HAL’S still not answering his phone,” Gus told Vanessa, “so I’m going to take a ride over to his place, let him know what’s going on.”
“Don’t do that, please. Right now, he’s probably sitting in the Inn’s bar, catching up with old friends who came to the wedding,” Vanessa pleaded. She had a sinking suspicion of just which old friend Hal might be catching up with, and if that was the case, she really didn’t want to know. “Anyway, there’s nothing he could do tonight except worry.”
“Or he could be home, sleeping soundly,” Grady offered. “In any case, Vanessa is right. You’ve got two people out there going over the car, two people over at Vanessa’s shop. You probably don’t need Hal, too. At least for now.”
“All right,” Gus said. “We’ll let it go until the morning. But you just pray that this guy”-he pointed across the parking lot toward Grady’s bashed-up rental car-“is done for a while.”
“If he has any sense at all, he’s got to be thinking that he’s pushed his luck enough for one night. He did get away with the break-in without anyone seeing him, but…” Vanessa said.
“Not so sure about that. We’ll be canvassing the neighbors in the morning,” Gus reminded her. “Right now, we don’t know who saw what.”
“True enough,” Grady agreed. “But he walked away from that and from the car without getting caught. This guy is no amateur. He picks and chooses his time and his target, but he’s also opportunistic. He hit the shop when half the town was at the wedding, and he hit the car when everyone was focused on the burglary. Now, I’m pretty certain that the break-in was planned in advance, but vandalizing the car… that couldn’t have been planned. He’d have had no way of knowing that you’d be with me, in that car, and that the car would be parked in the lot down here, but he took advantage of the opportunity. If we believe that he’s targeting Vanessa for some reason-and I believe that he is-he must have seen her get out of my car, possibly when he was finished at the shop.”
“Why would he have even been back near the lot? If he’d just burglarized Bling,” Vanessa wondered, “wouldn’t he want to be far away?”
“I think he wanted to watch-which is another reason I think this is personal. Look, there’s that long dark section of the road out there. He could have been hiding just about anywhere. He’d have watched the police cars head for Charles Street, and he’d have known that was the focus of everyone’s attention. So while the breaking glass would have made noise, there wasn’t anyone around to hear it. Steffie was gone by then, and she was the last one who’d have been in that area of the parking lot, other than Ness and me. Once we were drawn to the shop, he had the lot to himself.” Grady paused to think.
“Or,” Vanessa suggested, “he hit the shop because it looked like exactly what it is: an upscale women’s boutique that does a good business.”
Before Grady could counter, she continued.
“As far as the car is concerned, who’s to say it wasn’t a couple of kids taking a shortcut from the park through the parking lot?”
“What park?”
“On the other side of the trees that run along Steffie’s, there’s a small park. The generally accepted shortcut to Charles Street is through the parking lot.”
“It’s possible,” Grady conceded, “but that’s not what my gut’s telling me.”
“Is your gut psychic?” she asked.
“Instinct, then.” He tried to explain. “I spent nine years in law enforcement. After a while, you develop certain instincts, and you learn to trust them. Yes, it’s possible that Bling was targeted because it looks like a shop that brings in shoppers with money, and is likely to have a few dollars in the cash register at the end of the day. But don’t many shop owners now make their deposits at night? Do you usually leave money in the drawer when you leave?”
“No,” she admitted. “I usually lock it in a safe that I have hidden or I take it to the bank. There was money in the shop last night, though, since I wasn’t going to be there to lock up or to make a deposit.”
“How many people knew that?” Gus asked.
“Just the person who locked up last night, and me. I might have mentioned it to Steffie, but that isn’t something she’d discuss with anyone else.”
“I’m going to have a few officers walk the area from Charles Street through the parking lot and down to the playground, just in case he dropped something or left something behind,” Gus told them. “The more I think about it, the more I’m thinking you’re right about the path he took down toward the parking lot. I think he hit the shop, hid somewhere close by while he waited for the call to come in here so he could watch us answer it. He had to know that in a town like this one, a crowd would be gathering to see what the commotion was, then he’d stroll on up and blend in.” Gus was thinking it all through. “I agree with your friend here, Ness. He wouldn’t have expected to see you get out of that car, but after he did, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to give you just a little more to think about. Besides, with you walking around down on the dock, then in the parking lot, you might have ruined his chance to sneak up to Charles Street, catch the action. That could have pissed him off. First thing in the morning, when it’s light, I’ll have that area gone over with a fine-tooth comb. No telling what they might find.”
