by Susan Meier
Thinking of Jericho made her chest tight. They’d shared something. She knew she hadn’t imagined it. But she also knew his family didn’t like her. Even if she and Jericho fell madly in love, they’d never marry. There was simply too much past between the two families. It was for the best that she’d insulted him the day before. It got him out of her office and probably out of her life.
Her chest tightened again, but she ignored it. She had enough problems without pining for a man she couldn’t have.
Jericho stepped into the borough building to find the crew from the night shift filling out reports and the crew for the day shift pouring coffee into throw-away cups to drink while they drove to the elementary, middle and high schools to make sure everything was okay.
“Good morning.”
“Hey, good morning, Chief!” Aaron Jennings said, but his partner, Bill Freedman, didn’t look as happy.
Jericho wasn’t surprised when Bill followed him into his office. “I heard the rumor that Mark Fegan left town.”
“That makes you about three days behind everybody else in Calhoun Corners.”
“Was that why Rayne was in the other day?”
Jericho nodded. He should have realized that once his dad had found out about Mark Fegan his officers wouldn’t be too far behind. He should have briefed them the day before. But he had been preoccupied with Rayne’s troubles, then angry with her for criticizing him rather than thanking him, then worried that he had treated her too harshly. When it came to that woman, he was just a bundle of stupidity, which proved that getting involved with her was nothing but trouble.
“Why don’t we go out to the main room and I’ll fill you all in as a group.”
Bill nodded and led the way. Jericho got everybody’s attention and said, “By now you’ve all heard the rumor that Mark Fegan left town and by now you’ve probably also guessed that’s why Rayne was in the other day.”
All four officers nodded.
“She wanted us to help find her dad, but Mark left a note saying he was leaving for personal reasons. At the time, I didn’t know if Rayne would make her dad’s note public, but by now enough of us know about the situation that it’s going to get out one way or another. So it’s best that you’re all up to speed.”
“That’s it?” Aaron asked. “He left a note so we don’t look for him?”
“The note was very specific about why he was going. He had some personal problems. And his business was failing. Those are two damned good reasons for a man to run. But just to be sure I wasn’t ignoring our responsibility, I did a quick check of his office yesterday.”
“That’s the note you sent to your friend,” Martha said.
“I called in a favor and he had a handwriting analyst examine the note to be sure Mark hadn’t written it with a gun to his head.”
Jericho’s four employees nodded and muttered agreements of one sort or another. Even Aaron, who had seemed upset that they weren’t investigating, no longer had a problem now that Jericho had explained that he’d done enough preliminary research to prove Mark hadn’t met with foul play.
Jericho dismissed them, knowing that Martha and Greg wanted to get home after having worked all night. Bill and Aaron left to patrol. Forgetting about Mark Fegan, Jericho focused on paperwork.
Around ten, he took a turn in the patrol car with Aaron, then went to the diner for lunch with his dad.
“This is becoming something of a daily event,” Elaine observed as she set place mats and silverware on the table in front of them.
“Might as well mix business with pleasure,” Jericho’s dad said with a chuckle.
“So Jericho keeps you informed on what’s going on?”
“It’s part of my job,” Jericho said, getting an odd vibe from the typically chipper hostess. She seemed quietly angry or maybe hostile was a better word. “Mayors are in charge of towns. Chiefs of police technically carry out their wishes to keep the towns safe.”
“Right,” Elaine said, slamming a setting of silverware rolled in a napkin onto the place mat in front of Jericho’s dad. “And does your dad tell you how to do your job?”
“I don’t have to tell a guy who’s been working in a city like Vegas how to do his job,” Ben said.
“No, but I bet you don’t mind telling him who he can help and who he can’t.”
Jericho said, “What?”
“Oh, come on!” Clearly angry now, Elaine glared at Ben then at Jericho. “Rayne’s dad has been missing for over two weeks and nobody’s lifted a finger—”
“Rayne’s dad is not missing,” Ben said, but Jericho silenced him with a look.
