“I’m home,” Abby called as she came in the front door. Toby was the first to greet her and after a bit of rubbing, petting, and rough housing, he was content. Heather got a hug and Bailey a cuff on the head to mess up his hair as they worked on their homework at the table. Most of it was done anyway since they went to the store daily and Amy made them do it there before letting them play with other kids but tonight they had more for some special projects.
“Hi there, ready for dinner?” Amy asked, not quite meeting Abby’s intense look.
“Whatcha making?” she asked heartily, feigning a happiness she wasn’t feeling. She had read the little poster over and over. There were too many similarities to Angel Sleuter. She was convinced the wanted woman was standing in the kitchen.
“Taters, chops, and applesauce,” she said in her pleasing southern way.
“What, no okra or grits or something?” she tried to tease. Amy had tried to introduce their palettes to other southern foods but the kids weren’t that open to trying new things.
“Nope, not a sign of them. And I tucked away the chocolate covered crickets for another time,” she teased in return, but again, didn’t look Abby in the eye.
“Chocolate covered crickets?” Bailey said in surprise. “Gross!”
“Naw, they ain’t too bad. It’s just when you get the legs between your teeth,” Amy told him. “That’s a little rough.”
“Are they alive when they cover them in chocolate?” Heather wanted to know.
“I don’t think so,” Amy answered her with a genuine smile. Yes, she would miss this. Her family, the one she acquired when she fell in love with Abby. “C’mon, let’s clean this off and set the table for dinner,” she encourage the kids. They quickly got their things off the table and put them in their backpacks. She handed Bailey the plates and he handed them to Heather who put them on the table. He came behind her with the cups and silverware. Amy put down the napkins and even put candles on the table to be a little fancy. While they did that Abby changed from her uniform and put a couple more logs on the fire to heat the place. Terry promised central air but not until spring since they couldn’t get under the main cabin to install it until then. Meanwhile the addition was being put together and just waiting to have it hooked up.
Dinner was a success, but Abby looked at Amy suspiciously. She loved pork chops, and the stuffing Amy used inside it was a blend of finely chopped nuts and bread that was delicious. In fact the potatoes or ‘taters’ as she called them and the applesauce were among her favorites as well. It was almost the same meal they had shared the first time they ate together. She bided her time, just relating her day in innocent terms that wouldn’t arouse anyone’s suspicions.
“Well Amy had that weird guy in the store,” Heather innocently told her.
“What weird guy?” Abby queried her daughter.
“Oh just some odd man that came into the store. It happens now and then,” Amy answered with a fake laugh. “Do you want some more taters?” she asked helpfully.
“I’m good. What did he do that was weird?” she asked to continue the conversation that Amy was obviously avoiding.
“Just asked after some woman we never heard of, right Heather?” Amy asked to confirm her side of the story and to keep it light.
“Yeah, someone named…HEY!” she began but Amy accidentally spilled some of the applesauce she had picked up from the bowl.
“Oh, I’m so sorry gurl,” she quickly grabbed her napkin to help mop up the mess on the girls blouse.
“That’s my favorite shirt,” the girl complained, near tears over the mess.
“Well, let’s get it soaking in cold water to keep it from staining. Here, let’s get you another shirt,” she said helpfully, pulling the little girl from the table.
Abby watched and wondered if everything Amy was doing was suspicious, or was she seeing too much into the woman now. She knew in her line of work that people lied, sometimes innocently, sometimes with much bigger consequences. She hoped there was some reasonable explanation for the wanted poster.
Later, much later after the dishes were done and the blouse was already in a load of laundry in the new washer and dryer that were temporarily in the corner of the kitchen until the addition was finished; they relaxed in front of the fire. Amy was obviously agitated as she wasn’t relaxed, she kept fidgeting.
“What is wrong with you tonight?” Abby finally ventured. The kids were in bed, whispering, and she’d already shushed them through the door twice. A third time and threats would begin. They were quiet now.
