Twilight (30 page)
It was like a scene from a movie, everything thrown about and smashed. The kitchen was the same, the cupboards stripped, their contents scattered. A search? Would Laurie have trashed her own place? He turned and rushed upstairs. The beds were slashed, the clothing tossed about, closets demolished. He knew already the house was empty, but the cry came from him regardless. “Laurie!”
Only a hint of echo. He dropped his face to his forearm against the doorjamb. Where was she? And why hadn’t she let him help her? He went down to the kitchen where the back door banged in the wind. Probably the exit route, and by the amount of heat still present in the room, it hadn’t been that long.
He heard the sound of sirens and from the window saw Danson and company heading around the corner. With scarcely a moment’s thought, Cal ran out the door and around the side of the house. He laid rubber, just as Danson screeched to a halt and hollered for him to stop.
Cal drove like a madman, watching for them to follow. Either he’d lost them or they didn’t care to give chase. After all, they knew where to find him, and their first concern would be searching Laurie’s house. Of course, his presence and flight would gain importance once Danson ascertained the trashed house was empty.
Careening up to the Suttons’ colonial brick house put Cal in time warp. How many times had he driven defiantly in his old Pontiac to pick Laurie up for the evening? Not as many as he’d have liked, but more than the Suttons could stomach. He took the masonry-tiled walk at a lope and banged on the door.
Marjorie Sutton opened it. She was a thinner, paler version of who she had been, but he recognized the expression. No matter how she aged, she would always wear the same tight, weary expression.
“Is Laurie here?”
She shook her head, surprise and concern betrayed in the eyes. Cal jammed his hands into his pockets. He hadn’t expected her to be, but he’d hoped.
Laurie’s mother stepped back. “Come in.” A command, not an invitation. His presence on her doorstep, where the neighbors might see, must be a greater evil than admitting him into the sanctuary. But he didn’t have time with Danson on his heels; he needed answers fast.
“Please.” Her voice was tight as she waved him inside.
Cal stepped over the threshold just far enough for her to close the door behind him. “Mrs. Sutton, do you know what’s going on?”
She stood stiff backed, hands folded at her waist. “I’m always the last to know. I hadn’t heard she left Brian until she showed up here with the children.” She headed into the living room, leaving Cal no choice but to follow. “As far as I knew they were perfectly happy.”
Cal glanced at the picture she indicated with one hand outstretched. He would have preferred not to see a radiant Laurie draped in lace and pearls. For a moment, he had eyes only for her, the smile emanating from her whole face, the excitement of the moment shining in her eyes as brightly as the sun on the ocean behind her. She had attained everything she wanted.
Then he looked at the man beside her, dark hair, white teeth gleaming. Wide shoulders, broad chest, an athletic stance. It was hard to see past their idyllic happiness to the brutality of what he’d viewed that mor ning. Had Laur ie… ? Anything was possible. She was duplicitous and confused. But that didn’t explain the condition of her house.
He rubbed his palm over his jaw and looked back at Marjorie Sutton. “Laurie’s in trouble.”
“Then it’s your fault.”
Cal swallowed that. He should have known she’d take that tack. It intensified his own suspicions that one misstep would land him in the slammer. And then what good would he be to Laurie? Once Danson made the connection …
“She’s gone, and her place is all torn up.”
Marjor ie Sutton stood unbelieving. This was getting him nowhere. He pulled out a pad, wrote down Mildred’s phone number, then tore off the page and held it out to her. “If you see or hear anything from her, call this number.” He could see by the tightening of the lips she would refuse. “Mrs. Sutton, Brian Prelane is dead. And Laurie’s missing.”
He watched her pale and knew from his training he should have warned her first. He caught her elbow and eased her into a chair. There was no time for more. “Call if you hear anything.”
She nodded numbly. Cal was concerned, but he guessed it would be only minutes before Sergeant Danson would be there to fill her in. Then she could make what she liked of it all. Somehow it would still come out his fault.
H
OW MANY OF OUR DAYDREAMS
WOULD DARKEN INTO NIGHTMARES,
WERE THERE A DANGER OF THEIR COMING TRUE!
Logan Pearsall Smith
C
AL DROVE HOME ON AUTOPILOT. Where was Laurie, and did she really expect him to take her children and hide out when she was in danger? Or was she making her escape? Dumping the kids and skipping town after shooting her husband?
Cal flashed on the shattered face. He felt no satisfaction. It was a wasted life. He puzzled his sympathy for the man who’d taken a bat to him and might have done worse damage if not for Annie on his ankle. It was what he’d seen in their wedding picture, a reflection in Brian’s face of what Cal felt for Laurie—and in that he could pity Brian Prelane. Rob was right. Laurie took everything you had.
The children were in the kitchen with Cissy, but he searched out Mildred in the study. She fixed him with a sharp eye. “The police came looking for you.”
“What did you tell them?”
“That you weren’t here.”
He let out his tight breath, thankful it had been the truth. Not only did he doubt Mildred would lie, but Danson would know it if she tried. “What about the kids?”
“He didn’t ask.”
Again Cal breathed his relief. No doubt Danson assumed Laurie had the children with her, imagined Cal would skip town and meet her somewhere after offing her husband. “I’ll take them to the cabin.”
Across the folding table lined with Christmas cards in neat rows, Mildred eyed him sharply.
He dropped to the wicker chair across from her. “You saw the note. Laurie wants me to hide them, and I can’t argue since she’s missing.”
“Missing?”
