Saving Cassie
By L.A. Remenicky
Copyright ©2013 L.A. Remenicky
All Rights Reserved
For Karen L. – I never would have done this if you hadn’t decided to try NANOWRIMO.
This is all your fault…
A special thank you to Sprinkles on Top Studios for the beautiful cover. And many thanks to Editor Afloat, Karen Olin for her help in getting this book polished and ready for all of you to read.
And let’s not forget the wonderful people who Beta read Saving Cassie: Sarah Kaider – you were the first complete stranger to read it and your comments and suggestions kept me going. I couldn’t have done this without you. Jennifer Griffin, and Marisa from I’ll Be Reading - all of your comments and suggestions are appreciated more than you know.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Prologue
She is still awake because it is her sixth birthday tomorrow and she is too excited to sleep. She hears her parents discussing whether she is old enough to spend the summer at her Gram’s house in Fairfield Corners. She is sitting at the top of the stairs listening to them talk about Gram and her offer to have her stay the summer with her in Fairfield Corners. I sure hope they let me go spend the summer at Gram’s house, she thinks. I love going with her to her bookstore. There are so many books and reading is my favorite thing…
“Do you think she’s old enough to spend the summer? I want her to have the same sense of community that I got from growing up in a small town,” says her mother.
Her father replies, “I think so, she is mature for her age and she loves spending time with your mother at the bookstore. We have our very own bookworm,” he says with pride in his voice, “she is already reading at a fourth grade level. We’ll have to buy our own bookstore to keep up with her before too long.”
Knock, knock, knock…
“Brad, who could be at the door this late?”
“I don’t know, Carly. Why don’t you go make sure Cassie is asleep; I’ll see who it is.”
Creak…”Remind me to oil those hinges tomorrow, Carly. What are you doing here?” he demands as he attempts to swing the door shut, “I told you we don’t want anything to do with your group anymore.”
“Give me the girl and you can live”
She hears her father yell, “You’ll never get my Cassie!” The stranger forces the door open and he walks into the house, stabbing her father with a wicked looking knife. Cassie watches as her father crumples to the floor. She can see the tattoo of the crucifixion on the stranger’s left forearm…
Her mother screams “You stay away from my daughter! Cassie run, hide!” She faces the stranger, willing to die to save her daughter. “Oh, God, someone help us!”
The stranger walks towards her mother and ends her screaming with a knife in her throat. “Shut up already! Why do you have to scream like that?” He looks toward the staircase, as if he can sense Cassie sitting at the top, and his eyes start to glow.
She can only watch in horror as the stranger walks toward the stairs. He looks up at her and grins as he wipes the knife on his pants. The creak of the first step seems to wake her up and she scrambles into the closed in her room, trying to make herself as small as possible as the tears stream down her face.
“Come out, little Cassie, come out and play with me!” he sings, his eyes glowing brighter as his grin widens in anticipation of what is to come…
Knock, knock, knock…
Mr. Wilson, their next door neighbor, walks in after getting no response. “Brad, are you OK? I thought I heard screams…Oh my God!” He heads for the kitchen phone to call for help. The stranger goes back down the stairs and runs out the front door.
Cassie is mesmerized by the red and blue flashing lights shining under the door. She doesn’t move even when she hears Mr. Wilson calling her name.
Five-hundred miles away a young boy begins to dream of knives and blood and red hair… he mumbles in his sleep, “I must save Reggie…”
Chapter 1
The rising sun glares off the windows of my car as I put my overnight bag in the backseat. I can’t believe I am actually heading back to Fairfield Corners. My Gram’s death is the only thing bringing me back to this small town in Indiana for good after living in New York City for the past 10 years; her beloved bookstore means as much to me as it did to her.
It has taken me two months to get everything settled in New York City. I quit my job as manager of an independent bookstore and packed up my apartment. It was hard, but not as hard as it could have been. There was no one special to me in New York, some close friends who I will miss but no one special. There has been no one special since I broke off my engagement to Matt. That relationship taught me some hard lessons. I won’t be jumping back into a serious relationship anytime soon, if ever. I don’t need a man. I keep telling myself that every day, vowing to never forget what happened that night.
Thirteen hours later and I only have 20 miles left to go. I can’t believe I am almost back home for good. The memories of my Gram start to crowd my mind, bringing tears to my eyes, blurring the corn fields on both sides of the highway. God, I miss her so much! I wish I had moved back sooner so I could have had more time with her. Maybe I could have prevented the accident. The tears are blurring my vision, but I keep on driving, driving towards my destiny.
The memories come faster and faster the closer I get to town. I keep driving faster, trying to outrun the memories - the memories of Gram’s funeral, the casket, watching her being lowered into the ground. I don’t even notice when I drive past a sheriff’s deputy sitting in his car at an intersection until the lights come on and I hear the siren. I look down at the speedometer and realize just how fast I was going. Oh crap! Maybe it’s Steve, I can talk him out of a ticket. If it’s James I can get out of the ticket but I will get the lecture on safe driving again. I pull over and put it in park, wiping the tears off my face, hoping I don’t look like death warmed over, I don’t really want to discuss why I was crying.
