Somewhere in His Arms (71 page)

             
“Hey!” Lucy said, slightly offended. “I heard that!”

             
“Sorry, lassie,” Pat said ruefully. “But you’re family. That doesn’t apply to you.”

             
“Oh well, I suppose I should take that as a complement… I guess.” She busied herself with mashing potatoes for a shepherd’s pie. Lucy peered into the living room, where the men aside from Gavin, were gathered amongst piles of phone and credit card records, searching for anything that might be deemed as suspicious. “Find anything?”

             
Alec was highlighting several phone numbers that were traced to a motel in Tucson. Pat poured over credit card purchases made two weeks after Rudy’s disappearance. Some of the purchases were for food and gas out of state, but one purchase had him over a barrel. When he called the number, the credit card company had informed him it had come from a sporting goods store in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Now, what would the old boy be doing all the way out there?

             
“Nothing yet!” Alec fibbed and gulped when his wife narrowed her eyes in suspicion. But she said nothing and went back to mashing potatoes. He lowered his voice and said to Pat, “What do you think?”

             
“I think the old boy bit off more than he could chew.”

             
“How do you want to handle it?”

             
“I’ll let you know in the morning,” Pat whispered back and flashed an innocent smile at his daughter-in-law, who was eying the both of them like the co-conspirators that they were. “Is supper ready yet?”

             
“It’ll be about an hour.” She tucked the baking dish into the oven and practically slammed the door.
Who did they think they were fooling?
They’d have to get up pretty early in the morning to pull one over on her. “But I’m sure you boys can find something to…amuse yourselves.”  Lucy flounced out of the kitchen and went to see what Gavin was up to. At least he didn’t try to shut you out.

             
Alec winced. “She knows!”

             
“Of course she does.”

             
“Well?”

             
“Well what?”

             
“What are you going to do about it?”

             
Pat tucked the sheaf of paper on the table into a folder and set it aside. Then he picked up the remote and started channel surfing. He glanced at Alec, who was giving him the evil eye. “Relax, laddie!” he soothed. “You let your old dad handle this.” His meaty fingers finally settled on a sports channel. “Look,” he said, with a nod towards the screen, “Rooney’s gonna make it this time!” He rose up and cheered as the young man scored a goal and the stadium roared in agreement. But when he looked back at Alec, he was gone.

* * *

             
“I still don’t see why I can’t go with you,” Lucy grumbled as they stowed their gear into the small camper that Alec had rented for the cross-country trip. He and Pat had decided that the best thing to do was disguise themselves as a couple of blokes on a fishing holiday and retrace Rudy’s steps, starting in Arizona.

             
“Because I said so, that’s why!” her husband replied firmly and tossed a fishing rod on top of the tent they’d decided to bring; just in case they had to rough it.
              “And you’re going to have time to catch a few fishies while you’re playing Columbo?”

             
Alec turned towards his wife, who had decided to be disagreeable this cold November morning. He went to her and tried to take her in his arms, but she wasn’t having it. She’d crossed her arms over her chest and seemed to be questioning his sanity by the way she was glaring at him. “Come on, love, “ he cajoled,  “don’t be like that. I need you here in case something turns up.”

             
“That’s
not
why!” she cried, and looked close to tears. “I wouldn’t get in the way.”

             
He decided to risk bodily injury and wrapped his arms around her. “I know you wouldn’t, but I’ll feel better knowing you’re here in case things get hairy.”

             
“Oh?” She wouldn’t look at him and busied herself with studying the zipper on his jacket.  “You know more than you’re letting on.”

             
“Perhaps,” he murmured and tilted her chin up. “Look at me, Lucy.”

             
“No.” Her lower lip began trembling.

             
“Please,” he said hoarsely and touched his lips to her brow. The scar was just now beginning to fade.

             
Lucy finally glanced up and saw his eyes were just as watery and she uncrossed her arms and flung them around him, hugging him tightly to her as if she would never see him again.  “It’s just…I’ll miss you, English.”

             
His arms tightened around her as he said huskily, “I wish you’d been there to send me off to Afghanistan.”

             
She tried to laugh, but it came out as a wet croak. Lucy pressed her face into his chest, inhaling in his signature scent of aftershave and fabric softener. “Be glad I wasn’t,” she joked. “They would have had to sedate me and cart me off the tarmac.”

             
“I wouldn’t have minded.” Alec rubbed soothing circles against her back. “If it makes you feel any better, I won’t be able to sleep a wink.”

             
“That’s a sweet thing to say.”

             
“Not really,” he chuckled, and tilted her chin up to kiss her mouth. “Pat snores.”

             
“Oh, you!” she laughed and punched his arm playfully. Lucy sobered slightly and peered up at her husband, reaching up with trembling fingers to smooth his roughened cheeks. His blue eyes gleamed mischievously at her, and she was suddenly reminded of the fact she would have to sleep alone tonight.  “I’ll have to sleep with the lights on.”

             
“And I’ll have to sleep with a pillow over me head!” He laughed and made a face.

             
“It can’t be that bad!”

             
“Oh no? Ever hear a C-5 Galaxy on takeoff?”

             
“No.”

             
“Well, combine that with the sound of an angry rhinoceros and you get Pat sleeping.”

             
“You’re being facetious.”

