Stranger In The Night

by Roseanne Williams

  “You’ve got a nice night for an outing,” Kent commented idly while she put on a life vest. “Warm, clear, full moon.”

  “Perfect,” she agreed, taking a deep, appreciative breath of the evening air. Then, as if a thought had just that minute occurred to her, she said, “You know, I think I’ll buzz around the island a time or two before I head to the mainland.”

  There was the possibility that Kent or anyone else might watch her progress out of the bay and wonder when she turned north rather than continuing due east. Circling the island explained everything in advance.

  “It’s sure the right night for it with the moon and all,” Kent said. “A lot of boats are out all around, so keep a sharp eye. Have a good one.”

  “See you later, Kent. Much later, no doubt.” She turned the key in the ignition, he cast off her line and she backed out of the slip.

  With a seemingly carefree wave, she was on her way, only a minute or so later than she had planned. All her bases were covered, thank heaven, and Rafe was waiting for her.

  11

  RAFE WAS WEARING dark, casual clothing from the Hamiltons’ enormous wardrobe when Terra got to the estate. He had a wool beret to cover his hair, and sunglasses to conceal his eyes. There was also a telescoping white cane which Lalie had mail-ordered for him. Without the cane, he brought to mind a rather prosperous jazz musician, visually impaired.

  “What do you think?” he asked.

  “I’m afraid you’ll attract more attention as a blind man than not,” she decided.

  He shook his head. “It’s not human nature for seeing people to stare at the blind. Handicaps make unimpaired people uncomfortable, so they avoid looking.”

  Terra couldn’t recall ever taking keen notice of anyone with a white cane. What Rafe said was true, at least in her own case. She hoped he was right about others.

  “You’ll see,” he said. Retracting the cane to a twelveinch length, he tucked it into his sleeve along his forearm and hooked the glasses over the ribbed neck of his sweater. “I’ll be blind when it suits my purpose, and not blind when it doesn’t.”

  “What purpose?”

  He refused to answer. “Just give me the boat key.”

  “Rafe, anything could happen to you. Your spine is still injured and so is your knee. They could give out, the fever could hit you—what would you do in an emergency?”

  “There aren’t going to be any emergencies. I know what I’m doing. It won’t take long.”

  “To do what?”

  “Give me the key.”

  “If something unexpected happens to you, and you don’t come back, what about the boat?”

  He shrugged. “Apparently someone, a hot-wire artist, stole it when you came back to Lalie’s to get Josh. This house wouldn’t have a security system if all people were honest, you know. Boat theft occurs and it could happen to you, maybe tonight.”

  “Answer what happens if you come down with fever in Charleston.”

  “That’s a chance I have to take.” He put out his hand for the key.

  Terra didn’t comply. She picked up the phone and dialed Lalie. “Hi, Terra here. If you can keep Josh, I’m going with Rafe. Yes, maybe late. I know. Thanks a million.” She hung up.

  Rafe stared at her. “Like hell you’re going with me.”

  “I’ve got the key,” she said, “you want the boat, figure it out.”

  “No way.” He shook his head. “If I get into hot water and you get burned—nope, uh-uh.”

  Terra pulled out the waistband of her stretch leggings and dropped the key inside. She wiggled it down to a secure, private area and let the snug band snap back. Then, folding her arms in front of her, she tapped her toe impatiently.

  “You heard me, Rafe.”

  He clenched his fists. “You’re in danger enough as it is. Do you want to leave Josh an orphan?”

  She retorted, “What are you planning to do in Charleston that’s so dangerous to human life?”

  “Things happen, Terra. Like the soccer ball, last thing anyone would expect. I don’t want things happening to you, or to Josh by extension. Me, fine. Not you two.”

  “Maybe you mean to fly the coop tonight and that’s why you want to go alone. Maybe you are guilty and have no intention of proving otherwise.”

  Rafe’s tone turned to ice. “I may be unable to prove it to anyone’s satisfaction when the time comes, but I’ll give it the only try I’ve got.”

