by Amy M. Reade
It was Harry.
Lilly inhaled sharply.
“Mom, what’s wrong?” Laurel asked in a loud whisper.
Lilly glanced around quickly to see if anyone else had heard her gasp. She shook her head at Laurel and put a finger over her lips. Laurel just stared at her.
When the theater was in darkness and the previews started, Lilly leaned over toward Laurel, who also leaned closer. Lilly whispered, “That’s Harry up there with a woman, but I don’t know who the woman is.”
Laurel’s eyes widened and she craned her neck to see who could be down there. Even if she could have seen the woman in the darkness, it didn’t matter. Laurel barely knew Harry—she wasn’t likely to know the woman sitting with him.
Lilly didn’t pay much attention to the movie. Her thoughts were consumed with wondering who the woman was and why Harry was out with her. It couldn’t be a female relative; no female relative would act like that.
Then she began to wonder how she could leave the theater gracefully. Should she stay to see who the woman was, then pretend she hadn’t realized Harry was there? Should she try to make her escape before they stood up to leave?
As much as she wanted to know the identity of the woman, Lilly decided to leave as quickly as possible once the movie ended. Something told her that she should give this some thought before letting Harry know she had seen him with a woman who clearly wasn’t Alice.
Lilly couldn’t wait for the movie to end. She would have to rent it sometime and watch it again since she missed most of it. She fidgeted and fretted until she knew the denouement was imminent, then she started gathering her purse and coat.
“What are you doing?” Laurel whispered. “The movie’s not over.”
“It’s almost over,” Lilly said. “I want to get out of here fast, so be ready the second the credits start to roll.”
“But I love to watch the credits,” Laurel whined in a low voice. “Sometimes the producer puts something cool at the very end.”
“Not this time, Laurel. I don’t want Harry to see me.”
“You’re acting like a teenager,” Laurel hissed.
Lilly shot Laurel a glare that Laurel probably couldn’t see in the darkened theater, but Laurel seemed to sense Lilly’s anxiety.
“You can go. I’ll stay,” she told Lilly.
“Fine.” Lilly was ready to bolt.
The moment the screen went dark and the music changed, Lilly knew it was time for the credits to start rolling. She grabbed her belongings and stepped over Laurel’s knees, tripping in the process and falling face-first into the seat next to Laurel. A woman two rows behind them gasped and asked loudly, “Are you all right?”
Immediately every eye in the theater turned to watch Lilly hoist herself up to a standing position next to Laurel. By this time the lights were coming up so people could make their way out of the theater if they didn’t want to stay for the credits. Laurel looked up at her mother and rolled her eyes.
“Mom, this is so embarrassing.”
“All you had to do was move your knees and I wouldn’t have tripped,” Lilly snarled back.
“Lilly?”
It was Harry. Lilly groaned and turned around. He was pulling on his coat, and Mary Louise stood next to him, a slight grin on her face.
“Hi, Harry,” Lilly said.
“I didn’t know you were here.”
“Yes, well….” She hadn’t thought of what she might say to him if he saw her—all her attention had been focused on getting out of the theater first.
“What did you think of the movie?” he asked.
“It was good,” Lilly answered blandly. She looked pointedly at Mary Louise.
“Oh, you remember Mary Louise,” Harry said, giving a half-smile and gesturing toward his companion. She looked up at him with a smile that made Lilly’s insides churn. Those brown doe-eyes are really too much, Lilly thought.
“Of course. Hello, Mary Louise.” Lilly turned her attention back to Harry. “Blowing off some steam from the stress of looking for Alice?”
Chapter 29
Laurel tugged at the back of Lilly’s coat, clearly wanting the conversation to head in a different direction.
Harry laughed nervously. “Yeah. You know, it’s just been so stressful. We thought it might be a good idea to get out for a while and take our minds off the situation.”
“I see. Seems like that would be hard to do,” Lilly replied, raising her eyebrows just a touch. Mary Louise smirked.
“It is, believe me.” Harry fidgeted with the zipper on his coat, and his eyes darted from Lilly to the exit and back again.
“Well, come on, Laurel,” she said. “Time to head out.”
“Can’t I just watch the rest of the credits?” Laurel pleaded.
“Sometimes there are cool things at the end of the credits,” Harry pointed out.
“I know,” Laurel said. She craned her neck to see around Lilly.
What was the use of leaving now? Lilly figured she might as well wait for Laurel to watch the credits. She hadn’t escaped the theater unnoticed, so there wasn’t much point in trying to run out now. Besides, Harry and Mary Louise were making their way down their row of seats and toward the exit, and Lilly wanted to avoid any further conversation with them. Harry lifted his hand in a half-hearted wave and Lilly just glared at him.
“Just wait until I talk to him in the morning,” she said through clenched teeth.
Laurel didn’t say anything until the credits had ended and nothing funny or interesting happened. “We stayed for nothing,” she grumbled. Oh, not for nothing, Lilly thought. I made a fool of myself tripping over you and Harry found out I was here.
