Promise to a Boy

by Mary Brady

  “Have any goals or plans for his life.”

  Mr. Miller nodded in agreement.

  “The only thing he ever really seemed to want was to—” Mr. Miller paused and gave an apologetic flip of his hand. “Jesse ran away from things.”

  “Yes. He ran away from us and we let him have his way for a long time. I just need to find him so our mother can talk to him.”

  “I’m sorry I’m not any help. He hasn’t worked for Miller’s Hardware… Well, he hadn’t worked for us in a couple weeks before he left, and a couple weeks was a long time for Jesse.”

  “Thanks,” Reed said. “If you hear anything, here’s my number.” Reed slid the man a business card with his mobile phone number circled on it. Then he plucked a bunch of Tootsie Pops from the display near the cash register. Kyle would like them. Then he took a second bunch. He hadn’t had a Tootsie Pop in years. Maybe it was time.

  “He’s a nice young fellow, Mr. Maxwell. He just seemed sort of lost,” Mr. Miller said as he rang up the candy.

  “Thanks,” Reed said, acknowledging the man’s concern.

  “How’s Abby doing? Cam and I worry about her now that Jesse and Lena have left, that she might…well…all she has time for is work and that little boy. We’re not even sure she has enough money to meet her mortgage every month.”

  “She just got some money that was owed to her, so she’ll be okay for a while.”

  “Give her my best.”

  Reed took his purchase, nodded and walked back out into the early-afternoon sunshine.

  He stopped on the corner to let a pickup truck pass in the street and examined the colorful bouquets of candy in his hand. The candy made him rethink what he was doing all the way out here in Montana. He was neglecting his business for a brother who had never given one ounce of consideration to any of his family.

  But these people seemed to like Jesse. They seemed to think he was searching for something and the unsaid seemed to be that his family couldn’t give it to him. Were the Maxwells really that bad? Probably.

  So, the best thing for it was to get things settled. The sheriff’s office was just down the street from his car. He tossed the Tootsie Pops on the seat and continued.

  Maybe the deputies were there who knew about his brother, but when he let himself in, the dispatcher and the big sheriff were the only ones there.

  “Mr. Maxwell,” the sheriff greeted him. The big man had on a crisp uniform that looked as if he never sat down in it. There was a hat crease in his forehead. He had, at least, just taken off his hat.

  “Sheriff.”

  The sheriff seemed as though he was expecting Reed, because he pointed to an office. Reed walked into the sparse space and waited for the sheriff to finish whatever it was he had been saying to the dispatcher. A moment later when the man walked in, Reed put out his hand.

  “Reed Maxwell.” The sheriff’s grip was firm but not hard. The man probably knew his power and most likely wielded it judiciously.

  “Wally Potts.”

  First name, Reed thought. He must not stand on too shaky ground.

  Each man took a chair.

  “What can I do for you, Mr. Maxwell?”

  “I’m speaking to anyone who had contact with my brother. Word has it that Jesse used to fish with a couple deputies.”

  “He did at that, but they don’t remember him saying anything about where he was going in Utah or after Utah.” The sheriff’s expression remained stoic. “How much do you know about hiking in Utah?”

  “Enough to know if you go there and don’t want to be found, no one will find you.”

  Sheriff Potts nodded. “I’ve already spoken with the Utah Highway Patrol.”

  “Abby said you had done that.”

  The sheriff stared for a long time at Reed and Reed took it. He was sure most people found it unnerving. If this went on much longer, he might agree with them.

  “It will do you no good to go to Utah—it’s a big state.”

  “I figured that.”

  “Let the people who are familiar keep an eye out for him. There are some parts of Utah where Jesse is going to walk out or he’s not going to come out at all.”

  Reed winced at this. “I never really knew what not knowing was like before. I have to say, I’m uncomfortable with it.”

  “I’m sorry you’re worried about your brother, Mr.

