Reflecting Love's Charms (Bellingwood Book 14) (27 page)

"I don't know," Rebecca said, peering out at it. "Probably a dead body."

"No way," Kayla said. "She wouldn't."

"Wanna bet?" Rebecca asked, putting out her hand. "If it's a dead body, you have to ..."

Polly put her hand up to stop Rebecca from going any further. "No. Kayla doesn't have to do anything." She looked behind her to make sure that no cars were approaching, backed up, then pulled into the parking lot and drove over to the dark pile that she'd seen. "You two stay here. I just want to make sure it's nothing."

"It's gonna be something," Rebecca said. "I just know it."

Polly got out of her truck and walked over to the pile and bent over. "Damn it," she said under her breath. "Just damn it, damn it, damn it. We did not need this tonight." She reached down and touched the young man’s neck, feeling for a pulse. The scrapes on his face looked fresh and she shook her head, then stepped back and pulled out her phone, swiping a familiar call open.

"Polly?" Aaron asked. "Why aren't you home with your family?"

"Because I'm at the Co-Op on Highway 17. You need to send your team. I did it again."

"I'm sorry, Polly. Are you alone?"

"No. Rebecca and Kayla are in the truck. We were going to Ames for one last hurrah before calling it a day."

"Male or female?" he asked.

"It's a young man. His face is all scraped up. Do you think this has anything to do with that girl I found last week?"

"I don't know," Aaron said. He sighed. "I just don't know. I'd hoped you had enough to deal with for one week. I'm so sorry. Go sit with your girls and we'll be there soon."

"Thanks Aaron. You know you can never retire, right? Who would I call?"

"They might vote me out of office one of these days, Polly. You never know."

"I'm not too worried. Will I see you here?"

"Not tonight. But Stu will be there soon. Take care."

Polly ended the call and walked slowly back to the truck. She got in and pulled the door shut, then leaned back. "You were right, Rebecca."

"I knew it! I just knew it."

"It's a dead person?" Kayla asked.

"Yes. I called the sheriff and he's sending his people. We have to wait."

"We're not getting ice cream tonight, are we?" Rebecca asked.

"We still have plenty in the freezer at home." Polly dropped her head forward. "I'm sorry girls, but when we're done here, I just want to go home."

Kayla reached up and patted Polly's shoulder. "That's okay. We understand. We already talked about it. Rebecca said that this is hard on you." She kept patting Polly's shoulder. "Since I've never really seen a dead body, I don't know what it feels like, but I guess it must feel pretty awful."

"I just need to process it," Polly said. "I'll be okay by tomorrow." She reached her hand back and patted Rebecca's knee. "I'm sorry this happened on your birthday."

"I'm never going to forget my thirteenth birthday," Rebecca said. "There were so many things that happened this weekend I can't even believe it."

"Some of it has been bad, though," Kayla said. "Like my dad kidnapping you and then stabbing Stephanie." The truck went silent and then Kayla continued. "And he's dead now. That's weird, right? That he's dead? Should I be more upset?"

"How do you feel about it?" Polly asked. This was the second time that someone had asked her if the fact that they didn’t have powerful feelings over this man’s death was weird. Maybe they’d been exposed to her pragmatic behavior too much and took it in stride. Both of the girls had lived through traumatic changes and she was thankful they had each other.

"I don't feel anything. He was a bad man and he hurt my mom and Stephanie. He was never a dad like Henry is. He came home drunk all the time and we had to be really quiet so he wouldn't know we were there. I'm only twelve and don't have a mom or dad anymore."

"You have Stephanie, though," Rebecca said. "She's like a mom."

"Yeah, I guess. I'm really sorry that he did that to you, though."

"It's not your fault," Polly said.

"It feels like it is, though," Kayla replied. "He was
my
dad and the reason he took Rebecca was so that he could find me."

"And hurt you," Rebecca interrupted. "He wanted to hurt you. Even if he hadn't kidnapped me, I would have done anything to not let him hurt you."

