by Diane Burke
Liz smiled. “Okay, Sal. Go work your magic. I really need a miracle here.”
“I didn’t think miracles were in my job description, boss. But a little bird told me you have frequent conversations with the one that does handle those things. Maybe it’s time for a little chat with that guy.” Sal grinned, gave her a mock salute and went outside to join the party.
The afternoon was a welcome respite from the weeks of high-level stress. The men relaxed and unwound. Frisbees were tossed and frequently stolen by Rerun. Adam grilled his promised kebabs, along with burgers and hot dogs. Charlie made a tub of water balloons for tossing after dinner with Jeremy squirting the hose more on Charlie than in the balloons. Liz stretched out on a chaise longue and watched the fun. This was the best Labor Day she could remember. Maybe because it felt like family—and she was just starting to realize how much she missed belonging to one.
As the party wound down and people started to leave, Liz crossed the lawn to join Charlie, who was watching Jeremy on the swing set. Rerun was stretched out on the grass beside her, also paying attention to the youngster.
“Hi.” Charlie shaded her eyes from the afternoon sun. “That went well. I think everyone had a good time.”
Liz plopped down beside her. “I think so, too.” She looked around. “I thought Adam was out here with you.”
“He was. He slipped inside to take a phone call from the hospital in Poplar Bluff.”
“The investigation is moving along. More slowly than I’d hoped for but at least we still have some leads to follow up on. And taking a few hours of R & R today I think reenergized the team.”
“I agree. And don’t worry about it moving slow as long as it’s moving forward. Remember the fable about the tortoise and the hare? We both know who won that race. Don’t worry. It will all work out.”
Liz shook her head and chuckled. “What’s your secret? Do you have a secret recipe for eternal optimism that you take with your morning smoothie?”
Charlie laughed. “I get down every now and then.”
“Really? I’d like to see that just once.”
“Hey, now, that’s not nice.” Charlie poked her and laughed again. “Just because you walk around like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders doesn’t mean you have to come to the party and pop my balloon.”
Liz waved her hand in a halting motion. “I know. You’re right. But you’re always smiling or humming or laughing. I envy you. It must be nice to be so up and optimistic all the time.”
“I wasn’t always this content.”
“No? What changed?”
“Adam came into my life.”
Liz’s heart clenched. So, her suspicions were right. There was more than a professional relationship between Charlie and Adam. What a fool she’d been to ever entertain the idea that Adam was on the up-and-up and that he still had feelings for her.
“Mind my asking how long the two of you have been an item?” Liz tried to make her voice sound like the question was mild curiosity and not pain-numbing need to know.
Charlie laughed harder. “We’re not an item. He’s my boss…and a really good friend. He’s best friends with my brother Bob. They went to college together. That’s how I met Adam. Bob brought him home to the ranch for the summer of their freshman year. Adam’s been in and out of our lives ever since. Mainly in. My two brothers and I train dogs for a variety of services. Guide dogs as companions for the blind, deaf, and now other disabilities.” She nodded in Jeremy’s direction. “Like autism.
“We also train dogs for the police, for search and rescue, and my brother Hank just started a pilot program working with the local prison system. Some of the prisoners help train the puppies. Adam and Bob are the masterminds behind the whole thing. We used to be just an ordinary Montana ranch back in the good old days.”
“I don’t understand. You said Adam…”
Charlie reached out and rubbed the scruff of Rerun’s neck. “Adam and I have had hundreds of conversations over the years. He’s helped me put things in perspective, start looking at what good I can find even in the midst of bad situations. He was instrumental in helping us start the dog-training program. It’s impossible to stay a grump when you’re surrounded by puppies offering you nothing but love.”
Charlie’s tone quieted and her eyes sobered. “And I will be forever grateful to Adam for introducing me to the One who loves us unconditionally. My life has never been the same. So, yes, I suppose I do have a secret recipe that I take with my morning smoothie. I start my day with private time with the Lord.”
Adam? He hadn’t been a Christian when she’d known him. What had happened to him when he left Country Corners? There were so many things she saw in this man that she hadn’t seen in the boy he’d been. Compassion. Thoughtfulness. Kindness. As much as she’d thought she’d loved Adam back then when he was a typical high school jock and the world revolved around him, she didn’t want to admit that she was starting to like this new and improved version of Adam Morgan—a lot.
Almost as though he sensed she was thinking about him, she felt his presence behind her just moments before she noticed his shadow stretch out in front of her on the grass.
“Penny for your thoughts.”
Liz looked up at him and smiled. “Sneaky way to collect money, Dr. Morgan, charging people for their thoughts.”
“Only certain people. Only the ones whose thoughts I want to hear.”
“Okay, that’s my cue to make myself scarce.” Charlie chuckled, stood up and brushed fresh-cut grass off her jeans.
Liz bounced up. “You don’t have to leave. I’m going inside. I have tons of work waiting for me.”
“It’s time to take Jeremy inside, anyway.” Charlie signaled Rerun to rise.
Liz glanced at her watch to keep herself from having to look at Adam. She knew just one glance into those beautiful golden-brown eyes of his and she’d follow him as obediently as Rerun. “I have reports waiting for me. It was a great day today, Adam. Thank you so much for what you did for my team.” Without a backward glance she hurried across the lawn to the house.
