Last Light (24 page)

Even worse, what if he didn’t?

She’d gone days without talking to him before, when he’d been so busy with work that he didn’t have time to pick up the phone. But mostly she talked to him every day. She missed him, and wanted to hear his deep, rumbling, hurried voice. She wanted to see the smile in his eyes when he came to her door. Wanted to feel his arms around her—those arms that made her so proud that he would want her when he could have almost anyone.

She wondered what he was doing today. Was he in the dark, too? Was he upset, realizing that he wasn’t going to see her soon? Was he making plans to come and get her? Maybe he was already on his way.

After a grueling day of work, she put on makeup and pulled her greasy hair up into a ponytail at the top of her head. With bobby pins, she secured it in a bun, then used hair spray to hold it in place.

The spray was a bad idea, its scent adding to the smell of sweat and smoke from the barbecue pit. But at least she didn’t look as much like a hag as she had for the last few days.

When she went down for their pitiful supper, Beth looked up at her. “We’re going fishing tomorrow at Lake Bishop! All of us, even Mom.”

Great. Another family field trip. “I don’t want to go,” Deni said.

Her mother frowned. “Why not?”

“Because, I don’t feel like it, okay? I was supposed to go back to Washington today. It stinks that I’m still here, and I don’t want to go fishing.”

“If you don’t fish, you don’t eat.”

This was ridiculous! “Then how come Amber Rowe always gets to eat? I’ll bet
she’s
not going fishing, but you’ll surely bring something back for her.”

Her mother’s face tightened. “If there’s extra, we will. But our first priority is to feed
our
family.”

“Yeah, right.” Deni looked at her father, who had that tight look on his face. “Can’t you give me a break? Don’t you realize what I’m going through? I haven’t talked to Craig in five days! I’m going nuts. All I want to do is go back to Washington, but it’s like the universe has conspired against me.” She slammed her hands on the table and got up, went to the kitchen sink to get some water from the pitcher. She poured a glass, took one drink, then spat it out. “It tastes like mud flavored with bleach. I’m
sick
of this!”

“Deni, we’re all sick of it,” Kay said. “This has curtailed all our plans. And Craig will be all right. If you love each other, then you can handle being apart for a while. He’ll still be there.”

She spun to face her mother. “
If?
That’s it, isn’t it? You don’t think he loves me! You think I’m just some starry-eyed girl who’s in love with the wrong guy. You’ve never liked him, either of you!”

Doug’s jaw dropped. “What? Why would you say that?”

“I see that look on your face whenever you’re around him, like you’ve bitten on a lemon. And everything you say to him is sarcastic. You’re happy we’re not together, aren’t you? You’ve probably been praying for divine intervention to stop our marriage from happening.”

Her dad just stared at her. “Right. The outage is all about you. Somehow your mother and I rigged up an EMP to keep you away from Craig.”

“Stop putting words in my mouth!”

“Deni, I know you’re upset.” Her father’s tone was sharp, and his eyes told her he wasn’t going to put up with much more. “But you are not going to talk to me or your mother that way.”

She chewed on her bottom lip, expletives flying through her mind—but she knew better than to utter them. “I’m still not going fishing.”

“Fine.” Her mother showed no sympathy at all. “Then you won’t eat fish. Be satisfied with a helping of peas for supper tomorrow.”

“Maybe I’ll go to
Amber’s
for dinner.”

Kay was fed up. “Go to your room, Deni.”

She breathed a laugh and looked up at her mother. “I am twenty-two years old, not some kid who can be grounded.”

“You’re a guest in my home,” her mother bit out, “but if you insist on acting like a child, you will be treated like one. Go to your room. I’ve had enough.”

Deni wanted to upend the table, with all the dishes on it. She wanted to kick a hole in the wall. She wanted to get on her bike and ride until she couldn’t ride anymore.

Instead, she stormed up the stairs, and sat like a kid in Supernanny’s “naughty room.” Defiance spiraled through her, and finally, she got up and donned her swimsuit, and put her clothes back on over it. She needed a swim, and she’d promised to go with Chris to Vic’s tonight. She packed a towel in her tote bag, then headed downstairs.

Her family was out on the back patio, so she slipped out the front, knowing they’d stop her if they knew what she was doing. It was after eight, and dusk colored the street in gray tones As she headed to Chris’s, she feared the swarming mosquitoes more than the killer, since there was still some light. Didn’t killers only strike after midnight?

Out of habit, she glanced to the right and left before crossing the street. As she did, she caught a glimpse of someone several houses back stepping behind a house as if hiding from her. She looked harder, trying to see who it was. They were gone.

She crossed the street, then turned back. She saw the shadow of a man coming out from behind the house, but quickly he stepped behind a tree.

Was that Brad Caldwell?

She turned from him and walked faster, wondering if he was watching her. If so, what for? It wasn’t like she needed a babysitter.

No, his hiding seemed more sinister than that. Like he was stalking her or something.

She glanced back, and didn’t see him. Maybe he was gone. Maybe he was playing hide-and-seek with his children. This was, after all, Brad Caldwell, Birmingham attorney, Jeremy and Drew’s dad.

But until the outage, they’d hardly interacted with him at all. How did they know what kind of man he really was? People had secrets. Some deadly.

