by Geri Krotow
She was breathtaking when she smiled.
“No, no, Bryce is yanking my chain about how much I whine over the heinous wig and ugly suits I have to wear.”
“I see.” Claudia looked like the wise woman she was, but Bryce hadn’t missed that moment of vulnerability between her and Superintendent Todd.
It seemed none of them were immune from their emotions.
* * *
“You’re right. Even if anyone from Silver Valley walked in here, he wouldn’t have reason to see us.” She was relieved Bryce had suggested the nice Italian tavern restaurant in Hershey. The cozy booths nearest the bar were intimate and private.
“It’s about time we got out as just ourselves, isn’t it?”
She still wasn’t comfortable with the thrill his deep voice triggered in her, but she wasn’t hiding from it, either. She was attracted to Bryce. Off the clock, why not go with it?
“Maybe. We do still have a big job ahead of us.”
His hand grasped hers across the table and she lowered her menu. She’d decided what she was having the minute she saw seafood risotto on their daily-lunch-special board, but the leather folder had kept her from facing Bryce’s unnerving gaze.
“And we’re going to finish it. After that, I don’t intend to stop seeing you, Zora.”
The thrill turned into all-out want. She wanted to be with Bryce, too.
“With our history, Bryce...”
“Our history is just that—history. May I say we both had a lot of childhood sadness to overcome? Mine wasn’t as long-lived as yours, and I had loving parents the entire time. But it still wasn’t a cakewalk.”
“No, I know it wasn’t. Anna and Adam have given me the family others only dream of. And I never had to go through losing a sister like you did. That’s just plain awful, Bryce.”
“I appreciated it that you never seemed to feel sorry for me when I told you back then. You just acted like it was sad, and we all have sad times, and let’s go play!” He smiled.
“I think in a sick way I was relieved that you’d had hard times, too. It made you approachable. I was so threatened by the other kids who seemed as though their families were perfect. They had two parents, and even the ones who had single parents were happier and better adjusted than I was.”
“You get it all now, don’t you? After going through your counselor’s training?”
“Most of it. But it’s like the shoemaker cliché. I can analyze the most difficult cases and family dynamics, except when it comes to my own.”
“Have you ever gone to counseling yourself?”
She laughed. Bryce’s concern was so genuine, so honest.
“Yes, it’s part of the training to become certified. But my mom and dad had me seeing a therapist for most of junior and the beginning of senior high school. I worked hard to deal with it all and then let it go so I could look forward to the rest of my life.”
“You never told me any of that.”
“I couldn’t. Even the counselor had to be screened and pass a clearance background check. My parents knew about what I’d been through, of course, and the counselor was told I’d suffered a trauma from living with criminals. She wasn’t given the full scoop, to protect both of us.”
He nodded. “Sounds as if you had a prosecuting team who looked out for you.”
“They did. The system worked for me, mostly due to a US Marshal who took a special interest in the case. She made sure I was safe, that I was never alone throughout the trial, that I was placed where I’d have the best chance to thrive.”
“You’re an amazing woman, Zora.”
His gruff observation made her want to move over to his bench and hide her blushing face in his shoulder.
“Have you folks decided what your pleasure will be today?” Their waiter stood with his notepad and they both laughed.
Their “pleasure” was going to have to wait.
* * *
“You like seafood, I take it?” Bryce had felt a deep satisfaction watching Zora polish off an entire bowl of risotto laden with mussels, scallops, clams and crabs. Her love of food made him wonder how she stayed so thin.
“Mmm. Love it.” She sipped her sparkling water with a look of pure enjoyment. “I’m lucky that I’ve been blessed with a fast metabolism, so far anyway. I was always able to put away the huge meals at the academy with no problem.”
“You work out a lot. And your running helps.”
“I suppose so. What about you?”
“I have to watch it. I lay off the sweets except for the holidays, and I work out as much as I can. My schedule makes it tough at times.”
“I imagine it does, with all the cases you work on. That other SVPD detective—Rio Ortego—talked to me when the forensics team was there for the second set of footprints. He said he’s helping you out while you work on this case.”
“Yes, Rio’s solid. We could use another detective or two at SVPD, but it takes time for the officers to get the experience that lets Superintendent Todd promote them with confidence.”
“He seems like the best boss.”
“He is.”
“I haven’t had a real boss since I left the navy. Now I have Claudia, for these jobs.” He liked the way she looked at their mission and the Trail Hikers as long-term employment. It meant she might stay around. “Do you see yourself staying in Silver Valley?”
She blinked. “Yes. At least I did. I have to admit I don’t like the thought that the same cult I escaped is reappearing here, though. I don’t want to live in the shadow of that kind of insanity ever again.”
“You want to run.”
“Instinctively, yes. But I know in my head, and even my heart, that will never work. I’ll just be looking over my shoulder to see who’s followed me to the next place. And while I always have the option of asking for a new identity, I can’t. I am where I hope to stay, yes.”
Her dedication and forthrightness was enviable.
“Even if it puts your life at risk?”
