by Darla Jones
“Where is my birthmark? Do you know the attorney’s name?” LynAnn didn’t have a birthmark, but she needed to confirm more information from the woman.
“Oh, no. It was thirty years ago. My parents arranged it all. I signed a paper and never saw you again. Your birthmark is on your leg, I believe. I was so young and so upset at the time it’s hard to remember.” There was a pause and the jovial tone of the woman’s voice shifted. “We’ve hit on hard times here, I’m afraid,” she whined. “My husband’s sick and lost his job. I suppose you’re married. Does your husband work? Where do you live?”
“I live in Pennsylvania and I’m a nurse,” LynAnn replied and the hair on the back of her neck began to tingle. Suddenly, their conversation had taken a bad turn, and her heart sank.
“An RN? Oh, how wonderful. I’ll check with the airline, but I think the flight would cost at least six hundred dollars. Could you wire it to me? I’m so anxious to finally meet you…”
The woman rattled on, but LynAnn laid the phone on the table as her anger flared. She wasn’t her mother. She was a fraud scamming her for money. What a despicable trick to play on someone desperate to locate their birth mother.
Roaring mad, she picked up the phone again. “You are a cruel and vile woman. I don’t have a birthmark. If you ever call me again, I’ll report you to the police.” Racked with rage, she raised her voice and enunciated her words carefully so her meaning would be understood. She slammed her phone down, laid her head on the table and sobbed. This was not the first time someone had tried to take advantage of her long and frustrating search to find her birth mother. She wasn’t about to turn over her hard-earned money to a scam artist.
Chapter 4
Saturday night, Jeff returned to Pottersville once again. It was too late to pick up Jon from his parents’ house, so he drove straight home and headed to bed. Tired, yet unable to sleep, and as it had so many times since their holiday at his cabin, the image of LynAnn’s beautiful face drifted into his mind. He got out of bed and went to his office on the first floor of his sprawling home and sorted through a stack of mail.
He wanted to see her again. He couldn’t shake the unsettled feeling gnawing at his gut. Closing his eyes, he could almost hear her melodic laugh. When her brown doe-eyes accidentally met his, a longing stirred in his body he had never felt before. A beauty…indeed yes, yet she didn’t flaunt it. By now, Jean had probably warned her to stay clear of him, but he was not about to let his friends stop him from seeing her again.
Forgetting the mail, he leaned back in his big chair and laced his fingers behind his head. He recalled Matt, her son, saying they went to church every Sunday and afterwards to McDonald’s for lunch where the kids played on the play gym.
Jeff shot straight up in his chair. Which church? He racked his brain but couldn’t remember. Lutheran? Catholic? Presbyterian?
“Aha,” he spoke aloud and threw his fists in the air signaling a victory. Now he remembered, Jean attended the same Baptist Church. He fired up his computer and typed in Baptist Churches in Pottersville. Three listings appeared, and he jotted down the addresses. Sunday school at ten and services scheduled for eleven AM. He devised a plan. He couldn’t call up LynAnn and ask for a date. She told him she didn’t date, and Lord knows he gave her his best shot before she left his cabin. But he wasn’t going to ask her for a date, at least not yet. He shut off his computer, went to bed, and fell asleep with thoughts of LynAnn, his sexy sports car of perfection.
The next morning, Jeff picked up his son at his parents’ home and two hours later, his stomach packed full of his mother’s blueberry pancakes, he fastened Jon into his seat of his BMW and announced, “We’re off to McDonald’s.”
“I’m not hungry now,” Jon protested.
“This will be a very special trip to McDonald’s,” he promised the boy.
Jeff drove to the first Baptist Church on his list and rode around the parking lot. LynAnn’s Suzuki/Subaru, whichever she thought, sat in the lot. Hurray. He found her. Perhaps hallelujah would have been the proper response. Excited his plan was coming together he headed for the nearest McDonald’s. Nearly noon, he decided to go in and order, then when LynAnn and her children came in he would invite them to join him and his son at their table. “Big Mac, large fries, coffee and a kid’s meal with chocolate milk,” he ordered.