“The house is all torn up. There’s no sign of her.” He didn’t reveal the anguish that sight had brought him.
“I’ll call the police.”
“Danson’s already been there.”
Mildred’s thin fingers laced together. “That’s why he’s looking for you.”
“No. Laurie’s husband is dead. Murdered.” Cal jammed his hands into the sides of his hair. “That’s why he’s looking for me.” He half expected her to take up the phone and turn him in.
Instead, she blew through her lips and said, “That tomfool hasn’t the head for the job.”
He looked at her from between his palms.
“Anyone with half a brain would know you don’t have it in you.”
Cal wasn’t sure that was a compliment.
Mildred capped the pen. “My guess is a third party. She was afraid the first time I saw her. I think she brought this trouble with her.”
Cal leaned forward. “I thought it was her husband.”
Mildred snorted. “That was wishful thinking. It’s always easier to believe the other man a monster.”
Cal let that go. After all, it was half true. “I have to get out of here. Did Laurie send things with the children?”
“They have a suitcase by the door. But you won’t get out in your jeep. They’ll be watching the highways.”
“They can’t watch them all. Route double E will be low on their list.”
“You have to take D to get there.”
Cal frowned. Route D was where they’d found both Flip Casey and Brian Prelane. Again he rubbed his jaw.
Mildred stood. “You’ll take the Buick.” She walked to the oak wardrobe beside the bookcase. Reaching up with more agility than Cal would have credited her, she pulled down a hatbox and set it on the table. His suspicion intensified as she lifted the lid to reveal a broad-brimmed bonnet sort of hat with ribbon tie. Mildred’s garden hat.
“They won’t know you in this.”
“I won’t know me in that.”
Again the gimlet stare. “It’s no worse than a wig and nose.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but she went on. “To the country boys staking out the road you’ll be a woman with children in a Buick, not a dangerous lunatic in a jeep.”
He frowned at the word “lunatic,” the first time she’d directly referred to his troubles in pejorative terms.
“Now.” She laid the hat out on the table. “You’ll need food and blankets. That place is a death trap. Your grandfather should have burned it before he died.”
“I’ve caulked it some.”
She snorted. “Not a word to Cissy. She’ll be sick with worry. It’ll send her to bed.”
“She doesn’t know already?”
Mildred shook her head. “I handled the police. She was in the kitchen with the children.”
Cal bobbed his head once. “I think she’ll notice they’re gone.” Mildred glared. “She can know you’re at the cabin, but nothing more.”
“Mildred, I can’t just stay at the cabin.” He almost blurted out his intention to search for Laurie. “I’m supposed to be on active duty.” Mildred turned and fixed him with a stare that said about bloody time, but she didn’t voice her thoughts. “You think you can just go in to work with the Lone Ranger on your trail? The minute you’re spotted he’ll haul you in, active duty or not. He was redder than a turkey jowl.”
Cal slumped. It was true. But
someone
had trashed Laurie’s place. Brian? Had he gone on a rampage and threatened Laurie? Had she killed him in self-defense? Or was there someone else? Someone Laurie feared enough to give him her children to protect. “Listen, Mildred. Something’s happened to Laurie.” He knew it. Inside he knew she needed him.
You have to believe that, don’t you?
All right, so he had a hero complex. He needed to believe he could help her. Maybe he was the only one who could.
Mildred sighed. “Right now your responsibility is to the children. Give the sergeant time to come to his senses. Maybe he’ll find Laurie for you. Now you better get packed. You’ll wait until eleven-thirty, then go. It’s women’s auxiliary luncheon today. If there’s anyone watching the yard they’ll—”
“Think I’m you.”
“Exactly.”
Cal could say nothing that expressed how he felt about that. He released a slow breath. It was actually good to be ordered about. Especially as his brain was turning to mud. And Mildred was right. Before anything else, he had to see the children safely away. He started for the door.
“Calvert.”
Wincing, Cal turned to find her holding out the hat. With a sigh, he carried it upstairs to wait out the time, knowing every minute would pass like hours. But there was no sense rushing off half-cocked. That’s what Danson would expect, and he’d be watching for it. For a moment he wished he’d just told Danson everything he knew from the start. But where would that leave Laurie?
He paused at the stairs, heard Maddie’s laugh waft up to him from the kitchen. He’d leave her and Luke with Cissy until the last possible moment. After that they’d be stuck with him.
There was nothing Laurie could do but yield to the Mustang and pull off to the side. The Firebird had not turned up, but she clearly saw Dieter and the other man in the Mustang as they edged her closer to the shoulder. Grimly Laurie brought her Lexus to a stop. She glared at Dieter as she held the button that lowered her window.
He didn’t smile this time. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I told you I had to get it. Where’s Brian?” She searched the Mustang for his face, but it was only Dieter and the Latino.
Dieter’s eyes were ice, glacial blue. The skin pulled tightly over his cheekbones as his lips parted for his ruined voice. “Dead.”
The word hung on the cold air, a non-word, a senseless sound, something she couldn’t comprehend. And then the letters reformed, came together with meaning, terrible meaning. Brian was dead? They’d killed him?
“Get out of the car.”
Fear coursed through her. Fear and a terrible sense of failure.
All the while he drove, Cal fretted. Aside from feeling a complete fool in the hat, his thoughts and emotions were too jumbled to make sense of. Had Laurie killed Brian and skipped town? Was it Brian who broke her window and demolished her home? Was she defending herself by killing him? Then the deed would have happened at the house. Unless he took her, forced her into the car, didn’t know she had a gun …