Approaching Menace (16 page)

“Oh, she needed to go back to work. I’m just sitting around, playing with my football guys.”

“She went to work!” Josie was on her feet. “You’re alone this late?”

Colin sniffled. He’d been crying. “They needed her. She said she won’t be too long.”

“How long has she been gone?”

“I don’t know, maybe a couple of hours.”

“Oh Colin.” That child by himself all this time? Josie darted to grab her purse and then remembered. She didn’t have a car.

“But it’s okay, Josie. I’m not a baby you know.”

Her mind rummaged. Could she get home faster with Andrew or a taxi? “I was about to come back anyway.” She attempted to sound playful. “So you’d better not have a big mess in that den when I get there, you hear?”

Relief bled into his sigh. “Or what’ll you do?”

“Or you will witness your big sister’s fury.” She slipped on her shoes without her hosiery.

He gave a small laugh. “Right.”

“I’ll be there soon.” Immediately would not be soon enough. “You run around the den and clean up now.”

“Okay, I’m gonna run.” He hung up.

She dialed Andrew’s cell phone. “Come on. Come on,” she said while the ringing sounded.

“This is Andrew.”

“I need to get home.”

The minutes it took for him to arrive felt like hours to Josie, but at least he’d fixed her car. A light shower sprinkled them on Andrew’s motorcycle, adding to the chill she already felt. He dropped her off and waited until she had her car going.

She told him not to come inside since it was so late and Colin wouldn’t like both of them checking on him, but Andrew followed to her house. When Josie turned into her driveway, he continued down the street.

Every light was on in the house.

“Why’d you come back so soon?” Colin asked when she burst inside, his voice expressing his relief at seeing her. He sat on the den floor, pretending to feel secure with small football men.

“I just got tired of Andrew.”

The child glanced up with a grin.

“You know how he is.” She shed her pumps on the floor. “Aggravating, a big old pest.”

“Yeah.” Colin wasn’t paying attention to the comedy on television but had it full blast. The noise surely was to drown out any sounds that might frighten him. And if any bad guys were near, they might believe many people were in here.

Josie lowered the volume.

Immediately a scraping sounded. It seemed to come from the kitchen or just beyond, making her focus on listening.

Colin, looking weary, made a football player jump. The plastic man came down on Josie’s foot. “Gotcha!” Colin said, making his toy tap her toes.

She pretended it hurt. Stopping her intensified concentration on trying to hear phantom noises, she told herself the hour was late, and, like Colin, she was believing someone might try to break in and get her.

“So you think you’re tough?” Sitting on the floor, she used another athlete to knock Colin’s player off her foot. “Take that.”

“Uh uh, you take that.” He made his football guy stomp Josie’s.

“You know who’s tough?” She lifted her player high off the floor. “Johan.”

Colin scrunched his nose. “Johan?”

“Yeah, he eats raw meat.”

“Ugh.” Colin caught his throat and made gasping sounds.

“You’d better start listening to your sister,” Josie said in mock warning, “or that’s what I might start feeding
you
.”

He sat still, making faces of protest.

She did hear something near the kitchen.

“No way, Jose!” Her brother shook his head. “You won’t feed me any raw meat.”

“You never can tell.” She disregarded the kitchen sound as the icemaker dumping cubes. The noise had grown louder and abruptly stopped. “I might start slipping uncooked meat in your orange juice.”

“Raw meat in orange juice, double yuk.” Colin clenched his throat with both hands, and Josie saw at the window that headlights were coming down their driveway.

“You’d never catch me eating that gross stuff,” Colin said with finality.

Josie heard a door shut.

Scrambling to the recliner, Colin stood on it, reaching for the dialysis machine. “Help, Fred! She’s grossing me out.”

“Who’s grossing you out?” Sylvie came from the kitchen. She eyed Colin standing on the furniture and kissed him.

He pointed to Josie. “Her.”

“Not me.” She shrugged innocence.

Sylvie kissed Josie’s cheek. “Good, and see that you don’t.” She sat beside Colin, slipped a shoe off, and rubbed her foot. In the same moment, her gaze strayed to the sofa. Sylvie rose, hobbled there, and straightened a pillow. She plucked up a dark thread and placed it in her jacket pocket.

“You look worn out,” Josie said.

