Dreams Claimed (Warfield's Landing, #1)

by Adeara Allyne

  At their request, they were seated where they could keep an eye on the car and dog, as well as watch the river. The boating condos were nearby. Although it was midweek, there was a fair amount of small boat traffic on this beautiful summer day. It wasn’t as sticky hot as it would be later in the summer and there was a continuous cool breeze coming off of the water.

  As they waited for their server, Nic looked over the view across the river. There was another small town directly across the water. It was on flatter ground and as a result, had spread out over the years, making it larger that Port Deposit, although it was still a small town.

  “What’s that?” Nic asked pointing across.

  “I believe that’s Warfield’s Landing. I haven’t been there but I’ve heard it’s very nice.”

  Nic considered the view, then pulled out her camera and used the lens to get a closer look. A bit further up the river she could see a long two story building with many windows. It was empty and somewhat dilapidated. She thought it might be an old school. The sturdy brick structure, with its large windows made her curious. Was it just sitting empty?

  “Look.” She handed the camera to Daniel.

  “I think it’s probably an old school. Just the thing to explore.” He smiled at her and returned the camera. “We’re a bit too tight on time to do it today, but let’s plan a return trip.”

  “I’d like that.”

  Lunch was delightful. As they ate, Daniel asked Nic about growing up in Ohio.

  “Mom and her sister owned a dance studio. Mom had been a dancer in New York City. When she discovered she was pregnant she went home to her sister and started the studio.” Nic took a bite and mmmmed. After she finished chewing, she laughed. “Mom met Daddy when I was two years old. He was a cop. He adopted me when they got married.”

  She blinked. Waving a hand, she said, “Sorry. This always makes me tear up. I was in the ceremony. Mom got a ring and I got a necklace. Daddy said it was so everyone would know we were his girls.”

  She reached under her shirt and pulled out a beautiful antique locket. Laughing, she said, “I wear it all the time.” She slipped it over her head and handed it to him.

  As he held it in his hands, he considered a man sensitive enough to understand what a tiny girl needed. Mentally, he tipped his hat to Nic’s Daddy.

  The locket was sterling with dark glittery stones that formed an intricate starburst on one side. The other side was etched with two florid roses and a rosebud.

  Nic leaned forward and pointed. “It’s Victorian. The stones are marcasites and the engraving... that’s Daddy, Mom, and me.” She pointed to the bud and grinned. “Hold on... let me show you.”

  She opened it. There was a picture of a woman who looked just like Nic—with long hair and in a wedding dress. The other side held a photo of a handsome man in formal wear. “Mom and Daddy on their wedding day.”

  Daniel smiled at her. “It sounds like you had great parents.”

  “I did. Daddy never minded that someone else was my biological father. When I started drawing, Mom wasn’t happy.”

  He was confused and it must have showed. She explained. “My birth father was an artist. It was Daddy who encouraged me at first... and he talked her around.”

  “Did you ever meet your birth father?”

  Her eyes darkened and he was sorry that he had asked.

  “I met him when I was in grad school... after Daddy and Mom were gone. It turned out he’d attended Virginia Commonwealth University, too. He was back visiting the campus. He saw me and recognized me, since I look like my Mom.”

  Still holding the locket, Daniel examined the tiny picture. “You sure do...”

  Nic laughed. She pointed to herself then to the locket. “Apple... meet tree.” A shadow crossed her face. “We ended up with a cordial enough relationship... He died about eighteen months ago. I guess it left me with some unresolved issues.”

  Daniel raised an eyebrow in question, encouraging her to elaborate.

  She shook her head with a smile “No. That’s a discussion for another day. Today, I want to enjoy this weather, being with you and Bentley... and to take pictures.”

  Daniel handed the necklace back to her and she slipped it over her head.

  The waiter appeared and the mood ended. In accord, the conversation turned to casual topics.

  After they finished eating, Nic took the time to photograph the small islands in the middle of the river that were visible from the restaurant patio.

