Cold River

by Liz Adair

  She slowly stood and looked around. She was on a primitive road, little more than two tracks through the woods. She could see no farther than the trees that surrounded her, so she had no way of getting her bearings.

  “So, Mandy,” she muttered. “You have two puzzles. First, who did this to you? Second, which way do you walk to get out of here?”

  As she looked one way and another, trying to solve puzzle number two, she became aware of the sound of an approaching vehicle. “Wouldn’t it be something if I was right beside the highway?” she said aloud as she started walking in the direction of the sound. She stopped when she saw, flashing through the trees ahead, the red of Stevie Joe’s pickup coming down the lane toward her.

  Mandy’s mouth went dry, and she froze, trying to decide what to do. The moment the pickup broke into full view, her feet made up her mind, and she bolted into the woods. Running was difficult because of the downed and rotting trees and thick underbrush, so she hadn’t made much progress when she heard a door slam and someone call her name.

  “Mandy! Wait!”

  The sound of that call was so familiar that she hesitated.

  “Mandy! Come back!”

  She turned around and saw Grange making his way toward her. Stevie Joe and Moses stood behind him. Grange looked so fierce that she almost ran again, but he stopped her with one word.

  “Darling.”

  Mandy leaned against a tree and waited, watching him walk toward her, noticing how his eyes softened and the corners of his lips lifted as he got closer. A few feet away, he opened his arms. She stumbled forward and felt them close around her.

  He pressed his cheek against her hair. “I was afraid we wouldn’t find you.”

  After a moment, she pulled away. “How did you know to look for me? Were you at Fran’s?”

  “No. Not when you were, anyway. It’s all a bit complicated, and I don’t understand some of it.”

  Mandy glanced at the pickup. “What does Stevie Joe have to do with it? He’s always driving by and staring at me. He did it again today, just a while ago. I’ve got a bad feeling about him.”

  “Don’t. He’s the one who discovered that Fran kidnapped you.”

  “Fran? Kidnapped?”

  Grange began walking back to the pickup with his arm around Mandy. “Stevie Joe is Tammy’s brother, you know. My cousin. He knows you’ve been teaching Tammy to read, and he’s been trying to get up the nerve to ask you to teach him, too.”

  “But he’s married to a teacher! Can’t she work with him?”

  “Apparently he thinks you can work miracles. Anyway, he was on his way to try again today, and he saw you go into Fran’s house. When he came back a few minutes later, Fran was driving off alone in her pickup, your car was still there, and you were no place to be found. I drove up a few moments later— ”

  “But your truck was there already.”

  They had reached the red pickup. Mandy greeted Moses, who smiled and extended his hand. She thanked Stevie Joe for coming to get her, and he looked at the ground and mumbled something inaudible in reply.

  “We’ll ride in the back, Stevie Joe,” Grange said. “Moses takes up too much room.” He lifted Mandy into the pickup bed and climbed in behind her. “Let us use your coat, Moses. There’s a good heater in the pickup. You won’t freeze without it.”

  “This is getting to be a habit,” Moses grumbled, but he handed over his jacket and climbed in the cab.

  “Who is Moses?” Mandy asked as Grange wrapped her in the huge jacket and then sat beside her.

  “He’s from Jamaica and comes for every Opening Festival. I first met him in the orphanage when I was there. He teaches here at the high school for the week before, making sure the students in charge of tuning the pans are doing a good job of it. It’s a highlight of the year, and the students love to have him come.”

  “Okay. Let’s get back to what happened. You and Moses showed up at Fran’s. But wait— your truck was already there. I don’t understand.”

  “Arrgh!” Grange hit his forehead with his fist. “This is so embarrassing. Fran came to my house last night after we got home from the hospital.”

  “Oh!” Mandy exclaimed in a stricken voice. “How is your arm?”

  “It’s okay. Fran was all upset and said she wanted to clarify things about us. When I finally understood she was talking about us being a couple, you know, romantically, I’m afraid I was a little blunt. I told her— ” Grange stopped and cleared his throat.

  “What did you tell her?”

  “I said that my heart belonged to someone else.”

