Saving Shadows

by Kathleen Brooks

  The man holding the gun stared as his mouth partially dropped open, and Gavin took advantage of the distraction. He lunged forward and grabbed the gun. “Get out of here!” he yelled to Ellery as he and the man struggled. Another man stepped from the back of the SUV and startled Miss Winnie, who bashed him over the head with her cane.

  Gavin felt the cold metal of the gun absorbing the heat from his hand as it dug into his palm. He tried to force the barrel to point away from him, but right now if the man pulled the trigger he would be in serious trouble. Gavin’s arms flexed, thankful for all the surgeries, baby deliveries, and boating he’d done that made him rather strong. He used one hand to try to twist the gun from the man’s hand and the other to prevent the man from pulling the trigger. When it looked as if he was going to lose the battle, Gavin lowered his shoulder and rammed it into the man, sending him stumbling back and right into Miss Ruby.

  “You should be ashamed of yourself!” Miss Ruby yelled as she grabbed the man by the earlobe and pulled. The man gave a surprised squawk as Miss Ruby yanked him backward. In surprise, he loosened his grip on the gun, and Gavin was able to twist it out of his hand. He didn’t do much hunting like so many around there did, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know how to use a gun.

  Gavin pointed it steadily at the two men. The big one was still being berated by Miss Ruby, the feathers on her hat bobbing in his face, while the second man was rubbing his head from where Miss Winnie bonked him with her cane.

  “Miss Winnie, can you please call Granger,” Gavin asked politely.

  Miss Winnie hobbled over to him and patted his cheek. “You’re such a good boy. I’ll be back in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”

  He heard someone running in the house and knew it wasn’t Winnie. Ellery stormed from the garage with a boating paddle held up as if it were a bat. “Who are you?” she demanded.

  “We’re just doing our job. We were hired to find you,” the large man answered after Miss Ruby twisted his ear.

  “But I’m not lost, and I’m not this Ellery person! Who hired you?” Ellery yelled as she raised the paddle threateningly.

  The man clenched his jaw when Miss Ruby twisted his ear harder. All of a sudden, the man who had been leaning against the open back door after the cane to his head moved his arm. Taser prongs shot out and into Miss Ruby’s bottom. The old woman’s eyes went wide as she dropped her grasp on square-face and shook. The feathers of her hat danced, and Gavin saw the moment she was going down.

  “Dammit,” he muttered under his breath as he lunged forward to catch Miss Ruby instead of keeping the gun pointed at the men.

  As he caught over two hundred pounds of grandma, the two men leapt back in the SUV and tore down the driveway. Gavin heard the paddle drop, and then Ellery was there helping him slowly set Miss Ruby down on the driveway.

  “Oh, you poor thing! What can I do?” Ellery asked, turning to Gavin.

  Miss Ruby shook her head and blinked her eyes. “Well, I haven’t had a tingle like that since the sixties.”

  Sirens reached them as Miss Winnie tottered outside. “What in tarnation happened to you?”

  “I got a tingle in my butt,” Miss Ruby told her old friend.

  “Lucky you. I haven’t had one of those since the sixties.”

  Gavin tried not to laugh, but Ellery’s snickers made him lose it.

  “What happened in Shadows Landing in the sixties?” he asked as he tried to calm his chuckles.

  “Civil Rights protests,” Miss Ruby told him. “The school was segregated, but then one day it wasn’t. The local leaders all came together two days before back-to-school and agreed we were going to stop bussing students to Charleston since we didn’t have a black school here. Protests broke out in front of the school.”

  “But then the church ladies’ league came and handed out brownies to everyone,” Miss Winnie said, picking up the story. “And I should point out that there were quite a few of us who had already crossed racial lines, so to say. There was only a small group that opposed it, but they were very vocal.”

  Miss Ruby nodded, her feathers bouncing. “That’s right. Winnie and I were already friends from youth group. But those few protesters had evil hearts.”

  “Sure did. But then the ladies passed out these brownies to both sides of the protest,” Miss Winnie told them. “The next thing we knew, we were arm in arm singing gospel songs.”

  “And it gave us a tingle,” Miss Ruby added.