  Maxwell. I’m sorry for your mother, too, as I understand she’s looking forward to seeing Jesse also.” For the first time there was a flicker of something on the sheriff’s face. “And I’m sorry Mrs. Potts brings the gossip home from the grocery store and that I listen to it, but it’s the best local news network around.”

  “I met Cora and Ethel.”

  The sheriff just nodded.

  “Thank you, Sheriff.” As dire as what the sheriff had to say about Jesse was, Reed was convinced there was another shoe hanging in the air, probably over his head.

  “Is there anything you want to ask about your brother that I might be able to tell you?”

  “I trust there is no reason to believe Jesse never left the St. Adelbert area.”

  Stoic still. “It’s a fair question and the fair answer would be I can offer no guarantees on that, but I can tell you Jesse wasn’t the kind of guy to collect enemies. Even the town bad ass had nothing against Jesse and he was also in Hawaii at the time Jesse left town.”

  “Thank you for giving my brother as much of your time as you have.” Reed deliberately left out “valuable” as too condescending.

  “Jesse didn’t hide that he was leaving. He said goodbye to almost everyone in town.”

  “I’ve spoken with a lot of people. I think Abby might be the only one who’s surprised he hasn’t come back already.”

  “About Abby Fairbanks.”

  Here was the shoe. Reed listened attentively.

  “I don’t know how much she’s told you or anyone else has told you.”

  “She’s pretty quiet about her personal life and her past.” Reed shifted in his chair to convey his sensitivity to Abby’s value as a person. “I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that if I mess with Abby Fairbanks, I might as well be prepared to take on the whole town.”

  If a man like Sheriff Potts did such a thing, the sheriff relaxed. “She’s pretty important to us.”

  “I watched her perform a miracle with a little boy who broke his arm.”

  “She’s flawed like the rest of us, but she’s got a talent for healing the sick and injured. And if she makes a promise, she’ll keep it.”

  “And she loves her sister’s son.”

  “She does that. That boy has been her life since he was borne to Lena.”

  Reed knew a veiled warning when he heard it and he wondered just how much the sheriff knew, how much Abby had confided in him about not only Jesse, but Kyle, too. And what could Reed say? I’ll not hurt Abby? He couldn’t promise that. I’ll leave and stop looking for my brother so Abby doesn’t get hurt? Whether or not Abby got hurt might not be up to him or the sheriff.

  “Thank you for your time.” Reed handed a business card to the sheriff. “My cell phone number is on there. And again, thank you for what you are doing on Jesse’s behalf.”

  “Let me know if you hear anything else, Mr. Maxwell.”

  “I will.”

  The intercom on the sheriff’s desk buzzed. “Sheriff, you will want to take this call.”

  Sheriff Potts pressed the intercom button. “Thank you, Sheila.”

  Knowing the sheriff even a short time, Reed understood that the dispatcher would not have interrupted the sheriff without a really good reason.

  The men shook hands and Reed left.

  “This is Sheriff Potts,” Reed heard as he walked out the door to the street.

  REED PARKED HIS RENTAL car in the driveway at the apartment. The day of interviewing people about his brother had seemed longer than dealing with clients in the office. Maybe the stakes were higher when family was involved. With his
last two leads out of town for the day, Reed knew he’d have to spend another night in St. Adelbert, another night sleeping on the sheets Abby Fairbanks had washed.

  He had just let himself into the apartment and closed the door when his phone rang.

  “Hello, Mother.”

  He put the bunches of Tootsie Pops on the kitchen table and drew his eyebrows together with his fingertips. As he paced the tiny kitchen, his mother picked up from where she left off on her last phone call. It was so hard for her to be alive, she said.

  “I’m glad you were up and about today, Mother,” he said, grabbing on to the only thing that seemed good about her day.

  He half-listened as she continued to ramble about the petty aggravations in her life.

  “So what did the doctor say this time?” he asked as he caught a questioning lilt at the end of his mother’s sentence.

