You Can't Escape (34 page)

“I’ll buy you breakfast if you drive into town,” he said. “I want to return the crutches.”

“Maybe exchange them for a cane?”

“I’d go for that,” he said.

They’d been rather circumspect with each other since reluctantly getting out of bed an hour earlier. She hardly knew how to act. On the one hand, they’d been ultimately intimate with each other, treating each other like longtime lovers; on the other, there was so much unresolved
stuff
surrounding them that it felt like she was living in an extended daydream.

“We could have breakfast at Braxton’s and turn in the crutches,” she suggested.

“Good idea.”

The drive into town was mostly silent. She couldn’t think of anything to say and apparently neither could he. It was weird, almost like a breakup, and it was a relief when he asked about the Benchleys, though she suspected it was just to make conversation.

“The Benchleys are apparently shirttail relatives of mine. They still have some property. That drive with the big, rusted ‘No Trespassing’ sign leads to their house. As I recall, they were all old when I was in high school, and I think Zach’s father is related. His adoptive parents, maybe? At least one of ’em?”

“You want to talk to them after Mrs. Fowler. See what they have to say about the cemetery.”

“Sure.”

Jordanna could feel the effects of a sleepless night, a lot of it spent in lovemaking. Her mind kept tripping back to those moments with remembered joy, but then she would think about the body in the grave, and then move on to memories of her father, and Emily, and Kara, and then finally end with her fear of what would happen when Dance encountered the Saldanos again. Then she would circle back around to the missing body, and start all over again, recalling the way Dance had moved above her, the soft sound of his breathing, the male scent of his skin that worked like an aphrodisiac even now.

Wrapping her hands tightly around the wheel, she concentrated hard on the road, forgetting hot, wet kisses and groans of desire, and the feel of hard muscles moving fluidly.

“What?” he asked to the growl she’d unconsciously emitted, low in her throat.

“Nothing.”

Margaret Bicknell was behind the pharmacy counter when they turned in the crutches. She stared hard at both of them, her eyes especially raking over Dance. Jordanna didn’t doubt that she would report back to her father at the earliest opportunity.
Your crazy daughter was with a man very early in the morning....
Well, her father already knew about Dance, so what of it? She bit back the snarky remark and instead asked if they had a selection of canes.

Margaret pointed them toward the front of the pharmacy, and as Jordanna thanked her, she said pointedly, “I’ll be seeing your father at the late morning service today.”

Bully for you.

“Reverend Miles likes to start around eleven,” she added.

“Let’s look over the canes on the way out,” Dance suggested, moving Jordanna to the grill counter. Jordanna could feel Margaret’s eyes follow her, but then Loretta stepped forward and took their order. Ten minutes later, Dance was tucking into sunny-side-up eggs, three strips of crispy bacon, wheat toast, and orange juice, while Jordanna had one egg over easy and an English muffin. Both of them had coffee, black.

As they finished up, Jordanna inclined her head in Margaret’s direction. “I think I’m in trouble for being a) with you, and b) clearly not dressed for church.”

“Were you a churchgoer when you were in high school?”

She shook her head. “My father wasn’t all that gung-ho about religion back then. That happened afterward, maybe when he hooked up with Jennie. Maybe before, although I don’t remember my mother being much for organized religion, either. Emily, my oldest sister, found the Lord the last year she was alive.”

“What about Kara?”

“She didn’t seem too religious, either.” She pushed her food aside, half-eaten, and reached for her coffee. Whenever Kara’s name was mentioned, she got an anxious feeling in the pit of her stomach. “How about you?”

“Last time I was in a church was when I got married. Carmen had to have the whole nine yards. I just wanted to get through it. You’d think I would have known then it wasn’t going to work, but mistakes were made.”

They finished their breakfasts, decided on a cane for Dance, then headed back to the RAV. It was still barely after nine. “Think it’s too early to meet Mrs. Fowler?” she asked.

“One way to find out.”

She nodded and they climbed into the RAV and headed out of town. “Where do you think Chase Sazlow is in all this? He was supposedly with Bernadette, but if that’s her body, where’s he? Reverend Miles said he was missing, and everybody else acted like that was fact, except for Rusty, but it sounded like he just didn’t know.”

