Sheikh Surrender

by Jacqueline Diamond

  “You’re sure?” Dolly asked.

  Jenny nodded firmly.

  Their guest stood up. “Well, then, I’d better go back. Oh, we’ll probably schedule Ray’s funeral for Saturday, but that depends on the coroner. I’ll let you know.” She thrust out her hand to Zahad. “Have a safe trip.”

  “Thank you.”

  After she left, Jenny said, “I hope I didn’t sound unsympathetic. It’s just that I don’t have enough emotional reserves right now to provide much support.”

  “A wise choice.” Zahad felt glad he hadn’t encouraged her to comply. “Now, I, too, must depart.”

  “I know.” Jenny swallowed hard.

  He retrieved his suitcase and put on the coat he’d bought in town. On the way back, he stopped to look into Beth’s room. In a bright disk of lamplight, she sat on the floor talking to her doll and doing a simple jigsaw puzzle.

  “Not that piece, Minnie,” the little girl said solemnly, as if the doll were helping with the puzzle. “That one won’t fit.”

  “Your doll is not as smart as you,” Zahad said.

  Beth looked up. Her blond hair formed a golden halo. “Of course not. I’m her teacher.”

  “Is that what you’re going to be when you grow up?”

  “Yes,” she replied. “Or I might decide to be a principal like Mommy.”

  “I must go.” Zahad’s chest squeezed. “I have enjoyed my visit very much.”

  Girl and doll came hurtling across the room. When Beth flung her arms around his waist, Minnie smacked him in the rear end.

  The sheikh lifted them both for a proper hug. Reluctantly, he set them down again.

  “I’ll see you next time,” Beth said.

  Perhaps Beth was thinking that he would visit regularly, as her father had done. How could he explain to this tiny tyke that forces on the other side of the world might not allow him to come back?

  “Goodbye,” he said simply.

  “Bye, Zod.”

  Jenny put on a coat and walked him to the car. Snow flurried around them, obscuring their view of the road, and gusts of wind tossed her hair. “Dolly was right—it’s getting bad. I’m glad you put the chains on.”

  Zahad strove for lightness. “I will make a great racket going down the highway.”

  “I doubt there’ll be many people around to hear you.”

  With all the padding on them, they embraced like two teddy bears. In a sense, they had said their farewells at midday, he thought. He much preferred the way they had done it then.

  “Drive carefully.” She didn’t cry or urge him to return. He almost wished she would.

  Jenny Sanger, the fragile-looking beauty in the photograph, had turned out to be as strong as Zahad himself. Perhaps, at this moment, stronger.

  He cupped her chin in his hand. “I will e-mail to let you know when I arrive.”

  He was about to kiss her, when she said, “I just have one request.”

  “Whatever it is, I will be honored to do it.”

  Jenny stuffed her hands in her pockets. “When you face those people who’re trying to get rid of you, kick some good old Yazirian butt for me, will you?”

  “I beg your pardon?” The earthy phrasing surprised him, coming from such a sweet-faced creature.

  “I know you’re not American, but that’s the way we think,” she said, stepping back. “Give ’em hell. Only don’t tell Beth I used that word.”

  “I promise.” Zahad admired her spirit.

  “In a way, I envy you,” Jenny told him. “You get to slay dragons. It’ll be years before I have a chance to do that. In my work, I mean. But I’ll get there.”

  “Of that I have no doubt.”

  And so he drove off, with the storm blowing and Jenny watching after him. Once she disappeared behind the trees, Zahad turned his attention to negotiating the road amid rapidly diminishing visibility.

  He wondered if he would ever see her again.

  JENNY DELIBERATELY hadn’t kissed him goodbye. If she had, she’d have started to cry.

  There was no point. Their paths had converged for less than a week, and now they were both continuing on their rightful courses. It was nothing to weep over, not like the deaths of Ray or Zahad’s brother.

  That was what she tried to tell herself. Yet the house echoed with Zahad’s absence and rattled from gusts of wind hitting the windows.