“Explain exactly what you’re talking about,” Jericho said, catching Elaine by the wrist and stopping her when it looked as if she intended to drop her angry words and leave.
“Everybody knows Mark is gone.”
“Yeah, but you seem to know more details. So spill it.”
“What’s to spill?” Elaine asked rudely. “You know as well as I do that Mark Fegan is gone. He left poor Rayne with a business that’s failing. And you won’t do a damned thing to help her.”
Jericho could have told Elaine he had done a lot of things to help Rayne find her dad. He could have told her about the travel brochures, old tickets and old itineraries he’d found. He didn’t think any of that was Elaine’s business.
Instead he rose from his seat. “I’ll see you later, Dad.”
He left Elaine fuming beside the table, glaring at his dad, and stepped out into the brisk day. Nearly stomping along the cement sidewalk, he strode to the newspaper office. He didn’t use the back door. He pushed open the front and stormed up to Rayne’s desk.
Bracing both hands on her desk, he leaned into her space. “Wasn’t it enough for you to insult me privately yesterday? Did you have to bad-mouth me all over town.”
“I didn’t bad-mouth you all over town.”
“Oh, so you only bad-mouthed me to Elaine?”
“No! I haven’t seen Elaine—”
“Right! That’s why she all but spat in my face at the diner because I deserted you.”
Behind her big glasses, Rayne’s blue eyes got round with confusion. “I never said anything—”
Upset with her, but even more tired of being attracted to a woman he shouldn’t even like, Jericho pulled away. “She’s angry for you. Indignant. No one else could have stirred her up this way but you.”
Rayne put her hand on her chest. “I didn’t say anything. I’ve been here all day.”
“That doesn’t mean you didn’t pick up the phone.”
“Are you calling me a liar?”
He didn’t say anything because he couldn’t. Her anger made him want to kiss her. Her eyes were bright. Her skin beautifully flushed. He would have paid a year’s salary to kiss her and feel all the passion simmering through her right now.
“Leave.”
His breath shivered out of his chest. “I’ll leave, but not until we get one thing straight. You’re not angry with me. You’re angry with your dad. You can’t handle that he left you.”
“I’m fine.”
“Sure. You’re great. You’re saddled with a business that’s failing, begging customers to pay their bills and can’t afford to eat.”
Her expression sharpened as if he’d slapped her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, like I haven’t seen you turn down Elaine’s morning pastry.”
“So I couldn’t afford a Danish. That doesn’t mean…”
“You don’t buy the Danish you used to buy every morning. You walk to work. Up and down a hill that’s difficult in good weather. It’s hell in bad. Drew’s noticed and commented. My dad’s noticed and you can bet your bottom dollar Elaine’s noticed.”
Rayne said nothing.
“When are you going to get it through your head that this isn’t my fault? It isn’t my dad’s fault. It isn’t even your fault. It’s your dad’s.”
Unflinching, Rayne st
ared at him. “Are you through?”
He rubbed his hand along the back of his neck. “Yeah. Now I’m through.”
She pointed at the door and without another word he pivoted and left her.
Jericho Capriotti stormed out of her office and Rayne fell to her desk chair. It was okay that the whole freaking town knew she was in trouble. She couldn’t exactly hide that her dad was gone. She also hadn’t shrunk from the fact that the paper was in financial trouble. Hell, she’d made it common knowledge that the Chronicle wasn’t making ends meet when she’d gotten rid of her employees.
But to have the whole town know that she was going hungry was mortifying.
She hadn’t told Elaine about Jericho refusing to look for her dad. The humiliation of everyone understanding just how far she had fallen was part of what kept her from seeking comfort in talking out her troubles with a friend. The other part was realizing that no matter how desperate she was, she wouldn’t use her bad situation to manipulate public opinion.
