by Regina Duke
“You don’t believe me.” Ashley sounded disappointed.
“Of course, I believe you. We went through that. But if you dropped it here in the house, someone else might find it.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
Thor smiled in the dim light. “You apologize a lot.”
“Sorry.”
They both stifled laughter.
Then Thor said, “Let’s check the basement before we leave.”
“Basement?”
“Yes. I saw something behind the lilac stems. Maybe a slanted storm door. Since this house is built up on a stone foundation, there’s probably a storm cellar. You never went into the basement?”
“Never.” Astounded that she’d never seen the basement, Ashley followed Thor into the kitchen.
“That’s why you never knew about it,” he said, pointing at the wall. The floral wall paper and the cream-colored chair rail along the interior wall were still visible in the meager evening light. Much harder to spot was the door that had been papered and painted to match. “Painted like that, no one would see it unless they knew it was there. Ready?” he asked.
“Only if Rocky goes first,” said Ashley, solemnly.
Thor turned the cream-colored knob.
“It’s not locked.”
Thor shrugged. “If it’s invisible, there’s no need to lock it.” He pulled the door open. A small landing lay on the other side, with steps heading down toward the front of the house. “Rocky.” He waved the dog through. A few quiet moments later, the dog returned.
“Okay,” said Thor. “Let’s go. Me first.”
“Definitely,” said Ashley.
“Pull the door closed,” said Thor.
Down they went.
“I don’t recall seeing any windows around the foundation,” said Thor.
“No, it’s all stones, no windows.”
“Good.” He turned on his flashlight. “Wow.”
“Oh, my goodness.” Ashley stepped carefully, looking left and right. The small space was stacked with boxes. Most were covered with dust. Many were closed and taped. A small red tricycle sat on top of one stack. A toy baby buggy sat on top of another. On top of the third stack of boxes sat two dust-free shoeboxes. One was taped shut. The roll of tape still lay next to it. The other shoebox lid was loose. Ashley lifted it.
“These are my father’s letters.” She freed one of the envelopes. In the corner was her father’s post office box number in Boulder. Front and center was the Bondy Lane address. She peeked inside, and clutched the envelope to her chest. “He sent her a photo of himself.” Her voice caught. She pulled the photo out and showed Thor. “That was dad before he got sick.”
“Handsome man,” said Thor. “If there are photos in these boxes, we should take them. No point in leaving some villain your portrait.”
“I agree.” Ashley replaced the letter in the box and put the lid on. Then she tucked a shoebox under each arm.
“Anything else?”
Before Ashley could respond, Thor growled. It was a tiny rumble deep inside, but it made Ashley’s skin crawl.
“Shhhh.” Thor flicked off the flashlight.
They stood in the dark and waited.
Thor finally took a breath to speak, but bit it off when the sound of heavy shoes thumped across the floor above. They started at the porch and moved through the living room to the dining room and into the kitchen.
Ashley pressed against Thor.
Silently, he put an arm around her shoulder and whispered calmly in her ear, “Don’t move.”
They stood still, listening.
At one point, as the footsteps neared the spot where the basement door was located, Rocky started to rumble. Thor murmured, “Leave it.” Rocky fell silent.
Thump, thump, thump. Scraping. They heard a male voice, but couldn’t make out any words. After a few more long and agonizing seconds, more thumps and scrapes. And then a soft click.
A bar of light shone under the door from the kitchen.
Thor pulled Ashley closer. She didn’t resist.
The footsteps were on the move again, this time back toward the front of the house. Half way there, they paused. Then came another sound, like a cable moving on a wheel, and a soft thud.
Another muffled vocalization. Then the footsteps moved toward the porch. Finally, silence.
Ashley started to speak, but Thor gave her a squeeze and whispered, “Wait.”
Softly, in the distance, they heard what might have been the muted thud of a car door. Then engine noise, fading quickly away.
“Okay,” said Thor softly. “Rocky is relaxed. Whoever it was is gone.”
“They came to change the light bulb,” blurted Ashley. “See? I was right. My instincts told me they would notice if I turned it off.”
“And they had someone watching to come and replace it. Very good,” said Thor. He turned on the flashlight and shone it against the plank walls. “Looks like someone threw up rudimentary walls against the stone foundation. Had to for shelving down here.” He picked a pair of bolt cutters off a shelf.
“What’re those for?”
“I think we’ll go out through the storm door, in case they’re still watching the front. The light was very dim when we came in. If they planted surveillance cameras,maybe they didn’t get a clear view. But I’d rather not exit through a well lit kitchen.”
“You mean, they might have recorded my visit earlier?”
“Very likely.”
Ashley fell silent.
“Don’t worry,” said Thor. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” He carried the bolt cutters to the slanted door at the top of four low steps. It was metal, with a simple latch secured with a bicycle cable and combination lock.
“It’s fastened shut,” said Ashley.
“No problem.” Thor positioned the metal cutters and sliced neatly through the bicycle cable. “Got your boxes?”
Ashley nodded, still clutching the shoeboxes.
