New Growth (Spook Hills Trilogy Book 2) (10 page)

She marveled at finding herself in Mathew’s bed.
 
Despite the circumstances with her marriage,
she wanted to learn more about Mathew.
 
He was different from her husband, much more masculine, at least as
intelligent and yet kind and gentle, except he could throw a good punch, like a
gallant gentleman of old defending a woman’s honor.
 
Most importantly he had a strong character,
which John Henry did not.
 
His handsome
face glowed with his inner
goodness,
while his blue-green eyes made her shimmer with suppressed excitement if he
glanced her way.
 
When amused, his eyes
provoked merriment.
 
If he ever turned to
her with an expression of longing, her battered heart would follow him like a
bright yellow California poppy tracks the sun.
 
Even so, she needed to face her issues first.
 

This decision to leave John Henry had taken her too long to
make.
 
N
ow
she and Susannah resembled two wounded birds needing time in a safe nest to
heal, each for different reasons.
 
She
snuggled under the comforter with her daughter’s warmth next to her.
 
Even freshly laundered, the bedding carried a
faint scent of Mathew’s masculinity and a comforting whiff of spicy
aftershave.
 
She closed her eyes and for
the first time in two days, she let herself drift off to sleep.
 

Two weeks later, on the first Friday in September, Mathew
waved Steve and Ivy off as they headed out for a couple of days
on
the Oregon coast.
 
With their vines too young to produce any
grapes for wine, next week they intended to participate in harvest at Rick’s,
learning as they worked.
 

The prospect of Callie coming over for dinner that night
filled him with anticipatory delight.
 
While they saw each other at Rick’s and once here at Spook Hills, he
held back from asking her out and even tonight he refused to characterize as a
date
since he wanted to advance their
relationship slowly.
 
In talking with her
at Rick’s the day before, she used the words ‘wounded birds’ to describe
herself and Susannah
.
 
Even though he found the epithet endearing,
the sadness laced in those two words reinforced the need for him to move at a
measured pace and remain only her friend for some time.
 

To his surprise and delight, Callie had filed for divorce
right after coming up to stay with Rick and
Sassy,
and she was making the move to Oregon permanent.
 
Susannah was enrolled in the local Oregon
school and would start classes next week.
 
Only two weeks had passed since the kidnapping and since Callie left
John Henry, yet so much was happening.
 
It impressed him that Callie was both cautious in making
decisions
and yet willing to act swiftly once
they were made.

For now, he had to let Callie and Susannah heal, from the
kidnapping, from the breakup with John Henry and at least for Callie, all the
years of verbal abuse and bad attitude she had put up with from her husband.

Last week, Ivy taught him how to make a traditional dish
with a sophisticated sauce called Steak Diane.
 
Corn on the cob and a crispy salad of farmer’s market greens, candied
walnuts, crumbled Stilton and diced pears would balance the complexity of the
beef dish.
 
He also made crostini from an
earthy whole grain bread to serve with olives marinated in slivers of garlic,
olive oil, and shards of lemon peel, next to a ripened slice of Bucheron goat
cheese for an appetizer.
 
With a stack of
cookbooks, notes and a timetable to follow, he trusted the meal would prove to
be fail-safe.
 

He studied his task list.
 
Over
appetizers
Mathew planned to
update Callie on the FBI’s pursuit of the underworld figures responsible for
Susannah’s kidnapping.
 
The FBI had
arrested the mob leader with many of his
gang
while shutting down their operations.
  
With that communication complete, he and Callie could shift to other
topics.
 

Carrying a pitcher full of sunflowers out to the table on
the deck set for their dinner, Mathew realized that cooking for Callie seemed
more intimate than going to a restaurant.
 
If she agreed to spend time with him as a friend, next time he would
take her to Portland with Susannah for some fun activity.

Mathew just completed prepping the appetizers when the
doorbell rang.
 
Wearing Ivy’s red Gl
ö
gg recipe apron to keep
his shirt clean struck him as a little silly when he went to answer the
door.
 
