Slumbered to Death (11 page)

“Remind me what we’re doing here again.”

They sat in front of a manufacturing plant. Like the one Erin Jones worked at, Sadie had no idea what this one made, and the sign gave nothing away. It would have been ideal if Erin and Edmond worked at the same factory, if they had been seeing each other, and run off together. At least it would have been nice for her, not for the longsuffering Mrs. Hankins. Life rarely came tied up in such a nice little bow, however.

“We’re looking for a mark,” Sadie said.

“Excuse me?” Luke said.

“A mark, a patsy, a pigeon, a stooge,” Sadie expounded.

“I see. One more question: at what point in the day did we become grifters?”

“We’re not going to grift anyone. By the way, kudos for using jargon that died before Abby was born. We simply need to find some answers, and I’m looking for the most likely target to provide them.”

“Why can’t we ask someone what we want to know?” Luke said.

She chuckled and patted his knee. “Oh, Luke, your innocence is refreshing.”

“I wish I could say the same about your condescension,” he said.

“Hey, if you want to give it a try, be my guest. All I’m saying is that I know how people work. Everyone needs to be nuanced in some way to get what you want. For men, it’s often tears or flirting. Women are a little more complex, but not much. Honesty rarely works because few people are honest, and the ones who are have become cynical.”

“I’m going to do it. I’m going to find someone, ask them who Edmond Hankins was having an affair with, and come back with that information,” Luke said.

“Go ahead. Take your time.” She leaned forward and switched the radio on. He knew her well enough to understand the gesture meant she was waiting patiently for him to fail.

He marched into the building and stopped short in front of the reception desk.

The receptionist looked up with a smile. “May I help you?”

Now that he was here, following through on his plan seemed ridiculous. Still, he had to or face Sadie’s ridicule. “I was wondering if you could tell me who Edmond Hankins is having an affair with.”

The woman picked up the phone. “I’m calling security.”

“No, wait, please.” Her hand hovered in midair. Luke wracked his brain. What would Sadie do? The woman was plump and middle-aged. She reminded him of his mom; could he appeal to her maternal nature? “There’s this woman.” The hand holding the phone inched closer to the receiver. “She’s beautiful, and smart, and amazing, and she is always right. I mean
always.
For twenty eight years, I’ve been wrong, and I just want to get one thing right, just this one thing. Please, I promised her I would find out who Edmond Hankins is having an affair with, and if I go back to that car empty handed, it will be one more failure in a life list of failures, and I’m tired of always letting her down. Please.”

“Is she a reporter?”

“Not anymore. She got fired for flashing the audience. It was an accident. She’s a private investigator now, and she’s trying to find Edmond Hankins.”

She replaced the phone in the receiver. “It was the boss’s wife, Shelly Knowles. Edmond wasn’t fired, but it was strongly suggested that he quit. He did, and no one has seen him or Shelly since.”

Luke clasped his hands together. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“Must be a special girl if she keeps you on your toes this way,” the receptionist observed.

“There’s no one like her,” Luke said. He bestowed another smile of gratitude and let himself out.

Sadie saw him coming and turned off the radio. He didn’t think he wore a smug expression, but she knew him too well. “No way,” she said as soon as he opened the door.

“Edmond Hankins and Shelly Knowles, the boss’s wife,” he said.

“That’s amazing. Are you sure you walked in and told the truth?”

“The truth and nothing but,” he said.

“So you walked in and said, ‘I need to know about Edmond Hankins’ and someone told you everything, just like that.”

“I had to do a little convincing,” he said. “But I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.”

“That’s amazing.” She reached over and hugged his neck, pressing her cheek to his. “Luke, I’m so impressed by you.”

He returned her hug on autopilot, but his brain clicked on at first touch. He had dated a few women, but no one felt like Sadie in his arms. Why was that?

Sadie was having similar thoughts. Of all the men she had known, Luke was turning out to be the biggest challenge. How was that possible? She had briefly dated a racecar driver who broke up with three other women to be with her. There was a business mogul who had relocated his entire staff from London to be closer to her. And now her old neighbor, the boy she had taught to bait a hook, was the holdout. Maybe it was because she hadn’t really cared about the others. She had been intent on winning them, willing to do whatever it took to conquer. As soon as the challenge was over, the novelty wore off and the relationships had withered. But with Luke, she already had a relationship, and she cared about him, too much to want to win him at all costs.

How was she to proceed when she had no idea what to do? She closed her eyes and hugged tighter. As scary as it was for her to admit, she thought she was ready for forever with him. Luke was the one person she could wholeheartedly trust, the one person with whom she felt certain not to repeat her parents’ marriage. But he didn’t even want right now with her, to say nothing of forever. He had placed barriers between them, barriers she had no idea how to overcome. Sadie felt like all her mistakes had come home to roost. All her bad choices were balled up and sitting in front of her in the form of Luke. She had made mistakes; she had behaved badly; she had hurt people, and now she was getting her comeuppance because the one person whose trust and forgiveness she wanted the most wouldn’t or couldn’t give it. And there was nothing she could do about it, nothing. If she pushed him, she could lose him forever, and waiting patiently had never been her strong suit. She was much more comfortable taking matters into her own hands and forcing a solution.
Wait, just wait,
she coaxed herself.