She was sitting at her desk reviewing the latest reports when she heard a bloodcurdling scream that chilled her to the bone. It was quickly followed by the earsplitting sound of the security alarm going off. She knocked over her chair and raced through the doorway of the study and into the foyer.
Jeremy screamed again at the top of his lungs. He ran in circles at jet-propelled speed around the middle of the foyer. Adam and Charlie, caught off guard by the child’s sudden outburst and the ear-piercing security alarm, hesitated for a moment, and then they both joined the chaos. Charlie grabbed the boy as he raced past and subdued him. Adam ran toward the alarm box to punch in the code.
The front door stood wide open and a man, his mouth open in astonishment, stood in the doorway.
It took Liz only a second to comprehend what had happened. The man in the doorway wore a deliveryman’s uniform. Jeremy was terrified of people in uniforms.
What was the door open for, anyway? What had they been thinking? No one was supposed to open doors in this house except one of her deputies or herself. What if it had been the killer? Maybe it was.
Liz sprinted past the group in the foyer, ushered the man back outside and pulled the door shut behind her.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare the kid. I was just dropping off this package. The kid opened the door and started screaming.” The deliveryman mopped his brow with a handkerchief and looked as if he was still trying to recover from what had happened.
One hand surreptitiously on the gun tucked at her side under her blouse, she glanced over his shoulder to the large van parked in the driveway and then back to the man on the stoop.
“Sorry about that. The boy is autistic and has a deep-seated fear of people in uniforms.” Liz grimaced. “He’s seen plenty of them recently so I’m surprised he reacted as violently as he did to you.”
Liz did a quick inspection
of the man’s badge, matching picture to face and memorizing his name.
“Is he going to be okay?” The man shoved his handkerchief back in his pocket and picked up the package he had dropped on the step.
“He’ll be fine. Here, let me take that from you.”
The man couldn’t dump the box in her arms fast enough, turned and almost ran to his truck.
Liz grabbed a notepad and stubby pencil from her back pocket and wrote down his name and the license plate. She called Darlene on her cell phone, gave her the information and asked her to check him out. He probably was nothing more than what he appeared to be but Liz wasn’t taking any more chances with Jeremy’s safety.
She quickly examined the package in her hands. The return address was a business in New York. The package was light. It didn’t rattle when shook. She held it to her ear. If it was a bomb, it wasn’t ticking. Still not wanting to take any unnecessary chances, she carried it a safe distance from the house, placed it under an evergreen tree and called Davenport to have one of his bomb-squad guys come out and take a look.
She hurried back into the house and her heart squeezed at the sight in front of her. The boy perched on the second step of the stairway, Charlie and Adam sitting on either side of him. Rerun kept trying to get to the boy but Charlie ordered him away.
Jeremy, hair wet with sweat, his eyes red from crying, grasping his teddy bear tightly to his chest, was taking deep, stuttering breaths. When he saw her he yelled, “Mommy. Jeremy wants Mommy. Jeremy wants Mommy.”
Liz closed the door behind her and leaned against it. She vowed to find the man who had destroyed this child’s world—and she would make him pay.
* * *
He lowered himself into the closest seat and stared aimlessly out the window. He needed a plan. No more flying by the seat of his pants. No more reacting first and thinking about it later. He needed a solid, no-fail plan to get his hands on that kid and find out once and for all what he knew.
He drummed his fingers on the kitchen table.
He couldn’t believe how lucky this kid was. Since when are kids quiet? But this one was. How else could he have seen what was going on between him and his parents that night and not be seen himself?
Yep. Quiet and sneaky.
Hiding in a closet under a pile of blankets in his mama’s closet.
Unbelievable.
I guess his luck rubbed off on the sheriff, too. Who would have believed you could shoot out the tires of a car going at least fifty miles an hour, watch it fly through the air and land upside down in a ditch and then blow up—and have all three of them walk away with nothing more than nuisance injuries? It was like they were wearing some kind of invisible protective shield and nothing he did could kill them.
He rubbed his chin with his hand. A skittering across the table caught his peripheral vision. His hand shot out and slammed down on top of the cockroach. He wiped the remains on his pant leg.
That was just plain stupid thinking.
They didn’t have any special protection. They were human beings just like everybody else. And human beings could be killed just like cockroaches. He just hadn’t used the right roach spray yet.
He took two slabs of white bread, a slice of tomato, some mayo and threw three slices of turkey in the middle. He banged a pot on the stove, opened a can of soup, dumped it in and turned up the heat.
He was getting pretty sick of eating sandwiches and soup.
He grabbed the pot off the stove and dumped it into the sink. He was tired of stinkin’ soup. He took a bite of his sandwich. It would have to do for tonight.
He didn’t have much of an appetite, anyway. The cocaine made sure of that.
He’d been crazy to ever try the stuff in the first place.
But he’d been angry…and lonely…and maybe just a bit curious.
Now it was a chain around his neck, making him do things he’d never have believed he’d ever do. Making him do things that normally would have shamed him.
But not anymore.