I lean over to get my registration out of the glove box when I hear a tapping on my window. I push the button to roll down the window, turning to face the deputy. Double crap! It’s not Steve and it’s definitely not James. From this vantage point he looks huge. His hat is pulled down shading his eyes, can’t see them anyway through the mirrored aviator sunglasses. He’s wearing a Fairfield County deputy’s uniform. This must be the new deputy James hired. James, my best friend since I was six, is the coun
ty sheriff.
“How can I help you Deputy?”
“License and registration please.”
“Why did you stop me deputy…Miller?” I read off his name plate.
“Do you realize you were going 95 miles per hour in a 60 mile per hour zone? I’m afraid I’m going to have to give you a ticket. That is an excessive amount over the limit,” he says with a southern accent, taking my license and registration back to his car to run it through the system. Wow, where did James find this guy? I wonder if I can wipe that sour look off his face?
He returns to stand next to my driver’s side door, “Here’s your license and registration. The instructions for paying your fine are on the back of the ticket,” he says as he hands them back to me.
“Really?” I’m sure I have a shocked look on my face as I stared at the ticket. “A $100 ticket? Call Sheriff Marsten, he’ll take care of it for me.”
“I’m sure I can’t do that ma’am, wouldn’t be right,” he replied. “You watch your speed now.”
Wow, talk about Mr. Do-It-By-The-Book. Someone needs to pull that stick out of his ass! “Thank you Deputy, I sure will,” I reply sweetly, already plotting how I’m going to get back at him. Just wait until he finds out who I am. I am so going to love rubbing his face in it.
I slowly make my way back onto the road, speeding up, watching Mr. Pain-In-My-Ass Deputy getting smaller by the second. James is gonna hear about this, how dare this deputy treat me this way! I am so going to get him fired!
Chapter 2
I pull into the driveway of my Gram’s house, correction, my house. I sure miss her! Whenever I came home she would be waiting for me on the porch. I swear she had radar, she was always waiting on the porch to welcome me home. She’d give me a big hug and fuss over me, telling me I was too thin and that I looked tired. I blink back tears, trying not to cry. I can’t believe she’ll never be waiting on the porch for me ever again, that she’ll never be here to hug me and tell me everything will be OK. I get out of the car, stretching out the kinks from the long drive. “Aunt Gigi, Aunt Gigi!!” It’s James’ six year old daughter, Olivia, who is the light of my life! “I thought you’d never get here!” She runs up and jumps in my arms.
I give her a great big hug. “Hi Munchkin! I think you’ve grown in the last two months! I thought we agreed you were going to stop growing until I got back,” I say as I walk up onto the porch.
“Oh Aunt Gigi, you’re silly! Mama, look, Aunt Gigi is finally here!”
“Hi, Cassie! I’m so glad you’re home! It’ll be nice to have someone living next door again. It hasn’t been the same with Gram’s house being empty.”
A police cruiser pulls up and parks behind my car. I hope it’s James and not Mr. Stick-Up-The-Butt Deputy Miller come to give me another ticket. Nope, not the deputy, it’s the sheriff! I run down the steps and get wrapped in a big bear hug. “Hey, Reggie. How you doing beautiful?” he says, giving me a big kiss on the cheek. Then he remembers that we are standing out in the front yard, turning bright red, completely embarrassed. That’s his normal reaction to public displays of affection. It’s so cute!
“Need some help with these boxes Reggie?” James asks, looking at the boxes stacked in my car. James is the only one who calls me Reggie. When I was six and he was eight, I was in trouble for something and Gram used my full name, Cassandra Regina Holt. James thought that was hilarious and started calling me Regina. Eventually, it got shortened to Reggie. He is the only one who can get away with calling me that except for Olivia. She calls me Aunt Gigi since she couldn’t pronounce Reggie and it came out Gigi.
I go up the porch steps to open the front door and notice that it is not latched. “Um, James, have you been in Gram’s house today? The front door is open.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
Marie comments, “It was probably the ‘Church Ladies’, they were here this morning cleaning and stocking the fridge and the pantry. They felt it was the least they could do, Gram was a member for years.”
“That’s so sweet. I’ll have to send them some flowers to say thank you.”
I go into the house, stopping and taking it all in. All the memories come rushing back, bringing tears to my eyes again. I blink to keep them at bay, no time for that now. I notice that my favorite picture of Gram is on the bookshelf instead of the mantle. It must have gotten moved when the ladies were here cleaning. Gram always kept the pictures on the mantle so they didn’t cover up her most prized possessions, her first editions. I move the picture back to the mantle, touching her face in the photo. It’s gonna be tough without her. She was my rock. She was my mother and father; taking me in after my parents were killed the day before I turned six.