  She also took pictures of the interesting old building across the river in what their waiter had positively confirmed was Warfield’s Landing. She was determined to check it out as soon as possible.

  *****

  After lunch, Daniel, Nic, and Bentley strolled down Main Street. The town was an interesting architectural mix, and between buildings, they could see the river. On the other side of Main Street, steep cliffs rose behind the buildings. Some of the houses were perched on small terraces.

  Nic took pictures right and left and Bentley ambled amiably. Daniel enjoyed the moment, quietly vowing to himself that this would be just one day out of a lifetime together.

  Driving back down to Old Town Alexandria, they talked quietly, while Bentley snoozed in the back seat. Interstate driving was windy, so Daniel reluctantly put the top up.

  “I’ve been thinking...” Nic started.

  “Uh oh!” Daniel teased her.

  She laughed and said darkly, “Watch out, world!” Then she continued more seriously. “I’d love to explore Warfield’s Landing with you, but... Stevie, our friend Karyn, and I do one Girls’ Day Out a month. We have one coming up next week. Do you mind if I take them to Warfield’s Landing? I think they’d both enjoy it.”

  He glanced over at her, surprised that she bothered to ask him. “I don’t mind at all, as long as you and I still plan a visit to explore it together.” Then curious, he asked, “You haven’t mentioned your friend, Karyn before.”

  She explained. “Karyn and her husband Thomas are architects. They were in Richmond, Virginia doing internships. We met when I moved into the same apartment building for grad school. Karyn saw me in the hall struggling with my furniture. She and Thomas helped me move in and we’ve been best buds ever since. In fact,” she laughed, “the three of us made the joint decision to move to the DC area, after I finished my MFA. They started their practice and I juried into the Torpedo Factory, so it worked out well.”

  She flashed a grin at him and he fell in love all over again.

  “I hate to say this,” he started slowly, and she sent him an inquiring look.

  “I’ll be going out of town the day after tomorrow and I’ll be gone a week or more. I’m not sure yet, but it may be as long as ten days.” He frowned. “But, I thought maybe we could talk on Skype while I’m gone?”

  She tipped her head to the side as her eyes searched his face, then slowly smiled. “That would be good.”

  His frown turned to a smile.

  She repeated, “That would be very good.”

  He grinned and looked back at the road.

  “So Luke takes care of Bentley when you’re gone?”

  “Yeah. We have condos in the same building so Bentley goes back and forth between our apartments. I think he knows he’s actually my dog, but he might not.”

  Nic giggled at that. “Luke must be a pretty good friend.”

  “Yes. Like you and your architects, I imagine. Luke, CeeCee, and I met on the first day of school in seventh grade. We were all at boarding school under protest and didn’t fit in. We joined forces, initially out of a desire to survive, and somewhere along the way it became “us against the world”. It’s stayed that way. We stayed together through college and even graduate school.”

  “That sounds wonderful.” She commented.

  “None of us had very good family situations, but together we became a family.”

  Nic nodded. “That’s the way it’s been with Karyn, Thomas, and me. They’re the fi
rst ones I go to when stuff happens.” He happened to be looking at her and saw her eyes darken. He wondered what she was remembering.

  “Yes. When CeeCee’s husband died, Luke and I dropped everything.” He shook his head. “He was considerably older than she was, but there was genuine love there. His death was unexpected. She’s slowly getting over it but it has been difficult. Some issues arose regarding his estate and she’s taking it hard... not that I blame her.”

  “That’s so sad.” Nic commiserated.

  Daniel had just started to reply when Nic’s cell phone rang. She fished it out and answered. The caller was shouting loud enough that Daniel could hear. The voice was mechanical and terrifying.

  “So, bitch... I saw you meeting HIM this morning. You’re still gone... what have you been out doing all day?” Nic flashed Daniel a frightened look, as the caller continued.

