Saving Cassie (Fairfield Corners)
Read Saving Cassie (Fairfield Corners) Online
Authors: L.A. Remenicky
Saving Cassie
By L.A. Remenicky
Copyright ©2013 L.A. Remenicky
All Rights
Reserved
this if you hadn’t decided to try NANOWRIMO.
This is all
your fault…
A special
thank you to Sprinkles on Top Studios for the beautiful cover. And many thanks
to Editor Afloat, Karen Olin for her help in getting this book polished and
ready for all of you to read.
And let’s
not forget the wonderful people who Beta read Saving Cassie: Sarah Kaider –
you were the first complete stranger to read it and your comments and
suggestions kept me going. I couldn’t have done this without you. Jennifer
Griffin, and Marisa from I’ll Be Reading - all of your comments and suggestions
are appreciated more than you know.
She is still awake because
it is her sixth birthday tomorrow and she is too excited to sleep. She hears
her parents discussing whether she is old enough to spend the summer at her
Gram’s house in Fairfield Corners. She is sitting at the top of the stairs
listening to them talk about Gram and her offer to have her stay the summer
with her in Fairfield Corners. I sure hope they let me go spend the summer at Gram’s
house, she thinks. I love going with her to her bookstore. There are so many
books and reading is my favorite thing…
“Do you think she’s old
enough to spend the summer? I want her to have the same sense of community
that I got from growing up in a small town,” says her mother.
Her father replies, “I
think so, she is mature for her age and she loves spending time with your
mother at the bookstore. We have our very own bookworm,” he says with pride in
his voice, “she is already reading at a fourth grade level. We’ll have to buy
our own bookstore to keep up with her before too long.”
Knock, knock, knock…
“Brad, who could be at the
door this late?”
“I don’t know, Carly. Why
don’t you go make sure Cassie is asleep; I’ll see who it is.”
Creak…”Remind me to oil
those hinges tomorrow, Carly. What are you doing here?” he demands as he
attempts to swing the door shut, “I told you we don’t want anything to do with
your group anymore.”
“Give me the girl and you
can live”
She hears her father yell,
“You’ll never get my Cassie!” The stranger forces the door open and he walks
into the house, stabbing her father with a wicked looking knife. Cassie
watches as her father crumples to the floor. She can see the tattoo of the
crucifixion on the stranger’s left forearm…
Her mother screams “You
stay away from my daughter! Cassie run, hide!” She faces the stranger,
willing to die to save her daughter. “Oh, God, someone help us!”
The stranger walks towards
her mother and ends her screaming with a knife in her throat. “Shut up
already! Why do you have to scream like that?” He looks toward the staircase,
as if he can sense Cassie sitting at the top, and his eyes start to glow.
She can only watch in
horror as the stranger walks toward the stairs. He looks up at her and grins as
he wipes the knife on his pants. The creak of the first step seems to wake her
up and she scrambles into the closed in her room, trying to make herself as
small as possible as the tears stream down her face.
“Come out, little Cassie,
come out and play with me!” he sings, his eyes glowing brighter as his grin widens
in anticipation of what is to come…
Knock, knock, knock…
Mr. Wilson, their next
door neighbor, walks in after getting no response. “Brad, are you OK? I
thought I heard screams…Oh my God!” He heads for the kitchen phone to call for
help. The stranger goes back down the stairs and runs out the front door.
Cassie is mesmerized by
the red and blue flashing lights shining under the door. She doesn’t move even
when she hears Mr. Wilson calling her name.
Five-hundred miles away a
young boy begins to dream of knives and blood and red hair… he mumbles in his
sleep, “I must save Reggie…”
The rising sun glares off
the windows of my car as I put my overnight bag in the backseat. I can’t
believe I am actually heading back to Fairfield Corners. My Gram’s death is
the only thing bringing me back to this small town in Indiana for good after
living in New York City for the past 10 years; her beloved bookstore means as
much to me as it did to her.
It has taken me two months
to get everything settled in New York City. I quit my job as manager of an
independent bookstore and packed up my apartment. It was hard, but not as hard
as it could have been. There was no one special to me in New York, some close
friends who I will miss but no one special. There has been no one special
since I broke off my engagement to Matt. That relationship taught me some hard
lessons. I won’t be jumping back into a serious relationship anytime soon, if
ever. I don’t need a man. I keep telling myself that every day, vowing to
never forget what happened that night.