“Are you mad at Harry?” Laurel asked as they walked to the car.
“Yes.”
“What was he doing that was so wrong?” Laurel asked.
Lilly thought that Laurel, of all people, should have known why she was mad—not only was Harry at the movies while Alice was still missing, but he was there with another woman. After what Laurel was going through with Nick, Lilly thought she would understand.
“I don’t think he should have taken Mary Louise to the movies. He’s practically engaged to someone else. Someone who happens to be missing. Not only is it just plain wrong, but it looks bad to anyone who might see them out.”
“But it could be totally innocent,” Laurel said. “Like two friends just going to the movies.”
“Maybe so, but what if one of the police officers investigating Alice’s disappearance happened to be here tonight? It might not look so innocent.”
Laurel nodded slowly. “I guess you’re right. In that case, Harry needs to be more careful.”
“He’s going to have some explaining to do tomorrow morning,” Lilly said aloud to herself.
“What?”
“Nothing. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to let this ruin our girls’ night out.”
“It’s not ruined,” Laurel said. “I had fun. Didn’t you?”
Lilly glanced over at her daughter, who suddenly looked very young. Her heart did a flip-flop as images of Laurel as a little girl flitted through her memory like still photos on an old movie projector.
“I did have fun,” she said with a wistful smile. “We should do this more often.”
When they got home Laurel thanked her mom for taking her out and hugged her. Lilly couldn’t hold back the tears.
“Mom, what’s wrong?” Laurel’s brows furrowed.
“It’s just been a long day, that’s all,” Lilly said. “A girls’ night out was exactly what I needed. Thank you.” Laurel hugged her again and went upstairs. Lilly sniffled for a little longer, then called Hassan.
“How was your day?” she asked.
He sighed. “Long.”
“So was mine. What happened?”
“I finally got in touch with my lapis supplier in Afghanistan and he thinks I should start planning a trip.”
A cold feeling snaked its way through Lilly’s stom
ach and chest. He had told her about other trips to Afghanistan he had taken. It was a dangerous place, made more so if the wrong people figured out what he was there for and that he carried a lot of money with him on such trips.
“So are you going?” she asked in a hesitant voice.
“I don’t think I have a choice.”
She groaned. “That is not the news I wanted to hear tonight.”
“Believe me, it’s not the news I wanted to share tonight. But I’ve given it a lot of thought and I think he’s right. I do need to go over there to see the mines for myself and talk to the men in person.”
“It’s so dangerous, though.”
“I won’t go right away. It’s still winter over there and it’s almost impossible to travel around in the mountainous areas where I need to go. I’ll have to wait until spring.”
“Doesn’t the fighting always break out in spring?” Lilly asked.
“Usually, yes.” He was drawing out his words, as if he was trying to figure out what to say without alarming her. “But I know people who will help me stay away from it. They’ve got ears on the ground and in the high levels of government. I can trust what they tell me. I’ve been working with them for a long time.”
“So you’ll be leaving in the spring?” She was having a hard time keeping the disappointment out of her voice. She wanted to be excited for him, but at the moment all she could think about was how much she would worry and how much she would miss him. It wouldn’t be like the times he returned to Minnesota.
“To Afghanistan, yes, probably. But I’ll be going to Washington sooner than that. In a couple days, in fact. There are people there I need to speak to before I can start planning the trip to Afghanistan.”
“What people?”
“People at the Afghanistan and Pakistan embassies. I’ll also meet with officials in the US State Department to talk about heading overseas to look for gems. I’ve done all of this before, so it’s no big deal.”
“Well, I wish you were staying in Juniper Junction where I know you’ll be safe, but I know you can’t always be here.” It was the best she could do. Her mind was reeling with the thought of losing Hassan to tribal fighting on the other side of the globe.
“I’ll come back, don’t worry. And I’ll only be in Washington for a few days. We’ll have lots of time together before I go overseas,” he assured her.
She told him about seeing Harry and Mary Louise at the movie theater. He was concerned for the same reasons she had been: first, it seemed disloyal to Alice; and second, how would it look to the authorities if they saw Harry and Mary Louise out together?
“You can be sure I’ll be talking to Harry about that first thing in the morning,” Lilly said.
Hassan chuckled. “Poor Harry.”
Lilly finally smiled. Poor Harry, indeed.
She didn’t have the energy to tell Hassan about the episode with her mother. Had it only happened that morning? When he told her he wanted to take her out to lunch the next day, she knew she would be in a better frame of mind to discuss her mom then.
They said goodnight and Lilly was asleep almost before her head hit the pillow. It had been a long day.
The next morning she awoke refreshed and with a single-minded purpose: to get Harry to explain what the heck he had been thinking the night before. She got ready for work with ruthless efficiency, planning to arrive before Harry so she could put him on his back foot before he even knew what was happening.
