Finding Gracie's Rainbow (46 page)

“
He threatened you with
her when he took you from here.” Janet was studying her. “Didn’t
he?” She was asking loudly, “Well?!”

“
Yes, are you happy now?”
Gracie was starting to look panicked. “He held Sammie over my
head.” Gracie sat down in the window seat.

“
I’m sure that Sammie
would appreciate that fact if she were told.” Janet said angrily.
“I don’t guess that it even occurred to you just to talk to
somebody about what was going on that night.”

“
Mom, it wasn't that
simple.” Gracie glanced at her as her mother started to walk around
the room. “And Sammie wouldn't appreciate it. She would feel
guilty.”

Janet stooped over to pick
up the journal. “We just thought that you wanted to get married. I
thought you were following in Kim’s footsteps because you might've
been pregnant.”

“
Say what?” Gracie looked
at her puzzled. “Are you telling me that Kim was expecting Sammie
when she got married?”

“
You weren’t?” Janet
looked at her as she asked.

“
I was a virgin.” Gracie
informed her. “I always wondered why you were so strict with
me.”

“
I take it that you didn't
know about Kim.” Janet stopped next to the window seat.

“
Kim never told me, and I
never thought about the math.” Gracie looked over at her from
staring outside. “We have company downstairs.”

“
I know.” Janet stepped
away from the window seat as Gracie stood. “Not being such a good
hostess, am I?” She looked over at the box that Gracie had sat out
the weekend before. “Where is the letter that you wrote
me?”

“
I gave it to Christian.”
Gracie said as they walked down the stairs. “Why?”

“
You wrote down that there
should be an impression of a letter that you had started before
that said everything that was going on, but Mark had taken it
because you wrote in code.”

“
He threw it away.” Gracie
stopped before they walked into the living to look at her
mother.

“
But there should be some
impressions from the letter before. It was written on a legal pad.”
Janet wanted to see the letter.

“
I never thought about
that.” Gracie started to walk into the living room. “I'll tell
Christian when I hand him the journal.”

“
Thank you.” Janet put a
smile on her face as she spotted Bea talking to her Amish side of
the family.

They visited with the
Camerons for a little while before Gracie took Bea home. She was
thinking about how her mother must've felt as she had sat down and
read the journal. She walked into her house and noticed that
Christian was sitting at the table with Annie with papers strolled
out in front of them. She tossed the journal on the table and
walked to her room to change her clothes.

Gracie walked back into the
room and noticed that Annie was watching her. “Not tonight, Annie,
I want to think about something else.” She looked at Christian.
“But first, may I see the letter that I handed you?”

“
No problem.” Christian
took the letter out of his file and handed it to her. “I made a
copy of it.”

Gracie took a lead pencil
out of the drawer in the kitchen and scratched at it; watching as a
code appeared. “She was right.”

“
Who was right?” Christian
had watched her rub the letter. He looked down at what appeared.
“Can you put that in English?”

Gracie took another sheet
of paper and wrote it down for him as he smiled. “My mother took my
journal before I got there, and now she knows everything that
happened.”

Annie looked over at her
and stood. “I thought you didn’t want to go there
tonight.”

“
Too late for that,”
Gracie said as she watched Bea go outside to play with Garrison.
“How long do you think this trial will last?”

“
With everything that
you’ve given us? Not long.” Christian stood and gathered all the
papers. “Maybe a week at the most,” he studied her for a minute.
“Jackson was here earlier. He’s kind of upset that you weren’t
here.”

“
He'll get over it.”
Gracie sat down in the living room and watched as Christian laid
down all of his papers and walked towards her.

“
You're pushing him away.”
He watched as Gracie turned on the television.

She looked over at him and
then turned television on. Christian turned the television off, and
she glared at him. “Was there something else, Detective LaVern? You
are in my house.”

“
Gracie, Jackson is a
friend of mine, and I don’t like seeing him hurt.” Christian
watched as Annie came over and sat down beside Gracie.

“
And I don’t have time for
Jackson to act like a child.” Gracie stood angrily and marched to
her bedroom; slamming the door behind her.

“
I thought you said we
couldn't interfere.” Annie accused him as she listened to the door
slamming.

“
He deserves to know what
is going on with her.” Christian sat down next to her.

“
And I agree with you, but
it's up to Gracie as to how much he knows and when he finds out.”
Annie looked at him seriously. “Maybe it's time you
left.”

“
Probably,” Christian
looked at her as he stood. “I know Jackson, and he's probably at
Dylan’s.”

“
No more interference,”
Annie said as he gathered all of papers. “And she is
right.”

“
About what?” Christian
picked up his file not looking at her.

“
Jackson is acting like a
child.” Annie informed him.

“
That depends on which
side you are looking at. If it were me, I would want to know what
happened to the woman I was involved with or in Jackson’s case, the
one he thought he was involved with.” Christian walked to the front
door and left as Annie stood and walked out the back door to check
on the children.

Annie watched Bea as she
thought about Gracie. She had been through so much, and Annie knew
that with the trial coming up, she had a lot on her mind right at
the moment. Jackson would just have to man up and wait for her to
come around to him. She stopped in the middle of her thoughts.
Christian had said ‘thought he was involved with’. She dialed his
number. “What did you mean before you left here?”

“
What did it sound like?”
Christian was watching traffic as he talked. “Jackson is at the end
of his rope.”

“
Then you should try to
calm him down. She doesn't need this right now.” Annie was frowning
as she talked.

“
And how am I supposed to
do that, Annie? At this point, I know more about Gracie than he
does.”

