Hidden in the Wall

by Valerie Hansen

  Trevor chuckled. “Okay. No more Miss Stephanie. I like Steff better anyway. It’s less formal.”

  “That’s probably why my parents refuse to use it,” she said over her shoulder. “Just one more reason to scold me.”

  “I gathered J.T. was reading you the riot act about hiring me.”

  “Hey, if it wasn’t that, it would be something else. I never have been able to please Dad. That’s just how it is. Unfortunately, I’m not perfect.”

  “You don’t have to be perfect, Steff. Not for your friends.” He closed the distance between them as they entered the break room. “And especially not for God. If He required that His children be perfect to be acceptable to Him, none of us would make it. Which reminds me.”

  “Uh-oh. You sound serious. Should I run?”

  Trevor laughed. “No. I just remembered that Alicia needs help several evenings next week for VBS. Maybe you could volunteer.”

  “For what?”

  “Vacation Bible School. She made the mistake of offering her services and they put her in charge of snacks.”

  “I never bake cookies,” Steff replied.

  “You wouldn’t have to. All you’d have to do is pour punch and hand out the cookies. You can handle that, can’t you?” He grinned. “It would really help Alicia. I know she needs more willing workers.”

  “Willing? Well, that lets me out,” Steff quipped. She raised her eyebrows and looked at him askance. “Are you going to be there, too?”

  “Yes, but only as a temporary teacher. They roped me into taking the class of six-year-olds because I’m used to watching my sister’s kids. I’ll be lucky if I survive.”

  His candor made her laugh lightly. “I’ll think about it, okay? I’m not much for churchgoing.”

  “Why not?”

  She shrugged, feeling a little ill at ease. “I don’t know. Probably because I never saw the need. My parents went to church regularly, though. Dad spent his time looking for business prospects and Mom went to show off her jewelry and fancy clothes. As soon as I was brave enough to speak for myself, I stopped going with them.”

  “That’s not what it’s all about,” Trevor said. There was a warmth, a gentleness, in his gaze that made her tremble.

  All she added before purposely changing the subject was “If you say so.”

  Steff was glad for the diversion of the monthly potluck supper she and some of her college friends had started again after the reunion. Although she was so emotionally frazzled from being near Trevor and from all the strange goings-on at work, she wished it wasn’t her turn to host it.

  Looking around her pristine condo, she was thankful the cleaning staff had done such a good job, not that her home was ever messy. Unlike the grandeur and almost-Victorian decor of her parents’ mansion, her condo was simply furnished in mostly off-white and pale shades of mauve, and displayed the reserved elegance she preferred.

  If Trevor ever saw the place he’d probably tell her it was too neat, she mused, although Alicia hadn’t said anything derogatory when she’d stopped by a week or so ago.

  The doorbell chimed. Steff smoothed her bejeweled T-shirt over the hips of her designer jeans and went to answer.

  “Cassie! Jennifer!” she said with a grin. “Come in, come in. You’re the first ones here.”

  Cassie headed straight for the kitchen. “I made a soufflé but it fell, so I stopped to get a pizza. Hope you don’t mind?”

  “Not at all,” Steff said. “Actually, I picked up a quiche from the Mossy Oak Inn on my way home.”

  “That’s our Steff,” Jennifer teased. “Always first-class. You’ll have us spoiled yet.”

  “Yeah,” Cassie added with a giggle.

  Steff made a silly face. “Knock it off, you two. I only went to the inn because it’s so close to my office.”

  “All I brought was a salad, and it’s a good thing,” Jennifer said. “I had car trouble and Cassie had to give me a ride over. Is Kate coming?”

  “Far as I know. I invited Alicia, too. I hope y’all don’t mind.”

  “Not us,” Cassie said with a sly smile. “You have to keep Trevor’s baby sister happy, right?”

  Steff took a playful swipe at her outspoken friend. “I asked Alicia because she’s been too busy to connect very well since she moved back to Magnolia Falls.”

  “Right. And her handsome brother has nothing to do with it.”

  “That’s right.” Steff did her best to stifle a silly grin that kept trying to lift the corners of her mouth. “Besides, I see plenty of Trevor at work. I told you I’d hired him to remodel my office, didn’t I?”

  “You certainly did. Several times,” Cassie teased. “How’s that going, anyway?”

  “Just fine.” Remembering the initial and dabs of what had looked like blood that she and Trevor had found hidden in the office wall, Steff grew solemn and added, “For the most part.”

  “Uh-oh.”

  She waved her hands in dismissal. “No, no. It was nothing, really. We just…” She hesitated. “Never mind.”

  Both her friends leaned closer, eager to hear more. “No way,” Jennifer said. “You can’t start a story and stop in the middle like that. What happened? Did he make a pass at you or something?”

  “Of course not! We found a funny thing inside the wall, that’s all.”

  “Like what?”

  “Yeah, like what?”

  Steff took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “It was an initial. Somebody drew the letter P or R on the inside of the wallboard. It looked as if it was written by a finger dipped in something. And there were drops of what looked like blood splattered around near the outer edge of the piece, too.”

  “Eeew.” Cassie made a face. “As my students would say, that’s totally gross.”

