Echoes

Echoes

By

Erin Quinn

ISBN: 978-1-927111-04-8

PUBLISHED BY:

Books We Love
Ltd.

Chestermere, Alberta

Canada 

Copyright 2011 by Erin Grady

Cover Art 2011 by Michelle Lee

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This book is dedicated to

the pioneering women who have guided me,

ever westward, in my own personal journey

to see the elephant

(Alphabetical)

Florine Belanger, Lynn Coulter, Diane Dunaway,

Betty Grady, Debi Ives, Annie Mathey,

Bev Moriarty, Leona Pfiefer,

Tracy Thomas and Jan Wahl.

And to the men who have kept my map

right side up so I know which way westward is:

Rick Alcaraz, Charles Grady, and Mark Grady.

I thank you.

Acknowledgments

For their technical expertise and willingness to read early versions, I thank: Sharon & King Ackermann, Scott Adair, Patti Clavier, Rebecca Goude, Karen Griffith, Ross Kasminoff, Judi Schroeder, John Scott, Val Swanson, James Wick. Special thanks to the Thomas family for letting me borrow the wonderful name Rancho Almosta and to Hailey and Taylor Alcaraz for their patience, understanding and love.

And of course, my most heartfelt thanks to fellow author Lynn Coulter, for her talent, dedication to the craft, and honest feedback. Words cannot express my gratitude.

Chapter One

“We shouldn’t be here, Mommy.”

Caitlin had spoken the words the minute the tiny town of
Mountain Bend came into view through the windshield of their '83 Datsun. But Tori had refused to listen to the solemn warning in her seven year old daughter's voice with the same single-minded determination she used to deny late payment notices and speeding tickets.

In the three months that had passed since then, Tori had finally grasped what Caitlin knew all along. Unpaid fines and fiercely worded credit statements couldn't kill them.

Staying in Mountain Bend could.

Gravel sprayed as she skidded into her drive, shifting into park before the car even came to a stop. She jumped out and rushed up the steps to her front door, fumbling with her keys as she glanced back the way she'd come. No tell tale clouds of dust trailing up the dirt road. Yet.

She slammed the door behind her and locked it. A moment to catch her breath, and then she took the stairs up two at a time. Her sweater stuck to her back where perspiration had pooled between her shoulder blades. The sour smell of fear clung tight to her skin.

At first sight, Mountain Bend had seemed a tranquil paradise to Tori. Nestled low in a basin between the rugged peaks of the Sierra Nevadas and a shocking blue sky, it looked like heaven. She'd rolled down her window, taking a deep breath of air scented with eternal Christmas. What possible wrong could be hidden in the quaint little haven?

We shouldn’t be here, Mommy…

She'd been irritated with Caitlin for saying something so negative before they'd given the place a chance. Before they'd even stopped the car.

"Of course we should be here," she'd said sharply. "Maybe now we can finally settle down."

Victoria France, Tori to anyone who knew her, had believed it, too.

She should have listened, she thought now as she glanced at the clock on the wall. She should have turned tail and run. But Tori had been running her entire life and she'd ended up here all the same.

She took her overnight bag from the hall closet and darted into Caitlin's room. A pink and white lace comforter covered her daughter's bed. Caitlin made it each and every morning. Not because Tori asked her to. Tori never even made her own bed. Her room was knee deep in clothes, shoes and boxes she didn't pretend she planned to unpack. Not Caitlin. Her bedroom was her private sanctuary. Order in a chaotic world she had no way of understanding or controlling.

In this way, as in so many others, Caitlin reminded Tori of her sister. Caitlin should have been her sister's daughter. Lord knows, her life would have been better, easier...saner.

Tears of frustration burned Tori's eyes as she grabbed a few necessities for Caitlin and stuffed them into the bag. To have come all this way... To have met the one man who could stop the madness that had always directed her life... And then to realize that nothing she could do would change anything that was to come... She wanted to shout her rage.

Instead she hurried to her own room and grabbed a change of clothes from the pile on the floor. She couldn't risk taking time to pack more. Her breath came in harsh gasps and her throat was raw from it. She caught sight of herself in the mirror as she passed it. Wild eyed and scared, she looked as if she'd seen the resurrection of the devil himself. Perhaps she had.

