by Lynn Bulock
Maybe flustered wasn’t quite the right word. Mike watched her for a while longer, trying to find the correct description. Lori seemed as well put together as usual. But she wasn’t smiling as often as she normally did. And she seemed to hold Mikayla much more tightly when she rocked her. They were little things, but put together, they worried Mike.
How had he let this woman and her family get close enough to worry him in such a short time? Because she did worry him, at every opportunity. If it wasn’t concern for what was going on with Lori, it was the anticipation of seeing her again or trying to figure out how she’d stretch her limited wardrobe yet another way to come up with another flattering outfit.
She was constantly in his thoughts when she wasn’t right there in front of him. Surely this had to stop. Even when he was out on his rare fire-and-rescue calls, he was anxious to get back to the office, or the house, where he could catch a glimpse of Lori. And nothing had ever taken his attention from fire-and-rescue work before.
Even Dogg seemed to notice the change. Often when Mike was ready to take him for his evening walk around the property, he found the big shepherd staring out the glass patio doors in the kitchen facing Lori’s house. “We’ll stop there last,” Mike always told him, and he was good to his word. Dogg got a biscuit from Tyler and attention from Lori, and he got a last good-night. He wondered who enjoyed those meetings more. It probably wasn’t Dogg.
The phone rang and Lori actually jumped. That did it. Mike stood up from his desk to see what was going on. Before he could cross the room, Lori was talking on the phone, and seemed to have gotten over being startled. He could tell from her end of the conversation that it was some kind of inquiry on a vacant store near the edge of town.
Whatever Lori had expected, this wasn’t it. She put the phone back in the cradle and smiled at him. Was it his imagination, or did her smile slightly waver? “Did you want something?”
“Definitely. But I don’t think I can get it here in the office.” Oh, how incredibly stale. Mike winced internally. Was that really the best answer he could come up with? She must be sure by now that he was a total cretin. “Let’s start over. That didn’t come out the way I’d planned it.”
Lori was stifling a giggle. “Good. Because it did sound pretty odd. Now, what can I do for you, Mike?”
“Go out to lunch with me. Without Hank, or my mother, or anybody else. Except Mikayla, of course.”
“Of course. I don’t think your mother would appreciate being left to man the phones and watch the baby at the same time. Is tomorrow soon enough?”
“Sure. Unless you’d rather sweet-talk Mom into taking Tyler home to feed the goats while we go to a movie in Washington tonight instead. If we hustle, we could catch the five-thirty show.”
Lori’s brow wrinkled. “That sounds suspiciously like a date, even with the baby along.”
Mike shrugged. “Maybe it is. You look awful harried lately. I figured you could use some time alone, or at least a little side trip with popcorn for dinner.”
Lori’s laugh was musical. It moved Mike in places he didn’t know existed inside of him. “I really could use a break. And you figured out without me even asking. Neat. My first little miracle of the day.”
“You use that phrase a lot. Miracles. Do you really believe in them?” Suddenly, knowing was important, even if it meant that Lori would decide not to go on their date this evening.
“I really do. My grandmother always said miracles exist all around us. That you could find at least a dozen every day if you weren’t picky about size.”
“And do you? Find a dozen a day, I mean?”
Her brow wrinkled. “Not a whole dozen every day. But I figure there’s so many stored up for me already in heaven that I’m probably at least a week ahead.”
“At a dozen a day, that’s a lot of miracles. And you really believe all that, don’t you? How can it be so simple?”
“Now this is what I was trying to explain to you at Christmas. Except I did a poor job of it then, and I’m probably not going to do much better now. Take a seat. This may take a few minutes.”
Mike sighed. “Are we still going to the movies?”
Lori grinned at him, and patted the chair next to hers. “Yes, I think we are.”
He sat while she rearranged the pencils on her desk. “It’s not that I don’t want to believe. It’s just that you make this whole faith thing look so easy. And I know for a fact that nothing in this life is that easy. You have to work for things, plan them.”
“Anticipate them?” Lori put down the pencils. “Working with the fire-and-rescue team, you have to anticipate a lot, don’t you?”
“If you don’t, you may not last long. There are just too many things that could do you in. A falling beam, a backdraft you didn’t expect, one of a million things.”
“I don’t know much about fire fighting. Do you have to do that all alone?”
Mike leaned toward her. He could talk about this for hours. He wasn’t sure what it had to do with faith, but it was at least a subject he was comfortable with. “You’re never totally alone. No firefighter goes into a building without a lifeline, oxygen, communication.”
“And somebody running the show is outside on the truck, or nearby, right?”
“For somebody who doesn’t know much about this, you pick up fast.” Lori blushed at his compliment. Mike savored the rosy glow her cheeks got. “But what has this got to do with how simple your life is?”
“Everything. Don’t you see it’s the same way with Jesus? You’re never alone. It doesn’t mean you don’t have to think for yourself, or anticipate things. But it does mean that no matter where you are, and what you’re doing, He’s there with you. Jesus is my lifeline, Mike. And he could be yours, too. All you need to do is ask.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready to do that. But this explanation makes a lot more sense than the one you tried on Christmas.”
