Better Watch Out

by Dani Sinclair

  “We aren’t hanging around, Dad,” Heather protested. “We’re working. Tomorrow we’re gonna make some pine-cone centerpieces for the tables. When Christmas is over, Jackie’s gonna show us how to turn them into bird feeders. Right, Jackie?”

  Todd’s small head bobbed in quick agreement. “Yeah, Dad, and we got your permission to play with Jackie.”

  “That was when I thought Jackie was the little boy who moved in at the other end of the street.”

  “No, Dad, Jackie’s a lady,” Todd corrected.

  “I can see that.”

  His masculine appraisal trapped air in her lungs. Jackie felt her skin heat under that look. He couldn’t possibly be interested in her. She wore baggy clothing and heavy framed glasses with her hair pulled back in an uncomplimentary ponytail. There was nothing remotely appealing about her looks. She’d made sure of that.

  This man, on the other hand, would have many women making fools of themselves to garner his attention. His expensive dress coat covered a classy dark suit, and his bold tie probably cost more than the contents of her entire closet. She wouldn’t be at all surprised if his shirt was monogrammed. He wore the clothing well, too well for her sense of comfort. The lights flickered once more.

  “I think you’d better go if you want to beat the rain,” Jackie told him. She wanted his unnerving presence out of her ice-cream parlor as quickly as possible. She went to the register, withdrew four quarters and passed them to the children.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “I pay my help.”

  “But we didn’t finish,” Todd protested.

  Jackie met the dark eyes of his father. “I think you did for today.”

  A loud clap of thunder splintered the air. The power flickered and died with the burst. Startled, Jackie jumped back so abruptly she knocked the snow-cone display over.

  Todd ran forward and threw his arms around her hips. “It’s okay, Jackie, it’s only thunder,” he murmured in a high, shaky voice.

  His fear acted as a balm to her nerves. Jackie drew herself erect with an unsteady breath and stroked the top of his head as the lights came back on. “I know. I just didn’t expect it.”

  Conscious of Todd’s father absorbing the scene, brow pleated in concern, Jackie withdrew from the comfort of the small arms and tried to smile. “You guys better get home before we lose the lights permanently. I need to lock up here.”

  “What about the tree?” Heather asked.

  “Just unplug it for now and I’ll finish in the morning.”

  “But I thought you were going to let us help.”

  “Heather, Todd.” At their father’s tone, two faces lifted, Todd’s in mutiny and Heather’s in resignation. “Outside. The car is sitting right in front. I left it unlocked. We’ll talk when we get home.”

  “But you have to let us come back, Dad,” Heather pleaded. “Jackie pays us.”

  “Yeah, Dad. We got real jobs so you won’t have to work so hard all the time.”

  Pain flitted across his features. “Get in the car. I need to talk to Jackie for a minute.”

  Jackie smiled at the two. “Your dad’s right. You should all leave now. I want to get home before the storm gets bad, too.” She just knew he wouldn’t take the hint. With forlorn goodbyes the children trudged for the door, leaving their disturbing father standing by the counter.

  “I’ll wait for you to close up,” he stated. His assertive tone immediately raised her hackles.

  “That isn’t necessary.”

  “I think it is. We need to have a talk.”

  “The children—”

  “Will wait in the car,” he told her firmly. “I can see them from here.”

  Lightning breached the darkness and Jackie stopped arguing. She hadn’t done enough business to bother with the money drawer, even though she knew she shouldn’t leave it in the register. He might be the children’s father—and dressed in clothes that didn’t come from the racks of any of the stores she favored—but he was still a stranger, and she wasn’t about to open the safe with a stranger in the store. She turned and clicked off the revolving sign and the overhead menu.

  “Can I help?” he asked.

  “You could leave,” she suggested. The words were rude, but his presence disturbed her more than the watcher and the storm combined.

  “We need to talk for a moment.”

  “Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t need to find myself in the middle of a family controversy.” Jackie continued the shutdown procedures with fingers that trembled slightly. She heard him sigh, but she didn’t turn around.

