Just Down the Road (25 page)

“We need to marry,” Tyler mumbled to himself as he set up extra chairs in the chapel just in case they were needed. “When she comes home, I’ll put my foot down.”

He knew he wouldn’t, but it sounded solid to say so. His Kate had a mind of her own. She’d never be a woman to be controlled, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. All he wanted for her to be was loved, and that was one job he felt up to. He’d been saving up love to give for most of his life.

“Come home, Kate,” he whispered as he worked. “Come home safe and sound to me.”

“Mr. Wright?” Calvin called from the front of the chapel. “You figure anyone will come to this poor girl’s funeral? I don’t think she knew a soul in Harmony.”

Tyler glanced over at the bare steps, at the front, where Calvin always placed flowers people sent to the service. No one had even sent a potted plant. Usually the number of flowers paralleled the number of people. “Calvin, bring some of the silk sprays in from the viewing rooms. Whether anyone comes or not, I’d like to make the place look nice. Dust off those white ones too and put them in the back.”

“The angel wings?” Calvin asked.

“Yes,” Tyler smiled. “The ones that look like angel wings.”

An hour later Tyler was so glad he’d filled the front of the chapel with flowers. From near the back, he watched Tinch Turner walk up to the casket with a thin little boy by his side. Only a few lights were on because the funeral wasn’t for another two hours, but everything had been prepared. The small chapel, which hadn’t been changed since his grandfather built it, looked grand. Rich polished wood, carpet on the floor to buffer any sounds, and chandeliers that made lace on the ceiling with shadow and light.

Tyler saw the boy touch the casket, and then the cowboy picked him up and let him cry on his shoulder. Tyler had no doubt the boy was the son of Sadie Noble, but he was surprised to see him still with the rancher. If Tinch had the kid, there must be no other relatives.

They walked up the aisle and out the front of the church. When he passed Tyler, Tinch said simply, “Thanks.”

Tyler straightened with pride. If no one else showed up at the funeral, it didn’t matter. He’d done his best for the little boy and that was enough. He would always remember the fine polished box and the flowers and angel wings surrounding his mother. His last memory of her would be peaceful.

He held the door as they passed, with Tinch still carrying the boy on his arm.

“We weren’t here, if anyone asks,” Tinch whispered.

“I understand.” Tyler didn’t need to know the details. Somehow the boy’s safety was at stake, and that was all he needed to know.

Two hours later a dozen people from the trailer park came to the funeral, more out of curiosity than mourning. Tyler stood in the back greeting them as formally as if they were dressed in suits and not shorts. He had to ask two women to leave their drinks on the steps, and one man frowned when Tyler insisted he not smoke.

He heard one teenager complain that the casket was closed. Another woman blew her nose loudly and dropped the tissue between the pews as if she thought she was at a ball game.

Just before Tyler closed the doors, several people dressed in black climbed out of a gray van. They reminded him of the cast from a horror movie: all thin, red eyed, and in need of washing. One was trembling as if it were cold in the chapel, and another had a drippy nose but he didn’t seem to have noticed. Druggies, he thought, and wondered if Sadie had been one of them.

The driver of the van, a small man who looked like he’d been frowning at the world since the day he was born, entered the chapel last. He seemed to be the only one totally aware of where he was. He herded the others along like they were ducks. Tyler decided the driver had a hard look about him, prison hard, that not even the suit he wore could hide.

Fighting down a grin, Tyler could almost hear his Kate asking him how he knew what
prison hard
was.

Alex and Hank Matheson followed the horror group in but took their place on the last row of the chapel. The sheriff wasn’t in her uniform, but Tyler had the feeling she was still on the job. Hank seemed more relaxed. He smiled and whispered to Tyler while Alex signed the book. “Interesting group you got here, Ty. Let me guess, it’s BYOB for the wake.”

Tyler glanced at the people in the chapel and tried not to laugh. Two huge thugs in black must have entered through the side door. They didn’t sit with the van people or the
trailer park folks. They wore bulky jackets that could easily conceal a few weapons. Both were scarred and tattooed, but it was their permanent frowns that probably kept folks at a distance. One glared at the van people but nodded at the driver as if he knew the little man.

Miss Dewly, who played the ancient organ, came in and took her place. So did her two friends. They always tagged along if Miss Dewly had a morning funeral so all three could go to lunch afterward.

It occurred to Tyler that Alex might have shown up because she thought whoever killed Sadie Noble might come to the funeral. Tyler knew he wasn’t supposed to know the death was a murder, but the coroner in Dallas liked to talk.

Tyler looked around. Except for Miss Dewly’s buddies and the Mathesons it would be hard to pick the most likely murder suspect from this crowd. Half the people at the funeral looked like they’d kill someone for pocket change.

He thought of the little boy who’d cried for his mother and was glad Tinch hadn’t brought him to the funeral. He was better off with the rancher than with any of these people posing as friends.

As Tyler closed the door he noticed a deputy writing down the license plates of every car on the lot, even Miss Dewly’s.

The preacher came out and announced they’d be singing song number 172. No one picked up a songbook but Miss Dewly’s lunch buddies. The preacher and the three old women sang “Amazing Grace” while everyone else watched.

The service was short. One song, two prayers, and a five-minute sermon about the beauty of life as God’s gift. No one looked like they believed a word the preacher said. Two of the druggies from the van group had been put to sleep by the song.

Tyler made an executive decision not to announce that there would be coffee and cookies in the parlor after the service when he noticed that the woman who’d blown her nose so loudly was busy stuffing the complimentary tissue boxes into her mammoth purse during the prayer.

As everyone filed out, Tyler thought he saw the deputy taking pictures from the evergreens across the lawn.