  Breathing seemed to be a problem for Mandy. “Did you mean— were you talking about someone you lost a long time ago?”

  He picked up her hand and laced his fingers through hers. “No, I was talking about someone else. Someone I just found.”

  Mandy took a deep breath. “And who is that someone else?”

  “It’s you, Sweetiebug.” He smiled and leaned down to kiss her.

  As Grange’s mouth met hers, she put her hand on his cheek and felt the pulse under her fingers. It seemed to be beating in concert with her own.

  She sighed and leaned back in the crook of his arm. “So when did you first feel that your heart was taken?”

  “The moment I saw you.”

  Mandy knit her brows. “But you looked so forbidding, and you couldn’t say anything nice to me!”

  He laughed. “I had that danged Bell’s palsy, and it made me look so strange that I knew you’d never give me a second glance. And then every time I turned around, Vince was there in his brand new Cadillac, bringing you flowers, giving you presents, being suave and polished— all the things I’m not. I’m afraid I didn’t handle it very well.”

  “Oh, yes. Vince.” Mandy was quiet for a moment.

  “Do you care for him?” Grange asked.

  She nodded and felt him stiffen. “I care for him like I care for Rael, I think. You look at him and see someone with money who owns half the town and who travels all over doing something dangerous and dashing. But I see someone who just wants to be a Timberlain.”

  “I don’t understand,” Grange said, but he had relaxed.

  “Talk to Granny Timberlain about it. She’ll explain it. I’ll tell you what I don’t understand. If Fran talked to you last night, what was your pickup doing at her house this morning?” Mandy nestled in and pulled the coat tighter around her as Stevie Joe turned onto the highway and picked up speed.

  Grange leaned down to speak in her ear. “She called me first thing and asked me to give her a ride to the school, so I did. I figured that Moses was with us, so I’d be safe from any more moves she was trying to put on me. I was wrong. She’s a resourceful lady— I’ll say that for her.”

  “Oh? That sounds interesting.” Mandy thought a moment. “But that still doesn’t explain your truck being at her house.”

  “We were busy getting set up, and Doc MacDonald showed up, asking people where she was. She got wind of it and asked me for the keys to the truck. I didn’t know at the time why she wanted them. I just gave them to her and went ahead setting up the sound system. When Doc found me and said he was looking to arrest her— ”

  “Arrest her!” Mandy pulled away to look up at Grange. “What for?”

  “Embezzlement. She’s stolen about a hundred thousand dollars from Vince in the time she had been working for him.”

  “Really? Fran? How did he find out?”

  “He had Mo go through the books. He found how she’d done it.”

  Mandy combed Grange’s hair away from his brow, but the wind blew it back. “I remember. Mo didn’t want me to tell you about it,” she said. “Why?”

  “He must have felt it would be disloyal because of the bad blood that’s always been between Vince and me.”

  “Okay. So Doc tells you he’s going to arrest her, and you do what?”

  “Moses and I rode with him to Fran’s, and that’s when we met Stevie Joe with his story. He
didn’t know for certain, but he was pretty sure that when Fran left, you were with her. Doc turned on the siren and took off, and we followed in the pickup. We came upon Fran pulling out of the woods onto the highway. She took one look at Doc’s cruiser and made a dash for it. He followed her, and we figured we’d look down the road where she’d been to see if you were there.”

  “I’m so glad you did.” Mandy sighed. “You’re making a habit of showing up at bad times. It’s a nice habit.”

  “So, why did you run away yesterday?” Grange asked.

  She covered her face with her hands. “Oh, it’s so embarrassing.”

  “I told you my embarrassing story,” he reminded her.

  She told him how she thought he was selling moonshine to support the music program, and when she finished, Grange threw back his head and laughed.

  “That cracks me up,” he said, “but it doesn’t explain why you ran.”

  “I had just discovered that— that my heart was taken, too. By you. And there you were, making yourself totally ineligible. I think that’s what I was running away from. I was heartsick.”

  Grange chuckled and pulled her closer as they turned into the high school parking lot.