  “The doctor wants me to go out and walk around the neighborhood. What would my neighbors think?” Her voice was low and gravelly from too much booze and too many cigarettes.

  “Maybe they’d think ‘There goes Frieda Maxwell. Good to see her out and about.’”

  “What if the doctor is wrong and it’s too much for me?”

  Reed heard car doors slam and went to the window. Abby and Kyle appeared below him in the yard, and he found he wanted to smile at the sight of the two of them.

  He returned his attention to his mother. “If the doctor told you to exercise, she must think it won’t hurt you, and if you’re stronger…”

  “I won’t ever be stronger, especially…” A wheezy sigh pierced his ear.

  Especially was bait, but he swallowed it like a good son. “Especially what, Mother?”

  “Oh, I don’t think I should tell you.”

  Call her bluff blasted inside his head. Tell her okay then and goodbye. Instead, he chose words to juggle compassion with the inanity. “I know your life seems out of control at times. Hang in there. You are strong and more capable than you think. Why don’t you try what the doctor says?”

  With another sigh, she dismissed his words. “Did you find out anything about Jesse?”

  He heard Kyle giggling in the yard below and turned back to the window. They were playing some game that involved running and apparently laughing.

  “I’ve spoken with some people out here, but I haven’t found anything yet.” It said something about his mother that she had to go on—and on—about herself before she inquired about her missing son. He had to remind himself she was trying life without the crutch of alcohol.

  “I don’t blame him for being gone. I guess I’ll say goodbye, then. I don’t suppose either of you will ever be able to forgive me, let alone learn to love me.”

  Reed paced. His mother’s first goodbye was only a preamble. She’d need at least three. “I do love you, Mother. Of course I forgive you and I will call you if I hear anything.”

  At the sound of another shriek of laughter, Reed found himself wanting to go outside where Abby and the boy were. He stepped back to the window to watch the two of them romp.

  Kyle giggled again. Abby said something to him and then took off across the yard. Kyle ran after her, arms pumping.

  “Maybe I should fly out there and help you.”

  “No. You shouldn’t do that.” He squeezed the phone as if it might stop her thinking such odious thoughts. He’d never get a chance to search for Jesse if she came out here. “You should do what the doctor says is good for you.”

  “But, dear—”

  “There’s no Ritz here, remember, Mother?” He pushed the curtain away from the window to get a better view of the yard. He tried to think back to what Jesse looked like as a child.

  Was it possible this was Jesse’s kid?

  “Oh, my,” she said and coughed a bit for effect. “Fine. I guess it’s goodbye, then.”

  “Go outside and take a walk. Or have someone take you out to Old Orchard. It’s far enough away from home and no one will know you there.”

  He tried to remember the old photos his mother had stuffed in boxes in the upstairs hall closet. He’d like to have that box right now, because other than the dimple, impressions of what his brother had looked like as a child were all he had.

  “There is a Bloomingdale’s there and a Nordstrom’s. I guess I could do that, for a little bit, until I get tired.”

  Oh, hell, she was fifty-six years old and she sounded a hundred. Alcohol had taken a huge toll on her physical well-being, but he was afraid the psychological damage from decades of drinking might not be treated even with two visits a week to her therapist. If she couldn’t come to terms with her own alcoholic parents’ abuse and neglect, she might not survive sobriety. Reed recognized the sinking feeling in his gut as the fear of failure to help his mother find a reason to live. He had to find Jesse.

  “I’ll call you soon.”

  She said goodbye and thankfully ended the call this time.

  Out in the yard, Abby let Kyle catch her and they tumbled to the ground together. Gales of laughter floated up to the apartment. She loved the boy, but could she be hiding the truth about him?

  Find Jesse, that’s what he had to do, and shake him until he told the truth about the boy.

  In the meantime, he’d have Denny send him a copy of a photo of Jesse as a child.

