by Julie Miller
Weariness had long ago seeped into every cell of her body. Talking was a struggle. She cradled her forehead with her hand. “I don’t think that was his plan,” she said. “Remember I told you about all the mishaps that made me late? I think he was not only making sure he could nab Charlie but that I would arrive home alone. But I didn’t go home. I called a neighbor who promised to call immediately if Charlie showed up. For hours I just drove around and then I thought of your father.”
“One more question,” Chance said.
“Please, I’m exhausted.”
“I know you are, Lily.” He put his hand on her arm and even through the sweater, his touch made a warm spot that spread toward her shoulder.
“One more,” she agreed.
“Where did you go when you left the ranch?”
“Reno. I figured hiding on a remote ranch hadn’t worked, so I decided to try a bigger city. I drove to Reno because I had a friend there who said she was leaving town for a few weeks to visit her boyfriend in Florida. She said I could use her apartment and sub at her old job as a waitress at one of the casinos outside of town. Now I’m wondering if my friend ran low on funds and told Jeremy where I was to collect a little quick cash.”
“She’s like that?”
“She could be. For all I know Jeremy set the whole thing up with her just to nail down my location. I don’t know. I try not to be paranoid.”
“With a warrant out for your arrest, you probably shouldn’t have taken Charlie over a state line.”
“I didn’t know about the warrant,” she said. “You just told me about it. It wouldn’t have made any difference though.” She turned in the seat. “I think that’s how Jeremy found me this summer. He must have accessed Idaho school records. My decision to send Charlie to summer school could have gotten me killed.”
They fell silent. She leaned to the side until her forehead rested against the passenger window and closed her eyes. For a few moments she waited for Chance to think of something else he wanted explained, and then she stopped worrying about it. The next thing she knew, Chance was shaking her shoulder.
“We’re here,” he said as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “What now?”
They were in Boise, downtown somewhere. She’d been gone for almost a year but she’d lived here most of her life. She finally recognized the café on the corner and placed their exact location. “My credit union is a few blocks that way,” she said, pointing north. “I want to get that stuff out of my safe-deposit box.”
Chance glanced at the clock on the dashboard. “It won’t be open yet. Let’s grab something to eat.”
“Not in this district,” she said. “Jeremy’s office is pretty close to here.”
“Just give me directions.”
Despite commuter traffic, they were soon approaching the suburbs and a plethora of fast-food establishments. Settling on one, Chance ordered himself a full breakfast but she stuck to coffee, knowing her nervous stomach wouldn’t take kindly to food.
What was Charlie doing right that moment? Had Jeremy employed someone to help him take care of him? Was Charlie afraid he’d never see his mom again? The poor little kid had a fragile spirit that she’d no doubt fostered by putting up with Jeremy’s abuse for so long. She wanted him to be braver about life than she’d been.
Chance plowed his way through half the menu, proving what Lily knew from months of cooking on the ranch: Cowboys could eat. As he was wadding up wrappers and tossing them into the bag, he met her gaze. “You should have something besides coffee,” he said.
“Maybe later. Is it still too early for the credit union to be open?”
He turned the keys and the clock flashed on. “Yeah. Let’s stay right here in the back of this dark little parking lot until it’s time.”
“I guess,” she said. What else were they going to do?
“Great.” He smothered a yawn with his fist as he pushed the lever to half recline the seat. “I’m going to catch forty winks. You okay?”
Did he mean beyond the gnawing nerves and the constant worry? “I’m fine,” she said.
With a little smile, he tipped his dark brown Stetson down over his face, crossed his arms over his chest and seemed to go to sleep in about thirty seconds flat.
For a while, she stared at the comings and goings in the parking lot. Who knew so many people bought their breakfast at a drive-through? That made her think of Charlie who loved fast food and her eyes burned. She wanted to be on the move, not stuck here waiting.
She looked over at Chance when he made a soft little sound as his hand slipped from his chest. She caught it before it landed on the gearshift, carefully returning it to rest beside his other hand.
In a way she wanted to remove his hat and gaze at his sleeping face. Without the cynical glint in his dark eyes that often caused her to look away, would she glimpse the man she’d felt pull at her heartstrings so many months before?
She allowed herself to remember the night last April when they’d been walking alongside the river. Wildflowers had perfumed the air and the still-cold water gurgling against the rocks sounded like music. They’d stopped beside a tree and she’d leaned against it and before she knew it, he had cupped her face with both of his hands and told her she looked beautiful in the moonlight. His gentle voice and soothing caresses had been a balm to her broken spirit so that when he finally kissed her, she was flooded with feelings she’d given up hope of ever experiencing.
Eventually, he’d unbuttoned her blouse and lowered his head to kiss her throat, his lips warm against her cool skin. She’d wanted him with every fiber in her body, yearning for the moment when he stripped her bare. That moment never came because she’d been yanked back to reality when the plaintive call of a coyote rose from the ridge. The terrible decisions she’d made concerning men and desire all seemed to storm through her head as the lonely cry echoed over the valley. She’d withdrawn emotionally and he hadn’t been so far gone that it escaped him. With a sigh, he’d raised his head and looked down into her eyes and she’d bolted, running back to the ranch house like a scared rabbit.