When their food was ready he chose a table near the door so he wouldn’t miss LynAnn when she came in. Father and son both picked at their meals and waited, but she didn’t appear. Jeff thought perhaps church services were running late. “Would you like to go to the play gym?” He suggested to his son who amused himself blowing bubbles in his chocolate milk with his straw.
“Can’t, Daddy. There’s no play gym here.”
His father’s mouth dropped. “What? Are you sure?”
“Sure, I’m sure.” The boy nodded his brown head. “I’ve been here with Gram and Pap, and there’s no play gym.”
His lower jaw hung close to his sternum, the exasperated man gathered up their cardboard containers and tossed them away. He had a plan and it positively had to work. “Come on.” He tugged his son’s arm. “We’re leaving.”
When they reached the next McDonald’s, Jeff circled the restaurant to make certain it had a gym and sure enough LynAnn’s car sat in the parking lot. “Come on, Jon, this McDonalds has a play gym.” He urged the boy from the car.
Jon pouted his lips and whined, “Not another McDonald’s.”
Taking his son’s hand, Jeff steered him into the restaurant. His plan had to work. Reaching the counter, he ordered, “Big Mac, large fries, coffee and a kid’s meal with chocolate milk.” The odor of frying potatoes and grilling beef made his stomach do a flip flop. He surveyed the restaurant while their food was prepared and didn’t see LynAnn. Perhaps the car in the lot wasn’t hers at all. “Do you want to eat by the gym?” he asked his son.
Jon screwed his face and protested, “Are we eating again?”
Tray of food in hand, they headed for the play area.
“Matt.” Jon spotted the other boy first and excitedly called out to him. Helping Cassie with her fries, LynAnn looked up when she heard Jon’s voice. Her eyes widened in surprise, and then her lips curved into a faint smile, setting his heart thumping. He’d forgotten how beautiful she was.
The man acted surprised. “Hello, LynAnn, fancy meeting you here. May we join you?” he asked, already setting his tray on her table.
The happy boys rushed off to play.
“Ah…well, I guess so.” Her tone noted her apprehension. “How are you, Jeff? I heard you had to go back to New York on business again.”
“Fine, thank you.” He slid his nimble body onto the plastic seat across from her. “I got back last night.” Since she knew he had been in New York again, he surmised he had been a topic of conversation between her and Jean. She had been warned about him. “How did your Fourth go at St. Luke’s?”
“The usual holiday madness.” LynAnn shrugged her shoulders, forced a smile, and avoided his eyes by fussing with Cassie’s tiara.
Jeff noticed the sides of her long hair were pulled back with barrettes and she was dressed in appropriate church clothing: a tan skirt and jacket with a frilly blouse underneath. She wore rosy lipstick and he tried not to stare at her lips. “I see you’ve recovered from your swollen lip.”
LynAnn laughed the soft lilt he remembered. “Yes, I did. The scratches on your cheek are almost gone, too.”
“I’ve had a rough time explaining them to my colleagues,” he chuckled. “The lioness and her cubs routine didn’t fly.”
“I’m sure in their minds they devised something much more tantalizing.” She raised her arms, spread her hands, and wriggled the first two fingers on each hand pretending to make apostrophes in the air. “Jealous girlfriend seeks revenge.”
Not liking her remark, his body stiffened and his eyes darkened for a second and then fastened with hers. “Contrary to what you may have heard, there
are no women in my life.” Thanks a lot, Jean, he sarcastically thought to himself. His last date, six months ago, with a female attorney was the final straw for him. When he helped the woman into his car as they were heading out for dinner, she spread her legs and made it very clear to him she wore no underwear. He wasn’t turned on; instead, he felt disgust. He ordered the brazen woman out of his car and peeled off leaving her standing in her driveway with her mouth hanging open.
He changed the subject. “I’ve been restoring a ’57 Chevy. Right now it’s in pieces in my garage, but someday I’ll have it together. I’ll sand some fenders later this afternoon.”
LynAnn’s nose turned upward and she scowled. “It must be awfully rusty.”
