Dune Drive

by Mariah Stewart

  “Nothing is like life with Delia. But I get it. Sometimes it’s all a bit much for me, too. I spend most of my time underwater or on a dive boat.”

  “I thought you were the playboy in the bunch.”

  “Maybe in my younger days. These days . . . I’m good just taking long walks and hitting up the local ice cream shop with a special woman.”

  “Anyone I know?”

  “If you don’t, you should. She’s one of those women who has it all, you know? Brains, humor, and she’s a knockout. Oh, and she can cook like a demon.”

  “Like a demon.” She opened her eyes and turned to look at him. He was smiling and looking at her from the corner of his eye. No one had ever called her a knockout before.

  “Yup. What she can do with oysters . . . pure sorcery.”

  “Sorcerers and demons are not the same thing.”

  “Picky, picky. You get the general idea.”

  She smiled and leaned back once again. It was getting harder to keep her eyes open.

  Jared turned on the radio and searched for her forties station. They listened to some early Sinatra as they drove toward the interstate.

  “Jared,” she said sleepily, “tell me about something else you can’t explain.”

  He thought for a moment.

  “There’s a Mayan pyramid in Chichén Itzá in Mexico. If you stand at the bottom of the pyramid’s steps and clap your hands, it makes an echo that sounds like a flock of birds.”

  “Did you actually do that? You clapped your hands and heard a flock of birds taking off?”

  “I did, and it did. And before you ask, there have been acoustic specialists who have tested it, and they can’t explain it, either. Actually, some have said it sounds just like the cry of the quetzal.”

  “What’s a quetzal?”

  “It’s a bird that was considered sacred by the Mayans. They believed it was a god.”

  “Huh.” She thought it over, then asked, “Did you make that up?”

  “Nope. Everything I’ve told you has been true. The UFOs, the disappearance of Çatalhöyük, the pyramid . . .”

  “The Alaskan triangle . . .”

  “That, too.”

  “Are there more?” she asked, her voice starting to fade.

  “For another time.”

  The last sounds she heard were the sound of the windshield wipers and Jared singing along very softly with Frank Sinatra, but she was too tired to remember the name of the song.

  • • •

  “WHERE ARE WE?” Chrissie sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes before remembering she’d put on mascara that morning. She hoped she hadn’t just smeared it. She’d had black eyes before, and she knew it wasn’t a good look for her.

  “In the parking lot in front of Ruby’s store.”

  “We’re back already?”

  “If you slept through the ride, I could see it feeling like ‘already.’ If you were driving, it was close to two hours. That includes stopping for gas.” He turned to look at her and put his arm over the back of her seat. “You slept through that, too.”

  “Oh, I am so sorry.” She shook out the few remaining cobwebs from her brain. “I just crashed.”

  “All the way home.”

  “Again, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. You were tired, and I got to listen to some great country music after the Sinatra hour was over.”

  “What’s the Sinatra hour?” She sat all the way up and unhooked her seat belt.

  “Apparently there’s a station out of Baltimore that plays all Sinatra for one hour every Sunday. We just happened to catch it on the way home.”

  “I’m sorry I missed that.” She wanted to get out of the car and stretch, but she didn’t want him to think she was eager to get away from him.

  Thunder shook the car and rain pounded the hood. The stretch might have to wait.

  “Why don’t you go on inside? Just run. I’ll get your suitcase out of the trunk and bring it in,” he suggested.

  “You’re going to get soaked.”

  “I’m going to have to get your suitcase in any case, so I’m going to get wet. No reason you have to get wet, too.” He reached behind her and grabbed her garment bag. “You take this, and I’ll bring in the rest.”

  “If you’re sure . . .” She reached for the door handle.

  “I’m positive. Go.”

  She went. Getting out of the somewhat low car with her bag and her garment bag, which held several dresses, wasn’t as easy as it sounded. She could feel something slip off its hanger, and her feet slid on the pebbles in the parking lot. As it turned out, running wasn’t an option. She managed to get up the steps and under the porch roof where she waited for Jared, who had the larger load but managed to get across the lot without slipping.

  Chrissie tried the store’s front door and found it unlocked.

  “Oh good,” she said. “Ruby’s here.”

  She pushed open the door and Jared followed her inside.

  “Ruby?” she called.

  When there was no answer, Chrissie said, “She must be in the back. Let me just go tell her we’re here. Come on in, Jared.”

  “I’m dripping wet. I should probably stand in one spot.”

  “I don’t think it matters.” She draped the garment bag over the counter and went into the back room. “This floor has probably had a thousand people dripping water in its time.”

  She went into Ruby’s apartment but came back shaking her head. “She isn’t there. She said she’d be here.” She fought to keep panic out of her voice. “Maybe she’s upstairs.”

  Before Jared could react, she ran up the steps, opening and closing the doors.

  “She’s not up there, either,” she said, out of breath when she ran back down.

  “Whoa.” In a blink, Jared was there, his arms reaching to pull her in. “What’s the matter? You’re shaking and the look on your face—Chris, what’s wrong? You look scared to death.”

