One Summer (35 page)

A man’s strength.

Was there a man out there who hated him enough to kill the women in his life so he would be blamed?

Johnny almost smiled at that. Hell, that was most of the town.

It was a conundrum. He’d puzzled over it and turned it every which way he could and yet no solution suggested itself. All he could see was that two women he had cared for had been hideously murdered. Was he the link between them that had brought about their deaths?

If that particular theory was true—and there were lots of theories—then Rachel was in danger. He could stop seeing her—to protect her he was willing to do anything—but as he considered it, it occurred to him that the damage had already been done. That very public hand-holding at the funeral had been witnessed by at least a third of the town.

The other two-thirds would know about it by suppertime tonight. Tylerville’s gossip network was ruthlessly efficient.

If for no other reason than to quiet his own fears, Johnny decided to go to Wheatley, point out Rachel’s possible danger, and see what the police chief thought. Wheatley,
for all that he was engaged in a profession that Johnny despised, was basically all right. He could be trusted, and he had access to a lot of information that Johnny didn’t. Maybe he knew of another link between the dead women that would leave Rachel entirely out of the picture. Or maybe he did not.

Maybe, just maybe, there
was
someone out there who wanted to kill the women in his life.

Rachel was with her sister and their friend this afternoon. She would be perfectly safe. Johnny decided to rush his business so that he could be back by nightfall. Darkness brought danger with it, and until dawn cracked, he wouldn’t let her out of his sight. If necessary, he would never again in his life let Rachel out of his sight.

The next day would be Sunday, with that infernal lunch that meant so much to her. Johnny grimaced. He’d have to face her mother across a tableful of silver and china and crystal. He suspected that Elisabeth Grant would take pleasure in making the meal as elaborate as possible just to rattle him.

Well, she could do her darnedest. Though he would never have admitted it to another living soul, not even to Rachel, he had prepared himself for this eventuality. Emily Post had been his late-night reading almost since Rachel had come back into his life.

He meant to do his best not to embarrass her, and his best was usually pretty darned good.

He also meant to do his best to keep her alive.

When this was over, if it was ever over, he’d have a second chance. The cops now believed he was innocent, not only of Glenda’s murder but of Marybeth’s. He needed to talk to his lawyer, which was one reason why he was headed for Louisville now. He wanted the stain of that earlier conviction erased from his life.

It was as if fate, having seen how much that was good in life it could snatch away, was now starting to hand things back.

38

R
achel was still feeling slightly affronted by Johnny when she and Becky dropped Kay off at her apartment. Grieving as he was in the aftermath of Glenda’s funeral, she would have supposed that he would need her to comfort him. Instead, he had sent her off with Becky with an absent-minded squeeze of her hand and the excuse that he had business to take care of that afternoon. Rachel couldn’t imagine what kind of business, as he worked for her and the hardware store was closed for the day because of the funeral. He hadn’t even kissed her good-bye.

Rachel was surprised and ashamed to find herself minding that.

She knew he loved her, knew it with her heart and mind and soul, though he had never actually said it in so many words. But their love was so new, so unbelievably, excitingly wonderful, that she regretted every minute that they spent apart.

Clearly he did not feel the same regret.

“Sure you all don’t want to come in for a few minutes? I have some great herbal tea.” Kay climbed out of the car and turned to smile at Rachel and Becky. Rachel really looked at her for the first time in years and noticed with surprise that Kay, who’d been something of a wallflower through most of her youth and young adulthood, was now
blossoming. There was color in her normally pale face, as though she’d been exercising or spending time outdoors or something. She wore makeup, which she usually didn’t, and a sultry floral perfume. She’d tinted her naturally mousy brown hair to a sort of burnished auburn, and her apple green suit was smart. Her figure, always inclined toward plumpness, was still round, but more attractively so, and Rachel wondered if she had lost weight. She had been so caught up in her own concerns lately that such changes had happened without her being aware of them.

“No, thanks,” both sisters chorused, mutually repulsed by the idea of herbal tea. Then they looked at each other and grinned. Kay shook her head at them, waved, and disappeared into the vestibule of her building.

“Kay’s looking good, isn’t she? I wonder if she’s in love?” Becky asked idly as she pulled out of the parking lot and headed for Walnut Grove. She was driving Rachel’s car, having had too much experience with her sister’s driving to be a contented passenger.

“I was just wondering the same thing.”

Becky laughed. “Who could it possibly be? The only two bachelors in town that I can think of are feuding over you.”

“You mean Johnny and Rob?” Rachel glanced at Becky. “There have to be more single men in Tylerville than just those two.”

Becky shook her head. “I’ve been keeping my eye out, and I haven’t seen any. You probably haven’t noticed, but I’ve been away long enough that I see things that are different when I come back. Young men with any ambition at all tend to leave Tylerville early, and if they return, it’s with a wife and kiddies in tow.” Becky smiled rather sadly, and Rachel was reminded of why her sister was checking out bachelors.

“Do you think you’ll stay in Tylerville, Beck? After—after it’s over?”

“The divorce, you mean? Go ahead and say it—I’ve got
to learn to live with it. I will soon be a divorcée. Can you believe it?” She gave an unamused chuckle.

Rachel shook her head. “Life takes strange turns, doesn’t it?”

“Like you staying home, when you always planned to travel everywhere and see the world and have wonderful adventures? While I—I thought I’d fall in love and get married and have babies and raise them here in Tylerville and never leave home at all. We neither of us got what we expected, did we?”

“You had the marriage and the babies.”

“But it didn’t turn out like I thought it would. Even when things between Michael and me were good, it—oh, it wasn’t enough! Everything was always about
him
. His career, his clothes, his social life. I kept thinking, what about me?”