"It'll be okay," she said aloud.

They'd find some place new to live, she continued silently this time. Some place where dreams didn't become nightmares. Where nightmares didn't step from the dark and draw breath in the light of day.

As if called by her thoughts, the wall in front of her shimmied, shimmered like oil on water and the terrifying images streamed across its surface.

"Go away," she breathed.

But by coming here, Tori had unwittingly crossed more than a border into a new town. Now she was trapped in an echo that went on and on until she couldn't distinguish her own screams from those that had been waiting for her to take that final, fatal step.

She couldn't stop it. She couldn't understand it. She couldn't tell anymore what was real, what was not…

She had to stay focused. She would grab the money, pick up Caitlin from school, and they'd head for
New York. God knew it wouldn't be the first time she'd shown up homeless at her sister's door.

Overnight bag in hand, she hurried back downstairs. All she had to do was get away from this place. Get away now. But even as the words resounded in her head, a noise reached her, one that mocked the futility of her efforts and stopped her mad race. The lock on the front door jiggled and the deadbolt slid back with a final click. Tori hesitated, not wanting to accept what she saw, but then the doorknob turned.

Chapter Two

The phone hadn't stopped ringing since Tess Carson walked in the door at eight that morning. Complaints, questions, orders, misorders, re-orders. One after another the lines on her phone lit up. She'd been there a full hour before she escaped her desk long enough to pour herself a cup of coffee, which she immediately spilled. Lunch came and went, leaving her unsatisfied with her vending machine fare of Fritos and diet Pepsi, but too busy to do anything about it. The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur and it was almost four when she finally looked up and realized the day was nearly over. Across the hall, she saw her friend Sara packing up to leave.

"I've had it. I can't take anymore," Sara said.

Tess stretched her stiff muscles and groaned. "I didn't realize it was so late."

"I know. This felt like a really bad Monday."

Tess had joined NYC Supply and Sales a few years ago and quickly learned that the pace was never predictable. There were crazy days like this and then there were incredibly dull days when she trolled the internet and wrote emails to everyone she knew for lack of anything better to do.

Sara came over and perched on the gray counter in Tess's cubby. "What'd you do on your date last night?" she asked. "Dinner, movie, wild sex?"

"Not quite," Tess said. "We did have dinner, though. The Rainbow Room."

"Rockefeller Center. Very nice." Sara waited, brows raised. "And...?"

"
And
I spilled a giant glass of water all over his leather coat.
And then
he took me home."

"Was he mad?"

Tess sighed. "No, actually he was really nice about it. He acted like I had a defective glass or something."

Sara rolled her eyes. "What a jerk. So he was too nice. What else was wrong with him?"

"I don't know, Sara. There was nothing wrong with him...there just wasn't anything  with him either. He kept pausing in the middle of these long, drawn-out stories and I never knew if it was my turn to talk, so I kept interrupting him and then we'd have these awful silences while we waited for the other to finish. It was just awkward the whole night."

"I hate when that happens."

"Do you think it happens to me a lot? I mean, lately I've been thinking that maybe I'm too picky. My sister falls in love every time she gets close enough to smell a man's cologne. I can't even make it to a second date."

"Maybe they're not wearing the right cologne."

Maybe. But after she got home last night, she couldn't stop thinking about it. It wasn't like she was desperate for a man—far from it. She was so busy most of the time, she didn't know how she'd fit a man into her life. But she was frustrated by the feeling that she was missing something. Something or someone.

She was coasting, never really liking anything she did, but never disliking it enough to change it. This morning she'd had to force herself to come to work and tonight she'd have to force herself to go home. She sighed, looking around her colorless cubicle with distaste. She was twenty-eight years old. Shouldn't she at least have an idea about what she wanted?

The phone started ringing again.

"Ignore it," Sara said. "It's time to go home."

"I know, but I've got a couple of things I need to finish up anyway." She waved bye to Sara with her free hand and pinned the receiver between her shoulder and ear with the other. "NYC Supply & Sales, Tess Carson," she answered.

