She nodded. "I don't know any of the details because I hung up right after she told me about their Escape."
He plowed his fingers through his hair and took several turns around the kitchen while trying to review the thousand and one implications of the Burnwood's-' being free. When he came back around to Kendall, she started rebuttoning her blouse.
Kevin was asleep in the cradle of her arms.
"How far are we from your hometowns? Sheridan, right?"
"About ninety miles."
"That close?"
"And they've been there." She told him about the FBI's aborted ambush in her grandmother's house. "The intruders weren't identified, but it was probably Matt and Gibb."
"No wonder you wanted to leave tonight. If I'd known they had escaped, I would have gotten us out of here days ago. As It IS, there's
"Wait! What did you say?" Kendall slowly came to her feet. "You said that you would have gotten us out of here days ago?" Helplessly, he watched the changes in her expression as she assimilated the significance of his words.
"Then your memory . . . It didn't return just now. You've known . . ." She raised her hand to her mouth and caught a gasp. "You've known, and yet you . . . Damn you!" She struck him hard across the face. "How long have you known?"
He caught her wrist before she could hit him again. "Ken dall, listen to me! We haven't got time to thrash this out now.
"Oh, I think we do, Dr. McGrath," she said with a sneer.
"Why don't I lie down on the couch so you can practice a little more psychology on me? I'm a real case study, aren't I?
You're just dying to open me up and find out what makes me tick. You're really into analysis, and you do your best work while I'm lying down!"
"To say nothing of how well you perform lying down!" he shouted.
"You bastard."
"Look, you're the one who wanted to play house with a mana stranger that you kidnapped. You're the one who made up the story that we were married. And, I might add, you were damn convincing. So don't blame me for responding like a husband."
He propped his crutch against the table, took her shoulders between his hands, and pulled her close, pressing Kevin between them.
"All you can blame me for is acting out the role you wrote for me, Kendall."
"You played along to learn my secrets so you could use them against me. Tell your friend Pepperdyne about me. Discuss and analyze me. You manipulated me." -"No more than you manipulated me," he fired back.
"When did you get your memory back? Tell me. When?"
His fingers closed tighter around her arms. "Even now you don't realize how unsuitable I was to play the part of husband and daddy. But you were perfect in your role, the longsuffering wife, staying with her injured husband even though he had broken his marriage vows and cheated with another woman. You added just the right touch of martyrdom while holding out the promise of forgiveness and reconciliation.
"You were aloof but within reach. Modest but accessible.
The sexy woman no man can resist. Damn you, Kendall, you seduced me with the whole package, and you knew you were doing it. You made me want you. I wanted you to be mine. I wanted . . . wanted Kevin to be mine. It's the first time in my life that I've wanted that kind of oneness with anyone.
"See, I've never been any good at relationships. In fact, I've been lousy. I refused to let anyone get that close. But I think the amnesia changed me. Now that I know what it's like to need someone and to be needed, I don't want to go back to being the man I was."
His voice cracked, and, as though the speech had drained him, he rested his forehead against hers. "By sleeping with you I've violated God knows how many ordinances and rules and laws. When this is all over, they'll throw the book at me.
I'll claim I was doing my duty the only way I saw fit under the circumstances, but I doubt they'll buy that."
He raised his head and looked deeply into her eyes. "I fooled you, yes, but no more than I tried fooling myself. Duty be damned. The only reason I made love to you every night was because I wanted to. No, I had to."
He doubted that she realized what a momentous statement that was. It was the closest he had ever come to professing his love to anyone.
Or maybe she did realize its import, because the fight had gone out of her, too. Gazing at him mistily, she reached up and touched his mouth. "I shamelessly manipulated you, yes.
But I swear to you on Kevin's life that what happened between us was real."
They kissed, their mouths open and intimate. Even when they pulled apart, they continued to nuzzle. Against his lips, she murmured, "I love you, John, but I must protect Kevin.
And you. And even though you'll never forgive me for this, that's still what I'm going to do."
Before he realized what was happening, she had whipped the pistol from his waistband and pushed him backward. He careened into the kitchen stove. Unbalanced, he slid to the floor, crying out in pain and outrage.
Kendall kicked the crutch out of his reach. "I'm sorry, John." She sobbed. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you take me back."
She fled through the screen door, which banged shut behind her.
The pain in his shin radiated up through his thigh and groin and belly and now seemed to be erupting out of the top of his head with volcanic impetus. He folded his arms around the injured leg and hugged it to his chest.
"Kendall," he called after her on a dry gasp of pain. Then louder, " Kendall ! "
He didn't think for a minute that she would come running back. Therefore, he couldn't believe his ears when he heard the screen door creaking open.
He opened his eyes and blinked her into focus.
She had returned. But not alone. And not by choice.
Chapter 38
You could set your clock by Elmo Carney's daily routine.
He got up every morning at 4:30, drank a cup of coffee, and then, rain or shine, sleet or heat, he went to the barn to milk his small herd of dairy cows. At 5:55 on the dot, he got into his pickup and drove the two miles into town to eat breakfast at the cafe, which opened at 6:00.
This had been Elmo's weekday routine since his wife's death.
He resented Saturday's. when the cafe didn't open until seven, and Sundays, when, as soon as the milking was finished, he had to exchange his overalls for a jacket and tie and go to church. His stomach always growled during the service.
This morning began no differently from any other. He milked his cows, then struck out for town, having no premonition in{ what awaited him around the bend. He was lost m a daydream about soda biscuits and sausage gravy when the apparition materialized just beyond the grille of his truck.
Having emerged from the dusty bushes along the ditch, it planted itself dead center in the road and waved its arms high above its head.
Elmo practically stood up on the brake pedal and the clutch.
The tires grabbed for traction.
arthritic joints. The truck skidded the final few yards and managed to stop only inches from the phantasm.
