Circle of Shadows (16 page)

What was it doing here at this
time of night? Had it refused to start, so that she’d had to catch a ride home
with someone else? She knew everyone here. Surely she’d have gotten safely
home.

He considered driving by her
house. But how would he know if she was there without waking her? And her
mother had returned last week, hadn’t she? She’d think he was nuts stopping in
the middle of the night. He’d have to explain why he’d been at the store to see
her car there. No way.

Chewing his lip, he considered
his options. Another possibility was that Lili was still in the store. He’d
been able to see only night lights from the front, but she could be in the
office. Maybe she’d fallen asleep at her desk, or...what if she’d surprised
another burglar?

Cold fear slid down his spine
like an icicle. His throat felt tight as he made up his mind. He could check
out those possibilities anyway. He ran to the back door, pulling out his key ring
and searching for the right key.

Inside, he became cautious once
more. The pungent odors of onions and green peppers mixed with the clean smell
of freshly waxed floors filled his nostrils. Snapping on lights as he went, he
searched the aisles in the main part of the store. Nobody. Silence except for
the hum of a compressor.

He walked back to the office.
When he found the door open and the light on, his heart contracted in fear.
“Lili? Lili!”

Her purse lay on top of her desk,
lipstick, billfold and keys spilling out haphazardly. Something was wrong.
She’d never leave without her purse. Calling her name, he searched every spot
big enough to hide her. The back hall and storeroom were as empty as her
office.

Panic gripped him. Had someone
kidnapped her and carried her off? Carefully he walked each aisle again, then
checked the break room and the basement from one end to the other. Nothing.
Returning to the main part of the store, he headed for the nearest phone in the
meat department to call for help. Stepping past the large old-fashioned wooden
meat block, he noticed an odd stack of canned goods in front of the meat cooler
door. What an odd place to put them.

Suddenly he knew where she was.
He grabbed one case after another, tossing the heavy boxes aside as though they
weighed nothing. “Lili! Lili, are you in there? Can you hear me?” Panting, he
yanked open the door.

The smoky aromas of ham and bacon
carried on the chill air that surged out. In the shadows he saw an odd mound of
cardboard in the middle of the cooler. It didn’t move. He reached back outside
the cooler door and snapped on the light. The mound was torn meat boxes wrapped
around something. Quickly he pulled the cardboard apart and saw her red-gold
curls inside it. “Lili!”

He found a pulse, but she seemed
to be asleep or unconscious. “Lili. Oh, Lili!”

Pulling away the rest of the
cardboard, he tried to wake her. She was so pale and cold. Hypothermia!

She stirred in his arms and
relief raced through him.

“Ken? Oh, Ken, you’re here.” Her
voice was slurred. She groaned and snuggled closer to him as he pulled off his
coat and wrapped it around her. He had to get her to the hospital. He
considered calling an ambulance, but decided driving was faster.

Picking her up in his arms, he
locked the store and carried her to his car, asking grimly, “Who did this,
Lili?”

She didn’t answer. He eased her
into his car and wrapped the lap robe around her. Revving the powerful motor,
he took off with a squeal of tires back to the main highway, desperately
looking for the usual blue “H” signs for “hospital.” At last he spotted the
signs and followed them at top speed.

Lili stirred. “No! No, Arthur,
don’t lock me in! Arthur, please. Let me out!”

Ken stared at her. Her eyes
stared wildly, then closed again. Arthur! Arthur did this to her, Ken thought
angrily as he drove. The meat manager was their thief, too, then? But how had
he pulled it off? He hadn’t seen any discrepancies in the meat department
figures large enough to explain this.

Somehow, Lili must have found
out, though, or Arthur wouldn’t have done this to her. It also probably meant
he’d left, and locked up Lili so he could get away.

Which also proved, he realized,
joy surging through him, that she had nothing to do with it!

And it certainly explained
Arthur’s love of expensive things, like that red Jaguar he had driven Renee
around in.