"Ms. Carson? This is Craig Weston, speaking."

"Hello, how can I help you, Mr. Weston?"

"I'm the Principal of Mountain Bend Elementary—calling you from
California."

California
wasn't exactly the other side of the world, but he said it like it should mean something to her. She flipped through her mental rolodex trying to place the account. T-shirts for a fund raiser? Literacy folders? "Mountain Bend Elementary?" she repeated softly.

And then it came to her. She sat back and covered her face with her hand. Mountain
Bend, California. Tori. What kind of trouble was her sister in now?

"I'm calling because you're listed on Caitlin France's school records as the person to contact in case of an emergency."

"Has something happened?"

Across the walkway, Sara was just stepping out of her cubicle, coat and purse in hand. She paused at the sharp tone of Tess's voice.

"Caitlin's mother didn't pick her up from school today and no one's heard from her."

"What do you mean, no one's heard from her? Where is Caitlin now?"

"She's here and she's fine. However, our attempts to reach Caitlin's mother have been unsuccessful."

"You tried her cell phone?"

Sara set her purse on Tess's counter and watched her with concern.

"Yes, no answer. Not that cell phones work all that well out here. We're a bit isolated."

"What time was she supposed to be there?"

"A couple of hours ago—we had early dismissal today for parent-teacher meetings. Ms.
France missed her appointment for that as well."

Frowning, Tess looked at the pictures tacked to her gray cubby walls. She'd vacationed with her sister and niece last fall. They'd gone to
Disneyland, worn mouse ears and had their picture taken with the chief mouse himself. Tori smiled back from the photos, dark as a gypsy and as predictable as the wind.

"I put off calling right away, hoping of course that she'd make an appearance," he continued. "Honestly, Ms.
France is not known for her punctuality, but we did expect to see her by now."

It didn't take much to read between the lines of that one. Tess knew firsthand how undependable her sister could be. If they'd been talking about anyone else, Tess's first reaction would have been worry but where her sister was concerned....

"Our records don't show a number for Mr. France. Perhaps you know how to reach him?"

"There is no Mr. France. I mean, there was at one time, but he's not involved with Caitlin at all. I don't think he's ever even seen her."

"I see." Mr. Weston's pause felt weighted. "The problem is, school has been out for some time and there's no place for Caitlin to go. I realize you're in New York, but you are the only person she has listed to contact for emergencies. Normally I would be calling someone local who could just swing over and pick her up after school." His statement trailed into a question.

"And that's why you're calling? You want me to come get her?" A mixture of resignation and disbelief washed over her—although how she could be surprised by anything that came with a call concerning her sister was a mystery. Beside her, Sara mouthed, "to
California?" Tess nodded.

"Well, yes, I was calling to have her picked up." Mr. Weston said, answering her blunt question. "I mean, that's usually what happens in situations like this. But if it's not possible for you to come, I can contact the sheriff's department and they'll take her into custody until—"

"Sheriff’s Department?"

"They'll bus her up to
Piney River and put her in the shelter—"

"
Shelter?
Why there? Isn't there some kind of after school program or daycare center?"

"I wish there was. But we're just a little community and we depend on
Piney River for help in these areas. It's not as bad as you're thinking it is, I'm sure."

"I doubt Caitlin would agree with you there." Tess raked her fingers through her short hair. The thought of her niece being sent to a shelter made her stomach clench. Dammit, what was Tori thinking, not being there when school was out? Didn't she remember how it felt to stand on the curb after everyone else had been picked up and worry about what happened next? How could she put Caitlin in the same situation?

"I wish I had another option," Mr. Weston was saying, "but I don't have anyone else to call—"

"Sure. I understand." Tess looked at the picture of her smiling niece and let out a deep breath. There
was
no one else to call. There never was, just as there was never a choice as to whether or not Tess would drop everything and come to the rescue. It was a pattern that had repeated many times in their lives. But what if this time something really had happened? Tori was unreliable, but not when it came to Caitlin.

"Okay," Tess said. "I'm on my way. I mean, as soon as I can book a flight. Can you at least keep her until I get there?"