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of light at irregular times, usually but not always, just before a serious hazard. The curiosity that had compelled her into the maze had quickly given way to fear, then fear shortly became pure terror. Mary Kate had awakened in a cold sweat at four o’clock.
She knew that a Freudian would have had a field day with that dream. But she had no trouble understanding it at all. Her mind was working overtime, thinking about her coming to her father’s house. The problem was, she wasn’t convinced that the threat was totally within her own mind.
Something, or someone, had been responsible for her mother fleeing the area. If that someone, if there actually was a someone, thought that Mary Kate knew anything about it, she wondered if she could be in danger. Besides, given the conversations last evening -- before, during, and after, dinner -- she was well aware that everyone knew more about why Nan had left than she did herself. Or at least, they knew a version of the story that painted her mother in an extremely bad light.
Mary Kate refused to believe that her mother had been unfaithful to Harry. Obviously, everyone here thought so. Whether anyone knew the truth or not was another question entirely. This uneasiness and tension she felt was the source and meaning of her dream.
She ran flat out not pacing herself, needing to think. She thought best while running flat out. She always had. During her teenage years, whenever she had been troubled, Nan had gone “running” with her.
Of course, Nan had never been a runner, but she had done an admirable job of keeping up on her battered, second hand bicycle.
Whatever her mother’s faults, a lack of love had never been among them. No matter what Mary Kate learned, she resolved not to let anything dissuade her that her mother had shown her love. Nan may have made mistakes, but she had been a good mother.
Nan had been a good woman who didn’t deserve to die in such a horrible manner. Mary Kate was certain that, at least a part of the reason for her disbelief of Edward’s involvement in Nan’s death was that she didn’t want to bear the guilt. Yet, if Edward didn’t kill Nan, who did?
Mary Kate shuddered when she thought about how Nan had died. Mary Kate had driven Nan to the hospital for her radiation treatment before going on to work on the day that Nan had died. According to the police, someone was apparently waiting for Nan when she had arrived back home by taxi. Mary Kate hated to think about her mother, already sick and weak from the treatment, facing the battering that she had endured before the fire had been started.
“Oh, Mother, forgive me,” Mary Kate whispered painfully as she continued to run. She unsuccessfully fought back the tears.
There was nothing, she decided, that she could do to change what had happened to her mother. Nothing
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at all. All she could do now was try to pick up the pieces of her own life and move on.
Mary Kate knew that she shouldn’t have agreed to stay in the area. Aside from her father, no one really wanted her here. Frankly, she wasn’t at all certain she wanted to be here. There were too many undercurrents at her father’s house she failed to understand, and far too many that she understood only too well.
Most of all, she found herself wondering about why her mother had left. Conversely, she found herself wondering why her mother had ever remained here. What had frightened Nan so much that she left? Maybe, now was not the time to be asking questions. Mary Kate wasn’t even certain that she wanted to know. What possible good could be served by digging up the past?
Yet, from some of the things said last night, it was obvious that the past was not all that deeply buried. She wasn’t at all sure she wanted to continue in this situation where everyone apparently knew more about the facts than she did. Mary Kate never did like being at a material disadvantage.
Clearly, that was the position that she was now in -- at a material disadvantage. What these people knew was directly related to why her mother had left. From the comments that had been made last evening, it was clear that Nan was not held in high esteem among the family members. That lack of esteem had been passed on to her, at least in the eyes of some of the members of the family, a bitter inheritance from Nan.
There had to be a way of finding out what she needed to know without stirring up trouble and even more hard feelings. This situation was tricky enough that the last thing she wanted was to tred, unknowingly, on a landmine. Asking unguarded questions could be doing just that. Surely, there existed a way of getting the answers to her questions. But how?
Maybe the thing to do would be to simply keep her eyes and ears open. If the past was as close to the surface as she suspected, then by piecing together bits of what people said to her, she should be able to gain the answers which she so desperately wanted. Or at least, that was the only plan that she had been able to construct. A low key approach like that might work, but patience had never been one of Mary Kate’s more prominent virtues.