  “Time is wasting,” Terra advised, tapping her toe. “Make up your mind.”

  Rafe stepped up to her and gripped her shoulders. “You know what’s wrong with you, Terra?”

  “Only one thing, Rafe.” She wrenched herself out of his hold. “I love you!”

  For a long moment he looked stunned, confused. Then he growled, “Love, hell! You don’t even trust me to come back tonight.”

  “It may not be up to you whether you come back. If that happens, you’ll need help.”

  “Not yours, Terra.”

  “You’re guilty, then. Is that it? I love a guilty man who’s on his way out of here for good?”

  “No.” His expression took on a look of anguish and he came to her swiftly, capturing her in his arms. “Jesus, Terra, what do you mean ‘love’?”

  Although incensed beyond all patience with him, she yielded to his embrace nevertheless. Sharp tears stung her eyes and her voice broke. “It’s not what I want or intended. It just…happened.”

  He gave a soft curse, held her tight, rubbing his chin on the crown of her head. “It makes everything that much worse, you know.”

  “Tell me about it,” she scoffed thickly, burrowing her face against his chest, trembling with anger and love and fear.

  Cheek upon his heart, Terra felt the vibrant beat, the precious seconds of life it measured. His future was a question with no discernable answer, his existence tenuous and provisional, up in the air.

  Rafe’s arms wrapped even more tightly around her. “Believe me, I can tell you about it. I love you, too.”

  “Oh, Rafe. You do?” She sagged against him. “Just what we need.”

  “Yeah. The last thing in the world.”

  He nudged her face up to his and kissed her with deep, emotional intensity. Against her lips, he protested, “It shouldn’t be like this, not something we both regret. But there it is, regrets all around.”

  “I’m going with you, Rafe.”

  He gave a gritty, prolonged and finally relenting sigh. “Okay. But do whatever I say from now on until we get back here. Whether it makes sense to you or not. Promise me that.”

  “I promise.”

  “Good, I’ll hold you to it.” He kissed her once more, then slowly released her as if there might not be a next time for them. “How about that key now?”

  “You can retrieve it yourself,” she replied agreeably, “in the boat.”

  “For a softhearted woman,” he murmured, brushing his knuckles where the key rested at the base of her pelvis, “you drive a hard bargain. You know that?”

  She caught her breath at his magic touch. “With you, I have to. Let’s go.”

  CHARLESTON HARBOR WAS impressive, illuminated by the full moon and city lights. At the wheel of the boat, Rafe steered into the Cooper River and put into what Terra felt sure was the equivalent of an unmarked, illegal parking space on the east side of Charleston at one of the wharves.

  “No one will ticket us here,” he said, adding that he knew his tricks in the waters around the city. “Trust me.”

  Terra did; she had to. The spot was dark, cramped, obscure, but accessible. The adjacent area was a construction site, in a state of upheaval.

  They got out and picked their way through the rubble to a dank, narrow alley where she saw several derelicts asleep in dustbins. Rafe put on the sunglasses and took out the cane.

  “A blind dude and a babe, out for a stroll,” he said with a grim chuckle, linking arms with her and then sweeping the stick in front of him as they moved down the alle
y.

  She told him, “You should have grown a beard to conceal more.”

  “I decided against it because it’s too much of a marker and hard to get rid of if I need to. Shaving off a heavy beard while on the run takes time, a place, razor, water.”

  “I never thought of it that way.”

  “You’re not a desperate fugitive.”

  “I’ve begun thinking like one, though.” She told him about the security chief and the fast talking she’d done. “Me, Terra Camden, unbelievable.”

  “Have a quick thought right now,” Rafe muttered. “Look who’s coming.”

  Terra gulped, seeing two policemen on foot turn into the alley from the cross street ahead of them. “What if they ask why we’re here?”

  “Keep cool. Walk on by as if we belong.”

  Terra thought the cops already looked suspicious as they approached. She broke her promise to Rafe immediately and spoke to them. “Help, we’ve gotten lost.”