Gus walked them past the reception desk toward the door. “Well, with any luck, you folks won’t be needing us again tonight.”
“I understand that the raccoons are making a racket, ma’am. We’ll have a patrol car over there as soon as we can.” Bill Mason, the night dispatcher, waved to Vanessa as she passed. He put a hand over the phone and told Gus, “The raccoons are in Mrs. Brophy’s tree again.”
Gus rolled his eyes. “Tell her I’ll be coming by in about ten minutes.”
He opened the front door and held it for Vanessa and Grady and exited with them.
“I’ll drop you off at home,” Gus told Vanessa, then turned to Grady. “You staying at the Inn?”
Grady nodded and took Vanessa’s arm as they walked to Gus’s patrol car.
“I’ll drive you out after I take Vanessa home.”
“Grady, why don’t you take my car back to the Inn? That way, you’ll have some transportation in the morning to get back into town,” Vanessa said.
“Are you sure you won’t need it?” Grady asked as they got into Gus’s cruiser.
“I walk into town all the time,” she reminded him.
“Then thank you. I’ll take you up on the offer.”
Gus stopped in front of her house. “Maybe I should come in and take a look around. You know, just in case there’s someone in there who shouldn’t be.”
“I’ll take care of it, Gus.” Grady opened the rear passenger door and slid out, then leaned in to give Vanessa a hand and helped her out. “I’ll check it all out before I leave.”
“Hal would skin me alive if anything happened to her.” Gus put the car in park. “Not to mention what Beck would do when he got back.”
“Good point.” Vanessa checked her small evening bag for her keys.
“You used to wear the badge, though, right?” Gus asked as they walked up the front walk.
“Former FBI.”
Gus nodded. “I thought I heard something like that.”
Grady held out his hand and Vanessa handed him the keys. He unlocked the front door, and Gus held him back, his hand on his holstered handgun.
“Give me a minute to clear it,” he told them.
Grady and Vanessa waited in silence in the dark until Gus came back and turned on one of the living-room lamps.
“Everything looks fine,” he told them. “No sign of anything amiss.”
“Thanks, Gus,” Vanessa told him.
“Anything weird happens, you hear any noises, you call the station and I’ll be right out.” He went out onto the front porch. “And we’ll be driving by throughout the night. Make sure you lock that door as soon as Grady leaves.”
“Will do,” she told him.
The key was still in the outside lock. Grady removed it and used it to lock the door from the inside. Vanessa smiled and held out her hand. “I’m guessing we won’t need this until the morning.”
“There’s no way in hell I’m leaving you here by yourself.” He walked into the living room, his jacket over one shoulder, his tie undone. “I can sleep down here.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” She met his eyes from the doorway. She wanted to put the events of the evening behind her. She’d had all she could handle of being afraid and being upset. Tomorrow, her shop would still be a mess and Grady’s rental car would still be smashed and there’d still be someone out there who was really angry with her for reasons she couldn’t know. But tonight…
“I don’t think Gus checked under the bed or any of the closets. What if someone’s hiding up there?”
“Good point.” He draped the jacket over the back of a chair. “I don’t want you lying awake all night worrying that someone will pop out from that closet. I’d better come up with you and check.”
She turned off the lamp and started toward the stairs.
“Do you have a basement?” he asked.
“What?” She frowned.
“A basement. You know, an excavated area under the first floor.”
“Yes, I have a basement.”
“Is the door inside or outside?”
“It’s right through there.” She stood on the bottom step, her hands on her hips, and watched him disappear into the kitchen.
He was back in less than a minute. “You could use a better lock on that door. It’s just a slide bolt. You should have dead bolts that require keys on it and the back door.”
“I have a dead bolt on the back door.”
“It has a latch that’s located right under the glass panes.”
She started up the steps slowly, glancing over her shoulder. He was following her, his eyes on her face.
“So?” she asked.
“So someone could break the glass, reach in, turn the latch, and just like that, they’re in.”
“Oh, thanks for that mood breaker.” She stopped midway up the stairwell and glared at him.
He came up behind her, chuckling softly. “If the mood is broken, we’ll just have to find a way to get it back again.”
“Think you’re up to it?” She tugged on both ends of his tie.
