Drive-By Daddy & Calamity Jo

by Cheryl Anne Porter

  Harold paused, turned, and glared at her. “So you’ve been asking about me, have you, missy? I think maybe you’re not all you pretended to be.”

  “No, but at least I wasn’t doing it to steal someone’s money.”

  Harold looked from her angry face to the other three, who were beginning to draw closer to each other and, Jo saw, away from him.

  Charlotte frowned. “We believed in you, Harold. We brought people to hear you.”

  “But what did he actually say, Charlotte?” Jo asked desperately. She looked at Freida. “What is this message of his that he wants you to spend money on?” She pointed toward the closet. “And using that mine tunnel is ludicrous. The owners would never allow it, and…”

  “Shut up,” Harold shouted. His eyes hardened and his mouth curled into a sneer. “I’ve spent weeks on this deal,” he snarled. His refined tone had disappeared, to be replaced with venom. “You don’t have any idea how hard I’ve worked on this deal. Finding this place, kissing up to people who’re too stupid to know what’s going on.” He turned to Freida, whose face had fallen into a horrified and disillusioned frown. Tears filled her eyes.

  “Well, old girl,” Harold said. “It’s been fun, but I’ve gotta go. You don’t mind financing my trip, now do you?” With that, he grabbed her shoulder bag with one hand. “And this will help, too.” He snatched her diamond-encrusted watch as well, then gave her a shove, knocking her into Cedric and Charlotte. The three of them went down in a heap.

  He shoved past Jo, who made a grab for him, but he wrenched himself free and charged toward the front of the house, out the door, and down the steps.

  Jo checked to see that her friends were all right, and helping each other to their feet, then she rushed after him. By the time she got out front, he was running to his car, Freida’s bag clutched to his chest.

  “Case!” Jo shrieked, waving toward Starina’s window for attention. “Case! He’s getting away.”

  There was no answer, but she heard Harold’s car starting with a roar. With a squeal of tires, he started to back up. She had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit. She made a grab for a door handle, but missed.

  He spun the steering wheel and started forward, but he’d judged the distance wrong, had to back up and try again in order to miss the corner of the house. Again, Jo tried for the door, but it was locked.

  “Stop!” Jo shrieked. “Case, help!”

  Purdy had the car clear now. The tires spat gravel as they spun. He gave Jo a vicious look and aimed the vehicle straight for her.

  She started to scramble out of the way when she felt the earth buckle beneath her feet.

  That was when the roof blew off Starina’s workshop.

  10

  JO WAS KNOCKED OFF her feet. Stunned, she sat on the pavement for a moment trying to clear her head and catch her breath, then lifted dazed eyes to look around.

  Harold’s car was stopped a few feet away. A huge chunk of roof had crashed onto the hood and he had careened into a light pole. The impact had crumpled the fender and burst the radiator, which was leaking a stream of water. Behind the wheel, he sat rubbing his head while feebly trying to push the air bag off his lap and find the door handle.

  Jo blinked and focused on the chunk of roof, then everything came rushing back and she staggered to her feet. “Case!” she yelled. “Oh, no! Oh, no!”

  She started for the workshop, saw Cedric, Freida, and Charlotte stumbling from Harold’s house and yelled, “Find a phone. Call 911!”

  Cedric nodded, shepherded the two ladies ahead of him and the three of them started off down the street at a trot.

  Sick with dread, Jo dashed to the corner of the building, but was met by Case, who lurched out to meet her. Under one arm he had a fire extinguisher and under the other, he carried Starina, who was struggling and shouting in protest. “Put me down, you young turk. I’m not hurt!”

  When he saw Jo, Case set Starina on her feet and dropped the fire extinguisher. Starina immediately hurried out to the street to look at the damage from a distance, then strolled over to check on Harold.

  “Oh, God,” Jo sobbed, throwing herself into Case’s arms. “You’re all right. I was so afraid.” Tears of relief poured down her face as she ran her hands over his arms and shoulders. She would have checked out his legs, too, if he hadn’t grabbed her and kissed her hard.