  “Quite the tingle,” Miss Winnie agreed.

  “After that we all got naked and jumped in the river together,” Miss Ruby said matter of factly.

  “Yeah, hard to spew hate when you’re naked in the river with your ding-a-ling floating up. Turned into one heck of a party,” Miss Winnie remembered.

  “Those church ladies just kept feeding us and we kept partying. Next thing we knew it was two days later, the school was open, the kids had already started, and no problems had come up. Everyone kinda looked at each other naked in the river as we tingled on our inner tubes and agreed everything was groovy. Not to say there haven’t been some tensions every now and then, but we work through it. We’re too small of a town to be divided. Instead we chose to work together,” Miss Ruby told them as she finally reached for Gavin’s hand. “Now help me up. I have a craving for those special brownies.”

  Gavin and Ellery bent and hauled Ruby to her feet as the two sheriff’s SUVs slid to a stop in front of the house.

  “What happened?” Granger asked, already leaping from the SUV.

  “Someone tried to take this sweet young girl,” Miss Winnie said with a thump of her cane.

  “And I got a tingle in my bottom,” Miss Ruby added. Granger stopped mid stride, and Kord covered his mouth with his hand in order to hide the smile.

  “They stunned Miss Ruby,” Gavin clarified, “on the bottom.”

  Kord snorted and covered it with a cough. “I’m so sorry, Miss Ruby. Let me drive you home after all this excitement. I’ll make sure your car gets delivered to you.”

  “Do you happen to have your great-grandmother’s brownie recipe?” Miss Ruby asked as she took Kord’s arm.

  Kord led Miss Ruby to his car, and Gavin saw Miss Ruby pointing to her car. A second later, Kord strode up to the house with bags of clothes in each hand. “From the church,” he said, handing them to Ellery.

  “Thank you,” Ellery said, taking the bags from him.

  “May I escort you home too?” Kord asked Miss Winnie as he held out his elbow for her to take.

  “Depends. Can I play with your siren?”

  “Do I get some apple pie?” Kord asked back as Miss Winnie tweaked his cheek.

  “Of course you do. Such a good boy.”

  “Then you can play with my siren anytime.”

  Gavin would have sworn he heard Miss Winnie mutter, “Don’t I wish,” under her breath as Kord escorted her to the SUV where Miss Ruby was already sitting.

  Granger was shaking his head as he watched Kord drive off with Miss Winnie playing with the controls to the siren. “Let’s go inside and you can tell me what happened.”

  Gavin reached out and took Ellery’s hand in his. This was suddenly much more than a theory that someone was after her. Her memories may not have been back, but her instinct that someone had hurt her must be true if they were willing to kidnap her to get her back to Charleston.

  14

  Ellery didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when she recounted what had happened. Luckily Gavin told most of it, and she just bit the inside of her lip to stop all emotion because right now she needed to think and not be distracted by Miss Ruby’s ear tugging antics.

  “Are you sure they weren’t police?” Granger asked again.

  “I’m positive. They didn’t identify themselves as such, they weren’t in uniform, and in fact they reminded me of personal security.”

  “Someone powerful was pulling the strings, at least that’s the impression I got from Officer Hurst. I’m afraid m
y call to report you triggered this whole mess, even when I denied it was you. I’m guessing since nobody has been found and then when Officer Hurst couldn’t give them more information on Ellery versus Emma, they hired private security instead of the police to handle this,” Granger said as he looked deep in thought. Ellery could see him thinking through all the possibilities. This had to be a tough case for a small town sheriff, but he didn’t seem overwhelmed.

  “Have you seen a case like this before?” Ellery asked.

  Granger nodded. “I skipped college and went into the Army. Did a tour and got a job as a cop in Washington DC. I saw a lot of things like this. Everyone backstabbing everyone, either through blackmail or murder. I left after a couple of years and moved back to my hometown and ran for sheriff. I had wanted the quiet life, but Shadows Landing is never quiet. Gators on the loose, fist fights over barbeque, and don’t get me started on the craft fair.”

  “What should I do? Will I be safe anywhere?” Ellery asked, feeling all hope slipping away.