Polly smiled in the darkness of the truck.

"There they are," Kayla said, pointing.

The train had long since passed and the lights of the emergency vehicles flashed as they approached from Boone.

Polly put her hand on the truck door. "Hopefully we won't be here too long once they arrive."

"Because they know where you live," Rebecca said. "And it's not like you have any information on who did it."

"Not yet I don't." Polly opened the door and jumped down from her truck as Stu Decker pulled in beside her. She waited for him to get out of his car. "Were you guys slow tonight? Not enough business?" she asked.

"Is that what this is about?" he asked, crossing to shake her hand. "If we don't have enough going on, you head out to look for a body?"

She grimaced. "I swear. This is exhausting."

"You've already had a long weekend." Stu waved two other deputies over to the young man's body and they watched as the rest of the emergency vehicles drove in. "You didn't see anything?"

"I was just waiting for a train to cross," Polly said. "When I saw what I thought was a pile of something, Rebecca commented that it might be a dead body. I was already backing up to come in and look."

"You might as well take the girls on home, then." He turned and waved to the truck. "We've got it from here. All you did was drive in and walk over?"

She shrugged. "That was it."

"Okay. If we have any more questions, we'll call tomorrow. Tonight we'll try to figure out where he came from."

"Thanks, Stu," Polly said, touching his back. "I appreciate you coming out."

He laughed. "I don't know what would happen if we didn't."

"You know what I mean."

He nodded and she walked away and back to the truck."

"Ready to go home now?" she asked.

"Are you?" Rebecca asked.

"I think so. I could use a doggie hug."

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

"Good heavens." Polly opened the garage door and laughed as she pulled in beside Stephanie's car. There might be more boxes and pieces of furniture here now than when she had emptied her father's storage unit.

In between his finals this week, Hayden had emptied his apartment and packed everything in here and then he, Heath, Henry and Jeff had emptied Stephanie and Kayla's trailer. Polly, Kayla and Rebecca spent the evening last night cleaning the trailer. There were nearly two weeks left on the lease, but there was no reason to drag any of this out.

On top of all that, Polly talked Andrew, Rebecca and Kayla into helping her box up all of her things from the office. It felt strange to no longer think of that as her office, but change was on the agenda. As she looked at all of the boxes and furniture in front of her truck, it wasn't so much change as it was hurry-up-and-wait. Until she moved into an office at the Bell House, she didn't need any of the decorations and knick-knacks. Star Wars characters could just wait. Files that she needed to access on a regular basis had been moved into Henry's office. He made a crack about giving up half of his file drawers, but he'd rearranged things anyway.

Stephanie and Kayla had moved into the downstairs rooms of the addition. It was funny to watch Stephanie and Jeff. He wanted to be a mother hen and she wanted him to leave her alone. The girl had found a backbone in the middle of all that had happened. Polly wondered if part of it wasn't the promotion she’d been given.

When Jeff had tried to take Stephanie to his apartment Monday night after leaving the hospital, she put her foot down. She was willing to accept the room at Sycamore House, but she wanted privacy again. Two nights in the hospital with people walking in on her every moment was plenty. She'd let Kayla spend another night with Rebecca, but after that, the two of them were going to figure life out on their own.

Hayden had one more final and he was finished. They would attend his graduation this weekend and have yet another party. Polly was about ready to be finished with parties. But this one would be small. They were moving Henry's grill over to the house and grill burgers and brats for their friends. Polly had asked about inviting his aunt and uncle. He'd made the call, but they weren't interested in participating. He shrugged it off, but she knew that it had hurt. It was still difficult for her to understand how indifferent those two could be to their brother's sons. That was probably one reason he wanted this to be low key.

The door from Doug and Billy’s apartment flew open and Doug burst out with his two dogs. He stopped and looked at her, still sitting in her truck, then made the motion for her to roll her window down. Instead, she got out.

"What are you doing down here?" he asked.

"Just thinking about things." Polly pointed at piles in front of them. "All of the changes that are happening."

