A Damaged Trust (8 page)

And with that, she ran lightly over to her small car and reached in the back. Gabe waited until she caught up with him before walking on into the office building. Carrie followed, glad of the sudden coolness that the inside of the building afforded. When they reached the room where Gabe had temporarily set up shop, she sank into a seat with a sigh.

“Whew!” she blew out, wiping her forehead with one hand. He took the thermos from her grasp and found two paper cups, pouring the cold liquid into them and handing one to Carrie. She took it with thanks. “You know, if you hadn’t come after me, I’d probably still be tramping around the place, dying of heat exhaustion and never knowing it!”

He laughed heartily at this, and she watched his mirth with appreciation. She liked his laugh; it was low and attractive, and it seemed to invite her to share with him his delight. “I somehow doubt that. You’d have quit long before the heat would have gotten you.” Draining his cup quickly, he sighed. “That was good. Thank Emma for me, will you?”

“I plan on it.”

“How much more do you plan to do today?”

She looked at her camera. “I’ve almost shot up this whole roll. I think I’ll finish up today at the end of this, and shoot up the colour film tomorrow. Then, if I may, I’ll develop the lot tomorrow afternoon or early evening, whenever I finish shooting.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” he said. “Why don’t you just stay over for supper tomorrow night, and I’ll have Mrs. Hastings fix us up a real treat.”

She protested at this. “Oh, no, I wouldn’t want to impose on you.”

“My dear girl,” Gabe drawled mildly, “I insist. It would be a pleasure.”

Carrie allowed herself to be persuaded by the charm that he exerted into his voice, and by the encouraging twinkle that she saw in his dark eyes.

After a few more minutes of conversation and rest, she left the building to continue shooting up the rest of the film. She finished for the day and stopped to poke her head through the door of Gabe’s office. He was bending over some electrical plans with a grey-haired man, and he looked up with a quick smile. Her mouth pulled into an instant response; it was quite irresistible.

She said quickly, “I thought I’d let you know that I was leaving.”

Gabe nodded without surprise. “Thanks. See you tomorrow morning. Drive carefully.”

She waved as she turned and left.

She was surprised to find out how eagerly she was looking forward to the next day, and found herself waking up early without the aid of her alarm. Dressing as quickly and as simply as the day before, she looked out of her bedroom window. If she hurried, she would be able to catch the sun peeping over the mountains, for now everything was suffused with a pale glow that precluded dawn. It would be a wonderful shot in full colour. She cannoned out of her room and sped on down the stairs, grabbing her camera and feeling inside to make sure she had the film as she went. Then, reversing her car in a quick, tight circle, she pressed her foot down hard on the gas pedal, taking up the long, straight stretch of private road in a roaring flash.

She took the main road at a more sedate pace, although she was still travelling way over the speed limit. All the while, she kept a close eye on the eastern mountains as she neared the shopping centre. With a squeal of the tyres, she careened around the corner to stop dead in the middle of the parking lot, not even attempting to pull into an allotted space. Vaguely she was aware of a dark blue car parked near the office, but she didn’t pay any attention as she fumbled frantically for her camera. The tip of the sun would be topping the horizon any moment.

The door to the office building opened, but Carrie, dashing about like she was, ignored it. The right angle—she had to get the right angle. Great, brilliant rays were shooting from a focal point where the sun would appear. They were getting stronger every second. She came to a snap decision and started running west as fast as she could. Circling the end of a fence, she sprinted hard into the open field and, judging herself to be at the right distance, she whirled, bringing her camera up to focus frantically. Just as she was bringing the scene into clarity, the sun appeared, spilling gold over the edge of mountaintops and shooting rays in abundance directly over the site. She sighed with pleasure as she snapped three pictures in quick succession. It was a good sight.

Carrie walked leisurely back to the site, camera dangling from one hand as she strolled. The rest of the pictures could wait. As she approached the buildings again, a figure rounded the corner and walked towards her.

“Good morning,” she called cheerfully. “Beautiful sunrise, wasn’t it? I got a perfect shot!”

Gabe didn’t answer until they drew near to each other, his face more serious than she had ever seen it before, and his manner preoccupied. He said abruptly, “It was you I heard shooting into the parking lot so recklessly, wasn’t it? I’m surprised you didn’t break your neck!”