  “I agree. But Trevor wasn’t at all concerned, so we threw it away. I really wish we hadn’t.”

  “What? You didn’t give it to the police? Why not?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  The doorbell sounded again before Steff could elaborate and she hurried to answer. “Alicia! Come in. I was just telling Cassie and Jennifer that I’d invited you.” Steff guided her through the living room to the kitchen. “You can put your casserole on top of the stove. I want to give Kate a few more minutes to get here before we eat.”

  “Fine.” Alicia smiled at the others. “So, what’s new with y’all?”

  Cassie answered. “Actually, Steff was just telling us about something weird she found in her office wall.”

  “You mean, the initial?”

  Steff frowned, puzzled. “Trevor mentioned it to you?”

  “No. I saw it and asked him about it.”

  “You saw it? When? How?”

  “He brought it home with him. Why?”

  Steff was astounded. “I can’t believe this. He insisted it was nothing.” She scowled as she recalled her late-night efforts to recover the clue that Trevor had already saved. “He lied to me.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Alicia said. “He probably just didn’t want you to worry.”

  “Humph. I’m a lot more concerned now than I was before. I can hardly wait till I see him tomorrow.”

  “Uh-oh,” Cassie quipped. “The fat’s in the fire now.”

  Everyone else had had to leave earlier so Steff offered to drive Jennifer home. It was a balmy summer night and pleasant being outside.

  Seated beside her, Jennifer ran her hand over the smooth leather upholstery. “Nice car, Steff.”

  “Thanks. It was a present—from me to myself.”

  “Good for you. I’m still driving the old clunker I had when we graduated.”

  “No wonder it didn’t want to start,” Steff joked. “The poor thing is tired.”

  Jennifer leaned her head back against the seat and sighed. “Mmm-hmm. Me, too. I know I’m doing the right thing by running the nursery and after-school programs at the church, but it is tiring. I can certainly understand why people like Kate and Alicia say
they’re glad they had their children while they were younger.”

  “You and I are not exactly ancient,” Steff countered. “I think establishing a career first is very important.”

  “I’m not so sure. When I’m looking after those little ones all day, they really get to me.”

  “Make you notice your biological clock, you mean?”

  “Something like that. Then again, there is a lot to be said for not rushing things the way Penny and Adam did.” She glanced at Steff. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up old hurts.”

  “It’s okay.” Steff managed to force a smile she hoped looked natural. “My brother’s been gone a long time.”

  “Do you ever wonder about Penny? I mean, don’t your parents want to know what’s become of her and their only grandchild.”

  “They might if they believed Alexis was really Adam’s daughter,” Steff said. “Penny showed up at my folks’ estate after the baby was born, acting as though she expected to be welcomed with open arms in spite of all the nasty things she’d said to us at Adam’s funeral.”

  “Oh, dear. How awful.”

  Steff’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, her knuckles whitening. “That’s an understatement. Dad said he wanted Penny to have the baby’s DNA tested. It seemed like a sensible request to me, but Penny refused to even consider it. When Dad insisted, she got furious. By then my mother was in tears. It was awful.”

  “Haven’t they seen the little girl since she was a baby?”

  “No. None of us have.”

  “What about child support? Adam and Penny were married, right? Isn’t his estate financially responsible?”

  “I suppose it would be if Penny chose to press the issue. I tried to locate her to invite her to our class reunion but wherever she is, she’s doing a good job of hiding.”

  “Do you think she’s actually hiding?”

  “Not literally,” Steff said with a quick shake of her head. “I think poor Penny just burned all her bridges around here and went somewhere where no one knows about her messy past. I can’t imagine being so emotionally off balance over a man that I’d compromise my standards to make him marry me the way she did to Adam.”

  Jennifer giggled. “You’ve never been in love, have you?”

  “Sure, I have. Remember Luke’s friend, John? We dated for a long time. He even asked me to marry him.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “My parents pushed so hard to convince me, I wouldn’t have given in if he’d been the last available man in Magnolia Falls.”

  “Then you didn’t really love him,” Jennifer said. “If you had, nothing could have stopped you, not even outside interference.”

  Steff shrugged as she pulled up to the curb in front of Jennifer’s house. “Well, I’m certainly never going to put myself into an untenable position the way Adam did. I can’t believe he was really happy, but it was his choice to make, not mine. I’m just sorry he didn’t live long enough to work out the glitches in his marriage.”

  Climbing out, Jennifer reached for her empty salad bowl then paused at the open passenger door. “Me, too. Thanks for inviting us again. Good night.”

  “’Night.”

  Steff watched until her old friend reached the door and safely let herself in before she pulled away from the curb. It always hurt to talk about Adam, but she supposed doing so was good for her. His death was something she’d had to accept, just as she accepted that the sun rose each morning and set each evening. It simply was. There was no discussion or argument that could change that fact, nor was yearning for him going to alter anything that had happened in the past.

  She knew, without hearing the actual words, that her parents often wished she had been the one to perish in that boating accident instead of their eldest, most beloved son.

