Trusting Drew: Burlap and Barbed Wire

by Shirley Penick

  “Thanks. I expect Thomas and Alyssa any time, and I thought you would want to be up and about, to meet with them.”

  She nodded, for having known each other only one day they seemed to be in sync about things. Which was nice but surprising, she had no idea why it was surprising, only that it was. “You thought correctly.”

  “Any other memories surface?”

  She sighed with frustration at all the half thoughts she was having. “No, but I do feel an urgency to get back on my feet. I have the strangest notion that I need to wear heels soon.”

  Drew chuckled. “I gotta admit that’s not what I think would be foremost in your mind.”

  Lily shrugged. “Right? I mean it is kind of a weird thought. But it doesn’t feel wrong, it feels important.”

  “Hmm, well let’s get you into the bathroom and we’ll see what Alyssa has to say about getting those feet healed up quickly.”

  He scooped her off the bed and into his strong, safe arms. She wanted to roll her eyes at herself, what was this total confidence in a man she’d not even known twenty-four hours. It was a conundrum. “I hope she can help me take a bath, the blood in my hair is itchy.”

  Drew stilled, and she wondered what he was thinking. It didn’t last long before he was carrying her into the bathroom.

  She was glad the bathroom was tiny, so she could sit on the toilet and still reach the sink. She brushed her teeth and splashed her face with cool water and felt almost human. Drew answered her call and carried her into the living room, where there was already a mug of tea on the table, bless him. He got her all settled as a knock sounded on the door.

  At the door were two men she’d never seen before. Drew brought them in and introduced her to them. The tall thin one was Thomas, the ‘famous’ tracker and next to him was another younger guy. Both of them were dressed in cowboy gear with warm coats over the top, both had taken off their hats when they’d entered the building.

  Thomas said, “I hope you don’t mind that I brought Jimmy-boy here. I’ve been working with him to teach him all that I know. I thought this would be a good test for him, since even I don’t know where we’re going or what we will find.”

  Lily nodded at his glance. He turned back to the men. “Not a problem, Thomas. But we do need to know whatever you find as quickly as possible.”

  “Yes, sir, Drew, we won’t draw it out. With two sets of eyes, I think it will go quicker.”

  Drew specifically told them where he’d found her.

  Thomas came over to look at her feet size. “No shoes? You were a determined lady. Not just everyone would run out of the woods barefoot with no coat on a cold winter day.”

  Drew showed them the clothing she’d had on, so they could look for any bits of them on branches or the ground.

  “That shirt is torn to shreds, as are the stockings, and the pants aren’t much better. I imagine we’ll find the trail easily.” Thomas said. “Do you mind if we take a swatch of each to compare? Not that I think we’re going to find a lot of shredded clothing in the woods, but I would rather be certain.”

  Lily nodded. “Feel free, I’m not going to be wearing them again.”

  Drew frowned, thinking about something. “Yeah, go ahead and take a bit, but she might need the rest for evidence.”

  Lily’s breath caught in her throat. She’d never once thought of needing evidence. She’d never really considered why she was running and looking for a cop. But it did indicate there was some kind of law being broken.

  As the men cut small swatches out of her clothes she pushed hard to try to remember why she’d wanted a cop, but all there was to find was a big blank spot. Alyssa and Beau had both said it would only be a day or two and she realized she’d been counting on it being this morning.

  She forced herself to smile when the trackers took their leave. It wasn’t their fault she couldn’t remember, and they might find out something important.

  Drew came over and took her hand. “I’m sorry. I noticed that what I said about evidence upset you.”

  “No, it’s all right. I mostly was just trying to remember. I guess I had put all my hope into remembering this morning, so I’m frustrated that I can’t.”

  “I can fully understand that and sympathize with you. Do you want some breakfast? I’m not sure what exactly, since we don’t have any eggs or produce.”