His heart gave a lurch at seeing
Callie on his doorstep, appearing equally nervous about their evening together.
 
She carried a bottle of pinot from a
nearby prime
winegrower, Archery Summit, to
drink with their steak.
 
Some aficionados
classify pinots as too delicate for a rich beef
recipe.
 
Mathew favored their nuances over the
more robust reds.
 
He opened the door,
bending down a little to press his cheek against hers.
 

“Welcome to Spook Hills!
 
You better be hungry because we should enjoy
scrumptious
provender, thanks to
help
from Ivy, and provided this fraud of a cook can make the food turn out right.”

She smiled at him in her direct way and
said,
“I’m sure dinner will be
excellent
.
 
I doubt you could scam anything you do.”

Even after a few days away from John Henry, Callie had
changed for the better.
 
She stood
straighter and spoke at a more
audible
level.
 

“While I’m not much of a chef, I want to learn,” Mathew
said.
 
“Ivy agreed to conduct cooking
classes this winter for
Moll and me
.
 
Did you meet Moll?”

Callie frowned for a moment and nodded.
 
“Yes, kind of a kooky fellow with curly hair
and more brains than he knows what to do with, right?
 
Since I’ll be staying with Uncle Rick and
Aunt Sassy, do you t
hink Ivy will
let me
join the culinary lessons?
 
My cookery
talents are pretty
basic
.”

“You probably underestimate yourself, but I’m sure Ivy won’t
mind a third student.
 
Will Susannah be
interested too?”

“More likely she’ll want to play
Scrabble
or another game with Steve,” Callie said.
 
“She likes him so much, ever since the day he
made the ice cream
sundaes.
 
Remember how
the two of them snuck
into the kitchen, giggling over swiping extra cherries?”

Mathew grinned at the memory.
 
“How hard we all laughed at Susannah chasing
him around with the pressurized canister full of Ivy’s homemade whip cream.”

“I didn’t know he ever goofed around.”

“Remember him and Ivy doing a Norwegian folk dance?”

“When they collided with each other and stopped dancing
because they cracked up with laughter?
 
Still,
I always think of him as serious, almost
forbidding.”

“Steve is a different man now than before he met Ivy.”
 
Mathew stopped to grab a bottle of wine.
 
“Let’s go out on the sundeck.
 
I thought a little Pinot Gris might work well
with our appetizers.”

They walked through the open doors to the roof deck at the
back of the house, where Mathew poured them each a glass of
wine,
and they settled into deck chairs.

“Callie, I thought we would start by bringing you up to date
on the kidnapping case, but first, and most importantly, how is Susannah
adjusting?”

“She doesn’t want to talk much about the kidnapping, at
least not to me.
 
She is much quieter
than she used to be and more fearful.
 
She
wants
to be with me even more
than before.
 
We each go
to
counseling
twice a week with back-to-back sessions.
 
Sometimes we may meet with the doctor at the same time.
 

“Strangers scare her.
 
I see her recoil when the phone or doorbell rings.
 
A couple of nights she has woken me up
whimpering and crying in her room.
 
I
either sleep on the floor in her
room,
or
she comes into bed with me.
 
It has only
been two weeks, but for her
sake,
I hope
she can put it behind her before too long.”

Mathew nodded.
 
“If I
can do anything to help her, just let me know.”

“Keep stopping by and include her in conversations.
 
Maybe we could all walk around the vineyard
together.
 
I think you are her white
knight and like with Lenny, she feels safer when you are around.”

“I hate to bring this up tonight, but I think I should recap
what the San Francisco CARD team leader told me today.”

“Okay,” she said nervously as if even to talk about the
kidnappers could bring their return.
 
“I
had an update last week from the FBI.
 
Is
there more?”

“They tracked the guy who delivered Susannah that
night.
 
He and whoever else was in the
car with them drove into San Francisco and left the
car
in a parking lot, then they hailed a cab and went to the home
of a reputed mob boss.
 
The FBI encircled
the house, pulling in a couple of SWAT teams with sharpshooters.
 