  ON HER BACK ON THE GROUND, Abby spotted Reed in the window of the apartment. That must mean it was time to go inside and make dinner or something. She scrambled to her feet and reached for Kyle, but she wasn’t fast enough. By the time she caught the boy, Reed was heading down the steps.

  “Hi, Reed,” Kyle called.

  “Kyle. Go in the house and—” Holy cow, it was too early to do any dinner preparations, like have him wash his hands. “Go in and find the Frisbee. I feel like beating you at something today.”

  He giggled and ran inside to meet the challenge. She had finally found a lightweight nylon tossing toy that posed no danger for the child when she tossed it at him and he did so love it.

  “Hello,” she said as Reed approached. Maybe he was coming to tell her he was leaving tonight, or at least in the morning. He looked better today. He looked good. He looked… Never mind.

  She settled on, “You look rested.”

  He stopped close to her, too close for the wide-open spaces of Montana, close enough to inhale the scent of man. Close enough to want to reach out and touch his dark hair, to put a hand on his cheek, to kiss him.

  She took a step away and was tempted to draw a circle around her and forbid him to enter.

  “Thanks. I guess I made up a sleep debt last night.” He smiled. She guessed he was making an effort to put her at ease. It put her somewhere all right and nothing was at ease.

  “Mountain air. Does it every time to you city folk.”

  “Bottle it. You’d be rich.” He gave her a big, friendly grin that made her body begin to hum.

  “It’s been tried, not too successfully.” She grinned back and was sure she was not having the same effect on him. He looked calm, untouched by anything, even her. He had to go. She was going to miss looking at his handsome face, but he had to go. “Did you get what you needed today?”

  “I didn’t get anything. I have a couple more people to talk to tomorrow.”

  “I emailed my sister last night to see if she remembered where Jesse might go instead of Utah or after he went to Utah.”

  He took a half step toward her. “Abby, if the two people I have left in town to talk to don’t pan out tomorrow, am I out of places to search here?”

  Abby rubbed one palm against the other. It would be so easy to say, “That’s right. You might as well go.” Life would get so much easier if he left the little valley and never came back.

  She drew in a breath and mentally kicked herself because she was going to hate herself for saying what she was about to say. “Jesse worked for some elderly folks quite a ways out of town.”

  “Okay. Would these people know more than the people in town?”
>
  “Clearing some brush for the Harveys was one of the last jobs Jesse did before he left, and it’s a bit on the remote side. I’m not even sure if they know Jesse is still gone, but you should speak with them.”

  “How do I get there?”

  “Like I said, it’s remote. More of a showing place, not a telling place. I could say, you start with the first road past the rocks that look like a couple frogs…but it’s only a short distance past the ranch where I’m seeing a patient tomorrow.”

  “Is that an invitation?”

  She was getting herself into something now.

  “I guess it is.” The words came out pretty smoothly for someone who wanted to kick herself. “We can go early afternoon, if that’s all right with you.”

  He nodded. “That gives me plenty of time to see the people in town.”

  He started to turn away, but turned back. “I planned on having dinner at Alice’s later. I’d be happy if you and Kyle joined me.”

  “We can’t tonight, but thank you for the offer.” She would be busy distracting herself from this man and Kyle would be busy not being recognized as Reed’s possible nephew. She should have sent him to his grandmother’s today.

  If she and Reed were going to have to have that talk about Kyle, it’d be over the phone after Reed had gone back to the Midwest and lost interest in anything west of the Mississippi.

  Jesse, you little troublemaker, come back. Lena, equally the troublemaker, you stay safe.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  EARLY THE NEXT MORNING Abby lay with her eyes closed against the sunshine pouring in her open window. It had been a second long fitful night of tossing and thinking and drifting off. She was actually glad it was over.

  She and Reed had managed a non-adversarial conversation before she refused dinner with him, and it didn’t make her feel proud of herself that she didn’t welcome Jesse’s brother with open arms. Part of her wanted him to leave and part of her just wanted him.

  How ridiculous could she be?