Their budding romance had died that night and eventually turned into an acerbic interchange of half-veiled insults and sarcasm.
Yet here they were.
“Knock it off,” she scolded herself. “Think of something pleasant.”
* * *
“LILY? LILY, WAKE UP,” Chance said for the second time that day, he shook Lily’s shoulder.
She was slow to respond at first and then she sat bolt upright. “Oh, God, I fell asleep. What time is it?”
“Almost one. We slept for hours.”
She rubbed her forehead. “Well, at least the credit union will be open. Let’s go.”
Once inside the building, Chance looked askance at all the security cameras and wondered if anyone there knew about the warrant out for Lily. Thanks to the black glasses and baggy clothes, she looked more like a refugee from a homeless camp than a patron of a downtown banking establishment, but would someone call the cops as soon as she announced her identity? He decided to keep his fears to himself and just stay alert for any sign of trouble.
She went through the security measures to access her box and disappeared with the attendant. A few minutes later, she returned, a couple of fat manila envelopes peeking from the top of her oversize handbag. He took her arm and they left together. The whole thing had taken less than fifteen minutes.
“We need to find someplace private to go through and sort all this,” she said as she hugged her purse as if it was a precious baby. “I’d forgotten how much stuff I collected.”
“Let’s get a room somewhere,” Chance said.
“Good idea.”
They found a room and paid using Chance’s credit card and name. Once inside, Lily removed the thick glasses before upending
both envelopes onto the small round table. The contents came spilling out.
“Yikes,” Chance said. The thought of trying to make sense of all that paper was mind-boggling. Maybe he should have stayed at Hastings Ridge and rounded up heifers, which was a lot more fun than pushing papers around. Of course he didn’t say any of this to Lily who would just remind him he was here because he’d wanted to be.
She flashed him an understanding smile and sat down. “I think we should get the clippings into one pile, receipts into another, memos into a third and miscellaneous off over there.”
For more than an hour they sorted and organized in near silence. Chance was anxious to do something about Charlie and he knew Lily was, too. It made sense to try to find something she could use against Block in some way, but it seemed unlikely they had sufficient time to make such a discovery.
“Let’s go to your husband’s house,” Chance finally said. One more useless receipt and he was going to scream.
“No. He doesn’t get home from work until six thirty or so.”
“So we’ll get there before he’s home.”
“Not a good idea. I want to catch him unaware.”
“You said earlier that he knew you’d come after Charlie.”
“I know, but he doesn’t know when or how. Be patient.”
“We’re not going to be able to wade through all of this in one afternoon,” Chance said, gesturing at all the bits and scraps of papers before them.
“You’re probably right. I’m going to go take a shower and change clothes. I hope the clothes in my emergency escape suitcase still fit.”
Chance walked over to the window. He stood looking out into the parking lot for a few minutes. Was she getting gussied up for Jeremy Block? That was a disquieting thought.
With a sigh, he returned to the papers. Thirty minutes later, his heartbeat quickened as he detected the first clear pattern he’d come across in the form of several orders from a florist shop in Boise. He stacked them apart in order of ascending dates. The deliveries were spaced at intervals of seven days and all went to the same address. Without knowing his way around this city, he had no idea if they went to an individual or a business. For all he knew, they could be flowers Block purchased for his office or his secretary’s desk or even for the house he’d shared with Lily.
For a second he rubbed his eyes. The long nap in the car had taken the edge off fatigue, but he was still tired. Sleep had been so elusive lately. He felt if he laid his head down he’d fall into slumber for a hundred years and wake up ready to punch Block in the nose, reunite Charlie with his mother and take them both back to the ranch and...
Wait a second. Was this about Lily and the fantasy he entertained on long nights that someday he and she...
Oh, please, don’t go that route, he cautioned himself. Don’t pretend because she needs your help she actually wants you.
He looked up when a noise at the bathroom door caught his attention. Lily emerged with her soft brown hair waving around her heart-shaped face. Gone were the baggy dress and long, limp sweater, and in their place, tight black jeans, a black form-fitting top and a brown leather belt that matched her boots. She’d gone from plain Jane to a country-Western knockout and he swallowed a jolt of desire that shot through his body like a lightning bolt.
“Feel better?” he managed to say in a voice that sounded remarkably steady.
“A lot better,” she murmured. Her gaze dropped to the stack in front of him. “Did you find anything?”
He tore his mind from the lovely curves and dips of her body around which the top had molded itself. “I don’t know. Where is Vance Street?”
“Vance. I’m not sure.”
He punched the address into his phone and showed her the resulting map. “That’s over in the Tower District,” she said. “Mostly condos.”
“But you and Jeremy didn’t live there?”