  She didn’t really feel hungry, the tea was nice, but food did not appeal. Plus, she hoped Alyssa would bring something better for her diet. She looked at her body and didn’t see any reason to be on a diet, she just knew she was. When was her darn memory going to return anyway? “No, let’s wait until we see what Alyssa brings with her. I don’t think I’m an eat-first-thing-in-the-morning person, anyway.”

  “Fair enough. I had a toaster strudel when I first got up, so I’m good for a little while.”

  “How long were you up before you came to get me?”

  “Long enough to make coffee, have a strudel, and then take care of my horse.”

  She’d forgotten all about his horse. “Of course. So, is the barn stocked as well as the cabin?”

  He laughed. “Better. We gotta take care of our animals, and sometimes we need to bring some of the cattle into the enclosure, to tend to them.”

  She grinned at him. “Makes sense.”

  There was another knock on the door and Alyssa called out. “Drew come get the door, my hands are full.”

  Drew rushed to the door and pulled it open. Alyssa handed three bags to Drew and went back to her vehicle for more.

  Drew brought everything in to set on the table. “Looks like she brought enough food and clothes for a week. Not sure what else she’s getting out of the truck.”

  Alyssa bustled in just as he said that, and lifted the medical kit, and another bag with more. “First aid stuff.”

  Alyssa came over and looked at the knot on her head. “The swelling has gone down some, keep icing it. Your forehead looks fine, for all that blood there really should have been a bigger wound. Now let’s look at those feet.”

  Drew said, “Tell Alyssa about your foot concern.”

  Lily could feel her face heat, it seemed like such a vain concern to be having. Alyssa had knelt at her feet and was starting to unwrap the bandages. She looked up. “Tell me.”

  God, she didn’t want to sound like some prima donna. She grimaced. “It’s going to sound stupid… I keep worrying about getting my feet into high heels. I don’t know why, but I just have this overwhelming need to get my feet healed up as quickly as possible, so I can wear heels.” She shrugged and soldiered on, “And not just pumps, but sky-high killer heels. Some man in my life calls them ‘hooker shoes’.”

  Alyssa’s eyebrows had shot up.

  Lily said, “Not that I’m a hooker, at least I don’t think I am, but for some reason I need to wear those shoes soon. That need keeps coming back. It’s right up there with my desire to stay away from the carbs.”

  Lily vaguely waved her hand at her body. “I’m vain, but I don’t see why I am on such a strict diet. But the idea of carbs, while enticing, just feels wrong, but only for a little while longer. Something is clearly happening soon where I need to wear high heels and keep my body as shredded as possible.”

  Alyssa looked closely at her. “You’re not tall enough to be a runway model.”

  Lilly laughed. “Yeah I’m a good eight inches too short for that.”

  “Maybe another kind of model though, like for advertisements or romance book covers?” Alyssa guessed.

  That didn’t sound right either, besides that, her face on advertisements or even book covers would be obvious. “But then wouldn’t I be recognized? By one of you?”

  Drew interjected, “Maybe that beauty pageant coming up next week.”

  Both she and Alyssa turned their heads to look at him. Then they both laughed. That was a silly idea. Her in a beauty pageant? But as Alyssa checked her feet and then helped her bathe and wash her hair the idea prickled.

&
nbsp; After she was clean and in women’s sweats with her feet rebandaged, Alyssa said, “Now, your feet will heal faster if you take some mega doses of vitamin C, morning, noon, and early evening, none at bedtime. Stay off them at least one more day, two would be better. You’re healing well, there isn’t any inflammation or redness to indicate infection. I’ll come back in the morning to redress them and check the healing.”

  Lily was grateful for the advice and some concrete instructions. Whatever it took to get her back on her feet and in those heels was welcome. “Thanks, Alyssa. I appreciate everything you’ve done, and especially the clothes that fit.”

  Alyssa laughed. “Yeah, those sweats were huge on you.” She turned to Beau. “Is Thomas out tracking?”

  Drew nodded, “Thomas and Jimmy.”

  “Jimmy?”