“I guess we’ll find out.”
She laughed and led him by the tie to her room facing the back of the house. Three arched windows framed a bay, and moonlight streamed in through the sheer curtains. She backed toward the bed, then stopped at the side and raised her hands to undo her dress.
“Are you sure you aren’t too rattled from the break-in and everything…?”
“I don’t want to think about it anymore tonight. You’re here to protect me, right?” She dropped the dress and it puddled on the floor at her feet. “Besides, do I look rattled to you?”
“You look beautiful. In or out of that dress.”
He reached out for her and she walked into his arms. His hands slid up and down her back, and she unbuttoned his shirt, pulling the tails out from the waist. She pulled up the T-shirt and ran her hands over his bare chest, then fell back on the bed, taking him with her. His mouth met hers halfway to the pillow, and she parted her lips to his tongue that thrust inside and teased the corners of her mouth. His hand reached for her left breast, but she moved it, offering the right one instead. She felt crazed with wanting him, could not seem to get close enough. She felt as if she were on fire, inside and out, everywhere he touched seeming to burn. His mouth moved to her throat, and she all but purred as his lips made an agonizingly slow descent to her shoulder, then lower, and she arched her back, but when his mouth sought her breast, she moved slightly to offer the right one and he took it between eager lips. She moaned far back in her throat and reached down to tug on his waistband.
“As good as you look in this tux,” she gasped, “I think it’s time to retire it for the night.”
Later, she would wonder how he’d managed to undress without his mouth ever leaving her skin, she was so totally lost in sensations she barely recalled ever having had before. She wrapped her legs around his and drew him inside almost frantically while his mouth drove her to the edge of madness. Wordlessly, the rhythm natural, he began to move inside her, slowly at first. She took him in deeper, as the pace increased, until she could no longer tell her cries from his. He slowed for a moment and raised his head to look into her eyes, then drove them both to completion on waves of sensation that she thought would never end.
He nuzzled the left side of her face without speaking, and before she realized it, he’d run his hand from her neck to her breast. His hand stopped moving, then slowly, with one finger, he traced the jagged line that ran from the nipple to just under her collarbone.
“What happened here?” he asked.
“I, ah, walked into a knife.” She moved his hand away and pulled the blanket around her, but he pushed it down again.
“Who was holding it when you walked into it?” His voice was calm but she detected something disquieting below the surface.
She pushed him away and sat up.
“Ness?” He sat up with her. “Who did this to you?”
Her insides twisted and her stomach knotted and she couldn’t get any words out. She hadn’t wanted him to see, hadn’t wanted anyone to ever see the disfiguring scar that had kept her from wearing clothes that didn’t cover it, had kept her from getting naked those few times she’d almost let a guy get close. Why had she dropped her guard with Grady? Now that he saw, now that he knew, he’d be outta there.
Yeah, well, he was leaving anyway, she reminded herself.
“Vanessa, look at me.” He turned her face to his. “Tell me who did this to you. What’s this scar…?”
She wet her lips and took a breath.
“Just something I could have avoided if I’d been smarter and faster. It’s not a very interesting story.”
“Let’s say I’m interested.” When she didn’t respond, he reached over her to turn on the light on the bedside table.
“Don’t. Please don’t.”
He sank down next to her.
“All right. But from what I can feel, I’m guessing it’s not a surgical scar. It’s too ragged. Any doctor who cuts like this should be behind bars.”
“He is behind bars but he wasn’t a doctor.” Vanessa sighed. It was clear Grady wasn’t going to give up.
“Who was he?”
“My second husband.”
“Why would he do something like this to you?”
“Why?” She laughed, her voice harsh. “Because he was angry with me, and because he could.”
Grady ran his finger along the scar very gently. “You loved him?”
“I thought I did.”
“That boils down to the same thing, doesn’t it?”
“I suppose.”
“You loved him, and he did this to you?”
“He was very angry because I told him I was leaving. He didn’t want me to. He picked up a knife, said that he’d make it so that no one would ever love me again, no one would want to make love to me again. He’d cut off both of them.” In a defensive motion, she raised her arms to cover her breasts.
He was so silent for so long she wasn’t sure he was still awake. Then he gathered her to his chest and stroked her back softly, but he still didn’t speak.
“Such a cliché, right?” She covered her face with her hands. “Woman wants to leave an abusive husband, he disfigures her.”