  “You need to remember who hit you,” Granger told her, not bothering to beat around the bush.

  Gavin put his arm around her and pulled her to his side. She looked up at his face etched in worry. “I think it’s time we go back to Charleston.”

  Panic clawed at her. Her heart beat so strongly she was afraid it would stop. Her throat was constricting, and her lungs didn’t seem to be working. Fear was pulling her into the darkness as black spots became larger and larger until she couldn’t even see Granger standing in front of her.

  “Ellery!” Gavin barked, the demand in his voice bringing her back from the darkness. “It’s okay. We won’t get out of the car. I’ve heard being completely relaxed and thinking of other things and, on the opposite side, retracing your last steps, can both work to jog your memory.”

  “Let’s try relaxing first,” she managed to say as she clung to Gavin. His strength, his warmth seemed to ground her.

  “Okay,” Gavin said slowly as if trying to reassure her. “We’ll try that first.”

  “You might want to consider staying somewhere else,” Granger told them. “It appears they know she’s here or at least think it could be her. They’ll be back.”

  “What about your patients?” Ellery asked. Not only was her life turned upside down, but now she was turning Gavin’s upside down too.

  “No one should be stopping by tonight, but I can leave a note to call Sadie if they need anything. We can stay at the Bell Landing Plantation. They have two rooms they use for bed and breakfast stays when they feel like it,” Gavin told her. “We’ll do it for tonight and see if we can take your mind off of things.”

  A night at a plantation with Gavin? Sounded like heaven, but the way her heart was beating she didn’t know if relaxing was quite the right word for it. “I don’t want to put them in danger.”

  Granger shook his head. “They will protect you better than I could. Shooting is not a hobby for them, it’s an obsession. Clark and Suze Bell host duck hunts every year, and then there are the multiple trophies for skeet shooting they both have from the time they were children all the way up to this past year’s senior division win.”

  “Are Gage and Maggie in town?” Gavin asked before turning to Ellery and telling her they were the Bell’s two grown children.

  “Yes. Gage arrived this afternoon and Maggie a couple days ago. She’s under the weather so she wasn’t at church,” Granger said as if there had to be an excuse not to be at church. Well, there probably did in this town.

  “Last time I talked to Clark he thought they might be moving back to the plantation now that they’re out of college and settling down with jobs in the family business,” Gavin said to Granger as Ellery felt completely lost in this family catch up.

  “But that’s four people now I could be putting in harm’s way. I don’t want them Tasered in the ass or worse, shot, all because I’m there.”

  Granger turned a serious face to her. “Gage is named after a twelve gauge shotgun shell and Maggie’s full name is Magnum Bell. She won a silver medal in the last Olympics for trap shooting. While Gage didn’t get an Olympic medal, he’s won his fair share of national competitions and was on the Olympic team.”

  Okay, that did make her feel a little bit better. “As long as they’re not in danger, I’ll stay there tonight.”

  “Great. Then tomorrow after I see my patients we can go to Charleston if we need to. I’ll call Clark and Suze while you go through the things Ruby and Winnie brought and put together a bag for the night.”

  Ellery thought Gavin would come inside with her, but he made no move to follow her. Instead he turned his back to her and began to talk quietly to Granger. Ellery decided whatever it was, he obviously didn’t want her to know about it, which only made her worry more. Guys should know the time to protect a woman’s delicate sensibilities was over. As Ellery lifted the bags and walked past the door to Gavin’s office, she thought about that. She wasn’t a hunter. She wasn’t even a regular shooter. She knew how to wield a paintbrush. But she also knew how to wield a scalpel when she was making sculptures.

  She dropped the bags and looked toward the garage door as if she were doing something wrong. When no one opened the door, she quietly snuck into Gavin’s office and into the surgery room. In seconds, she found scalpels and quickly took one before sneaking back out.

  Upstairs, she dumped the clothes she’d been given and laid out the clothes she wanted to take with her. There were a pair of jeans that fit, a couple of sundresses, a pair of sneakers, sandals, and cowboy boots that all fit, but when it came to undergarments, that was another story all together. As in, there were none. Necessities made up a toothbrush, toothpaste, tons of hairspray, two types of hairbrushes, deodorant, and a complete Mary Kay makeup kit.