  Rafe’s arm, linked with hers, tensed steel hard as the officers approached and stopped.

  “We’ve gotten all turned around, I’m afraid,” she told them with smiling confusion. “We’re looking for, um,” she blinked at Rafe wide-eyed, “what’s the name of it, darling?”

  He growled the name of, surprisingly, a toy store.

  “For our son’s birthday present,” she added to that. “Or is the store closed this evening?”

  The officers relaxed and assured them the store was open until ten. They gave careful directions, then wished a happy day to the birthday boy.

  “Andrew,” Terra told them proudly. “Four years old, going on five. Thank you so much for setting us right.”

  “No problem, ma’am,” the cops assured her and continued on their way, presumably to roust the transients out of the bins.

  “There,” Terra said to Rafe as she moved on with him. “They couldn’t be less suspicious.”

  “I’ve only got a heart attack to recover from,” Rafe muttered. “You promised you’d do as I say.”

  “I didn’t know we’d run into cops in a dark, sleazy alley.”

  “Well, quit improvising unless I tell you to. This is my life on the line here.”

  “It’s our love on the line, as well,” she countered. “Although, if you ever get cleared of crime, you’re bound to take up your old sea-roving life and forget about me. I don’t know why I’m doing anything for you when all you want to do is give me orders.”

  He said testily, “The peace and quiet of my old life would be a plus at the moment. Chatty Cathy isn’t my idea of the perfect accomplice.”

  “You’re stuck with imperfect me. Too nervous to shut up after running into cops right away.”

  “I’ve got half a mind to send you back on the ferry.”

  “As if I’d follow that order any better.”

  “You promised.”

  “I take it back.”

  They were out of the alley and on the city sidewalks now, for some reason following the cops’ directions. Rafe switched his white stick from side to side with fractious vigor. The presence of passersby forced them to keep their voices low.

  “If I ever did get cleared of charges, I sure as hell would go back to roving the sea. Arguing with you every ten minutes would drive me to it.”

  Terra gritted her teeth, certain that any love she’d had for Rafe Jermain was a thing of the past. “Where are we going, anyway?”

  “First to a hotel that does big banquet business. Then we’ll stop at the toy store.”

  “Toy store? What for?”

  “I want to get Josh something.”

  Terra was too taken aback—and too touched—to say another word. She debated with herself whether she should ever tell Rafe about Josh. No. At least, not yet.

  “Why are we going to a hotel?”

  “Don’t ask.”

  “Couldn’t you give me a harmless hint?”

  “I’m going to rent a room and ravish you there all night.”

  She missed a step. “You aren’t.”

  “No, but I’d love to.” He glanced around, tense and wary, yet appreciative of being out in the open and able to move freely. He could almost pretend that he was free, out for a night with his sweetheart.

  “All right, I’ll stop asking questions,” Terra grumbled. “Any special orders for me before we get to the hotel?”

  “Sit in the lobby, read a magazine while I’m busy elsewhere in the building, and do not move.”

  They walked a few blocks from the toy store to a big, busy hotel. Rafe stopped at the bulletin board and stood there as if Terra were the one reading the schedule of events taking place there that day. There were four banquets, a wedding reception, two meetings of insurance underwriters and other assorted affairs.

  Seeing just what he needed, he left her in a chair in the lobby and went up to the mezzanine in an elevator.

  Once there, a blind man searching for the right event among several being held on that floor, he came to the one that had the best chance of aiding his plan. A noisy dinner for some three hundred diners, many of them milling around in the room.

  He entered, made a quick visual scan and then wended his way with his stick around the perimeter of the room. At one point, the most critical, he deliberately collided with a waiter who was bearing a full tray of bread baskets and tripped the man with his cane.

  Not an accident, of course, though it looked like one. The waiter stumbled and sprawled to the floor, tray and dinner rolls bouncing around him.

