Forever Fall (16 page)

Graylin stared open-mouthed at Mandy. “Dead? That baby’s dead? And you’re sayin’ that’s good?”

“You don’t understand.” Luc took a step toward the deputy.

The deputy immediately stepped back, his hand still resting on the butt of the gun strapped to his side. He threw a don’t-try-anything-stupid look at Luc. “I understand you got a dead baby in your trunk. That’s what I understand.”

Mandy chimed in. “But it’s not a real baby.”

Graylin glanced at the simulator and then quickly back to Luc and Mandy. “Looks plenty real to me”

“Well, it’s not. It’s a simulator.” Luc hoped the desperation in his voice didn’t make them look worse than the deputy already believed them to be.

Graylin removed his hat and scratched the top of his head, all the time staring into the trunk. “A simu what?”

“If you just let us explain,” Luc pleaded, eager to get back to their search for Shannon.

“Oh, you bet your life you’re gonna explain
 . . .
back at the sheriff’s office. Git that baby outta the trunk.”

Luc’s stomach dropped, but he did as Graylin instructed and pulled the simulator from the trunk. Going back to the sheriff’s office would waste time, time they needed to be searching for Shannon. “But—”

“No buts about it.” Graylin scratched his head, then motioned toward the front of the car. “Now, git in the car and follow me. I never heard of no simul
 . . .
whatever, and that baby looks mighty real to me, so we’re going back to the office and sort this out. And don’t try anything funny. You wouldn’t get to the county line.”

Graylin watched closely as Luc took Mandy’s arm and walked her to the passenger side of the car. “He’s obviously not going to listen to us. But once we get to the sheriff’s office, I’ll have him call Catherine, and she can explain everything.”

Mandy looked at Luc, her worried features illuminated by the full moon. “What about Shannon?”

Luc just shook his head. He wanted to tell her that Shannon would be fine, but he couldn’t find the words to express something he had reservations about himself. “There’s nothing we can do about her at the moment. We just have to pray that she keeps a solid head on her shoulders and doesn’t do anything she’ll regret come morning.”

Luc and Mandy sat
in silence, neither of them able to believe where they were and what had happened. The Carson Sheriff’s office was quiet this late at night. Then again, so was the entire town. Granny Jo liked to say they rolled up the streets at nine. Only Jimmy Logan, the town drunk, slouched fast asleep in one of the other cracked vinyl chairs in the holding area. His loud snores reverberated off the colorless walls.

Luc, like everyone else in town, knew the routine. Jimmy would be issued a DUI ticket and spend the night in jail. Tomorrow, sober and ready to start anew, he’d head straight for Route 17 and Hannigan’s Bar for his morning eye-opener. Then, after a day of soaking up more booze, the whole process would repeat itself. Luc figured Jimmy had enough tickets to paper his bathroom and then some. Once a year they’d haul him into court; he’d pay his fines and begin a new collection that very day.

Impatient to be out of the stuffy sheriff’s office and to find Shannon, Luc glanced at the clock above the desk where a deputy shuffled papers and tried to look busy. Ten twenty-two. Behind him, Deputy Talbot held a phone to his ear, listening intently and occasionally nodding as if the person on the other end could see him. Joey, wrapped in the blue blanket in which they’d placed him in the trunk, lay silent on the desk in front of Graylin.

Luc assumed the person Graylin was talking to was Catherine Daniels. When they’d arrived at the sheriff’s office, they’d tried again to explain what was happening, what the simulator was and who they’d been looking for. Graylin hadn’t seemed convinced and suspected that something more sinister had been going on. Luc had reluctantly suggested he call Catherine to verify what they’d said. Catherine was not going to be happy that her granddaughter had disappeared, and Luc was not looking forward to having to explain why it happened.

Mandy leaned close to Luc. “Don’t look so worried. I’m sure that once he speaks with Catherine, it’ll be all straightened out.”

