South River Incident (12 page)

“Oh, honey, you didn’t ruin
my Thanksgiving. If anything, you added some spice. Things are never dull when
you’re around.  Besides, I’m not worried. I know Cole and Billy will take care
of you.” She laughed her silly laugh, and then kissed me on the cheek.

I didn’t have much
confidence in Cole anymore, but I knew Billy would never let me down. He had
become my rock. I knew I could trust him with my life.

“I guess we’d better get
moving,” I said. “I don’t want to put this off any longer. I’m sure Sheriff
Hudson will be so glad to see me again. He’s getting used to having me as a
guest at his humble abode. Maybe he could set up a room just for me in case I come
for a visit. I sure hope he puts a TV in the room.”

I know everyone thought I
was being silly, but I didn’t care. It was my way of being able to handle what
was happening. The truth is, I was scared. I didn’t like the way things were
going so far and I didn’t have a reason to believe it would get better.

Billy saw my fear. He came
over and put his arm around me. “Come on,” he said. “I’ll be right beside you
the whole time.”

“What will I do if they put
you in jail?”

“You won’t have to do
anything.” He chuckled and then looked around the room. “You’ll be there with
me.”

I grabbed him by the arm
and headed for the door. “If you’re saying that to make me feel better, it’s
not working.”

“Would I do that?”

“Take care of her, Billy,”
Mom said as she walked over to the front door. “Don’t let her get crazy and say
something that we might all regret later.  You know how she gets when her
temper flares. She’s worse than a mama bear protecting her cubs.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen her mad a
few times. She’s rabid.”

“Billy Blackhawk, you’re
full of it,” I said. “Get me out of here! We have a party to go to.”

“See, I told you she was crazy.”

T
he sheriff kept us until almost
five o’clock
.
He warned us
not to leave town and said he might have more questions for us at a later date.
Actually, he was almost pleasant after we convinced him we had an alibi for the
day Mary Keen disappeared, or at least my car did. It was impossible for anyone
to say they saw me in my car on that day because my car was in the shop. Also,
we could alibi each other in the death of
Roy
. Yet, I still had an uneasy feeling.

“I can’t believe he was so
nice,” I whispered to Billy as we left the police station. “See, he knows we’re
not guilty.”

“Boy, have you got a lot to
learn,” Billy said, helping me up into the truck. He walked around to the
driver’s side. “He’s waiting, that’s all.”

“Waiting for what?”

“He’s waiting for us to
slip up or until he can get more concrete evidence. He can now place us at the
scene of the crime. But there’re two of us and he knows our alibi will hold up
in court unless he can prove something otherwise.” Billy started the truck and
pulled out of the parking lot. He retrieved his cell phone and handed it to me.
“Here, call your mama.”

I dialed the number, and
Claire picked up on the first ring. I had to go through everything that
happened at the police station before she finally handed the phone to Mom.

“Mom, it’s me, Jesse. I
just wanted to let you know everything was fine. I’m not going to jail just
yet.”

“I’m glad, honey.” She
sounded relieved. “Cole and Billy are good men. I knew they would take care of
my girl.”

I replayed the whole scene
at the police station. She wanted to know every detail.

“Does that mean you guys
are in the clear?”

“Well, for now it does,
Mom. You can bet we’re going to watch our backs. I don’t trust the cops.”

“Oh, Jesse, you sound so
mysterious. If it wasn’t so serious, it would almost be funny,” she giggled
into the phone.

Billy motioned for me to
hand him the phone.

“Hold on, Mom, Billy wants
to talk to you.” I passed him the phone.

“Hey, didn’t I tell you
everything would work out?  We’ll be there shortly.  That’s fine! We’ll see you
soon... Love you, too.” He closed up the phone and stuck it back into his coat
pocket. “Your mom wanted to know if we were coming by to get the dogs. I told
her we were. She thought we had forgotten about them.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve had other
things on my mind.”

“That’s exactly what your
mother said. According to her, it seems our communication skills are sorely
lacking.”     

“I was just thinking. I
hate to bring them to a new place and then turn around and leave them by
themselves.”

“They’ll get used to it.
All they have to do is get settled in. Trust me, dogs adjust to new
environments very well. It just takes a little time. Besides, we’ll be there to
help make it easier. Five minutes in that house, a bowl of food and a blanket,
and they’ll be right at home.”

