Shadow of Suspicion (Haunted by the Past) (7 page)

“You have to help me!”

Jason groaned at the sound of his
father’s voice. He glanced to the side and saw a pair of jean clad legs. One
booted foot tapped the ground impatiently. He closed his eyes and wished it was
an invisibility cloak he was under instead of a car. The foot ceased tapping
and nudged his leg.

“Hold on………..I’m coming out.” Jason
dug his heels into the ground and rolled himself out from under the car. He sat
up on the beaten up wooden creeper and rested his elbows on his knees. Doug
wrung his hands together and stared at Jason with a panic stricken expression
plastered to his face.

“What the heck is wrong now?” Jason
grabbed the cloth that lay on the ground beside him and wiped the grease from
his hands.

Doug’s eyes slid briefly to Mitch.
“Not out here. Can we talk in the office?”

Jason sighed. “Sure.”

He climbed to his feet and headed
towards the office at the back of the garage. He could hear his father’s heavy footsteps
following behind. They entered the small room and Jason shut the door behind
Doug.

“What’s this all about? Why the cloak
and dagger routine?” Jason slumped into the chair in front of his desk. He
indicated for his father to take the seat that rested against the wall by the
door. Doug sat down heavily.

“I went to see Sandra’s daughter this
morning.” He turned bleary, bloodshot eyes to Jason.

“I take it things didn’t go well?”
Jason cocked an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair.

“She won’t leave.” Doug swallowed
hard. His gaze dropped to the ground and he slumped forward with his elbows
resting on his knees. “I told her Sandra doesn’t want to see her. I thought
she’d be angry with me. I expected her to rip me apart for what I’ve done and
then head for home.”

He brought his head up to stare at
Jason as if the whole world had come to an end. “Unfortunately, she says she’s
taken work down here and won’t just abandon her client. What the hell am I
going to do? I’ve been driving round in circles for hours trying to think of a
solution, but I haven’t a clue. Sandra is never going to forgive me for this.”

Doug sprang to his feet and paced the
office floor with his hands wedged into his hair. “You have to help me, Jason.
I have to find some way to make Callie leave.”

“Callie?” Jason jerked upright.
Surely it couldn’t be! He had to be wrong. “You don’t mean Callie Price, do
you?” he questioned his father tentatively.

Doug frowned. “Of course I mean
Callie Price. Who do you think we’re talking about?”

“I don’t know! You never told me the
name of Sandra’s daughter before now. I wasn’t that interested to ask.” Jason
ran a hand down his face.

His heart thudded heavily in his
chest. It hadn’t even occurred to him when he’d picked Callie up the previous
day that she might be Sandra’s daughter. She didn’t resemble Sandra all that
much. What with her talking about her job, the possibility had never even
crossed his mind.

“What difference does it make?” Doug
sounded impatient.

“You’re not going to like this.” Jason
swallowed hard. “I picked Callie up yesterday after she broke down. Her car is
in the garage as we speak.”

“WHAT!” His father’s shout made
several heads turn in their direction…..including Mitch.

“Keep your voice down!” Jason hissed
and shot to his feet. “Do you want to draw attention to yourself? Mitch will be
asking me all kinds of questions if you carry on like this.”

Doug blew out a breath. “Sorry. It’s
just things can’t get much worse. What am I going to do? If she turns up here
and Mitch gets suspicious, I’m done for. Sandra specifically didn’t want her
nephew finding out.”

“I’m sure it will be fine. Callie
doesn’t exactly take after Sandra all that much in the looks department. Why
would Mitch have anything to be suspicious about?” Jason patted his father’s
arm. An incredulous expression crossed Doug’s features. He stared at Jason as
if he’d just sprung another head.

“Are you kidding me? Have you ever
seen a picture of Sandra’s mother when she was young?” Doug had turned a nasty
shade of grey.

“Of course not.” Jason frowned.

“Callie has inherited a lot of her
grandmother’s attributes, especially her colouring. If Mitch sees her, there is
no way he won’t be suspicious. He’ll stick his nose in and what’s to stop
Callie from telling him who she is?” Doug looked as if he wanted to throw up.

“What the hell do you want me to do
about it?” Jason threw his hands into the air. “I can hardly get rid of
Callie’s car and I can’t order Mitch out of the garage. This whole thing is
ridiculous. Why can’t Sandra simply tell her family about her daughter? It
would solve everything.”