But she also knew that her dad wouldn’t have hesitated to make Jericho look biased or incapable. And she suddenly saw that Jericho was right. Her dad was a user. He’d had no compunction about leading her down a path to make her believe the town needed rid of Ben Capriotti rather than trusting her with the truth that he’d needed money. Had he trusted her, she would have given him the cash to pay his debt and none of this would be happening.
But he hadn’t trusted her because he wasn’t always an honest man. Jericho was right in saying he was running from the fact that he’d failed. That he wasn’t the big deal he’d always bragged he was. He didn’t hesitate to manipulate the truth. He didn’t hesitate to manipulate and use people. He hadn’t hesitated to use his own daughter.
She had always justified her dad’s disparaging Ben Capriotti by telling herself that his desperation drove him to it. But she was desperate and she hadn’t folded. She hadn’t compromised her morals. She hadn’t pushed or manipulated anybody. Yet Jericho thought she had.
Now not only was she forced to deal with the fact that her dad might not have been the guy she wanted him to be, but she also had to deal with the fact that everybody thought she followed in her dad’s footsteps. Was a manipulator. Maybe even a liar.
Tears stung her eyes, but instead of giving in to them, she glanced down at the papers on her desk. Accounts to call. Articles to write. Her paper was small and getting smaller. But it was still the voice of the town and it was still the only thing she had. And she wasn’t a quitter.
She picked up the unpaid invoice, dialed the number she had scribbled in the margin and went back to work.
That night when Jericho entered his parents’ house, he saw that Tia and Drew and Rick and Ashley were also joining him and his parents for dinner. For the first time in ten years the family would be together for a meal and though it seemed like a great phenomenon, Jericho understood why his mother wasn’t making a big deal out of it.
At different times after they had become adults, Jericho and Rick had fought with their father and left town. Tia had settled in Pittsburgh after college, but though Jericho’s baby sister had gone about leaving in a more subtle way, it was clear to Jericho that Tia hadn’t found a job closer to Calhoun Corners for the same reason Rick and Jericho had left. Each wanted the opportunity to make his or her own choices, rather than worry that everything they said or did would somehow reflect on their dad, who constantly rode them to be perfect.
A near fatal heart attack had caused Ben Capriotti to reconsider the way he ran his life. Tia marrying the next-door neighbor, Drew Wallace, a man who had been a family friend, paved the way for an easy transition for Tia to reenter her parents’ lives as a mature adult. Coming home with the degree he’d avoided like the plague, getting a job on the most renowned horse farm in Calhoun Corners, proving himself to be a good father and settling down with Ashley Meljac had eased Rick into the family again. Then, without fanfare, their father had offered Jericho a job and, without fanfare, he had accepted. The family had been eased together, no excuses, no finger pointing, no blaming about the past. And that was the way Jericho knew it should be.
“What the hell was Elaine talking about today?”
Brought out of his thoughts by his dad’s question, Jericho took a breath. “The same thing you and I discussed the other day. Except she has the other opinion. You think I should stay away from involvement in Mark Fegan leaving town. Elaine thinks I should be involved. You heard the discussion.”
Ben blew his breath out on a sigh. “How do things like this get so blown out of proportion?”
Drew laughed as he took the bowl of mashed potatoes pregnant Tia handed to him. “Are you kidding, Ben? Nothing stays a secret in a town the size of Calhoun Corners.”
The truth of that gave Jericho an odd feeling.
Holding Rick’s sleeping infant daughter, Ashley laughed. Jericho noticed how Rick’s eyes seemed to caress his beautiful blond fiancée as she spoke. “I can testify to that. People on the street knew my dad was retiring two weeks before I did.”
Ben took a breath. “Okay. People in small towns gossip. But this wasn’t something that would normally get out.”
Rick, Ashley, Tia and Drew laughed. Jericho’s mother sighed. “Eat your dinner, Ben. There’s no way we’ll figure out how Elaine knew Jericho wasn’t going to investigate.”
Jericho’s gaze shot to his mother. “How do you know?” Just as quickly, he looked at his dad. “Did you tell her?”