“I didn’t know you felt that way. I always thought you were deliriously happy.”

“I know. I wanted you all to think so, you and Mother and Daddy. I wanted everyone to think my marriage was a big success. I felt so bad about taking him away from you, Rachel. Did you love him very much?”

“Not nearly as much as I thought I did at the time.”

They were silent for a few minutes, remembering. Then Becky threw Rachel a teasing look.

“I will say this for you—you know how to pick ’em. Johnny Harris is a hunk.”

“A
hunk
?” Rachel had to laugh. Becky sounded like one of her teenage students.

“He is,” Becky insisted. “I hadn’t seen him in so long, I’d forgotten. He was two years behind us, but my friends and I always did think he was the handsomest boy in school. If only he hadn’t been so wild! Anyway, he’s a man now, and he’s absolutely drop-dead gorgeous! All damn-your-eyes sexy, and the way he looks at you—wow! I wouldn’t mind having an affair with him myself.”

Rachel glanced at Becky and clasped her hands in her
lap. “This may be more than an affair, Beck. In fact, I think it is.”

“How much more?” Becky sounded suddenly serious.

“A lot more. I’m so in love with him, I make myself sick.”

“You’re not thinking marriage, are you, Rache?”

Rachel shrugged. “He hasn’t asked me, so I can’t say.”

“Come off it, Rachel Elisabeth, I know you too well. You are thinking marriage, aren’t you?”

“Maybe.”

“You know all the obstacles as well as I do.”

“Yes.”

“Then I won’t say anything more. Except that marriage is hard enough when people have everything going for them—like I thought Michael and I did. I’d hate to have two strikes against me from the start.”

“I know.”

There was a pause.

“Rachel?”

“Yes?”

“To answer your earlier question, I think I will stay home in Tylerville for a while. It’s good for Mother to have the girls, and it’s good for the girls to have Mother. And it’s good for me, too. So—if you’re thinking you might want to move away, you can consider yourself free to go. I’ll keep the home fires burning till you decide to come back.”

Rachel glanced at Becky, surprised. “You do know me too well, Beck.”

“How else could you marry Johnny Harris? He’s not the type to stay here, and I don’t see how he could even if he were. Whether he’s guilty or not will never matter to most of these people. They think he is guilty, and nothing and nobody will ever change their minds.”

“I know. I was thinking about that.”

“So if you’re bound and determined to do it, don’t let
any worries about Mother and Daddy stop you. You’ve done your part. It’s my turn to do mine.”

“The question may never arise. But thank you.”

“Anytime.” Becky smiled at Rachel, then returned her attention to the road. Seconds later, she gave her sister a sideways glance. “Rachel?”

“Yes?”

“You
are
sure he is not a psychopathic lady-killer with a Dr. Jekyll–Mr. Hyde complex who likes to turn his women into hamburger, aren’t you?”

Despite Becky’s attempt at levity, Rachel sensed seriousness behind the question.

“I’m sure,” she said quietly.

Becky said nothing more.

When they arrived back at Walnut Grove, Rachel was suddenly, fiercely glad that she hadn’t gone with Johnny after all. Michael’s black Lexus was in the driveway with Michael standing beside it. The girls, with Tilda behind them, swarmed all over their father.

Becky, her eyes fixed on Michael, stopped the Maxima with a jerk worthy of Rachel at her worst. For a moment, a moment only, Becky sat staring out the windshield at her family without saying a word.

“Just looking at him makes me feel sick,” she said. Before Rachel could do anything but glance at her sister with compassion, Becky clamped her lips together and got out of the car.

As soon as she did, Loren and Lisa left Michael and came running toward her. Katie, caught up against Michael’s chest, stayed put.

“Mom, Dad says you two are getting a divorce!” Loren stopped dead in front of Becky to fix her mother with accusing eyes.

“He says that we should enroll in school here because we’re going to be staying with Grandma and Aunt Rachel for a while!” Lisa sounded as upset as Loren.

Rachel, coming around the car to Becky’s side, watched Becky whiten and felt helpless. There was nothing she could do to make this blow easier for either her sister or her nieces to bear.

“Darlings, Dad and I are talking about getting a divorce.” Becky reached out to place a hand on each of her older daughters’ shoulders. “But we haven’t one hundred percent decided yet.” She cast a burningly angry glance at Michael, who was walking toward her with Katie in his arms.

“It’s best to tell them the truth, Becky,” Michael said.

Becky’s lips tightened and her eyes flashed, but after one glaring glance at her husband, she turned her attention back to her daughters.

“At this point, it looks very likely that Dad and I will get a divorce, so we’d probably better go ahead and get you enrolled in school here. That will be fun, won’t it? To stay here with Grandma and Aunt Rachel and go to school right next to where Aunt Rachel teaches?”

“You mean we’re not ever going to go home again?” Loren asked, wide-eyed.

“What about our friends?” Lisa looked on the verge of tears.

“And our toys!”

“And Rumsley!” Rumsley was the girls’ cat, presumably left behind with Michael in the house.

“We’ll get Rumsley, of course. And all your things. And you can still be friends with your friends from home and make new friends here at the same time.” Becky tried desperately to put a positive face on the situation.

“I want to go home!”

“I don’t want you and Dad to get a divorce!”

“Don’t you care about us at all?”

“I hate you!”

Lisa burst into tears and ran for the woods behind the house. Loren started to cry, too, and ran after her sister.

“You handled, that well,” Michael said sarcastically, coming up to Becky and handing her Katie.

Becky stiffened. Rachel bristled on her sister’s behalf, but she bit down hard on her tongue rather than say anything. This was her sister’s life, her sister’s business, and the best thing she could do for Becky was to keep her mouth shut and be there to support her when she needed it.