Good Lord, Renee! She’d been
dating Arthur. Could she have been involved...No, not Renee. Ken would bet on
that. He wished desperately for the cell phone his secretary had begged him to
get. If he had one now, he could be calling ahead to the hospital, or talking
to the police. Damn, what a stubborn idiot he’d been!

He barely made it passing another
car and tried to keep his mind on traffic. He’d get some answers soon enough.
If Lili knew anything. If only Lili was okay. Dear God, if anything happened to
her, he’d never forgive himself.

Perhaps she’d never forgive him
for the cold, suspicious way he’d been treating her anyway. Even if she
wouldn’t, she just had to be okay. If she didn’t love him, he’d have to sell
the store back to her. With the thief out of the way, she could make it
financially. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stand being so near her all the
time without being able to make love to her. These past weeks had been hell.

It was only a couple of minutes,
but seemed much longer before he saw the brick buildings of Memorial General
Hospital glowing in the street lights. He pulled up to the emergency doors,
rang the bell for help and went around to pick up Lili in his arms once more.
Almost immediately the door opened. A nurse directed him to the emergency room
where a white-coated doctor took over.

“Put her down here.” He indicated
a padded table. “What happened?”

“She’s badly chilled. She was
locked in a meat cooler for...I don’t know how long. Hours, probably.” After a
few more questions, they sent him out to the waiting room.

Ken paced the hall, kicking
himself for not realizing something was wrong as soon as he’d arrived back in
town. Why hadn’t he stayed and guarded her? He should have been guarding Lili,
not the damned store. And he’d get rid of that bald headed bastard, Arthur, if
it was the last thing he did.

Then he spotted a phone on the
wall down the hall and jumped up to report the incident to the police. “He’s
probably already at the airport, heading out of the country. Driving a new red
Jaguar.” He described Arthur as best he could, then hung up and went back to
pacing the waiting room.

Finally a nurse poked her head
out and signaled that he could return to the examining room.

Lili was sitting up on a table,
sipping from a steaming cup. Her eyes widened when she saw him. “Ken! Thank
g...goodness you’re here.”

He gazed at her pale face, and
shivering body, now wrapped in warm blankets. “Are you okay, Lili?” He moved to
her side and took her free cold hand in both his, needing to touch her, to know
that she was safe.

She frowned at him, and said slowly,
“I’m fine, just so...c...cold and tired. Tell him to let me go home.”

“Is that all right, Doctor?”

The doctor shrugged. “She’s a
lucky girl. Hypothermia can be fatal. But, yes, if she doesn’t want to be
hospitalized, and there’s someone to stay with her, I suppose she can go home.
Put her in a tub of warm water, not hot, and help her to warm up gradually.
Drinking some hot fluids would help, too, but no alcohol. Then some rest in
warm blankets.”

“I’ll see to it personally.”

At that the doctor sent Ken a
surprised glance, then looked back at Lili. When she made no objection, he
grinned and shrugged. “Fine,” he said, turning to write on her chart.

“We’ll take the blanket. Put it
on her bill.” Ken picked her up and carried her to his car, relishing the feel
of her safe in his arms. He kissed her, tucked the blanket snugly around her,
then got in, and turned the car towards his house.

Lili lay back against the seat
with her eyes closed. Her hand still clenched the blanket and she was still
shivering.

A million questions sped through
Ken’s mind as he drove, but this was not the time to ask them.

“Your house?” she asked as he
helped her from the car.

“No sense upsetting your mother.
I promised the doctor I’d take personal care of you, remember? Come on, up the
steps, don’t trip on the blanket.”

He unlocked the door and helped
her inside, then locked it again behind them. He didn’t want to add that he had
lots of things to clear up with her, and her mother would give them no chance
to talk if he took Lili to her house.

Picking up Lili in his arms, he
carried her up to the master bathroom, and put her down in the chair, still
wrapped in the blanket. He turned up the thermostat to keep the central air
conditioning from kicking in and began filling the tub, carefully checking the
water’s temperature, then said, “Come on, off with those clothes and into the
warm water. It’ll make you feel better.”