“Yeah, well, I know you better now. Maybe I know how to talk to you. Now tell me one of the important things about you. Do you or do you not like that awful slimy fake butter stuff on your movie popcorn?”
Mike laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Put that way, there’s only one right answer to that question. We’ll get the popcorn plain. That is, if we can talk Mom into taking Tyler.”
“It shouldn’t be a problem. As long as we take Mikayla, I think we’re home free. Let’s go ask.”
Lori stood up and reached out for his hand. It felt natural to take hers to walk across the office to his mother’s door. He still didn’t know quite what was bothering her, but somehow Mike felt that he had a much better chance finding out in a darkened movie theater. Especially if holding hands with her during the movie felt as good as it did now. The lady had hands like warm satin.
Lori wasn’t sure if it was the popcorn and the box of candy for dinner, or the lighthearted comedy, or the fact that Mike didn’t seem at all bothered by going to the movies with a nearly-two-month-old, that endeared him to her more than usual. Even when Mikayla got a little hungry and fussy she managed from their seat, far back in the theater, to feed her inconspicuously. Her angel baby even burped quietly, not disturbing the other movie patrons.
The theater wasn’t very crowded, and the manager had laughed at Lori’s offer to buy Mikayla a ticket so that she would feel right about putting the infant carrier in a seat instead of down on the awful floor. That and Mike’s good-natured teasing about taking the baby on a date got them all laughing.
Mike held her hand almost all the time when she wasn’t feeding the baby. It might have been the most romantic date she’d ever been on. Seeing that it hadn’t started out as a real date at all, but just a spur-of-the-moment thing, she felt grateful. When Mike suggested a detour for ice cream to top off their nutritious popcorn-and-candy dinner, what could she say but yes?
“You have hot fudge on your nose,” he told her a bit later as they shared a banana split at the Dairy Delight.
Her heart skippe
d a beat as he took a napkin and wiped the offending spot. He was smiling about the whole thing, and Lori’s resolve melted with the ice cream. “I have to tell you something,” she blurted.
Before she said anything else, Mike’s expression got serious. “You can tell me anything, as long as it’s not that you won’t go out with me again. I had way too much fun tonight for this to be our first and last date.”
She nearly dropped her spoon in surprise. “No. That’s not it at all. I’d love to do this three or four nights a week if it didn’t mean leaving Tyler, and slowing down on the work I bring home.”
He brightened. “You would? Really?”
“Really. But that isn’t what I wanted to say. It’s about my lunch with your mom and Hank.”
Mike’s brow furrowed. How was she going to get this man to start thinking positively? It surely wasn’t part of his nature. “Please don’t tell me they’re running off to Vegas.”
“You never cease to amaze me. Think good thoughts for a change, Michael,” she said softly. “They might be planning to run off, but I doubt those two would go to Vegas or Reno, or anyplace like that. If I know them at all it would be someplace like the Precious Moments Chapel in Springfield. But no, our lunch was mostly business. Business you aren’t going to like.”
Mike looked surprised, still holding the folded napkin he’d used on her face. “But you’re going to tell me anyway? Even though you know I won’t like it?”
“I am. Not that I’ll let you do anything besides tell me you don’t like it. I’m still going to do what Hank wants me to do. But I can’t keep you in the dark anymore. You’re becoming too important to me to leave you out.”
For once she couldn’t read his expression. His handsome face was a mystery to her. Lori took a deep breath. Once she told him about the plan to trap Clyde Hughes, Mike would be no mystery. He’d be close to two hundred pounds of angry, protective male, and she had no idea how to handle that. But she was going to try.
Grandma always said God never gave you more than He could handle with you. It was folks who decided that God never gave them more than they could handle on their own that got in trouble. She breathed a silent prayer. Gran, I really hope you’re right this time.
An hour later Mike was dropping her off at the door to the little green house. “I still don’t like this,” he told her, watching her shoo Tyler into the house and set the infant seat, with Mikayla napping again, inside on the carpet.
“I know that. And thank you for telling me instead of assuming you have some right to forbid me to do it. Because I have to do it.”
“For Gary?”
“More for the kids. And a little for Gary. And pretty much for myself, to get some peace out of this, some closure. And I’ll keep your present right next to me all the time.”
Mike looked down at her large bag, part handbag, part diaper bag, holding everything she needed to carry around. “Good. I don’t believe in carrying concealed weapons, even if it was legal in Missouri. But you can be sure that anytime you’re not in sight of me, I’m going to have that two-way radio on, and I want you to do the same.”
“I will. And thank you again, Mike.”
His arms were around her now. She could hear Tyler giggling from inside the doorway. This was important to him. Hey, who was she kidding? It was important for her, too. “Anytime. I need to keep all of you safe. If this is the only way you’ll let me do it, this is what I’ll deal with. Pleasant dreams.”
He leaned down and kissed her softly. Lori could feel his shoulder muscles tighten beneath her fingers as Tyler’s giggles erupted into peals of laughter. “And what’s so funny?” Mike demanded, looking at her son.
“Kissing?” Tyler was nearly falling over with laughter. “That’s as girlie as thinking babies are cute.”