Carrie smiled a little at that. “It was a toss-up.” Speaking lightly, she tried to pass it off as a joke. “I was so intent on getting here that I didn’t really pay attention to what I was doing. Actually, I’m surprised that I stayed on the road at all! I certainly don’t remember driving here. But I think you’ll find it was worth it. There are some real beauties in here.” She patted her camera with satisfaction.

He retorted swiftly, his mouth tight, “Do you really think it was worth it? Do you think I would find the pictures worth it? What if you’d wrecked your car and gotten injured, maybe seriously? Would it have been worth it to you then? I think not!”

Carrie could see that Gabriel was very angry. It surprised her very much, and it shook her up in a way that she couldn’t explain. It was as if he
cared.

“For God’s sake, Carrie,” he sounded fed up, “drive more carefully next time, even if it means that you pass up an opportunity for a good photograph!”

She stared at him. “I’m—sorry,” she murmured blankly. “I guess I just didn’t think.”

He looked at her sharply. Then, putting an arm around her shoulder in a casual gesture, he pivoted her on towards the buildings as he replied, “I know you didn’t, and I know you weren’t being deliberately careless. But imagine how it would feel to the rest of your family if they received a phone call informing them of
an accident that you were in. Just like that, no warning. No preparation.” Staring into her darkening eyes, he could tell he was upsetting her, and his face softened. “Just be more careful,” Gabe said gently.

She nodded and blinked as he quickly kissed her nose. It had tickled and she smiled as she rubbed the place his lips had touched, but he was already off, striding on towards the office, not looking back. After standing for a moment and staring after him thoughtfully, she turned and began to think about where to take pictures next.

Later, though, she found herself thinking back on Gabe’s odd show of intensity. She had not really realised how careless she had been, preoccupied as she was with the sunrise, and his telling her so had jolted her greatly. It was not a characteristic that she was used to, this active show of concern. Always before her family had been cheerfully insensitive to any kind of risk that she had been exposed to. It was not that they were uncaring; it was merely that they were remarkably free of worry. They so blithely assumed that disaster would not fall their way. Quite remarkably, it hadn’t as of yet, and so the possibility was incomprehensible, therefore impossible. And Carrie was not the only one; the Metcalfes had the habit of taking everyone in their immediate circle for granted. Childhood injuries, falling off a horse, or down the stairs, or in the pool, all were treated with the same happy assumption that the victim was all right. You were set on your feet, patted on the head, sent your own way, and that was that. Growing up as she had, it was no wonder that she felt an oddness when anyone showed worry for her benefit. It gave her a strange, warm feeling inside. It made her feel—cherished.

Carrie tramped about the place, taking pictures now and then, and checking her camera to see how many more she had left. She was close to the end of the roll.

Deciding to get a few of Gabe in his office, she turned back and let herself in quietly, going down the hall, up a short flight
of stairs and turning left. His office door was open and light streamed out. Silently, she walked up to the doorway and eased her head around to peep in. Gabe was intent on some papers in front of him on the desk, and didn’t appear to hear her, which was exactly what she wanted.

She brought up her camera, focused in on the dark, handsome head, and started to glide cautiously forward, wanting to get past the door frame and snap a picture before he became aware of her presence. Gabe, catching the slight sound of her camera’s shutter clicking, looked up sharply. Carrie waited just that split second more and then took a picture of the smile that began to spread across his face spontaneously as he recognized the person behind the camera.

“Thank you,” she said with satisfaction. “That smile couldn’t have been better if we’d posed the shot. Perfect.”

“Are you about done for the day?” he asked quietly. She nodded, and he continued, “Would you like to come over and develop the prints today, or would you rather wait until tomorrow?”

She thought for a moment. “Would you mind terribly if I waited until tomorrow? Gail promised to go out for coffee with me some time this week and I was planning to give her a call. We haven’t seen each other in ages.”

“Of course not,” he responded instantly. “And you know the way to my house.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Large two-storey house with the dark brown shutters? I’ve never been actually
in
the house, but I do know it,” was her reply.