  “What happened?” he asked in an agitated voice.

  Didn’t he remember? She reached up and touched his face. “Why, Starina’s machine blew up again and blew the roof off—”

  “No,” he said. “I know about that part.” His eyes searching her face, then standing back to make sure she was all right. Relieved, he kissed her again. “I mean what happened with Purdy? Did he try anything? Because if he did…”

  Shakily, Jo lifted a hand and pointed. “He stole Freida’s money and tried to escape.” Hurriedly, she explained what had happened. “What about you, though? You’re really all right.”

  “Yeah.” Case shook his head in disgust. “I wasn’t watching what she was doing because I was looking for you. The machine caught fire, so we both grabbed fire extinguishers, but when I saw it was going to blow, I grabbed Starina and dragging her out of there.”

  All the starch was draining out of Jo’s knees. She leaned on Case for support. “Thank God you did.”

  Case was no better off than she was. Propping each other up, they walked over to where Starina was pulling Harold from the car and checking him over.

  “Wait a minute,” he was saying, groggily. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to move an injured man. I could sue you…”

  “Try it, buster,” Case growled.

  “I’m a doctor,” Starina said bluntly, though she didn’t tell him what kind of doctor. “And all you’ve got is a little bump on the head.”

  Sirens were wailing in the distance and within minutes the fire trucks had arrived. While the firemen rushed to put out the blaze, the fire chief climbed out of his car with his assistant and the two of them stood before Starina in their heavy gear, hands on hips, disgruntled scowls on their faces.

  “You did it again,” he said. “You promised you wouldn’t do this anymore,” his assistant scowled.

  “Oh, hello, Julius, Lainey,” Starina answered brightly. She dragged Harold over and sat him on the low stone wall that edged the street in front of her house. “Yes, I’m afraid I did. Too bad, too, because I almost had it this time. I know exactly what went wrong, though, and I know how to fix it.”

  Shaking his head, Julius took Starina’s arm and pulled her away. Lainey spotted Jo and, forgetting her role as assistant fire chief, rushed over to hug her and make sure she wasn’t hurt.

  “I’m okay, Lainey,” Jo said, trying to duck Lainey’s firefighter’s hat.

  “You said you wanted to change your life,” Lainey said tearfully. “You didn’t say anything about blowing it to pieces.”

  “Lainey, I wasn’t in the blast.” Jo explained what had happened. She looked over at Case. “We’re both okay.”

  He grinned back, put his arm around her waist and drew her over to lean against him. Finally reassured, Lainey looked from one to the other of them and said, “There’s more you need to tell me,” then went to help the volunteer firefighters.

  The police arrived as Cedric, Freida, and Charlotte reappeared at the scene. With Jo and Case’s help, they explained what had happened and Harold was taken away, but not before Freida had snatched her purse back from him and clobbered him with it. Walking bent over, Harold held his head with one hand and his crotch with the other. Groaning as he fell into the back of the police car, he seemed glad to be in the safe custody of the police.

  Freida found her watch in his car, snapped it onto her wrist, then marched along behind with another officer, eager to swear out a complaint against him. Cedric took Charlotte’s hand and followed. Jo smiled, glad to see that her friends were completely disillusioned with the charlatan.

  Case p
ut his arm around Jo and said, “Can we go home now?”

  She looked up at him and grimaced sympathetically. “I think we’d better. Case, you’re not going to have to worry about that facial-hair obsession of yours for a while.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Your eyebrows are gone.”

  His hand shot up to swipe across his face. “Well, I know where to get some more,” he said, and gave her a lopsided grin.

  Shaky with gratitude that he’d survived, Jo wrapped her arm around his waist and pushed through the crowd that was gathering. Paramedics insisted on checking them out, and they had to go to the police station to make their official statements, but they were finally released to go home. They accepted the offer of a ride from a police officer and were back at Jo’s house by the time dark was falling.

