Somewhere Along the Way (19 page)

The publishers might think it a little strange after almost five years if he wrote and asked them to start sending advances and royalties to someone else.

Maybe he was panicking. Maybe the caller from Oklahoma City had been a reporter and just wanted to check on him. The paper made him out to be a hero, like he’d done something superhuman pulling Reagan to safety and doing first aid. Heroes always have more friends than they know. Some guy in Oklahoma City probably just wanted to talk to him.

Gabe tromped down to the basement, where he’d built his own private gym. He began to work out, thinking that if he hadn’t been so paranoid, he could be sleeping with Elizabeth right now at crazy Martha Q’s bed-and-breakfast.

He looked over at Pirate staring at him. “Shut up,” Gabe said. “I don’t want to hear what a fool I am.”

The dog’s ears dropped and he turned his head sideways as if to get a better view of his idiot master.

FRIDAY MIDMORNING
FEBRUARY 8, 2008
HARMONY TOWN SQUARE

ALEX WALKED BACK TO HER OFFICE IN THE TRAIL OF ONE of the snowplows. Nothing moved on the streets. The town could have been abandoned.

She felt like a fool. She hadn’t planned to stop at Winter’s Inn, but she’d noticed Liz’s sports car, half covered in snow, parked at the end of Martha Q’s long drive, and she guessed Liz might have taken Gabe there to stay. It made sense. The two women knew each other, and Gabe Leary would probably want somewhere quiet. Martha’s was about as quiet as he could get. The woman didn’t even keep the B&B sign up half the time.

Alex swore. She’d only gone in to talk to Gabe, maybe have a cup of coffee and get to know this newest hero of Harmony. But, he wasn’t an easy man to talk to. If Liz hadn’t interrupted, they probably would be yelling at each other about now.

He had a right to his privacy, but this was her town. She needed to know who lived here. A man with a military bearing about him, who walks the back streets at night, was someone to watch. A man who carried a weapon, polished and well-oiled for battle, wasn’t the bum he appeared to be in his old clothes and worn boots. A man who knew how to save Reagan’s life couldn’t be ignored.

Something the doctor had said kept running through her mind. He commented that if Gabe had taken the time to call 911 instead of applying pressure to the head wound and putting a tourniquet at the top of her leg to slow the bleeding, she might not have lived. She’d been close to death and Gabe had not only recognized it, he’d done what had to be done to keep Reagan alive.

Not one man in a hundred would know where to apply pressure to two wounds or have the skill to do it fast enough to save a life.

When she reached the other side of the square, Alex thought of stopping off at the fire station, but she wasn’t sure she could see Hank right now without telling him what was going on over at the Inn. Hank worried about his little sister as if she were seventeen and not nearly thirty. When he wasn’t worried, he was usually mad at her for doing something foolish.

Any way she looked at it, Alex thought what she’d seen this morning fell into one category or another. Right now Hank probably had all he could handle at the fire station. He didn’t need to be worrying about Liz.

Alex turned toward her office. With this weather they’d be getting calls all day.

She had barely made it inside and pulled off her coat when Jess was at her side, his headphone cord dangling.

“We got a strange call a few minutes ago, Sheriff,” he started. “Domestic violence, I guess you’d call it.”

“Give me the details.”

“A woman just called in to say she’d accidentally knocked her husband out and needed someone to come over and see if he was dead.”

“Did you ask her if she needed an ambulance?”

Jess frowned. “That’s where it gets strange. She said if he wasn’t dead he’d be furious that she’d called an ambulance, and if he was, it was too late anyway.”

“She leave a name?”

“No.” He shook his head. “But the caller ID said the call came from Lloyd and Edith Franklin’s home.”

“Edith from the diner?”

Jess frowned. “I’ve met her husband a few times. He’s not a man you’d want to cross. My brother was in school with the guy and used to laugh that Lloyd knew sign language.”

Alex waited, knowing Jess would get around to the facts eventually.

“You know”—Jess moved his fingers, then doubled them up into a fist—“he talks with his hands. I heard someone say a few years ago that the guy wanted to go pro in wrestling, but he had a head injury that gave him a stupidism.”

“You mean astigmatism?”

“Whatever. The strange thing is how could Edith, a woman who makes a broom handle look fat, knock out Lloyd? He’s a head taller and double her weight.”

“Try to call her back.” Alex reached for her coat. Her feet hadn’t even had a chance to get warm and it looked like she was heading out again.

While Jess tried to get Edith on the phone, Alex called Hank and filled him in. If Edith didn’t want an ambulance, Hank would be the next best thing. He knew how to handle most medical emergencies, and his huge pickup would make it out to the trailer park at the edge of town. She might have drafted a deputy to come along, but they were all out working weather-related accidents.

“No answer!” Jess yelled, and Alex was out the door.

Hank met her at his Dodge, and they climbed into the cab still warm from the run he’d made a half hour ago.

“Busy day?” she asked.

“I feel like I’ve already put in a day’s work and it’s not near lunch yet. How about you?”

“I took a few minutes off and had coffee over at Martha Q’s house.” Alex didn’t want to admit to more.

He stopped at a light and leaned over to kiss her cold cheek. “I love you, you know.”

“I know.” She smiled. “Otherwise why would you go on this call with me? Lloyd Franklin is huge, and Jess said he almost went pro wrestler.”

Hank winked at her. “I’m not worried. I got the big bad sheriff with me.”