Their mother sat again. “We never stopped. Two people called in sick, and the store was swamped with the sale so they called me. These new shoes pinched my toes, and we never slowed down. You know how it is, Josie.”

Sure, everyone needs a new diamond now and then
.

Sylvie picked a piece of grass off her shoe. Colin’s attention returned to his small athletes, and Josie said she was going to bed. “We won’t be long either,” Sylvie told her.

Josie paused to glance in the kitchen. The uneasiness that came over her made her scalp tingle. The noise she’d heard had
not
been ice dumping. What had made those sounds only seconds before Sylvie pulled in?

* * *

In the morning Josie still felt ill at ease. She checked outside the wooden kitchen door. Near the latch, she found scratches.

Somebody had been out there trying to break in.

She trembled. Reasoning came as she studied the small scratches. Her father had broken into their house back in Nashville. Whenever he returned, if nobody was home, he scraped the door like this while he jimmied the lock.

He could have made these marks while he was still living here. Or maybe he’d come back yesterday and tried to get in.

Josie had too many jumbled feelings to try to sort them all out. She hurried to the store and rushed to finish sewing the hem.

During the afternoon Bitsy came in looking especially young with no makeup on and her hair in a ponytail.

“Perfect,” Bitsy said once Josie carefully zipped the gown on her.

Bitsy stood tall on the stand while Josie stooped, inching around the circle, touching and straightening the hemline. Swaying to make her skirt swing, Bitsy kept the hem moving across the top of her shoes. “Now I won’t trip on this,” she said, giving Josie her hand and stepping down. “You’ve got it perfect.”

Randall Allen came near. “Is everything all right?” he asked Bitsy. “You look lovely.”

“Yes, your seamstress is wonderful.”

Josie felt herself blush when they stared at her with admiration. “I’m glad you like her work,” Allen told Josie’s first customer, and he and Bitsy praised her for getting the tedious task done so quickly.

Josie remained at Ye Bridal Shoppe late to complete a hem the previous seamstress had left half finished, and when she drove off, retained the feeling she thought an accomplished maestro must experience after an exceptional performance.

In the morning she would get right to work on the suit for the grandmother of another bride. She knew how to improve on the aqua taffeta outfit. If Josie tapered the waist, adjusted darts to raise the bust line, and moved shoulder seams in half an inch, Grandmother’s dress would have a perfect fit.

Josie mentioned her suggestions, and the elder lady said no, she would take it just as it was.

Josie determined a Byron Songe gown would look even better if she added a lace bouffant at its rear waistline. The sleeves of a dress by Blakely would look exquisite with matching sequins sewn in. Josie wanted to remold the bodice of a midnight blue velvet gown.

Stopping at a drugstore, she sauntered down an aisle deciding one day she’d have a shop of her own. In it she would display only works she designed.

The idea sprang up and excited her so much she found herself paying for only aspirin. She’d almost forgotten to ask for Colin’s prescriptions.

Her enthusiasm ebbed once she had his medicines in the bulging bag on the car seat beside her. The late afternoon sky had darkened. Rain clouds hovered, bringing the sky so low it seemed the entire mass might rest on the moving cars. Headlights shone from cars and trucks coming toward her. She turned on her lights. Adjusting her mirror to see through the thickening traffic, she gave a signal and shifted into the left lane.

A dark car behind her moved there, too.

The center of its headlights made a slight twinkle, making Josie recall she had recently noticed that coming from another car.

Paying closer attention, she saw this car looked like a dark sedan. She watched for another space in the right lane, spied a small opening, and slid there.

So did the sedan.

She couldn’t see its driver.

Waiting for an opening in the left lane, Josie pulled there and watched the sedan draw over to the rear of the truck right behind her.

Her pulse raced and stomach tightened. In the mirror she saw the sparkling headlights remaining two cars behind.

A buzzing formed in her head. She remembered the noise outside the kitchen door.

Chapter 11

Just ahead of Josie, a squad car parked on the highway’s right shoulder.

She squeezed between two trucks and pulled up beside the police car. Leaning over, she rolled down her passenger window.

The older cop looked weary. His window came down.

“Officer,” Josie said urgently, “do you see a dark sedan following me?”

The patrolman glanced behind her. He looked at Josie with bored eyes. “Yep, at least a hundred.”