About three miles from her father’s front door, Mary Kate became aware of the sound of a barking dog. She continued running. The barking grew louder as she passed a large house that was fairly close to the road.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a Doberman Pinscher on a tether in the front yard of the house. Then she realized that the dog had pulled the tether’s steel spiral anchor free from the ground and was headed toward her, growling, barking, and showing its’ teeth.
Mary Kate began to frantically search her mind for a way to defend herself against the dog. She wished she had brought the small pepper spray canister she had always worn while running in Illinois. That would have stopped the animal. But that was just another item that had been lost in the fire. Besides, she wasn’t
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certain that pepper spray was legal in Virginia. She’d hate to be charged with the possession of an illegal weapon. That would be all that she would need.
There was a big tree along the roadway about fifteen feet ahead. She reached the tree and managed to swing herself up into the boughs and out of the reach of the dog, just in time to avoid having a nasty bite taken out of her. Mary Kate forced herself to catch her breath. For now, she was safe. How long she would have to remain on this thick limb, she didn’t know. Clearly, she would be here until someone rescued her. Even if the dog went away by himself, she knew that she would not climb down out of the tree. Unless it started raining, this was the safest place she could be at the moment.
She laughed as the words from an old song came into her head. “The Bear Song,” Nan had called it. The verses of the song told of a man meeting a bear on the mountain and the man running in fear for a tree, jumping for a high branch, missing it, but catching it on the way back down. Mary Kate took it as a good sign that she still had her sense of humor.
The dog continued to bark and growl. He stood on his back paws and jumped in an effort to get higher up on the tree. Mary Kate scrambled onto a higher branch just to be on the safe side. Yet, the dog showed absolutely no sign of going away. If anything, the animal was growing more upset with each passing moment.
She spoke calmly to the dog, “Hey, fella. You’re probably a good dog. Go away. Shoo. Scat.”
But the dog remained at the base of the tree, eyeing her malevolently. Mary Kate thought she had never seen such sharp teeth on any animal. She was very glad that she had learned to climb trees as a girl. On occasion, having been a tomboy had its advantages.
Only a little more than fifteen minutes had passed, but the elapsed time felt like hours. She heard the sound of a car coming down the road. Looking around, she found that it was a police car.
“Help!” Mary Kate screamed as the car approached.
The car stopped. A middle-aged, uniformed police officer was in the front seat of the car, along with a younger man. Both men climbed out of the vehicle.
The front door of the house opened. A slender, blue haired, elderly woman dressed in dark slacks and a cream silk shirt stepped out. “Buster, heel!” the old woman commanded forcefully. The dog immediately went to the wom
an’s side. “Thanks for coming so promptly, Jack,” the old woman said firmly.
“Come on down, miss,” the police officer commanded. “The dog is under control. You don’t have to remain in the tree. How did you get up there, anyway? That bottom branch has to be nine foot off the ground.”
“Do you need help down?” the younger man asked in concern.
“A stiff burst of adrenaline can do wonders for a person’s jumping abilities,” Mary Kate replied with a nervous laugh. “And I learned to climb trees a long time ago. If you’ll stand back, I’ll come down on my own.
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I’d really hate to land on anyone by accident.”
The men backed away to give her room.
“You’d prefer to do so on purpose?” The younger man teased.
“Oh, absolutely,” Mary Kate replied with a laugh as she tried to find a way down. “At least that way, I’d be in control.”
The man called Jack asked nervously, “Are you sure that you don’t need any help?”
In answer, Mary Kate slid her legs off the branch, then dropped to the ground, absorbing the impact of the drop by going into a tuck and roll. She rose to her feet and smiled at the officer. “I seem to have managed. No points for grace, I’m afraid. Thanks for rescuing me from the beast. I do appreciate it.”