  “At least let me introduce myself. I’m J.D. Frost”

  “You have nice children.” She busied herself checking the lid to the nut container.

  “Do you have a last name, Jackie?”

  “Yes.” She walked back into her office, grabbed up her oversize coat and purse and set the alarm. She shut off the light, and coming briskly back out front nearly collided with the man. He had lifted the bridge and started behind the counter toward her.

  Fear flicked to life once more. She gazed up at him, taking a half step back. “We have ten seconds to get out the front door or the alarm will trip.” She was proud that her voice only quavered a little bit.

  With a frown, he turned and started back the way he had come. Jackie breathed easier, casting a last look around as she hurried after him. He held the front door open and she motioned him through. Jackie flipped the sign to Closed and turned to lock the door behind her.

  The rain had already tapered away to nothing, but the sky continued to darken. The temperature was dropping with amazing speed beneath the stiff, cold wind.

  “I think we got off to a bad start here,” he said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “You didn’t.”

  He obviously saw past that lie, but didn’t argue.

  “Look, Miss…”

  “Ms. Neeley,” she said, pausing on the concrete sidewalk to dart a nervous glance at the tree line. The watcher had not returned.

  “Ms. Neeley,” he said, with a slight nod. “I’d like to talk to you about the children.”

  “Another time.” The watcher could still be nearby. “I have a lot of things to take care of tonight and your children are waiting.”

  J.D. frowned, tossing a glance at his imported sedan and the two small figures inside. “They really like you.”

  “The feeling’s mutual. They’re welcome to continue to come to the store after school for a few hours, but only if you approve. If not, that’s between you and them. And Aunt Dottie,” she added with a trace of disapproval she couldn’t quite hide. Heather had told her J.D.’s aunt had come to live with them after Heather’s mother died of an aneurysm several years ago. “They do their homework when I’m busy, and I let them sweep and help with minor chores,” she hurried to add. And then, because the situation bothered her so much, she added, “It gives them a break from soap operas and talk shows.”

  Dark eyes focused on her face. “What are you trying to say?”

  Jackie backed down quickly. It wasn’t her place to question the way he chose to raise his children. “I am saying, you are their father. You set the rules—”

  “They aren’t supposed to walk up here to the shopping center.”

  “Fine. If you change your mind, have them bring a note. Otherwise I’ll send them on their way.” She let him make the inference that maybe home wouldn’t be where the children would go if she told them to run along. She reached into the pocket of her coat for her car keys.

  “Wait a minute.” He laid a restraining hand on her shoulder.

  Jackie pivoted, breaking the hold, her stance defensive and ready for trouble. Apparently, that gave him pause. Surprise replaced his anger.

  “Mr. Frost, I’m sorry, but this is between you and your children. I have to stop by my other store, and I’m running late as it is. Good night.”

  She strode to her nondescript white economy car, unlocked the d
oor and slid inside. She could feel his eyes on her the whole time. It took her three tries to insert the key in the ignition, but he still stood on the sidewalk when she pulled out into traffic.

  JACKIE DROVE SLOWLY, fighting a maelstrom of emotions. Mostly, she felt like a fool. Talk about overreacting. She braked gently on the wet pavement.

  Nightmares from the past had her on edge. Still, she should have stayed and talked about the children. She would miss them if their father didn’t let them come back, but J.D. made her uneasy in unexpected ways.

  “He’s just a man,” she told the windshield wipers. “All right, a strangely compelling man, but just a man all the same.” The light changed and she eased her car forward, feeling the hesitation as the tires sought traction.

  The children talked about J.D. constantly. Aunt Dottie supervised them while he worked—which was apparently most of the time. From their comments, the woman lived for her television shows, basically ignoring them.

  The children had stolen Jackie’s heart the day they walked into the store and counted out pennies to buy an ice cream they could split. One thing had led to another and now they earned their treats sweeping floors and wiping tables.

