All Roads Lead Home (Bellingwood) (15 page)

"I thought since we had company, it would be a
good idea to impress her with my prompt arrival."

"Honey, you're always prompt, we just had to
figure out what time you would start your day."

"Okay, I know," he replied. "I woke up
and started thinking about the Stevens girls and couldn't go back to sleep
after you vacated the bed. Your side got cold and my toes didn't like it much,
so my brain clicked on. I couldn't turn it back off."

Lydia pulled muffins out of the oven and set the pan
on a rack to cool. She checked the timer on a second oven and, slicing a loaf
of bread, dropped two pieces in a toaster. Then, she pulled a glass container
of orange juice
out of the refrigerator
and
asked Polly
, "Would you like some?"

Polly shook her head and said, "No thank you."

Lydia poured juice into two of the glasses she had
sitting beside the refrigerator and put one in front of Aaron and the second at
the empty space.

"What were you processing on about the case,
Aaron?"
Lydia asked.

"Was there
any
time during those years
that
the school was closed up
long enough for someone to work on the ceiling? That would have taken some
work. He would have had to get supplies and haul everything in, then work
without discovery. I thought the custodians or someone was always in the
building."

Lydia said, "I don't honestly know. As soon as
school was out for the summer, I was gone. They could have held bonfires on the
playground and danced naked around them
and
I would never have known.

"Doug Leon is still around town. He was one of
the custodians when I was there. In fact, I think they even interviewed him at
the time, but he didn't have any motive. And now, he's an old, lonely guy. You
should probably talk to him about when the
school
building was closed up."

Lydia thought about it for a moment.

"You know, I was one of the weird ones who left
school behind when I was done in May every year. There were a lot of kids who
had to go to summer school and others were hired by the school to do yard work.
I think there were even a few hired to wash windows those summers. Andy helped
out with a couple of tutoring and day care experiences for the younger kids,
but I don't know if she worked at the elementary or the high school. You'd have
to ask her."

She
paused and
thought again, then said
, "How in
the world are we supposed to remember things from forty years ago?"

The timer on the oven chimed and she pulled out a
breakfast casserole. Aaron grinned at Polly. "I never get fed like this
unless someone is here. She makes me suffer with oatmeal or toast."

Polly shook her head and laughed at him. "You
look quite deprived."

"Doesn't he though? His mouth tells you he's a
terribly abused man. His eyes tell you he is easily amused by himself."
Lydia chuckled as she cut the casserole and brought it to the table. She went
back to the counter to get the muffins and brought those over.

Polly felt her phone buzz in her back pocket and
pulled it out. "Geez, it's not even seven o'clock here. Who's calling me?"

She stepped out of the kitchen into the living room
and said, "Hello?"

She heard Joey's voice on the other end. "Polly?
Did I finally find you?"

"Hello, Joey." Her voice lost its luster. "How
did you find me?"

"Oh, I badgered
Janet
until she finally gave me
your new number. Why haven't you contacted me? It's been six months. I've been
worried sick."

"I'm sorry, Joey. I've been busy and are you
kidding me, we broke up. It didn't occur to me you would want to, much less
need to know my new number."

"I can't believe you did this to me, Polly! This
isn't like you at all. It's like you dropped off the face of the earth."

"Joey, I'm in the middle of breakfast with some
friends."

"Is it a new boyfriend? Is that why you left me? Did
someone tell you he was better than me?
Because I've been
working on it, Polly.
I've been
seeing a counselor and taking the anger management classes like I promised."

"Joey, there is no one else. I'm glad you're
doing better. But, I have to go now. I will call you later when I have time."

"No, Polly. Don't go! I want to talk to you for a
minute and tell you how much I miss you and how I know that I screwed up badly.
Dick says I've come a long way since last February. I'm a whole new person."

Polly took a breath,
"Joey. I have to go. I said I would call you later and I will. Good-bye."

She cut him off when she ended the call, then walked
back into the kitchen and sat down. She felt sick.

Lydia put her hand out and touched Polly's arm. "Are
you alright, dear? We couldn't help but overhear."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for you to have
to hear my garbage. You've got enough going on. I'm alright. It's
just
something I
thought I put behind me."

"What we have going on or not going on doesn't
make a difference right now. You've got this going on. Are you alright?" Aaron's
concerned eyes made Polly's lip quiver and before she knew it, she was crying.

"I'm sorry," she said again. “
It's been a weird year and I hoped when I moved back
to Iowa, some of the weirdness would stay in Boston. But, he found me and I'm
pretty sure he's going to make it weird all over again. He called last night
and I missed those calls. I saw them before I went to bed, but hoped it was
someone else. I didn't have the energy to even look. And now, he has found me."

"Polly," Lydia said, nodding to her husband,
"He's the sheriff. We can help. Did this guy hurt you?"

Polly looked at them, startled.
"Oh
no!
Not me. I'd kick his
ass." Lydia chuckled and Aaron snorted with laughter.

"Of course you would, dear," Lydia said. "So,
what's wrong?"

"Well, it wasn't me. Joey was ... is ... quite
jealous. At first it was sweet. He kind of swept me off my feet. He didn't want
anyone else looking at me or taking care of me. He swooped in and did
everything for me.