She realized when she got to work that she had white-knuckled the drive over, and she forced herself to relax. She took several deep breaths and wiggled her fingers to get the blood flowing again. She made the trip from the vault to the display cases several times, readying for her confrontation with Harry.
She was so focused on rehearsing her speech to him that she didn’t even notice him standing at the back of the store as she made another trip to the display cases out front. When she whirled around to get the next batch of gems from the vault, she gasped and put a hand to her chest.
“Harry, you startled me!”
“Boss, before you start in on me, I want to explain last night.” Harry held up his hands in a gesture of supplication. His eyes carried heavy gray bags and he looked like he had spent the night in someone’s car.
Lilly stopped in her tracks. She hadn’t expected him to make the first move and it took away some of the exhilaration she had looked forward to when she gave him her scolding.
“So explain.”
Chapter 30
“You know Mary Louise has been taking turns with Mack, and sometimes Wayne, staying over at my house to keep me from losing my mind.”
“Yes.” Lilly crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“And you know that I think Mary Louise has a crush on me.”
“You told me that, yes.”
“It was her turn to stay last night and she started in on me as soon as I got home from work. She kept saying, ‘Let’s go to the movies.’ ‘I’m bored. Can’t we go see a movie?’ Eventually I couldn’t take her nagging any longer and I agreed.”
“Interesting,” Lilly commented. “I clearly saw her head on your shoulder last night. That’s not something platonic friends do at the movies.”
Harry’s shoulders slumped. “I know, believe me. I was trying to inch away from her, but there was only so far I could go in that theater seat.”
“Did it occur to you to ask her to stop?” Lilly asked. She set her lips in a thin line.
Harry nodded. “Yeah, but I didn’t want to have a scene in the middle of the theater. I figured I would talk to her about it on the way back to my house.”
“And did you?” Lilly asked.
“Yeah. It was ugly, Lilly. She cried and carried on long after we got to my house. She was mad, too. She said she knows things about Alice that are even worse than being a stripper in secret and that she is going to wait for the right moment to tell me. Then she stormed out and went to stay at her own house.”
“It sounds like that’s not such a bad thing.”
“It’s not. I have no idea what to do in a situation like that. She was just so forward. Alice would never do anything like that.”
“Harry, just out of curiosity, how well does Mary Louise know Alice?”
“I would say they’re acquaintances. They know each other through me, even though they both go to the community college. I have been friends with Mary Louise for a long time, and I introduced them after Alice and I started dating last year.”
Lilly grimaced. “I’m a little reluctant to mention this, Harry, but do you think it’s possible that Mary Louise knows something about Alice’s disappearance?”
Harry shook his head. “I really don’t think so. Mary Louise can be annoying, but I don’t think she’s evil.”
“I’m not saying she’s responsible for Alice’s disappearance. I’m just wondering if maybe she knows where Alice went and she’s not telling.”
“The police have talked to her and she swears she doesn’t know anything.”
“She wouldn’t be the first person to lie to the police.”
Harry rubbed his chin, his eyes worried. “Do you think it’s possible?”
“I don’t know. I’m just throwing it out there. I don’t know whom to trust, and after seeing the way Mary Louise fawns over you, I’m not sure she can be trusted. I have to wonder about her, especially after hearing how upset she was when you talked to her in the car last night. She’s got it pretty bad for you.”
Harry blushed. It didn’t take much to embarrass the man.
“What should we do?” he asked.
“There’s not much we can do, but I think we—you—need to keep an eye on her. Do you think she’ll come back to your house to stay overnight?”
“I don’t know. She was pretty mad.”
“Do any of your other friends know about this?” Lilly asked. “How about Mack or Stu?”
“Stu knows Mary Louise has a crush on me, but he doesn
’t know Mary Louise as well as I do. They only know each other from school. I haven’t told him about last night. Mack met her for the first time the night you were at my house.”
“And what was the other guy’s name? William?”
“Wayne. He’s known Mary Louise for a long time, too, and he doesn’t like her.”
I think I can see why, Lilly thought.
“To tell you the truth, it was nice to be alone in the house after Mary Louise left,” Harry said.
“You haven’t had much time alone since Alice disappeared, have you?” Lilly asked. “Why don’t you tell everyone that you’re ready to stay by yourself?”
“I could do that. But I don’t want them to feel like I don’t appreciate what they’re doing.”
“Harry, you need to stop worrying about other people’s feelings and start thinking about you for once. You and Alice should be your only priorities right now.”
He sighed. “I know. I’ll talk to them.”
Lilly smiled. She had known Harry would have difficulty asking his friends to stop spending the night at his house. Not because he didn’t want to be alone, but because he wanted them to know how much he appreciated them.
Alice was a lucky woman to snag Harry.
Hassan came into the store a few hours later and Lilly left Harry in charge so she could go out for lunch with Hassan.
“You’re spoiling me,” she said as they sat down in a small restaurant near the town square.
“You deserve it,” he said with a smile, covering her hand with his.
“Anything new this morning?” she asked.