“I have something I need to tell you,” she began and then thought she should have packed first. She could have had it all packed and in the SUV. She could leave Tabby and Toby with Abby since they had bonded so well with the children. Surely Abby would let them keep the pets?
Abby waited. It wasn’t often that Amy volunteered anything. She wanted to know about the wanted poster but she also wanted the truth. Accusing Amy of anything would only make her defensive.
“I have to leave,” she began again.
“You have a business trip?” Abby asked. That wouldn’t make Amy this restless though.
Amy desperately wanted to say, ‘yes’ but she didn’t want to lie to this wonderful woman she had found. She wanted to be brave. But she had to let her go. It was breaking her heart. She shook her head. “No. Not on a business trip. I have to go. I have to disappear,” she confessed.
“Like when you disappeared from wherever you came from?” Abby asked quietly. She was trying to remain calm but she didn’t know if she was going to have to arrest her girlfriend before the night was through. She couldn’t let her leave if she was this Angel Sleuter. It was her duty to hold her even on suspicion.
Amy nodded. “I left Louisiana over a year ago,” she confessed. “I had to go. I couldn’t stay.”
“Why’d you have to go?” she asked. The wanted poster hadn’t said why she was wanted and that aroused Abby’s suspicions. Was the crime so bad that Amy had to disappear?
“My husband wanted me to go,” she confessed, looking down at her wringing hands. She bit her lip endearingly but Abby wasn’t seeing that.
“You’re married?” she involuntarily ground out, her tone changing.
Amy nodded sadly and looked up in time to see the rage on Abby’s face at what she had just revealed. She unconsciously cringed away from her on the couch.
“Stop that, I’m not going to do anything,” Abby said abruptly as she digested this information. She had been sleeping with, having sex with, making love to a married woman! She didn’t do things like that!
“It’s not like that,” Amy tried explaining, knowing she was really screwing this up. It was worse than she had expected. She shouldn’t have said anything. She should have just left. She glanced at the brunette and the attraction was still there, the love she felt for this woman was still there. She couldn’t do that, not again.
“What was it like then?” she asked bitterly, feeling betrayed. Amy had lied by omission. She hated liars. She looked at her intently, waiting for her explanation.
Amy licked her lips, unconsciously looking cute and vulnerable, but she knew how angry Abby was. She could sense it. It rolled off her in waves. “I met my husband when I was sixteen,” she began. She might was well begin at the beginning. Tell her everything. She was going to judge her. She had already.
“What, you married this back woods redneck at sixteen?” she scoffed derogatorily. “What’s his name, Billy Bob or something? Does he have all his teeth?”
“Do you want to hear this or not?” she asked taking offence at the stereotypes that Abby had just uttered and implied.
Abby calmed herself. It wasn’t often that Amy volunteered anything about her past and she wanted to hear this. She needed to hear it. She needed explanations. Demanding them wouldn’t work. It had to come from Amy and in her own way. She nodded once, one short bob of her head as she looked into the flames of the fire, anything to not look
at the redheaded liar.
“I didn’t want to meet Landon. He was nice enough, but it was his sister Lori I was actually interested in. I didn’t know it then but I was attracted to her.” Abby’s head swiveled at this bit of information and Amy quickly added, “Oh no, nothing happened, but I can look back now and realize it for what it was, attraction.” Abby’s head went back so she could watch the fire and listen.
“Landon was nice but his brother Noah was pure mean. He didn’t like me at all. When my brother Bobby Ray,” she paused as Abby’s mouth twitched at the redneck name. “Introduced us, all he was concerned with was matchin’ us up. Bobby Ray is considerably older than me and he thinks he knows better. He said I was getting’ to be a looker and I better have a good protector. He thought Landon a fine and upstandin’ young man. At the time, I thought he was right. Landon though, after we got married on my eighteenth birthday, ignored me. Especially once he got me pregnant. I realized later, it’s probably because he likes other boys,” she explained and Abby looked at her again, not saying a word as she listened to her story.