Thirteen hours later and I
only have 20 miles left to go. I can’t believe I am almost back home for good.
The memories of my Gram start to crowd my mind, bringing tears to my eyes,
blurring the corn fields on both sides of the highway. God, I miss her so
much! I wish I had moved back sooner so I could have had more time with her. Maybe
I could have prevented the accident. The tears are blurring my vision, but I
keep on driving, driving towards my destiny.
The memories come faster
and faster the closer I get to town. I keep driving faster, trying to outrun
the memories - the memories of Gram’s funeral, the casket, watching her being
lowered into the ground. I don’t even notice when I drive past a sheriff’s
deputy sitting in his car at an intersection until the lights come on and I
hear the siren. I look down at the speedometer and realize just how fast I was
going. Oh crap! Maybe it’s Steve, I can talk him out of a ticket. If it’s
James I can get out of the ticket but I will get the lecture on safe driving
again. I pull over and put it in park, wiping the tears off my face, hoping I
don’t look like death warmed over, I don’t really want to discuss why I was
crying.
I lean over to get my
registration out of the glove box when I hear a tapping on my window. I push
the button to roll down the window, turning to face the deputy. Double crap! It’s
not Steve and it’s definitely not James. From this vantage point he looks huge.
His hat is pulled down shading his eyes, can’t see them anyway through the
mirrored aviator sunglasses. He’s wearing a Fairfield County deputy’s uniform.
This must be the new deputy James hired. James, my best friend since I was
six, is the county sheriff.
“How can I help you Deputy?”
“License and registration
please.”
“Why did you stop me
deputy…Miller?” I read off his name plate.
“Do you realize you were
going 95 miles per hour in a 60 mile per hour zone? I’m afraid I’m going to
have to give you a ticket. That is an excessive amount over the limit,” he says
with a southern accent, taking my license and registration back to his car to
run it through the system. Wow, where did James find this guy? I wonder if I
can wipe that sour look off his face?
He returns to stand next
to my driver’s side door, “Here’s your license and registration. The
instructions for paying your fine are on the back of the ticket,” he says as he
hands them back to me.
“Really?” I’m sure I have
a shocked look on my face as I stared at the ticket. “A $100 ticket? Call
Sheriff Marsten, he’ll take care of it for me.”
“I’m sure I can’t do that
ma’am, wouldn’t be right,” he replied. “You watch your speed now.”
Wow, talk about Mr.
Do-It-By-The-Book. Someone needs to pull that stick out of his ass! “Thank you
Deputy, I sure will,” I reply sweetly, already plotting how I’m going to get
back at him. Just wait until he finds out who I am. I am so going to love
rubbing his face in it.
I slowly make my way back
onto the road, speeding up, watching Mr. Pain-In-My-Ass Deputy getting smaller
by the second. James is gonna hear about this, how dare this deputy treat me
this way! I am so going to get him fired!
I pull into the driveway
of my Gram’s house, correction, my house. I sure miss her! Whenever I came
home she would be waiting for me on the porch. I swear she had radar, she was
always waiting on the porch to welcome me home. She’d give me a big hug and
fuss over me, telling me I was too thin and that I looked tired. I blink back
tears, trying not to cry. I can’t believe she’ll never be waiting on the porch
for me ever again, that she’ll never be here to hug me and tell me everything
will be OK. I get out of the car, stretching out the kinks from the long
drive. “Aunt Gigi, Aunt Gigi!!” It’s James’ six year old daughter, Olivia,
who is the light of my life! “I thought you’d never get here!” She runs up
and jumps in my arms.
I give her a great big hug.
“Hi Munchkin! I think you’ve grown in the last two months! I thought we
agreed you were going to stop growing until I got back,” I say as I walk up
onto the porch.
“Oh Aunt Gigi, you’re
silly! Mama, look, Aunt Gigi is finally here!”
“Hi, Cassie! I’m so glad
you’re home! It’ll be nice to have someone living next door again. It hasn’t
been the same with Gram’s house being empty.”
A police cruiser pulls up
and parks behind my car. I hope it’s James and not Mr. Stick-Up-The-Butt Deputy
Miller come to give me another ticket. Nope, not the deputy, it’s the sheriff!
