Dashing Through the Snow (6 page)

He took a bracing drink of the coffee he’d
stopped to get once he realized he wasn’t going to catch up to
Lily. “Where in the hell could she have gone?” He looked at his
watch and frowned. It was almost one. “Where is she?”

Bright lights from another car’s headlights
suddenly filled his car and Smith swore when he realized that
someone had called the cops. The town’s police force wasn’t huge,
so he was likely to know whoever was behind him, but that wasn’t
the point. The fact that someone felt it necessary to call the
police meant that he’d been noticed, which meant he was slipping.
He also didn’t want to be put in the position of having to explain
what he was doing there.

His car went dark again and he heard the door
of the cop car open and close, so he reached into his pocket for
his wallet and licenses -- driver and private eye. He was reaching
for his glove compartment for his title when the cop shined a
flashlight through the driver side window. Smith held up his hand
to block the direct glare.

A deep voice directed, “Hold it. Put your
hands in the air.”

Rather than argue, Smith did as
commanded.

“And wave them like you just don’t care.”

“
What?”

“No back talk.”

Smith knew he couldn’t have heard what he
thought he heard. “What did you say, officer, earlier, I mean? Did
you say -- ”

“I said no back talk. Now I’m going to open
this door and you’re going to slowly step out of the car.”

Sighing resignedly, Smith waited for the door
to be pulled open and then stepped out. “Listen, officer,” he
began, trying to see the man’s face, but now he was shining the
flashlight directly in his eyes, making seeing anything but the
white glare of it impossible. “Will you turn off that light,
please?”

“It appears you have a problem with
authority…Toast.”

Smith had noticed the significant pause, but
it was the name that made him smile and punch the cop in the
shoulder. “God damn you, John Palmer! How the hell are you? I
should have known it was you, you jackass!” Smith was laughing now
and returning the other man’s hug. John had called him “Toast,” as
in “Texas Toast” since he’d moved to Sheffield-Chatham and his
twang had made him stick out like a sore thumb. He’d also kept the
bullies away from him, which hadn’t been necessary for long.

Assistant Police Commander John Palmer
laughed some more as he turned off the flash light. “Good. I’m
good,” he answered. “But you’d know that if you’d spent any time
anywhere else but Aunt Glenda’s since you got back.”

“What can I say? It’s the food and the
company, son. They’re both irresistible.”

John copied Smith’s relaxed pose against the
car. “True, and just how irresistible do you find my little
cousin?”

Smith turned his head to study his old
friend. John was much darker than Lily, but had the same light
colored eyes with a devilish twinkle, behind which lurked an
equally devilish intelligence. The older man was only a couple of
inches taller than his own six foot one inch frame, but he was much
wider. He was a good, honest guy and Smith had always admired him.
He respected him too much to offer him anything but the truth in
answer to his question. But first, Smith had a question of his own.
“How did you know?”

“It was plainly obvious that Christmas when
you were nineteen and your family came to visit.”

Smith frowned as he recalled that Christmas.
It had been his last Christmas with Lily.

“I’ll never forget it,” John was saying, “The
whole family was here at Lily’s grandmother’s house for Christmas
Eve dinner. Now, if I recall correctly, two things had been keeping
our Lily up with excitement that entire week. As you know that girl
is just plum obsessive about clothes -- always has been -- and here
she was getting her very first formal gown. But in the anticipation
department, that ran a distant, very
distant
, second to you
coming to town.

“Anyway, she came gliding down that gorgeous
staircase in some strapless black velvety thing and since you were
standing right next to me, I heard you. You gulped like you had
swallowed your tongue. And if that weren’t pathetic enough, I heard
you say something that made me feel shame as a man just because I
was standing next to you.” He broke up laughing when Smith groaned
in embarrassment.

Smith just stared at him, making John laugh
even harder.

“Your voice sounded muffled, like the words
were coming from the throat of a drowning man, but they were clear
enough. I’ll never forget it. You said, ‘Jesus, save me.’ It was a
plea like none I’d ever heard before, and I thought two things.
One: if he touches her, I’d hate to do it, but I’d have to kill him
and two: if he touches her, I’d hate to do it, but I’d have to kill
him.”