James comes up behind me, “You OK, Reggie?”
“Yeah, it just hit me all at once that she’s never going to be here waiting for me to come home ever again.”
He hugs me again. “It’s going to be all right Reggie. We all have to learn how to live without her. She was such a big part of this town.” He lets me go and turns away from me, trying to hide the tears in his eyes. He gets himself under control and continues, “I’m so glad you decided to keep the bookstore open, the square wouldn’t be the same without it.”
“There’s no way I could let her dream die. I guess it was inevitable that I would be back here. I just thought it would be years from now.”
“Well, I for one am glad you’re back to stay. This town isn’t the same without you.”
I turn away so James can’t see how I’m trying not to cry and I start walking towards the door, “Thanks James, I’ve missed you too! Now, let’s get those boxes in here so we can go get lunch. I’m starving! I need some onion rings from the drive-in, I couldn’t find any that compare in New York.”
After the boxes were unloaded and we finished lunch at the drive-in, we headed back to the house. “Wow, those onion rings are just as great as I remember, I can’t believe I ate two orders!” I groan, “I think I know which box has the antacids”.
The front door was hanging open again.
“James, I swear I closed that door and made sure it was latched before we went to the drive in.”
James puts his hand on my shoulder and gently pulls me back, “Let me go in and look around, it’s probably just the wind or something but better safe than sorry.” He gives me a smile and calmly goes into the house, only pulling out his gun after he is out of sight. He walks out of the house about 10 minutes later. “It doesn’t look like anything’s missing. If you find anything missing let me know and I’ll fill out a report for your insurance. I don’t think it was a break-in; your TV and laptop are still here. You should have Dan stop by and change the locks just to be safe.”
“I hope you’re right. I guess I just have to get used to small town life again.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay tonight?” James asks, “I don’t want you to feel abandoned on your first night back in town.”
We walk into the kitchen and I start filling the kettle from the sink, “No, go home and spend the evening with your family, I’ll be fine. You act like I’ve never been here alone before. I used to be here alone all the time when Gram went on her buying trips. I think I’m gonna take a hot bath and finish reading that new mystery I was telling you about.”
“OK. Just call if you need anything. I can be here in two minutes.”
“Thanks, I just got a flash of you showing up in nothing but your pajama’s and giving Mrs. Jones across the street something to gossip about tomorrow,” I chuckle. “Go home James, I’ll be fine. How about lunch tomorrow? My treat.”
His smile gets bigger at the thought of food, “As long as I get to pick the restaurant!”
I shake my head, laughing. “You’ll never change,” I say as I kiss him on the cheek. “I’ll be at your office at noon.”
“It’s a date!”
Chapter 3
After unpacking all the boxes of my clothes, I realize how quiet it is. I’ve forgotten
how quiet it can be in a small town after dark. I already miss the lights and noise of the big city. I got used to the quiet before, I can do it again I vow as I make my way up the stairs, avoiding all the squeaky spots.
As the bath is filling, I go to the linen closet and pull out sheets and towels. I can make up the bed after my bath, I decide as I take the sheets into my old room. I’m not ready to move into Gram’s room yet, it’s too soon. I do go into her room and get her old, threadbare robe, though. I’m gonna need something tonight for comfort.
I strip and put my clothes into the clothes chute just as I did when I was growing up in this house. I can see the steam curling up over the antique claw foot tub and admit that I definitely missed this big tub, my apartment in New York only had a shower in a tiny bathroom. This is Heaven!
After my bath, I wrap myself in Gram’s robe and make up my old bed. I decide a glass of wine will hit the spot as I finish the book I am reading. I head downstairs to the kitchen, checking that the front door is still latched on my way. Thank goodness it’s still latched, that was getting creepy! I flip on the light in the kitchen and head for the fridge for the bottle of wine I had put in there earlier to chill. I looked in the wine cupboard and saw that Gram has three bottles of my favorite Moscato, one less thing to remember to buy at the grocery. She loved to have a glass of wine after dinner. God, I miss her!
I head back up to my room and settle in with my book. After an hour I hear the stairs creak, as if someone is walking up the stairs and doesn’t know which ones to avoid, sounds like the third step from the bottom. I grab my flashlight and put my feet into my slippers. Why didn’t I leave the hall light on? There’s another creak, sounds like the fourth step from the top now; where’s my cell phone? Why didn’t I get the landline hooked up today? I grip my flashlight tighter and head to the bedroom door. About two steps from the door, the door handle turns and the door begins to open. Maybe if I scream loud enough James will hear me next door! The door swings open and standing in the doorway is Matt, dressed as he was that night six months ago: jeans, biker boots, black t-shirt, and leather jacket. He is holding out a butcher knife in his left hand, letting the sleeve of his jacket ride up enough to see the tattoo on his forearm. “Cassie, please don’t leave me, I love you!”
Saving Cassie (Fairfield Corners) Page 1