"Then, after a few weeks, it got bad. I couldn't
talk to a taxi driver or
a
doorman without him
asking what
was going on. I told
him he couldn't harass me about the men who were at the library. It
was my job to help anyone who was there. I tried
breaking up with him a couple of times, but he always promised
he would be good
."

She looked at the two of them. "Oh, I know now
that is classic victim talk. But, damn, he was hot and he was sweet to me.

"One night we were in a club to hear one of my
favorite bands. I left the table to go to the bathroom and somehow I tripped. A
guy on the dance floor caught me before I hit the ground, then when he pulled
me back up; he spoke into my ear asking if I was okay. He had to get that close
because the music was so loud. Well, Joey had a little too much to drink. He'd
never done anything completely stupid before, but that night, he attacked the
guy and beat the hell out of him. Security broke it up and called the police. The
guy pressed charges and Joey was in jail for the rest of the weekend until I
could get him bailed out on Monday.

"I was so pissed off. But, he calmed me down. I
stuck around through his trial and then he had to serve thirty days. Part of
his sentence was
taking an anger
management class along with seeing
a
counselor. As long as he was doing something positive, I was fine with staying
with him. I thought I loved him.

"Then, one day, he showed up at the library. One
of my regulars stopped me in the aisle to thank me for recommending a book. He
was kind of cute and we laughed about something. I was supposed to meet Joey
for lunch at a cafe down the street, but didn't know he had come
in
to the
Library. The guy left and Joey stopped him outside and threatened him, shoving
him up against the building.

"I walked out to go to lunch and saw the whole
thing happen. I pulled Joey off, apologized to the guy and then the two of us
went to the cafe. He admitted he'd quit going to counseling and the anger
management class had ended. I broke up with him. I was done. I told him I had
taken it for long enough and that he and I saw the world differently.
Then
I told him
if he ever tried anything again, I would contact the police myself.

"He was like a hurt puppy. He sat there and
cried. He begged and begged, promising he'd fix it. Finally, I got up and
walked out.

"I called my boss and took the rest of the day
off, called a locksmith, who met me at my brownstone, changed the locks and
changed my telephone number. There were a couple of nights I was pretty sure he
was outside my house. I found flowers the next morning. He sent me long
letters, pleading with me to come back. I ignored it all.

"One day, my boss called me in and asked if I was
doing alright. She told me I had lost weight and looked miserable. I went into
the bathroom and took a long look at myself in the mirror. I decided I didn't
have to live like that, so I went home, figured out what was important; decided
my life was important and I had enough money to start dreaming big. I quit my
job, packed my stuff, put it on a truck to Iowa, rented an apartment in Ames
and left town. I
gave
my phone number and address
to
my boss and
it sounds like Joey
convinced
one of
my
coworkers
into finding it.

While Polly
told
her story
, Lydia had placed a section of
breakfast casserole on her plate and had opened a blueberry muffin and spread
butter on it. She picked Polly's fork up and put it into her left hand. "Eat
something. I promise it will help."

Polly giggled, "You sound like my Grandmother
Giller! Food fixed everything for her. There was never a time we were at her
house when there wasn't food being cooked or cleaned up. She annoyed my mother
so much because Mom always felt like she had to be in there helping and she
hated being stuck in the kitchen while there were other things going on."

Polly looked at the fork in her hand and took a bite.

"Oh, that's good. You're right. I don't need to
think about him while I've got all this other stuff going on." She
broke
off
a piece of the muffin. "I wish it were that
easy. I've kept pushing him to the back of my mind for so long, I think I
believed it was behind me and he would forget me. I can't believe this is going
to start all over again." She dropped the food back onto her plate.

"It's not going to start all over again, is it
Aaron?" Lydia said.

Aaron looked up from his plate. "Polly, we can do
a lot of things to protect you. The first thing you can do is contact your cell
provider and block his phone number."

"Oh, that won't do any good. He goes through cell
phones all the time. He'll get another one. I suppose I could get another
number. It doesn't matter for the Library any longer. I'm done with everything
there
now."

"I tell you what. Why don't you and Lydia head
over to Boone for another phone. I'll take yours and will manage your calls
today. As soon as you get a number, let me know and I'll forward the local
calls to you. Anything coming in from Massachusetts, I'll answer." Aaron
said.

Lydia chuckled, "Well, that ought to scare the
poor kid to death." She mimicked answering a phone using a deep voice,
"Polly
Giller's
phone, this is Sheriff Merritt. Can I help you?"

Polly giggled along with her and whether it was from
nerves or relief, she began laughing so hard tears streamed down her face. Lydia
joined her and soon the two of them could barely breathe. Every time either one
of them could gasp in enough air to
speak,
they spoke
in deep tones, "Sheriff
Merrit
," and
burst into laughter again.

Aaron looked at them helplessly. Then, shook his head
and ate his muffin. With a few big gasps, the two women stopped laughing and
held on to their sides.

"Oh, that was painful," cried Polly.

"I haven't done that in years," Lydia
agreed
, still
bubbling out a few giggles
.

"You two are a little scary. I was afraid I might
have to call for help!" Aaron admonished.

"Yeah.
You look terribly frightened with your mouth full of
muffin." Lydia said.

"I was a little scared. But, as long as you
weren't turning blue, I knew I could wait."
He stood up from his chair,
taking one last drink of coffee.
"Since I got such a nice, early start, I am going
to head over to the schoolhouse before heading into Boone. Stay in touch with
me today, okay?"