Not What She Seems (9 page)

Emily hesitated. “The next semester doesn’t start until after the holidays. If I do go visit my aunt, I’d be back long before it starts.”

Something tugged at the back of his mind. Had she just taken his money for a vacation? He shook his head. No, he was being paranoid. She hadn’t even asked him for the money. He’d offered it to her.

“Well, give me a call and let me know if you decide to leave. Let me give you my cell phone number, so you can reach me.” He turned into her parking lot and stopped beside her car. He pulled a piece of paper out of the glove box and wrote his number on it. Emily took it and shoved it into her back pocket.

After he got Connor’s car seat all buckled into her car, he turned to Emily and she kissed his cheek. He would have pulled her close, but she stepped back too quickly. “Goodbye,” she whispered. She grabbed Connor’s hand and hurried into her apartment.

“I’ll see you,” he called after her, still feeling the warmth of her lips on his cheek. He drove his truck back to his apartment, wondering if he had imagined it, or if she really had tears in her eyes when she had said ‘goodbye’.

******

Emily shut the door and wiped the tears from her face. Richard couldn’t see her crying, or he would ask too many questions. She would miss this town, she knew that. But most of all she hated what she was doing to Steven. He really was a nice guy. She went into the bathroom and started a bath for Connor. If she was going to successfully get away from Richard, the next twelve hours were crucial.

“Did you have a nice date?” Richard asked, standing right behind her. She jumped. She hadn’t seen him come out of his room.

“The date was fine. He wants me to meet him at the Children’s Museum in the city tomorrow afternoon.”

Richard’s eyes narrowed. “Why isn’t he picking you up?”

“He has a dental appointment in the morning, so he’ll already be in town.” The words were well rehearsed in her mind, but stuck to her tongue as she actually said them.

“When is he giving you the money?” He spoke softly, giving her chills.

“He should have it by this weekend.”

“You should start to pack your things then.”

“I will, Richard,” she said. She held Connor’s hands while he got into the bath. “I have to bathe Connor right now,” she said, indicating that he should leave her alone.

He folded his arms and stood silent for a moment. “I think I will pack your things for you,” he said, his eyes dark. Emily clenched her teeth, and he turned and left her alone. That was not a good sign. He suspected something.

She knew she was going to have to leave everything behind. She wouldn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to Rose. She took a deep breath, bitterly reminded of leaving everyone and everything behind five years ago. She had managed to get through it then, and she could get through this too. The sooner she was away from Richard, the better. That night she fell asleep crying.

The early morning sun shone through the window, and Emily knew it was time to get ready. She felt nervous, her heart pounding, but she couldn’t let Richard see that. She dressed Connor, and tried to calm her nerves. As she put her hair up, she could see Richard at the dining room table, eating his cereal and reading the paper. The money she had been saving over the past two months lay hidden in her purse, sewed inside the lining, along with the money order Steven had given her. Her throat tightened, the guilt making her swallow hard. She couldn’t think about it right now.

She heard the kitchen chair scrape against the floor. Richard appeared behind her.

He leaned against the door frame. “I’ll start packing your things today.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“I have a good idea for where we could go next. Things are going to return to normal,
Em
. You won’t have to work anymore.” He reached out, his fingers tracing down her neck. She froze. Richard never touched her.
Never.

“Sure, okay,” she murmured, pulling away from him. She went into the other room to get her coat on. He didn’t stop watching her as she zipped Connor up in his winter coat.

“I’ll see you later this afternoon,” she said to Richard as she guided Connor out of the front door.

Chapter Ten

Steven tossed in his bed, trying to shake the nagging feeling that something was wrong with Emily. She had seemed distant for most of the morning, but then had snuggled with him in the theater. After the strange incident during the movie, she had been stand-offish again. When she said goodbye she had pulled him close and brushed her lips against his cheek almost seductively, but she left him so quickly he wasn’t sure what to think of it. He finally fell into a restless slumber.

In the light of the new day, worrying about Emily seemed fruitless. Opening the morning paper, he scanned the headlines as he bit into his toasted bagel with cream cheese. It wasn’t until he read the same sentence three times that he realized his mind was not going to let him focus. Exasperated, he folded the paper back up and let it slap onto the table.

Wanting to get out of his apartment, he pulled on his leather jacket and stepped out into the cold November air. He walked downtown to see what the quaint little shops had, and to get his mind off her. Christmas was just around the corner and he had not done any shopping yet.

He passed by Dollar Mania and Kathy’s Boutique, and entered Timeless Treasures. The antique shop held a wide variety of trinkets. Weathered tables with lace doilies held tea kettles, bottle openers, and an assortment of curious rusted contraptions, the purpose of which he could only guess. Signs advertising milk in Cream Top bottles, U.S. Seal Cigars, and
Olo
Soap Powder, among others, formed a line around the store a few inches below the ceiling.

A smile flitted across his face as he ran his fingers over the arm of a beautiful wooden rocking chair. This would look right at home in one of the historic Victorian residences that line the streets of
Huntington
. He found himself looking at the furniture as if he was going to buy it. After spending an hour in the antique shop, he purchased a first edition Winnie the Pooh book that was in pretty good shape. His mother loved A. A. Milne, and he was sure this would be a great gift for her.

He spent the afternoon cleaning his apartment, and wondering if it would be a good idea to drop by the café. The lure of seeing Emily again was almost too much for him. But he didn’t want to become a pest. He had finally decided against dropping by the café when his cell phone chimed from his pocket.

