The Way of Grace (Miller's Creek Novels) (37 page)

Grace wearily trud
ged to her desk and attacked the
work. I
f nothing else, the massive amount of research
Elena had given her provided
a way to focus her thoughts
away from her troubles
, but
she snapped
a rubber band
on
her wrist fo
r good measure. All day she worked
, only stopping to eat h
er brown bag sandwich and apple
before gluing her eyes to the computer once more.

At the end of the day
, she reached a logical stopping point
,
leaned
back to eye the legal pad she’
d filled with notes
,
and scanne
d Elena’s
list
.
She could
finish the rest tonight and tomorrow.
With a yawn, she stretched and
eyed the clock. Alre
ady seven o’clock
.
As she
made her way to the exit, a shaft o
f light glinted from the barely
opened door of Elena’s office. Curious, Grac
e
cross
ed
to the doorway and peeked
. Everything was just as it
had been this morning. Had she
been gone all day?

A
n
odd
sensation
flutter
ed in her stomach. Something wasn’t
right
. She donned her
coat,
gather
ed her
things
,
and hurried out the door
.
Dimly
lit
with
red emergency lights, the
hallway
of the
old building
felt c
reepy at this time of day. Grac
e
scrounged
in her purse for her
keys,
rounded a corner,
and
ran squarely into
someone
.

She jumped back, one hand to her chest, surpr
ised to see Jason
. “You scared
the wits out of me
! Why are you
here?”

He
placed bo
th hands on her shoulders. “S
orry to have startled
you. I tried calling you at home
,
but when no one answered I figured you were still here
.
Ready for dinner?”

Obviously he hadn’t accepted her ‘no’ from last night.
Grace shook her head. “Sorry,
but
I can’t.” She held up her brief case for evidence. “I have tons of work to do before the holidays.”

“Poor darling.
At
least let me treat
you to a nice dinner.”

“
Maybe some other time
.”
Grace
started down the stairs.

He fell into step beside her, but didn’t speak until they reached the street. She
half-
expected him to once more launch into why she needed to eat dinner with him.
Instead, he turn
ed toward her briefly
. “I’ll be seeing you.” With nothing further, he
strode
toward the parking lot on the other side of the building.

Grace puzzled over his
odd
behavior all the way home. As she drove up to the house, she glance
d in the direction of the fence
and
braked to a sudden stop. Both t
he fence and ma
ilbox had been repaired,
as
though the scene that
greeted her
earlier
was only
be
a figment of her imagination.

She steer
ed
into the driveway and
stepped to the front
to gaze at the
fence once more, her jaw
slightly unhinging
as she ran a hand over the replaced pickets
.
Next she made her way to the mailbox and gathered the day’s mail.
What was going on?
Who would cause
the damage then return to the scene of the crime in broad daylight to repair it?
After a brief search through her purse, she located the padlock, closed the gate
,
and snapped the lock into place.
Would she be met with the same results in the morning? If so, she wouldn’t hesitate to call Ernie
this time
.

D
aze
d
, s
he made her way to the back
, her
jangling
keys at the ready.
As s
he glanced around
the
backyard,
her brain and pulse hit overdrive at the same time.
The patio chair once more sat in the same position
beneath
her bedroom window
. Heart pounding, s
he hurried to the
door and
glanced down to see
Millie sprawled at an odd angle
on the porch
.

“Hey, kitty.
Y
ou ready for some dinner?”

Millie didn’t move. Grace
froze for a moment, her heart thumping and her breath suspended. In what seemed like slow motion she
reached down to
touch the cat’s
soft fur, but
immediately yanked her hand back
. She
slowly turned her hand over to find
her hand covered in
blood.

A strangled scream erupted from
somewhere deep
within
her, mingl
ed with the s
ound of a
ringing phone
.

15

H
er screams reached Matt’
s ears before he’d fully opened the car door.