“Okay, let’s get out of here. When I open this, we’ll have to let our eyes adjust before we move. We can’t use the flashlight out there. Someone might see it.” He turned off the flashlight and called Rocky close. When the dog remained relaxed, he pushed the storm door up and open. The weight of the door pushed overgrown lilac branches aside. Rocky trotted through the gap into the dark garden and lifted his leg on the stone foundation.
Ashley muttered, “You have no idea how many times I’ve wanted to do that.”
She was quiet as they returned to the SUV. She tucked the shoeboxes at her feet next to her purse. She could hear Rocky panting in the back.
“One more thing to check.” Thor pulled around the block and flipped off his headlights as he turned up Bondy Lane. He drove slowly, in case someone backed out of a driveway in the dark. “As we pass the house, tell me what you see.”
“From the street? How can I… Oh. They’ve opened the staircase to the attic. They found my bedroom!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
THOR DROVE ANOTHER BLOCK WITHOUT his lights, then turned them on as he headed for the highway.
“I don’t think you should stay alone tonight. We’re halfway to my cabin. Let’s go there. Do you mind?”
“I have a suitcase in my trunk,” said Ashley.
“I’ve got plenty of things at the cabin,” said Thor. “I’m speaking as your bodyguard. Tomorrow we’ll go back into town and pick up your suitcase and your car.”
Ashley was a bit uneasy about the idea, but so far Thor had been a perfect gentleman. “No hanky-panky?”
Thor laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“You are not the kind of woman who inspires hanky-panky.”
“Well, thank you very much. You might as well say I’m unattractive.”
Thor held up a hand. “Whoa there. You know that’s not true. My God, you’re drop dead gorgeous.”
Ashley ran a hand through her hair. “Thank you.”
Thor opened his mouth and
closed it again.
Ashley laughed out loud. Then, “You don’t have any sisters, do you?”
“Nope. You got brothers?”
“No, but my father basically raised me on his own. And I have male cousins on dad’s side. We’ve lost touch, but I saw them a lot as a child.” She grinned in the dark. “You walked right into that one.”
“Does this mean you’re okay with idea of staying at the cabin?”
Ashley grew serious again. “Yes. I’d like to sit down and look through these letters. Maybe they’ll tell me something, although her letters to him didn’t reveal much. Except that she did seem to have a maternal streak after all. All those questions about me, my school, my routine.”
Thor kept his eyes on the road. “Did she ask about grades? Did she send gifts?”
“No.” Ashley frowned. “No, not really.”
“Hmmm.”
“What does that mean?”
“Oh, just an idea. It’s nothing. Before you came to my office, did you go to the police?”
“What on Earth for?”
“Well, you were scared and you were wondering what happened to your mother. Some people would start with the police.”
“And tell them what? Oh, Officer, my father’s ex-wife whom I did not tell I was coming was not in her house when I arrived and let myself in with my father’s keys?”
“Oh,” said Thor. “I see your point.” He frowned. “I think.”
“I saw your business, Thor Security, and it felt like a sign,” said Ashley. “It’s working out so far, right? Except we still haven’t talked about your fee.” She chewed her bottom lip.
“Your life is more important than money.”
A cell phone pinged.
Ashley checked her purse. “Not mine.”
“It’s a text. I’ll check it later.”
“You want me to read it for you?” She reached for the phone attached to his car charger.
“No!” He said it so sharply that Rocky barked.
Ashley shrank back. “A simple ‘Later’ would suffice, you know.”
Thor ran a hand over his hair. “Sorry. It’s probably my mother nagging me about getting married, and it’s embarrassing, okay?”
“Okay.” Ashley played with the hem of her tweed jacket. She pulled her silk tee free of the seat belt and stared out the window. It was now so dark that the landscape was not visible.
Thor cleared his throat. “I’m really sorry,” he said gently. “This whole campaign of my mother’s is getting on my nerves.”
Ashley relaxed. “You don’t want to get married.”
Thor drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Some day I do. But not to the woman my mother has picked out. She thinks because we dated in high school that this girl is the one, you know? And the truth is, she’s the last one on Earth that I would consider for myself.”
Ashley’s brows rose. “No kidding? She must be pretty bad.”
“Let’s just say I learned more about her in high school and during the last couple years than my mother will ever know. I am not going to marry that woman. But she has finagled her way into my mother’s heart, and now mom has dedicated herself to getting us together. And believe me, when my mother puts her mind to something, you either give in or get out of town.”
“Is that why you left Texas?”
“That was part of it. Distance helps.” He glanced down at the phone.
“You’d better look or it will drive you crazy.”
“Damn it. Go ahead and read it to me.”
Ashley picked up the phone. “It’s from Polly. It says: I want to breed Rocky. Call me.”
“Oh, great.” It sounded anything but great.
Ashley set the phone down. “No girl friend for Rocky?”
“I had him fixed.”
Ashley grinned in the dim glow of the dashboard lights. “I’m feeling better and better about not having my mother in my life.”
“He’s more easygoing this way, and frankly, I think he’s happier.”
“Obviously, you didn’t tell your mother.”
