Deep in the Valley (17 page)

“Well, maybe he really did have a ride in a… Okay, I see your point.”

“By the same token, June, I think I’ll take a run out to the salvage yard and look at the Jeep. It’s burned to
a crisp, but if the driver’s door was opened with an ax, I’ll know it with one look.”

Jessica pulled up to the Stones’ house in her little Toyota truck, ready for some baby-sitting. Susan had called earlier and asked if she would mind. John had been putting in so many hours, the couple never had any time to talk. Tonight they would just grab a bite at the Vine & Ivy in town and have a real conversation, while Jessica tangled with Sydney over a video game or two before bedtime.

The door opened before she could even knock and there stood Susan, looking a bit sullen. “Bad news,” she said. “John just got a call. Vintner by the name of Hank Bryant cut his leg on some binding wire, badly enough that he doesn’t think he should try to drive to the hospital….”

“I know Hank,” Jessica said.

“I guess our dinner out is probably off. I’d hate to ask you to wait around. What if it takes all night?”

At that moment John whisked through the doorway with his bag. “Sorry, Jessie,” he said, moving quickly toward his BMW. “Susan will pay you anyway. Lost wages.”

She looked longingly at his back as he went. “It’s not important,” she said, because the money meant nothing to her. She just longed to see what had happened to Hank, and to see what John would do.

“John?” Susan said, stopping him. He looked at his wife and Jessica over the top of his car. The young girl looked so forlorn, he tilted his head to one side in some confusion. Susan, standing behind Jessica, pointed at
her, but John didn’t get it. “John, do you need any help on this house call?” Jessica’s eyes lit from within, and slowly it dawned on John.

“Ah…ah…yeah! Sure. Jessie? You want to ride along?”

“Is it okay?” she asked excitedly.

“As long as you don’t try to take over the sutures,” he said.

Like a bolt, she was beside him in the car. “This is great,” she said. “Really great!”

When Elmer drove June home from the Toopeeks, she was forced to make an immediate decision—one she hoped she would not live to regret.

“Good of you to leave a light on for Sadie,” Elmer said.

But she had not.

“Well, I have to think like a dog owner now,” she said.

“I’m sure Sadie appreciates it. You’ll be okay?”

Oh, she hoped so. She prayed so. But she said, “I think so, Dad. And in case I didn’t say so already, thanks for everything you’ve done. I sometimes forget to tell you how much I appreciate you.”

He laughed a little bit. “Sometimes I forget to do things for which I can be appreciated. Get some rest.”

She climbed onto the porch and approached the door slowly; she could hear Sadie squeaking on the other side. June let herself in, closed the door behind her and let Sadie welcome her. First things first. Then she said, “I’m alone.” And that brought him out of the shadows and into the light. “You’ve got some nerve, you know.”

He smiled as though he knew. “I wanted to see that you were all right. And I brought you something.”

“Flowers? Candy? Believe me, I’m all stocked up.”

“No,” he said. “This.” He held out his hand and there, on his palm, in an opened leather sheath, was a badge.

“I
’ve heard that undercover police officers who are investigating narcotics and such have to occasionally partake. You know, to prove to the people they’re investigating that they’re really okay. This is true?”

“This is true,” said Jim. “But I don’t find myself in that particular situation. So don’t worry. Worry about something else if you have to worry.”

“Should I worry about you being killed?”

“I don’t know that you should. It’s optional. My mother, for example, worried about that a lot. Before it was really even an issue, she worried it like a hangnail.”

“Does she still?” June asked.

“I hope not. She’s on the other side now.”

“Oh. My condolences.”

He smiled and drew her near. “It was quite a long time ago. She worried herself nutty when I was a street cop.”

“You can’t imagine how grateful I am for the badge, Jim. I didn’t think it was possible I’d be attracted to…”
Her voice trailed off. She hadn’t intended to be quite so transparent. “Well, that’s out,” she said in disgust.

He laughed heartily, stretching out his legs and relaxing against the sofa. “I knew you’d fallen for me.”

“Must be the pain medication—loosened my tongue. As I was saying, I believed I would know if you were of a criminal bent. I believed my instincts would direct me. But I worried about it, because my instincts have been a little jostled lately.” And she frowned to herself, thinking how she’d frozen when Birdie and Judge needed her, how she’d been rescued by an angel, how she’d investigated John. Phew, it had been a rugged week. “Jostled doesn’t even touch it.”

After finding him in her house, she’d brewed a pot of coffee for him, a pot of tea for herself, and they’d settled onto the sofa together. He explained that he had been aware of the fire, and learned that it had been her Jeep. “I hadn’t expected to see you again this soon,” he said. “I’m not the best kind of boyfriend.”

“What makes you think I’ll let you be my boyfriend?” she countered.