She turned to see vehicles speeding by bumper to bumper. Within the mass of glass and metal darted many sedans.

“Right. Thanks.” She offered a meek smile. Giving a signal, she pulled out, and then she drove slowly on.

The parking lot was filled almost to capacity when Josie arrived. She swung off the highway to a service road and swerved into the parking lot. Andrew’s Honda was parked in front of Big Ted’s Lounge, to the right of the entrance.

Locating a parking spot in the rear, she still felt slight apprehension and glanced around before leaving her car.

Parked two spaces over was a dark sedan. A man inside it was moving.

Josie shoved the key again into her ignition. She pressed the clutch while her heart raced. With her hand ready to turn the key, she noticed something familiar about the back of the man’s head.

His hair looked dark, as did everything else except the neon green sign displaying the bar’s name. From a rear corner of the shell parking lot came the glow of one bare light on a pole.

Josie stared at the man’s head. Its shape was elongated. His ears stuck out. He was laughing, she saw, and then she witnessed red hair on a woman rising from the seat beside him.

The men held up something that looked like a bra.

Josie grinned and turned away. She got out of her car and tried to lock it. The lock wouldn’t hold.

“It was Johan,” she said with a laugh minutes later, seated next to Andrew in Big Ted’s.

He chuckled. “Johan rode here with me. He started talking to a redhead and after a while, they disappeared.”

Voices of the Monday evening crowd swelled around them along with a thickening cloud of smoke, adding to the customary smell of stale tobacco. Mounted to the wall behind the bar, a wide-screen television showed players who would be starters for the game. Some people hushed to listen. Laughter from others said they were already on their third or fourth drinks.

Josie grinned. “No wonder Johan doesn’t talk about who he’s dating.”

“I think he dates any girl he can latch on to for one evening. But then he gets scared. He never mentions the same girl twice.”

When the bartender handed Josie a glass of Chablis, Andrew watched the Dolphins win the coin toss. He paid for her drink and covered her hand with his. “I wouldn’t want to have to go back to having first dates.” His blue eyes flashed mischievously and he added, “Especially not in the front seat of a car.”

Big Ted’s was exceptionally cold, but Andrew’s hand over Josie’s gave her warmth. “Neither would I. You’ve spoiled me. I’d never want to go back to searching for the right man.”

His gaze held on hers. “No. You’ve found him.”

Contentment settled inside her. The day had been good, except for her experience on the highway. Sylvie had picked up Colin from practice, and he was now the team’s water boy. Carrying drinks to the players made him feel important. He got to rub shoulders with Mom. And now, Josie was totally relaxed seated so near to the man who’d become most important, even after their long haul with his problems. Or maybe because of them.

He released her hand. From the opposite side of his drink, Andrew slid out a small sheet of paper.

She noticed the slight move. “What’s that?”

He tucked the sheet into his shirt pocket. “Notes from the bank.” He peered at the TV, glanced at Josie with a smile, and then squeezed her hand. Andrew pulled on his drink and stared at the game.

A whistle drew Josie’s attention to the TV. Men in uniform lined up and scrambled, slamming into each other.

She saw numbers on their jerseys, a prickle of anxiety coming as she considered the ones she’d just glimpsed on Andrew’s paper. He’d had so many hidden numbers right before they started attending the meetings. By the time he was ready to acknowledge his inability to quit betting, Josie was smitten. She agreed to help him.

She felt Andrew’s gaze on her face. Turning, she offered a weak smile, and his eyebrow rose as though asking her a question. Her smile broadened. He gave her a tight-lipped grin and stared at the game.

Feeling her forced grin leave her face, Josie heard people talking and recalled what Andrew’s boss at the auto dealership said when he discovered Andrew took some money. Andrew had “borrowed” two hundred dollars to pay off a gambling debt and expected to return it by the end of the week, but his boss, Preston Peters, noticed the discrepancy before then. Luckily Mr. Peters admired him as a person and a worker. “If you’re willing to get help,” Josie recalled Peters saying, “I won’t press charges. And I’ll be happy to give you a good referral.” Peters told them his obese mother had been unable to control her eating. Her inability to take charge of her life added to her ill health and eventual death. “I wish somebody could have helped her,” he explained, letting them understand why he was acting so charitably. And he liked Andrew and his work at the dealership.