"Did you hear about Billy and Rachel?"

She flattened her eyes and pursed her lips. "No."

"Yeah. They set a date."

"When?"

"Halloween weekend."

"This year? What day is Halloween?"

"It's a Monday, but they're going to use all of the decorations from your big party and have their reception on Sunday. They already talked to Jeff."

"That's a really good idea, but wow? What do you think about this?"

He shrugged. "I don't know." Doug stopped himself. "That's not what I mean. I think it's great that they're going to get married, but we haven't figured out who's going to move out yet. They told me I could stay here, but I have to get another roommate. I don't want to live up in that big place by myself."

"I'm sure it will work out," she said. "Wow. They're finally getting married. She didn't say a word last weekend when we were setting things up for Rebecca’s birthday party."

Doug chuckled. "They had a big fight on Monday because he was waffling on a date." He dropped his voice. "If you ask me, I think she has baby fever. There were a lot of babies and pregnant people and little kids at Rebecca's party."

Polly tried to count in her head. It hadn't seemed like a lot. "And how does Billy feel about that?"

"After they got over their fight, she had to go work and he told me he felt ill. He's totally not ready to be a dad."

Polly nodded. "Hopefully he'll have some time between now and when that happens to get used to it."

"I'll make a really cool uncle, though," Doug said.

"And Billy's good with setting a date?"

Doug rolled his eyes. "If it were up to him, he'd keep things the same and never change them. He's such a boob. I tried to tell him that he and I can't live together forever, but he thinks that if he just doesn't talk about it, Rachel will forget. I finally told her that she was going to have to push him into this. His mom told her the same thing."

"He's going to drive her nuts for the rest of her life," Polly said.

"Yep. Lucky for her I'm around to help keep him in line, right?"

"Sure."

Doug headed for the back yard. "If you think of someone who would make a great roommate, let me know, okay?"

"On it." Ever since Doug had mentioned he was going to need a roommate, Polly's mind had been racing through all of the people she knew, eliminating them one by one and then considering others. She put her hand on the door to go inside and glanced back at Doug chasing his dogs. More change in store.

She'd barely made it inside when her phone rang. What would Lydia be calling about?

"Hello there," Polly said.

"I had to tell someone. Aaron's taking me on a cruise!"

"What? He never takes vacations. What am I going to do..." Polly refused to say the words. This wasn't about her. "How did you talk him into this?"

"I didn't have to. Jill and Steve were planning an Alaskan cruise and Steve's being transferred so they can't go. Jill called us this morning and Aaron actually agreed to go. Can you believe it?"

Polly stood stock still in front of Andrew's old nook. It had filled up with supplies this last year since he'd found a place in his own room at home for his books and treasures.

"Are you there?" Lydia asked.

"I'm in shock."

"We leave in two weeks. It's perfect timing, isn't it?"

"Sure?"

"Well, Beryl will be in New Mexico and so I won't worry about being away from her. Then we'll be back before all of the excitement starts for the Sesquicentennial celebration. Won't it be perfect?"

"You're leaving in two weeks for an Alaskan cruise. And Aaron is going." Polly was still shocked. Good heavens, she hoped she didn’t find another body while he was gone.

"I know. Okay, I can't talk, I have a million things to do to get ready, but I had to tell you. I have to tell everyone. I love you, dear."

"I love you too."

Polly dropped her hand with the phone and shook her head. Good for them. Good for Jill and Steve. Lydia forgot to tell her where they'd be transferring to, but it would come up again.

She went upstairs and looked around at the chaos that had erupted in the apartment this week. Rebecca's gifts were still lying around, even though they had told her over and over to put them away. Kayla was steadily working on Rebecca's bedroom, but at the same time, they were bringing home more junk from the girl's locker. Hayden had brought things upstairs that he would need for now. Polly knew better than anyone that little by little, more of his stuff would creep up from the garage, as it should.

