Lone Wolf Standing

by Carla Cassidy

  Isaaic was a tall, well-built man. He might have been handsome beneath his beard and the brim of his straw hat, but Sheri had never seen him smile.

  He brought a variety of cheese—cut, sliced, cubed and already packaged and priced for Sheri to sell in the store. She took a small percentage of the sales and that worked to everyone’s satisfaction.

  “What do you have for me today?” she asked him, eager to put the conversation, the very unexpected appearance of Edward Cardell in the store, behind her.

  “Cubed bacon cheddar, sliced pepper jack...” As he listed the cheeses he pulled each one out of the woven bag he’d carried and placed them on the picnic table where the staff usually took their breaks.

  “I’ll put them in the display case and probably within the next two or three days they’ll all be gone. Your cheeses are always a big hit with the tourists.”

  He nodded, his dark eyes lingering on her. “You are doing okay?”

  The question surprised her. He’d never asked her anything personal or shared anything of his own life with her. “I’m fine.”

  His gaze looked down at the floor. “You are one of the best of the English. I would be saddened if anything happened to you.”

  “Thank you, Isaaic,” she replied, her heart touched by his unexpected words.

  “Good day to you, then,” he said, and within the blink of her eyes had disappeared out the back door.

  The afternoon had been filled with surprises, she thought as she heard the familiar sound of horse hooves and the jingle of reins as Isaaic left the parking area. Surely the rest of the day would bring no more unexpected visitors or unusual conversations.

  At least the unusual events had kept her mind off Jimmy, who would be arriving to pick her up in the next hour or so. What was she going to do about Jimmy?

  She’d told him she didn’t need him to be her bodyguard in her home anymore, and now she needed to tell him that she didn’t want him bringing her to work and picking her up each evening.

  It was time to cut the cord. They’d gotten too close, driven together by circumstances beyond their control. She needed to distance herself from him.

  She felt confident in her ability to protect herself with Highway back home to alert her to anyone getting close to the house, and her shotgun.

  Jimmy might not believe her capable of shooting the gun to harm somebody, but Edward was right—she was strong and capable of doing whatever was necessary to keep herself from harm’s way.

  “How’s Highway doing?” Jennifer asked, as if she’d plucked a piece of Sheri’s thoughts.

  “He’s doing great. The cast on his leg hasn’t slowed him down a bit and I always know where he is in the house by the thudding sound he makes when he walks. I’m happy to have my snuggle buddy back.”

  “I thought maybe you’d gotten yourself a new snuggle buddy,” Jennifer mused.

  “Don’t even go there,” Sheri threatened with a mock tone.

  “Sheri, someday you’re going to have to stop looking for your fairy-tale prince and start looking at real men who would love you.”

  Sheri shook her head. “I’ve been dreaming about my prince since I was a little girl. I know he’s going to find me. All I have to do is be patient.”

  “Maybe it’s time for a grown woman to put away childhood dreams,” Jennifer advised.

  “I’m only twenty-six and I’m not ready to put aside anything yet,” Sheri protested. “I have time for my prince to find me.”

  As Jennifer moved away from the counter and Sheri stocked the fresh cheese that Isaaic had brought, she pulled forth a vision of the man she was certain was her own special prince.

  She frowned irritably as she realized the vision in her head wasn’t of a blue-eyed blond prince, but rather a picture of a dark-haired, hot Italian with tattoos on his upper arms.

  * * *

  Liz knew that time was running out for her. The meals had stopped coming altogether, as if she’d already been deemed unacceptable for whatever reason she’d been kidnapped and held. Now she was locked away in an underground bunker and apparently forgotten.

  Was this the way it had happened to the person buried in the back wall? Had the captor lost interest, forgotten about his prisoner and stopped delivering food?

  Had that person slowly starved to death and then been buried in the wall when the captor had found his caged bird dead?

  At least she had water. Liz knew that the body could go without food for some time, but water was vital to staying alive.

  Still, it was getting more and more difficult to hold on to any mere tenuous thread of hope. She spent most of her time sitting in the chair and remembering the past, embracing the love she’d found with three little girls after the unexpected death of her husband.

  Ramona had given her a gift, had created in Liz a will to live when she’d had none. The only thing Liz regretted was the pain and sorrow her girls must be feeling now as each day passed and she was absent from their lives.

  Of course, Liz had brought them up to be strong and self-reliant. There was some comfort in the knowledge that they would survive her death.

  Hopefully Roxy would curb her sharp tongue long enough to find a man to love her and Marlene would get past the wounds her marriage and divorce had created. Sheri would find her prince and they would all live happily ever after. That’s what Liz hoped for them. That’s what she prayed for.

  She had stopped praying for herself to be rescued long ago, realizing after all this time it probably wasn’t going to happen. Nobody knew where she was or who held her captive. She didn’t even have the answers to those questions.

  But she knew now that for whatever reason she’d been kidnapped and held, she’d been deemed unworthy and the price for that was death.

  There were moments when her gaze would drift to the earthen wall across the small area where she’d found the bones of a human hand. Somebody had been buried in that wall, probably some other woman judged as unworthy.

