Red Sky At Morning - DK4 (33 page)

Now it was the petty officer’s turn to swallow. “Now hold on.”

They were alone in the room, and the man looked around quickly before he returned his attention to Dar. “I didn’t do a damn thing. Just what I was told.”

Dar stepped back and let her hands drop, feeling exhausted. “I’ve heard that before.” She found the stool near the computer console and sat down on it. “Something’s going on here, and I’m gonna find it.”

178
Melissa Good
The man hesitated, then walked over and leaned on the computer console table. “Hey, look, you really from Washington?” His voice had lowered considerably.

Dar lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “I was hired by the Joint Chiefs, yes.”

“All right, look...” The man shifted, and straightened suddenly, cutting off his speech as the door opened. “Sir.”

Dar lifted her eyes to see the base commander enter. “Morning.”

“Howdy, tadpole.” Jeff Ainsbright gave her a big smile. “We all set for dinner tonight?”

The petty officer edged away from her, his eyes taking on a wary look.

“I think so, yes,” Dar agreed. “Seven, you said? You want to meet at the steakhouse?”

The older man nodded briskly. “Right you are, tadpole. Chuckie tells me you’re sweet on someone—you made the invite to him, too, right? Love to meet ’im.”

The complication of the situation almost made Dar wince. “They’ll be here,” she quietly affirmed. “Mom and Dad, too.”

“Great.” The commander slapped her on the back. “Carry on, didn’t want to interrupt anything. You find any holes yet I need to be plugging?”

Dar looked up at his weathered face, open and interested as it was.

His smile indicated he expected no startling revelations from her, and at the moment, she wasn’t sure if she had any.

Right?
“Nothing concrete yet, Uncle Jeff,” she said. “I’m still working through the data.”

Maybe it was the way she’d said it. The base commander straightened a little, then glanced at the petty officer who was pressed against the wall doing his best imitation of a strip of wall weave.

“Dismissed.” He waited for the man to leave and the door to close, then he turned back to Dar, his face now mildly concerned. “What’s the poop, tadpole? You really find something?”

Dar’s lips tensed as she found herself caught between conflicting loyalties. She felt a mild sense of confusion for the first time in her life, and she had to stop and collect her thoughts for a moment before she could answer. “I don’t know yet,” she finally answered honestly. “I might have...there’s something I don’t like in the numbers, but I haven’t fully analyzed it.”

The CO put a large hand on her shoulder. “Tadpole, whatever you find, you bring it to me, hear? I don’t care what it is, I wanna know.”

Dar searched his face, seeing nothing but rock-solid resolve in his eyes. “All right,” she agreed quietly. “When I have something for sure, you’ll know it.”

He patted her cheek. “Atta girl. You doing okay, tadpole? You look a little pale t’day.”

Red Sky At Morning
179

Dar winced, lifting a hand to rub the back of her neck. “Headache,”

she explained with a light shrug. “Think I’ll go take a walk outside for a few minutes.”

“Right you are, my friend.” Commander Ainsbright slung an arm over her shoulders and tugged her toward the door. “Fresh air’s just the ticket. I’d send you out on a boat if I had one leaving; get you some salt in those lungs.” He opened the door and they walked outside into the sunlight. “How ’bout a cup of java? That usually puts a patch on my noggin bangers.”

Dar thought back to the petty officer, then realized the man was probably long gone, chasing after the new recruits. “Sure,” she agreed.

“Then I’ll go catch up with the swabs.”

“QUITE THE LITTLE Lone Ranger, aren’t you?” Ceci commented as she and Kerry watched her siblings retreat into the golden rays of sun. They’d lasted through all of ten minutes of Kerry’s pointedly polite chatter, then decided to give up and leave them alone. Ceci hadn’t minded, but she suspected her sister, at least, wasn’t giving up and would be back in touch.

That was all right. She’d never really minded Candice, who generally just went along with Charles in some kind of twin-like Zen mode. This time, however, Candy had spoken for herself, using the unusual “I” instead of “we,” and Ceci had almost warmed back up to her.

A little.

Very little. But if Candy was, at this late stage in her life, attempting to develop a mind of her own, who was she to get in the way? “I feel well and thoroughly rescued.”

Kerry leaned back and propped her feet up on the chair Charles had hastily vacated. “Who, me?” She smiled a trifle sheepishly. “Dar’s rubbing off on me a little, maybe.”