The younger man winked at her. His green eyes sparkled with amusement. “It’s seldom that I get to play white knight.”
Mary Kate felt herself smile. The younger man obviously thought himself to be a lady’s man. Probably correctly. He was a handsome man, in a boyish way. Dark red hair, green eyes, freckles, athletic, somewhere in his mid to late thirties. His suit was expensive. So was the shirt. He definitely hadn’t bought either off the rack. Whoever he was, he had money and good looks, as well as some sort of relationship to the law. There was a certain air of authority about him. That, coupled with his obvious money and good looks, probably had the local female population tripping over themselves to get to him.
“No?” Mary Kate replied easily as she brushed herself off. “In which role do you find yourself?”
The younger man smiled broadly at her, but could not answer before the elderly woman interrupted.
“I want her arrested, Jack,” the elderly woman demanded fiercely. “Trespassing to begin with, and whatever other charges that you can make stick. And you, Steven Anderson, I’m glad that you were here to see this, it will make it easier for you to prosecute her.”
Mary Kate looked over at the elderly woman in disbelief.
“Now, Miss Emily,” the middle aged man called Jack replied patiently. “There isn’t any indication that she was ever on your property. And if she was, there isn’t a shred of evidence that she stole or intended to steal anything.”
“Don’t, ‘Miss Emily’ me, Jackson Hunter. I’m tired of being stolen from. Buster caught this thief. Good dog,” Emily Chance stated firmly as she scratched behind the big dog’s ears. “Now, I want to make an example of this one. You hear me, Steven Anderson. I want a speedy conviction.”
“I am not a thief!” Mary Kate stated.
Then the officer turned to Mary Kate. “Probably not, Miss, but you don’t belong in this area either. What are you doing here?”
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“Before I was assaulted by that animal?” Mary Kate replied. She looked at the younger man whom Miss Emily had identified as Steve Anderson. “I don’t know the law in Virginia, Mister Prosecutor. Is there some sort of law making owners criminally and civilly liable for the actions of their domestic animals? I know there is back home. If so, I want to file whatever charges are appropriate against that woman in relation to the actions of her dog.”
Miss Emily looked poleaxed. “Of all the unmitigated gall! How dare you threaten me, young woman! Do you have any idea to whom you’re speaking?”
“Actually, I was speaking to Mr. Anderson, was it?” Mary Kate replied as she turned her attention to the old woman. “I seriously doubt, ma’am, whether you want me to tell you what I think about being terrorized by that beast of yours.”
The officer whom the woman had called Jack spoke, “There’s no need to be getting all hot under the collar, on either of your parts.”
“I was out for my morning run,” Mary Kate asserted, “minding my own business, running down a public road when her dog broke free and chased me. If almost becoming the victim of a vicious dog isn’t cause for getting hot under the collar, then I don’t know what might be.”
“Ladies, ladies. Let’s just cool off for a minute,” Jack urged. “It doesn’t appear that any real harm was done.”
“Aside from the fact that I was frightened out of my wits by that mail carrier’s nightmare?” Mary Kate offered.
“It appears,” Steve Anderson said in amusement, “that witlessness was a short lived phenomenon.”
Mary Kate laughed in genuine amusement. “Perhaps. But then again a woman has to be careful not to think of herself as a wit for fear of being only half right.”
Jack laughed slightly as he looked curiously at the young woman standing before him. He thought that he should know her. Yet, he couldn’t place her. Then it hit him, this had to be Harry’s daughter, the one from out west someplace. Harry and Nancy’s daughter, what did Harry tell him that her name was? Mary Katherine? Yeah, that was it. Oh, bother. Just what he didn’t need was a run in between Miss Emily and Nancy O’Brien’s daughter.
“Okay. We’ve got the situation resolved. No one is pressing charges against anyone else,” Jack said commandingly.