Smith shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t know
if he could take John and he didn’t particularly want to find out.
“Ah…and how do you feel about that possibility now?”

“Now?” John smiled and shrugged. “She’s
thirty years old, man. I figure she’s old enough to make her own
decisions about her love life.”

“Hmm. And you didn’t say anything to me about
it at the time because…?”

“Because I figured I’d wait and see if you
would be so foolish as to make a move because I’d have hated to do
it --”

“But you’d have had to kill me. I know,”
Smith said as John laughed.

“Exactly, and you proved how smart you were
because you stayed away from her. And as I recall, that was the
last time you came to town with your parents for Christmas.”

It had been, but Smith didn’t bother to tell
him that as he was in college at the time it was perfectly normal
for him to go off for vacations with friends
sans
parents.
Why bother? Then he’d have to admit that part of the reason he was
so eager to go on those vacations with his friends was because it
did give him a perfect excuse to avoid Lily, who merely had to be
to make his pulse jump. Instead, he said, “So, how many neighbors
called about my being parked here?”

“An even eight. Now tell me if you’ve still
got a thing for Lily.”

“I thought you said you were going to mind
your business on that.”

“No, I said it’s
her
business what she
does -- the two things are not mutually exclusive. I just want you
to satisfy my curiosity, is all. Maybe if she got herself a man,
she’d be less inclined to follow this whole private eye pig in a
poke thing. Maybe she’d settle down to something normal, like using
that teaching degree that’s going to waste.”

Unable to believe what he was hearing, Smith
gave a bark of incredulous laughter as he shook his head. “You
can’t be serious. I don’t believe her desire to become a private
detective has anything to do with her status as a single
woman.”

“You misunderstand me. I just think if she
had her mind on something else -- particularly a man -- she
wouldn’t have this urge to do something so dangerous.”

Smith was quiet for a moment as he stared at
his old friend. He stuck out his hand. “Excuse me, have we met? I’m
a man born and raised
after
the Women’s Movement. And you
are…?”

John slapped his hand away. “You know what I
mean, Smith. All I’m saying is that if you’re still interested in
Lily, then you should go for it.”

“Thanks for your permission.”

“So, I take it you’re not going to help the
family out with this little problem, huh?”

Arms folded, Smith stayed relaxed against the
car as he tried to control his temper. “You mean be so damned
egotistical as to believe that my mere interest in her will make
Lily give up her dream? And so believing in my own hype, go ahead
with such an asinine plan? If
that’s
what you mean by
‘helping the family out’, then yeah, you’d be correct in your
assumption: request denied. And besides, I can’t believe the family
would go along with this -- especially not Aunt Glenda and Uncle
Peter.”

“Okay, so it’s not the family,” John admitted
sheepishly. “It was my own little plan, which seemed like a good
one when I thought of it just a few minutes ago. But after
listening to your interpretation, I confess that it was a stupid
one.” He paused. “And I guess insulting as well.”

Smith let go of his anger in relief. He
thought he might have a fight with his old friend after all. “You
really should stop thinking of Lily as a helpless little girl,
John. She’s pretty smart.”

John laughed. “Not helpless,
hapless
.
There’s a world of difference between the two. I’ll add a few more
adjectives.” He used his fingers to tick them off as he named them.
“She’s flighty, indecisive, clueless, pink...”

“
Pink?”

John raised an eyebrow and looked at Smith
impatiently. “That’s what I said.” When Smith just stared at him as
if he’d lost his wits, he explained, “You know -- all those things
associated with the color: fragile, gentle, soft, light, airy and
therefore, unreliable. Like I said: pink.”

“I wonder if Lily knows that you have such a
high opinion of her.”

“Of course not,” John dismissed the sarcasm
and the idea with a wave of his hand. “And I do have a high opinion
of her, but she wouldn’t see it that way. If she knew, she’d
probably cry or go shopping or something. You know how she is.”