She flushed as he eased the
blanket from her clenched fists and tossed it aside, then began to undress her.

“K...Ken,” she said, still
shivering. “Did someone tell the police that it was Arthur? He said he was
leaving the country. Maybe they can still catch him at the airport.”

He caught his breath as he
unhooked her bra and uncovered those soft, round globes, trying not to think
about what he’d like to be doing to them. “Yes. I told the police what you
said. I’ll call them again to see if they’ve found him as soon as I get you in
this warm water. First things first.”

“But he’ll get away. Arthur told
me that he did it.”

“Yes, I know. You told me.”

“I did?” Lili stepped out of her
panties.

He again checked the temperature
of the now full tub. “Is the water too hot?”

She stuck in her bare toe and
shook her head.

Satisfied he said, “In you go,”
and helped her into it.

She slid down in the tub until
she was covered with the warm water except for her face. “
Mmm
.”

“I’ll make you a hot drink. What
would you like?”

“Do you have any cocoa mix?”

“Cocoa it is. Will you be all right?
You’re not going to fall asleep there before I get back?”

Lili laughed. “I’ll stay awake.”

He went down to the kitchen, and
started two cups of water heating in the microwave, deciding that was the
fastest. By the time he’d found the cocoa mix, the water was hot. He stirred in
the powder quickly and carried it back up the stairs.

His heart sank as he saw that
Lili’s eyes were closed, but she opened them and smiled as he entered.

“Are you okay? Is the water
temperature all right?”

“It feels heavenly. I thought I’d
never be warm again.”

“You scared me half to death. I
couldn’t imagine what had happened.”

“I couldn’t believe it was
happening either. I’ve known Arthur all my life, and I’ve never been afraid of
him. But when he blocked that door, leaving me in that cold, dark cooler....”
She shuddered. “I’m still having trouble accepting that he could do this.”

“Don’t think about it. Come on,
can you sit up for a minute to drink this? It’ll warm your insides.”

“Okay,” she said, sitting up and
taking the cup, oblivious to her nakedness.

He handed the cup to her and
leaned down to stroke her wet hair back from her forehead, then kissed her.

She smiled and sipped the cocoa.

“I couldn’t believe it was you
under that pile of cardboard until I saw your red-gold curls.”

Lili grinned. “I remembered that
paper of any kind is a good insulator. It was the only protection I could find
in the cooler. So, I dumped out the meat, flattened out the boxes and wrapped
myself in the cardboard.”

Ken nodded. “I’m sure it helped
preserve your body’s heat. Thank goodness for your quick thinking.”

She shook her head. “No, Ken.
Thank goodness you found me. I don’t think I’d have survived until morning. How
did you find me anyway?”

Sheepishly, he explained about
hiring Curtis to watch the store. He told her about taking Curtis’ place
tonight, and about having to go into the city to see his sister. “If only Jill
hadn’t called tonight,” he said. “I might have seen your car and looked for you
earlier.”

She merely nodded and sipped more
cocoa thoughtfully.

Watching her, he realized he’d
seen her hair wet numerous times, but never seen any other color at the roots.
He’d known several other women who bleached their hair, including his sister,
Jill. They all had dark roots part of the time.

It was a ridiculous time to ask,
but suddenly it seemed very important. “Lili,” he asked. “What color is your
hair, really?”

She frowned, perplexed, then
laughed. “Why do you ask?”

Embarrassed, but determined to
know, he said, “Because I don’t see any different colored roots.”

He was surprised to see amusement
in her wide blue eyes. “That’s because I don’t dye my hair, Ken. People have
been asking that since I was a child. It’s just always been this wild,
strawberry-blonde color.”

He felt like a fool. But he was
finding out he’d been wrong about a lot of things, lately, wasn’t he? “I’m
sorry.”

“Forget it. But please, Ken, go
check with the police. I don’t want Arthur to get away with this. Why didn’t
you phone the police from the store?”

