The Negotiation

by Tyler Anne Snell

  Rachel felt a tug at her heartstrings.

  Marnie wasn’t just a neighbor, she was the daughter of her neighbor. Rachel had somewhat adopted the young woman, just twenty-one now, as a friend when she was a teen. Her parents often traveled for work and Rachel had been the ideal babysitter, if only for location. Both of their houses were out in the most rural part of Darby. It was a fair drive from town no matter where you were coming from. There was even a good distance between their two houses. Marnie used to ride her bike over. Now she drove her beat-up green Beetle.

  Marnie didn’t seem to believe her claims of being okay. She detached herself and moved to the side so the security light could help her see Rachel better. Her eyes widened when they took in her bandaged wrist and bruised knuckles.

  Rachel beat her to addressing them.

  “Just some minor aches and pains,” she hurried to explain. “Nothing too bad.” Rachel tried on a reassuring smile and walked around the woman to the front porch. She pulled out her keys.

  “I just don’t get it,” Marnie said, following. “Who were those creeps? What were they doing?”

  A burst of cool air pushed against them as they moved into the house. Rachel felt tension she didn’t realize she’d been holding start to seep out. From the back of the house a string of meows started.

  “That’s the mystery of it all,” Rachel responded. She made a beeline for the kitchen at the side of the house. The sliding-glass door that lined one wall showed the soft glow of the garden lights she’d set up along the side deck. It was comforting in a way. “It’s still an open investigation.”

  June the Cat’s meows got louder. Rachel pulled her dry food from the pantry and headed for her bowl. She paused before pouring. “Wait, how did you hear about what happened?”

  Marnie managed to look sheepish. “I heard about it on the radio, or at least, they said something had happened at the school. After that I kind of went into snooping mode. Called a few people until I found someone who knew something.”

  Rachel gave her a stern glance. “What have I told you about looking into the gossip mill?”

  Marnie huffed but answered.

  “That the answers aren’t worth the trouble,” she said. “And just looking for those answers usually only makes more gossip for others.”

  Rachel nodded. June the Cat looked up at her with mild interest.

  “Well, I was worried,” Marnie grumbled. “So sue me.” She went to the breakfast bar and plopped down. Rachel took advantage of the silence to reheat some leftover lasagna. She cut an extra piece and slid it to her guest. It was enough to get the young woman talking again.

  “I just can’t believe it happened is all,” she said around a bite. “And they haven’t even caught the men? I mean, what if they didn’t just try to grab you because you were out in the open? What if it’s you they wanted to begin with?”

  Rachel was already gearing up to combat Marnie’s worries but came up short. Not because what Marnie had said made sense—she’d already entertained the thought, though she’d pushed it away just as quickly—but because light moved across the deck.

  Headlights.

  “Your mom wasn’t coming over tonight, was she?” Rachel asked, hopeful.

  Marnie put her fork down. She shook her head.

  “She’s in Tennessee for the week.” Rachel pulled out her phone.

  “Great,” she muttered. It was dead. The battery rarely lasted an entire day without needing a charge. She’d been meaning to get a new one for months.

  Marnie peeked over her shoulder. “Are you expecting anyone?”

  “No, but I also wasn’t expecting you.” Rachel gave her a quick smile but it didn’t stay long. She left her plate and hurried into the bedroom and straight to her closet. She bent in front of the safe David had insisted they have and typed in the combo. When Rachel turned around holding a handgun, Marnie was there to gasp.

  “Stay here,” Rachel warned.

  Marnie’s eyes were the size of quarters but she listened.

  Rachel went into the hallway, slowly moving across the hardwood to the front of the house. Her earlier insistence that she was okay started to fade away. The weight of the gun in her bandaged hand helped remind her that things could have turned out a lot differently this morning. And they still could. Every step she took toward the front door ate up her calm.

  Was she overreacting?

  Had she just been in the wrong place at the wrong time at the school?

  Or were the men coming for her?

  She tightened her grip on the gun. Her nerves shook her hand. The muscles in her legs readied to run. It didn’t help matters when a booming knock sounded against the front door.

  She paused, a few feet from it.

  There were no windows to show her who it was, so she walked softly to the peephole. Holding her breath, heart in her throat, Rachel looked through it.

  “Holy buckets.” She breathed out and lowered the gun to her side. She opened the door in time to catch Dane’s fist in midair. He was quick to take in her expression and the weapon.

  “Before you use that on me, know that, in my defense, I called you. Three times, in fact.”

  It wasn’t lost on Rachel how much seeing the man made her feel better. Just as seeing him standing in the gym, cursing at the chained doors, had this morning. Capable, sturdy, a force to be reckoned with. Handsome, too. Though that wasn’t anything new.

  “I just realized my phone died,” she said, trying to get her heartbeat back on its normal path.

  Dane motioned to the gun. “Well, I’m glad to see that you’re more cautious than not. It makes my—the department’s—job easier in making sure you stay safe.” His eyes strayed over her shoulder as footsteps echoed up the hallway.

  “Everything okay?” Marnie called out.

