In Memory's Shadow

by Linda Wisdom

  “Considering it’s a lingerie boutique that’s just fine with me.” Pleased with the results, she tapped the Save key.

  “There’s nothing wrong with you having a sexy nightgown for those special evenings,” the girl commented with a sly smile.

  “Considering I can’t imagine a special evening requiring a sexy nightgown, I’d say there’s nothing wrong with what I wear now.”

  Steffie wrinkled her nose. ‘Trust me, Mom, you wouldn’t get a man’s interest in what you wear.”

  “Since I don’t care to snag a man I guess it means I can wear any old thing I want to bed,” she said lightly, looking down at her ragged shorts and T-shirt. “Not to mention any other time.”

  “Old is right,” Steffie observed, dropping onto the floor and seating herself in a cross-legged position. “You wear stuff even / wouldn’t be caught dead in.”

  Keely spun her chair around. “Are you hinting for a shopping trip?”

  She shook her head. “Not for me, Mom. For you. It’s just that you really should consider how you look. You don’t want men to perceive you as a woman who doesn’t care about her looks, do you?”

  “Perceive me?” she repeated. “Amazing you would come up with that specific word. And is there any man in particular you’re thinking of?”

  Steffie looked up as if the answer just might be written on the ceiling. “Not exactly,” she said in a vague voice, “but you never can tell who might just happen to walk into your life. You should want to be ready.” She Angered the bright pink yarn she’d used to tie up her ponytail and wound it around her finger.

  Keely smothered the sigh threatening to crawl up her throat “Honey, unfortunately you know the divorce wasn’t exactly friendly. Right now I’m not looking for another relationship. I’m more interested in spending my free time with my darling daughter,” she cooed.

  Steffie adopted a haughty pose. “Excuse me, but I am a teenager and the last thing a teenage girl wants is her mother around.”

  “I should be insulted by that crack!” Keely teased. She turned back to her computer and shut her system down. She took her disk and returned it to the box. “Is the invalid up to helping me make lunch?”

  Steffie jumped to her feet. “It only takes one hand to spread mustard,” she said loftily, heading for the kitchen.

  It was while they were eating their sandwiches that they heard the doorbell chime.

  Keely headed for the door and swung it open. She smiled uncertainly at the man facing her.

  “John, what a surprise.” She didn’t move from the doorway. “Is there a problem?”

  He shook his head as he held out a bouquet of flowers. “I just thought I’d stop by and see how Steffie was doing. For the young lady,” he added.

  She immediately felt guilty that she had acted so uninviting. “She’ll be thrilled.” She stepped back. “We’re just finishing up lunch.” She led him toward the back of the house.

  “Oh, hi, Mr. Harris.” Steffie’s look of expectancy faded when she identified their visitor.

  “Hello, Steffie, I hope you’re feeling better.” He handed her the green paper-wrapped bouquet. “I thought some flowers would help your recovery.”

  She smiled and accepted the gift with a murmured “Thank you.”

  “I’ll find a vase,” Keely offered. “Would you like to sit down, John? Perhaps something to drink?” She ignored the frantic hand signals Steffie sent her behind the man’s back.

  He eyed the two glasses already sitting on the table as he took one of the chairs. “Iced tea sounds fine to me.”

  Keely poured a glass for him and set it on the table before she sat back down. “How were you able to escape the pharmacy?”

  “I insisted no one could need any medication for at least an hour.” He smiled charmingly.

  Steffie rolled her eyes and dramatically stuck her linger down her throat as she walked behind the man to reach her chair. Keely could do nothing but smile at John who naturally smiled back. His gaze flickered over Steffie as if expecting her to make her excuses and leave the room. The girl smiled brightly and settled down in her chair.

  “I guess living in a small town means you know everyone’s dirty secrets,” Steffie spoke up, blatantly ignoring her mother’s embarrassed “Stefanie!”

  “So, who has the worst?”

