All Roads Lead Home (Bellingwood) (35 page)

"I know that, but it's just wrong! He can't live
that way and be healthy."

Aaron rolled his eyes. "Well, it looks like my
wife has a new project."

He continued, "Before you go off your rocker,
dear, you have to let me talk to him first and make sure he hasn't done
anything wrong with all this stuff he's got laying around. If Sylvie thinks he
took the coat out of her locker, he could still be taking things from people."

"Oh, you know better than that,” she challenged. “
She knew
it
wasn’t lost, but
who knows if she didn't
leave it on a bleacher or in a chair in one of the classrooms. Maybe she went
back to get it and it was gone. That wasn't really stealing, now was
it?
And it was
twenty years ago. It was a non-event in her life and you can't turn it into a
big event now."

"Well," said Aaron to Polly, "I guess
this is my fault. I asked for it and I got it. I can almost guarantee that by
Easter of next year, poor old Doug Leon will be living in an immaculate
apartment and will somehow find himself participating in social events all over
town.
Poor old guy."

Polly laughed with him, "And he'll love it or
else, won't he!"

"Well!" Lydia
said, scowling at both of them
. "We'll
see, won't
we!
"

"
I am
curious
, though,
about the coat and t-shirt that don't fit the
timeline," Polly said.

"So are we. DCI is doing their job and they'll
let us know when and if they have something. I su
spect we'll know more midweek and
I'll
be sure to let you know what I can." Aaron replied.

After dinner, they cleaned up the kitchen and Aaron
went downstairs to turn on the television. Polly and Lydia followed him down
and before too long, Polly found herself nodding off in the big sofa. She
jolted awake when Lydia said, "You know, the bed upstairs is much more
comfortable."

"What?" Polly said, looking around,
"Oh. Sorry."

She and Lydia were alone. "Aaron has already gone
to bed. Let's you and I go upstairs and find p
illows for our heads, alright?"
Lydia turned off the television and followed
Polly up to the second floor. "Goodnight dear. I
do enjoy having you here. It's like a party every time you show up."

Polly sighed,
"I'm
ready to have real parties and not nights out because people might be
threatening my life."

"We take what we've been given, dear. And I'm
glad I've been given a little time with you. Good night,
dear
. Sleep
well."

Polly opened the door to the room she had used before,
saw her bag at the foot of the bed, went into the bathroom to wash her face and
teeth, pulled her clothes off and
put
a nightshirt on. When she crawled under the blankets,
she remembered that she had immediately fallen asleep the last time she had
been in the bed. That was the last thing that crossed her mind until the next
morning.

Polly pulled into the parking lot of the school and
sat for a moment in her truck
leaning
her head back and wonder
ing
when it was
going to get normal again. When would she be able to go home by herself and
soak in a long shower or put her feet up and read a book or stretch out and
watch television or sit in front of the computer for a couple of hours doing
mindless reading? She felt a little tired of having to rely on other people to
take care of her
and
wanted to let everyone get back to their normal lives
so she could get back to hers.

Aaron hadn't heard anything about Joey this morning
before she left their house and she assumed he had probably hit the road and
run. Now that he had another assault in his back pocket, sticking around would
be stupid
and she
didn't think he was stupid. She sighed, reached over
and grabbed her overnight bag and got out. The
gravel and grass was still scuffed up from the activity last night as
she walked to the front door. Putting her key in the lock, she opened it and
went inside
, being
careful
to
relock
the door behind her. A quick
shower and maybe another nap would help get her head back together before Lydia
picked her up to go down and see Doug in the hospital.

She shook her head.
Stupid kids.
They should have run away. She wouldn't have cared
what Joey did to this place as long as they were alright. She dropped her keys
on the newel post and walked upstairs to her room. The mess he'd made of that
room was enough to make her want to cry last night, but
she had
time
today to get it all back in order.

Polly opened the door to her room and dropped her bag
on the floor in surprise.

"What in the hell are you doing here?"
she asked.
Joey
was sitting at the end of her bed. Everything had been
straightened up, t
he
bed was made and her suitcase
was packed
with her clothes.

"It's time to go, Polly. I'm not going to put up
with any more of your protestations." He stood up, took the suitcase in
one hand and grabbed her arm with the other.

She wrenched away from him. "I'm not going
anywhere with you." She fumbled in her purse for her phone and he knocked
it to the floor.

"Polly, I have been more than patient with you. But,
finding two young men in your house last night was more than even I could
tolerate. You have got to stop having all these relationships with other men. You
know how jealous I can be and yet you continue to test me."