Ben shook his head, at the same time that Elizabeth said, “Janie Alberter told me.”
“The woman in the dress shop?” Jericho asked skeptically.
“She’s the one who told me,” Ashley said.
“And who told her?”
Rick laughed. “Come on, Jericho. How are we supposed to know that?”
But Ashley said, “She told me Olivia Richmond told her.”
Jericho frowned. “Olivia Richmond? The old schoolteacher? How would she know?”
Ashley shrugged. “Maybe Rayne told her.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “What’s to tell? Rayne is running the paper on her own. She laid off her staff. That means she’s in financial trouble. Her dad is gone, but Jericho didn’t launch an investigation. I don’t think there is an origin. I think what happened was simple deductive reasoning.”
“You mean the gossip that got back to Elaine might have been nothing but a few people guessing?”
The six adults at the table all looked at Jericho.
Finally his mother said, “That’s what gossip is, Jericho. Enough speculation that somebody comes up with a plausible story. Is it true?”
“That I won’t help her?” Jericho asked.
Elizabeth nodded.
“Yes and no. I did a short, private investigation and came up empty.”
“So why don’t you just tell people that?”
He sighed. “I did tell my officers.”
“Why don’t you keep investigating?” Ashley asked.
“Mark left a note. Technically, he isn’t missing. Once I verified that he traveled a lot and had a handwriting analyst say that in his opinion the note hadn’t been written under any strain, I believed I had proven that he left of his own volition, which isn’t a crime.”
But it wasn’t entirely fair, either. Not because Jericho wanted to take away Mark’s right to run from his failure, but because Mark had left behind a daughter who was struggling, suffering, starving for his mistakes.
And Jericho had just read her the riot act.
He waited until his brother and sister and their families had gone, and his parents had turned in for the night, before putting on his jacket and boots and trudging out into the night again. It was nearly midnight, but Jericho knew that Rayne could still be working. If she wasn’t, she would be at her house. Hopefully she wasn’t yet in bed.
He drove to town, passing the newspaper office because it was dark. At least she wasn’t working into the wee hours of the night. He
swung his truck onto Prospect Avenue and drove to the top, then down her street. A light was on.
He took a breath, parked the truck, walked up to her front door and knocked.
She answered the door in sloppy sweatpants and a T-shirt with no makeup. But also with no glasses and her blond hair flowing around her. Jericho swallowed.
“What?”
Luckily, her attitude was still the same. “I wanted to apologize.”
“Let’s see? What could you have to apologize for? Deserting me? Refusing to help me? Chitchatting with your staff about my problems? Or yelling at me? The list is so long and varied I’m not quite sure what you mean.”
He sighed. “I wasn’t chitchatting with my staff. I had to brief them.” He raked his fingers through his short hair, spiking it. “Look, we got off on the wrong foot for a hundred and ten different reasons.” Half of them had to do with the fact that he wanted to sleep with the fantasy Rayne he created, but he sure as hell couldn’t tell her that. “But the only real reason for me to apologize to you is for accusing you of complaining to Elaine. I should have believed you when you said you hadn’t.”
The porch light of the house next door suddenly lit. Rayne noticed it and opened the door a little wider, indicating he should enter. He agreed completely. The last thing either of them needed was to be seen together at her house late at night. Or the next thing they’d know the rumor would be circulating that they were sleeping together.
He walked into her small, cramped foyer and she motioned for him to follow her into her living room. Old furniture was piled high with magazines and newspapers. Every available space held a book, clipping or printout.
“It’s a mess, isn’t it?”
Jericho shrugged. “It’s a man’s house.”
“It’s the house of a man who refused to throw anything away.”
“Yet another reason he just chucked everything and ran.”
She nodded.
“That’s why I can’t look for him, Rayne. With one quick peek into his life anybody can see a hundred reasons he’d want to leave. Though his creditors aren’t too happy, he has the right to go. And for all we know, he could be paying his debts.”