She was out of breath by the time she reached Chris’s. Her friend had been waiting for her. Deni told her about Brad as they walked to Vic’s. As they turned up his driveway, she saw Brad again. He was closer now, but still trying not to be seen. Thankfully, Vic answered the door quickly. The dog yapped up at her.

“Deni! Chris! What a surprise!”

Deni looked over her shoulder and bolted inside without being asked. “Close the door!” she said. “We’re being followed.”

He picked up Scrappy. “By who?”

“My next-door neighbor.” She went to the window, looked out. “Never mind. I don’t see him now.”

“That black man? He was following you?”

She turned back to him, surprised that he knew where she lived. “I think so. I’m not sure. Maybe I’m just on edge. But I saw him and it made me nervous.”

Vic and Chris looked past her out the window. “Well, you’re welcome to stay here until you feel more comfortable,” Vic said. “I can walk you home if you want.”

Chris gave a nervous laugh. “Actually, we intended to come here. We were hoping you’d let us swim.”

“Of course you can. It’s all yours.”

He stayed inside while they went out, and Deni swam laps. His little dog sat on the side of the pool, seemingly fascinated with both of them. After they both washed their hair over the grass, Vic came out with two glasses of lemonade. Sitting down on the lawn chair next to her, he handed her one. “Here, maybe this’ll cheer you up. That guy really shook you up, didn’t he?”

Deni took the glass and drank it gratefully. Chris was still in the water, floating on her back. “It’s not just that. I’ve been in a blue funk all day. I’m furious at my family. They don’t understand how much I want to get to my fiancé. I’m going crazy, and they think I should be happy as a clam to be here in Crockett with them.”

“Crockett’s not a bad place to be.”

“No, if you don’t mind living in the neighborhood with a killer.”

He nodded. “Yeah, there is that. Have they gotten any closer to finding out who did that?”

“No, but there are a lot of rumors going around. I have a few ideas of my own.”

“Don’t tell me, let me guess. Are any of them saying Brad Caldwell was involved?”

She looked at him, startled. “No. Look, just because he was following me doesn’t mean I think he’s the killer.”

Vic set Chris’s glass down. “There are rumblings that he was out the night the Grant house was broken into, prowling around the neighborhood with a gun. When he first moved in, lots of people were suspicious of him, anyway.”

“Why? Because he’s black?”

“That probably has something to do with it.”

“Well, I don’t think his race should make him more of a suspect than anyone else. My dad and brother were out that night, too, and my brother’s friends were getting drunk and partying. I’m sure they’re all being looked at.”

“Yeah, but we can’t ignore the obvious. Especially if he was following you.”

She didn’t know what to think. “That’s just it. This is not a safe place. That’s only one of the reasons I don’t want to be here.”

“Then leave.”

“How will I do that? Got any ideas?”

“A few. If this outage lasts much longer, I’m going to have to hit the road myself. I’ve been trying to think of what I could rig up to carry my stock in so I can visit my stores and make sure they’re back up and running. I’ve got a few ideas for a wagon pulled by horses. I won’t be ready for a few days yet, but when I go, you’re welcome to come along.”

She looked at him, struck by the simplicity in his tone. “You’d take me all the way to D.C.?”

“Sure. I have to go that far, anyway. My stores are all across the south. I’d have to stop at each one along the way, so if you don’t mind that, I’d be perfectly willing to take you all the way to Washington.”

She imagined telling her parents that she was leaving town with Mark’s father. What would they say?

You can’t go off with a perfect stranger. You don’t know anything about this man.

But she knew his son, and he was a nice guy.

She regarded Vic as he fluffed his Yorkie’s coat, pampering and kissing him. A man who loved his dog so much couldn’t be bad, could he?

Of course, her parents would forbid her to leave, but that would carry little weight. She had to follow her heart and couldn’t let them make decisions for her anymore.

Still . . .

She didn’t know Vic that well, and it would be awkward being on the road with a stranger for days, maybe even weeks. There must be some other way.

“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s a possibility. I’ll think about it.”

“Do. You have a little time. It’ll take me awhile to get things ready. And of course, I’m hoping that it won’t come to that. If the power comes back on soon, then we’ll both have our problems solved.”

When they left Vic’s, she hurried home, constantly looking over her shoulder. She didn’t see Brad as she went by his house and slipped into her own.

Evading her parents again, she hurried upstairs and plopped onto her bed, as that seed of hope took root in her heart.

If things continued the way they were, at least she had one option. She could leave Crockett with Vic. It was something to hang on to.

thirty-one

For the next several days, Doug and Kay didn’t talk again about the gun he’d loaned to Amber. But the tension was still there, rippling on the air like deadly fumes. There was never a time to air their marriage out. No date night to talk things over, no stolen trips in the car for a moment to work things out. At night, when they fell into bed, they were both too exhausted to tackle the subject.

Doug watched his wife flit around the house taking care of menial things that kept them going. While they were at the lake, Kay stayed home boiling water. While they dug a garden, Kay scrubbed dishes out on the back patio. While they met neighbors in the streets, Kay put together feasts from a can of green beans and a pack of dried noodles.

Recognizing her weariness one evening after supper, he told her he and the children would wash the dishes so she could go visit down at the lake. It had become the hub of the neighborhood, a place of fellowship and swapped information, where many gathered at the end of each day.

Kay stayed out until dark, then came back with new life in her eyes. She’d met several women she’d never seen before and reacquainted herself with others. She couldn’t stop talking about a family who’d just moved in two weeks before the outage.