  They walked inside, took turns in the bathroom to clean up and then they collapsed together on her couch. For several minutes, they sat that way, their heads together, both of them emotionally drained, staring up at the ceiling.

  Jo reached over and took his hand, still amazed and grateful that he was all in one piece. “I still don’t understand exactly what Purdy was doing. Why did he have that Unbroken Man rally and speak at the women’s club and all the rest of it? Those things had nothing to do with his cosmogony idea.”

  Case turned his head and looked at her. “It’s always about money, Jo. For these guys it’s always about money. In this case, Freida’s money, which was something we actually knew all along. She fancied herself in love with him, and offered him money, but he held out for the biggest possible payoff. Somewhere along the line she told him about the odd and interesting religious and scientific ideas that interested her…”

  “Which was why she was attracted to Calamity Falls. We have an abundance of that kind of thing here,” Jo added.

  “When she told Harold that, he came up with the Unbroken Man idea, and if you’ll remember, the women’s club speech was a last-minute thing. He was pretending to cast as wide a net as possible for his ‘true believers,’ but really, I think all that cosmogony nonsense was desperation. The focus was always on Freida. Still, she wouldn’t let go of her money, but when he started being interested in you, she got jealous and decided to buy back his attention.”

  “I thought it was something like that. How much money did she have in that purse, anyway?”

  “Almost a hundred thousand dollars.”

  “Good grief!” Jo sat up. “You’re kidding.

  ” Case lifted his hand. “It’s the truth. She made several withdrawals, always intending to give it to him, but even though she was in love with him, it wasn’t until she got jealous of you that he was finally able to shake it loose from her.” Case looped an arm around he and drew her close. “And then you messed it all up for him so he did a snatch-and-grab. Might have been able to get away, too, if the roof of Starina’s workshop hadn’t gotten in his way.”

  “I wonder why he was in Calamity Falls in the first place?”

  “Probably hiding out from his last scam. No doubt he was looking for a nice, quiet place.”

  “He just didn’t know this wasn’t it, and that Calamity Falls would live up to its name and land on his head,” Jo said. “He’ll have time to think about it while he’s serving time in jail for theft and assault and destroying private property. Rick Morales isn’t going to be pleased that he ripped out the back of that closet.”

  “So, that’s enough about Harold Purdy. In my opinion, you’ve spent way too much time thinking about him this week,” Case said. His hand was softly stroking her arm.

  “He was my first big story,” Jo said impishly, then she started laughing.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Think about it,” she hiccuped. “I was following you…”

  “Stalking me,” Case corrected, a grin tickling at his lips.

  “Okay, stalking you. You were following Purdy, who was following Freida to get her money, then I pretended to be a bimbo to get his attention, while he was using me to make Freida jealous.”

  “It boggles the mind,” Case agreed, then he scowled at her. “I didn’t like the amount of time and attention you gave him.”

  That little hint of jealousy delighted Jo. She gave him a demure look. “I had to give him all my concentration.”

  “So I noticed, but since the investigation is over, it’s time you changed your focus.” He picked her up and turned her so that she lay across his lap.

  “To what?” she asked, looping her arms around his neck. The love she felt for him was flowing in a warm, sweet wave.

  “To a guy who’s facial-hair challenged,” Case said. He lowered his head and kissed her.

  “Only in the eyebrow department,” she answered, kissing each singed place. “I like it, though. It gives you a really streamlined look.”

  His laughter puffed against her lips. “I’ll think of them as battle scars won in the battle to get Jo Quillan the story of her career.”

  That statement bothered Jo, but she didn’t have time to think about it because he was kissing her again—a long, warm, sweet meeting of lips that had desire rushing through her.

  “The first time I saw you, I thought you were a dangerous man,” she said softly.

  “I am.”

  “Your kisses are certainly dangerous,” she said, looking up at him with warmth and sincerity in her eyes. She wasn’t going to tell him she loved him. His job was done. He was going to be leaving Calamity Falls very soon, probably tomorrow, maybe tonight, and she could see no reason to cloud things with an admission like that. She slipped her arms around his shoulders and played with his thick, sable-dark hair. “They make me forget things I should remember.”