“If you say so,” I mumbled.
“Maybe you could help me for a while. I’m not too good at long-term
maintenance.”

“It’s time you learned.” He
looked at me in one of his serious manners. “It’s time you grew up and took on
some responsibilities. You have a good life and people around you who love you.
You’ve found your home.”

I understood every word he
said. I’d lived a vagabond lifestyle for so long that I didn’t know what it
meant to have a real connection to anything permanent... whether it was a
relationship, apartment, or a job. This was to be my life and even though
things could get strange sometimes, I liked it, and I wanted it to get better.

“You are absolutely right!
I need to get my priorities straight. The first thing I need to do is make a
home for my dogs. Then, I’ll go from there.”

“You’ve got it.”

“Is that a snowflake?” I
asked Billy. We pulled into the circle at Mom’s house. “I thought we were
finished with snow for a while.”

“What can I say? We live in
the mountains. Winter is upon us.”

“Let’s make this quick and
painless. I don’t think Mom really wants to let those dogs go, but for some
reason, she has the same idea as you do. She wants me to be responsible.”

“There’s no doubt in my
mind about it,” Billy agreed.

The departure was filled
with tears. Mom and Claire cried when Billy and I put Athena and Thor in the
truck. At the last minute, Claire ran out of the house with a big bag of dog
food.

“Here, you might want to
take this. They’ll need it now and we can get more when they come for a visit.”

I opened the door and
grabbed the bag.

“Thanks, I’m sure they will
appreciate it. Are you sure you guys don’t want to come with us?”

“It’s been a long day and
everyone is tired, maybe some other time.”

By the time we reached our
new home, the snow was coming down hard. Thor had insisted on riding all the
way with his head out the window, nipping at the flakes, while Athena lay
groaning between Billy and me. She usually gets car-sick. The minute I opened
the door, they jumped out and took off running. They were free.

“Hey, where’re you going?”
I yelled at them.

“Oh, let them go,” Billy
said, grabbing the bag of dog food and heading up the steps. “They have to
check out their new territory.”

I collected my belongings
and followed Billy inside.

The thermostat had been set
on seventy degrees when we left, which should have kept everything nice and
warm, but the house felt like an icebox.

“Billy, it’s freezing in
here. Did you leave a window open?”

“No, I didn’t.”

He looked around the room,
until his eyes became fixed on the door to the utility room.

“What on earth... the
outside door is standing open. Give me your gun. Mine’s in the truck.”

I sat my briefcase on the
kitchen table and removed my gun.

“Here,” I whispered,
passing it to him butt first. “What’s going on?”

“Someone’s been here. Stay
close to me.”

He held the gun out in both
hands, kicked the back door shut with his foot, and then went from room to
room.

I stayed on his heels. I
was scared and didn’t know how I would have reacted if we had found someone in
the house.

“It must have been the
wind,” he said, once the search was complete. “I guess my imagination is
working overtime.”

He put the gun on the
computer table and went to the fireplace.

“I’ll put some logs on the
fire. Why don’t you call in the dogs?”

“Billy, I saw you lock that
door. It wasn’t the wind and you know it.  Tell me the truth. You think
someone’s been in here, don’t you?”

“Jesse, it’s an old lock.
I’ve been meaning to replace it with a deadbolt, but never got around to it.
I’ll take care of it as soon as Lowe’s opens in the morning. Don’t worry. If
you’re scared, I’ll move something heavy in front of it. Nobody’s getting in
here.”

“Maybe you can stay with us
tonight,” I replied.

He made a move toward me
with an amorous look in his eyes.

“Stop right there!” I said,
taking a step backward. I didn’t want to instigate anything. “The dogs need
you. That’s all I meant.”

“In that case, I’d better
stay. We don’t want the dogs to be scared.”

He chuckled and walked to
the front door. When he opened it, a gust of snow and two soaking wet dogs
rushed in. Their wet, dirty paws made tracks on the floor straight to the kitchen.
Thor had something in his mouth.

“What have you got there,
boy?” I asked. I went to him and bent down. I finally managed to wrestle it out
of his mouth.

Once Billy sat the bowls of
food on the floor, Thor forgot all about the prize he had just delivered.

“Did you lose a glove?” I
asked, looking up at Billy.

He reached out and took the
glove from my hand, examining it closely.

“It’s not mine. It’s too
small. Besides, it’s a woman’s glove.” He handed it back to me. “It’s probably
yours.”