  Chin held high, Steff blinked back unshed tears. It would be nice to think that Trevor had been right when he’d told her that God loved her just as she was, that she was acceptable to her heavenly Father, even though her earthly one seemed constantly disappointed in her.

  For the first time in longer than she could recall, she tried to pray. There were no fancy phrases embellishing her wordless plea, just a heartfelt need, and in reply she received peace that flowed over her like warm oil, anointing her all the way to her tender soul.

  The unexpected phenomenon surprised her so much her jaw dropped. She blinked to try to clear her head. What had just occurred? How could it logically be explained?

  “I finally relaxed, that’s all,” she concluded. “I’ve been tense ever since I hired Trevor, anyway, and with all the talk about Adam, I was simply overwrought.”

  Sure, that was it. After all, she might believe in God in a basic way but she was far from buying into the theory that He cared about inconsequential things.

  “Like me,” she added with self-deprecation. It was a relief to feel better but she wasn’t willing to attribute her lift to anything spiritual.

  Steff knew she had no one she could depend upon one hundred percent but herself. She’d learned that lesson long ago. She was strong, self-reliant, smart, capable and successful at whatever she made up her mind to do. She didn’t need anyone or anything else. Or did she?

  Her thoughts flashed back to the night of the reunion, then quickly progressed to her fright in the basement. Okay, so maybe there had been a couple of times lately when she’d wished she’d had backup. That didn’t changed the fact that she could take care of herself. Period.

  She believed that wholeheartedly, so why was her stomach continually churning and why did she so often feel anxious?

  “Trevor,” she answered immediately, and this time she didn’t bother to argue. He didn’t scare her, not the way the man lurking next to the library had, but he didn’t help her feel very settled or secure, either. Especially not since she’d found out he’d been lying to her.

  FIVE

  T he more Steff thought about Trevor’s subterfuge regarding the clue from the wall, the more angry she became. Rather than drive directly home from Jennifer’s she detoured past the Magnolia campus to see if he was still working. Judging by the looks of the Administration building, he was.

  She proceeded down the narrow, winding, oak-lined road, parked her Mercedes next to Trevor’s truck and hurried up the walk. He had the building’s doors propped open and the overhead lights were drawing moths of all sizes, some as big as hummingbirds!

  Wishing that the door had a screen she could close, Steff waved the moths away and headed for her office. All the lights were on in there, too, but there was no sign of Trevor.

  She was about to call his name when she noticed that the door to the basement storage area was ajar.

  Frowning, thoughtful, she walked to the doorway, opened it the rest of the way and peered down into the depths. The basement lights were not lit but she could see the beam of a flashlight moving among the stacks.

  This time she knew it had to be Trevor. What could he be doing? And why not switch on the overhead lights? Surely if he’d wanted anything from down there he’d simply have asked, particularly after the heated discussion they’d already had about it.

  Then again, Trevor wasn’t the type to ask permission or to tell anyone what he was doing, especially if he wasn’t certain his ideas would be well received. He never had been, which was one reason he’d gotten into so much trouble in his youth.

  His practice of keeping secrets was the reason she was so upset with him at present, she reminded herself.

  Determined to face him and give him the reprimand he deserved, Steff started down the cellar stairs without hesitation. If Trevor thought he was going to get the best of the other construction companies by poking through the records of previous jobs, he had another think coming. Being fair meant being fair to all the bidders for the library job, not just Whittaker Construction.

  She wasn’t trying to mask the noise of her approach and her steps echoed hollowly on the wooden staircase. The beam of light had been moving
behind stacks of boxes that were arranged like a library. Suddenly it went out.

  Steff paused to give her eyes a chance to adjust to the dimness. Thankfully, there was still the light shining down the stairwell behind her to help her see.

  “Okay, Trevor. Enough games,” she said loudly. “I know you’re down here so you may as well show yourself.”

  Nothing moved. The light remained off. Steff was beginning to have second thoughts about being down here in the semidarkness.

  The short hairs at the nape of her neck tickled a warning. She tensed and her hand gripped the smooth banister as if it, alone, were keeping her standing firmly upright.

  To her annoyance, her voice sounded tremulous as she demanded, “Trevor, knock it off. Trevor?”

  No one answered. The silence weighed heavily on her emotions as if it were a thick, smothering blanket. Steff’s muscles knotted. Her nerves tingled. The insistent urge to escape was strong enough to make her start to turn to face up the stairs.

  That was a mistake. Almost immediately she was grabbed from behind and cast aside as if she were weightless.

  Landing on her hands and knees, too stunned to cry out, she thought she felt something substantial brush past her.

  The cement floor was icy-cold. Her palms smarted. Her heartbeats pounded in her temples and echoed in her ears. How dare he!

  More angry than injured, she started to get to her feet just as the door at the top of the stairs slammed, leaving her in total darkness.

  That changed everything.

  Trevor was returning from the break room when he heard incessant pounding. Following the sound, he twisted the knob on the basement door, found it locked, and started trying Steff’s spare keys until he located the right one.

  He jerked the door open.

  She rushed straight into his arms, nearly bowling him over, and remained there for several seconds before forcefully shoving him away.

  “That wasn’t funny,” she declared.

  “What are you talking about? How did you get stuck down there?”