  “I don’t like it when MY woman goes out without me. I’m gonna have to teach you a lesson... BITCH!” With that, the caller ended the tirade and broke the connection.

  Nic sat for a moment, still and silent. Daniel suspected that she was frozen with shock and fear. He forced himself to ask calmly, “Who was that?”

  She turned troubled eyes toward him. “I have no idea.” She seemed to have broken free from the paralysis and fished around in her bag for the small notebook.

  While she was making notations, Daniel pulled off the nearby exit and into the parking lot of the first convenience store they came to.

  As the car came to a stop, Nic looked up, surprised. Daniel waited patiently for her to finish taking notes, then, wordlessly held out his hand for the notebook. For a second, he thought she would refuse to let him see it, but she handed it over... slowly.

  The notebook was small with a spiral binding across the top. It was worn and slightly tattered. The front cover was pink with mod style flowers in screaming orange. He hid a smile. This was serious.

  He opened it up and discovered that Nic had used purple ink. His little artist...

  He started flipping through the pages. In Nic’s creatively messy handwriting, he saw dates and locations, sometimes along with other notes. He checked the dates and did a quick calculation. The phone calls had started about a week or two before he saw her on the Metro.

  She was turned in her seat, so she could watch him. Her face had closed down, and he felt a quick flash of anger that she was hiding her feelings from him. One of the things he loved about her was her emotional transparency. It hurt to see her block it from him.

  He took a breath and reminded himself that she didn’t feel the same way about him... yet.

  She’d just met him.

  He thought grimly that if this notebook was what he thought it was, he should be damn thankful that she’d agreed to see him in any context. He held up the notebook and asked, “You have a crank caller?”

  She nodded.

  “They were hang-ups until the phone call you just got?”

  She nodded.

  He flipped back and saw that she had written down what the caller had said. Daniel hadn’t been able to hear the other side of the call well. He had heard enough to know it was trouble. Now he read the ugliness and was appalled. “This was the first time he said anything?”

  She nodded.

  “I see you’ve been keeping good notes. Do you have any idea who this might be?”

  She shook her head.

  “Did you recognize the voice?”

  She shook her head.

  “Did you recognize the way he spoke?”

  She shook her head.

  “Have you called the police about this?”

  She shook her head.

  He paused. He hadn’t known her long, but he did know that his little artist was a strong woman. If he pushed her, she’d push back and that wasn’t what either of them needed at this point. He needed her to agree to start taking protective action, so he couched his suggestion carefully.

  “This has been going on for about two months. You’ve done a good job documenting things, but now he, whoever he is, seems to have taken it to the next level. I think that this is the time to call the police. We,” he corrected himself, “You need to start getting formal documentation, and see what, if anything, they can do to help you.”

  He searched her face, trying to figure out what she was thinking, but her expression was closed.

  He decided to play the guilt card. “I’m leaving tonight on a business trip. I’ll be gone a week to ten days. We can talk on Skype but I’m worried about leaving you here. I’ll be less worried if you call the police.” He could tell guilt wasn’t working so he screwed his face into the caricature of a begging kid and added, “Pleeeeaaaase.”

  That startled a laugh out of her, and she said, “Okay. I know you’re right about this. I guess that calling the cops makes it real and unavoidable. As long as it was hang-ups, I could ignore what was going on in between the phone calls. But this last one...” She shivered and shook her head. “It was scary.”

  “So how do you want to work this?” He had her agreement, now he’d push to make sure that she followed through. “I don’t think that you ought to call the cops from your place. I don’t think that you should tip your hand. I’m leaving in a few hours or I’d take you back to my place and have you call from there.”

  “Hmmm... How about you take me to Thomas and Karyn’s place? I can either call from there or make arrangements for one of them to go to the police station with me.”

  “Alright. That sounds good. Why don’t you call them and tell them we’re on our way.”

  “Yeah. I’ll find out if they’ll be at the office or at home and you can drop me off wherever.”