  Rain sprinkled across her windshield, mixing with sleet. Jackie changed her mind about heading for her other store in Frederick. She turned around at the next intersection as the icy rain fell faster. She didn’t really need to go there to talk to her partner. She would call Bessie after she got home. The roads were turning too messy to drive anywhere tonight. She gripped the steering wheel more tightly, glad she lived only two blocks from the store since her move four days ago.

  She turned down her street and pulled into the driveway of the two-story house that would soon belong to her. The frame building suddenly loomed large and sinister in the growing darkness. Her attention went to the upstairs windows. She stared hard for several seconds, but nothing moved.

  “Of course nothing moved. Unless I have mice, there’s nothing inside there to move,” she scolded herself, listening to the sleet batter her car. “The past is over.”

  But was it?

  She couldn’t quite shake the sensation of eyes peering down on her from behind the unlit windows. She scanned the quiet neighborhood carefully. She might not feel so isolated if she’d lived here long enough to meet some of the neighbors.

  Lightning splintered the sky to mock her thoughts. Thunder rolled overhead, driving rain mixed with sleet before it. Really crazy weather. Jackie scrambled from the car and sprinted across the grass toward the shelter of the front porch.

  She fumbled with the key, nearly dropping it before she got the door open and stepped inside. Switching on the hall light, she peered around. Bessie had offered to include all the furniture in the sale of the house now that her son was dead. The offer seemed a godsend, even if the furniture wasn’t exactly to Jackie’s taste. Her budget wouldn’t have stretched to furnishing a four-bedroom house in its entirety otherwise.

  She set her purse and keys on the hall table and shot a nervous glance at the darkened dining room. Nothing moved, of course. She proceeded straight ahead to the kitchen. This was her favorite room. A large, bright haven after a long day. She went directly to the stove to put water on to boil, trying to ignore the prickly sensations playing havoc with her nerves.

  The old house creaked and groaned with the increasing rush of the wind. Having spent most of her adult years in apartments, Jackie couldn’t get used to all the strange sounds that accompanied a large house such as this. Mentally, she scolded herself for being jumpy, but she continued to listen hard all the same.

  Removing the unnecessary eyeglasses from the bridge of her nose, she set them on the countertop. Another blast of thunder rattled the windows. From overhead came the creak of what sounded like a floorboard. Was that a footstep?

  The shrill cry of the teakettle almost sent her into cardiac arrest. The house complained again as it shifted under the storm’s assault. Thunder rumbled overhead. The lights flickered in response. Jackie reached for the flashlight in the drawer next to the stove.

  A floorboard protested above her.

  Saliva vanished from her mouth. She stared at the ceiling while her pulse pounded erratically.

  “There’s no one up there,” she whispered.

  But visions of the past crowded her mind. There’d been a storm that night in Indiana, too. A summer squall had moved across the town. And Larry had waited silently in the bedroom for her to step inside.

  Jackie shivered, gripping the flashlight in fingers that had gone icy with remembered fear. There was no way for her ex-husband to find her again after all this time. She’d covered her tracks carefully. Hadn’t she?

  She fought the surge of panic, knowing she wouldn’t be comfortable until she checked every room in the house. Jackie snapped on the light in the dining room as she went past. The heavy oriental motif gleamed dully. The furniture in here held little more appeal than the art deco stuff in the living room, but Jackie carefully scanned every nook of both rooms.

  Switching on the hall light, she mounted the steps. The sky split with an earthshaking roll of thunder that ripped a gasp from her throat. The lights winked out completely.

  Her fingers fumbled for the flashlight. The dim orange beam barely illuminated the top step. Another flashlight sat in her dresser drawer, and those batteries were fresh.

  The house groaned as another crash of thunder made her jump. A creaking sound came from the room on her right at the end of the hall.

  Her mind cried for light, so she hurried for her bedroom. As she reached the long, low dresser, a brilliant flash of lightning sizzled through the room with eerie clarity. Her eyes lifted to focus on the mirror and her heart stopped completely.