  Drew raised one shoulder in a half shrug. “Yeah, Thomas has been teaching him, I guess, and thought the two of them would do better than just one. Since timing is of the essence, I didn’t complain.”

  “I had no idea. Well I’m out of here, got some young’uns to check on this morning. See you tomorrow.”

  Chapter 5

  Ronald needed to move. Lily hadn’t come back in the night and he didn’t want to be anywhere near this place, in case someone came looking. He couldn’t imagine that she had gotten out of this God forsaken wilderness. Even with the car’s GPS he damn near got lost every time he came up here. The road in was more of a footpath than anything and it wound around and around, it would take hours to walk the damn thing, to get out to the highway. But he would keep his eyes open as he drove it, just in case.

  He wasn’t going to take any of the food he’d bought, the car was a rental and he would turn it in as soon as he got to Denver. But what should he do with her shoes and purse and stuff. He’d rented the cabin under an assumed name, so should he just leave them here?

  If she had managed to make it to the police, he didn’t really want the evidence on him. Could he find somewhere to ditch it? He was going to keep the ring, so he could return it, but he didn’t want anything else. Maybe if he set everything neatly in the cabin it would look like she was crazy running off into the woods.

  Could he convince her of something like that? She was a gullible little thing, so it might be possible if he could think up a good enough story. Like her being delirious, food poisoning maybe? Drugs? He would think about it on the long drive back to the airport.

  Ronald felt something was closing in on him, so he just decided to leave everything, but the ring. He quickly hung the coat in the closet, put her shoes underneath it with the bag she’d brought with her. They’d only planned on a weekend escape so there weren’t a lot of clothes to scatter around. The skimpy nighty was interesting, maybe he should have delayed telling her his plans a little. Oh well, too late. He left her purse with the phone in it next to the couch.

  He locked the door and left the keys as the owner requested and hurried to the rental car. An overwhelming feeling of panic engulfed him, so he tore off in a cloud of dust. He didn’t relax until he hit the town of Granby and highway forty that would take him to the interstate highway leading to Denver.

  Drew didn’t exactly know what to do with Lily. He’d fed her breakfast and then lunch from the food Alyssa had brought and they had chatted for a while, but as the day wore on and both of them lapsed into silence, he realized she was as anxious to hear back from Thomas as he was.

  Drew was pretty certain she’d only been out in the wilderness a couple of hours before he’d found her, so he didn’t think she’d gone too far. He couldn’t think of anything that would keep his attention as they waited.

  When Alyssa came rushing in the door, both he and Lily were startled by her return.

  Drew said, “I thought—”

  Alyssa cut him off, “I know, but I have news. I was watching TV while eating a sad solitary lunch, since it took me the rest of the morning to check on the younger stock as I mentioned. Well you won’t believe it but coverage of the beauty pageant coming up next week came on. I thought about switching channels, but then decided after our conversation this morning to watch, still not expecting anything.”

  She looked at Lily. “You are a contestant; your full name is Lily Smith and you are Ms. Montana.”

  Drew was beyond shocked at that announcement and Lily looked the same. Her mouth had dropped open and a frown had covered her features. “Are you sure? That doesn’t really feel right to me.”

  Alyssa nodded, “You could have knocked me over with a feather, but I saw your face. They were just listing all the contestants, so it was really quick, but I am certain it was you. I had to eat the rest of my lunch in the truck on the way here, to give you the news.”

  Drew said, “You could have called.”

  “Oh no, this was too important for a mere phone call.” Alyssa patted her pockets and frowned. “Pull up the pageant website on your phone, Drew. They should have the contestants listed.”

  He did as he was told and could barely scroll through the information with Alyssa hopping from foot to foot next to him. When he got to the M-states Alyssa pointed, nearly knocking the phone from his hand. “See! Right there, it’s her, I know it is.”

  Drew zoomed into the picture and he had to admit it looked just like her. He handed the phone to Lily. “It is me. But I can’t believe it. It still doesn’t seem right.”