She didn’t give a hoot about cars, and it was written all over her face. He nodded, remembering the woman was automobile illiterate. Lord, have mercy. She didn’t even know the make of her own vehicle.
“Help me. I’m stuck.” Cassie’s voice echoed from inside a round plastic pipe.
“I’ll get her.” Jeff slipped off his shoes and sauntered over to lower the girl from the tube. When he reached her and tucked her in his arms, her little body shook. She wasn’t stuck. She’d climbed too high and was frightened. “Cassie, you have to stay on the lower area. You’re too little to keep up with the big boys.”
The tiny girl’s dark eyes glared at him, and her lower lip jutted out. “No, I not,” came her stubborn reply. She squirmed from his arms and scrambled up the same tube again. Jeff shrugged his shoulders and smiled. There was more than one feisty female in the Johnson family.
Returning to the table with LynAnn, her gaze was fixed on his uneaten food. She frowned. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
He forced himself to pick up a fry and eat it and then took a bite of his burger. “Mom made a big breakfast for Jon and me this morning. I guess I’m not too hungry.” He took another bite of his burger and his stuffed stomach lurched. Then and there, he silently vowed he would never eat another Big Mac again as long as he lived.
“Your cabin is in a beautiful location. Did you ever meet up with the ranger the boys saw?”
“He wasn’t a ranger. I checked with them before I left. It seems there are men roaming the mountains now who want to live as one with Mother Nature.”
“Oh, then the boys may have been in danger.”
“No. He was harmless.” Jeff made light of the incident, but in his mind he couldn’t forget it. Someone lurked around his cabin, and whatever the reason it could not be good.
When their cups were empty, he got them more coffee, and they watched the carefree children frolic on the nets and tunnels.
Eventually, Cassie called out again. “Help me, Jeff.”
The same as before, he rescued the girl again, but this time Cassie rubbed her eyes.
Apparently, LynAnn noticed her daughter’s action. “We should be going. Cassie’s tired.”
With a gentle smile, he nodded. He didn’t want LynAnn to leave yet. He wanted to see her again and his plan was crashing like a paratrooper without a parachute. He couldn’t ask her for a date. He’d already tried. Now, the attorney who could talk for an hour nonstop in front of a jury, found himself at a loss for words.
“Matt,” LynAnn called out to the children and the boys’ smiling faces appeared from above them in a silver tube resembling a spaceship.
“Do we have to go so soon?” Matt moaned. The boys’ arms were wrapped around each other.
His mother nodded.
The boys scampered down from the spaceship and Jon sped to his father. “Daddy’s taking me to the zoo next Sunday,” he announced to LynAnn and her children. “Can Matt come, too?” Begging, he twined himself around his father’s leg.
“We can all go,” Jeff suggested, blessing his son for giving him the opening he needed.
“Yeah.” In unison the kids all yelled their agreement, bounced on their feet, and high fived each other.
“I…ah…I don’t know.” Dubious, LynAnn shook her head and frowned.
Jeff winked at the children and proclaimed, “Don’t worry, kids, we’ll go to the zoo.”
“Yippee.” They all cheered and high fived again.
LynAnn stood and began to gather their trays as fast as she could as if she couldn’t get away soon enough.
He stopped her movement with a soft touch on her arm. “We have to get these kids to the zoo.”
She glanced at his face then looked away. “Okay.” LynAnn quietly agreed. “We’ll meet you there.”
Jeff gave her a broad smile. She desperately wanted to keep her distance from him. “I’ll drive so we can all go together. The children will love the outing.”
“I don’t want to cause a lot of bother…really I…”
“It’s no bother. I’ll pick you up at noon.” He hastily latched onto his son’s hand and strolled back into the restaurant and out the door without waiting for her reply.
Chapter 5
Monday morning, the day after running into LynAnn at McDonald’s and nearly two weeks since he’d been at his own workplace, Jeff arrived at his office in the courthouse annex an hour earlier than usual. His work would have to wait. He came early to check his office with no one else around. He started with his desk and cleared it off to the bare wood. If someone went so far to use a listening device around his cabin, he concluded his office must also be bugged.