  Rachel turned to find the woman holding something in her hands. It surprised a laugh out of her. “Yeah, Marnie. Everything is fine, but is that my bedside lamp?”

  Marnie shrugged.

  “I wanted to help,” she said defensively. She raised her chin a fraction, proud.

  “Well, you can help by putting that back. Please.”

  Marnie rolled her eyes but went back into the bedroom.

  Dane grinned.

  “I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t just barge in,” he said. “If a bullet didn’t do me in, the lamp just might have.”

  A look she couldn’t place passed over Dane’s expression. He took a small step backward and jutted his thumb over his shoulder. His truck was parked at the mouth of the drive, since there was no true curb around the property unless you drove back to the two-lane that connected to the town. “Everyone’s still looking for the men, but until we have more information, I thought I might hang out here for a while, just as a precaution.”

  Rachel couldn’t stop her surprise from surfacing.

  “Deputy Ward is keeping an eye out on Lonnie, too,” he added.

  She recovered. “Oh, yeah. Well, that’s good. Especially after everything Lonnie went through today. Better safe than sorry.”

  Rachel omitted that she felt another surge of relief having someone so close. It was only after he started to turn away that she wondered if that feeling was because her someone just happened to be Dane.

  “Okay, well, charge your cell and give me a heads-up if anyone else is coming over,” he said, already moving down the steps. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Hey, Dane.”

  The words left Rachel’s mouth before her mind could catch them. Dane turned, but his expression was blank. He was shutting down.

  Again.

  Still, Rachel was riding the high of feeling relief and, after the day she’d had, she didn’t want it to stop.

  “You could stay inside,” she said. “In the spare room or on the couch. It i
sn’t like you haven’t slept on either before.”

  She tried to smile. She really did. She tried to remember the man who had been her husband’s best friend. The man who had been her friend. The one who had smiled and joked and never turned down an invitation from them to come over.

  But time had a funny way of making memories hurt, even when they were good ones.

  And maybe that showed.

  Dane shook his head and averted his gaze. “I can’t.”

  He went back to his truck without another word.

  Then, all at once, Rachel felt her anger returning.

  This time it was aimed at a man named Marcus. Not only had he taken her husband from her, he’d all but taken her friend, too.

  Chapter Five

  Rachel took her coffee out onto the back patio the next morning. It was her second cup and not strong enough to combat her nearly sleepless night. Every time she seemed to close her eyes, there was the sandy-haired man smiling at her. Then there was Overalls grabbing her hair. Both images together and separate had gotten her out of bed and roaming the house. Or, really, going to the front windows and peeking out to see if Dane’s truck was still there.

  It had been.

  Every single time.

  Now she was trying not to think too much and just hoping the caffeine would kick in and make her feel less sluggish. And more normal.

  The sun shone through the tops of the pine trees and warmed the wooden rail she was leaning against. The side patio would always be her favorite spot in the world, she was sure. Worn, in need of a new coat of stain, and filled with past moments when she’d spent countless hours across its surface, it was Rachel’s idea of peaceful.

  She looked out toward the creek in the distance. It wound around the two acres of her land in a half circle before going through the next two properties. She remembered how much she’d disliked having water near the house when she’d moved into David’s family home right after they married, perpetually afraid of flooding that never came. Now it was her favorite feature. She supposed there was some comfort in the fact that no matter how unexpected the turns her life took, she could look out at that creek and watch it keep going the same way it had been going for years.

  It didn’t stop for tragedy.

  It didn’t stop for sorrow.

  It didn’t stop just because there were bad men with bad intentions out there.

  It just kept going.

  Rachel sighed into her coffee.

  Clearing her head wasn’t as easy as she’d hoped.

  Her thoughts turned to Lonnie. If she was having a hard time coping with what had happened, then she had to believe Lonnie might be struggling, too. Playing it tough in the schoolyard or in the hallways was one thing. He might have held it together at the school and in the department before his uncle had picked him up, but now that it had had time to settle?

  Rachel tightened her grip around the coffee cup. She kept her gaze on the creek. There it was, apathetic to how rapidly her thoughts jumped from fear to worry and then to anger.

  Yesterday had felt like one long dance between her and Dane, both trying to move around each other without getting too close. She knew why she’d done it. Anger and frustration. But him? He’d pawned her off on a stranger once she needed to leave the department. The old Dane? Her friend? He wouldn’t have left her.

  But he had.

  Yet, even after years of no contact, when danger had found its way to her, Rachel’s first instinct had been to call him.

  Because you still trust him.

  “Hush it,” she responded into her coffee.

  The coffee complied.

  Something moved against her hip, earning a knee-jerk reaction of nearly jumping out of her skin. Her coffee sloshed over the edge of the mug. “Sweet crickets!”

  Even with the coffee and the soothing creek in the distance, she couldn’t deny that she was still on edge.

  Rachel finagled the vibrating phone from her pocket and shook some of the coffee off her other hand. The Caller ID showed Dane again.

  “To be fair, I called to try and not scare you.”