  Alyssa said, “The internet doesn’t lie.” Then she frowned. “Well at least it doesn’t always lie.”

  Lily muttered, “Lily Smith. Do you mind if I do a search on that name?”

  Drew waved his hand in her direction; a search was a great idea. He was still shocked to find out that Lily was a beauty pageant contestant. She certainly had the looks to be one, but she didn’t fuss over her appearance, at all. It would explain the strange diet with the pageant being next week. It also explained the concern about her feet healing. But it still felt so out of character.

  Lily sighed, “It’s too common of a last name, there is a couple of articles about the pageant, but besides that there, is just a lot of other listings. Even with Lily being more unique there are too many.”

  She handed his phone back to him just as a knock sounded on the door. Maybe it was Thomas with news. He pulled the door open and sure enough it was. Both he and Jimmy were loaded down with stuff.

  He opened the door wide for the men to come in with their burdens. Thomas had a small rolling suitcase and a woman’s coat. Jimmy looked to be carrying bags of groceries. They deposited everything, and the men went to gather around Lily.

  Thomas handed Lily a purse. “The trail led us directly to a cabin in the National Forest. We got to the cabin a little after the owner, who had received a call saying that the cabin was empty. There were no people there, but all of that, had been left behind, the guy had already started making a pile of what had been left. I told the owner that we thought there might need to be some police investigation, but he said he had some new people coming in and he had to get it ready for them. Since he’d already moved everything, rather than argue and bring more attention to the issue that you wanted kept quiet, we just gathered up what he didn’t want, and brought it here.”

  Lily was looking through the purse, at the ID and credit cards, all of which looked to be hers. She pulled out her phone, but it had no power. “It looks like it must be my bag. Was there a charger in the suitcase?”

  Jimmy nodded. “Yes, there was, do you want me to get it for you?”

  “Please, in fact can you bring the bag over and show me what is in it?”

  Jimmy’s ears turned pink. “Maybe Alyssa can help with that.”

  Lily wanted to roll her eyes, she was sure there was some underwear and maybe a night gown in there, but nothing too racy. But the guy wasn’t very old, several years younger than she was, probably, so maybe he’d not been around women much. “That’s great, thanks so much for helping to find my stuff.”

  Drew said, “Anything else you can tell
us about the cabin?”

  Thomas shifted from foot to foot. “The strange thing about it was that there didn’t seem to be anything amiss. It didn’t look like anyone else had been there. Nothing seemed out of place. It was almost as if you’d just gone out for some fresh air.”

  Lily frowned, but only nodded. Drew was watching her closely and knew she didn’t think that felt right. She had clearly been running and her first words were about finding a cop. Something just wasn’t adding up in his mind, or hers apparently.

  The trackers took their leave and he left the women to look through the suitcase while he put the food away. There was herbal tea and lots of protein snacks and low carb food. But there was also some food that he knew Lily would not want to be eating. So that made him wonder who that food was for. It certainly pointed to a second person, to him.

  Alyssa helped Lily go through the suitcase. There weren’t a lot of things, just a couple of outfits and a sexy nightgown, which was kind of a surprise. It wasn’t a comfortable looking nightgown, more like seduction wear. She guessed this was what had made Jimmy’s ears turn pink, because everything else was pretty normal looking. None of it looked dirty or worn, however. The slacks and tops were in a similar vein to the shredded outfit she’d been found in, but there were no creases to indicate wearing. There was a laundry bag too, that had nothing in it.

  Had she run out of the cabin within the first few minutes of arriving? That didn’t make sense, most check-ins were in the late afternoon, but Drew had found her in the morning. Late morning, yes, but still morning. So, if she’d spent the night, she’d gotten up and put on the same clothes, including underwear, that seemed very odd indeed.

  Alyssa said, “There are no dirty clothes.”

  Lily nodded. “I was just noticing that. It seems strange, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes, it does. Drew, didn’t you find Lily in the morning?”

  “Yep. Why?”

  “There are no dirty clothes.”