Cold River (37 page)

She soon passed the place where the pine plantation began. She had never driven down the road beyond this point, but she recognized the number on the mailbox at Rael’s driveway. Grange’s would be next.

Mandy’s heart began to pound, and she gripped the steering wheel so tightly that each knuckle was topped with white. Fearful of missing the mailbox, she slowed, and it seemed forever before she saw the gap in the trees signaling a driveway. She shifted down and turned onto the lane that led straight through the woods to a clearing on a bluff over the river. As she braked to a stop, she exhaled a great sigh and said, “Well, look at you, Grange Timberlain!”

He lived in a two-story log house facing the river. Topped by a blue metal roof with three dormers and circled by a wide porch covered in the same blue, it had huge, arched windows that let in light and gave a contemporary look to the rustic design. His pickup wasn’t in the yard, and though there was another building behind the house, it wasn’t a garage. He obviously wasn’t home.

Mandy sat a moment surveying the scene, then put the Miata in gear and drove back to the highway, trying to figure out Plan B. She was reluctant to see Grange for the first time in a public place because of the private nature of what she had to say to him. Which was what? She frowned as she sped along the road. What did she intend to say?
I think I love you?
A little too bold.
So, how are things between you and Fran?
Too snarky.
Thanks for saving my life, and by the way, what did you call me when you were hanging upside down?
Much better.

She almost passed Fran’s house before she noticed Grange’s pickup sitting in the driveway. As she hit the brakes, did a U-turn, and pulled in beside the truck, Mandy’s heart began thudding in her chest again. She sat for a moment wondering whether it would be better to wait but decided her courage was waning fast; she’d better talk to Grange while she still had the nerve.

As she got out of the car, she noticed Stevie Joe’s red pickup approach the gravel turnoff to her place. It slowed then continued on, and as it rolled by, he turned to stare at Mandy.

Ignoring his rudeness, she went to knock on the back door, which opened onto a small breezeway between the house and the garage. No one answered, so she opened the door and called, “Grange? Fran?”

Still no answer. Mandy stepped inside and called, “Grange?” The door that led to the garage was open, and the light was on, so she stepped in and looked around. Fran’s pickup was stacked with cardboard boxes, and the driver’s door stood open, but no one was there.

Against the wall by the door sat a stack of boxes labeled
Fireworks. Store away from heat source.
A flap on the top box hung open. Mandy looked inside and noticed half the contents were gone. What was left looked like green plastic golf balls, each with three knobs on top and a long fuse.

She thought she heard a sound, so she turned and looked around. “Grange? Fran?” She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, and she quickly stepped out of the garage and back into the breezeway. She opened the other door and called again, then cautiously made her way to the kitchen. No one was there, but as she stood at the window over the sink, she saw Jake’s pickup turn off to drive down to her house. Mandy smiled to see that Willow was in the truck with him and imagined the reunion about to take place. She watched them disappear behind some bushes and waited for the pickup to come into view at the bottom.

Moments passed, and they didn’t reappear. Mandy leaned closer to the window to get a wider view, certain she remembered Fran saying she saw Mandy leave her house on the day she lost a wheel. As she stared at the line of vegetation that cut off her view, she sensed, rather than heard, a movement behind her. Just as she began to turn around, something struck her on the side of the head, and all the fireworks in the garage exploded in her brain.

THE NEXT THING
Mandy was aware of was the discomfort of something pressing into her cheek. She opened her eyes to find a mossy stone six inches away from her nose. When she turned her head, a sharp pain stabbed through it, and a strobe light flashed behind her eyes. As she lay quietly again, the situation eased, and she was able to look around.

A large cedar tree towered above her to the right, and alders sporting new green crowded in on three sides. She held her breath and listened intently, but the only sound she could hear was the chirping of birds in the branches above her.

As she tried to sit up, she found that her hands and feet were bound with bungee cords. The effort to sit cost her a return of the light-and-stab show, but she decided that curling up in a ball because it hurt wasn’t going to get her out of there, wherever
there
was. She made another try. This time she was successful.

She drew her knees up between her arms and set to work at the cords on her ankles. Soon, she had her feet unfettered. The bungees wrapped around her wrists weren’t so easily undone, but Mandy found if she held her hands together under her right ear, she could grab one of the hooks with her teeth. Heedless of the pain in her head from the pressure, she managed to pull one hook far enough that it slipped off the other, and she was free.

She slowly stood and looked around. She was on a primitive road, little more than two tracks through the woods. She could see no farther than the trees that surrounded her, so she had no way of getting her bearings.

“So, Mandy,” she muttered. “You have two puzzles. First, who did this to you? Second, which way do you walk to get out of here?”

As she looked one way and another, trying to solve puzzle number two, she became aware of the sound of an approaching vehicle. “Wouldn’t it be something if I was right beside the highway?” she said aloud as she started walking in the direction of the sound. She stopped when she saw, flashing through the trees ahead, the red of Stevie Joe’s pickup coming down the lane toward her.

Mandy’s mouth went dry, and she froze, trying to decide what to do. The moment the pickup broke into full view, her feet made up her mind, and she bolted into the woods. Running was difficult because of the downed and rotting trees and thick underbrush, so she hadn’t made much progress when she heard a door slam and someone call her name.

“Mandy! Wait!”

The sound of that call was so familiar that she hesitated.

“Mandy! Come back!”

She turned around and saw Grange making his way toward her. Stevie Joe and Moses stood behind him. Grange looked so fierce that she almost ran again, but he stopped her with one word.

“Darling.”

Mandy leaned against a tree and waited, watching him walk toward her, noticing how his eyes softened and the corners of his lips lifted as he got closer. A few feet away, he opened his arms. She stumbled forward and felt them close around her.

He pressed his cheek against her hair. “I was afraid we wouldn’t find you.”