Finally, the man who’d driven the van and the two huge thugs were the only ones left in the church. Alex and Hank were in the foyer watching with Tyler through the tall slats that separated the chapel from the entryway.

To the funeral director’s shock, one of the thugs opened the casket.

Tyler would have moved to stop them, but Alex put her hand on his arm.

The three men stood in front of the open coffin. In the silent church their voices traveled easily to the back.

“You didn’t think she’d have it with her, did you, Sullivan?”

“Naw, I guess I thought we might just get lucky. Don’t know where else it’d be.”

“She never was real pretty, but she looks terrible dead,” the biggest one of the three said.

“Most folks do,” the van driver snapped as he pulled on his gloves. “She got what she deserved lying to us about where she left the stash.”

“Yeah,” the big one agreed as he dropped the lid of the casket. “That’s one druggie who won’t cross us again.”

Tyler felt Alex tug him toward the door, and by the time the three men walked out she was busy telling him how nice the service was while Hank blocked most of the view of Alex and Tyler from the men.

Once they’d driven off, Tyler dropped the small talk. “You think those were the men who killed her?”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “How’d you know it was … oh, never mind. Yes, they could be. If you see them around here again, let me know.”

Hank stood guard even as their cars disappeared. “Why didn’t you arrest them?” he said to his wife.

“They don’t know we know it was a murder. As far as they’re concerned, all we believe is what we read in the paper: accidental overdose. By the time they even suspect, I want an airtight case to take to the DA.”

“Well, you may get your chance to ask them a few questions.” Hank stared at the cars heading downtown. “Looks like the car with the two thugs turned toward the police station.”

Alex took off toward the deputy’s car.

Hank just stood beside Tyler and yelled, “See you at dinner, honey.”

Tyler looked up at his best friend. “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Let her go into danger like that? Those two may have been the men who killed Sadie Noble. She’s going to meet them, maybe even confront them.”

“I know.” Hank frowned as his hand slowly uncurled from fists. “But when you love somebody like I love Alexandra, you have to let them do what they love. She’s good at her job. I’ve got to trust that. I guess if you love someone, you got to love them all. People don’t come in parts you can divide out and pick what you like.”

Tyler watched Hank walk away to his truck. He knew the fire chief was right, but what if Kate came back from her mission and told him she wasn’t retiring? After all, the army had been her life for more than twenty years. She was good at her job, and she’d said once that all her friends were people she worked with. Could he stand and watch her go on mission after mission, knowing that it might be dangerous?

He walked back into the chapel and began folding up chairs that hadn’t been needed. Halfway through, in the silence of the empty chapel, he called himself a coward. He knew he couldn’t let Kate go away again. His heart couldn’t take it. When she got home, if she got home, he’d have to tell her that it was the army or him. For more than two weeks he hadn’t slept. He’d panicked every time he didn’t know exactly where he’d put his cell phone. Everyone around him was excited and waiting for Autumn’s baby to be born. He couldn’t tell them that Kate was on her last
mission and she might be in danger. He’d had to keep it locked inside with his fear.

Stay with me or choose the career
, he’d say.

She was his only love for this lifetime. She’d understand, he reasoned.

Or, she’d leave …

T
HURSDAY

O
CTOBER
6

R
EAGAN WASN’T SURPRISED WHEN DAYS PASSED WITHOUT
Noah coming back. He had a dozen other places he could sleep in town, or he could always go home to the rundown old homestead that his dad had deeded over to him a few years ago.

A few mornings after the fight in the bar, she drove past his parents’ old place and noticed his pickup parked in the drive. She felt as if the friendship that had lasted for years was dying.
Maybe people struggle too hard to hang on to friends
, she thought. Maybe sometimes they should just let them slip through their fingers like the ashes of what once had been.

She wished she could use the excuse he always used. If nothing he said mattered when he was drunk, maybe nothing he heard should either. Maybe they could just wipe
away all the conversation they’d had in the bar and start over. She wouldn’t complain about him being drunk, and he wouldn’t call her a virgin again.

She thought of showing up at his door, but wasn’t sure he’d be alone. Half the single girls in town would love to get a chance to go out with the great Noah McAllen. Reagan told herself she was strong, but she didn’t know if she could remain standing and take the blow if Noah was with another woman.

Time drifted by in Reagan’s world. Big moved to the fire station at night and focused on being one of the guardian angels over Tyler Wright’s housekeeper. Autumn Smith had shown up in town more than six months ago, pregnant and on the run from her boyfriend. Tyler had found her parked at the cemetery, and after he confronted her one snowy night, they’d both slipped on the ice and ended up at the hospital.

When the funeral director found out she was pregnant, he’d taken her in, and now Autumn was part of the family. Big and his friend Willie Davis took turns watching over her in the evenings and making sure Autumn got to all her classes at the community center. Now that the time was near, they planned to be ready for what they were sure would be a midnight run to the hospital.

Reagan missed Big. He was one of those rare people who would just go along with her in life. If she said she wanted only pudding for supper, he’d reach for the spoons. He knew her secrets and liked her anyway. She hadn’t crawled in bed with him since that one night, but she knew his door would always be open and he’d never push like Noah sometimes did.

That was Noah’s problem, Reagan decided. He pushed. He always wanted something bigger, better, as if the world as it was just wasn’t good enough for him.

When he didn’t show up to listen to Beau Yates practice the following Monday, Reagan knew that this time they weren’t going to patch it up. She sat listening to the beautiful songs Beau played and watching a very tall nurse trying
to teach Big to dance. He didn’t do very well at the fast dances, but the slow ones left them both smiling.