When Dreams Cross (15 page)

“Justin,” she called, hurrying across the reception area to meet him, noting the lull in typing and the surprised eyes that followed them into her office. “I was just coming from talking to Wes—”

“Arson,” Justin cut in, his heavy breath diluting the impact of the word. “It was arson, Andi. Not some wiring problem. The fire was set deliberately.”

Andi stood motionless, absorbing the meaning of his words. As the word took hold of her, confusion blurred her understanding. “But … the fire inspector said—”

“Forget what he said. It was arson. I can prove it.” Justin started to lower himself to the ivory-colored sofa, then remembered he was covered with soot and caught himself. “My guess is that he used diesel to soak the wood of that back wall and the floor around it. Then he set a candle in the middle of paper or something and got out. He left one candle behind, so he must have heard someone coming before he could set up the second one. Probably Madeline.”

“You found a candle? In all that debris, why didn’t it melt?”

“I found it melted into the ground several yards behind the building.” Remembering that piece of wood he’d saved, he pulled it from his pocket. “Smell this.”

Andi inhaled and recognized the faint lacing of fumes. Bringing her alarmed eyes back to Justin, she asked, “Is this enough proof? Will the fire inspector determine it to be arson based on a smell and some melted wax?”

“We won’t depend on him,” Justin said, pacing back and forth in front of her. “If he overlooked this he’s liable to overlook other things. This kind of thing is easy to miss if you’re convinced something else was the problem. We’ll call the arson squad. They’ll know what else to look for. I also found a definite char pattern burned into the concrete. That’s indisputable proof that an accelerant was poured onto the floor. You’re clear, Andi. All we have to do is figure out who set it, have him arrested, and call a press conference. And then things can get back to normal around here.”

Andi stood up and stopped Justin’s pacing by stepping in front of him. Her eyes glowed with a moist rush of relief, and without thinking about the soot or dirt or how her clothes would look afterward, she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, embracing him with the strength of all the fear and dread she’d been experiencing since she’d read the headlines that morning. His dusty arms closed around her, crushing her against him with desperate tenderness.

“I told you we could get through it,” he whispered into her hair as her warm tears wet his neck and twisted his heart, invoking the fiercest protection toward her, along with the love that multiplied with each passing day.

Chapter Twenty-Two

I
t was late afternoon before Andi and Justin, who had both showered and changed clothes, made it back to her office with the security tapes of yesterday’s activities at each entrance to the park. They had convinced the arson squad that a mistake had been made in determining the cause of the fire, and now they were determined to find the culprit, even if it meant questioning everyone who had been on the grounds that day. They watched the tapes on her six screens, running them at a faster-than-normal speed, stopping the tapes every few minutes to determine who each person was and whether he had been an employee, crew member, or visitor.

“From now on the guards should write down everyone who comes in and out,” Justin said wearily after they had been at it for several hours, “in case this ever comes up again.”

Andi shook her head in disagreement. “They have a list of people who have clearance each day, and in the case of a visitor, they follow it up with a phone call. But too many people come in and out to write them all down, and it’ll be worse when the park opens.”

“Well, I don’t want to have to do this again,” Justin said, rubbing his hands down his tired face and sighing. “There’s got to be a better way.”

Andi smiled and looked over at him leaning back in his chair, an ankle slung over his knee.

“You know, you’ve gone way beyond the call of duty today,” she said softly. “You’ve completely ignored your own work, and you don’t have to.”

“My staff is running things pretty smoothly,” he said, taking her hand. “At this point, I’m not even sure we can trust your security guards to do this. It’s too important, and I want to help.”

“You have helped.”

“I want to do more,” he said, his eyes still on the screens. “I’ve come to like this park a lot, and I don’t like the thought of some maniac out there who wants to mess it up. The next time we might not be so lucky.”

Andi inclined her head and sighed. “A few weeks ago you wouldn’t have lifted a finger for Promised Land. Or me.”