“Sadie, you’re so soft,” Luke whispered as his hand passed over her hair. Sadie smiled. Luke was not suave. He was barely a few steps from being awkward, but endearingly so. “And the smell.”

“What smell?”

“You. You smell.”

She shoved away and looked up. “I smell?”

“Good, you smell good. No, not good, you smell like…like…I don’t even know.” He shoved his fingers through his hair and itched his scalp in frustration. “All the time. You smell good and look good and feel good. I have a girlfriend. A
girlfriend
! Do you know how long it took for me to be able to say that? And then you come back with your curls and your smell, and I…”

A man on the ropes was something Sadie knew how to handle. She pulled back and patted his arm. “You’re freaking out over nothing. We’re friends, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re allowed to have friends, even when you have a girlfriend, right?”

“Right.”

“See? There’s no problem. We’re friends. You have a girlfriend. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Cheer up.”

Now he was the one who looked confused as he turned her words over in his head, searching for holes. Sadie let him stew a minute.

“I mean, unless you think we’re more than friends. Is that what you’re trying to tell me, Luke?” She bit her lip and waited.

The hand went back in his hair. “I…I mean, you and I, we…” He forced a deep breath and gathered his composure, dropping his hand to his lap. “No, we’re friends and nothing more.”

Sadie turned and put her hand on the ignition. “That’s what I thought.” She started the car and drove out of the parking lot. The ride home was oppressively silent. “I need to do some work in my room,” Sadie announced when they arrived home.

“So do I. My room, I mean,” Luke said. He looked and sounded drained and exhausted as he rolled out of the car and gathered his gigantic bag of books. Inside the house, they went their separate ways, she to her room, and he to his.

Once inside her room, Sadie turned on the computer and stared. She had no idea how to find Shelly Knowles. BMV records? Possibly, but she had no idea how to tap them. She stared at the computer a while, trying to figure out if she had any reliable connections at the BMV, and then she decided to try Google. She typed in “Shelly Knowles, Atwood, Virginia,” and found over a hundred thousand hits. The first was Shelly’s old address because it also listed a Forrest Knowles. The second hit was the winner. The address was only a few months old, and Shelly was listed by herself. Sadie called the number and a man answered. She didn’t ask for Edmond, preferring to use the aspect of surprise tomorrow instead.

She set down her phone and picked it up when it rang again. “Sadie, this is Ben, Ben White. I’m checking in to see how you’re progressing, not because I doubt you, but because I’m so anxious to find closure.”

“Actually, this is perfect timing because I was just going to call you. I think I found Edmond Hankins. I’m going to go over first thing tomorrow and make sure it’s him, and then we can cross him off our list.”

“Can I go with you?” Ben asked.

Sadie paused. She hadn’t considered taking Ben and she had to realign her mental processes.

“I don’t want to interfere; it’s just that I have a few questions for him myself. I want to make sure he has no part in any of the weird stuff that’s been happening to me, and I don’t want you to go alone. From what I remember of Ed, he wasn’t exactly kind. I would feel more secure if I were there to protect you.”

“I can’t stop you from going, Ben. You’re my client, and you have every right. But I know how much finding answers means to you. If you go, I need your assurance that you’ll remain calm and let me do the talking.” What made her most nervous was that Ben would go off the deep end and start pummeling Edmond Hankins for answers he probably didn’t have. So far Sadie had found nothing that might tie the two men together, despite being in the same army unit. If Ben believed something else, he might be hard to control.

“I would never hurt anyone,” Ben said, sounding more than a little wounded. “I got out of the army because I was tired of hurting people. I certainly don’t want to hurt anyone now. I want to ask a few questions, and I want to make sure this job isn’t putting you in any danger. You’re beautiful and petite, and there are some men who prey on that combination.”

“I’m sorry if I offended you. Of course you can go with me, and I trust you to handle yourself perfectly. I just like to dot my I’s and cross my T’s on every job.” She bit her lip, waiting for him to respond. How much damage had she done to his ego by doubting his ability to control his temper?

He chuckled and she breathed a sigh of relief. “What you’re really saying is that you’re a control freak, but that’s okay because I am, too. I admire perfectionism, especially when it comes to a job. What time should I pick you up tomorrow?”

She named a time and they disconnected. 
Now what?
Sadie thought. She was tempted to go to the Hankins residence now and have done with it, but she didn’t feel like calling Ben back to reschedule. Getting a fresh start in the morning was probably for the best because she was wiped out, but still the evening stretched before her, a vast array of awkwardness with Luke. If only Abby didn’t have her tai chi class tonight. With Hal working, Sadie and Luke were stuck together.

Sadie poked her head out the door. The hallway was silent and empty. “Luke, I’m going to Gideon’s,” she called. “There’s some leftover lasagna in the fridge.”

“I’ll be fine,” Luke called. Was it her imagination, or did he sound relieved?

Sadie left the house with dragging steps. She had already checked on Gideon once that day, and he told her not to come back. She could only imagine the reception a second appearance would get. But when she knocked and unlocked the door, she heard laughter. The sound was so unusual in her father’s house that she stuck her head back outside and checked the driveway. Mary’s car was there. How had she missed that before?
You’re off your game, Cooper,
she chided.

“Sadie!” Mary called, smiling at Sadie as she entered the room. Sadie hadn’t received such a warm welcome at her father’s house since her mother died. The contrast caused her heart to ping painfully.