  WHEN THEY PULLED into the parking lot, Leesie hollered, ran over, and hopped up on the running board. “Oh, Mandy! I’ve been worried sick! And Mother’s having heart flutters.”

  “Mother? Is she here?”

  “You didn’t forget!”

  “I’ve had a lot on my mind,” Mandy said.

  “I see.” Leesie looked at Grange and grinned. “But imagine, Mandy. It was Fran that was doing all those things to you!”

  “All what things? I know she just conked me on the head. What else?”

  “The fire. The wheel that fell off. The poison. All of it.”

  “Fran? Our Fran? Oh, I don’t— ” All of a sudden Mandy remembered looking out Fran’s kitchen window and wondering at the discrepancy in her story. “How do you know this, Leesie?”

  “Doc MacDonald brought her in. You weren’t here, so he told Mother and me all about it. Oh, Mandy, it’s such a mystery! She used to work for Poppy!”

  “No. That was her sister.”

  “That’s what Fran said, but it wasn’t true. Fran worked for Poppy, and she embezzled a bunch of money and went to prison for it. Mother remembers her. Apparently she was one of Poppy’s favorite people until she was caught.”

  Mandy blinked. As she tried to process the alien information, she heard a familiar voice calling her name.

  “Mother?” She sat up and looked around.

  “Over here,” Leesie called to their mother.

  Clara Wheeler made her way through the crowd. Tall and slender, with dark brown eyes, and prematurely gray hair piled on top of her head, she was an eye-catching figure. “Oh, Mandy,” she said. “What have you got yourself mixed up in?” Her eyes shifted to Grange’s bearded face and back to her daughter.

  Mandy rose to her knees and hugged her mother over the side of the pickup bed. “This is Grange, Mother. He’s my— ”

  Grange broke in. “Fiancé, ma’am.”

  “Not yet,” Mandy said, but no one paid attention to her protestations.

  Leesie clapped her hands. “That’s such good news! Oh, Mother, isn’t that the coolest?”

  “This is all too much!” Mrs. Wheeler said. “First that awful woman, and now this!”

  “Fran? Have you seen her, Mother?” Mandy asked.

  “Yes, and she doesn’t look a thing like the Fran Porter I knew. She was fat and had thick glasses and buck teeth. I never would have recognized her.”

  “I guess that could be changed with braces, contacts, and a diet,” Mandy mused. “She was always counting carbs.”

  Leesie explained. “When she rented the house to Mandy Steenburg, she didn’t know it was Poppy Wheeler’s daughter. It wasn’t until I came that she found out. When she knew you were coming up, Mother, she did everything she could to convince Mandy to leave, so there would be no chance that you would see and recognize her.”

  “Well, you didn’t help,” Mandy said to Leesie. “She thought Poppy was coming, too, since you insist on talking as if he is still alive.”

  “I heard she blew a hole in the dike last night,” Leesie said.

  “Was that her? Lovey thought it might be Vince.”

  “Who’s Lovey?” Leesie asked.

  “Who’s Vince?” Mrs. Wheeler asked.

  Grange rose to kneel by Mandy and put his arm around her. “I think I may be the reason Fran blew the dike. When she left my house, she said something about making things uncomfortable for you. It was pure spite, the same reason she knocked you out and dumped you in the woods.”

  “Speaking of Vince,” Grange went on, nodding toward the parking lot entrance where the Escalade was just pulling in. “You need to talk to him, you know.”

  “That’s Vince?” Mrs. Wheeler eyed the SUV speculatively.

  Mandy turned and looked into Grange’s eyes. “I love you, Grange Timberlain. What a generous thing to say.” Then she kissed him on the mouth, a long, lingering, expressive kiss in a most public place.

  “Mandy!” Clara Wheeler protested.

  Mandy kept her arms around his neck, but turned to look at her mother and grinned. “He looks a little rough and rustic right now, Mother, but he cleans up real good.”

  “Really, Mandy! What’s become of you?”

  She laughed. “Wait until you see what’s become of Leesie.” Mandy stood and pulled Grange up beside her. Patting his cheek, she said, “I’m going to go talk to him right now.” She looked around until she spotted Vince, standing by his car, staring grimly at her. She waved, climbed out of the pickup bed, and made her way toward him.