Ceci chuckled and nudged her glass over. “Want some?”

Kerry’s brow contracted a bit. “No…my stomach’s acting up.” She exhaled, putting a hand over the afflicted area. “Or maybe it was just too many stressful meetings. It’s been in a...knot all day.” She finished the sentence softly.

Ceci watched her face, seeing the expression change as Kerry’s focus turned inward. “Kerry?”

After a moment, the green eyes flicked up to meet hers. “Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about something.” Her fingers twitched as she resisted the urge to pull out her cell phone and call Dar.
She’s not a baby,
and you’re not her sitter, Kerry. You can’t call her to find out if she’s okay
every time you get a cramp
.

Ceci hazarded a guess. “About my daughter?”

Kerry’s eyebrows hiked up. “Um...”

180
Melissa Good

“She gets the same expression on her face when she’s wondering about you,” Ceci remarked mildly. “I think it’s an indication of her fondness for you.”

A faint blush darkened Kerry’s already tanned skin. “It’s mutual.”

She played with the napkin from Ceci’s drink. She recalled Dar’s half-forgotten “fit” before Thanksgiving and decided here, at least, was a person she could broach the subject with who wouldn’t think she was weird.

Well, not too weird, anyway. “Can I ask a question?”

Ceci looked around, then pointed at her own chest. “Of me?”

Kerry nodded.

“Sure,” the older woman agreed, more than a little apprehensive.

“It’s not about motherhood, is it?”

Kerry’s eyebrows went straight up. “Um...no.” She put a hand on her stomach. “Why, do I look pregnant or something? I know I put on some more weight lately, but...”

Ceci chuckled and relaxed. “Not at all...I just used to have nightmares about having ‘that talk’ with Dar.” She cocked her head.

“What’s on your mind, Kerry?”

What was on her mind. Interesting way of putting it. “It’s kind of a weird question,” she replied slowly. “But...did you ever...” Kerry paused, frowning. “This sounds so crazy,” she apologized.

“Not yet, it doesn’t, except you don’t usually beat around in the bushes,” her mother-in-law remarked mildly.

“No, I know.” Kerry circled her knee with both hands. “Okay, well...before Thanksgiving, when Dar and I were both traveling?”

“Hmm.”

“My plane had some real problems during the flight, and I have to tell you, I was scared senseless,” Kerry said.

“Perfectly reasonable,” the older woman stated. “Nothing crazy about that, Kerry.”

“Dar felt it,” Kerry admitted. “She knew something was wrong.”

She stopped speaking and watched her mother-in-law’s face for a reaction.

It wasn’t the one she expected. Ceci cocked her head to one side and then smiled. “And?” she asked with a curious grin. “You want to know if that’s normal?”

Kerry nodded slightly.

“Of course not,” Ceci informed her.

“Oh.”

“But I’ve felt it. I know Andrew has,” the older woman went on.

“When you’re very close to someone, I think it just works that way. You just...know.”

Kerry thought about that for a few minutes in silence while Ceci sucked on her milkshake. “It’s weird,” she finally said. “It’s like...I haven’t felt right all day, and if I call Dar, I bet something is making her upset.”

Red Sky At Morning
181

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Kerry answered. “I think about that and I feel like I’m reading a copy of the
National Enquirer
,” she admitted, plucking lightly at the seam on her denims. “But I know what I feel, so...”

Ceci chuckled softly. “Must have freaked my daughter out.”

“Uh-huh.” Kerry looked up and smiled. “She thought she was going nuts. I can’t blame her, though. If she felt half as scared as I did, I would have thought I was going nuts too,” she added. “But it’s also sort of nice.”

“That you care enough about someone to feel that?” Ceci asked.

A light blush appeared on Kerry’s face, making her pale brows stand out suddenly. “Well, it’s mutual, I think.”

“No, really?” Ceci chuckled. “I’d never have guessed. You two keep it hidden so well.”

Kerry’s blush deepened. “That brings me to another problem, if you don’t mind. I need to get your advice on something.”

Uh-oh.
Ceci straightened, feeling a mild sense of alarm. During her years on the base, speeches like that usually presaged breakups and divorces, and she wasn’t ready to hear that coming from Kerry. “What’s wrong?”

Kerry caught the tension in her voice and looked up, her brows contracting a little. “Wrong? No, I don’t think it’s wrong...it’s just something I’m worried about.”

