Sterling's Reasons (9 page)
The sounds of the ocean, the sea gulls, and the taste of the good food, badly prepared, seemed to have a settling effect on Sterling. She sighed and looked around.
After gathering her bag they walked side by side down the old, warped and worn plankboard dock looking at the boats. The feel of his guiding hand on the small of her back was unnerving her. She was vulnerable right now. Out of nowhere, a feeling, a memory had come flying by and knocked her back in time.
Five years.
She concentrated on strolling beside Joe, forced herself to let the sights and smells bring her back to the present. She would have liked to just lean on Joe, lean into him and have a good cry. She deserved it. She needed it. She reached a hand out and tucked it in his arm. When he hugged it to him, she was surprised.
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It was a gesture of possession. A gesture of caring. She leaned her cheek against his shoulder, grateful that he let her. Grateful that he asked no more questions.
Crab nets hung on the boats. The smell of bait and salt, fish, and old, wet wood permeated the air. Joe stood by silently as Sterling chatted with an old sailor and asked questions about his work. He marveled to himself how she could really be interested in all these little things. She had such a zest for life…was so full of living that it just seemed to burst from her. And there wasn’t a man or woman that talked to her that didn’t enjoy it. When the one old man gave her a torn section of his fishing net as a souvenir, she planted a kiss on his cheek. He blushed and turned back to his work hurriedly.
Joe indulged her when she insisted on sitting on the end of the dock, their feet dangling over the edge, Huck Finn style.
Joe teased. “That old man is going to go home and make love to his wife tonight.”
“Joe.” She elbowed him and blushed. “He’s a sweet old man.”
“He’s a man. And you’re a pretty young woman. That kiss took him back to his early years. You made his day. Maybe his year.” He was holding back a chuckle as she pretended to shun him. His shoulder was touching hers. Her thigh was close. He could feel the female aura surround him. He wanted to put his arm around her shoulders, feel her rest her head against him, but something kept him from initiating the movement toward her. He picked up a pebble from the dock and pitched it into the water.
Taking the time to unwind and let her mind go blank was exactly what she needed. She kept her thinking to a minimum and simply enjoyed watching the gulls play and the sunlight sparkle across the water. She listened to the occasional chatter of the fishermen; heard them unloading wooden tubs,
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dragging nets from one place to another. Each movement had a purpose, no steps were wasted as they snugged their boats for the night.
Later, they climbed the steps back toward the row of shops. Joe closed his fingers around hers and noticed the wistfulness in her eyes as she looked up at him and smiled.
He took her arm. “I’m tired. It’s getting late.” He didn’t look at his watch. He didn’t wear one. Time apparently had no meaning to him. “I didn’t notice a theater in this town. We could watch one of your movies or stop and rent one.”
Sterling was tiring, too, but it was more mental. Joe had made a nice gesture offering the food and sunshine. She almost didn’t want to go back just now, but the idea of curling up on her comfortable overstuffed sofa sounded like heaven.
“Yes. Let’s. We’re sure to find a video store in Ocean City, and we do have to feed your babies.”
He grunted at that information but found that he wasn’t all that uncaring about the projected evening. He would have to be careful, though. He was beginning to feel too manly again. He was recognizing the fact that she was having an effect on him. Maybe it was good, maybe it wasn’t. He still didn’t know who had sent her or why. He still didn’t know if she was for real or some cruel trick of fate. He still couldn’t identify the feelings she stirred in him; wasn’t sure he should.
As they approached the jewelry store owned by the sweet old folks, their attention was immediately drawn to two young men making a hasty but hopefully unobtrusive exit from the shop. Each man held a feed sack as they dashed from the shop toward their old, battered yellow pickup truck.
Sterling felt Joe tense beneath the hand she had tucked in the crook of his elbow. Their suspicions were confirmed at the exact time the elderly lady came shuffling out of the shop, her fist raised in the air.
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Her voice was almost lost over the roar of the pickup as it started moving away from the curb. “Help. Somebody stop them. They robbed us!” Her husband was right behind her, putting an arm around her trying to coax her back into the store. She’d have none of it. She stood on the sidewalk and continued to shake her fist at the two men jumping in the truck, tears rolling down her pink cheeks.
The entire scenario was in jerky slow motion, like a very old newsreel at a Saturday afternoon matinee. Sterling would have sworn to it. She was nailed to the spot by disbelief and shock as were the other people who slowly became aware of what was going on. She wanted to move…she wanted to stop them. She felt instinctively that Joe would click into action.
Sterling pulled her arm free from Joe, figuring he would make a run for them now. There were only two of them and he could surely catch them quickly enough. The truck wasn’t making much headway as the driver revved the engine and pulled the stick into gear, grinding it.
She found her voice, “Joe! Get them! Don’t let them get away!”
The wheels peeled rubber as the truck skidded away from the curb and down Main Street. People stood riveted to their spots, staring disbelievingly.
Other shopkeepers came to the sidewalk to talk among themselves and offer kind words to the proprietors. Kids soon ignored the incident and went back to their games.
Suddenly Sterling could feel her pulse tripping at her temple. Her throat was dry and she felt the anger and indignation that came with the realization of what she was witnessing. She turned to look at Joe, to try to understand why he hadn’t made an attempt to stop the thieves. She couldn’t hide her disappointment. She didn’t even try. Joe returned her stare. He seemed to have completely distanced himself from her…from what just happened.
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Sterling slapped a killing look on Joe and went into the shop to help settle the couple. The elderly man was calling the police.
The little old lady was crying, weeping into a lacy handkerchief and sitting on a stool in the back room. Sterling put her hands on the woman’s shoulders and hugged her. “They’ll find them. They’ll get your money back.” She tried to smile up at Sterling through teary eyes only to break down again. Her husband came back to hold her hand.