Several mobsters were killed.
 
Three others, plus three family members were
taken alive that night, along with the mob boss.
 
Thankfully they waited long enough before
storming the house that the mob boss had moved the five million into his
safe.
 
Having done that, he was caught
red-handed.

“They also followed the directions Susannah gave them and
after several wrong guesses, they arrived at the place where she was held.
 
It was in the basement of a so-called
gentlemen’s club which housed facilities for prostitutes, gambling and peddling
drugs.”

“Oh my god!”

“We are lucky that they wanted that five million and kept
Susannah away from all that.”

Callie had turned pale and sat wide-eyed staring at him
before saying through gritted teeth, “This was John Henry’s cousin, wasn’t
it?
 
He went there and ran up the debt.”

Mathew nodded, not wanting to say that her husband had gone
to the same bordello.

“John Henry went there too, didn’t he?” Callie asked in a
tight voice.
 
“Does he owe them money?”

“He did go, but we think only the once when he hooked up
with his cousin.
  
I haven’t heard that
John Henry owes them any money.”

“This cousin knew about Uncle Rick’s money, didn’t he?
 
I never met him, but I remember John Henry
alluded to having a black sheep in the family.”

Mathew bit his lip to keep from characterizing John Henry as
a second rogue in the
family
.
 
Instead
he kept to his agent’s voice and said, “We’re not sure when he found out about
Rick’s financial situation.
 
He might
have known for some time or he might have
learned
about it
from John Henry that afternoon they were at the so-called
club.
 
At any rate, the FBI made arrests
at the club and shut down the facility.
 
They did find evidence that Susannah had been held there by matching DNA
from her hair on her clothes to hair found in the basement room.”

Callie
shivered,
and
Mathew got up to put a throw around her, even though it was fear and nerves
that made her cold.
 
Then he sat back
down and took one of her hands in his.

“I know this is hard for you to hear, but I thought you
should be aware
.
 
So did the FBI.
 
They continue to work on shutting down other
operations that they can ferret out from the mob bosses’ ring.
 
That cousin could serve time for his role in
this, I suspect.”

“Will Susannah or I have to go to Court?
 
I don’t want to put her through that.”

“You and John Henry may have to be deposed.
 
It is possible that Susannah may have to
answer questions in a deposition as well, but the FBI will try to avoid
that.
 
They caught the gang red-handed
with the ransom after all.
 
Rick and I
will testify.”

He handed Callie her glass of wine.
 
“The money will be wired back to me and to
Rick next week, so you can rest easy about that.
 
The FBI will keep what they put up.

“Sorry to start the evening off like this, but I thought it
best to talk about it here without the danger of Susannah overhearing. She’s
okay over with Rick and Sassy, right?”

Callie nodded.
 
“And
thank you for lending Lenny to us.
 
I’m
not sure how much sleep the poor man gets.
 
I know he does night patrols.
 
With the gang in custody, I guess he can move the trailer back here.”

“Let’s give it another week,” Mathew said.
 
“He said he is ready to move up full time to
work at Spook Hills.
 
Do you have things
to bring up here from California?”

“Some that I will put in storage up here, plus our clothes
and stuff.
 
I’m putting the house on the
market.”

“If you don’t want to go back to California right now, make
up a
list.
 
Lenny will meet a
moving company
at your house.
 
You’ll need to get it
cleared with your attorney.”

“You are all so kind to us!
 
I will pay for the
mover
and for
Lenny’s time.”

“Let’s work that out tomorrow.
 
For tonight, can we move on to more pleasant
topics and enjoy this lovely evening?”

Mathew topped up their glasses of wine and then sat back in
his chair, watching as the sun sank towards the horizon.
 
Callie was quiet, sunk back into her own
thoughts.
 
Mathew wanted to give her some
time to process their conversation.

“I adore the setting here,” Callie
said
at last, breaking the silence.
 
She shook herself and arranged the throw into a shawl, sitting
straighter in her lounge chair and trying to look more optimistic.