He scrutinized the telephone and its cords and then worked from his desk, to the chairs, and the file cabinets. He searched the windows, walls, and ceiling and found nothing. In a last effort, he went to his bathroom and ran his fingers along dirty pipes and even lifted the lid from the commode tank, but his labors were fruitless. If his office was bugged, he couldn’t find it. He must be getting paranoid, but he dealt with hardened criminals on a daily basis in his job and he’d learned to always lean on the side of caution.
By the time his search was completed, he heard Trent Boyles, his assistant DA, in his office next door. He walked over to Trent’s door and gave it a few raps before entering.
Trent looked up from his desk, gave him a wide smile, and leaped to his feet. “Jeff, thank God you’re back.” Pushing fifty now, Trent was nearly as tall as he, and his body was lean. He nudged his reading glasses up his nose and settled back in his chair. “I tried to keep you up on everything going on here. The Simmons trial was postponed.”
Jeff eased himself into a wooden chair across the desk from his colleague. He had been in daily phone contact with Trent while he was in Albany. “The problem about money missing from the Carnaby Street drug heist worries me.”
“It worries me, too. As protocol requires, Captain Anderson said two of his best men counted the money together, and he locked it in the safe himself. When they went to hand it over to the state, they counted it again, and it was a thousand dollars short.” With a shake of his head, Trent took off his glasses and laid them on his desk. “I tell you Jim Anderson is beside himself over the whole thing.”
Deep in thought, Jeff leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling for a time. This sort of error laid a bad rap on himself and all law enforcement in the county. Finally, he spoke. “The most logical explanation is the men miscounted.” He rose to his feet. “Anyway, I hope it was a miscount.”
“So do I.” His assistant agreed and began to sort through the papers piled high on his desk.
He returned to his own office and scanned his schedule for the day. Why someone used a listening device at his cabin remained a mystery.
****
Thursday evening, at a little past five, LynAnn finished her work at her full-time job at Dr. Wilson’s office. “I’m leaving now, Paulette,” she called to the receptionist stationed at a desk in the waiting room and using the employees’ exit, she walked to the back parking lot. As she drove out of the lot she noticed another vehicle did the same, but seeing other vehicles wasn’t unusual, it was a busy medical complex. She turned on the radio, and flipped through stations, but the music di
dn’t appeal to her and she turned it off. “Workin’ nine to five. What a way to make a livin’.” She sang the Dolly Parton favorite aloud, happy the hours now applied to her. They were much better than the odd and long hours she’d worked at St. Luke’s.
She glanced in her a rear mirror as she drove along First Avenue and noticed the large, black vehicle, she thought they called them SUB’s, following her. Exiting First Avenue, the traffic thinned nearing the road to her street. She stopped at a Super Shop and returned quickly toting a gallon of milk. Opening her car door to get in, she glanced across the street, and the black SUB was parked along the side of the road. The black tinted windows made it impossible to identify the driver.
A creepy sensation sent a shiver up her spine as she got into her car and drove toward her house. She checked her rearview mirror, and the black vehicle trailed behind her again. Her mouth was dry as dirt and she forced herself to swallow. Why would someone want to follow me? She slowed, and the other vehicle slowed. She sped up, and so did the other. The vehicle hung on her tail, and her creepy feeling soon escalated into a full case of jangled nerves.
She was nearly home and didn’t want whoever tailed her to follow her there. A brick ranch house with a long driveway sat ahead on the right. She switched on her turn signal, pulled into the drive, and didn’t stop her car until it nosed right up to the garage door.
To her relief, the black SUB sped on by. She was pleased her children were at home with a babysitter today and not with her in the car. She had no idea why the person followed her. After waiting a moment and trying to calm her frayed nerves, she drove on home, and there were no further signs of the black vehicle. Still shaken, she entered her house and welcomed the hugs and kisses from her kids.
****
As promised, Jeff and Jon arrived at noon on Sunday. LynAnn wanted to take her children to the zoo herself, but keeping track of them in a public place could be difficult. She worried someone might notice a lone woman handling two small children and try to snatch one of them. It was probably silly, yet she wasn’t taking any chances.