“It’s at risk now, isn’t it? The Female Preacher Killer could pick me off in the next few days between the pageant dress rehearsal and Christmas Eve services. Or I could get into a car accident on I-81, or some loon could wander off the interstate and decide to pull a weapon in the same convenience store I happen to be in.”
“You didn’t answer the question, Zora.”
“Yes, even if it puts my life at risk. I’m done with running, Bryce.”
He hoped it meant she was done with running from him, from their attraction. But they had work to do first.
“I’ve got the check. You need to go home and get dressed up as Reverend Hammermill. Why don’t you head out and I’ll meet you at church in an hour or so?”
She eased herself from the booth, and when he thought she’d walk by and out of the restaurant, she surprised him by placing her hands on his shoulders and leaning in close.
“When this job is through, let’s see what we have here, shall we?” Her lips met his as they had in the woods, and if they hadn’t been in a public restaurant he knew they’d be in bed for the rest of the afternoon. The kiss was too brief, too chaste, for his liking, but it was Zora’s kiss. He’d take whatever he could get.
She pushed back and walked away, leaving him enveloped in the unmistakable scent of her perfume, his mind abuzz from the kiss she’d given him.
Chapter 17
Zora did a quick head count of the children as they lined up for their last practice. The youth minister was running the show, aided by several parents who might as well have been wearing T-shirts with the words helicopter parent on them. As loving as Anna and Adam had been to her, they’d never suffocated her with their concern, nor intruded on her social and school functions.
Relief washed over her when she saw Jess. The girl was dressed in black, as were the other members of the technical crew, and she looked animated, enjoying the hubbub.
Scanning the pews for Rebecca, she came up with nothing but didn’t l
et that concern her. It was a good sign if Rebecca allowed Jess to be here without her supervision. Less chance that Rebecca was being sucked into a cult and bringing Jess in with her. If indeed one was forming again.
She had no doubt the previous True Believers would start up where they’d left off. She understood now that those men didn’t know any better, and women like Edith didn’t know anything other than to drift from one obsessive system to another. It was surprising that her biological mother had completed her college courses. Her attempts at self-improvement made it even sadder that she couldn’t break away from her predictable robotic existence.
Zora pinched herself and focused on her gratitude for her own wonderful life, even with the possibility of a serial killer aiming his sights on her. She had a choice—a choice to fight, a choice to help law enforcement bring someone to justice.
As a child in the True Believers, choice had been taken from her.
Forcing her attention on the action, she was drawn into the timeless story portrayed by the kids, with the expected silliness and hilarity added in. A long shadow caught her gaze and she saw Bryce walking through the sanctuary, “learning” about being a youth minister from Peter, who for the most part ignored him. Peter was focused on his job.
The old choir loft was hot but it gave her too good a vantage point to pass up.
Besides, they were almost finished with the last run-through before Christmas Eve.
* * *
She was so stupid, sitting up there like a lame duck. It gave him so many ways to take her out. The obvious, with a bullet, of course, would be so easy. But it could be more interesting to set fire to the tinderbox and let the whole damned building go down.
Because the building and the believers in it were all damned. They’d let a female come into their fold for the second time, a female serving as their minister.
If only Mama was here to see this. He was glad she wasn’t. She’d be so angered and dismayed by the blatant disrespect of the same churchgoers she’d sat next to for over forty years of her life.
“What are you doing, Mr. Ernie?”
A short figure dressed as a donkey looked at him, head tilted back to see him fully.
He didn’t want any kids ruining his plans, that was for sure.
“I’m cleaning up everything so that it’s nice and pretty for your play.”
Go away, brat.
“Why do you have to clean these stairs? Nobody goes up them. And it’s a pageant, not a play.”
“Aren’t you a smart little one? I think you’d better get back to the practice or you’ll miss your turn to go up the aisle.”
The donkey shook its head. “I don’t want to go back down the aisle. This costume is hot and sweaty.”
Stupid little kid.
“I heard they’re giving away candy canes and hot chocolate after the practice, but you have to be good to get it.”
The donkey kid paused, as if he was weighing the odds that Ernie was telling the truth. In this case he was. He’d be the one to mop up the sticky floor after the kids and their parents messed up the place. Not to mention the live farm animals they brought in each year at the Christmas service.
“Okay. Have fun and Merry Christmas!”
Ernie stared after the much-used gray costume.
“Donkey, where’s my donkey?” Peter, the youth minister, approached Ernie and the little boy.
“I’m coming, Mr. Peter!”
“Well, hurry up now. The infant is about to be born and you need to be there with the Holy Family.”
The kid ran up the aisle as if Santa Claus were on the altar.
“Hey, Ernie. Everything going as planned?”
“You tell me. I’m ready for whatever you give me.”
Peter nodded. “That’s why you’re here, Ernie. You can be counted on. You’ll never let the small stuff keep you from doing your job.”
Ernie’s gaze followed Peter as he went back to his charges, and his glance fell again on the rumpled donkey.
He’d be a horse’s ass himself if he let some kid stop his plans for the Silver Valley Community Church’s most memorable Christmas yet.