“Rusty said Chase’s parents were gone and that he thought he was living at the Calversons’ ranch,” Dance reminded her.

“Then Nate should know whether he’s been around or missing.” Jordanna thought that over. “You know, they’re all members of Green Pastures Church: Nate and Pru Calverson, Bernadette’s parents, my father . . . and the service is at eleven.”

“You thinking about getting yourself some religion?”

She glanced over at him, loving his rakish smile. “Maybe. What about yourself?”

“We might just have enough time to check in with Mrs. Fowler and then head over there. What’s the dress code?”

“Who the hell cares.”

He laughed.

Chapter Twenty-One

Jordanna’s cell phone rang on the way to the Fowlers’, and once again Dance picked it up. “No name,” he said, holding the phone her way to reveal the phone number. It was the same one that had been calling her.

“Whoever they are, they don’t give up easy.”

“Want me to answer it?” he asked.

“Go ahead,” she said with a shrug.

“Hello,” he answered, purposely giving no other information.

There was a slight hesitation, then a male voice responded, “This is Detective Rafferty with the Portland Police. I’m trying to reach Jordanna Winters.” It was Dance’s turn to hesitate, but in that moment, the voice asked him, “Is this Jay Danziger?”

He blinked in surprise. So, they knew where he was and whom he was with. “I’ve met a Detective Rafferty, and she was a woman,” he said by way of an answer.

“That’s my sister. Detective September Rafferty. I’m August Rafferty, her twin.” Dance didn’t have any time to process that before he went on, “I’ve been looking for you, Mr. Danziger, ever since you and Ms. Winters left last week. We found her image on a videotape from one of the cameras that captured the bombing. Are you in Rock Springs, by any chance? Because that’s the direction I’m heading. . . .”

Auggie had been slouched in a chair in the waiting room next to Liv, who was looking nearly as uncomfortable as he felt. The reason: his father and stepmother had decided to join the entourage at the hospital, and even baby January, his four-month-old half sister, was at the party. He’d always thought hospitals had rules about children being allowed in, especially infants, but apparently there was no such law like that at Laurelton General.

His father had been throwing him stony looks from the moment he appeared, which hadn’t helped. It wasn’t that Braden Rafferty disliked him; it was quite the opposite in fact. His father’s disapproval was aimed solely at his profession. Police work? Uh-uh. It was far, far beneath the type of occupation fit for a Rafferty. Both he and Nine had been silently rebuked by their father at any and all occasions ever since they’d not only chosen law enforcement, but stuck with it. Auggie tended to skip family gatherings entirely, or stay the minimum amount of time possible. He hadn’t expected this to be such a clan gathering, however, so he’d gotten caught in this one. The rueful look Liv sent him said she was sorry she’d talked him into coming. The slight shrug he sent back to her said it was okay.

But he was itching to leave, and had pretty much decided to get the hell out when Nine finally arrived. Immediately, he got to his feet and came toward her, muttering in her ear, “You’re late.”

She came to a halt when her gaze fell on their father, Rosamund, and baby January. “What’s going on here?”

“Yeah, well, our father can’t ever resist a chance for a family reunion.”

Nine harrumphed, and then there was much oohing and ahhing over January, who started crying when too many faces crowded around her. Rosamund put her in Braden’s stiff arms, and the crying turned into an out-and-out wail until the baby was quickly scooped back up by his mother. Everyone but Auggie, who hung by the open door, crowded in to see July, who was in the midst of labor and had lost her sense of humor. Auggie could see over their heads to her sweating, grim face, and when Rosamund said, “Oh, you’re doing so great. So great! Remember, just keep breathing and soon you’ll have one of these,” squeezing little January to the point the poor kid spit up. July rolled her eyes toward Nine and him, silently begging for help. It was Liv who hustled Rosamund, January, and Braden out of the room, with Nine bringing up the rear.

Back in the waiting room, January started fussing like mad and Rosamund kept walking her around, growing a bit frazzled. Catching his twin’s eye, Auggie crooked his head in the direction of the hallway. Nine nodded and followed him into the hospital corridor.