  She only hoped that when death came it was swift and as painless as possible.

  Chapter 13

  It had been a long morning for Jimmy. Haunted by memories of the dawn lovemaking with Sheri, knowing there would be no more intimate dinners, special moments or physical contact with her had given him a headache he’d battled all day.

  It was like he was a drug addict and she was his drug of choice and now he was going through physical withdrawal pains. He’d been stupid to allow himself to get so close to her. He’d been foolish to let her burrow so deeply under his skin.

  He was in love with her. The knowledge hit him like a lightning bolt out of a cloudless sky. He loved Sheri Marcoli. He hadn’t believed that he could love, but he felt the rightness of knowing that it was love that filled his heart, that trembled in his very soul for her.

  For several long moments he’d sat at his desk, savoring the alien but wonderful emotions that filled him up. If he looked forward, envisioned his future he could see himself in her cottage, sharing her life, being not just her best friend, but also her lover and her forever partner.

  On top of discovering he was in love with a woman who wanted the complete opposite of him, Chief Krause had been in a foul mood.

  He’d called the detectives on the carpet for a dressing-down in the Wilson and Marcoli disappearances, beating them up for this latest issue with Sheri.

  “This is a small damned town,” Krause had yelled, his face red with frustration. “How hard can it be to find a bad guy? You all have had two years to find out what happened to Agnes Wilson and over three months to find Liz Marcoli. And now somebody is chasing another Marcoli woman through the woods in the middle of the night and beating up her dog. Get out there and beat feet until you come up with some answer on at least one of these cases.”

  The thr
ee detectives had left the station for lunch with their ears still ringing from Krause’s harsh criticism. Frank and Steve had decided pizza sounded good for lunch, so now Jimmy sat with them at The Pizza Place, the same restaurant where he’d planned a date with Sheri that had never happened because she’d been running for her life from some unknown perp.

  “I don’t know what Krause expects from us,” Steve said, his blue eyes holding more than a hint of frustration as he reached for a piece of the large hamburger pizza in the center of the table.

  “Miracles, that’s what he wants,” Frank said. “We’ve chased down every road available, talked to practically everyone in town in an attempt to get a handle on things and we’ve come up with nada.”

  “Storm must be chewing on his butt again. I swear, I wish that man would run for governor or something and get him out of town.”

  “I’ve heard rumors that that’s exactly what he’s planning to do. One more term as mayor here and then he has bigger political fish to fry,” Frank revealed.

  The last thing Jimmy wanted to discuss was Ralph Storm’s political aspirations. “I can’t stop feeling like somehow what happened to Sheri and what happened to Liz are related,” he finally said.

  Both of his partners looked at him blankly. “How on earth do you make that kind of leap?” Steve asked. “There’s no evidence that anyone was chasing Liz around before she disappeared.”

  Jimmy shrugged. “Maybe the perp got lucky and grabbed her on his first try. I just know that several people have talked about how alike Sheri is to Liz, that of the three sisters, Sheri had the same qualities as Liz.”

  “So, if somebody took Liz and killed her maybe they’re looking to replace her with a younger model?” Frank asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Something like that.” Jimmy took a bite of his pizza, tasting nothing but cardboard as his thoughts continued to tumble around in his head. He chewed, swallowed and then sighed. “I don’t know, it just popped into my head. Maybe it’s just a crazy, desperate idea.”

  “At least it’s an idea,” Steve said. “If we were to pursue this idea, do you know anyone specifically who has mentioned that Sheri is a lot like Liz?”

  “Abe Winslow,” Jimmy replied.

  “But we checked his cabin in the first couple of weeks after Liz disappeared and didn’t find anything.” Frank reached for a second piece of the pie and then frowned. “Unless he had Liz stashed someplace else up around his mountain cabin. Besides, he had an alibi for the time Liz went missing.”

  “Yeah, he had some relatives that vouched for him, relatives that might have lied. Maybe we need to look at good old Abe a little closer,” Steve said. “We know he admitted to asking Liz out for a date and that she turned him down. That might be a motive for him to kidnap her if he had some sort of unhealthy obsession.”

  “He’s been a widower for a long time now,” Frank added. “Maybe he figured the only way to get a woman to live in that dump he calls home was to kidnap one.”

  “Maybe the mountain search should have gone higher and wider,” Steve said. “Krause wants results, but he’s the one who called off the search into the mountains.”

  Jimmy said nothing, listening as his partners jumped on his bandwagon of speculation. He tried to stay focused on the conversation but thoughts of Sheri kept intruding...intimate thoughts, inappropriate thoughts.

  “We definitely need to take another look at Abe.” Steve’s statement drew Jimmy back to the conversation at hand.

  “Anyone else you can think of?” Frank asked Jimmy.

  “Let me talk to Sheri when I pick her up at the store later and maybe she’ll have a few more names of men for us to look at again,” Jimmy said.

  The rest of the lunch was spent talking about Marlene’s progress in getting her bakery up and running and Roxy redecorating Steve’s son’s bedroom.

  “Tommy has decided he’s too old for horses and now he wants a big-boy room decorated with police stuff. Roxy is excited to make it just the way Tommy wants it.” Steve shook his head, his eyes soft as he apparently thought of the woman in his life and his son.