Justin massaged the soft lines of her hand, fitted so naturally in his. “A few weeks ago I was a proud fool, still running from emotions so strong that they’d chased me for eight years.”

His easy admission startled Andi, and she swallowed back the emotion constricting her throat. “And now?”

His eyes were the deepest shade of blue, dark as the night sky, as they smiled at her. “And now I’ve come to terms with those feelings.” He brought her hand to his mouth, bent down, and kissed a knuckle. “I’m not going to run from them again.” His voice was soft, velvety deep, indolent as he spoke. “I used to be so afraid of failing you somehow. You saw things in me that I couldn’t even see in myself. But now I realize that I was never better than when I was with you. God knew it, too. That’s why he brought us back together. And it doesn’t scare me anymore.”

Andi’s eyes brimmed with emotion, and silent prayers of gratitude sang through her mind at the wonder of being in love. Tearing his eloquent eyes away from Andi’s, Justin looked back at the screens.

“Looks like we’re nearing the end of the workday,” he said, breaking the spell and reluctantly dragging her attention back to the tapes. “Some of the crews are leaving right here. Slow them down a little.” Picking up the list he and Andi had been compiling of people who’d come in during the day, they began to identify each person and check off the names as they went out.

When the activity at the entrances trickled down to one or two people coming through every few minutes, Justin glanced back over his list in search of a particular name. “You know who hasn’t come out yet?”

“Who?” Andi asked, keeping her eyes on the screens.

“That building inspector who came in during the afternoon. Blond hair. Black pants and shirt.”

Andi flipped back to an earlier page on her clipboard. “Butler’s his name,” she said. “Speed it up a little. Let’s see if he came out late.”

Justin set all the tapes on high speed, carefully watching for the man in question. When even two of the animators who had been with him until late into the night were shown exiting beneath the bright lights of the gates, he gave up. “That guy never came back out last night.” The speeding tapes showed nothing for a few minutes, until the guard ran to open the gates to let the fire trucks in.

“Are you sure we didn’t miss him?” Rewinding the tape, Andi searched the crowds who had left together at the end of the day.

Justin sat up straighter in his chair. “We didn’t miss him.” His eyes lit up as he looked askance at Andi. “Ten to one he had two candles and a can of diesel in that briefcase of his.”

With great hope, Andi picked up the phone and dialed her head security guard. After ordering the tapes of the activities recorded so far today, she sat back and looked at the screens again. “If he went back out this morning,” she said thoughtfully, “I think we’ve got our man.”

“Had to,” Justin said. “There’s no other way out.”

The hunch proved to be right. When they ran the tapes of that morning, they finally saw the building inspector hurrying out in the midst of a crew leaving the grounds for lunch. The first thing they did was report the man—Charles Butler of Shreveport—to the arson squad. The second thing was to call a press conference for the following day to clear the public’s mind once and for all.

Chapter Twenty-Three

W
ith the Press Preview Day still three weeks away, Andi invited the families of all of the Promised Land employees to have their run of the park, to test the rides and sleep in the hotels and sample the food, as a practice run for the employees and to offer any suggestions for last-minute improvements.

Andi and Justin tried to experience things as spectators rather than creators. They followed Wes and Laney around as Laney pushed the stroller with the new baby, and Justin rode some of the rides with Amy, listening to her squeal with laughter and beg for more turns. After a while, Madeline joined them, and Andi began to realize that the woman was someone she would like to have as a friend.

When Sherry Grayson, Wes’s sister, showed up, she had more important things than the amusement park on her mind. She wore no make-up, as she usually did, and looked as though she’d been crying. “Wes, I’ve been trying to call you all night,” she said.

“We stayed in one of the hotels on the grounds last night,” he said. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s gone,” she said. “Clint … he’s disappeared. I couldn’t get in touch with him the night before last, or all day yesterday, and he just didn’t show up at work, and no one knows where he is. The police won’t consider him a missing person yet, but I’ve been in his house and he didn’t take anything with him. Something’s happened. People don’t just disappear.”