“
Just figure it out,
Detective. Gotta go.” Annie hung up as Gracie walked out of her
bedroom. “From this minute we won't mention anything other than
family or our kids.”

“
Sounds good to me.”
Gracie tried to smile as she looked at the clock. “I'm going to fix
Bea and myself a little something to eat.”

“
There is some pizza.”
Annie offered knowing that Gracie usually ate very healthy. “Or
not.”

“
Pizza is fine.” Gracie
really didn't care what they ate at the moment.

Annie took the pizza box
out of the oven and placed it on the table. “You hate
pizza.”

“
But Bea loves it. I would
love to make at least one person happy today.” Gracie opened the
box and looked at the pizza. “Why do you love this
stuff?”

“
I have no idea; I just
do. I'll get Bea for you.” Annie went to the back and called Bea as
Gracie was looking at the telephone ringing beside the couch. Annie
walked into the house asking, “Aren’t you going to answer
that?”

“
No.” Gracie poured Bea a
cup of soda. “Whose idea was that anyway?”

“
Jackson’s” Annie walked
away from the table.

“
And he's going to get
upset if you don't answer it.” Gracie took a bite of pizza,
frowning at the taste.

“
Probably,” Annie finally
picked up the phone. Gracie shook her head as Annie looked over at
the table. She hung up after she told Jackson that Gracie was
eating supper. “That buys you thirty minutes at the
most.”

“
I don’t think so.” Gracie
stood and unplugged the phone from the wall. “If he wants to talk
to me, he can call the cell like he always does.”

Annie was smiling when she
sat down on the couch and watched her. “I told him that if you had
wanted one, you would've bought it a long time ago.”

Gracie picked up the phone
and placed it on the counter. “That is Jackson. Always assuming
what I want.” She turned to look at Bea as she scarfed down the
last bite of pizza. “Were you hungry, Princess?”

“
I just want to play
before bed.” Bea smiled at her mother before taking off to the
backyard where Garrison was playing with the puppies.

“
So what’s the deal?”
Annie asked watching Gracie clean the table.

She glanced in Annie’s
direction. “About?”

“
Between you and Jackson,”
Annie was studying her as she paused. “You haven’t seen a lot of
him this week.”

“
I've been busy.” She
rinsed out the dishcloth and spread it over the sink.

“
And?” Annie was not
buying it.

“
He’s upset because I
can’t talk to him about what happened.” Gracie turned to face her
as she leaned against the counter. “I tried to tell everybody that
it wouldn't work out between us but nobody believed me.” She turned
and looked back out the window. “Now I've probably messed up Bea’s
relationship with him.”

Annie sat still as she
listened to her. “So that is why you said he was acting
childish.”

“
Could be. I think that
the princess and I are going to bed.” Gracie called Bea. “Good
night, Annie.”

“
Good night, Gracie.
Night, Bea.” Annie was watching them walk down the hall. ‘Don’t
interfere, Annie’, she kept telling herself. She put Garrison to
bed and stretched out on the couch.

She woke when she heard
Gracie walking around the house. “Gracie, wake up.” Annie was
frowning as she walked around behind her. “Where are you
going?”

“
Mark is going after
Jackson. I have to warn him.” Gracie started looking for her cell
phone. “Where is my phone?”

“
I don’t know. It’s time
for you to go back to bed.” Annie was about ready to call Kim.
“Jackson is fine; I just talked to him an hour ago.” She hoped that
the fib would pacify Gracie enough to calm her down.

“
Mark is coming.” Gracie
was panicked and having trouble breathing. “Sammie? Where is
Sammie?”

“
Sammie is fine.” Annie
was starting to panic herself. “Deep breaths, Gracie. Please wake
up.” She tried the soothing voice that Kim had used with her just a
week before. “Feel better?” She asked as Gracie's breathing had
evened. “Back to bed with you, then.”

She walked into the bedroom
and watched her slide under the covers without missing a beat.
Gracie's nightmares were getting worse, and the sleepwalking was
starting to freak Annie out.

Annie waited until after
Gracie woke the next morning and then rode over to Jackson’s
apartment. She saw that Christian and Dylan were sitting at the
table with cards in front of them. Jackson was standing beside the
door with a baseball bat in his hand.

“
Don’t even.” Annie
snapped glancing over at the card game. “Did you sleep well last
night, Jackson?”

“
I slept just fine.” He
raised his eyes as his cousin took one of his beers out of the
refrigerator. He placed the bat next to the door. “What is the
matter with you?”

“
You.” Annie popped the
top on the can. “You are a pampered, self-centered, all assuming,
pompous idiot.” She studied the shocked expression on his face and
handed him the can.

“
Where did that come
from?” Jackson asked taking the can from her.

“
Lack of sleep,” Annie
noticed that Christian and Dylan were both watching
them.

“
You sleep like a log.”
Jackson sat down on one of the stools at his bar. “This is about
Gracie- isn’t it?” Annie nodded her head as Jackson put the can
down on the counter. “Tell me what is going on.”

“
She is sleepwalking. It
has only been twice but after the first time I haven't allowed
myself to completely sleep.” Annie watched as Christian walked over
to them. “She made it all the way to Kim’s house the first
time.”

Jackson looked over at
Christian and back at Annie as she continued. “The first time she
was looking for Bea, and we found her.” She paused as she studied
the beer in front of her. “Last night she was looking for you and
for Sammie.”

“
Why?” Jackson was
listening to her closely.

“
Mark was after you.”
Annie took the beer from him. “What are you thinking? It's too
early to drink.”

“
But you gave it to me.”
Jackson was watching as she dumped the beer down the kitchen drain.
“And Gracie doesn't want me hanging around her all the
time.”