Doug shrugged. “I have no idea. When
I suggested as much last night, I thought she was going to have a fit.”

“Don’t you think it’s a bit odd?”
Jason leaned against the filing cabinet next to him. “Sandra isn’t a teenager
any longer. She shouldn’t be so bothered by what her family say. Why is she in
such a twist about this?”

Doug held up his hands. “I have no
idea. I’m through meddling. I just want to keep Callie out of this garage and
find a way to persuade her to go home. You have to help me with this, or things
could be over between me and Sandra. I really couldn’t handle that.”

Jason glanced out of his office
window and groaned. A familiar red headed female charged along the street with a
determined stride. Unsurprisingly, she was headed straight for his garage. This
just wasn’t his week!

“Ah, Dad? I think it may be too
late.” He pointed outside.

Doug swivelled his head around and
clapped a hand to his face with a panicked shout. “We have to get out there and
stop her.”

Doug whipped past Jason and sent him
tumbling backwards against the filing cabinet.

“Dad, for heaven’s sake!” Jason
rubbed his back where the corner of a drawer handle had dug into his flesh.

His father didn’t even turn around.
He was already out the door and charging through the garage like a mad bull.
Jason sighed heavily and followed in his father’s wake. He heartily wished he’d
never set eyes on Callie Price!

Callie stepped down from the bus and
pulled the collar up on her coat. The day had been a long one, but very
productive. She’d viewed the entire B&B from top to bottom. Several rough
pencil drawings graced her sketch book with hundreds of notes she’d quickly
scribbled down as inspirations occurred to her. She was excited about drafting
out her ideas and presenting them to Mr Cunningham when he came back to Devon
on the weekend. She had no doubt he would be impressed.

Her stomach growled, loudly demanding
food. Callie ignored it. She had to sort out her car’s repairs as top priority.
It would seriously mess up her schedule for work if she didn’t have a way
around town that didn’t involve public transport. Car rental was out of the
question until she knew the cost of the repairs and if her insurance would
cover it.

Callie glanced up and down the
street, trying to remember the directions the bus driver had hurriedly spouted
at her before she’d alighted the vehicle. She finally spotted the shop that
he’d told her to watch out for. She headed towards it and turned left down a
small side street.

Hawkes garage should be just a short
walk on the right hand side, or so she’d been told. Callie’s heart lurched in
her chest at the thought of seeing the handsome mechanic. She attempted to
squash the small thrill of anticipation that wormed its way through her
insides, but somehow she couldn’t quiet the part of her that wanted to see him
again.

He has a girlfriend
, she reminded herself firmly. Not
that they’d seemed terribly happy the previous evening. The atmosphere had been
so tense between them, Callie swore she could have cut the air with her knife.

Even after Jason had left the pub,
Lucinda had continued to flirt outrageously with Mr Cunningham. Callie had
thought the woman was only behaving that way to make Jason jealous, but
apparently not. Still, it was none of her business. She had more than enough of
her own problems without sticking her nose in someone else’s.

Her gaze caught sight of the garage
just ahead of her. She hurried towards it. The sooner she sorted things out,
the quicker she could buy dinner.

“
Don’t go there
.”

Callie gasped and her head snapped to
the side. Her eyes widened at sight of the small child she hoped to never see
again. The girl shook her head, her curls bouncing around her chin.

“
Leave…..now! Before it’s too late
.”
Her eyes darted over Callie’s shoulder.

Callie turned and realised that the
girl was staring toward Hawkes’ garage. Her stomach clenched and she turned
back towards the child. The girl had vanished! Callie gasped and stared all
around her. She clutched a hand to her head. Was she going crazy? Who was the
girl she kept seeing, if she was in fact seeing anyone at all?

Callie’s vision spun and she suddenly
felt the need to sit down. She doubled over and drew in several deep breaths.
Her bag slipped off her shoulder and flopped to the ground. Callie’s mind
whirled. Could she be so anxious over the events that had drawn her here that
she’d manifested her worries into the child she kept seeing? That had to be it.
What other explanation could there be? Regardless, it worried Callie that she’d
had so many of these episodes. It wasn’t normal.

