnoticed. That’s going to be a little hard in this contraption.”
“Be careful. You’re going to hurt Yoko’s feelings.” Kenzie patted the lambs-wool covered dash with a gentle pat.
“You named the car Yoko?”
“Yep. All these peace symbols have me feeling the love.”
Seeing her sister’s sunny smile, Makenna muttered, “I think that last car crash seriously damaged your brain. I can’t believe I agreed to this farce.”
“Hey, it worked like a dream, didn’t it?”
Makenna agreed with a reluctant sigh. “Yes. No one suspected a thing.”
“Stop worrying. He’ll understand once it’s all said and done and we’re back home. He wants you happy, Ken, and until we know the truth, neither one of us can be truly happy.” She knew her sister was worried about Hardin and his reaction when he realized they had duped him.
“And what if we never learn the truth? Have you thought about that?”
“No, because I refuse to accept defeat.”
Makenna pulled a spiral notebook from her oversized purse. “I thought we could start with our neighbors, asking if they remembered our parents.”
“You made a list, I presume.”
“Of course.” This time Makenna flashed a bright smile.
“What else is on your list?”
“This side is a to-do list, this one a how-to-do list.” She skimmed the first side. “Have electricity turned on. You called them from home, right? Good. Go by bank. We’re all set up to access our trust account, but we still have to sign the signature cards. You’re okay with using the names Tamara and Tressa, right?”
“I guess.” It still made her uneasy using a different name again, even if Tressa Mandarino was her legal epithet. “It seems easiest, since everything is under those names. And it’s less likely anyone will trace our activity that way.”
Makenna returned to her list. “Buy groceries, ice, and ice chest. Heaven only knows if the refrigerator will work after all these years. Buy light bulbs, bug spray, cleaning supplies, paper products and towels. I know we need a ton of other things and it’s already getting late, so that’s why this one is on the list, Get hotel for first night.”
“What’s on the other side?”
“Ideas of how we’ll track down our past. I know our father erased the electronic records, but I doubt he thought to cover everything. Go to local newspaper, search old papers. Visit library. Go to County Court House, look for birth certificates, marriage licenses,” her voice softened as she finished the thought, “death certificates. Talk to neighbors, townspeople. Go to nearby schools and businesses.”
“You and your lists.”
“Hey, you should try them sometime. That, and putting your clothes away. You’d be amazed at what organization can do for your life.”
Kenzie looked slightly horrified. “The next thing I know you’ll want me to balance my checkbook and make regular dental appointments. Thanks, but I like my unorganized life the way it is.”
“Okay, but don’t blame me when your teeth fall out and you can’t afford dentures because you never learned to balance a check book,” Makenna warned. “A little organization might have saved it all.”
***
Early the next morning, Yoko rolled down the overgrown path to the cabin in the woods.
Now that the sisters knew what to expect, the sight before them was not nearly as shocking as it had been only a few weeks before. Tucked into the a small clearing amid the White Mountain National Forest, at one time the homestead had been quaint and idyllic; now it was overgrown and sad, a dim reminder of its former days. Backed up against a foothill, the cabin itself was in fair condition, but the yard around it ranged from overgrown jungle to dormant seedlings. An old swing set, faded toys, and a mint-condition two-toned 1990 Ford pickup sat in
the yard.
“Are you ready for this?” Kenzie asked, pulling Yoko up close to the limb-strewn porch and killing the motor.
“I think so.” Makenna drew an unsteady breath and stared at the bedraggled porch with its rotting porch swing and a handful of neglected toys.
“I see the electricity still isn’t on,” Makenna said after they unlocked the door and she tried a wall switch.
“Hopefully soon.”
Without a word between them, they moved together through the living room, toward the back of the house. They passed through the dining area, lingering at the table where the pictures of their third birthday party had been taken. Their hearts beat out erratic tunes of mixed emotions as they turned, side by side, to circle through the kitchen. Everything was the same as it had been five weeks ago; exactly as it had been twenty-three years ago. Nothing had changed, other than the new layer of dust that had settled.
Their feet led them to the front bedroom, where fairies still danced among petals on the log walls. The hand-painted scene was as stunning today as when they discovered it a month ago.
“This room makes sense now,” Makenna said, taking in the magical theme. It wove throughout the room, repeating in a whimsical fairy lamp between the twin beds and in glass figurines on the shelves, even in the throw pillows shaped like fairies and flowers. “I couldn’t understand how the woman you described could have decorated a room like this, but now it makes sense. She didn’t.”
“I wonder which bed was mine?” Kenzie murmured, but she was drawn to the far one, the one topped with a frothy lavender spread. “I’m thinking the pale green one was yours. Looks better with your hair,” she explained, taking a seat on the edge of the twin mattress.
“That’s the thing about red hair, it clashes with most anything.” Makenna pulled a face as she sat on the bed opposite her sister.
Kenzie closed her eyes and tried to recall sleeping in this room as a child. Makenna looked around them, seeing if anything sparked a memory. When she closed her eyes, a tear squeezed past her lids.
Long, silent minutes passed. “Maybe later,” Kenzie whispered hopefully. “Maybe after we’ve been here awhile.”