Fear strangled his heart and
brought a
deathly
stench to his nostrils.
He
sprang from the car and raced
to the locked gate, then
hurdled
the fence and sprinted
around the edge of the house to where Gracie stood, one hand gripping the other, as she continued to shake and scream. From inside the house, the telephone rang.

“Gracie, what’s wrong
?”
On
e glance at her
bloody
hand
compelled
him to grab the
keys
from her grasp
and unlock t
he door. The sooner they got that
wound t
ended to the better. How had a cut
produce
d
so much blood in such a short amount of time?
Her scream decreased to a whimper
. “
It’s
okay, Gracie. We’
ll get you all bandaged up
.” He flipped on a switch and pulled her into the house, instinctively reaching for the phone. “Hello?”

N
o
one
answer
ed
, so he returned the phone to
the hook, grateful
he’d given in
to the impulse to check on her.
What would have happened had he not been there?
For the first time, he got a go
od look at Gracie’s face. S
he
stared
blankly at
the blood that dripped from her
hand
to the
Saltillo tiles
, her pupils d
ilated.

He steered her toward the kitchen sink,
peer
ing over her shoulder at
the
hand
she clutched
in front of her
. Though completely covered with blood, there didn’t appear
to be an open wound anywhere. Matt
turned the faucet handle
,
gently held her
hand under the stream of water, and once more
took in
her ghostlike complexion, damp cheeks, and unblinking
eyes. “Gracie,
what happened?”

She
stared at him, finally
aware he was there. “Matt?”

“Yeah, sweetheart, it’s me.” He cleaned the rest of the blood from her hand, checking f
or a wound, and
a
frown sprang to his forehead.
No cut or gash anywhere
. He reached for a nearby dish towel and w
rapped it around her hand. “W
hat happened?”

Gracie started to shake, not just a little, but a lot. A low keening sound started in her
throat,
then worked
its way out
in a feverish pitch
. More
tears
flooded
her cheeks.

“Hey
, you’re
gonna
be okay.” Matt
placed an arm around
one
shoul
der
and held her close as he
navigat
ed
to the couch. He
took
a crocheted afghan from the back of the
sofa
and
wra
pped her tightly before helping her sit
.

Indecision ripped him in two
. He needed to stay here wi
th her, but there might
be a clue to her
emotional breakdown
outside. A
fter a few minutes of
holding her in his arms and stroking her hair
, she
calmed down considerably, thou
gh she still hadn’t
verbalize
d
what had happened. He
wiped tears from
her face. “I’m
gonna
check on some
thing outside, but I’ll be
back
in a flash
, okay?”

She
nodded,
her normally bright eyes lackluster.

Once he assured himself
she’
d be
fine
without him, he
hurried out the door into the dark night. A nearly
l
amppost
gave just enough light to
peer around the backyard and porch, but n
othing
seemed out of place. A
n old patio ta
ble and chairs sat near the
garde
n, all awaiting warmer weather
.

Matt
searched
the porch
where he’d
found Gracie
. A wet spot caught his attention. He stooped and ran his fingers over the weathered wood, then raised his hand to his face. Only wa
ter, most likely
a rain
left over from yesterday’s storm.
What was going on? Something had
to set her
off.
This wasn’t her normal behavior
.
Disgusted
he was no closer to finding answers
, he entered the house.
She was the
only witness. In order to
fi
gure out this puzzle, she’
d have to talk.

Gracie
rested
on the
couch,
he
r
head
leaned
on one fist. She turned
when he entered, obviously
more in control
.

He smiled as he
sat
beside her
. “You
wanna
talk
about
this
?”

Fine lines edged
her lips
. “What do you want to know
?”

Matt frowned
at her acidic tone
. Why the
quick
turnaround
?
“Well, for one thing where all that blood came from.”

She looked at him incredulously for a moment then titled her head back and laughed—a
strange
, almost
maniacal laugh
. “You didn’t find anything when you went outside
, did you
?”