  He met her halfway. She held out both her hands, and he took them, looking intently down at her. “Doc told me what happened. Are you all right?”

  “Yes, I am.” When Vince continued staring, she repeated, “I’m fine. Come and walk with me.” She tugged on his hand, and he followed her to the edge of the parking lot.

  “Where are we going?”

  “We’re just walking. I want to talk to you, and I need more privacy.”

  “That doesn’t sound good. You’ll kiss Grange in front of everyone, but you need privacy to talk to me?”

  Mandy didn’t answer at first. They walked past Mutt Maypole’s house, and she guided their progress around the corner before she spoke. “It isn’t good, Vince. I won’t say I wasn’t attracted to you. I was. You’re very… very, very attractive. I was flattered and very attracted to you.” She glanced up at him.

  He stared straight ahead, and a muscle in his jaw stood out. “You’ve said you were attracted three times. Was it nothing more than that?”

  “Yes, it was. I admire you. I think you’re an outstanding individual. I— ”

  Vince stopped and turned her to face him. “But not love? You’ve said nothing about love.”

  “Love, yes,” Mandy said gently. “But not in the way you want, Vince.”

  He turned his face away.

  “Let’s take this road,” she said. Tucking her arm in his, she drew him around another corner so they were heading back in the direction of the high school.

  They walked silently. Once, Vince cleared his throat, and another time he wiped something from his eye. It wasn’t until she stopped that he spoke. “Don’t say anything, Mandy. I couldn’t take the ‘Let’s just be friends’ speech right now.”

  “I wasn’t going to do that. I want you to talk to someone.”

  “Not right now. I couldn’t— ”

  “I think this is just the time,” Mandy insisted, leading him up a walkway.

  He hung back. “I know whose house this is.”

  “But you don’t know what she’s going to say.” Mandy led him to the porch and knocked on the door.

  Granny Timberlain answered so promptly that Mandy knew she must have seen their approach. “Good morning, Granny,” she b
egan. “I think this is the time for you to talk to Vince.”

  “It’s too little, too late,” he said bitterly.

  Granny looked at him affectionately. “My dear, we have all suffered because Buck made bad choices. I kept my distance because your mother chose not to acknowledge the Timberlain connection. That doesn’t mean I didn’t love you from afar.”

  Vince’s lip curled. “How could you do that?”

  “Would you like to see? I have a scrapbook full of things about you.” She reached out and took him by the hand. “Come in.”

  As Granny drew him into her living room, Mandy stepped back. “I’ll leave you two to have some private time together.”

  Just before the door closed, Vince sent her one last, beseeching look. That look shadowed her all the way back to the high school. But the sun broke through the clouds— the steel band was in full swing, and Mandy caught a glimpse of her mother with her hands in the air, grooving to the beat in the parking lot, along with half the county. Mandy laughed out loud and went to join her.

  THE AFTERNOON WAS a busy, joyous affair. Mandy watched as students managed everything from parking to tech support, and Grange was the hub around which all the organization revolved. Often during the day, she caught sight of him listening intently to something a student was saying or giving directions for something that needed to be done, and invariably he would sense her gaze, look up, and their eyes would meet. It never failed to send her pulse racing.

  As she and her mother wandered from one venue to another, Mandy introduced her to Millie Barlow and Edith Berman, as well as Midge Cooley, Nettie Maypole, Tammy, Mrs. Reilly, and a host of other people in the district. When it came time for Leesie’s group to play, Mrs. Wheeler leaned over and said, “Enchanting. What kind of grass did you say this is?”

  At seven in the evening, Mandy and her mother found seats in the gym to watch a group called the Dusty Millers. Mandy was surprised to see Rael tuning up and even more so when Mo walked onstage with his mandolin. When Lovey appeared, there was a ripple of applause and conversation, and Mandy clapped enthusiastically with the rest of the crowd, explaining to her mother the story of Lovey and Rael. There was polite applause when the fiddler and the fellow playing standup bass appeared, but when Grange walked out with his banjo, everyone stomped and cheered.