  Luckily, John didn’t bat an eyelash. “The pharmacist code doesn’t allow me to divulge my clients’ secrets,” he said solemnly. “Although I can tell you that Mrs. Hawthorne buys condoms for her son.”

  Steffie’s eyes widened as she burst into delighted laughter.

  John leaned forward to further confide, “Mrs. Hawthorne’s son is sixty-four.”

  Keely could feel her lips quivering and her throat tickle with laughter. “Obviously, she is a very concerned mother.”

  “Or a hopeful one since Ralph Hawthorne’s last date was forty-seven years ago. His prom date ran off with the captain of the basketball team. He never got over the disappointment.”

  “Sheesh, you’d think he’d realize he might have gotten off lucky,” Steffie declared. “She could have turned out to be a real dud.” She paused, intrigued by John’s expression. “She did turn into a dud, didn’t she?”

  “Actually, she’s a news producer for one of the big networks,” he replied. “The basketball captain only ended up owning a string of fast-food restaurants in the Midwest.”

  Steffie expelled a loud snort of disgust. “There was no justice there.”

  “Once you meet Ralph you’ll understand why.” John turned to Keely. “I was wondering if you might like to go out to dinner one evening soon.”

  Her smile froze. This was just what she had feared when she first sensed his interest in her. She wasn’t sure why she didn’t want to go out with John. Perhaps it was because he was quite a bit older. Or something else she wasn’t about to ponder on just yet.

  “To be honest, John, I’m just now getting back into the swing of my work what with the move and all,” she said, hoping she could come up with the right words. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt his feelings, but she wasn’t going to go out with him just because she wasn’t sure what to say. “I have a heavy backlog and right now I can’t think of much else but getting caught up. I have quite a few clients who have been very patient with me while I went through the move and got settled here, but I need to get back to work. The least I can do in appreciation is to finish their projects as soon as possible.”

  “Mom has a very impressive list of clients,” Steffie said with the pride a mother might use in discussing her beloved child. “Thanks to their recommendations she’s always picking up new clients.”

  “She still needs to learn to take time out for herself,” John told her as he pushed himself away from the table and stood up. “I guess I should get back to the pharmacy.”

  “Thank you for the flowers,” Steffie piped up in a polite voice.

  Keely shot her daughter a subtle warning look not to hurry their guest along too quickly even as she stood up.

  She walked John to the door and stood there offering a wave as he drove away. She closed the door with a sigh of relief and returned to the kitchen to find her daughter already starting to clear their lunch dishes.

  “Man, can’t he get a date his own age?” Steffie muttered, as she carried the plates to the sink.

  “A woman is always flattered when an older man is interested in her,” Keely countered.

  “He’s a pharmacist, not a doctor,” she reminded her. “Any woman knows she shoots for a doctor.”

  “Just remember that when you get old enough to find the right man.” Keely playfully pulled on her ponytail.

  Sam hated inactivity. Admittedly, he liked it when things were quiet and there were times in the town when the worst crime to crop up was jaywalking. He enjoyed that kind of peace after the dark frenzy of working Vice and later Homicide, in Sacramento.

  For now, he sat behind his desk, leaning back in his chair wi
th his booted feet propped on top of his desk. A cup of coffee was cradled in his hands, which rested comfortably on his flat belly.

  It was easy to think about Keely Harper. Except when he did think about her he sometimes also remembered Keely Davis. Five-year-old Keely Davis with her oh-so- large eyes filled with pain and confusion as she held tightly on to a stuffed animal as her life fell down around her.

  “The girl says Willis killed them.”

  “Always knew that bastard was an animal. And to think that poor little baby saw it all.â€�

  “No way can she tell someone what really happened.”

  “One of the deputies said she told him the man who fixed her playhouse hurt her mommy and daddy. He said she sounded so sure of herself there’s no doubt she’s not making it up or somehow dreamed it.”