Little alarm bells, the really annoying ones like the ones the Salvation Army collectors used at Christmas time, started going off.

“Now, Kerry, listen.” Ceci leaned forward. “I’ve known Dar a long time.”

“Um...I know that.”

“She has her moments, and I’ve seen most of them, but deep down, I think she’s a good person.”

Kerry’s forehead rumpled. “I think so, too. Listen, Mom—”

“So whatever it is you’re having problems with, think hard, and don’t give up on that kid too easily, okay? I did, and look where it got me,” Ceci told her very seriously.

Kerry’s eyes closed, then reopened, and she reached over to take Ceci’s hands in hers. “Mom.” She drew a breath. “The only thing that’s going to ever make me leave Dar is one or the other of us dying.” She paused. “And even then, I’m not so sure.”

Ceci blinked, now confused. “Oh. Well, that’s fine then,” she murmured. “Sorry, I thought—”

“I should have just talked faster.” Kerry smiled. “No, what I’m worried about is our relationship being front and center at dinner tonight.”

Ceci thought about that. “Oh.” She freed one hand and muffled a laugh. “I hadn’t even...oh, boy. Yeah...” Now the laugh escaped. “Oh, my goddess, those stuffed-up military—” She stopped and cleared her 182
Melissa Good
throat. “Ahmm...I mean, well, yes, Kerry, you do have a point there.”

Her face struggled to remain serious. “But don’t worry about it—if they say anything, Andy will pick them up and toss them out the window, and they know it. If there’s one thing everyone at that table already knows, it’s don’t mess with my kid in front of her daddy.”

Kerry nodded in relief. “Okay. I was just worried about it. I know Dar has strong feelings about how she grew up, and I didn’t want to cause her any pain.”

Ceci sighed. “Kerry, you’re so nice you should be regulated by the EPA.” She reached over and patted the younger woman’s cheek. “Did you ask Dar if she wanted you to give this a miss?”

Kerry nodded.

“And she said no, right?”

Kerry nodded again.

“So don’t worry about it. C’mon, let’s go see if Andy’s gotten the seaweed out of his ears and gotten dressed. Then we can take off.”

They stood, and Kerry suddenly took a step around the table and pulled Ceci into a hug. “Thanks.”

Oh, good goddess.
Ceci returned the hug and patted Kerry on the back.
I’m becoming a mother...Eeeeeekkkk!

THE COFFEE HELPED. Dar had also detoured to her car and tossed back a half handful of Advil, and now she was prowling around the barracks looking for her friend the petty officer.

The base was quiet, otherwise; most of the active groups were out on some kind of maneuvers, and only the new recruits and the usual business units at the base were out and about and doing their daily tasks.Dar entered the long wooden barracks structure at one end and looked around the empty interior for a moment before she walked down the large central aisle. To either side were partitions with bunks in them, each bunk with its footlocker and open set of shelves made from what looked to her like old orange crates. Now that the new recruits had settled in, shirts were folded and in place, and the beds had obviously just been made.

Dar smiled. Probably remade a half-dozen times before the petty officer had been happy with them, the dark blankets tucked with meticulous neatness around the thin mattresses. She remembered watching the new groups come in and peeking through the window as they’d been badgered and badgered by the admitting officers.

Not her, she’d decided once. She’d have done it exactly right the first time out. After all, hadn’t her daddy taught her to make a regulation bunk and fold pants and shirts when she was only six years old?

With a smile, Dar continued through the room and out the other
Red Sky At Morning
183

side, exiting onto a long, wooden porch with shallow steps that led down to the muddy ground. She looked to one side and spotted her little targets, now dressed in their new clothes, struggling to follow the orders of a new, different petty officer.

Dar wandered over and watched for a few minutes, until the new officer noticed her and walked over. This one was a woman, with short, crisply curled dark hair and an efficient attitude. “Ma’am? Something we can help you with?”

With a better attitude, at any rate.
“No, just observing,” Dar replied.

“Where’s the guy you relieved?”

The woman cocked her head in question. “Petty Officer Williams?”

She waited for Dar’s nod. “Off duty, ma’am.”

Uh-huh
. Dar looked over her shoulder at the recruits, surprised to find her slim blonde friend looking back at her. The gray eyes met hers and sparkled, then the girl looked straight ahead, her body stiffening into an efficient attention. “Good group?”