  *****

  Daniel listened in on Nic’s call to her friends. From what he could tell, she’d called the husband. It seemed that he’d known about the phone calls and had been trying to convince Nic to call the police, as well.

  He pulled into the parking lot beside the couple’s architectural office. A tall handsome man came striding out the door with a determined look on his face.

  At 6” 2”, Daniel was often the tallest guy in the room, but Thomas Mallory put him to shame. The architect was a well put together 6’5”, maybe 6’6”. Dressed in casual work clothes, his brown hair sported a longer cut, with black framed glasses giving him a studious look.

  Daniel looked past the mild exterior. He figured Thomas was a nerd, right up until he took you down with a single blow. He made a vow to himself to avoid fighting the man. At this point, he was pleased to have someone so formidable looking after his little artist.

  Nic was fumbling with her messenger bag and saying goodbye to Bentley, who had just woken up. Daniel climbed out of the car and moved forward to meet Thomas, his hand out stretched.

  “Daniel Sterling.”

  “Thomas Mallory.”

  Thomas grabbed the proffered hand and held it firmly while he looked Daniel over. Daniel was aware that this was an important test. Thomas and his wife Karyn were like family to Nic.

  Releasing Daniel’s hand, Thomas said, “So you’ve convinced her to go to the cops? I’ve been nagging her about it since the calls started but she refused.”

  “He escalated today. I happened to overhear, so she couldn’t hide it any longer.”

  Thomas shook his head. “She’s stubborn.”

  “I’m on my way out of town tonight and I’ll be gone for a week or ten days. Otherwise, I’d be taking her home and making her call from there.”

  “Karyn and I have a neighbor who’s an FBI agent. I took the liberty of running the situation past him. He’s got buddies in the Alexandria Police Department. He’ll call tomorrow morning to pave the way for us. We’ll have Nic spend the night with us tonight, then I’ll take her down to the Alexandria PD tomorrow morning.”

  Daniel felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Thomas had everything under control.

  “Excellent. Let me give you my cell number. Call me any time.�
�� A look of understanding passed between the two men. Daniel was confident that Thomas would keep him in the loop.

  CHAPTER 10

  Two days later on Girls’ Day Out

  Nic was looking forward to today’s outing. She, Stevie, and Karyn were taking one of their monthly “Girls’ Day Out” expeditions.

  She checked her minivan. She used it to move paintings so most of the seats had been removed and were in semi-permanent storage in Karyn and Thomas’ garage. The two front seats were there, and the single seat behind the driver.

  They were going to eat out this time, so she just had a cooler with ice and drinks. Most of the time, they’d pack a picnic. She and Karyn laughed at each other, but the habits of being starving grad students and architectural interns were hard to break. Why buy when they could bring their own for much less?

  She called Stevie. “Hey! I’m just leaving. I’ll be there shortly.”

  She started the van and deftly backed out of her on street parking spot. Her apartment in Old Town Alexandria was small and quirky, but she was only 5’4”. She didn’t need ceilings taller than 7’. Along with a standard height ceiling, it was also missing off-street parking. After about two years in Old Town, she considered herself an expert parallel parker.

  The last couple of days had been tough. On Wednesday, she, Daniel, and Bentley had visited Port Deposit. The day had been wonderful up until their ride back when she’d gotten the abusive phone call from her unknown what? She paused, considered, then decided to embrace the irony... admirer.

  She’d spent that night with Thomas and Karyn. They’d come through for her big time over the years, and yesterday had been another one. They’d rearranged their work schedules so that Thomas could take her to the police station to report her caller.

  Neither of them had strong expectations, but she knew that it was important to make it official. She’d continue with her documentation, but now there was an official record, if there was ever an opportunity to pursue things legally.

  She pulled into a loading zone a few buildings away from Stevie’s apartment. Stevie was her usual bouncy self as she hopped into the front seat. She had her red hair pulled up on top of her head, to avoid the heat. “So where are we going?”