  Uneasily, Jenny checked to make sure the doors were locked. Then, quietly, so as not to call attention to her presence, she looked in on her daughter.

  Holding Minnie on her lap, Beth sat on her bed in the midst of an array of stuffed animals. “We’re all going to sing a song,” she told them. “That way you won’t be sad.”

  Tears filled Jenny’s eyes. She felt proud of her little girl’s courage and heartbroken at the same time that Beth had to endure so much.

  When the tiny voice started singing a tune from Sesame Street, Jenny tiptoed away. Much as she wanted to give comfort, she respected her daughter’s attempt to take control of her own feelings.

  In the living room, Jenny turned on the radio to listen for a weather report. The local station was playing music, but there’d be an update soon. To keep busy, she took out her sewing kit, chose a pattern for a doll’s jacket and began sorting through fabric scraps.

  The music trailed to an end. “In case you haven’t noticed, it’s snowing out there, folks, and we’re clocking gusts up to forty-five miles per hour,” the announcer said. “The weather bureau recommends you stay off the streets if at all possible.”

  After predicting more snow overnight and gradual clearing the next day, he segued into a commercial for snow-blowers from the local hardware store. The news followed.

  “We’ve had a report of shots fired at a cabin on Duck Hollow Road,” the announcer said. “Police have cornered three suspects in that rash of carjackings. One local resident is already in custody but officers haven’t released his name. Now back to the music.”

  As the radio played “Let It Snow,” Jenny pictured her dark-haired neighbor with his thin face and unkempt beard. Al hadn’t become a friend, but she’d never felt threatened by him, either. Of course, since he was responsible for bringing the carjackers who’d tried to halt her car, she’d been mistaken about that.

  What would make an otherwise law-abiding citizen prey on his fellow humans? Greed, she thought. And selfishness and an incredible insensitivity to how upsetting it was to be the victim of a crime. She wondered how Al had felt when his own wife was attacked.

  Her mind veered back to the sheikh. He would give his life rather than expose innocent people to danger, Jenny thought.

  She forced herself to concentrate on aligning the pattern pieces along the fabric. She admired Zahad. More than that, she cherished him, but she couldn’t ignore the vast differences separating them. Better that he’d left now, before Beth grew accustomed to him and Jenny started relying on him for things she could do herself.

  After she finished cutting out the pattern, she put everything away and went to check on Beth again. The little girl lay beneath the covers, fast asleep amid her furry friends.

  Jenny rearranged the stuffed animals to make sure none were in a position to block Beth’s breathing. Then she turned the lights out.

  In the front, she set the alarm for the night and peered out the window toward the street. Snow fell so thickly she couldn’t see past the first few trees along the driveway. A dusting had accumulated on the ground.

  The wind, which had quieted briefly, was picking up again. It battered the tree branches, raising an eerie, unsettling moan.

  After drawing the curtains, Jenny tuned the TV to an old movie. Caught up in the mystery plot, she lost track of time until a loud thud caught her attention. Jenny muted the volume and listened.

  For a moment, she heard only the groaning of the trees. Then another wham! echoed from behind the house. She could have sworn the noise had a metallic ring to it.

  Dread rooted Jenny to the couch.
Maybe the wind had blown something into the garage, she told herself.

  Or maybe someone was trying to break into the toolshed again.

  She was so angry she wanted to end this nightmare once and for all, even if it meant storming out there and confronting the intruder. For the first time, she wished she had her gun back.

  No, she didn’t mean that. She would never expose herself to danger that way or leave Beth in the house unprotected.

  She went to the kitchen and picked up the phone. There was no dial tone. Puzzled, she tapped the cradle in vain until the truth hit her.

  Someone had cut the line.

  Jenny’s chest tightened with fear. She forced herself to think clearly. The phones went dead and the power blacked out around here with annoying regularity, especially during bad weather. The wind might have knocked down the aboveground wire leading to the house.

  Thank heavens for her cell phone.

  Her hand trembled so hard she had to make two stabs before she pressed the On button. To Jenny’s relief, she got a dial tone. She rapid-dialed the police.

  “911 emergency.” The dispatcher sounded a bit strained.