Ignoring her question, he continued, “I don’t get away often, and if you ever happen to see me in public circumstances, you should pretend you don’t know me. Whether anyone likes it or not, I’m going to do this kind of work for about three more years. And then I’m going to retire.”

“And who besides me wouldn’t like it?”

“I have a sister who took over worrying when my mother passed on. She’s not exactly sure what kind of work I do, but she knows I work for a federal agency, and suspects the worst.”

“Just so you don’t have a wife, or even an ex-wife….”

“Whew! Even an ex-wife would disqualify me?”

June thought about it. “Yes, I think it would. Today.”

“God, you’re tough!”

“I am. I don’t like crowds.”

“No intimate partners. No kids. No girlfriends. I have a couple of ex-girlfriends, but even you couldn’t be that picky….”

“Just out of curiosity, when you ‘get away,’ as you put it, where do your buddies think you’re going?”

“To get laid.”

That put a rod in her spine; she came stiffly upright, eyes wide, mouth open in shock.

“What’re they going to understand? Huh?” he asked.

“Where do you say you’re doing this? You don’t say you’re coming to my house, do you?”

“Of course not. We have a halfway house. A safe house. A friendly little brothel down the road where one of our own takes clients. Her clients are insiders. It gives us a little break from the action.”

“So, what exactly are you doing right now?” she asked curiously.

“Come now, you know better than that. I’ve already told you too much. But as my doctor, you have to maintain confidentiality, don’t you?”

“So, are you saying if I let you be my boyfriend, you’re going to have to be kept totally secret? For three years?”

“Unless my territory is changed. In which case it will be even harder to be your boyfriend.”

“Then why would I even entertain such a notion?” she asked him.

“Well, I’m counting on you not being able to help yourself,” he said.

She settled into the crook of his arm, leaning against him very comfortably. “I’m going to be able to help myself tonight. I have a headache.”

June wasn’t going to rush into anything. Despite a crippling attraction, despite unmistakable desire, she did not pop open the ivory case that held her brand-new diaphragm. She would, at the very least, get to know him better. Her secret man. It brought a smile to her lips just thinking about him.

For one thing, he had the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. Positively deep wells. And she loved the way his cheeks became hard and round like little apples when he smiled. And that dimple right under the left one, at the corner of his mouth. Oh, and there was the hair, thick and unruly. He was forty years old and there was no evidence he’d ever lose his hair.

Her headache had not prevented her from at least completing that kiss she’d started a few days before. She’d been right about that much—it was a wonderful kiss. He was a powerful kisser. A hungry kisser. Of course, his hand had strayed to her breast and she’d said, “Not yet. You’re going to be patient. And I’m going to get more comfortable with this idea.”

He’d said, “Okay.” But he’d kissed her in a way that suggested she might not want to force too much patience on him. Which just added to his allure. There was nothing quite so sensual as impatience, nothing so
titillating as a man with a weak grasp on self-control, as a lover just
dying
to possess.

She had pushed him out the door at midnight and he’d disappeared into the trees. “I might as well be having an affair with Robin Hood,” she told Sadie.

She dreamed about him that night and in the dream he became Wyatt and Wyatt became Jim. When she tried to hold either one of them close, she found her arms empty. But in the early hours of the morning, as she woke for the day ahead, she was snuggling dreamily into the down comforter, nurturing a fantasy that was rich and deep. With flushing anticipation, she knew that before terribly long she was going to have a man in her life again.

Her distraction was so acute, she actually forgot she didn’t have a vehicle to drive to work in. When she popped out onto the porch in the morning, Sadie by her side, she stopped short at the sight of Tom leaning against his Rover. “Hiya,” he said.

“Jeez, I must be losing it,” she answered.

“You weren’t expecting me? Who were you expecting?”

“You’re not going to believe this, but I forgot I don’t have a Jeep to go to work in this morning. I—”

“I believe it.” He straightened up. “His name is Jim Post, and you’re right about what he’s doing.”

“You
know?
”

He opened the passenger door for her. “I know. But be advised, very few people know who he is or what he’s doing. And I don’t know where he’s working, okay? We probably shouldn’t talk about this again after today.”

“God, I can’t believe it,” she said. “Right here in Mayberry.”

“Not exactly,” Tom said. “Mayberry is Mayberry—pretty quiet most days. With Gus Craven in jail, my only worry is whether I’ll have to break up a fight between the Barstow twins. But right up the road is Gomorrah.”

“Our neighbors,” she said grimly.

“They don’t bother us much, we don’t bother them much. Well, County Sheriff tries to bother them, DEA tries, Forestry tries…but me? I live in peace with my enemies.”

Yes, she thought. This is true. That stuff going on back there, the drug farming, they tried to stay aloof from that. Because they couldn’t stop it or cure it or make it go away. If the Justice Department couldn’t get the best of it, then how could one Cherokee cop?

“But
he’s
okay. I told you,” she said.