“Hello?”

Rose’s voice came through on the other end of the phone. “Ethan, do you know where Emily is?”

“She’s not at work?” A sinking feeling started in the pit of his stomach.

“No, she didn’t show up for her shift. It’s just not like her to be irresponsible. Since she doesn’t have a phone, I was wondering if you could run over to her apartment and make sure she’s all right.”

“Sure, I’ll go right over there. Maybe she’s ill.”

“Thank you.” The worry was obvious in her voice, and Steven wondered if she had the same sick feeling he had.

“No problem.” He snapped his phone shut. With his heart in his throat, he sprinted to his truck. The engine turned over several times without starting. He pumped the gas and tried again. Reluctantly the vehicle sprang to life. It only took him five minutes to get to
Pine Street
, where he pulled into her parking lot. Her car was gone. He left the lights of his truck on, pointed right at her apartment window, as he ran down the stairs to the basement level.

He knocked on her door, and rang the doorbell. “Emily?” When no one answered, he peered in the window to the living room. He realized he had never been inside her apartment. A few ragged pieces of furniture lay scattered about, but the walls were bare. He walked over to the bedroom window and looked in. The closet door stood open, revealing empty shelves. The bed was stripped down to the mattress. His throat tightened. She had packed up everything and left.

******

Richard could tell something wasn’t right. Emily had been gone for almost six hours now, and her shift at the café started in less than ten minutes. He paced the floor and looked out of the window again. Swearing, he slammed his fist into the wall, punching a hole in the drywall. Sharp pain shot through his hand.

She’d left him. He was sure of it. It was getting dark outside, but he didn’t turn on any lights. The darkness seemed somewhat comforting.

He pulled a tattered suitcase from the closet and started throwing things into it. Remembering that he didn’t even have a vehicle to pack, he swore again. Tearing through the apartment, he soon had three large pieces of luggage stuffed full. He pushed them up against the wall below the window in the living room. The rest of their belongings were in boxes that hadn’t been unpacked for a long time. He piled those with the suitcases.

A quick walk through of the place assured him he had left no trace of their ever having been there. Except for the hole in the wall, he thought frowning. He clenched and unclenched his right hand, letting the pain shoot up his arm. It almost made him feel better.
Almost.

A vehicle pulled into the parking lot, its lights making large white rectangles on the wall. For a split second Richard thought it might be Emily, but the engine was much too loud to be her car. When the lights did not go out right away, he backed up against the door and listened to the footsteps on the cement. A shadow passed by the window, and someone knocked on the door. The doorbell buzzed and Richard heard Steven call for Emily. He narrowed his eyes and didn’t move when he saw Steven’s shadow on the wall, with his arms forming triangles to the sides of his head as he peered in the window.

Moments passed and he heard a car door slam and the truck pulled out of the parking lot leaving the apartment dark once more. So, she had left him too. A slow smile spread across his face. He knew how he would get her back.

******

Pushing the speed limit a little, it only took him three minutes to get back to the Downtown Café. Steven ran inside as the feeling in his stomach worsened.

Rose came up to him, her face white. “What happened?”

“She’s gone,” he said, choking on the words. “Her car’s gone, and her apartment’s cleaned out. She left town.”

“What? Why would she…?”

“I don’t know.” He raked his hand through his hair. “She mentioned going to visit her aunt, but something tells me that’s not where she went. She left in too much of a hurry. It’s almost like someone was after her.”

“Do you think she’s on the run from her ex-husband?” Seconds passed and the question hung in the air.

“I can’t believe that she would do that,” he said, but even as the words escaped his lips, he knew that she would do anything to protect Connor. He sat down at the nearest table and put his head in his hands. That must be what happened. She must have left her abusive husband to protect Connor, and now he’s caught up with them. That made more sense than anything else.

“I’ve got to get back to work, but I have a break in a few minutes. I’ll come over when I can.”

“Thanks.” He didn’t bother to look up. What was he going to do? He couldn’t stop thinking about her kiss on his cheek, and the way she whispered goodbye. She had tears in her eyes. He knew it now. She was saying goodbye forever. She must have known her ex-husband was after her.

His pulse raced as he tried to think of where she would go. Nothing came to his mind. He really didn’t know that much about her; she kept her past very guarded. But she did mention where her parents had lived, in
Staplehurst
, or
Starleton
,
Minnesota
. The Internet would tell him more. Maybe he could get some information about her if he went to her hometown. He had to do something. She could be in a lot of trouble.

“Rose, I’ve got to go. I have an idea. I’ll call you when I get the chance.”

“Okay, dear, you go and call me when you find out anything.”

He gave her a quick hug, and then left the café feeling a little bit better. At least he had a lead.

Powering up his laptop, Steven pulled a chair up to the desk. After waiting a few moments for the computer to load, he typed
Minnesota
towns in the search box. He knew it started with an S. When he saw Stapleton, he knew that was right. He looked it up on the map. Stapleton appeared to be a small town, located to the south of
Minneapolis
. A few phone calls later, and he had a flight scheduled.

Steven spent the next few hours fretting about Emily. Maybe she knew that she would have to leave soon, and that’s why she had been acting strangely toward him. It was quite possible that she wanted to be with him, but kept herself guarded because she knew she was on the run. He held onto that possibility. Maybe she did have feelings for him.

Even though his thoughts raced through his mind, he went to bed expecting to toss and turn all night. Fortunately, he fell into a deep dreamless sleep.