  Jenny identified herself. “I think someone’s trying to break into my toolshed. I heard a thud.”

  “Is anyone in immediate danger?” the woman asked.

  “Not exactly.” Her tight throat made it hard for Jenny to speak clearly. “It could be whoever killed the sheikh at my house. He took tools from my shed.”

  “Yes, Mrs. Sanger, I’m aware of that. I’m sorry but unless there’s an immediate threat, I can’t send anyone right now. I’d have to pull them off an emergency.”

  “I know about the carjackers,” Jenny conceded. “But…”

  “We just had a three-car pileup south of town with people trapped in their vehicles,” the dispatcher said. “Everyone we can spare is at the scene. Is someone trying to get into your house?”

  “No. At least, not yet.”

  “I promise to send an officer as soon as I have someone free. I’m really sorry… My other line just lit up.”

  “Thank you,” Jenny said. “Send someone as quickly as you can.” She clicked off and put the phone in her pocket.

  Maybe she should have mentioned that her regular line had gone dead, she thought. On the other hand, that didn’t prove anything, either.

  She had to find out what was happening in the backyard. The dispatcher was right. Unless someone was actually trying to harm her, the other incidents took priority.

  Despite knees that felt like gelatin, Jenny made her way down the hall and activated the exterior lights. As she went into her office, Zahad’s lingering scent gave her strength.

  Through the glass, she saw loose branches and unidentifiable bits of debris flying across the yard, but nothing that looked human size. Unfortunately, the shed door faced away from the house, so she couldn’t tell whether the lock remained in place.

  She was taking the phone from her pocket to call Dolly for advice, when it rang, startling her. Her hand jerked, and it was a moment before she managed to open it. “Hello?”

  “Jenny?” The thin, quavery voice had a breathless quality. “It’s me, Bill. I just woke up. I think Dolly slipped me a sleeping pill.”

  “Are you all right?” She remembered that he’d been left alone while his wife spent the night with Ellen.

  “I heard them talking a while ago,” the old man said dazedly. “Something about a fire. Jenny, you gotta get outta there. Take your little girl and go. Far away as you can.”

  “I don’t understand.” She could hardly hear through the pounding of her pulse.

  “They’re gonna kill you. Tonight, Jenny. They’re both crazy, that’s what, especially Dolly. Crazy with jealousy and I guess some kinda delusions. Been poisoning me all along. Now I know what her other two husbands musta died of.”

  “I have to call the police.” Her thoughts were too jumbled to make much sense of what he had revealed, except to recognize with horror that she’d been about to turn to the very person who wanted to kill her.

  “I’ll do it.” Bill wheezed a couple of times. “You get outta that house before they set it on fire. Better hurry. I don’t want you to end up like Ray and that sheikh fella.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “Are you all right?”

  “She thinks I’m sleepin’. Don’t worry about me. Just go.” He hung up.

  Fire! An image of a roaring inferno filled Jenny’s mind. The house of one of her students had caught fire last winter from a wood-burning stove and gone up in flames. Thanks to their smoke detector, the family had escaped, but they’d lost everything. And that fire hadn’t been deliberately set to trap them.

  Now Jenny knew what the intruder had wanted in the toolshed. Gasoline.

  She ran to get her daughter.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jenny had to get Beth away from here. Even the police couldn’t save them if Dolly turned the house into an inferno.

  She could hardly believe it. She’d been grateful for her neighbor’s offer to watch the house and had trusted her without question.

  It made sense now. She’d given Dolly a key. Her neighbor had seemed genuinely upset about finding Fario’s body, but that was probably because she’d expected it to be Jenny’s. Dolly had admittedly backed out Ray’s car, a perfect cover for any DNA evidence inside it, although Jenny still didn’t understand why she’d wanted to kill her son-in-law.

  And Ellen. In retrospect, she had to be the cyber-stalker. She’d been wildly jealous of any attention Ray paid to Jenny and hostile to Jenny herself, and she knew the Internet inside and out. But she’d seemed so distraught about her husband’s death.