“How did you stop him from cutting the other one?”
“I kicked him straight up the middle, and he dropped the knife, and I ran outside, to a neighbor’s, and they called an ambulance and the police. As you can imagine, there was quite a bit of blood-”
“Did you press charges?”
“I did. Yes, I did.” She twisted the end of the sheet into a point, first one way, then the other. How to tell him what that time had been like? Why even try? “And there was a trial. That was the worst part of it.”
“It couldn’t have been worse than the abuse.”
“Oh, yeah. His whole friggin’ family was there in the courtroom all day, every day. They whispered at me when I came in, and they whispered at me when I came out. They threatened me with everything you could imagine. The day he was sentenced, at Maggie’s insistence, I went back to Illinois with her. That night, they set my house on fire. Burned it to the ground. I lost everything I owned.”
“I’m guessing the police figured it out quickly enough.”
“Oh, sure. One of his brothers and one of his cousins were arrested and brought to trial, but there was no physical evidence and the jury didn’t convict them.”
“Where is he now? Your ex-husband?”
“He’s still in prison. He got seven years and he had to agree to anger management while he’s in prison.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Three years and a couple of months.”
“Any chance he’s out?”
She shook her head. “No. Someone would have contacted me. The district attorney promised me that if I’d testify, they’d make sure that I was notified before he was released.”
“And where did all this happen?”
“Back in Wisconsin.” She sighed. “Anyway, that’s why there’s that scar. And that’s why I didn’t want to turn on the light. I didn’t want you to see how ugly my body is.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
She shook her head.
“Vanessa, there is nothing ugly about your body. If anything, yours is the most beautiful body I’ve ever seen up close and personal.”
“You’re just saying that because you think you’ll get lucky again.”
He cupped her face in his hands.
“I got lucky the day I walked into Hal Garrity’s backyard and stood on his deck and watched this beautiful woman float across it. She took my breath away,” he told her. “She takes my breath away every time I look at her.”
She felt as if something inside her cracked, then broke.
“Stop it.” She swatted at him, tears welling in her eyes.
The tears became a torrent. She had no words, only emotions, too many at one time for her to separate shame from the relief that he had not recoiled in disgust, or from the mind-numbing pain she felt every time she thought about the night that Gene had pushed her back against the kitchen table and sliced through her shirt into her flesh. It had been hard for her to admit even to herself that she’d left one bad marriage only to fall headfirst into another. She was embarrassed to remember what she had been like back then. It had been a long time since she’d talked about it, longer still since she’d cried for the woman she had once been.
“You must think I’m the stupidest woman in the world, to let someone do this to me,” she sobbed.
“I doubt very much that you let him do that, Ness. I don’t think abuse was what you were looking for when you married him.”
“But I took it, and I kept taking it.” She hiccuped. “I let it get worse. I should have walked that first time but…”
“But he promised he wouldn’t do it again, and you believed him because you loved him, right? You made excuses for him because you loved him.”
“I am such a cliché, aren’t I? Pathetic,” she wailed.
“What’s pathetic is a man who is so small that he has to hurt someone else in order to feel like a man.”
He gathered her up, blanket and all, and let her cry until there were no tears left to fall. When finally she stopped, he asked, “What’s his name?”
“Gene Medford.”
“Is that Eugene?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Just curious. He’s in prison in Wisconsin now?”
She nodded, then rested against him, sniffing and wishing she’d left that box of tissues on her nightstand instead of taking them into the bathroom on Saturday morning.
“Damn good thing that makeup woman used the waterproof mascara.” She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hands. “Otherwise, I can’t even begin to imagine what I’d look like. Bad enough the nose is red now but I could have raccoon eyes to go with it.”
Grady leaned back against the pillow and tucked the blanket around them both.
“Grady?” she whispered.
“Hmm?”
“It’s been one hell of a night, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah. It’s been one hell of a night.”
She lay against his chest, watching the shadows from the branches of the tree outside her window move across the floor until she closed her eyes, and, feeling safe for the first time in a very long time, fell asleep.
Grady lay awake in the dark, unable to get the image of a bleeding, terrified, wounded Vanessa out of his mind.
So many times as an agent, he’d seen the victims of vicious attacks not unlike the one Vanessa had survived. Husbands attacking wives, wives attacking husbands, their children, parents, siblings, best friends, strangers… there seemed to be no end to the number of ways in which to hurt someone.