“Noah now, he’s a man’s man. He don’t like no sissy boys as he calls them. Landon shorely couldn’t tell his brother what he liked and he had proven his manhood by gettin’ me pregnant.”
Abby noticed that Amy’s accent was becoming thicker as she told her story.
“I didn’t realize that Noah wanted me for himself. He started watchin’ me, wantin’ what his brother shore done had. It scared me. I didn’t realize that there was money in the marriage. Landon handled that for me and Bobby Ray before that. My Grams warned me about making the marriage but I didn’t listen to her and I regret that to this day. She looked out for me as much as she could. But when Noah got all heated up and slammed that door into my belly causing me to lose my baby, she told me I should get out. When Noah got to be sheriff, he couldn’t help hisself and he started throwin’ his weight around. He’s nothin’ but a big bully,” she sneered that last word as she remembered.
“Gram’s she told me, she said Angel,” she smiled in remembrance. “She always called me her angel,” she gestured at the tattoo. “You gotta save yourself from yourself, she tole me. She arranged to have a second set of identification made for me, all legal like and such.”
“Is that where Amy Adams came into play?” Abby asked astutely, speaking up for the first time.
Amy nodded. “My real name is Angel and my grandmother’s maiden name is Adams. We figured no one would figure that out. When the accident happened to Landon and Noah began talkin’ all biblical about a man marryin’ his brother’s widow I got scared. Landon, he said I needed to be goin’. There weren’t no reason for me to be stayin’ and watchin’ him die. I was a good wife to him. I couldn’t see him sufferin’. I signed the papers that gave them all permission to pull the plug, no extraordinary measures. Landon thanked me and tole me to go.”
“What was the accident?” Abby asked for clarification, trying to make sense of it all.
“Noah done found out that Landon was a man lover. He didn’t take it too well and while Landon said it was an accident, I don’ believe it none. He’s goin’ to die of his injuries someday. He told me to go, to run. He put money in Gram’s name, she had money comin’ from Gramps estate too she was goin’ to leave me.”
“Is that how you were able to rent the house and buy your SUV?” Abby asked.
Amy nodded as her eyes glazed over in remembrance. “The night I left, Noah done come by and tole me that when Landon was gone I was his and not to forget that. He frightened me. He was so certain I would go along with whatever he planned. I went to visit Grams and she gave me the new identification. She tole me, you get gone girl. You don’ look back and you don’ worry about me none. I love you too much gurl to have to worry about that bad seed. That family made a lot of money off of your joinin’. She told me how that marriage had been a joinin’ of money, not of hearts. That Bobby Ray had practically sold me to them Sleuters. He was willin’ to sell me again to Noah. He could make me too.”
“How could he make you marry again?” Abby asked incredulous at the tale. “No one can force you to marry!”
“Bobby Ray can. He’d have made my life so miserable, he…” she couldn’t finish.
“Did he hit you?” Abby asked astutely remembering how some things made Amy flinch.
She nodded. “He liked the money that Noah gave him and I didn’t know about that, I swear.”
“How do you think they found you?”
“I think when I went for Gram’s funeral they follered me. I was so careful too. I didn’t go to the funeral. I went to the lawyer’s office. The money had to dry up until it was all settled and they weren’t sure that Bobby Ray didn’t have some spy in the office. They just wanted me where they wanted me.”
“What about Landon, is he still alive?”
Amy hesitated for only a fraction as she nodded. “He is shorely poorly though. He don’t look good at all. Rumor has it he’s got the aids but I know that man, he don’ have aids. Somehow Noah’s got him looking like that so when he dies, it looks all natural and like. He just didn’t realize that Landon would hang on so long. I think he recognized me when I visited him, but he was worried and kept tellin’ me to go so I did. Maybe Noah heard I’d been there,” she worried.
“What made you decide you needed to leave today?” Abby asked now that she understood better.
“Today in the store, that man that Heather mentioned, he called me by name. I think he’s a private investigator or somethin’,” she was still thick in her southern accent.