When she got to the living room, she sat down and moved things around on the coffee table. Rebecca had been working here each night, writing thank you notes for her birthday gifts. Cards, envelopes, pens and stamps were everywhere. And so was Polly’s charm bracelet. Rebecca had gathered all of the boxes, opened them and put it together one evening when she begged to be released from writing more notes.

Polly ran her fingers across the charms. Each of these people had taken the time to think about their relationship to Polly. From Sal she’d gotten a coffee mug and from Joss there were two charms – a set of twin babies and she’d found a classic car. Henry told her it was a ’62 Impala – Nate’s car. Jeff had given her a calendar. She chuckled. It was perfect.

Polly placed it on her wrist and fumbled to close it, finally getting the clasp to do what she wanted. She leaned back on the sofa and stroked Obiwan’s head. "Where is everyone?"

At least now she could track Rebecca down. They'd gone to Boone after school on Tuesday to get cell phones for Andrew and Rebecca. Kayla had made the trip with them, but Stephanie insisted she had to wait for her birthday before getting a phone. It was only a couple of months away, so Kayla hadn't been too heartbroken, but she'd paid close attention when her friends were making choices.

Rebecca had been beside herself and started downloading free apps before they got in the truck to come home.

"Where are you?"
Polly texted to Rebecca.

In a split second, she received a reply.
"Check it out. You can find me now. How cool is that?"

Polly laughed
. "It's cool. But where are you?"

"Sorry. We're in Stephanie's room. She's showing Kayla pictures of the apartment they're going to rent."

"She found one already?"

"Yeah. It's really nice. It's in Andrew's old building. On the top floor."

That would be perfect for them. Jessie and Molly lived in the same building. It was close to everything. The girls would have a great time.
"When do they move in?"

"June first if everything works out. She's close to Jessie! We can babysit all the time."

"Sounds awesome. Did you take the dogs out?"

Polly had to wait a few seconds for a reply.
"Oops. No. Sorry. Andrew's on his way there."

"What have you been doing all afternoon?"
They didn't have much homework, but Polly knew there were a couple of big projects still due.
"Did you get homework done?"

Rebecca sent back a sad face.

"Tell Stephanie goodbye and come home. You know the rules."

The front door burst open and Andrew rushed in. "We're sorry. I'll take them out right now. Come on, Obiwan and Han. Let's go outside." He ran on through to the back door with the dogs rushing to beat him there.

Polly shook her head at the commotion and sat down on the sofa. It took longer than she expected, but Rebecca finally came in the door.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Rebecca said. "We got busy with stuff and time got away from us."

"What kind of stuff?" Polly asked. "You certainly weren't putting your things away."

"I found this great game on the phone and we were..." Rebecca finally looked at Polly. "That was stupid of me. I shouldn't have said anything."

Polly chuckled. It was so hard for Rebecca to lie about things, even when it got her into trouble. She put her hand out. "Phone, please."

"But I won't do it anymore," Rebecca said, holding the phone behind her back.

"We talked about this. Responsibilities come first. You aren't losing it forever. Just tonight. You can have it back tomorrow."

"But that is forever. I can't text Andrew tonight."

"I'm guessing that if his mother knew what happened today, he wouldn’t have his phone either. No worries."

Rebecca frowned. "You can't tell her."

"Oh, I think you'd be surprised what I can do. Phone, please."

"This isn't fair. I just got it."

"And you'll get it again tomorrow. But for now, you have work to do."

Rebecca slammed the phone into Polly's outstretched hand, then winced when she realized what she'd done. "Sorry."

"Uh huh. Go on out to the dining room and get started."

"Please don't get Andrew in trouble, okay? It was my fault."

Polly nodded. Tattling on kids wasn't her thing. She waved her fingers at the dining room and set Rebecca's phone on the coffee table in front of her. Stupid little girl. She laughed at the frustration Rebecca was going to continually face in her quest to become an adult. Polly distinctly remembered learning lessons over and over again. One night her father had sat down with her and asked why she didn't just do what she knew was right to do. That might have been one of the nights she'd stayed out too late without calling him.