  None of that mattered now. Jenny had to focus on bundling a sleepy little girl into a coat and wrapping herself warmly. After grabbing her purse and Beth’s favorite doll, Jenny peered out the front window to make sure the coast was clear.

  Impossible to see anything through the thick, swirling snow. She had to take her chances.

  When she thrust open the door, the alarm began to chirp. With her hands full, she couldn’t shut it off. Besides, Jenny realized, the alert would add emphasis to Bill’s call to the dispatcher.

  Icy wind and snow scoured their faces. “Mommy, it’s cold!” Beth protested.

  “I told you, honey, we have to go.” Jenny hadn’t explained why.

  “But where?”

  “To a motel. I’m sorry, sweetie, but we can’t wait.”

  Jenny was glad she’d parked by the front walk instead of in the garage. Because the structure was set far back, she hadn’t wanted to face digging out an extra length of driveway. She’d been meaning to put in a carport as her neighbors had done.

  Her neighbors. She shuddered. They weren’t going to be her neighbors after this.

  Struggling to move through the blustery darkness, she felt as if she weighed a thousand pounds. And at any moment, she expected to see Dolly loom into view, her face distorted by madness.

  With agonizing slowness, Jenny unlocked the car and strapped Beth into her booster seat in back. “Minnie’s scared.” The little girl clutched her doll.

  “She’ll be fine,” Jenny said.

  The house alarm let loose with a screech. Beth clapped her hands over her ears.

  “It’ll stop in a minute,” Jenny told her.

  She clambered into the driver’s seat. As she inserted the key into the ignition, another thought struck her.

  Cars can burn, too.

  Had Dolly rigged a bomb? Maybe the metallic noise she’d heard had come from the front, not the rear of the house. The way sound bounced off the hilly terrain, directions could be deceiving.

  Jenny halted with her hand on the key. It was too risky to try to drive. Maybe she should take her daughter and flee across the street to Parker’s house.

  With him at work, there’d be no one home but the housekeeper and his little boy. Would she be putting more innocent people at risk? Jenny didn’t know. She
simply couldn’t think of what else to do.

  The alarm was still screaming so loudly she could hardly hear herself shout to Beth, “We can’t take the car!”

  “Why not?”

  Oh, heavens, she didn’t want to terrify the little girl. Struggling to hide her fear, Jenny said, “There’s something wrong with it. Let’s go over to Ralph’s house.”

  “I want to go to Cindy’s!”

  Jenny was searching for a plausible excuse, when a fierce gust jolted them. The SUV rocked and Beth uttered a shriek.

  Nearby, trees swayed wildly. One large pine twisted as if alive, swayed to one side and, picking up speed, crashed across the driveway. The boom shook the car windows so hard Jenny feared they might shatter.

  Mercifully, the house alarm shut off. Silence fell, or at least it seemed like silence, although after a moment Jenny realized the wind was still stirring.

  She commanded herself to breathe. A quick look around indicated that the SUV wasn’t damaged and neither was the house.

  Scant comfort. Even if she’d dared to drive, she couldn’t do it now with the fallen tree blocking their escape route.

  “Mommy, I want to go inside!” Beth said.

  Jenny found the strength to speak calmly. “We’re going to have to walk. We’re just going across the street.”

  She got Beth out of the car. The storm appeared to be worsening, although a few minutes ago that hadn’t seemed possible.

  “It’s not far,” she said. “Let’s go fast!”

  “We don’t have to walk,” Beth replied. “Somebody’s coming.”

  Jenny heard it now, too: the mutter of an engine heading up her driveway. She couldn’t see the vehicle through the tree branches and snow.

  She had to take cover. They couldn’t stand here waiting to be confronted. “We have to hide.”

  “But it’s cold!”

  Why did her usually cooperative daughter pick this time to get stubborn? “We’ll just duck around the side of the house. Come on, sweetheart.” She bent to pick up the child. “It’ll be all right.”

  Jenny heard the other car come to a stop. Whoever was driving could easily walk around the fallen pine. If it was Dolly, she’d surely be armed.