  Rachel looked from the phone to the patio stairs. On the path that led from around the house to the front porch stood Dane. Trying to look apologetic.

  Rachel put her hand to her chest and took a deep breath.

  “I guess I’m a little jumpy this morning,” she admitted. Dane nodded but kept to the bottom of the stairs. He was still wearing his button-down and jeans, but now there were bags beneath his eyes, too. He hadn’t slept. “Is everything okay?”

  “Detective Foster thinks he found a potential lead. He and Billy are looking into it.”

  “Good.” The faster the men were caught, the better.

  Dane ran a hand across his jaw and nodded. “No suspicious activity was reported at Lonnie’s by Deputy Ward and no one other than your friend came or went last night.”

  “Also good.”

  He nodded again. It was off. Like the motion was on reflex. Like he wasn’t actually listening to himself. Rachel tilted her head slightly to the side, trying to figure out his thoughts. But, while she’d been good friends with the man years ago, it felt like a lifetime had passed between them. She could no sooner tell what he was thinking than she could tell what he was feeling.

  “We’ll keep someone on both today, but I need to go relieve Henry from Lonnie’s until another deputy can step in,” he continued. “His kid has the flu and his wife woke up with it, so he needs to hustle home.”

  Rachel felt herself perk up. “So you’re going to Lonnie’s right now?”

  She already was turning with her coffee cup in hand.

  “Yeah, just long enough until someone comes and relieves me.”

  “Can I come with you?” Rachel was positive it was exactly what she needed to feel better. She could either sit around worrying about the boy, or check on him herself. Maybe even talk to his uncle and learn a little bit more about his home life, too. Maybe set some of the rumors straight when it came to the teachers at Darby Middle. “I mean, I can take my own car if you’d like,” she added. “I just—I’d like to see how Lonnie’s doing.”

  Dane surprised her with a small smile.

  “If you don’t mind me stopping by somewhere that has coffee, I’m fine with you riding along.”

  It was Rachel’s turn to smile. “I can do you one better.”

  * * *

  THEY SET OUT from the house a few minutes later with two cups of homemade coffee, a Tupperware container filled with cookies, and too many things left unsaid between them. Dane had already known that Rachel asking to come along was a possibility, but until she’d asked, he hadn’t known what he was going to say in response. He’d planned his day around sticking close to her while working the case from a stationary spot—which he’d gotten good at over his career as captain—so if she wanted to leave, coming along with him definitely made things easier.

  Or, at least, the work side of things.

  Their personal issues weren’t as easy to work around.

  So Dane decided not to address them at all. He was going to treat Rachel like just another civilian. There was a bigger picture. One he’d hopefully see when the men were caught.

  He didn’t need to, nor had the time to, get lost in the past.

  “I’m surprised that Marnie girl didn’t stay the night,” he said once they were on the county road. “She seemed ready to fight by your side. Never seen a lady brandish a lamp before.”

  He kept his eyes on the road but heard the smile in her voice when she answered.

  “You’ve seen a man brandish a lamp?”

  Dane felt his smile pull up the corner of his lips. “Actually, I have.”

  And so Dane ate up the time between the outskirts of Darby to the other side of town by relaying the story ab
out Marty Wallace, drunk as a skunk, coming into a restaurant to confront his cheating girlfriend. Who’d just happened to be on a date one table over. Dane had barely saved the new beau from receiving a whack upside the head by a fancy lamp when he restrained the cursing-like-a-sailor Marty.

  “Want to know the kicker? After he got out of jail, he went back to the restaurant and picked a fight with the owner.”

  Rachel let out a small gasp. “Why did he do that?”

  “The lamp that he broke cost five hundred dollars. Marty didn’t want to pay it.”

  “Five hundred dollars?” She whistled. “I don’t blame him. I might have started a fight with the owner, too. Did he end up paying it or did he get arrested again?”

  “Billy ended up feeling so bad for him that he talked the owner out of pressing charges.” Dane couldn’t help chuckling. “Then Billy managed to convince the man that the lamp was too ugly to be worth that much, so the owner went out and got a new one anyways.”

  Rachel laughed a good laugh. Dane hadn’t realized how much he had missed the sound.

  “That’s our sheriff for you,” he added. “A fearless leader with a bleeding heart when it comes to overpaying for lamps. I don’t know what Riker County would do without him.”

  This time Rachel didn’t laugh. He glanced over. Denim blue. Staring straight ahead.

  “You know, I always thought you’d run for sheriff.” Her voice sounded different. Off. Distant. “Wasn’t that a part of your five-year plan?”

  There it was.

  One of those unsaid things. Dane fought the urge to tense up.

  “I decided I wanted something different,” he answered. “Now I can’t imagine anyone other than Billy running the county. He’s a good man and good at what he does. Plus, I like my job. I may not be hitting the streets as much, but I still get done what needs to get done.”

  It was all honest enough. His plans had changed and he was sure as sure could be that Billy had found his true calling. Dane, on the other hand, felt like he had found his in being captain. He might be a desk jockey most of the time, but he made it work. The only lie? It had taken a while for him to accept it.