He’d certainly seen injuries a hundred times worse than Vanessa’s. More than once, he’d seen women for whom the threat to cut off one or both breasts had been carried out. But this ate at him. How heartless could a man be that he’d do something so heinous to a woman who loved him? No one deserved to be treated like that.
Vanessa was as sweet, caring, funny, smart, capable, and yes, as beautiful and as sexy, as any woman he’d ever met. She wore her heart on her sleeve when it came to those she cared about and he really liked that about her. In fact, there were a lot of things he liked about her.
And she was strong. She hadn’t fallen apart when she realized her shop-which obviously meant everything to her-had been broken into, nor did she freak out when he told her that he thought both the burglary at the shop and the vandalism to his car were somehow a message intended for her. She hadn’t backed away from what was obviously a strong physical attraction between them, but met it head-on without pretense. She’d been brave enough to walk away from a bad situation, and courageous to have faced her abuser and his entire family in open court, and despite their threats, she hadn’t blinked. And somehow she hadn’t lost her sense of humor. What she had lost, however, was her self-confidence. How could she see herself as anything less than beautiful? Anything less than wonderful? What did that tell him about her? How had she come to believe that her scar defined her?
As if she knew he was thinking about her, she stirred slightly, then sighed in her sleep, one hand on his chest like a badge.
That she’d suffered made his heart ache-that she’d suffered at the hands of someone she’d loved made him sick to his stomach.
The longer he thought about it, the sicker-and more angry-he became.
First thing tomorrow, he was going to contact someone at the Bureau and have him check the release status of Eugene Medford.
He awoke to the sound of water driving against glass. He sat up and realized that Vanessa was not beside him, and the sound was coming from the shower in the bathroom across the hall. He got up and dressed in the tuxedo he’d worn to the wedding. Vanessa came out of the shower, her hair in a towel, a robe wrapped around her.
“Hey, you’re awake.” She came into the room with a smile on her face. “And I know I said it before, but you do look good in that tux.”
“Thanks. Admire it while you can.”
“Oh?” She looked momentarily disappointed. “Are you leaving?”
“Yeah. The tux goes back to the shop tomorrow. And right now, I’m on my way back to the Inn. I want to grab a shower and change. There’s a black-and-white parked out front, by the way, so you won’t be alone. I already checked the rest of the house. There’s been no unwanted visitors overnight.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s already nine-thirty, and the brunch is… what, eleven?”
She nodded.
“So I’ll take your car, and come back to pick you up around ten of eleven?”
“All right.” She found her keys on her dresser and tossed them to him, and he caught them with one hand. “But I’d like to be there on time since I am hosting the brunch. Are you punctual, or are you more of the, I’ll-get-there-when-I-get-there type?”
“I worked for the FBI, remember? I’ll be here at ten-fifty.”
He took her face in his hands and kissed her mouth.
“I will be here on time,” he promised.
He started out of the room, when the phone began to ring. On his way down the steps he heard Vanessa say, “Good morning, Hal. Yes, I’m fine. Well, we didn’t want to disturb you… yes, I really am fine…”
By the time he’d showered, dressed, and returned for Vanessa, and arrived at Let’s Do Brunch, it seemed that everyone had already heard about the break-in and the vandalism to Grady’s rented car. The discussion of last night’s crimes even threatened to overshadow the rehash of the wedding.
“Did you call your rental company yet?” Andy asked Grady.
“I called this morning before I left the Inn,” Grady replied. “They need a copy of the police report, and they want to come for the car as soon as the police release it. In the meantime, they’ll give me another car. I just have to go pick it up at someplace right outside of St. Dennis. Vanessa said she’d drive me out.”
Hal came into the room two steps behind Maggie. Grady glanced around for Vanessa, to see if she’d noticed, but she was conferring with the hostess and had her back to the group.
“I can fax the police report to your car company if you give me the info.” Hal had apparently overheard Grady. “Speed things up a bit for you.”
“I’d appreciate that.” Grady nodded. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.” Hal lowered his voice. “I hear you kept an eye on my girl last night.”
Grady nodded, wondering what else Hal might have heard.
“Thank you.” Hal folded his arms across his chest. “Anyone hurts Vanessa, he’ll bring down the wrath of God. I guess you know what I mean.”