Emily huffed. “Fine, Jack. The next time that I report a burglar, I expect you will arrive before the house is cleaned out?” she said sharply.
“Miss Emily, it was ten years ago that you were robbed. You were in Europe at the time,” Jack
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reminded her. “We did catch the thieves. They did time for the crime. We did restore your furniture to you. Granted, it had to be held as evidence until the trial. But you did get it back. Don’t you think that you’re being unduly harsh?”
The elderly woman fixed Jack Hunter with a glare of such intense ire that Mary Kate felt sorry for the officer.
“Now, let us give you a ride, Miss,” Jack Hunter insisted firmly.
“No, thank you,” Mary Kate replied . “I’ll just head back to my starting point.”
“Where would that be?” Steve Anderson asked.
“I’m visiting relatives down the road.” She unclipped the pedometer from her waist and looked at it. “About three miles down the road to be exact.”
“So, you’re Harry’s daughter,” Steve said as he looked at her. “I heard that you were coming.”
“That’s a crock,” Emily Chase interjected sharply. “Harry Devlin doesn’t have a daughter. He only has those stepchildren of his.”
Mary Kate smiled coldly at the older woman.
“Oh, sweet God! Nancy O’Brien’s bastard,” Emily Chance replied in genuine horror as the situation dawned on her.
“Nan and Harry Devlin’s daughter,” Mary Kate corrected. “Any illegitimacy is strictly in your mind.”
“If you ever come onto my property again, I’ll shoot you,” Emily replied harshly. “I’m not waiting to be murdered the way that your mother murdered my poor nephew, Peter. The best thing that Harrison Devlin ever did was to get his marriage to that O’Brien tramp annulled.”
“Have you considered therapy to help you with regaining a grasp of reality?” Mary Kate replied , with purposefully excessive sweetness.
Emily huffed in an angry voice. “Step onto my property again, and I’ll shoot you. On that you have my solemn word.”
Mary Kate looked at the older woman. “I’d be careful about making threats, if I were you, ma’am, especially in the presence of witnesses. Particularly if those witnesses are sworn officers of the law or the courts. If I were to end up shot, you’d be the prime suspect. People have been convicted and executed on lesser evidence.”
“Just stay of
f my property,” Emily replied with heat in her voice. “Better yet, why don’t you just crawl back under whatever rock you slithered out from under? We have a nice community here. We don’t want people like you around.”
“Oh really? But the community accepts bigoted, prejudicial, and clearly mentally unbalanced persons
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like yourself? How very interesting.”
“The acorn never falls far from the tree. You look like Harry. But you were raised by Nancy. That woman is no good. No good at all. An artist. A bohemian without morals or honor! She killed my nephew, darned near killed her own husband, then stole money from his business and disappeared. If she raised you, then you must share her lack of morals. Tell me what is that O’Brien tramp doing now? Twenty to life in a federal prison?” Emily Chase demanded.
“My mother died a few weeks ago,” Mary Kate informed the old woman.
Emily Chase seemed to blanch a little. Or maybe Mary Kate only wanted to believe that she had stolen a little of the wind from the old woman’s sails.
“I can’t say that I’m sorry to hear about Nancy. Death couldn’t have happened to anyone who deserved it more,” Emily replied. “I certainly hope she had her fire insurance paid up.”
“What do you mean by that?!” Mary Kate demanded as her stance became very aggressive.
Emily shrank away from the angry young woman. Fear showed in the elderly woman’s eyes. “Jack, keep her away from me!”
“What do you mean you hope that Mother had her fire insurance paid up?” Mary Kate demanded as she stepped toward the elderly woman.
Emily looked fearfully at the younger woman. “One more step toward me and Buster will be at your throat. Stay away from me. Stay off my property. Stay out of my sight.”
“Once you clarify what you meant by that fire insurance crack, I’ll be glad to stay as far away from you as possible!”
“She’s crazy, Jack. Keep her away from me.”
Karen Woods Page 7