  “We need to call Owen.” She shook him off and all but ran to the counter. She found her bag and pulled it apart searching for her phone. She found it and speed-dialed Owen’s number.

  When he finally answered, her hands were shaking. “Owen, she isn’t here. Ruby isn’t here.”

  “No, she’s here. We brought her down to have lunch with us since she didn’t expect you back until late this afternoon. What the hell’s wrong?”

  “Oh. Oh, okay.” She could have passed out from relief. “I came in and the door was unlocked, and she wasn’t here, and I thought . . . I thought . . . I was afraid . . .”

  “You were afraid he’d found you and hurt Ruby? Oh, Chrissie.” Owen sighed. “We should have left a note. Cass wanted to, but Ruby and I both thought we’d have her back before you got home.” He paused. “Are you all right now?”

  “Yes. I’m fine. Thanks.” She leaned against the counter.

  “Is Jared still there?”

  “Yes.”

  “Does he know about . . .” Owen started to ask.

  “No.”

  “I think you need to tell him,” Owen said.

  “I think you’re probably right.” Chrissie looked across the counter to where Jared stood quietly watching her.

  “Like, probably now.”

  “You’re right,” she agreed. “I will.”

  “Otherwise he’s going to think you’re a little crazy, kid.”

  “Might be too late. Thanks, Owen.”

  “We’ll bring Ruby back after the rain stops,” he told her right before he hung up.

  “So. I take it Owen knows where Ruby is?” Jared asked.

  Chrissie nodded. “She went to his place to have lunch with him and Cass.”

  Jared folded his arms across his chest and watched her as if waiting. Which, she knew, he was.

  “What did you think happened to her?” he asked softly. “What are you afraid of, Chris?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  He glanced out the window. “It doesn’t l
ook like the rain’s stopping anytime soon, so we have plenty of time.”

  “Take your jacket and shirt off,” she told him. “I’m pretty sure Owen left some things here that might fit you.” She smiled weakly. “Like I said, it’s a long story and it’ll take a while to tell it. I don’t want you sitting around in cold, wet clothes.”

  She went up the steps again, and a few minutes later came down with a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt.

  “These should fit. And bonus—they’re even clean. You can change in here and I’ll go into the kitchen and make coffee. I think we could both use a cup or two.”

  She filled the Keurig she’d given Ruby for Christmas with water and set a mug beneath it while she sorted out her thoughts, then made a second mug. She wasn’t even sure where to begin. Obviously this was about Doug, but the story began way before that. Well, he already knew that part, the part about her father abandoning them and her mother being a flake. Had she explained to him just how unreliable Dorothy was? She wasn’t sure. Telling him about Doug would be humiliating, but if their relationship was to move forward, he needed to know. It wouldn’t be fair not to tell him, especially after the way she overreacted when Ruby wasn’t in the store and wasn’t in her apartment. The fear that had been dormant in her—that he would find her—had emerged full-blown. The fear that he could hurt Ruby . . . She shivered at the thought.

  When she came back into the store, Jared was sitting at Ruby’s table against the wall, looking out the window.

  “It’s turned into quite a storm,” he said. “Thunder, lightning bolts flying everywhere. It always seems so much more impressive near water, don’t you think?”

  “I do.” She set a mug in front of him.

  He put his hands around the mug as if to warm them, then took a sip. “It’s just the way I like it.”

  “You’re not the only one who’s observant.” She tried to force a smile as she sat opposite him. She wanted to be able to watch his face, see his expressions as she spoke, so she could try to read what he really was thinking.

  “Owen’s things fit just fine, thanks.” He pointed to the bait cooler near the door where he’d laid out his clothes to dry. “Hopefully there’s no way for the worms to get out of the bait boxes.”

  “I’m pretty sure the lids are taped down.”

  “Lucky for me.”

  “So.” She took a deep breath. “You want to know . . .” She took another. “You want to know why I got upset when I couldn’t find Ruby.”

  “I figured it wasn’t because you were thinking she’d wandered away because she’s one hundred years old and forgot where she lived.” He paused. “Okay, that wasn’t funny. So what did you think happened to her?”

  “I thought my ex-boyfriend hurt her.” There. It was out. Part of it, anyway.

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Because I didn’t tell him I was leaving before I left, and I didn’t tell him where I was going.”

  “So you think he started looking for you, found you, and took it out on Ruby when you weren’t here?”

  “Yes.” The thought of Doug being in the same room with Ruby made her sick to her stomach.

  “Chrissie, has he ever hurt you?”

  “Too many times to remember.”

  “I’m calling the truth zone here. I want to know everything.”

  She told him about meeting Doug and being swept off her feet. About thinking they were in love and moving in with him way too soon before she really knew him. About how he began to control her in little ways, then how he slowly took over her life, at first with words, then with physical threats that he soon made good on.

  “This guy physically abused you? Hurt you?” Jared’s tone was steady, but she could see a twitch in his jaw that he was fighting to control. “He hit you?”

  “Yeah. I let it happen, and keep happening, and I don’t have any excuse for that.”

  “Baby, you don’t need an excuse.” His voice softened to the point where she strained to hear him. “You didn’t do anything wrong. This is all on him, not on you.”