Alex wished she felt as confident as he did. In truth, she wasn’t too worried about Lloyd. If he came to and came up swinging, she’d taken men down before, and Hank could hold his own in a fight. What worried Alex more than confronting Lloyd was what he might do to Edith after they left.

Once, about a year back, she’d seen bruises on Edith’s arms, but when Alex asked about them, Edith made up excuses. Unless she saw the violence or had Edith file charges, there wasn’t much she could do.

“This one’s it,” Hank said as he pulled up to a single-wide trailer parked under hundred-year-old trees. “I took Edith home one night when her car wouldn’t start and I remember it. Told her to have her husband trim away some of those branches before they fall. You’d think since he does lawn work on the side, he’d have all the tools he’d need in that junker of a van parked under the shed.” Hank leaned forward so he could see the tops of the trees. “Doesn’t look like he did.”

They climbed out of the truck and walked through six inches of snow to the door.

Edith met them before either could knock.

“Morning,” she said. “What brings you folks out this morning?”

Alex saw the worry in the woman’s eyes. She could almost smell the fear. “We’re checking on folks,” Alex lied. “Making sure everyone’s got heat.”

A big man shoved Edith away from the door. “We got heat.” He held the door with one hand, making sure Alex and Hank couldn’t see into the house.

Hank stepped closer. “I’m Hank Matheson.”

“I know who you are.”

Hank tried again. “I was wondering if you could check on your neighbors and make sure they’re all right.”

“Most of them wouldn’t open the door if they saw me on their porch, and I’m not feeling like getting out in the cold again. I got under the house to make sure all the pipes were wrapped and the blasted trapdoor almost took my head off.” He dabbed at the side of his scalp with a stained tea towel.

“You want me to take a look at it? I’ve got a first-aid kit in the truck.”

“No. I’ve had worse. You folks best be on your way before you freeze out there.” Lloyd pulled the door closed.

Hank and Alex had no choice but to back away. When they were in the truck, Alex whispered as if Lloyd might hear, “That man’s no good. I’ll bet he’s beating Edith. I don’t like leaving her here with him.”

Hank started the engine. “And she’s the one trying to kill him. I’d be willing to bet that trapdoor didn’t just fall. Maybe you should arrest them both. They could share a cell.”

Alex leaned close to him, wishing they both didn’t have on heavy coats so she could feel his warmth. She loved curling up to him in the early mornings. When she’d snuggle close, he’d circle her with one arm and pull her against him, and for a while she’d feel like all was right with the world.

He must have been thinking the same thing because he kissed the top of her head and whispered, “How about I call Martha Q at the inn and book us a room for the night. Then we wouldn’t have to fight the ice all the way home and we could wake up tomorrow to a hot breakfast.”

Alex shook her head, remembering who was already snuggled up at the inn. “Everyone in town would know.”

He laughed. “You think everyone in town doesn’t already know?”

SATURDAY MORNING
FEBRUARY 9, 2008
WINTER’S INN BED-AND-BREAKFAST

MARTHA Q WOKE UP TO ANOTHER MORNING OF SNOW falling outside her window. Not the big heavy kind from yesterday, but the light snow, barely more than white dust in the wind. She pulled the covers up and sighed. Cold mornings always made her long for a man to keep her warm.

With that thought, her eyes flew open and her feet hit the floor. The last thing she needed in her life was another man; coffee would do just fine. “After seven marriages, there has to be a time to call it quits.”

Evidently, she couldn’t even keep one in the inn. Gabe Leary had paid for two days and left before she got up yesterday. If Elizabeth hadn’t agreed to stay another night, Martha Q would have had to refund money. Something she never wanted to do.

Pulling on her robe as she climbed down the back stairs, Martha Q tried to plan her day. She would have gone nuts yesterday if the little lawyer hadn’t been there to keep her company. Mrs. Biggs liked to stay in her room, but Elizabeth played cards and talked and even watched a movie with her, popcorn and all.

She opened the door to the kitchen and found the girl, dressed in her pink ski outfit, reading a magazine as she ate her breakfast. Mrs. Biggs was nowhere in sight.

“Morning,” Elizabeth said. “I’ll be heading out in an hour. Looks like the worst of the storm is over.”

Martha Q raised her hands as if shooing flies. “No, no, dear. It’d be too much trouble for you to dig that car out. Stay another day. We’re running a three-nights-for-two special.”

“Since when?” Liz asked raising an eyebrow.

“Since I just thought of it,” Martha Q testified. “We’ll make supper and invite a few folks over.”

“Who?’ Liz asked.

“I don’t know. I haven’t been around much lately,” Martha Q complained. In truth she had no one in town she really called friend. “How about you invite that good-looking man of yours? He left yesterday before I had a chance to say good-bye.”

“He’s not mine. I’m just his lawyer.” Liz shrugged. “Besides, he lives outside of town and I don’t think he has a phone. I even called the sheriff’s office and they said he hadn’t listed one. Anyone coming to eat today will have to be close enough to walk over. My guess is, after making the three-mile walk back to his place yesterday, he won’t be interested in doing it again.”

“You like that man, scarred as he is.”

“I didn’t see his scar, you did,” Liz argued. “Remember, you saw
all
his scar. And, yes, I do like him, but it’s just a physical thing. I don’t even know him, really.”

“Don’t play down the importance of physical attraction. I married because of lust all seven times. Trouble is, lust cools when you can’t pay the bills, so always check the bank account before you fall too far in love.”

Liz laughed. “I’ll remember that.” She picked up her cup and took it to the sink. “Now, Miss Martha Q, you plan the menu and I’ll think of people within walking distance that we can invite.”