“No. His family had money of its own. When his father died, he left Jeremy a house and a little land right outside the city. Jeremy pictures himself lord of the manor.”
“He sent flowers to this address once a week for several months near the end of the period when you lived together.”
“Flowers? Really?” she said as her huge brown eyes came alive. “Jeremy hates cut flowers. I don’t think he ever bought me a single rose. There must be a special reason why he did that.”
“It could be nothing,” Chance cautioned.
“Or it could be he was seeing someone else,” Lily said. “Oh, my gosh, I bet he was having an affair. This is great!” She started pacing the room again, gesturing, suddenly animated. “If he’s involved with someone else, maybe I can use that as leverage.” She grabbed her handbag off the back of a chair and the baggy gray sweater from the bed. “Let’s go check out that address.”
He took the keys from his pocket, ready for action of any kind.
* * *
1801 VANCE STREET turned out to be located within a small villa of condos arranged around a central courtyard, all encased within the confines of an ornate iron fence. At this time of year, the pool had been drained and covered in preparation for cold weather. The trees were a riot of color, leaves drifting to the ground as the wind teased them loose.
They found a row of brass mailboxes built into a small arch near the street. The name on 1801 was V. Richards.
“Vicky, Valerie, Vivian?” Lily mused.
“Or Vincent, Victor, Val,” Chance said.
“How do we find out?”
“We ask.”
She looked around at the complete absence of other people and raised her eyebrows.
“Look, at the risk of making you mad, how about you let me knock on the door and see what I can find out.”
“Why you?” she said. “I’ll do it.”
“What if this person is actually home and what if you know them or they recognize your face? You aren’t disguised, remember?”
“I know. But so what?”
“So they call Block, Block calls the cops, Charlie spends the next twelve years living with daddy dearest.”
“Oh.”
“Just go sit in the car, okay?” he coaxed.
“Okay, but don’t mess this up.”
“Your faith in me is truly heartwarming,” he said. “Here, take my hat with you so I don’t stand out so much.” He waited until she got back in the car, then he walked down the narrow path to 1801. He wasn’t surprised when no one responded to the doorbell as it was a late weekday afternoon. He imagined the tenant of the condo was still on his or her commute. He walked around the grounds looking for someone, anyone, and finally spied a middle-aged guy raking leaves out by the pool/patio area.
“Excuse me,” he called. “I have a delivery out in the truck for 1801, V. Richards. They’re not home. Is there a manager here or anything?”
“I’m the manager,” the man said, leaning on his rake. He gave Chance a once-over, probably deciding he didn’t look much like a delivery man but glad for anything that interrupted the raking, especially as the fading light must make the job a tough one. “What can I do for you?”
“Is it safe to leave a package outside the door? It’s pretty heavy. I wouldn’t want it to be a problem for the recipient to get it inside by themselves.”
“Yeah, it’s safe enough. That door doesn’t face the street. If Valentine needs help, all she has to do is ask for it. She’s a nice enough kid.”
“Kid?”
He laughed. “Everyone under thirty is a kid to me and she’s way under. Probably nineteen or so.”
“Does she live alone?” Chance asked and immediately wished he hadn’t. But the manager didn’t seem to find the question intrusive.
“Oh, you mean how does a gal her age afford this place? Easy. She’s a student. Her parents pay
the bills and they wanted her someplace safe.”
“So she lives off her folks and goes to college,” Chance said, hoping he sounded like a jealous guy who had had to support himself his whole life and begrudged Valentine her address on easy street.
“Yeah, tough, right? She’s been here for two years now. Well, kids these days, you know.” His gaze suddenly focused over Chance’s shoulder and he straightened up. “Hey there, Mr. Hasbro.”
Chance turned to see a grumpy-looking man in his late sixties. “The circuit breaker blew again. You need to fix it pronto.”
“Sure thing, Mr. Hasbro. As soon as I finish raking...”
“No, now. Betty is in the middle of making my dinner.”
“I’ll be right up, sir. Just have to get my tools.”
“Don’t dawdle,” the older man said and stalked off.
“His breaker wouldn’t blow if his wife didn’t overload it,” the manager confided to Chance. “Just leave the package,” he added as he set aside the rake and hurried off.
“Well?” Lily asked as he slid into the passenger seat.
“You were right, it’s a woman, but I don’t know. The manager said she is a nineteen-year-old student.”
“She sounds perfect,” Lily said. “Jeremy likes his women young and innocent.”
“Her name is Valentine Richards,” Chance added. “The manager seems to think she’s a nice kid.”
“That’s all he said?”
“Pretty much.”
“It’s going to have to be enough,” Lily said.
“Enough for what?”
“Leverage. You don’t send a woman flowers for weeks on end without there being a motive.”
“Maybe, but Lily, even if he was having an affair, you left him. Unless this woman is a convicted criminal, he’s just an abandoned husband with a girlfriend.”
“But it appears he was seeing her while we were married.”
He shrugged. “Today’s morality doesn’t necessarily blink at infidelity.”