  “Like what?” He brought his mouth to hers once again, touching and tasting, trying to tease the answer out of her.

  “Like the fact that you’re going to leave now. Your job is done, and you’re…going to leave.” She had to stop and swallow a sob.

  “I’m flattered that bothers you.” Case didn’t know why he felt as if a giant hand was squeezing his chest, grabbing his heart and wringing the life out of it. Something about the look in her eyes was scaring him, making him think that a secret lurked there. He didn’t have the words to ask her, though, and maybe he didn’t want to hear the answer.

  She touched him inside, in a place that no one had ever touched. He couldn’t tell her that because he already knew he was going to lose her. The future she planned for herself loomed and he wasn’t part of it.

  So he didn’t ask about her secret. Instead, he placed his mouth on hers, letting her warmth seep through him. “You taste so wonderful,” he murmured, eyes closed, kisses filling his mouth, his senses. “In all those years on assignment, I was all over the country, sometimes the world. I looked for something, someone like you, and you were here in Calamity Falls all along.”

  Jo didn’t know exactly what he meant, but his word made her happy. His mouth fit hers perfectly, it was like rejoining herself to a lifeline—safe, secure, but an invitation to pleasure.

  “Jo,” he whispered. “This little house of yours has a bedroom, doesn’t it?”

  She paused, looked up as happiness flooded through her. “Yes, it does. And a bed. Would you like to use it?”

  “Uh-huh,” he answered, kissing her as he stood with her in his arms.

  The bedroom wasn’t hard to find and he had her there in about twelve strides. Outside, the streetlights had just clicked on in the gathering dark. In its faint yellow glow, he could see an old-fashioned iron bedstead standing against a wall with blue striped wallpaper. The spread was blue and the bed was puffed with a feather comforter and mounds of pillows.

  Smiling at the sensual delights with which she surrounded herself, he said, “Jo, do you want to turn down the bed?”

  He was giving her a choice, she knew, and she was glad for it. They were partners in this and if this was going to be the only night they had together, she wanted it to be perfec
t.

  “I want to turn down the bed,” she answered, speaking softly into his ear as she nuzzled it. “I want to light candles and put on soft music and open a bottle of wine.”

  “All right,” he whispered back. “But later. I want you, Jo. I think I’ve wanted you from the minute you accosted me on the street and demanded an interview.”

  “Then for right now, I’ll only turn down the bed.” He set her on her feet and watched while she folded the comforter and set it aside, slipping her hands smoothly over the roundness of it in a way that had his pulse pounding. She stacked up the throw pillows and set them on a chair, then pulled back the coverlet and the sheets.

  The way she moved—with smooth, clean, feminine motions—made his mouth go dry. She was sexy and innocent all at once. As she finished turning down the bed, the scent of vanilla drifted upwards to entice him.

  “There,” she said, and came to stand before him. Her heart was pounding madly, and for some reason, her throat was full of tears. She loved him so much, wanted him so much, but her hands hung at her sides, afraid to reach out and grab what she wanted.

  “Case,” she said hesitantly. “There is one thing…protection.”

  “I have something with me,” he reassured her, then grinned. “Even in quaint little Calamity Falls, you’d be amazed at the full line of condoms available at the drugstore.”

  She smiled, glad that he had planned for this while she had only hoped.

  They paused, looking at each other, and then Case reached for her, and she came to him in a rush. The banked-down heat of her desire flared and she welcomed him with a groan of desire.

  Kissing her, Case began to unbutton her blouse and push it off her shoulders, following the sliding fabric with his lips. “You’re so beautiful, Jo. That’s why I wanted you.”

  She laughed at him as she unbuttoned his shirt, too. “Not for my curious mind?”

  “Uh-uh,” he said. “And not for your sassy mouth, either.” He kissed her sassy mouth, slipped off the rest of her clothes, then his own, then picked her up and laid her on the bed.