After a moment, she pulled away. “How did you know to look for me? Were you at Fran’s?”

“No. Not when you were, anyway. It’s all a bit complicated, and I don’t understand some of it.”

Mandy glanced at the pickup. “What does Stevie Joe have to do with it? He’s always driving by and staring at me. He did it again today, just a while ago. I’ve got a bad feeling about him.”

“Don’t. He’s the one who discovered that Fran kidnapped you.”

“Fran? Kidnapped?”

Grange began walking back to the pickup with his arm around Mandy. “Stevie Joe is Tammy’s brother, you know. My cousin. He knows you’ve been teaching Tammy to read, and he’s been trying to get up the nerve to ask you to teach him, too.”

“But he’s married to a teacher! Can’t she work with him?”

“Apparently he thinks you can work miracles. Anyway, he was on his way to try again today, and he saw you go into Fran’s house. When he came back a few minutes later, Fran was driving off alone in her pickup, your car was still there, and you were no place to be found. I drove up a few moments later— ”

“But your truck was there already.”

They had reached the red pickup. Mandy greeted Moses, who smiled and extended his hand. She thanked Stevie Joe for coming to get her, and he looked at the ground and mumbled something inaudible in reply.

“We’ll ride in the back, Stevie Joe,” Grange said. “Moses takes up too much room.” He lifted Mandy into the pickup bed and climbed in behind her. “Let us use your coat, Moses. There’s a good heater in the pickup. You won’t freeze without it.”

“This is getting to be a habit,” Moses grumbled, but he handed over his jacket and climbed in the cab.

“Who is Moses?” Mandy asked as Grange wrapped her in the huge jacket and then sat beside her.

“He’s from Jamaica and comes for every Opening Festival. I first met him in the orphanage when I was there. He teaches here at the high school for the week before, making sure the students in charge of tuning the pans are doing a good job of it. It’s a highlight of the year, and the students love to have him come.”

“Okay. Let’s get back to what happened. You and Moses showed up at Fran’s. But wait— your truck was already there. I don’t understand.”

“Arrgh!” Grange hit his forehead with his fist. “This is so embarrassing. Fran came to my house last night after we got home from the hospital.”

“Oh!” Mandy exclaimed in a stricken voice. “How is your arm?”

“It’s okay. Fran was all upset and said she wanted to clarify things about us. When I finally understood she was talking about us being a couple, you know, romantically, I’m afraid I was a little blunt. I told her— ” Grange stopped and cleared his throat.

“What did you tell her?”

“I said that my heart belonged to someone else.”

Breathing seemed to be a problem for Mandy. “Did you mean— were you talking about someone you lost a long time ago?”

He picked up her hand and laced his fingers through hers. “No, I was talking about someone else. Someone I just found.”

Mandy took a deep breath. “And who is that someone else?”

“It’s you, Sweetiebug.” He smiled and leaned down to kiss her.

As Grange’s mouth met hers, she put her hand on his cheek and felt the pulse under her fingers. It seemed to be beating in concert with her own.

She sighed and leaned back in the crook of his arm. “So when did you first feel that your heart was taken?”

“The moment I saw you.”

Mandy knit her brows. “But you looked so forbidding, and you couldn’t say anything nice to me!”

He laughed. “I had that danged Bell’s palsy, and it made me look so strange that I knew you’d never give me a second glance. And then every time I turned around, Vince was there in his brand new Cadillac, bringing you flowers, giving you presents, being suave and polished— all the things I’m not. I’m afraid I didn’t handle it very well.”

“Oh, yes. Vince.” Mandy was quiet for a moment.

“Do you care for him?” Grange asked.

She nodded and felt him stiffen. “I care for him like I care for Rael, I think. You look at him and see someone with money who owns half the town and who travels all over doing something dangerous and dashing. But I see someone who just wants to be a Timberlain.”

“I don’t understand,” Grange said, but he had relaxed.

“Talk to Granny Timberlain about it. She’ll explain it. I’ll tell you what I don’t understand. If Fran talked to you last night, what was your pickup doing at her house this morning?” Mandy nestled in and pulled the coat tighter around her as Stevie Joe turned onto the highway and picked up speed.

Grange leaned down to speak in her ear. “She called me first thing and asked me to give her a ride to the school, so I did. I figured that Moses was with us, so I’d be safe from any more moves she was trying to put on me. I was wrong. She’s a resourceful lady— I’ll say that for her.”

“Oh? That sounds interesting.” Mandy thought a moment. “But that still doesn’t explain your truck being at her house.”

“We were busy getting set up, and Doc MacDonald showed up, asking people where she was. She got wind of it and asked me for the keys to the truck. I didn’t know at the time why she wanted them. I just gave them to her and went ahead setting up the sound system. When Doc found me and said he was looking to arrest her— ”

“Arrest her!” Mandy pulled away to look up at Grange. “What for?”

“Embezzlement. She’s stolen about a hundred thousand dollars from Vince in the time she had been working for him.”

“Really? Fran? How did he find out?”

“He had Mo go through the books. He found how she’d done it.”

Mandy combed Grange’s hair away from his brow, but the wind blew it back. “I remember. Mo didn’t want me to tell you about it,” she said. “Why?”

“He must have felt it would be disloyal because of the bad blood that’s always been between Vince and me.”

“Okay. So Doc tells you he’s going to arrest her, and you do what?”

“Moses and I rode with him to Fran’s, and that’s when we met Stevie Joe with his story. He didn’t know for certain, but he was pretty sure that when Fran left, you were with her. Doc turned on the siren and took off, and we followed in the pickup. We came upon Fran pulling out of the woods onto the highway. She took one look at Doc’s cruiser and made a dash for it. He followed her, and we figured we’d look down the road where she’d been to see if you were there.”