"You ass," she said. "Those boys are
ten years younger than me and they've been staying downstairs because someone
tried to break in. I would never do anything stupid with them. But, that
doesn't make any difference," she went on. "This is absolutely crazy.
I'm not going with you."

"I was afraid you were going to be stubborn about
this." He pulled a small gun out of his jacket pocket. "You see, I
knew that eventually you were going to force me to do something rash. I guess
we're at that point now. Pick up your purse
and
your bag. W
e're leaving."

Polly didn't know wh
at else to do so she obeyed him, scooping her phone into her purse as
she bent over to grab the overnight bag.

"Now, we're goi
ng out to your truck. Move it,” he demanded.

She walked down the stairs and he snatched her keys
off the post.

"You'll drive," he said. "Now get in
the truck."

He took her purse and bag from her and tossed them in
behind the front seat. They both got in and she said, "Well, where are we
going?"

"They might expect us to head east. We're going
to Kansas City
,
instead,
by way of Omaha. Now, drive
."

He handed
her
the keys and she turned them in the ignition
.

"
Don't do
anything foolish, Polly,” he said. “
Head
over to Highway 17 and go south. We're not going through Boone. We're not going
to go anywhere near your precious little friends. There's no one now who will
stop me from making you my wife."

"Bet me," she said
under her breath
,
but decided that it wasn't yet time for
her to escalate the situation, so she asked
"
How did you get in the school?"

"Oh you all are so trusting with your stuff. I
don't know how you got so
lazy and stupid
. It must be from breathing all this pig crap out
here. You had extra keys in your purse, so I took one of
those
yesterday morning.

“After all the activity last night, I knew you'd run
away from this place, so I came back, unlocked the door and made myself at
home. You had a pretty nice thing going
there,
it's too bad
you won't be able to finish it. But, I promise that if what you want is a
building to renovate, I'll find one in Boston and we'll work on it together. Just
think of all the fun we could have. You could do all of your fun little things
and I might open up a learning center. Maybe even a museum. I could bring in
some artifacts and hire people to spend time deciphering them. We could do
everything together and it
would be a
wonderful life. We’d even
build an
apartment so our children would grow up in the middle of all of the excitement.
That's what you want, isn't it
,
baby?"

Polly ignored his comment and asked, “So, what
happened after Billy chased you off." She turned and glanced at him,
"Do you know you put that poor boy in the hospital? T
his is
another
assault charge for you!
When Sheriff
Merritt gets his hands on you, he's going to make sure you don't come up to
breathe for a very long time."

"He's not going to catch me, Polly. We'll be long
gone before he knows what has happened. And besides, if they were to find me,
I'd claim self-defense. I was protecting the property of my wife. How
was I to know those boys
weren't there to hurt you and destroy everything. They
had weapons and it seems they weren't afraid to use them." He rubbed the
side of his head, then curled his upper lip, "In fact, I might even press
charges against the one who hit me. That was assault with a deadly weapon, you
know."

"That's crap, Joey. You attacked them and you
know it."

"I was only protecting what was rightfully mine,
Polly. If you would simply stop protesting against our love and agree I am
right about us, everything would be okay. I don't want to have to hurt anybody,
but if they're trying to take you away from me, I have to stop that. It's not
right and I can't allow it."

Polly
breathed
out
. She knew better than to expect
lucidity from him at this point.

"Alright then, where did you go last night
when you ran away from the school
?"

"Oh, Polly, these hicks out here are so easy. I
parked my car in an abandoned barn down the road. Doesn't anyone ever lock
anything? I drove in and there was no one around.
Miles and
miles of emptiness.
I can't
believe
there isn't more crime out here,”
he shook his head in disgust, then continued,
"I started walking back into town, and this farmer in an old pickup
truck pulled over and asked if I needed a ride. He was going up to Webster City
and was more than happy to drop me off at the convenience store on the highway.
Stupid man thought he was doing some great favor for a poor boy heading into
town to see his mama. I spun quite the yarn for him about how I'd come in to
Boone from North Dakota on the bus and that my mama was too sick to come down
to get me, so I decided to walk home. He asked me a couple of questions about
where she lived and since this town is so ignorant and names its streets after
presidents and trees, it was easy to make something up. The old man drove off
feeling like he'd been a Good Samaritan. I'll bet he went back to his house and
told everybody there about what a wonderful thing he'd done.

"I saw all the flashing lights over here and
figured that
the s
heriff was here. Has he been making passes at you too,
Polly? He shouldn't do that. He's supposed to represent safety to his
constituents and his wife would be upset if she knew he was messing around with
you."

"Joey, that's sick. He and his wife are friends
of mine.
Both of them.
And he would never do anything like that. He has
honor
that you will never understand." she retorted.