“The shutters are a lighter colour now, but that’s the place. I’ll of course be working, and probably am going to town to meet with someone for lunch, but I’ll let Mrs. Hastings know you’re coming and she will show you to the darkroom. Come any time, she’s there all day.” Gabe glanced down at his papers and she got the impression that he was wanting to start back on them, so she said a hasty goodbye and made herself scarce.

Gail was delighted when she called her that afternoon. She had finished with her class around two-thirty and would be free for coffee, or possibly a light meal, around four-thirty or five. “Give me a little time to shower off the mess of paints and sweaty child!” She laughed. “If you could see me now—no, you don’t want to see me now! I’ve got a green nose.” They agreed on a place to meet, and Carrie quickly hung up. Then, with an hour or two on her hands, she happily went down to the pool to swim a few laps before changing and leaving to meet Gail.

Gail looked tired as she eased into the seat across from Carrie in the small restaurant. “Whew!” she sighed, drawing a hand in front of her forehead in an exaggerated gesture. “Every morning I look forward to going to work, and every evening I’m desperately grateful to escape! Why do I put up with those monsters? I must be a masochist!”

Laughing at her, Carrie commented dryly, “You must get some enjoyment out of it, or you wouldn’t be so cheerful about it.”

“Oh, I really do love my job,” Gail assured her unnecessarily. “It’s just when Jerry puts Melissa’s books in black paint, and Karen falls out of the window because she was trying to catch a butterfly—thank God it’s a one-storey building—and Aiquin flushes
live
goldfish down the toilet because he’d seen his mother do the same thing with their
dead
one, that—”

“Stop!” Carrie gasped, holding her sides. “Enough! You’re going to have me asphyxiated from lack of air, I’m laughing so hard!”

“But,” Gail continued drolly, “I don’t really want to talk about me. Why don’t you tell me about you? How’s your vacation coming along?”

Calming a little, and yet still smiling, Carrie replied, “Well, right now it’s non-existent. Gabe Jackson asked me to photograph his shopping centre, and I’ve been busy with that.”

“Gabe Jackson?” the other girl repeated with delight, her eyes dancing. “Wow, honey—that man is a dream! What’s he like, really? Do you like him or not? Come on now, ’fess up.”

Carrie shrugged, infuriatingly casual, “He’s very nice, and yes, I do like him.”

Gail howled, “You newt, I mean do you
like
him? Come on, give me more information than that! Are you physically attracted to him? Is there chemistry between you?” This last bit was accompanied by a roguish leer.

“For heaven’s sake, Gail!” she sputtered, almost spitting her coffee all over the table. “I hardly know the man! Give me a break, will you?”

“All right.”  Her eyes lit with amused affection, Gail appeared to reluctantly agree. “But,” she warned, wagging a slow finger, “I want a blow by blow account of anything that might happen to—er—develop.”

“The only thing that is going to develop is the film that I shot up,” Carrie spoke with a certainty, and wondered about a sudden flat feeling inside.

Gail was studying her face with an underlying seriousness. She noticed the lighter expression, the absence of strain, the easier pose of the smaller girl and impulsively took one of Carrie’s hands in a rare gesture of affection and squeezed quickly. “Tell me,” she said abruptly, “how are you, Carrie? Really, I mean. Is everything all right?”

Carrie paused for a moment as she considered Gail’s question. As if from a long distance, she remembered the deep unhappiness and depression that she’d been battling on the night of the party, so recently. “Why, I think I’m fine,” she said slowly and with some surprise. It was true. The familiar ache in the middle of her chest was gone. She could think about Neil without any pain. “Yes, I think I’m really happy. Everything is just great.”

Gail smiled, relieved. She asked, “Problem over, then?”

“What? Oh, that. Non-existent, old pal. Really nothing.”

Chapter Four

Carrie knocked at the door of the large ranch house and waited patiently. It would be good to work in the cool darkness after the searing heat of the noonday sun. She squinted her eyes and looked about her. The front yard was nicely kept, with plush grass that spoke out in the dry climate of an underground sprinkler system and constant care. Flat rocks were laid in a pattern to make up the sidewalk that led to the front door. On either side of the walk, there was a thin border of smaller, more colourful rocks and cacti. The house itself was older and beautifully kept, with a solid and established air about it. It was an attractive sight. The front door opened suddenly and Carrie looked quickly around. A small, birdlike woman peered out and smiled uncertainly. She smiled back.