“The baby is cute. And someday you’ll think kissing isn’t ‘girlie’ at all. But for now, you have it your way, Tyler.” Mike released her and winked, telling them all good-night. Lori watched him cross the darkness between the houses, then shut the door.
This felt better. Telling Mike had been the right thing to do, and his reaction had been the biggest miracle of the day. Thank You was all she could whisper as she locked the door and started to get the children ready for bed. Thank You so much for bringing this man into my life.
Chapter Thirteen
Hank wasn’t happy with Lori for telling Mike about their plans. “It’s not that I don’t trust him. It’s just that the fewer people know anything about this, the better it will work.”
“I couldn’t not tell him. If that makes sense to you,” Lori said. They sat in the Martin office in plain view, where it looked like they could be going over city ordinances or permits of any kind that Martin Properties could need to lease something.
Instead they were looking at Gary’s college notebooks, retrieved from the storage facility in Washington. Lori had forgotten the amount of stuff they’d put in the small locker. It was fun to find the box of Tyler’s baby clothes that she’d forgotten they kept. It was disturbing to find Gary’s notebooks.
That box had been easy to find. It was on top of a stack and, unlike all the others, was dusted clean and had been recently opened. Directly on top was a binder marked “Chemistry 250” that had a sticky note attached to the front with her name written on it.
Lori’s hands still shook when she looked at the contents. In among the perfectly innocent notes for an organic chemistry class, Gary had interspersed records of loads of supplies going in and out of the feed store in large quantities.
Much of what he detailed could be used to make farm fertilizer. However, when combined with a few other perfectly legal substances, Hank pointed out that the chemicals and ingredients in his notes could also make methamphetamines.
“It looks like Clyde hired your husband for a purpose, and put you all up on that land for the same reason,” Hank said after he’d leafed through the notebook. “Knowing Gary’s previous record, he figured that he could nail him with the meth lab and the supplies if any of it was found.”
“But Gary caught on first and was going to blackmail Hughes instead. I’m not sure that makes me happier than the thought that he was making drugs.” Lori stared down at the metal desktop. “I guess I’m glad that he didn’t do either one in the end.”
“And just the idea of blackmailing Hughes cost him his life. After seeing this, I’m pretty sure Hughes drugged your husband and drowned him. Now we have to prove that. What we’ve got here wouldn’t hold up for a grand jury. However, it wouldn’t take much more to get an indictment. All we need is one solid link showing Hughes is aware of the contents of this notebook and the supplies going in and out of the feed store.”
“And I guess you need me to provide that.” Lori looked at Hank. He looked like somebody’s father again, concerned for her safety.
“I hate to admit it, but yes, we do,” he said. “This is not the way I wanted to do things. Involving somebody like you, with no law-enforcement background, with two little children, is just about my last choice.”
“It is the logical choice, though,” Lori said softly. “And the one that Mr. Hughes is least likely to suspect. I mean he pretty much thinks of me as this helpless girl depending on someone to rescue her. If I call him, hinting that he could buy some information off me and I could go away and start over someplace, he’d take that bait.”
“I suspect so. But he’s capable of a lot. We can’t underestimate him. I hate to admit it, but in the long run you probably did the right thing telling Mike.”
“I know I did. God left me no doubt of that when we were in the theater last night.”
Hank split a grin that made him look much less concerned. “Now that’s an interesting place for such a revelation. Not that I don’t believe it could happen that way. I’ve gotten some of my clearest messages from the Man Upstairs in some awfully unlikely places.”
“I’m not sure any more that there’s such a thing as an unlikely place for a
message from Him.” Lori smiled back. “And this one was pretty clear. Mike belongs in on this one, even though it complicates things.”
“He’ll be a good man to have around if the going gets tough. But then you already know that,” Hank said.
Lori hoped she didn’t blush too deeply. It was one of those uncontrollable things that she wished she could change about herself. Mike had already told her he thought it was cute. She thought it made her look about fourteen. Oh, well, she wasn’t that much a woman of the world to begin with. Might as well accept the fact that she wasn’t going to be cool and collected under pressure.
She could be as calm as possible. And to do that, they needed to plan out what she would do and say on the phone with Hughes. “So explain to me just how to do this,” she told Hank. “I want this particular chapter in my life closed as soon as we can get it that way.”
“Consider it done.” He leaned over the notebooks and spoke quietly. “Now this will be the last time I can see you in public for a while without stirring up that weasel’s suspicions. So let’s get it all worked out…”
Why had he ever agreed to this? Mike paced around his apartment, two-way radio still in hand. He was going to wear a path in the carpet if he didn’t slow down. He’d go into the main house and wear a path in his mother’s carpet, but he didn’t want her to know how deeply he was involved in this whole mess.
How could she have let Lori get involved with a plan to catch scum like Hughes? Mike knew that if confronted, his mother would not see things the same way he did. In her eyes, Lori was a competent young woman, able to take care of herself in almost any situation. Gloria’s growing trust in her regarding the business showed him that.
She was probably right. But it made Mike sweat to think of tiny Lori, alone in the world, taking on a powerful guy like Hughes, even once, to spring a trap. Why didn’t he tell her not to do it?