Luc leaned closer. For a moment, her perfume wiped all thought from his mind. He straightened away from her and took a deep, cleansing breath to clear his head. “I’m not worried about Graylin. Catherine’s explanation may get us off the hook with him, but we’ll still have to face her.” Luc sighed. “But what worries me more than explaining this mess to Catherine is locating Shannon. Of course, when Graylin goes home, he’ll give his darling wife an earful, and by morning Laureene’s version of what happened tonight and what’s going on at the lake house will be all over town.”

Mandy nodded. “Probably. But that’s a moot point at this stage, and there’s not much we can do about it. What’s done is done. And you’re right. We need to get out of here and find Shannon. Joey may have stopped crying, but we’re still in charge of Shannon.”

Luc just hoped they could find her before she did something stupid. She was so determined to hang on to Jeb that it bordered on desperation, and that was not a good sign in a lovesick teenager who wasn’t thinking straight.

They both fell silent again.

Just then, Graylin motioned for Mandy to join him. Slowly, apprehension and dread riding heavy on her shoulders, she got up and walked over to the deputy. He held the phone out to her. “Mrs. Daniels wants to speak to you.”

Mandy swallowed hard and took the phone. “Hello, Catherine.”

“Mandy, where’s Shannon?”

Good question.
“She’s probably back at the house by now.” Mandy hoped Catherine would settle for that explanation, but deep inside, she knew it would take more.

“Probably? That’s not good enough. Don’t you know?” The panic in Catherine’s voice was evident.

“Catherine, you have to understand. Shannon took off without permission. Luc and I have been frantic looking for her.” Now she sounded like the one in a panic. She took a deep breath. “We’ve looked everywhere, and the only possible place she can be is back at the house.”

“Graylin is going to release both of you. I’ll meet you at the lake house.” The line went dead.

Mandy hung up and went back to where Luc waited. She sat down and sighed. “Catherine is not happy. She’s going to meet us at the house.”

“Did you explain that Shannon just left?”

Mandy nodded. “It didn’t help. She’s understandably scared for her granddaughter. Once we get home and can talk to her, she’ll calm down. Hopefully, Shannon will be there, and she can do the explaining.”

Luc wiped his hand over his face and shook his head. “If Shannon did anything stupid, like decide to go ahead with her plan to have a baby, we’re gonna be the ones explaining.”

Mandy didn’t want to even think about that. Instead she directed her thoughts to why Shannon had run. Had she been to blame for the girl taking off? Had she pushed her too hard? In her blind-sided attempt to prove her point, had she made her do too much? For the first time ever, Mandy truly understood how difficult dealing with a teenager could be when their hormones were raging and their thinking was clouded by a first love.

Stop beating yourself up!
You didn’t do any more than you had to to make her see how her life would change with a baby to care for.

Mandy shook her head to dislodge her troublesome thoughts, then picked up the simulator and laid him in her lap. On top of everything else she had to think about tonight, Mandy didn’t need to be bombarded by guilt. As she wrapped the blanket around baby Joey, she recalled something Luc had said earlier to the simulator, something Mandy had asked him about, but he had skirted the subject.

She turned on the hard seat to face him, then lowered her voice so no one in the sheriff’s office could hear her. “You never answered me.”

Mandy’s question came out of nowhere. Confused, Luc turned to her. “About what?”

“What you said to Joey about single mommies not being the only ones who don’t want their babies.”

He’d hoped she’d forgotten about that, but obviously she hadn’t, and he could see no way past explaining it to her. Still feeling that in comparison to her childhood, he’d really had it good and had no room to whine, he took a deep breath and began.

“I guess I was drawing on personal experience. My mother was one of those women who never should have been a parent. She told me more times than I can remember that she wished she’d never had me, and that I was just an encumbrance. I don’t know why she didn’t like me.” He paused again, considering what the reason could have been. But just as it had a million times before, the answer eluded him. He stared at the floor, not wanting to see the pity he felt sure he’d see in Mandy’s eyes.

“Maybe it wasn’t me at all. Maybe it was because her whole life was just a series of disappointments. Not having the career as a dancer that she’d always dreamed of. Not having the man she’d married around to help her raise a little boy.” He sighed and shook his head. Now that he’s begun verbalizing all the pain and frustration of his childhood, he couldn’t seem to stop.