  In that instant, she saw the face behind her, twisted in a hideous grimace that froze her where she stood. Open eyes met her stare in the second immediate explosion of lightning. Dressed as an elf, the body lay sprawled across her bed.

  It didn’t move.

  Chapter Two

  A raw scream tore from her throat, suffocated by the powerful clap of thunder directly overhead. The flashlight fell from her nerveless hand and rolled on the carpet.

  Jackie pivoted on legs that no longer felt attached, and ran for the hall in blind terror. Lightning danced eerily through the windows. A shadow at the end of the hall seemed to detach itself from the doorway and move forward.

  Her screams joined the cacophony of thunder as she pounded down the staircase, nearly falling in her mad haste. She expected to be grabbed from behind at any moment.

  The front door refused to open. Sobbing cries scraped her throat as she fumbled for the latch and forced it back. She flung the door open and hurtled down the wooden steps, heedless of the pounding rain and sleet and the lightning that pierced the night sky with jagged spears. She ran blindly for the house next door and raced up the steps.

  No one answered her hammered blows.

  She looked back toward her house and the crazily gaping doorway she’d left to the mercy of the gusting wind. A shape, barely discernible in the darkness, stood there.

  She fled across the empty porch, running almost without conscious will. One leg followed the other over the railing. She leaped from the porch to land unevenly in a clump of bushes below. Her ankle twisted as she struck the hard ground.

  Ignoring the sharp stab of pain, she sped across the next driveway and dodged into the shelter of a wind-whipped pine tree. Pain lashed her cheek when a branch smacked her in the face. Her breaths came in ragged gasps, so loud she couldn’t hear anything above them. Had he followed? Had he seen where she went?

  Jackie looked over her shoulder. A shadow moved in her yard. She fled in terror, unaware of the raging storm surrounding her.

  J.D. HAD TO ADMIRE THE clever resiliency of his two children. They’d gotten around the issue of the shopping center rather neatly by asking him, in front of Aunt Dottie, if it was okay to visit Jackie. He certainly couldn’t blame he
r for letting them go there after he said yes. And while they shouldn’t have tried to trick him, what child could resist the lure of an ice-cream shop?

  He turned his windshield wipers to full blast as the icy cold rain grew heavier. What a night to be outside. Anyone with half a brain was staying safe inside. He must have been nuts to suggest picking up a pizza at their favorite place when the lights went out. He should have called someone who delivered.

  He never saw the figure until it was suddenly there in the middle of the rain-slicked street, arms waving wildly. J.D. stomped on the brake, knowing he would never be able to stop in time. Even as the antilock brakes kicked in, his car plunged forward, heading directly at the ghostly figure.

  Time slowed. He watched the pale white face helplessly. A woman, he realized, as she perceived her danger and attempted to twist to safety. She slid several feet, barely catching herself against the side of a parked minivan. And somehow, unbelievably, he was past her, coming to a halt more than a car length away.

  For an instant, he just sat there, drawing air into his starved lungs. He’d missed her. Unbelievably, he’d missed her. Then he threw the gear into park and fumbled for his seat belt.

  He’d nearly killed the damn fool woman!

  She leaned against the dark van, one bare hand splayed white against the metal as she shuddered for breath. She wasn’t even wearing a coat, he realized. Anger drained from him as the wind tossed her ponytail across her face. Her desperation was palpable.

  Stunned, he recognized her. “Jackie? Are you all right? I didn’t hit you, did I?”

  Reaching for her, he was unprepared when she twisted and launched herself at him.

  “He’s dead! We have to get help!”

  Her disjointed sentences ran together as she gripped his topcoat in both fists. He covered them with his gloves. “Who’s dead?”

  “The man on my bed.”

  Her words punched his stomach. “What man?”

  “I don’t know.” Her voice wavered, high and shrill. Sleet beat against her pale white face. “There’s a body on my bed. Someone was hiding in the other bedroom. He followed me.”