* * *
“It’s going to be tomorrow or on Christmas Day. You know that,” Rio said as he walked next to Bryce. They made their way up and down the overcrowded aisles of Silver Valley’s Last Minute Christmas Bazaar. A popular event locally, it had gained national attention a few years earlier during a cable television network broadcast from the fair. What made it unique was that most Christmas hand-craft sales were over by now; this was exclusively for the discerning but last-minute Silver Valley shoppers.
Which, judging by tonight’s crowd, included the entire Susquehanna metropolitan area.
“You’re right. I agree. It’s tomorrow or Christmas Day.” His concern needed to be as focused as Rio’s on the Silver Valley Community Church and the threat to the civilians. It was, but it was also on Zora.
“She’s safe, Bryce. We have the best officers on security patrol at her place and I had them double it for tonight.”
“That was a good call. We can’t be too safe.” And it was a call he should’ve thought of. Problem was, he knew in his gut he’d go by there tonight to check on her anyway.
You want to do more than that.
He did. He wanted to be with Zora in every way a man could be with a woman. She was as professional as he was, and as such their relationship wasn’t going to the next level until the op was done.
Unless...they changed their minds.
It wasn’t as though keeping their relationship out of the bedroom was a hard and fast rule. It was his rule, and hers, too. She felt the same attraction he did. Her whispered words to him in the restaurant in Hershey proved it.
Rio knocked into him and Bryce reflexively grabbed his shoulders.
“Sorry, man. Those tote bags are lethal.” Rio grumbled at the huge shopping bag that hung from the shoulder of a woman who was oblivious that she’d jostled another shopper, much less tipped Rio into Bryce.
“It’s nuts. I’m only here to get that night-light for my mother. My dad can’t do it because he’s working with her at our church’s table.”
“The angel table?” Rio started to laugh.
“How did you guess?” His parents’ church had a group of women who were talented painters. Bryce’s dad was a woodworker at heart and had every saw and tool imaginable in his garage, so he was a natural target for their charity project. From August through November, his dad produced angels of all sizes, and the paint team, headed up by his mother, gathered in the basement of the church hall to bring the wooden figures to life with hand-painted faces and embellished wings.
“There are the night-lights.” Bryce picked out the one his father had asked him. It was decorated with a music sheet that included the notes for the song “Love Me Tender,” which had been their wedding song.
“Your parents are still this...romantic?”
“Always. You sound a little bitter about the four-letter word.”
“You say bitter, I say realistic.”
Bryce studied his friend. They didn’t often discuss their personal lives. “You dating anyone, Rio?”
Rio grunted. “You know I’m not, man. SVPD keeps me too busy.”
They continued down the aisle.
“Okay, can we get those doughnuts my family wants and get out of here?” Rio had clearly had enough of the crowd.
“There’s the doughnut stand,” Bryce said, handing him a ten-dollar bill. “Buy me a dozen of the doughnuts, will you? I want to check out a table.”
“Traitor. You don’t want to wait in that long line.”
Bryce eyed the lines waiting for cinnamon rolls, potato doughnuts, sand-tart cookies and other sweets native to central Pennsylvania. “Bingo.”
“Okay, meet me outside in ten.” Rio had driven them from the station, where Bryce had left his car. The crowds meant parking was a premium at the bazaar.
As they’d
walked around, the light reflecting off a table of gold and silver jewelry had caught his eye. He’d planned to take some sweets, namely the potato doughnuts, to Zora either tonight or in the morning. And he wasn’t getting her a Christmas gift, per se. It was more of a memento.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, I— Kayla. Well, hi.” Shit. Not again.
“This is interesting. Two times in less than a week, and when we dated I never saw you.” Her smile didn’t lessen the sting of her barb.
“Yeah, well...”
She gently punched his upper arm.
“I’m teasing you, Bryce. I don’t have hard feelings. We weren’t supposed to be together. It’s okay. I’ll bet you’re busy with this awful killer on the loose and all.”
“We’ll get him.”
“I don’t doubt it. All of Silver Valley will be cheering when you do. How’s Zora?”
“Fine, just fine. In fact, I’m looking for a little something for her. I didn’t realize this was your table.”
“It’s not, it’s my friend’s. I’m helping her sell these.” She waved her hand to encompass the collection of silver and gold jewelry that glittered under the auditorium lights.
“I thought I saw a nativity scene when I walked by earlier.”
“This?” She plucked a silver and gold piece and handed it to him for his inspection.
It was a work of art, very finely detailed and yet large and bold in its design. The simple portrayal of the manger with the Holy Family—mother, father and infant—struck him as very fitting for the woman who was portraying a minister for the sake of the community’s safety during the Christmas season.
“Zora would love this,” Kayla said sincerely.
“Do you think so?”
“Oh, yes. She wears a lot of larger pieces. The great thing about this is that it can be a pin on a jacket or coat, or it can be worn on a necklace. Zora likes choker necklaces and this would be perfect on a silver choker. It looks like her.”
“It does.” He looked at Kayla and his regret must have shown in his eyes.
“Stop it, Bryce. You don’t have to feel bad about it anymore. Really.”