“If I were you, I’d think twice.”

“Because?”

“Because of what he does for a living. Not only does he mingle with pretty unsavory characters, that kind of work tends to rub off on people. Makes them pretty cynical. Dark.”

“No, he’s not. He talks about his grandmother. He likes to hear the stories about the town.”

“What if someone from back there follows him?”

“What if?” She shrugged.

“That could put you in danger.”

“If he were sneaking out to
your
house, there could be danger for
you.
I’m not a cop. I’m no threat. I’m not even a girlfriend yet, though the thought beckons.
Besides, we met innocently. I think we could get away with it even if his cronies knew.” She smiled and she lifted her chin in a challenge.

“Don’t even think that!” Tom snapped at her. “God, don’t even think that! Those men back there, they aren’t fraternity brothers. They aren’t gentlemen. They have no respect for proprietary relationships. There’s no honor among thieves. There are those, back in the camps, who, if they knew he had a woman, might follow him to your house, wait for him to leave and—”

“Okay! I knew that!” She and Sadie got into the Range Rover, and he drove toward town in silence. “He’s good at what he does or they wouldn’t let him be doing it. He wouldn’t put me in harm’s way. He wouldn’t.”

“I assume the same,” Tom said more quietly. “Or I’d ask his boss to pull him in to keep you out of danger. But please, don’t get romantic and stupid. He’s in a serious job…and it’s nothing to play around with.”

“Did you warn Ursula that she shouldn’t get involved with a lawman?” June asked.

“It’s not the same thing, and you know it. And speaking of her, you can’t confide in Ursula. In anyone. When Elmer eventually finds out, it’s going to upset him.”

“Now stop that! You act as though I’m going to marry this guy, and so far I’ve only let him in my house a couple of times. Are you spying on me?”

“June, you gave yourself away. You kept asking about the men who came to your clinic. You had that twitterpated look in your eyes.”

“Twitterpated?”
she asked, bursting into laughter.

“I have seen that look in Tanya’s eyes. Boys don’t get it.”

“Oh. Boys don’t get it. Oh brother. So, you saw this look, and I asked too many times, and you did what?”

“I asked the right question of the right person because I had personal concerns. What happens with their operation is out of my hands—except that I’ll be ready for any fallout. What happens with my friend is a matter of importance to me.”

“Tom. How sweet,” she said. “Well, thank you, I guess… But I already knew he was all right. And even though he might be doing something very risky, he makes me feel safe. He makes me feel—”

“June, please. Don’t tell me too much. I’m not good at this sort of thing.”

She leaned forward in her seat, staring at his stoic profile. “It’s hard to tell when a Cherokee is blushing.”

“Blushing is not a Native thing. We don’t blush, we glower.” He turned his fierce expression on her, then looked back at the road. “You understand, for his safety, as well as your own, no one can know about him.”

“I know how Mrs. Muir must have felt,” she said.

“You can always decide this is a bad idea,” Tom offered.

“No I can’t,” she said, because she couldn’t.

“The thing is,” he said, “not being able to talk to anyone, not being able to share…it could be lonely for you.”

“Lonely?” she asked with a laugh. “Oh Tom!” She looked at him; his puzzled frown was directed to the road. Lonely? What did he think she had been?
Because she had six hundred friends who loved her enough to sneak get-well gifts onto her porch, he thought she was never lonely? Because she had Elmer for Tuesday night meat loaf, the Graceful Quilters on Thursday nights, medical emergencies, town fairs, dinner parties at Aunt Myrna’s…. Did he think she was never
lonely?
My God, it had been years since she’d been kissed, much less held and stroked and told she was beautiful. Maybe a secret man was the best kind for her, the way people were always in her business.

“We speak as though this is fait accompli,” she said. “But Jim and I haven’t done anything that could possibly bond us as a couple.” No need to tell Tom about the best kiss since junior high. “Who knows if he’ll even show up again?” she said, though upon parting the night before, he had promised.

“Maybe this won’t last long, in that case. Let me gas up here at Sam’s, then I’ll run you by the café for your coffee.”

“Sure,” she said absently. It was good to back Tom off the trail, get him thinking about something and someone else. June would prefer to manage her own romance without the chief of police’s help.

Sam came out of the filling station as Tom gassed up the Rover. Funny, June thought. Fish must not be biting yet…or maybe he was already fished out for the day. He and Tom exchanged a few quick jokes while the pump ran, and Sam pulled that wad of cash out of his pocket so he could make change.

Her eyes were drawn to a flash of color in the window of the station. Flowers? Not just flowers, but
an exquisite floral arrangement in spring pinks, yellows, peach, soft orange, lavender….

“Oh my God!” she gasped. “Justine!”

She opened the Range Rover’s door and, grabbing her bag and whistling a command to Sadie, took off down the street to the Flower Shoppe.