As soon as he cleaned up this problem and he knew he was in the clear, he was going to start a new life. He was going to kick his habit. Never should have started it in the first place. Time for him to pack it in.
Maybe he’d move to another town. Maybe meet a woman who would appreciate him and settle down. Yeah, that’s what he was going to do.
Just as soon as he figured out what to do about the kid.
NINE
Adam stood quietly in the bedroom doorway and simply watched.
Jeremy was sitting in the middle of the floor with a book open on his lap. Rerun’s head was lying on the boy’s legs. If dogs had expressions, Adam thought this one would definitely be anticipation. The crazy mutt looked like he expected Jeremy to start reading him the book any second now.
“How’s he doing?” Liz’s voice was a low whisper as she tiptoed up beside him.
“See for yourself.” Adam gestured into the room. “Charlie’s done a great job getting the two of them to bond. Rerun was quite instrumental in not only calming Jeremy earlier today after that deliveryman fiasco but he’s actually got the boy talking.”
“Talking?” Liz could barely conceal the excitement and surprise in her voice.
Adam held up his hand. “Whoa, calm down. It’s nothing to get too excited about just yet.”
“Well, what is he saying?” Liz asked in a louder whisper, and shifted her position for a better view into the room.
“Mostly gibberish. He stops talking if I get too close. But I definitely heard him tell Rerun about a ‘bad man.’”
“‘Bad man’? Do you think he’s talking about the killer?”
“Maybe.”
Liz’s face twisted in concentration. When she spoke again, she sounded disappointed. “Maybe he’s talking about the deliveryman.”
Adam shrugged. “Hard to tell just yet. But it doesn’t matter, anyway.”
“Doesn’t matter? Of course it matters. We need to know if Jeremy saw the man that killed his parents. We need to know if he has any other memories of that night that might help with our investigation.”
“Shh.” Adam gently pulled her out of the doorway and into the hall. “I know, but he has to open up on his own and in his own time.”
“We’re running out of time, Adam. I can’t run my office from here indefinitely and I can’t request federal marshal protection in WITSEC if I can’t prove he was a witness. He’ll end up in foster care and there will be no one to protect him.” He heard the catch in her voice. “I can’t let that happen to him.”
“I understand. I do.” He tilted her chin and looked into her shimmering blue eyes. Tendrils of her silken hair slid across his hand. The slight whiff of lilacs teased his nostrils and brought a smile to his face. He didn’t expect a sheriff to wear perfume but on this one it seemed a perfect choice.
“These things can’t be rushed, Liz. Both for the boy’s mental health as well as for the integrity of your case. If we ask questions too soon or push too hard, the prosecution can say what we present was coerced or manufactured. They’ll throw it out of court.”
“I know.” She reached up and cupped his wrist with her hand. “Thank you for what you are doing. You’ve helped Jeremy more than I ever thought anyone could.”
Her touch sent every nerve ending in his body zinging. The blood pounded in his temples and his pulse quickened. He wanted to pull her into his arms and comfort her.
No, he didn’t.
He wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss the living daylights out of her. Not the sweet adolescent kisses of their childhood, but the passionate, demanding kisses of adults. He wanted to taste the fullness of her lips. He wanted to slide his arm around her waist and pull her close. He was a full-grown man with normal physical reactions and, at this moment, that was all he could think about.
The silkiness of her hair. The beauty of her eyes. The scent of her skin.
Lizzie.
The only girl who had ever stak
ed a solid claim to his heart.
The girl whose heart he had shattered into a million pieces.
That thought brought back the pain he’d felt the night he’d left town. How could he have been so stupid to believe he was the only one who would be hurt by his decision? Now he was certain his pain had been nothing compared to what she must have endured. At least he knew why he left. He had had time to process it, justify it. To her, he was just a louse who hadn’t been man enough to say goodbye.
The memories doused his feelings as surely as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice water on his head. What made him think he deserved a second chance with Lizzie? After the way he’d treated her, it was a miracle she bothered with him at all and he couldn’t blame her. But if it was the last thing he did, he was going to prove to her that he was a decent man, a trustworthy man—and he knew he had to slow down and give her time and space to see it. Adam dropped his hand and stepped back. He tried not to read anything into the questioning look on her face.
“It’s a good thing that Jeremy is starting to talk to Rerun,” he said. “The boy has pent-up images and emotions bursting to get out. The dog makes him feel safe. It’s only a matter of time before he says more—and says it louder than a whisper. When he does, one of us will be close by to hear it, too.”
Liz nodded.
“Hey, you guys, I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Charlie, holding a snack tray of apple slices and peanut butter, grinned so wide it looked too big for her face. “I don’t know, Adam. Every time I leave you for a minute I catch you cozying up to our local sheriff. What’s that about, huh?”
Heat crept up his neck. He reached out and ruffled her auburn hair. “That’s about none of your business.” He spun her toward the open doorway. “I think your services are needed elsewhere, young lady.”
Charlie laughed out loud. “Okay. I’m going.” She took a few steps into the room and then said over her shoulder in a singsong voice, “But I’m telling Bob.”
Her childish behavior and laughter was contagious and both Adam and Liz laughed, too.