I reached into my coat
pocket and pulled out mine.

“I don’t think so.” I waved
my pair at him. “I have mine.”

Billy tossed the wet glove
in the sink.

“Maybe it’s one of my
mom’s. We’ll take it with us. I need to get back to my place and take a shower
or we’re going to be late.” 

“You’re going to leave us
alone?”

“Yes, unless you want to
come with me. I have to change clothes sometime and I thought you might need
time to relax.”

“I could use a little down
time before we go to your folk’s house,” I said, feeling a little silly for
being so scared. I was a big girl. I had a gun and two viscous attack dogs. How
much protection does one person need?

I looked at the dogs.
Athena was standing at her dish, savoring every morsel of her dry food while
Thor had plopped himself down in front of the fireplace looking like a beached
whale. Before Billy reached the front door, Athena had abandoned her food and
joined Thor.

I kept my distance from
Billy as he was leaving. I think we both recognized it was time to step back
and draw some lines in our relationship before we could move on to the next
level. I wasn’t sure how I felt about many things, but there was one thing I
did know—I wanted Billy near me. Soon, we would have to meet in the middle and
lay our cards on the table. I had a lot of thinking to do in a short period of
time. When emotions and physical attraction come into play, things start
happening.

After Billy left, I threw a
couple of logs on the fire, switched on the television to keep the dogs
company, and then headed to the bathroom for a well-deserved soak. I grabbed a
couple of candles off the dresser and was ready to relax. I’d just about dozed
off in a sea of warm bubbles when Athena came up to me and barked.

“What?” I snapped to
attention. “What is it, girl?”

She yelped and pranced
around in circles, her nose high in the air. Suddenly she stopped, twisted her
head to one side, and then jumped on the tub with her front paws. She was
silent until I went to pat her head. A chilling howl came out of her mouth that
could have awakened the dead. I knew she was trying to tell me something.

“Back up and give me a
minute,” I said to her as I reached for the towel on the toilet seat. I jumped
out of the tub, dried off quickly and wrapped the towel around me.

Athena turned and ran.

By the time I reached the
living room my heart was racing. My hair was wet and the water dripped down my
back. I stood frozen in shock, staring at what she was trying to show me. A
picture of a skull and crossbones flashed on the computer screen. At the
bottom, a message appeared: STAY OUT OF MY BUSINESS OR DIE!

The sound of my heartbeat
pounded in my head as I gingerly looked around the room. The eerie feeling of
somebody watching me crept up and sent a shudder through my body. Goosebumps
rose on my forearms. It took a half-second for me to panic. I snatched my Rossi
off the computer table and ran to the bedroom to get dressed. There was
something vulnerable about being half naked, and thinking some creep was
staring at you through a window. I had to put on some clothes.

Things were still in
disarray from the move since I hadn’t completely settled in. I had to scrounge
around until I came up with my old bathrobe. Once I had myself covered and
cinched up, my courage returned. I felt under the bed to make sure that my 9MM
was still there—it was.

In my line of work, it’s
good to have a backup weapon. At one time I considered buying a snub-nosed .38
with an ankle strap, but with my luck, I was afraid I’d shoot myself in the
foot.

I sucked in my breath,
stuffed the Rossi in my robe pocket, and inched out of the bedroom. With my
back to the wall, I slid through the house until I had closed every curtain and
made sure the front and back doors were still secure. I went upstairs to have a
look around. Once I was sure the windows in both bedrooms were locked, I let
out a sigh of relief. I wasn’t taking any chances. I’ve watched enough TV to
know that bad things can happen to women who live alone.

By the time I made it
downstairs, most of my fears had subsided. I stood in the living room, and for
the first time since I had moved to the mountains, I stopped and took a real
hard look at my life. I had a feeling that I was exactly where I was meant to
be. All I had to do was to decide where I wanted to go from here. One day soon,
I would become a licensed private detective and then Billy and I would be
business partners. At least that had been the plan—until we had slept together.
Speaking of which, what about Cole? How did I feel about him? I cared for him,
but the intense love I thought I felt was nothing more than sexual
gratification and a need on my part to have someone in my life. He stimulated
and fulfilled my sexual desires, but that was about as far as it went. We
didn’t share much of anything else. He wasn’t able to put in the time it took
to make a relationship work, and I needed someone who wanted to be with me. I
realized I could have all of that with Billy.