  “Oh, wow, sorry,” Rafe said, pretending to feel around in order to find the poor guy and help him up out of the crumbs. The waiter’s captain rushed over to help.

  After the waiter got righted, with all the fumbling assistance that Rafe could offer, the commotion died down and Rafe was informed that no, this was not the wedding reception he said he was seeking.

  The captain helpfully oriented him to the door and Rafe returned to the elevator for the short ride down to the lobby. There, he bumbled into the men’s room, turned his reversible sweater inside out to a light gray, tossed his beret in the waste bin, and hid his cane in his sleeve again. He had to keep the glasses on, though, and hope people would assume he had extremely lightsensitive eyes.

  Finally, he took what he needed from the poor guy’s wallet, and then turned it in to the shoe-shine man as something someone had apparently lost.

  That much accomplished, he went to Terra, who blinked at the change in his clothes.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said, and hurried her out of the hotel.

  12

  IN FRONT OF the toy store, Rafe said, “Don’t argue about coming inside. Security cameras would pick us up together, and if someone there sees through me you’d get fingered, too. Wait across the street at the bus stop so it won’t look as if you’re loitering.”

  “Rafe, why endanger yourself just to buy Josh something?”

  “Don’t ask.”

  “I have a right to some answers, Rafe. You’re not in this alone, you know.”

  “Keep your voice down, and for Pete’s sake don’t call me by name again.”

  Terra went coldly silent, did as he said and crossed the street. Traffic was busy, buses arrived and departed. After a while, it seemed to her that Rafe was taking a little too long to buy a toy.

  Tense and nervous, she shifted from one foot to the other, back and forth, trying to assure herself that he was gone so long because the store was big.

  She had paralyzing thoughts of a store clerk detecting that he was Rafe Jermain behind the dark glasses. The fluorescents inside looked bright, as if they’d turn up every detail. Would an unsuspecting clerk detect who he was, even though everyone thought him dead?

  Terra squeezed her eyes shut. It was frightening how much she loved him. Suddenly, an awful thought struck her. What if there’s a back way out of the store and he took it? Gave me the slip? He has the key to the boat!

  Dismayed by the thought, she sucked in
a breath so loudly that everyone at the bus stop turned and stared at her. Then they all turned away, distracted by the approach of a bus.

  Terra backed up to the bank building behind her, needing solid support, and tried not to hyperventilate. Tried to think what she’d do. She’d have to take the ferry back to the island. Did she have enough money for the fare? But first, before anything, she’d have to report the boat stolen and somehow explain why she’d left it in that cranny by the construction site.

  Oh, damn, it was all too unexplainable and convoluted. Had Rafe played her for a complete fool? It was beginning to look like it. The longer she stood there the more certain she felt.

  Terra pressed her hand against her mouth to stifle another dismayed gasp. Idiot!

  RAFE STEPPED OUT of the toy store and glimpsed Terra across the street. She had her head down, one arm folded at her waist, the other elbow propped on the folded arm and her hand over her eyes. Was she crying? Feeling ill?

  A bus suddenly blocked his view of her as he hastened to the pedestrian crosswalk and waited with other pedestrians for the light to change. One woman gave him an odd look, probably because of his sunglasses, but he didn’t react.

  Unfortunately, she waddled at a snail’s pace in front of him during the cross on the green light. He reached the other curb and his heart sank when he saw past the bus. Terra was gone.

  Gripping his bag from the store, he turned slowly on the corner, looking around for her. Disappeared. Just like that. He scanned the bus windows for her face, thinking she might have gotten on for some inexplicable reason. No Terra on board.

  Then it came to him that maybe she’d gotten so ticked about the answers he hadn’t given her that she’d decided to go back on the ferry. Whatever, she wasn’t where he’d left her. She’d said she loved him, but now she was gone.

  For all he knew, she might be chasing down the cops to arrest him.

  He didn’t know what else to think. Maybe she had changed her mind about everything and decided the danger wasn’t worth it. At any rate, not knowing where she was, he decided the boat would be a stupid place to go.