Elmo's heart was in his throat as he watched it run toward the passenger side of his pickup and open the door. "Thank God you came along, mister."
It climbed into the cab of his truck and slammed the door.
"I've been waiting for hours," it complained. "Doesn't anybody live out here? And where the hell are we anyway? I've lived in Sheridan all my life, but I don't recall ever being out this way before. I sure as hell won't ever want to come back, that's for damn sure!"
She paused and looked at him, motioning toward the gear shift. "Well, what're you waiting on? get the lead out, "ramps. I've got to get to town p-r-on-to."
Stupefied, Elmo gawked, his hands frozen on the steering wheel. It walked, it talked. He could even smell it. But he still couldn't believe it was real.
"Great," it muttered in exasperation. "As if I haven't already been through enough, the person I flagged down turns out to be a dimwit. This has been a really shitty week."
She waved her hand in front of Elmo's glazed stare. "Yoo-hoo!
Gramps? Anybody at home in there? Blink. Do something, for God's sake. What's with you? Haven't you ever seen a naked woman before? Or haven't you ever seen a natural redhead?"
Pepperdyne was awakened by a commotion in the squad room.
An hour ago, he had finally surrendered to his exhaustion and lain down on the cot the Sheridan PD had set up in the office for his use.
He hadn't thought he could fall asleep, and intended only to rest his eyes. But he mus t have slept soundly. Even though he had been abruptly awakened, he felt refreshed.
He sat up and swung his feet to the floor just as a policeman The old brakes protested like burst into the office. "Mr. Pepperdyne, you'd better come on - out here."
"What's going on? Have they been found?"
"They" could have referred to any number of people, but Pepperdyne didn't specify as he followed the officer into the squad room where one cop was talking to a scrawny farmer in overalls and the others on duty were crowded around the windows that overlooked the front lawn of city hall.
"What the hell is going on?"
His angry roar captured everyone's attention, including that of the farmer, who approached him, obsequiously removing his dozer cap.
"You Mr. Pepperdyne?"
"That's right. Who're you?"
"Elmo Carney's the name. She told me to come in here and fetch Mr. Pepperdyne. Nobody else, she said. But I swear to you on my sainted wife's grave that I ain't did nothing improper or illegal.
"I's just on my way to have breakfast, and there she was, a-standing slap dab in the middle of the road, mother nekkid and a-waving her arms. Nearly gave me a heart attack. Climbed right into my truck, she did"
"Excuse me. Who?"
"A redheaded lady. On the chubby side, she is. Said you'd"
Pepperdyne didn't wait for more. He rushed toward the door. "Is she hurt?"
"Yes, sir, but like I said, I ain't did nothing to her."
"Somebody toss me a coat. A jacket. Something."
An officer rushed forward with a yellow rain slicker. Pepper dyne grabbed it and left the squad room at a run. He sprinted down the corridor, through the front door, and down the steps. He didn't stop until he reached the faded blue pickup parked at one of the parking meters.
"What took you so long?" Grumbling, Ricki Sue opened the passenger door and yanked the slicker from his hand.
"Those bozos have gotten themselves an eyeful." She shot a scornful glance up at the windows where several leering faces were still glued.
Pepperdyne followed the direction of her gaze. Under hi baleful stare, the faces in the windows disappeared. Turning back to Ricki Sue, he couldn't much blame the men for gawking.
But once he got past the pure male reaction to seeing as much flesh on glorious display, his professionalism asserted itself. Simultaneously he noted several things. Her feet an legs were caked with mud. She had scratches and bruises all over her. Her pillar of hair had toppled. It now flowed over her bare shoulders and pendulous breasts, which were difficult to ignore even when scrutinizing them with professional detachment. The back of her head was matted with what appears to be dried blood.
"You need a doctor," he said.
"It can wait. We've gotta talk."
"But you've been hurt."
"Pepperdyne, you're a freaking genius," she said -' : calmly. She spread her arms wide, affording him another unrestricted view of her ample body. "I'm no raving beauty to start with. And I'm never at my best first thing in the morning.
But I never look quite this bad. Of course I'm hurt, you jerk,"
she shouted. "They tried to kill me."
"The twins?"
"So your guys tattled."
"Yeah, my guys tattled."
"Does following people give you a hard-on, Pepperdyne that your particular turn-on?"
"I had you followed for your own protection."
"Well, it didn't work, did it?"
"It would have if you hadn't picked up two strangers In a bar. In this day and age, how stupid can you get?"
"I didn't know . . ." Suddenly, her belligerence dissolved.
her face crumpled, and she began to cry. "I didn't know they would hurt me."
He fumbled awkwardly in his pocket and produced a wrinkled handkerchief. She took it, asking, "Is this clean?"
"Your guess is as good as mine."
She didn't seem to care. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose. No longer crying, but still distraught, she pulled her lower lip through her teeth. Pepperdyne noticed that without the scarlet lipstick her mouth was much prettier.
"I could be dead," she said shakily. "They seriously tried to kill me."
"Who were they, Ricki Sue?"
"Henry and Luther. That's all I know." She told him about the motel, the liquor. "I came to as they were dragging me out of the car. I should have known then.... But I'd had so much to drink. Anyway, we waded into the creek. Next thing I know, Luther, I think, brings a club down on my head.
"I deflected the second blow, hooked my ankle around his and yanked him off his feet. They didn't expect me to fight back. And it was hard to do because my head was hurting like a son of a bitch. During the struggle, I almost blacked out several times. Anyway, I managed to keep myself from being brained."
"Where'd they go?"
"Go?" She gave a raucous laugh. "They didn't go anywhere.
They're still out there. Or they were when I left. I knocked them both unconscious and tied them to trees with their own pants."