“Anything new on the Saldano case?” she asked him.

“I’ve been closed out of it.” He brought her up to date on what had transpired, adding as an afterthought that Carmen had threatened to find a private investigator to locate her “husband.”

“What about this Jordanna Winters?” Nine asked.

“Been calling her, but no answer.”

“Gretchen and I got tapped for a new case, though it looks like a Social Security scam.” She then told him about the older couple who’d supposedly poisoned each other and the stoner granddaughter who, along with her husband, had been capitalizing on their unreported deaths by using their Social Security money. “Supposedly they got the idea because Gramps and Gran were already doing the same thing with Uncle Harry’s money.” She then explained about the extra bones in the basement closet.

“How enterprising,” Auggie said drily. “How long have they gotten away with it?”

“A lot of years for Harry, it sounds like. About three for the grandparents. I just keep thinking how these people just sat there and poisoned each other. Tox hasn’t come through yet to confirm, but I’ve got this image of them, staring each other down while the poison eats through their systems. Till death do us part and all that.”

“Gruesome.” And that’s when he noticed she wasn’t wearing her engagement ring. “What happened here?” he asked, frowning at her hand.

“We’re still engaged,” she said. “I just can’t wear the damn thing.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. Gets in the way.”

“Bullshit,” he said, growing amused. He knew his twin better than anyone. “You just don’t trust your own happiness.”

“Look who’s talking.”

He shrugged. “You’re the one screwing with your fiancé’s feelings, not me. What does Jake think about this?”

“He’s okay with it,” she said, a trifle defensively.

“Yeah, right.”

“He is,” she insisted.

“The old people who poisoned each other bothering you? Making you think there’s no perfect ever after?”

“There is no perfect ever after.”

“Or our father, with his bad marriage karma?”

“Yeah, well, yes, as a matter of fact. Don’t you ever worry about getting married?” she asked.

“Sure, but I don’t want to be alone, either,” he admitted. “Your problem is, you’re overthinking it. Our sister’s in there having a baby. No husband. No father. She just up and decided it was time for her, or it wasn’t going to happen. It might not be the choice that you want, or I want, but July goes all balls out, and doesn’t second-guess herself too much. What the hell. We could all take a lesson.”

She stared at him in mock horror. “Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?”

“I’m having a personal crisis,” he said, only half kidding. “I don’t want to give up the Saldano case. It’s become my white whale. They can fire my ass, if they want. I’ve got a few more pieces I’m working on.”

“Jordanna Winters?”

“Yep.”

With that, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed her number again. And that’s when Jay Danziger answered himself, and Auggie said he was on his way to Rock Springs, throwing a look to his twin, who gave him the okay sign, meaning she would take care of Liv and the rest of the family.

Jordanna immediately pulled over to the side of the road when she heard “Detective Rafferty.” Her heart was pounding out of control. If the police knew where they were, then maybe other people did, too. She didn’t care what Dance thought. She worried he was still a target, and her primary suspects were the Saldanos.

“I was just thinking of calling the police,” Dance was saying into her cell. “My phone isn’t working, so that’s why I’m on Jordanna’s.”

She couldn’t hear what was being said on the other end of the line, but then Dance said, “There’s a place called the Longhorn in Rock Springs, a western restaurant and bar.” Then: “Oh, you know it.... You know Rock Springs. When do you think you’ll be here?” He shot a look to Jordanna. “We’ll be there.”

“What?” she asked when he hung up.

“Detective August Rafferty, brother to Detective September Rafferty, is coming to Rock Springs to talk to me, and you,” he added.

She thought about the female detective who’d interviewed her at the hospital. She’d seemed better than most of the cops Jordanna had encountered. Maybe her brother would be the same. “Okay,” she said.

“If he wants the audiotape, I’ll have to go back and get it out of the safe deposit box. I’ll call Maxwell. . . .” He trailed off, thinking. “Might as well get my car while I’m there. Good thing we got this.” He hefted up the utilitarian metal cane.

“So, what now? Mrs. Fowler?”

“Sure. We’re going to miss church, though, since that’s about when the detective’s showing up.”