  He never realized those old memories would intrude. With his father being sheriff back then, Sam had been aware of everything that happened at that time. His father hadn’t liked discussing any of his cases, but this one had affected him deeply. It was the first murder in Echo Ridge in more than fifty years and the fact that a five-year-old girl had witnessed it only made it more heinous.

  Sam remembered lying awake at night, hearing his father talk to his mother about the rare composure the young Keely showed as she answered any question put to her. And during the trial, her clear concise answers sealed a man’s fate. No one in the court could deny the little girl knew exactly what she talked about.

  But at what cost? A few days after Edgar Willis was sentenced to prison for his crime did Keely collapse and have to be hospitalized. After she regained consciousness it became evident that she’d lost all memory of her parents’ deaths. The last thing she remembered was the day before when she had played with her dolls and looked forward to a day out with her mother.

  The town’s citizens, as a whole, had performed a rare act at that time. By unspoken agreement, the murder was not discussed. Keely’s amnesia was also not discussed so it would not reach any media ears. The little girl had gone through enough already, no matter how much shielding her grandmother and the town had given her. But her grandmother was in too much pain to remain there. She’d packed up Keely and moved south where she wouldn’t have to contend with memories. Sam now recalled that it had been hinted they had moved to the San Diego area, but Evelyn Stuart hadn’t maintained contact with any of her old friends, so no one knew for sure.

  Sam thought of the little girl, then the picture blurred and he saw the woman in her place. He knew if Keely had any idea of the real reason behind her grandmother’s taking her away from Echo Ridge, she wouldn’t have returned.

  He wasn’t surprised by her violent reaction when she entered the house of her birth. Obviously, her subconscious remembered what her mind refused to acknowledge. Now he had to fear the day the past would flood back. He only hoped he could be close by.

  The thing was, when Sam was around Keely Harper it wasn’t easy to think like a cop. He was sure no man could be around her and not see her as a very desirable woman. He sure saw her as a woman.

  “Glad to see you’re working hard.” A plump woman in her fifties bustled in and plopped herself down in the visitor’s chair. She lifted her reading glasses, which hung on a pearl-dotted chain around her neck, and tipped them onto her nose. “Have you bothered to read any of your messages today?”

  He shrugged. “Was there a reason why I’d want to read them, Freda?”

  “It is part of your job,” the office clerk-dispatcher reminded him.

  “It’s only part of my job if there’s anything good there.”

  She sorted through the small pile of pink message slips. “Maida is convinced Ernie is watching her through his binoculars. She wants us to take care of that ‘dirty ole pervert’—her words.” She looked up. “Or would you like something a little more intense, such as Rory Landers sneaking out after curfew every night. He’s dating Cindy Parker,” she clarified.

  He frowned. “I thought she was going out with Scott Kinsey.”

  Freda waved her hand in dismissal. “That was over months ago. Honestly, Samuel, where have you been? Get with the times, boy. Scott’s seeing Beth Donaldson now.”

  “I’m too damn old for all of this,” he complained. “What did you tell Maida?”

  “That if she’d close her blinds at night, Ernie couldn’t see anything. I told her she’s nothing more than a tease and she should be ashamed of herself.”

  Sam smothered his sigh. This meant he’d be hearing from a furious Maida before the day was out. Unless Freda made sure her calls didn’t get through to him.

  “And I told Felicity Landers if the worst thing Scott is doing is sneaking out, she should be grateful he’s doing it in a small town where he can’t get away with too much without half the population knowing about it”

  “How come I’m the sheriff and you’re not?” he asked, amused by her blunt declarations.

  “Because this town is still so damn chauvinistic I can’t see us having a female sheriff in the next hundred years.” Freda leaned forward and set the message slips down. She sat back and eyed Sam. “I heard John Harris closed up the pharmacy counter for an hour so he could go out to see Keely Harper. He bought a bouquet of flowers at Vern’s flower shop.”

  “Maybe Keely called in a refill for Steffie and he delivered it. She still might be having problems with her arm,” he said amiably, even though he didn’t like the idea of John sniffing around Keely. Damn it, the man was too old for her!

