Hard Hat Man (22 page)

“Some men don’t want that to happen. Be careful. They may come after you.” Esther rocked harder, looking at the far wall where Nancy’s dolls were lined up on a shelf.

Jan
frowned at her.
“
Why would they come after me?
This is Kyle’s project and
I don’t have anything to do with it. And
I didn’t have anything to do with Nancy’s death.”

“You know too much. I shouldn’t be telling you more.
It’s dangerous.
They might hurt you, too.”

“Who, Aunt Esther
?
Who
would hurt me? Who
killed Nancy?”

But she just shook her head. “Be careful.” Then she disappeared.

“Wait!” Jan cried. “Tell me more.” But she was talking to thin air.

“
Tell you what?
Who are you talking to?” Kyle asked
.

Jan spun around. He stood at the bedroom door, his dark hair tousled. He wore only his pants that he must have pulled on hastily, since they weren’t zipped, and he was beltless, as well.
A hot surge of desire crawled up her center at the sight of all that luscious bare skin.
She swallowed
hard
.
“I
…I
thought you were asleep.”

“I was. Then I heard noises and people talking up here. What’s going on? Who were you talking to?”

Why did he have to wake up and catch her talking to a ghost? No way could she explain this to him. Even her own mother hadn’t believed she’d seen Esther’s ghost
. W
hy would he?

“Nobody. I,,,I just heard a noise up here and came up to investigate. It must have been a mouse or something.
” She took his arm to urge him back out of the room, trying to ignore the heat the connection sent surging into her body.
“
Come on, let’s go back to bed, Kyle.”

He
stayed rooted to the spot,
eyed her strangely, then scratched his head.
“Do you always talk to yourself?”

“Only when I’m nervous.”

“And are you nervous
now
?
Why?
”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. You were sound asleep and I didn’t want to wake you, but felt I had to investigate the noises. It could have been anything, you know, after all the odd things that have happened on this farm since I came here.”

“That’s true.” He
relaxed and
allowed her to lead him back downstairs to their bedroom. “Next time, wake me before you go prowling around in the night, okay? I don’t want you hurt.”

She smiled agreement
, thankful that he wasn’t pursuing the talking to someone angle
. “Yes, Sir Galahad.”

“Very funny.
” Beside their bed, he leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. “
Come on, let’s go back to
sleep
. We have to work in the morning.”

He pulled back the blanket and urged her into bed, then got in and curled around her, spoon fashion. Wrapping his arms around her, he kissed her neck and held her close.

Jan tried to go back to sleep, but a niggling thought kept her awake, though she squeezed her eyes tightly shut and pulled up the covers.

She was thrilled that he wanted to protect her. It sent a warm sensation running along her veins. Why did she care so much what he thought of her? She’d always been an independent person, going her own way. Live and let live. But Kyle had gotten under her skin and she liked it.

Oh, my God.
I’ve fallen in love with him.

Her eyes flew open at the idea.
And she’d been determined not to get involved, not to get hurt. Well, she couldn’t let him know, that was for sure.

He wasn’t a forever kind of guy, she’d known that going into this, hadn’t she? She’d just have to deal with it.

Once again, she slept later than he did. She showered and dressed and went down the hall to the kitchen. He was gone, but he’d left a freshly made pot of coffee for her. She made some raisin toast to go with it
and ate it
.

Her cell phone rang and she groaned. She was supposed to have called her mother.

It was
Laura
.
“Mom, how’s it going?”
she asked, trying to sound upbeat.

“Why didn’t you call me right away?”
Laura
asked petulantly.

“Sheriff Casey said he would call you to break the news,” Jan said. “And I didn’t know when you’d be free to talk. You know that’s why I usually wait for you to call me.”

“Yes, but in this case…”

“I’m sorry, Mom. We have to decide what to do about a memorial service for Nancy. And her burial, of course.”

“Yes, I suppose. But since it’s been so long, I mean, there’s not much left, is there?”

Jan closed her eyes against the horrible memories of seeing Nancy’s bones and clothes. “No, there isn’t.”

“Then cremation would be best, I think. And we can do a memorial service later, after I get back to the states, don’t you think?”

“I suppose,” Jan agreed. She got up and refilled her coffee cup. How was she going to explain talking to Aunt Esther? “About the burial plot,” she said.