“All I could think of was getting
you to the hospital, to make sure you were okay.”

Tears welled in her eyes, and she
smiled as though his answer pleased her very much. “Go phone,” she ordered.

Ken nodded, and walked quickly to
his office, trying to ignore the huge bulge in his pants. Maybe it was better
to take his mind off her bare body for a few minutes. She was in no shape to
accept him now, anyway, he told himself sternly, as he dialed. Behave yourself,
man.

The officer told Ken, “We’re
doing our best. We’ve got a bulletin out on his Jag, and officers checking the
airport.”

“Keep me informed,” Ken said,
giving the officer his unlisted phone number. “Lili’s here with me.”

“I see,” the officer replied, sounding
like he was grinning.

Ken didn’t care. In fact, he
wanted the whole world to know that he was claiming this woman. If only she’d
have him. He went back to the bathroom.

Lili was back under the water,
except for her head. Her long hair was dripping wet, and she was almost asleep.

“Lili,” he said, kneeling beside
the tub. He stuck a finger in the water, finding that it had cooled, and
wondered if he should add more hot water. “Wake up. How are you feeling?”

“So tired,” she murmured. “I
tried to keep moving in the meat cooler to keep warm. Tried to keep awake in
there....”

“Should I add more hot water? Or
would it be better to go to bed?”

“Sleep, I just want to sleep....”

“Come on, then, out you come.” He
carefully rubbed her dry with a warm towel and got her into the blue flannel
pajamas that Jill, who thought that Minnesota was always cold, had given him.

“They’re too big,” Lili said over
the hum of the dryer as he blew her hair dry.

“You need something warm close to
your body, and they’re the only thing I have.” Ken rolled up the sleeves and
tucked her into his bed. Curling into a ball, she promptly fell asleep. He
found the electric blanket he used in the middle of the winter, spread it over
her and turned it on.

Not daring to leave her, he
curled his body around hers. He slipped his hand inside the pajamas, and was
pleased to feel that her abdomen was now warm. The doctor had told him that was
a better gauge than cold hands or feet. The lack of sleep and emotional
upheaval of the events of the last two days caught up with him and he, too,
fell fast asleep.

***

Hours later, the ringing of the
phone roused him. Grabbing it quickly, he carried it out into the hall to avoid
waking Lili.

“I think Arthur got away,” the
police officer said. “We found his Jag near a downtown all night restaurant,
and talked to a cabby who took a fare matching Arthur’s description from the
restaurant to the airport. There’ve been a lot of flights out since midnight,
and a lot of people coming and going. But the most likely one seems to be a
Delta Airlines flight to New York. A man answering his description bought a
ticket with cash on that flight.”

“That’s logical,” Ken agreed.
“From New York he can get any number of overseas flights.”

“Yeah. If that was Arthur, he’s
probably going out of the country. It’s hard to trace a person if he has false
ID and is using cash. But we’ll meet that flight, just in case.”

Noting it was past time for
Adams’ Foods to open, he called there and talked to Anna. It took him several
minutes to explain what he knew and assure her that Lili was all right. Then he
remembered that Adams’ Foods now had no meat man, so he phoned Rudy and
directed him to send over his meat-manager’s assistant to fill the position
temporarily.

Then Ken called his office in Minneapolis
to see how the rest of his stores were faring. He knew that they would all keep
Renee informed of any problems. He told Renee about Arthur’s attack on Lili. To
his relief, Renee sounded genuinely shocked, which reassured him that she
hadn’t been involved. Hanging up, Ken went back to sleep beside Lili.

Hours later he awoke. She was
still asleep, so he went to shower, shave and dress. His stomach growled,
reminding him that he’d also better fix breakfast. He saw that the sun was
getting low in the west over the lake, so they must have slept for hours.

In the shower he remembered that
he hadn’t called Lili’s mother. In a small town, the news was sure to have
gotten to her, and he’d better reassure her.