I run down the steps and get wrapped in a big bear hug. “Hey, Reggie. How
you doing beautiful?” he says, giving me a big kiss on the cheek. Then he
remembers that we are standing out in the front yard, turning bright red,
completely embarrassed. That’s his normal reaction to public displays of
affection. It’s so cute!
“Need some help with these
boxes Reggie?” James asks, looking at the boxes stacked in my car. James is
the only one who calls me Reggie. When I was six and he was eight, I was in
trouble for something and Gram used my full name, Cassandra Regina Holt. James
thought that was hilarious and started calling me Regina. Eventually, it got
shortened to Reggie. He is the only one who can get away with calling me that
except for Olivia. She calls me Aunt Gigi since she couldn’t pronounce Reggie
and it came out Gigi.
I go up the porch steps to
open the front door and notice that it is not latched. “Um, James, have you
been in Gram’s house today? The front door is open.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
Marie comments, “It was
probably the ‘Church Ladies’, they were here this morning cleaning and stocking
the fridge and the pantry. They felt it was the least they could do, Gram was a
member for years.”
“That’s so sweet. I’ll
have to send them some flowers to say thank you.”
I go into the house,
stopping and taking it all in. All the memories come rushing back, bringing
tears to my eyes again. I blink to keep them at bay, no time for that now. I
notice that my favorite picture of Gram is on the bookshelf instead of the
mantle. It must have gotten moved when the ladies were here cleaning. Gram
always kept the pictures on the mantle so they didn’t cover up her most prized
possessions, her first editions. I move the picture back to the mantle,
touching her face in the photo. It’s gonna be tough without her. She was my
rock. She was my mother and father; taking me in after my parents were killed
the day before I turned six.
James comes up behind me,
“You OK, Reggie?”
“Yeah, it just hit me all
at once that she’s never going to be here waiting for me to come home ever
again.”
He hugs me again. “It’s
going to be all right Reggie. We all have to learn how to live without her. She
was such a big part of this town.” He lets me go and turns away from me, trying
to hide the tears in his eyes. He gets himself under control and continues, “I’m
so glad you decided to keep the bookstore open, the square wouldn’t be the same
without it.”
“There’s no way I could
let her dream die. I guess it was inevitable that I would be back here. I
just thought it would be years from now.”
“Well, I for one am glad
you’re back to stay. This town isn’t the same without you.”
I turn away so James can’t
see how I’m trying not to cry and I start walking towards the door, “Thanks James,
I’ve missed you too! Now, let’s get those boxes in here so we can go get lunch.
I’m starving! I need some onion rings from the drive-in, I couldn’t find any
that compare in New York.”
After the boxes were
unloaded and we finished lunch at the drive-in, we headed back to the house.
“Wow, those onion rings are just as great as I remember, I can’t believe I ate
two orders!” I groan, “I think I know which box has the antacids”.
The front door was hanging
open again.
“James, I swear I closed
that door and made sure it was latched before we went to the drive in.”
James puts his hand on my
shoulder and gently pulls me back, “Let me go in and look around, it’s probably
just the wind or something but better safe than sorry.” He gives me a smile
and calmly goes into the house, only pulling out his gun after he is out of
sight. He walks out of the house about 10 minutes later. “It doesn’t look like
anything’s missing. If you find anything missing let me know and I’ll fill out
a report for your insurance. I don’t think it was a break-in; your TV and
laptop are still here. You should have Dan stop by and change the locks just
to be safe.”
“I hope you’re right. I
guess I just have to get used to small town life again.”
“Are you sure you don’t
want me to stay tonight?” James asks, “I don’t want you to feel abandoned on
your first night back in town.”
We walk into the kitchen
and I start filling the kettle from the sink, “No, go home and spend the
evening with your family, I’ll be fine. You act like I’ve never been here
alone before. I used to be here alone all the time when Gram went on her
buying trips. I think I’m gonna take a hot bath and finish reading that new
mystery I was telling you about.”
“OK. Just call if you
need anything. I can be here in two minutes.”
“Thanks, I just got a
flash of you showing up in nothing but your pajama’s and giving Mrs. Jones
across the street something to gossip about tomorrow,” I chuckle. “Go home
James, I’ll be fine. How about lunch tomorrow? My treat.”
His smile gets bigger at
the thought of food, “As long as I get to pick the restaurant!”
I shake my head, laughing.
“You’ll never change,” I say as I kiss him on the cheek. “I’ll be at your
office at noon.”
“It’s a date!”