Straightening up, she hefted her bag
back onto her shoulder and stared at the garage. She had no idea why her
subconscious would have such a problem with her entering the building ahead of
her. Maybe it was to do with her attraction to a certain mechanic? It didn’t
really make sense. She’d seen the girl before she’d even met Jason. Then again,
nothing about the encounters made any sense.

Callie bit down on her lip and let
the slight pain snap her back to reality. She threw her misgivings aside and
continued towards her destination. She couldn’t afford to let her overactive
imagination stop her from achieving her goals. Work had to come first. Her
reputation was second to none and she wasn’t about to let that slip because she
had personal issues!

Loud banging and male laughter
drifted outside the garage and wrapped around her as she approached the
forecourt. The normal sounds calmed her nerves. Callie stuck her head around
the corner of the large doors that stood open. The smell of oil, petrol and
grease mixed together, assaulting her nostrils with their pungent odour. The
familiar scent grounded her firmly back to Earth and she let the strange
encounter slide from her shoulders as easily as her bag had slipped to the
ground earlier.

She scanned the garage. There were
two men working on a couple of cars, but neither one was Jason. Callie
tentatively entered the forecourt. The sound of pounding footsteps drew her
attention. Her eyes widened at the sight of a large figure bearing down on her.
She’d barely registered Doug’s white face before he grabbed hold of her arm and
pushed her out of the garage.

“Hey! What do you think you’re
doing?” Callie shouted. She tried to pull her arm from his grip, but he
tightened his hold.

“Keep your voice down,” Doug hissed.
He manoeuvred her around the corner of the building. Callie nearly tripped on a
loose stone, but Doug held her up. She was
not
grateful!

“What the hell is going on?” She
twisted out of his grip and glared at him. Callie rubbed her arm where his
fingers had dug into her flesh. She was going to bruise, she just knew it. Her
skin always turned black and blue at the slightest knock.

“Dad! Stop it. You’re making matters
worse with this carry on.” Callie’s jaw dropped at the sound of Jason’s deep
voice. “There was no need to be so rough. None of this is her fault.”

“Keep out of this, Jason.” Doug
didn’t even flick his gaze behind him. He glared at Callie with a fierce scowl.
She was quite taken aback. He’d seemed so gentle at the B&B that morning.
What had changed?

She glanced over Doug’s shoulder to
see Jason standing behind the older man, his thumbs hooked into the waistband
of his jeans. Had he called Doug Dad? Callie’s gaze darted between them and she
could have kicked herself. No wonder Doug had seemed familiar this morning. If
she hadn’t been so fixated on whether he was
her
family, she would have
realised he bore a striking resemblance to a certain mechanic.

“Would you kindly explain this
insanity?” Callie addressed Doug. She refused to back down in the face of his
extreme rudeness. “You have no right to push me around! I won’t stand for it.”

“This isn’t a game, young lady.”
Doug’s voice was low and fierce. “If your mother finds out that you’re still in
town, she’s going to blow her top. With me! I am asking you to please drop this
job of yours and go home. There is nothing for you here. I’m willing to pay you
whatever you’ll lose from ditching your contract.”

“Dad!” Jason strode to his father’s
side. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? You have no idea how much that
could be! You can’t afford to throw money away like that.” He grabbed his
father’s arm, but Doug shook him off.

“You want to buy me off?” Callie
stared at Doug in disbelief.

“No, he doesn’t,” Jason injected,
scowling at his father fiercely. Doug didn’t even acknowledge that his son had
spoken.

“If that’s what it will take to get
you to leave……..yes!” Doug’s mouth thinned out, his determination shone from
his eyes.

Callie shook her head, a shocked
laugh burst from her lips. “Just when I thought this whole situation couldn’t
get any stranger, it does.” A thought suddenly occurred to her. “Is my mother
in the garage? Is that why you don’t want me in there?”

She quickly darted around the stunned
men and dashed into the garage. The other mechanics stopped their work and
glanced up at her sudden entrance. Callie ignored them. She scanned the
darkened area as she moved rapidly through the space. She could hear Doug’s
curses behind her, but she didn’t care.

Disappointment surged through her.
There was no sign of a woman anywhere. Tears stung her eyes, but Callie blinked
them away. She hadn’t realised how much she wanted to see her mother’s face
until that moment. Her heart ached in her chest and she hated it. How could one
woman cause her so much pain? Maybe Jade had had a point when she’d said Callie
was setting herself up for a fall. She should have listened to her friend.