Andi couldn’t help remembering that week that Justin had disappeared so long ago. That week when she had been lied to by her father; that week when she had reacted in a way that drove Justin away when he returned. And she couldn’t forget the man who had stood next to her at the hospital nursery window, talking about the family he and Sherry would share. He was a man who believed in commitment, not one who would run from fear of responsibility. “Sherry, did he say anything about leaving? Does he have relatives who might have gotten sick? Was he upset?”

“No!” she cried. “Our wedding’s in two weeks. He was helping me pack my stuff. I’m giving up my apartment at the end of the month, and we were starting to move some of my stuff over. He was as excited as I was. We were talking about children, how many we would have …” She broke into a sob and covered her face with both hands. “Wes, something’s happened to him. I don’t know what to do!”

“I’m sure there’s an explanation,” Laney said. “Try not to overreact.”

“How can I not overreact?”

“You’re not overreacting,” Madeline said. “I’d be screaming if I were you.” She hugged the girl, so easily, so naturally, that Andi envied it.

Andi didn’t give hugs that easily—not to people she barely knew. But she had experience to give. “Sherry, about eight years ago, when Justin and I were seeing each other, he disappeared for a week. I believed that he had taken money to leave me. It turned out later that he just had to think for a few days, but he came back. By the time he did, I was worked into a rage, and I accused him of leaving me for money. It broke us up, and I’ve regretted it ever since.”

Justin looked at her, and she knew that he was surprised that she would share so openly with them, when her privacy had been so important to her before.

“You can’t overreact,” she continued. “You have to trust. Trust God to be taking care of him. Trust Clint to do the right thing.”

“I do trust him! But what if he’s dead somewhere? What if he’s had an accident, and he can’t get help?”

“Was his car there?”

“No. It was gone, but other things were left. Clothes, shoes, his shaving kit … like he left in a big hurry, or intended to come back. Wes, will you please come to the police station with me? Convince them to take this seriously? They think it was cold feet, that he made a quick escape before he had to tie the knot. Please, Wes. They’ll listen to you!”

“All right, Sis,” he said. “Laney, will you be all right?”

“With a little help,” Laney said, grinning around at those with her.

“I’ll help!” Madeline offered. “In fact, if the baby gets too hot, I can take him up to my office and let him sleep for a while. I’d love to.”

“I would, too,” Andi said. “Between Madeline, Justin, and me, we can help you out.”

“Fine, then. Go,” Laney said to Wes. “Sherry, I know things are going to be all right. Clint’s not the kind of man to disappear without a reason.”

“Not unless he didn’t have a choice,” Sherry said.

B
ut a week later, he still wasn’t back, and Sherry had gotten no more satisfaction. The police department did consider him a missing person now, but they had no leads on where he may have gone, how he would have gotten there, why he wouldn’t have taken clothes … She reported it to the television station, and they put his picture on the evening news and asked for information concerning his whereabouts.

Days went by, however, and there was no word. The police attributed his disappearance to cold feet, and stopped looking. Their
attitude devastated Sherry—but soon she began to wonder, herself. Finally, when the day came to move out of her apartment, Madeline saved the day. “Sherry, I just bought that big house, and I would love for you to come stay with me, and then when Clint gets back, you won’t be tied down with a lease and stuff. It’s no Taj Mahal, but it’s a nice house. And we’ll have fun, just us girls. Come on, what do you say?”

Reluctantly, Sherry agreed, and the whole group helped her move. Andi began to feel a part of this circle of friends, something she hadn’t felt since college, and she felt as if she contributed something. Even though the preview day was nearing, this personal crisis seemed to be even more immediate, more important.

Speculation grew about Clint’s disappearance, and those who loved him worried themselves sick. But Andi had a feeling that they would hear from him again. It was a lesson she had learned the hard way. She just hoped that Sherry would handle it better than she had when he finally did return.