Grady nodded again. He was pretty sure he knew exactly what Hal meant.
“Yeah, when we get this guy who broke into her shop, tossed her place, there will be hell to pay. Like I said, no one hurts our girl.” Hal slapped Grady on the back and went for the coffee.
Vanessa’s mother had helped herself to coffee from the large carafe that stood on the buffet table, and had strolled over to the doorway to look out upon the passing cars. Grady grabbed a cup for himself and joined her.
“So did you enjoy the wedding, Mrs. Turner?” he asked.
She turned and looked up at him as if surprised that he’d sought her out, but she smiled and said, “It was just beautiful. I’m so glad I came, even if my son wasn’t happy about it. I must say, though, that your sister made me feel welcome.”
“She’s a welcoming kind of person.”
“I hope Beck appreciates her.”
“I’m sure he does.” Grady toyed with an idea for a moment, then asked, “Mrs. Turner, whatever happened to Vanessa’s first husband?”
“Craig?” She shrugged her shoulders. “Last I heard, he was remarried and the father of three little ones and living in New Mexico. Why?”
“Just wondering.” He took a sip from the cup. “And the one she sent to prison…”
Maggie wrinkled her nose to show her displeasure. “Gene. The bastard.”
“Do you know for a fact that he’s still in prison?”
She nodded. “He was, last I heard, maybe six, seven months ago.”
“Has anyone in his family ever contacted you to find out where she is?”
Maggie shook her head. “Nope. Not a one. Fact is, no one has ever even asked about her.” She paused. “Well, except for that girl a week or two ago.”
“What girl?”
“A girl Ness went to high school with was sending out notices about their upcoming reunion and wanted Ness’s address.”
“Now, which reunion would this be?” he asked.
“Well, let’s see now.” Maggie thought it over. “She graduated in 1998… that would make it her twelfth reunion.”
“That’s odd, don’t you think?” Grady said. “Usually reunions are the tenth, or the fifteenth. Did anyone notify her about the tenth reunion?”
Maggie shook her head. “No. Nothing before this.”
Vanessa walked over, a mimosa in her hand. She eyed Maggie suspiciously.
“I was just telling Grady about Shannon calling about your upcoming reunion,” Maggie explained.
“I still have no idea who she is,” Vanessa said.
“You didn’t have a friend named Shannon?” Grady asked.
“I had no friends at all back then,” Vanessa told him.
Maggie frowned. “That is simply not true, Vanessa. Don’t make this nice young man think you were a social outcast.”
Vanessa turned to Grady. “I was.”
“I guess you wouldn’t have a copy of your high school yearbook handy?” he asked.
“I never got one. There wasn’t anything I wanted to remember. Why? You want to see how weird I was back then?”
“Maybe if you looked at Shannon’s picture, you’d remember her.”
“There was no Shannon in my class,” Vanessa insisted.
He was staring, prompting her to ask, “What?”
“I’m going to have someone track down this ex of yours. I want to confirm that he is in fact still in prison.”
“I told you, the D.A. promised to let me know if he was going to get out.” She sighed, exasperated.
“Did you provide the police back in Wisconsin with a forwarding address?”
“Well, no. But I’m sure they’d contact Maggie.”
“How many times has Maggie moved since the trial?”
“Twice,” she told him.
“Maggie”-Grady turned to Vanessa’s mother, who’d fallen silent-“have you given the D.A. your new address?”
“Ahhh… well, actually, now that you ask, I didn’t.” Maggie appeared slightly embarrassed to admit it.
“So the D.A.’s office would find you, how?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” Maggie shrugged her shoulders. “I guess the same way Shannon did.”
“And how was that?” he persisted.
Maggie tilted her head, as if considering the question. Finally, she said, “I don’t know. I guess she could have asked around the neighborhood where I was living during the trial. I still have friends there.”
“You moved to Indiana after that,” Vanessa reminded her, “and from there, you went to North Dakota.”
“Yes, but Shelley always knows where I am. We’ve kept in close touch.” Maggie turned to Grady. “I suppose someone could have come around asking about me. My upstairs neighbor from those days knows where I live.”
“Would you mind giving her a call and asking if someone’s done that lately?” Grady couldn’t believe how easy it would have been for anyone looking for Vanessa to have found her.
“I gave that girl your address and your phone number.” Maggie was shaken.