“Yes, I suppose we’ll still need one. I mean, I suppose we don’t have to bury the urn, but I don’t really want to keep it, do you?”

“No,” Jan said. “Mom, I don’t know how to say this, except to just say it.
I saw Aunt Esther again and this time she talked to me.”

“Jan, you’re imagining things. There’s no such thing as ghosts. And certainly not ghosts who can talk to you.”

Jan ignored her and continued, “Aunt Esther told me to have Nancy buried beside her. She said she bought an extra lot for her. She knew Nancy was dead, Mom.”

“That’s crazy, Jan. I’m getting really worried about you.”

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. Do you know which cemetery Aunt Esther is buried in?”

Laura
’s deep sigh came through the phone. “Yes, I attended her funeral. I don’t remember the name of it, but it’s the one just south of town on a hill with lots of evergreen trees. You should be able to ask Kyle or anyone there to tell you who the contact person is.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“Have the sheriff call me when they release her remains and I’ll handle ordering and paying for the cremation.”

“Okay.’

“Are you getting along okay with Kyle?”
Laura
asked.

“Uh, yes. He’s even helped me a bit here at the house.” Jan had no intention of telling her mother how well she and Kyle were getting along.
Laura
would expect it to last and Jan knew it wouldn’t. She’d soon be going back to Chicago and
Kyle would remain here. And so would the lovely Sylvia.

She sighed at the thought, making her mother ask what was wrong? Jan quickly covered her gaffe by telling
Laura
about the burglary.

“Oh dear. I worried about more going wrong after someone slashed your tires,” she said. “Please be careful.”

“I will, Mom.” She said goodbye and hung up.
Relief that the conversation with her mother had gone relatively well slid over her. She never knew how her mother would react about things. This time she’d seemed fairly calm and reasonable, thank goodness.

S
he
went back to
boxing up the remaining items. Her little car was packed with the things she’d decided to save and the stacks of boxes in the parlor for Goodwill were growing. In another few days, she’d be done and could head back to Chicago.
Leaving Kyle behind.

Her heart twisted at the thought. How could she have grown attached
so fast
to
her Hard Hat Man, as she thought of
Kyle
? He was thoughtful, kind and loving. As well as a good lover. She sighed. But he was a construction worker
,
and she was a city school teacher. No way would that work.

The pantry off the kitchen had several shelves of just cookbooks. She frowned. She’d already found several cookbooks in the kitchen cupboard. Why had Esther packed some of them in here? Maybe the ones in the kitchen were her favorites and thus used more often and needed to be kept handy? One large loose-leaf notebook had a cookbook cover, but inside, contained not
only some of
the corresponding cookbook pages, but
also pages of
newspaper accounts of Horace’s church’s activities. Some were old, and dated back twenty years, others just before and after Nancy’s disappearance. Why had Esther kept these? Why hide them inside a cookbook cover?

She laid it aside to show Kyle that night, to see what he thought of it. Another notebook was a collection of pictures of Nancy. They ranged from the time she was a baby to her sixteenth birthday party with a group of teenagers at a local pizza place. Nancy and the other girls all looked so happy, smiling and goofing off for the camera.
It also had a cookbook cover and some pages of recipes inside. How odd. Had Esther done this to hide the other items in the notebooks from Horace? Or what?

She made herself a cup of tea and sat at the table to drink it
while she
look
ed
through the pictures. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she turned the
musty smelling
pages. Fond memories ran through her mind and brought out smiles as well as tears. Nancy riding her bike. Nancy on her favorite pony. Nancy at her sixteenth birthday party. Jan vaguely remembered some of the girls pictured laughing gaily and eating cake. Pizza and birthday cake had been an odd combination of food, but tradition had called for it.

Suddenly she heard sirens. Looking out the window, she saw two police cars pull into the driveway. She frowned in consternation. Were they coming back to question her more about the burglary? The officer hadn’t seemed that concerned yesterday.

But they drove on past the
house and down to the silo pit and parked. Once again, she saw Kyle and several men standing around the pit. So whatever had happened, Kyle was okay.

What now? Hadn’t they finished their investigation the other day?

Setting her teacup down, she chewed her lip. Should she walk down there and ask what was going on? Or not?