  They spoke of mundane things, of life with the women they loved and the conversation reignited an old hunger inside Jimmy, a hunger for a place where he belonged with somebody who would love him forever.

  He wanted that place to be with Sheri, in her enchanted cottage with Highway. He could easily imagine wintry nights with a fire glowing in the fireplace, Sheri snuggled on the sofa with him, and Highway at their feet, legs moving in sleep as he happily chased rabbits in his dreams.

  He was obviously out of his mind. What he needed to do was start some regular workouts at Ling’s Studio, get back some of the discipline and training that would center him, allow him to stop himself from entertaining foolish fantasies.

  By the time they got back to the station, they were all called to the scene of a domestic dispute. Two patrol cars were already parked in front of the neat ranch house when they arrived.

  Joe Jamison got out of his patrol car like a bear awakened from hibernation. “Shelly and Roger Geiger appear to be having an argument that has escalated. Shelly is locked in the bathroom and Roger is trying to get inside. She has her cell phone and has told us he’s already beaten her and that he has a collection of guns inside the house. We decided to wait for backup before approaching.”

  Every cop knew that one of the most dangerous situations they faced was the unknown of a domestic disturbance. As Jimmy pulled his gun to head around the back of the house, he found it ironic that he’d just shared lunch with two men who had gotten their love life right and now he was at a house where the two people inside had apparently gotten it all wrong.

  It took an hour to get the situation under control. Joe Jamison managed to talk Roger into coming out of the house where he was immediately put in handcuffs and placed in the back of the patrol car.

  Shelly came out as well, her nose bloody and screaming that she didn’t want Roger arrested and threatening to sue the police for abuse even though it had been her loving husband who had busted her nose.

  “Geez, people can be so screwy,” Steve said as the three of them headed back to the station.

  “I have a feeling this won’t be the last time we’re called to their house,” Frank grumbled.

  “How do you know when it’s right?” Jimmy asked from the backseat of the car. “Steve, after you and Roxy get married who is to say in a couple of years we won’t be at your house settling an issue.”

  Steve flashed Jimmy a grin in the rearview mirror. “I don’t have to worry about that happening. Roxy would kill me long before any cops could get to my house,” he said with a laugh.

  “Seriously,” Jimmy said. “How do you know when you meet the woman who is going to be your partner through life? The one who will always have your back and be at your side?”

  “You just know,” Frank replied. “When you love somebody it should be easy.”

  “It’s not just about love and passion, although you certainly need to have that, but it’s also about respecting each other and kind of having a mutual admiration thing,” Steve said. “Do I smell a romance in the air?” Once again his gaze flicked to Jimmy in the rearview mirror. “Those Marcoli women, they can be pretty irresistible, just ask us.”

  Jimmy felt his cheeks warm. “Unfortunately, the last of the Marcoli sisters is waiting for a prince to give her a happy ever after, and we all know that’s not me.”

  Frank turned in his seat to look at Jimmy. “Sometimes women don’t really know what they want until you tell them. Jimmy, if you really care about Sheri, then you need to let her know.”

  In his years in law enforcement Jimmy had faced many frightening, dangerous situations, but the idea of speaking to Sheri about his feelings for her absolutely terrified him.

  * * *

>   “I’ll see you all tomorrow,” Sheri said as she saw Jimmy pull up front.

  “Don’t worry about us,” Abe assured her, and winked at Michael. “We’ll try not to eat all the cheese and drink too many beers before we close up tonight.”

  Sheri grabbed her purse from beneath the counter. “In these days of high unemployment, new staff is always easy to find,” she said teasingly, and then dashed out the front door.

  The moment she slid into the passenger side of Jimmy’s car she realized she’d spent far too much of the day anticipating seeing him again.

  She wanted her prince, but she couldn’t stop thinking about Jimmy. She told herself it was because of the role he’d played in her life. He’d been her protector, the person who had held her while she cried. He’d been trying to solve the case of her missing aunt. Surely what she felt toward him was the warmth of friendship and gratitude. It couldn’t be anything more than that.

  “Good day?” he asked as she buckled her seat belt.

  “Not bad, what about you?”

  “Interesting,” he said, and told her about Krause going ballistic and then the domestic dispute they’d responded to.

  Sheri shook her head in disbelief when he told her about Shelly not wanting to press charges against the man who had given her a bloody nose. “Some women just can’t leave. It’s sad,” she exclaimed. “And speaking of sad, I guess Roxy has decided to attempt a meeting with Ramona. I’m supposed to be at the Dollhouse tomorrow night for a big family reunion. I just hope we all get through it without blood being spilled,” she said with a small laugh.

  “I’m sure it will all be fine,” he said. “I have a few more questions for you. Do you want to drive through for some food and we’ll talk while we eat? I promise I’ll take off as soon as we’re finished.”

  “I can always do Chang Li’s,” she replied, although she knew she shouldn’t be encouraging this, encouraging him. But he has questions to ask me, she told herself and she assumed the questions were related to the investigation. It would be nicer to talk about things over sesame chicken and egg drop soup.