“I don’t get it.” She spun round and
faced Doug. “Sandra isn’t here, so what’s your problem? Why did you push me
outside if there was no danger of her seeing me?”

Doug’s eyes flicked to the left, his
face uneasy. Callie followed his gaze to a young man that stood beside a car,
slowly wiping his hands on a cloth. He stared at her with a rather odd
expression on his face. It was obvious he was listening to every word they
said. Callie glared at him. Talk about rude!

“I don’t know what you mean.” Doug
sounded like he’d swallowed a cactus whole. Callie glanced back at him to
witness a rather panicked silent exchange with his son.

Jason stepped forward. “If you could
come into the office, I’m sure we can sort this whole problem out. There really
is no need for this upset.”

She didn’t like his placating tone.
Callie narrowed her eyes at him. She opened her mouth to argue, but Jason spun
her towards his office. He placed his hand at her back and pushed her forwards.
Before Callie knew quite what was happening, he’d shut the office door.

“Does all this manhandling run in the
family?” Callie sneered. She glared at him and planted her hands on her hips.
“What is going on?”

“Nothing that should bother you that
much. My dad just doesn’t want gossip to get back to Sandra. He hasn’t told her
you’re still here yet. It will be worse for him if she hears it from someone
else.” Jason grinned at her, seemingly at ease. “One of my mechanics is the son
of someone that’s very close to Sandra, so you can see his dilemma.”

Callie stared hard at him. “I guess,
but that doesn’t give him the right to push me around…………or you for that
matter!”

“I know.” Jason pointed to a seat
against the office wall. “Why don’t you sit down and tell me what brings you
here. I’m guessing it’s your car?”

“You can’t seriously think to
distract me with that?” Callie couldn’t believe his audacity. She wasn’t some
stupid airhead. She knew there was more to this than he was willing to tell
her. She could feel it in her bones.

Jason sighed, sounding exasperated.
“For it to be a distraction, there would have to be something to distract you
from. There isn’t.”

“Do I have stupid tattooed on my
forehead?” She marched forward and planted herself in front of him, toe to toe.

His eyes narrowed onto her face. “You
don’t really want me to answer that, do you?”

Callie’s mouth dropped open. She
poked his chest with her finger……….hard! “You are the most rude, arrogant,
horrible man I’ve ever had the misfortune to run into. I wish I’d never laid
eyes on you!”

He leaned over her and snarled in her
face, “Well, that makes two of us. I’ve had nothing but trouble since you rolled
into town. Why don’t you do us both a favour and roll back out of it?”

“Maybe I would, if my car wasn’t
busted! Unless you fibbed about that particular problem?” She let out a
startled shriek as Jason gripped her arms and hauled her face to within inches
of his own.

“You’re daring to question my work
ethics again?” he growled. “Believe me, if I could fix your car and send you
packing this minute, I would!”

Callie forgot to breathe. Suddenly
the only thing she could think about was his wide shoulders and his ruggedly
handsome face inches from her own. She stared into his deep brown, angry eyes
and felt like she was drowning in their depths. Her stomach clenched and her
heart pounded in her chest. What the hell was wrong with her? He looked as if
he’d like to strangle her and all she could think about was kissing him!

Callie licked her lips and his eyes
dropped to the movement of her tongue. Her body instantly ignited with heated
desire. A throbbing ache between her legs shocked her into action. She darted away
from him, her face so hot she wouldn’t have been surprised to see flames
shooting out of her cheeks. Please God, let him think it was anger that caused
her blush. The last thing she needed was for him to know she found him
attractive. It was too humiliating.

“I can quite believe that you and
your father would love to see the back of me.” Callie kept her gaze on the
floor. She didn’t dare look at the expression on his face. “I guess that means
you will fix my car as fast as you can?”

“Believe me, I’ll work on it around
the clock!” She heard him moving away from her and risked a peep at him. His
back was to her as he moved towards his desk and picked up a piece of paper.
“I’ve nearly finished pricing up the quote for you. I just need to ring a
couple more places to find the best price for a replacement engine. If you care
to wait, I can sort it out in the next half hour.”

The thought of being in the tiny
space with him for another five minutes was more than Callie could stand. She stepped
towards the office door and wrapped her hand around the long metal handle. The
smooth coolness soothed her heated skin. She could feel his eyes on her back. They
burned through her coat and set her senses tingling.