Thor passed a big king cab pulling a loaded horse trailer. “When she gave Rocky to me, she said his career was over. She said he was too coarse for the ring, he’d never finish his championship. Pet quality. That’s what she called him. Well, he’s a fantastic working dog. He’s just not a beauty queen. And she gave him to me. So I had him fixed. I didn’t expect her to change her mind and want him back.”
A growl filled the air.
“Rocky?” Thor glanced in his rear view mirror.
“No,” said Ashley. “My stomach. I haven’t eaten all day.”
“I’ll stop for food at the junction up there.”
As Thor turned into the truck stop parking lot, Ashley said, “Maybe I’m overreacting about all this missing mother stuff. Just because she got involved in something outside the law, that doesn’t mean anyone is out to get me. She hasn’t seen me in fifteen years. I was nowhere near her while all this indictment stuff was happening. Why should her enemies even know I exist?”
A vehicle pulled into the space next to her. Ashley frowned for a moment and wondered how many people in southern Colorado drove around with no headlights at night.
Thor turned the engine off and stared at her. “Do you always do this? Second-guess your instincts? She left you a note telling you to run. She clearly felt you might be in danger if you showed up at her house. And she wrote to your dad all those years, asking questions about you. She had photos on her walls that are now missing. Don’t you think she talked about you to her new husband? Maybe some of his associates were hanging around at the time. The same associates he turned on when he made his deal with the government.”
“Well, gee, I was beginning to feel a little normal again. But thanks to you, I’m terrified once more.”
“You need food. You’re not thinking straight. Let’s go.” He got out of the car and Rocky followed.
Ashley made a rude noise and opened her door. Before she could set foot on the ground, someone grabbed her and shoved her toward the other vehicle.
“Hey!”
The next few seconds were a blur of barking and screaming. The screaming wasn’t Ashley. The dark figure who grabbed her was making most of the noise. He scrambled back into his vehicle and drove forward, his door still open and Rocky still hanging on.
Thor shouted, “Leave it!”
Rocky let go and the car took off.
Ashley’s knees wobbled.
“You okay?” Thor took her elbow.
Ashley sagged against him. “I’m all right. Just rattled. I guess you’re right. I should stop second-guessing my instincts.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
THOR WRAPPED AN ARM AROUND ASHLEY AND stared into the darkness after the fleeing vehicle. When it hit the highway, it finally turned its lights on. He couldn’t see anything except it was an older four-door. He felt Ashley trembling beneath his arm, but she wasn’t complaining and she wasn’t falling apart. When she spoke, she sounded calm, but he could tell it was forced.
“Does Rocky have to wait in the car?”
“No. Can you stand?”
“Yes. I’m okay.”
Thor took a second to make sure, then opened the back door of the SUV. He reached in and pulled out a Service Dog harness. It was red with a patch that said, “Working dog. Do not pet.” Thor fastened the velcro tabs and took a moment to check out Rocky’s legs.
“When we get to the cabin I’ll take a closer look, but Rocky may have been scratched up when that guy dragged him on the pavement.”
“Poor Rocky. My hero.”
Thor grinned. “Whoever did this will be carrying a memory of the encounter. Rocky has quite a grip.” He looked around, saw no more threats, and offered Ashley his arm. “Ready?”
“Yes. Let’s just get something and go. You’re a security business. I hope your cabin is rigged with every device known to man.”
Thor patted her hand. “You b
etter believe it.”
Back in the SUV, Thor stored the bags of food in the dog crate.
“If we put it anywhere else, Rocky will help himself before we get home.”
“Oh. Well, I can’t deny Rocky anything tonight. I guess this is a bad time to tell you I’m a cat person.”
Thor laughed. “Good girl. You’re going to need a sense of humor to get through this.” Behind the wheel again, he asked, “Did you want me to call the police and report what happened?”
Ashley shook her head. “No one saw it but us. And why volunteer that your dog bit someone?”
“Okay. Let’s go.” Out on the two-lane, he asked, “Where did you get this attitude about the police?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, every time I suggest we contact them, you say no. Just wondering.”
Ashley rubbed her hands along her jeans. “From my dad, I guess. I don’t remember those early years too clearly, but more than once he told me about trying to get help for my mother. When neighbors called to report a domestic disturbance at our house, the police always assumed dad was the attacker, especially when he refused to file a complaint against her. After a while, the cops realized he was telling the truth. One night my mother turned on them and scratched one of the officers up really bad. After that, it was obvious they felt sorry for my dad, and that didn’t help either. He came out of it feeling that unless you had a prosecutable crime with evidence to show, the police really couldn’t do much for you. They finally did take my mother into custody that last morning. I found out later the ambulance was for my dad. He refused to go because I was in the house and needed him. They patched him up on the spot.”
“More scratches?”
“No. Mother stabbed him.”
Thor felt chilled by Ashley’s matter-of-fact tone.
“I’m really sorry, Ashley.”
She shrugged. “Past history.”
“But still haunting you.”
Ashley fell silent, and Thor concentrated on his driving, going twenty minutes and twenty miles out of his way, checking his rear view mirrors every few seconds.
At last, he pulled off the paved road onto the long graveled driveway to the cabin. He parked close to the covered porch.
“I’ll come around with the flashlight.”