  “I shouldn’t have let it go on the way I did. I let it go on way too long.”

  “Because you were afraid.”

  “I never told anyone, I never called the police, I never did any of the things that would have been smart.”

  “Whoa. Listen to yourself. How ’bout he never stopped to think about what a coward he was, or how big an asshole he was? How ’bout he never stopped to think about what it meant to be a man and how he should be trying to control his temper instead of you?” His voice rose along with his growing anger. “And it must have been hard to do the ‘smart’ thing when you’re being threatened with bodily harm.”

  “I know all that now, I’m just trying to tell you how it was. He did it because he could. Because I let him get away with it. Because I didn’t have enough respect for myself to walk out the first time it happened. And I let him convince me that everything he said about me was true. That I was stupid and fat and not very attractive . . .”

  “That’s total bull. You’re beautiful and you’re far from fat, and no one would question your intelligence.”

  “I let him undermine my self-confidence and let him make me feel incompetent. For several years I stayed in jobs that were beneath me because he’d made me believe that I wasn’t good enough to do anything else. I let—”

  “Stop. You keep saying, ‘I let.’ There’s no let when you’re being coerced or manipulated and threatened.” Jared got up and crouched down in front of her. “I’m trying to find the right words and they’re just not coming.” He swallowed hard, and she could see his eyes were beginning to fill up. “I am so so so sorry that happened to you. If I could change one thing about my life, I’d have met you before he did so you’d never have had to go through that.”

  “Me, too.” She touched his face and could almost feel the pain he was feeling through her fingertips.

  “Where is this guy now? What’s his name?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Oh, it matters.” His eyes hardened. “It matters. Where would I find him?”

  “I don’t want you to find him. I want to forget that part of my life ever happened.”

  “But you won’t. As long as he’s out there somewhere, you’re always going to be looking over your shoulder. You’re always going to react with fear first, like you did a little while ago.”

  “I honestly don’t think he could find me.” She told him all the ways she’d covered her tracks.

  “Good moves, all.” Jared shook his head. “But we’re in the truth zone, remember? We both know you do think he can find you. That’s why you went absolutely white with fear when you couldn’t find Ruby. That’s the first place your mind went.”

  “No one knows where I am except Rob, my former boss. And he would die before he’d tell Doug anything.”

  “Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. If Doug went after him . . .” Jared stood and pulled out the chair next to hers, then sat, taking her hands in his. She could tell he was worried, much more than she’d expected him to be. The anger, she’d expected.

  “Rob’s married to a former NFL linebacker.” Chrissie smiled. “I think Doug’s smart enough not to take on Rob.”

  “So what do we do, babe? Do we just keep waiting for the day when he shows up?”

  “I just want to put it behind me.” Chrissie’s frustration was beginning to build inside her. “That was the worst time of my life. I hated myself back then. I believed every horrible thing he said about me was true and I wasn’t strong enough to fight back. I finally got strong enough to leave. Isn’t that enough?”

  “It was very brave of you to leave, Chris. And yes, it’s enough until he figures out where you are.”

  “The police in St. Dennis know about him, they have his photo and a description of his car. If by some strange twist he was able to figure out where I am, he’ll be picked up.”

  “That’s assum
ing they remember to look for him, and assuming he passes by while someone’s out on patrol.” Jared shook his head. “I don’t like this situation, Chris.”

  “What do you suggest I do?”

  “Right now, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll powwow with Owen. Maybe talk to the police, see if they have any suggestions. I’m not comfortable leaving this to chance.” He seemed to think it over. “Are there any weapons here?”

  “A couple of kitchen knives.”

  “That’s what I figured. The best thing would be for you to come stay with me at the inn or the boat, but I know—”

  “You know I won’t leave Ruby, and we both know she won’t leave the store.”

  “And I didn’t see an alarm system.”

  “On Cannonball Island?”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  “You’re acting like there’s an immediate problem. I overreacted, I didn’t stop to think that Ruby had gone somewhere. It’s not like her to leave the door unlocked, though, but she might have gone out the back, or thought I didn’t have a key, or just forgot,” she reasoned, now that she’d calmed down. “And I’m sure Rob would have called me if Doug had been in, and he hasn’t. He stopped by one night after I left and asked if I’d been in, or if I was scheduled to work, but as far as I know, he hasn’t asked since.”

  “Maybe he hasn’t asked because he figured out another way.”

  “There is no other way he can find me, Jared, so could we please talk about something else? I’m feeling spooked now. I only brought it up because I thought you should know. I’ve been wanting to tell you, but I couldn’t bring myself to let you know what a loser I used to be.”

  “Stop saying that.”

  “That’s how I saw myself, and the fact that I know better now doesn’t change the way I used to feel. Used to feel.”

  She studied his face, searching for a sign that he thought less of her because of her confession, but there was nothing there beyond understanding and concern. The way he looked at her was assurance enough that finding out who she’d been hadn’t changed the fact that he cared about who she was now.

  “You have Owen on speed dial. How ’bout my number?”

  She shook her head, and he gestured for her to make that change.