“Maybe my mom was just incapable of really loving anyone. If she did ever love my dad, I think that somewhere along the line she stopped. She treated Dad like dirt. Always arguing with him, telling him she should have married her high school sweetheart. Finding any excuse she could to be away from both of us as much as possible. Most of the time he did a good job of covering up his hurt, but sometimes I could see the disappointment in his face. His family and his marriage had started to crumble around his feet, and he couldn’t find a way to stop it. Eventually, it hardened him. It’s no wonder his favorite saying was
nothing lasts forever
.” He took a deep breath. “But their rocky marriage wasn’t all that unusual. As a child, I saw military families falling apart all around me. Some of them weren’t strong enough to withstand the long separations, and some were just not strong, period.

“My father told me once when I was older that two things killed his marriage, the military and love. I decided back then that I’d think long and hard before I fell in love or entered into wedded bliss. I’ve even considered the possibility that neither was in the cards for me at all.”

Mandy’s heart ached for the man whose voice echoed with the pain of a neglected child. She knew that pain all too well. Oddly, their childhood circumstances had been polar opposites, but with the same underlying problem
 . . .
a child who had been deprived of the love of a parent. But his last declaration about his views on marriage pierced her right through the heart.

Shoving the deep disappointment aside, Mandy listened intently as Luc began talking again.

“Of course, it didn’t help their marriage or me that my dad was too busy working toward making general before he retired, and we moved around a lot. I hated making new friends and entering new schools. Whenever I’d complain, he’d say, ‘Nothing last forever, boy. Buck up, and make your own way in the world. We all make our own happiness. You don’t need to depend on anyone else to do that.’ He never understood how much I wanted friends, and how much I wanted to stay where we were and not move again and start all over in a new school. How much I wanted my parents to care about me, to love me.” He paused for a thoughtful moment. “Maybe they did. I don’t know. All I do know is that they never showed it.

“When I got this job and bought my house, I couldn’t believe that I was finally going to put down roots and make friends I could cherish for the rest of my life.” He paused. When he spoke again, incredible pain laced through his voice. “And now, that may all be
 . . . .
” He lowered his head and stopped talking.

She touched his forearm. “May all be what?”

“Gone.”

“I don’t—”

“Okay, folks. Mrs. Daniels verified your story.” Deputy Talbot sauntered toward them, thumbs hooked in his belt, with all the attributes of a real life Barney Fife. Mandy had to wonder if the deputy was allowed more than one bullet for the gun strapped to his side. She certainly hoped not. “You can go, but mind you, be careful out there. It’s a jungle.”

Mandy managed to hold back the laughter until she reached the car. Once out of Deputy Talbot’s earshot, both she and Luc collapsed in laughter against the car’s fender. Whether from actual amusement or sheer relief, she wasn’t sure. But it felt good to release some of the tension that had gripped her body all night.

When she finally got herself under control and looked at Luc, his grin was the first she’d seen from him all night. As usual, her knees threatened to give way, and her heart beat increased threefold.

But even this momentary injection of humor into their evening hadn’t made her forget Luc’s last words before Talbot interrupted. What had he meant by
gone
? One thing she did understand from what he’d said was that his views on marriage were pretty discouraging. In fact, it sounded to her like the words
relationship
and
commitment
had no place in Luc’s vocabulary. If that were the case, then Mandy told herself that she had no business allowing herself to fall in love with him.

But the admonition came much too late. The damage was already done. Amantha James was head over heels in love with Lucas Michaels. Now, she had to figure out what to do about it.

After they left
the police station, Luc and Mandy, clinging to the hope that Shannon had returned in their absence, headed back to the lake house to meet Catherine. After retrieving Joey from the back seat of the car, they went inside. Though some of the lights were on, a thorough search of the house dashed their hopes of finding Shannon waiting for them.

Mandy put Joey in Shannon’s room, then came back downstairs and collapsed on the den couch and buried her face in her hands. She could see all hope of her succeeding at getting the simulators into the school drying up like the morning mist over the lake after the sun came out. If she couldn’t keep track of one teenager, what did that do to her credibility?