Vanessa frowned. “You think that Shannon was someone of Gene’s?”
“How many high schools have twelfth reunions?” he asked.
“You think maybe he’s out and no one told us?” Vanessa’s face drained of color.
“Someone has you targeted for something that is not good. If your ex was released early on parole, he could be that someone. He’d certainly be the prime suspect.”
“You think he could be here, in St. Dennis?” Vanessa blanched. “You think he could have broken into my shop?”
“It’s possible. Look, maybe you should go stay with Steffie until this thing is figured out.”
Vanessa shook her head. “I’m not going to make her a target.”
“Then Hal.”
“No. If anything happened to him because of me, I’d kill myself.”
“Hal can probably take care of himself.”
“No.” She shook her head again.
“Do you have a gun?” He suspected she did not, but wanted to be sure.
“A gun?” She stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “A gun? No, I don’t have a gun. What would I do with a gun? Guns can hurt people.”
Grady’s phone began to ring. He glanced at the caller ID, excused himself, and walked outside to take the call.
“Grady, it’s Will Fletcher,” the voice on the other end said. “John called this morning and asked me to run something down ASAP. He said it was for you.”
“Yeah, thanks for getting right on it.”
“How’ve you been, man? We all miss you,” Will told him.
“I occasionally miss a few of you, too. How’s that fiancée of yours?” Grady asked.
“Miranda is fine,” Will said. “I keep asking her to make an honest man out of me but she keeps postponing the date.”
“Hey, if you were engaged to marry you, how much of a hurry would you be in?”
“You have a point.” Will paused. “What are the chances we’ll be seeing you back in the office sometime soon?”
“Unlikely.” Grady hated having these discussions, and he hoped Will wouldn’t press. To his relief, he didn’t.
“Well, anytime you’re in the neighborhood and just want to hang out, give us a call, hear?”
“I will, thanks.”
“So, back to Eugene Medford.”
Grady heard some papers rustling on Will’s end of the line.
“I ran a check, traced him to a prison in Wisconsin, where he was sent to serve a seven-year term for assault.”
“I know that part,” Grady told him. “I need to know if he’s still in there now.”
“Well, he was, up until three weeks ago.”
“He was paroled?” Grady asked.
“No,” Will told him. “He was in a fight with another inmate and his neck was broken.”
Grady hesitated before asking, “Are you telling me…”
“Yeah,” Will told him. “The guy is dead.”
Diary-
When I said the wedding would be one people would be talking about for a long time, I never dreamed… Well, where to begin? I’m fanning myself with the program from the ceremony and hoping that my poor old heart holds out! The day ran the gamut from the sublime to the scandalous to the… well, I hardly have words for what happened here!
First-the wedding. It was, in a word, perfect. The bride was as beautiful as a fairy tale princess, the groom her story-book prince. The Inn looked fabulous-if I do say so myself-the flowers glorious, the food divine. The weather was warm and balmy. What more could one have asked for on their wedding day?
Next-the scandal. The mother of the groom showed up uninvited! Yes, that woman who to the best of my knowledge hasn’t laid eyes on that boy of hers since she dumped him-yes, I said dumped-on the front doorstep of his unsuspecting father. She had the gall to show up at the wedding, and unless my hearing is going, she was put out because Beck wouldn’t speak to her! Can you imagine? What in the name of decency was that woman thinking? There will be more on this, I feel certain!
Finally-the unthinkable. Vanessa’s sweet little boutique, Bling, was broken into and robbed! Right there on Charles Street, while her brother’s wedding reception was taking place, someone broke into the shop and-from what I heard at the day-after-the-wedding brunch-the burglars trashed the shop before they left! Yes, that’s what I said-as if it wasn’t enough to rob the poor girl, they tossed her lovely merchandise on the floor and broke the glass in some of her cases!
Now, I ask you: What kind of person would do something like that? Obviously, it’s someone from out of town. No one in St. Dennis would stoop so low! And then… just moments later, the car that nice young Grady Shields rented and which he left parked in the lower town lot while he took Vanessa to inspect the damages at Bling… didn’t someone come along and smash out every window? I hear through the grape vine that Hal believes both acts were committed by the same criminally-minded individual.
Breaking into shops! Smashing car windows! What kind of riff-raff are we allowing into our fair town? What has this world come to?!
I must work on an editorial for this week’s paper…
– Grace