“They took our wedding rings,” she cried anew. “It wasn’t enough that they took all they could, they had to take our rings. We’ve had those rings for over fifty years.” She wept uncontrollably into her husband’s shirt.
He looked over her head and smiled at Sterling. “She’ll be all right. You don’t have to stay with us.”
“Did they have guns?” Sterling asked, wondering how close they had all come to death.
“Said they did. We didn’t take the chance. It’s not worth our lives. Hush now, Sadie. It’ll not change a thing.”
Sterling felt so sorry for them. It was obvious they had worked hard together for a long, long time, and now two thugs had come in here and changed their lives. More, she was angry with Joe. They’d been violated, and right under a policeman’s nose. He could have stopped all of this, but he hadn’t.
She couldn’t understand it. It didn’t make any sense at all.
“Thank you for your concern, young lady. Your husband is waiting for you.
It’s okay. There’s nothing you can do.”
Her husband. A natural assumption, but her reaction was not natural. It sent a chill of the unknown up her spine. “I saw them. If you need any witnesses, just call this number.” She handed him her card after she hastily penciled in the number at the cottage.
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The sidewalk was devoid of Joe. She looked this way and that. Guessing that he’d gone to the car, Sterling squared her shoulders. She gathered her stuff, smoothed her skirt, and headed to where they parked the car. She was furious.
The thugs had managed to get lots of money and all the jewelry they could scoop up. The poor old folks were so upset and shocked…and scared it might happen again. Their lives would be in a mess for a while. And Joe. Mighty Joe the Cop did nothing. He hadn’t even tried.
She was angry. She was appalled. She was disappointed. He was in her car behind the wheel. She stopped in front of the shiny vehicle and glared at him.
“How could you? You could easily have nabbed one of them. At least they would have stood a chance of regaining some of their merchandise.”
Lighting a cigarette, Joe barely glanced up. “You want to get in the car?
You’re causing a scene.”
“I’ll cause one if I want to. How dare you be so complacent when you had the ability to do something? Get out from behind the wheel.” She banged the hood of the Porsche with her bag.
“I’m driving home. Now, get in,” he ordered.
She stood a moment longer, trying to regain some semblance of composure.
She wasn’t sure she wasn’t going to bop him a good one when she sat down beside him.
He sat silently, waiting. He wasn’t going to listen to any of her bull. He wasn’t a cop any longer and he wasn’t going to take on the problems of the world for the rest of his life. Those creeps would be caught and most of the jewelry recovered. The courts would slap them on the wrist and set them free in a short time, anyway. Stuff like this was somebody else’s trouble for a change.
He was tired of it. And he didn’t want another investigation. He didn’t want to
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answer any more questions. Besides, the old people had to have insurance. It wasn’t his problem.
She slammed herself into the passenger seat and jerked the seat belt on. “If you’re driving, do it and forget stopping for the movies. I’m not in the mood.”
Nor was he. Joe shot the car out of the parking space and drove with great concentration. Once on the open highway he let the car cruise at seventy.
“You’re speeding,” she said nastily.
He wasn’t sure he liked her temper. She could be just as mad as she was happy and he didn’t want to have to handle that or anything right now. He didn’t like himself. He didn’t like her. The urge had been there. His policeman’s heart and training had told him to collar those two-bit jerks. It was almost another way of punishing himself. To keep from doing it. That realization hit him. He hadn’t thought of his self-imposed isolation as punishment. He hadn’t thought about it at all until this deranged woman had come on the scene. He didn’t have to take any of this.
“They were the nicest old people. Still so in love and contented and now…now they’ve been violated.” She looked out the window and tried to calm down.
Sterling realized she was overreacting to this entire day. It wasn’t just the robbery. It was also the little boy. She rubbed her hand over her eyes. She wanted to be alone. She wanted time to think all this out and get out from under this feeling of loss. Could it be that Joe was reawakening feelings of love that she had simply isolated and channeled toward helping other people and then merely continuing her own way?
Concentrating on the passing scenery, Sterling wondered why all these buried feelings were stirring now. She had managed to think of Jerry and Timmy 74
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other times without the pain being so searing. Had her compassion for Joe poked a stick into her own feelings and mixed them up?
She rolled the window down in defense against his furious puffing on his cigarette. It was dark now. Dark and cloudy. A light rain sprinkled the windshield. The road was dangerous. The headlights picked up the warning of slippery conditions.
“Took their wedding rings, too. Had them for fifty years or more.” She pouted with vehemence as the injustice of it hit her again.
The silence in the car hung, heavily. He flipped the radio on and she immediately switched it off.
Because there was no use trying to suppress it, she snapped, “You should have done something, Joe…you should have.”
“Damn it, am I going to have to listen to this all the way back to the beach? I don’t even know why I’m here with you. How did I end up being so stupid as to even suggest we go up there? I’m losing my mind. That’s all there is to it. Now shut up and let me drive this dandy little car home in peace.” He had no defense, so attack was called for. He hated this, he hated everything. “Do you hear yourself? Did you hear yourself back there on the sidewalk ordering me around like a German shepherd?” He wanted a stiff drink. Hell, he wanted four.
She had heard and wasn’t exactly proud of it, but there was no stopping it.
“Yes, you are going to have to listen to this all the way home.” She felt him accelerate to eighty. “What you did was wrong and insensitive. Why didn’t you help them?” she demanded, pounding a fist on her knee.
He remained silent and she watched the speedometer go up to eighty-five, then ninety. The blood pulsed in her head. First the little boy, then the old people…and it all went right by Joe. He didn’t even care that those people lost their money. He didn’t even care that the dumb little kid almost broke her heart.
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Then she quickly admonished herself from that thought. He had no way of knowing the effect the tot had on her insides. But it was the only thing that wasn’t his fault.