  Well, she’d wash her bra and panties in the sink tonight and leave them out to dry overnight. Then she’d ask Harper or Tinsley to pick up some if she couldn’t get them herself. Now, for something to sleep in. Ellery rifled through the rest of the bag until she saw it. “Mother of pearl,” she whispered, holding it up. Thank goodness she had her own room.

  * * *

  Ellery stared in wonder as Gavin drove up the Spanish oak lined driveway. They drove straight on the tan graveled road for half a mile before the moss covered trees stopped and the space opened into a large circular drive with a massive fountain in the middle lined up perfectly with the center of the large rectangular plantation house. The brick was painted white and consisted of a ground floor in case of flooding and then three additional stories of covered verandas running the entire length of the house and most likely wrapping all the way around it. At the center of the house, two staircases curved upward and met at a landing before leading to the front door on the first floor.

  As Gavin pulled into a small parking area off to the side of the house, the front door opened as a man and woman, both in their fifties and both wearing tan slacks and loafers came to stand on the veranda.

  “That’s Clark and Suze Bell, owners of Bell Landing Plantation. It’s been in Clark’s family for generations and will be passed down to their eldest child, Gage, someday,” Gavin told her as he turned off the car.

  “Let Timmins get that, Dr. Faulkner!” Suze called out as they went to grab their bags. A man in navy slacks and a white polo with the outline of the house over the left breast pocket greeted them.

  “Hi, Timmins. How are you doing?” Gavin shook the man’s hand. He looked to be a couple years younger than she was with a head full of blonds, browns, and even a slight trace of red in his long hair currently tied back in a bun she’d kill for. She could never get her messy buns so, well, messy.

  “Sometimes I can’t even. This adulting thing is hard AF. But then I was slaying it on the board out at Sullivan’s Island yesterday, and I thought I’m totally living my best life, ya know?” He grabbed the two bags and started walking toward the house.

  Ellery blinked as she tried to make sense of it, but then
Gavin slipped his arm around her and introduced him. “Timmins, this is Ellery. Ellery, this is Timmins. He’s the new house manager.” Gavin lowered his lips to her ear and whispered, “Timmins only speaks millennial.” Ellery had to choke down her laughter as they climbed the stairs.

  “Timmins, could you put their bags in their room please and then bring them some champagne?” Suze asked as she reached out her hands for Gavin. Her perfect blonde chin-length bob didn’t dare frizz in the humidity as she kissed Gavin’s cheek and then turned to her. “I am so glad you two could join us on your romantic date. You were lucky we had the one room left.”

  One room? Ellery looked at the house and blinked. There had to be at least ten bedrooms. What did she mean there was only one room left?

  “Maggie didn’t tell me her sorority sisters were visiting for a couple of days. But, lucky you, that meant the Sumter Suite is available.” The picture of southern elegance turned to Ellery and reached for her hand. “You are going to have the most romantic night. I’m Suze Bell and this is my husband, Clark. Your room is in the opposite wing from where our daughter and her friends are. You’ll be quite alone, and you’ll find a special treat I left for you both on the balcony.”

  Ellery shook hands with Clark as he wrapped his arm back around his wife and smiled at them both. “Timmins will put your bags in your room, and he’ll bring dinner at seven. Until then, enjoy the pool, walk the gardens, go for a horseback ride, or just rest in your room with a book. If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to ask.”

  “Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Bell.”

  “Oh, please call us Suze and Clark,” she said as she patted Ellery’s hand. “Now, you two have a good time.”

  * * *

  Timmins showed them to their room and Ellery wanted to jump onto the bed and squeal. It was a king-sized four-poster bed. A large overstuffed couch sat in front of a fireplace. There was a claw-footed tub in the marble bathroom along with an all glass shower with six shower jets and a rainfall showerhead. When they pushed open the French doors, they discovered their own private paradise on the balcony. On the left side, Suze had a hammock put up, overlooking the gardens that sloped down to the river. On the right was a dinner table all set up for a private dinner for two.