  But then, Sam had no right to think anything. He wasn’t exactly a prize for any woman.

  “You’re not going to let him get away with that, are you?” Freda demanded.

  Sam studied the woman who had worked for his father then stayed on after his retirement explaining to Sam he needed her. And damn it, she was better than any of his deputies when it came to dealing with the public.

  “I have a daughter.”

  “Amazing. So does she. And they’re even the same age.” She held her reading glasses in her hand, pointing them at him. “I also heard they’re fast becoming good friends. Convenient, isn’t it?”

  “Keely’s not interested in any kind of relationship and if she was, she wouldn’t be interested in someone like me,” he said bluntly.

  Freda continued staring at him with that pained expression that said loud and clear she thought he was an idiot. “Someone like you. And what, pray tell, is wrong with you?”

  “She’s beautiful and grew up in the bright lights of the big city which she’ll undoubtedly miss the minute the snow falls around here,” he explained. “I’ll bet she’ll be out of here by the first snowfall.”

  “You’re not exactly road kill,” Freda replied bluntly. “And she doesn’t look like someone who will run at the sight of the first snowflake. There’s nothing for you to worry about, Samuel.”

  Sam grinned. No matter what went on in the world he knew he could count on Freda to tell him the truth no matter how much it hurt.

  “Put on your glasses, Freda. I’m too tall, have hands that are too big and there’s days I’m as awkward as hell.”

  Her retort was decidedly off-color, which made Sam only laugh.

  “Go do some work,” he ordered, even though he didn’t sound as if he meant it.

  Freda levered herself out of her chair. “It’s easier to get my work done on time when your boys turn in their reports when they’re due. Rick still hasn’t written up last week’s reports I told him if I don’t have them by the end of shift today he’s not seeing his paycheck until he gets them done.”

  “You should have been a teacher, Freda. You would have been hell on wheels.”

  “Glad you think so, because I need some paperwork from you, too,” she said as she left the office. “No paperwork, no paycheck.”

  Sam thought about his end of month report that hadn’t even been started and he groaned. He knew the older woman well enough to know she would make sure none of them fo
und their paychecks until she got what she wanted. Freda never issued a threat she didn’t mean to follow through. He couldn’t even use the excuse of having a child to feed. She’d only smartly insist Lisa was more than welcome to have dinner at her house. Sam would not be invited since she considered him dumb enough not to do his paperwork when it was due.

  For a moment he wondered if Keely Harper might be tenderhearted enough to feed him.

  It was a thought.

  “So, how is it going?” Chloe asked as she poured coffee for Keely and herself, in the bookstore.

  “The boxes are finally unpacked, although I’m positive there were twice as many as we originally packed,” she said ruefully.

  Keely had decided to take the morning off for some grocery shopping and stopped by to see Chloe, who immediately suggested she sit down and have a cup of coffee. A plate of delectable pastries sat on the table between them. Keely glanced around and noticed familiar faces. John smiled and waved as he perused popular fiction while Allison, the nurse from the medical center, was engrossed in the romance section.

  Chloe nodded, understanding. “They clone themselves during the night.” She studied the pastries and finally chose a raspberry one. “When I opened the bookstore I couldn’t believe the number of boxes I unpacked. It seemed for everyone I unpacked, two more would appear.” She dusted powdered sugar off her black pants. “When do you plan to move into your parents’ house?”

  Keely thought back to the day she’d entered her childhood residence. She could still feel the icy chill that streamed through her blood. The fear that she felt that day came back with a vengeance. She noticed her hand was shaking slightly as she put down her coffee cup. Even looking at the pastries left her feeling slightly nauseous.

  “I haven’t given myself a strict deadline,” she murmured, surprised her voice sounded so composed when she felt so strange inside. “I thought I’d concentrate more on getting Steffie settled in school and my work going first since I knew the house would need some major repairs.”