             
“I’m not!” he said, shaking his head and glancing up to see Pat stomping out of the house; his arms full of boxes of crackers and his prized Wensleydale. “Got enough cheese, dad?” he quipped, as his stepfather struggled to load the stuff into the camper.

             
“Don’t ye start, laddie!” Pat growled. “I got enough of a lecture from yer brother!” he nodded towards the house where Gavin emerged, struggling with the sleeping bags and chairs they’d elected to bring.

             
Gavin came up huffing and puffing and flung the things onto the heap of stuff already piled in the camper. “Gee, dad,” he grumbled, “I’m so glad you didn’t want to put your back out.”

             
Pat roared with laughter and slapped Gavin on the back. “You need some exercise, laddie! Look at you!”

             
Gavin rolled his eyes. “I’m in better shape than you, you old bear! Wait till mum finds out what you’ve been up to.”

             
“And who’s going to tell ‘er?”

             
“I don’t know.” Gavin shrugged with a decidedly innocent look on his handsome face. “Maybe someone who doesn’t like getting up at the crack of dawn will tell her all about your little affair!”

             
“What affair?” Pat blustered, as his ruddy cheeks took on the color of enraged beets. “I’ve never so much as looked cross-eyed at another woman!”

             
“Who said anything about women?” Gavin said maliciously. “I’m talking about
the
cheese!”

             
They all burst out laughing at this and Pat grabbed his youngest and put him in a playful headlock. “You’re not too old to put over me knee, laddie!”

             
“Aw, dad!” Gavin protested, pushing at Pat’s enormous arms. “She’ll find out sooner or later, won’t she Alec?”

             
“Sure,” his brother drawled. “Wait till she sees him being rolled off the runway. How many stone
have
you gained, dad?”

             
Pat ignored the question as he let Gavin go and turned to Alec. He took something from his pocket and gave it to Lucy. “Take this, lassie.”

             
She took the small key and turned it over in her hand. “What’s this?”

             
“We want you and Gavin to go up to the house and stay there while we sort things out.”

             
Lucy peered up at her husband, who nodded his agreement. “Why? You don’t think it’s safe here?”

             
Alec curled her fingers around the metal. “I’ll feel better knowing you’re up there. It’s too isolated here.” He glanced around. It was a miserably overcast day with chilly, damp winds, and the ocean a capricious shade of dull ash. “I want you around lots of people.”

             
“We could stay at Rudy’s,” she offered, not seeing the logic at having to go all that way. “He just had that new security system installed.”

             
Alec frowned at his wife. “But I thought you didn’t want to go back there.”

             
She shrugged. “I’ll never be comfortable there, but at least he tried to make it like Fort Knox.”

             
Pat was adamant. “No, lassie. You and Gavin head on up there and stay put till we get back. That’s an order!” He reached into his coat pocket and produced two plane tickets. “Here,” he said, handing them to her. “You fly out tomorrow and drive up to me place. I stocked the kitchen and put in a new tub.”

             
She glanced at the tickets. First-class. Pat didn’t mess around. “Okay,” she relented finally and handed Gavin his ticket. “How long should we figure on staying?”

             
“Until you get a call from us saying it’s all clear, I guess,” Alec said, tucking a stray lock of her hair behind her ear. He was loath to leave her, but he knew she could take care of herself. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. “I left something for you under the bed.” Her eyes widened, but she nodded and walked him to the passenger side of the camper. Alec held her close and kissed her wildly and then set her from him and climbed up into his seat. “Don’t talk to anyone!” he instructed as Pat slid in beside him.

             
Lucy joined Gavin on the other side of the vehicle as Pat started the engine. He slid a brotherly arm around her shoulders and hugged her close. “Don’t worry, sis,” he said, his voice catching a little. “They know what they’re doing.”

             
Tears filled her eyes and her fingers touched her lips where they still tingled from her husband’s kiss. She watched with a heavy heart as Pat maneuvered the camper out of the driveway and onto the road. They waved at them until the back of the camper became a tiny dot in the distance. Then they were alone in the morning chill, the wind shrieking about them as if mocking their grief.  “Want to get breakfast?” Lucy asked her brother-in-law, not wanting to go back to the empty house just yet.

             
He smiled down at her, and Lucy was startled at how much he resembled Alec at that moment. “Only if you’re buying.”

             
She groaned and rolled her eyes at him. “Sure, just try and leave some pancakes for me.”

              They drove to a local pancake house and stuffed themselves until they were close to bursting. Lucy was astounded at the amount of food Gavin tucked away. She hadn’t had much of an appetite but forced herself to down the pancakes and scrambled eggs, knowing Alec would want her to eat. She finished her meal with a cup of tea and sipped while Gavin moved on to his third stack.

             
Lucy studied him while he munched happily away. He seemed to have recovered nicely since that awful night. His shoulder had healed, and he spent his days catching up on the ten years he’d lost. Though only twenty-four, he acted more like an adolescent, staying up at all hours of the night playing video games, and sleeping all day. She was of the mind that he was depressed. And he hadn’t wanted to leave the house. He seemed afraid that Harvey would somehow track him down and drag him back to his old life.

             
“Have you heard from Connie?” she ventured instead. He’d talk when he was ready.

             
He forked a huge mouthful of pancakes and bacon into his mouth and chewed. After he’d washed it down with milk, he answered: “I got a letter from her a few days ago. She’s in one of those shelters.”