Abby’s heart went out to her. Now that she understood she realized Amy had broken no law. Living under an assumed name was no crime. She hadn’t taken it with the intention of committing one either. Her grandmother must have really done well with the name as she commanded the money she did to not only buy this cabin but the store that had been Abby’s grandparents. She’d even invested in that silly brewery that no one was to know about, but Abby did. “You can’t leave,” she said sadly as she reached in her back pocket for the wanted poster. Unfolding it she showed it to Amy who read it.
“Why that liar!” she exclaimed making it long and drawn out and sounding like laar. “I didn’t do nuthin’ to warrant this,” she slapped at the paper. “How can he put out a wanted poster on me when I didn’t do nuthin’?”
Abby wanted to laugh at Amy’s indignation, here was the redheaded spitfire she knew and loved. Her story pulled at her heartstrings. “Well, obviously he has powerful friends or he made it up and made it look all official, but I don’t think so. That was sent out all over the United States so he can get in a lot of trouble for doing that.”
“I have to leave though, if I stay Bobby Ray or Noah is gonna show up next,” she told her girlfriend looking genuinely frightened. “If they haven’t already,” she added as she thought about things. Toby’s actions of constantly checking the yard as though someone had been there, the fire….
“Do you think they have been here watching you?” the investigator in Abby was coming out as she weighed the facts. She didn’t want Amy to run. The wanted poster was a real threat too; someone else might not listen to her story and arrest her because of it. Then Bobby Ray or probably Noah could pick her up and there was nothing she could do.
She slowly nodded and bit her lip again. “They’re both sneaky that way. They’re like two peas in a pod. Toby’s been acting squirrely lately and I thought it was just a phase or somethin’ but now I don’ think so.”
Abby proved they were on the same wave length with her next question. “Do you think they had anything to do with the fire?” She remembered the report of a man leaving the station right before it burst into flames.
Amy thought for a moment. She didn’t want to make false accusations. Then it struck her! “Noah was in the military at one time!” she gasped.
“I need to make a call,” Abby said suddenly as she stood up from the couch.
“Are
you going to turn me in?” Amy gasped again, suddenly feeling very vulnerable…and betrayed.
“No, but I am going to have Noah looked into,” Abby said authoritatively.
* * * * *
Amy was shocked that within two hours federal agents, not just police, but federal agents were at her cabin asking questions.
“Can ya’ll keep it down?” she kept warning as the children were in the bedroom.
“Ms. Sleuter…” one of the investigators began.
“Adams,” she corrected automatically.
He nodded and glanced at Abby who was standing there in a relaxed pose, legs and arms crossed, leaning against the doorway. She was dressed casually in a button down flannel shirt with a white muscle shirt beneath it, jeans, with her badge prominently displayed on her belt. She wore no gun holster.
“Ms. Adams,” he started again and she had to repeat what she knew of Noah, her brother Bobby Ray, and what she knew of them. Being a part of the family she knew quite a lot. Abby heard how Landon made her continue in school although Noah thought it was foolish to educate a woman; it was how she earned her business degree. They heard how her grandparents had a place in Morgan City, Louisiana where tourists came and that was how she learned to deal with customers.
“Now this doesn’t mean we aren’t going to have to arrest you,” one of the officers said about two hours later. It was late, about four a.m. and it was obvious they were all tired, the officers from the long drive up The Thumb and the two women from the night of being interviewed. Arson was bad enough and they knew incendiary bombs had been used, but fraud and possible attempted murder were a lot to prove. Having Angel Sleuter in the wanted data base confused and complicated things. He saw out of the corner of his eye as the Chief of Police, the small town cop, made a move. Everyone knew this was her girlfriend and while they were trying to accord her special consideration, they might have no choice but to arrest her, for her own good. “For now though we are going to ask that you don’t go anywhere. I understand you thought you had to leave?” he confirmed.
Small Town Angel Page 24