“Yeah, I do,” Smith said. “And I’m beginning
to see that you don’t.” He thought about the woman who’d
practically kicked his ass to the curb when she’d wanted him out of
her car and chuckled as he shook his head.
Gentle my
ass.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” Smith said, deciding at that
moment that it would be useless to try to get John to see Lily as
anything other than that delicate little girl they’d all been
charged with protecting. He slapped the other man on his back.
“Listen,” he said reassuringly. “You don’t have to worry about
Lily. I’ll make sure she doesn’t come to any harm.” As he made the
promise, Smith wondered how he was going to do that when it was
clear that she’d rather see him go to hell than be anywhere near
her.

“I don’t know how you propose to do that,”
John said skeptically, “when you couldn’t even keep up with her
tonight. That’s what you’re doing here, right? Waiting for her
because you lost her trail earlier?”

Smith hesitated, not wanting to look like
he’d already failed on the job. “Yeah …sort of...in a way.” That
was exactly it.

John snorted and turned to go back to his
car. “Just let me know how it works out.”

After John had pulled off, Smith got back
inside his car, grateful for the warmth. “Texas never gets this
damned cold. Does any place on earth?” He’d been sitting there for
another fifteen minutes when Lily finally made an appearance. She
drove up the winding drive and parked right next to the house.
Smith was out of his car before she was halfway up the drive. He
was there in time enough to open the driver’s side door for her as
she was pushing it open. He saw her surprise and her fear before
she realized it was him and he watched in amazement as the two
emotions quickly turned into anger.

“You all right?” he asked.

She exited the car. “Fine, thanks.” Her jaw
was clenched so tight that the words came out clipped.

Smith knew her almost as well as he knew
himself and knew he’d get nowhere with her in this kind of mood.
Besides, he’d only wanted to make sure she was okay. “Good. That’s
all I needed to know.” He touched the brim of his hat in parting,
preparing to leave her. Her mouth fell open in surprise and he
grinned, causing her to narrow her eyes in suspicion and snap her
mouth shut. He could tell she’d been expecting an argument from him
and that was precisely why he didn’t give her one.

She didn’t say anything, waiting to see what
his next move would be.

His gaze went to her mouth. It was full and
her slight overbite made the top lip protrude just a bit. He’d
always loved that about her mouth. He looked into her eyes and
caught that same flare of interest he was feeling before she masked
it and scowled at him. He ran a finger so softly down the side of
her face that it was barely touching skin. “Just wanted to make
sure you were taking care of our Lily. She’s irreplaceable.”

This time when her mouth fell open, it was
from the sudden sexual tension that they both felt. Taking in a
shuddering breath, he traced the rim of her mouth with the same
finger. “Such beauty,” he murmured, but was distracted a moment by
the soft fullness of her mouth. When her breath trembled onto his
finger, he repeated himself. “Such beauty is fragile and rare and
we wouldn’t want to lose it.” He traced her mouth again, this time
making sure to go for the inside seam of her bottom lip.

He stepped back. “I’ll see you tonight at
your parents for dinner,” he promised and smiled when she frowned.
“I can’t wait to sink my teeth into whatever succulence is on the
menu.”

He saw her eyes narrow again before he turned
to go to his car. “Good night, sweetness,” he called over his
shoulder. He chuckled low in his throat when he heard her slam the
front door in response.

Chapter Six

Lily sat cross legged on her bed with the
photos from the night before spread out in front of her. She’d
uploaded them to her computer and then printed them out. Mr. Benson
had kept her out quite late the night before. First he and his
sidepiece -- after what she’d seen, Lily would be hard pressed to
call her anything but that -- had gone to a small Chinese
restaurant in Chilmont, the next town over. This had gratified Lily
because she’d finally been able to eat a decent meal.

She’d done just that, sitting behind and to
the right of the couple at a small table for two and gorging
herself on pot stickers and General Tsao’s chicken. She hadn’t
gotten any photos then because it would have been too noticeable,
but there had been plenty of action if she had been inclined to
snap a few shots. At first Benson and his girlfriend had done
nothing but talk in low whispers and then eat. But as the evening
wore on and the woman imbibed more alcohol, she’d gotten
friskier.