Apprehension (16 page)

Clearing his throat, Robert continued. "She's a Claremont County police officer and she saved my sister's life." His eyes were full of apology and his gaze never left Danielle's face.

"Yeah, Ms. Hanscom, Officer Smith was with me the first night we came out here to investigate your house being TP'd during this year's high school homecoming game."

Ms. Hanscom blushed slightly as the onlookers began to murmur about how often Danielle had assisted them when they had problems.

Still refusing to walk away with egg on her face, Ms.

Hansom mumbled, "Well, by her dress, she's not on duty tonight and I saw her running past the house twice."

All eyes focused on Danielle, awaiting her reply.

Looking at Robert, then toward Brantley, Danielle used the only excuse these people would be comfortable hearing. "I'm training for the Claremont County Police 'fun run' to raise money for the July fourth fair. I clocked the distance one night while we were out here."

"That's right." Brantley echoed in confirmation.

The crowd's face held small relieved smiles of approval.

The fair and football were a big deal in Claremont.

"See, Ms. Hanscom, nothing is going on for you to worry about. The cops have this under control," Brantley tried to reassure.

"Well, maybe you all should patrol here more than once a night." Ms. Hanscom gave her parting shot, refusing to be outdone, then turned and stalked back to her house.

Sighing, Brantley shook his head. "Some people are just too set in their ways to see any differently."

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"A lot of people in this town are," Danielle told her co-worker as she watched the rest of the crowd disperse and move back to their homes. Everyone except Robert.

Moving to his patrol car, Brantley warned, "Hey don't judge all of us by Ms. Hanscom. She's in a narrow-minded class with very few others."

Danielle shrugged, feeling Robert's presence behind her. He probably was hoping that she stayed, but all of her worry and doubts were back in full force and the last thing she wanted to do was talk about them or what happened. "Well, I gotta go."

"You need a ride?" Brantley asked.

"Nope, my car is just a few houses up. I'm good." Turning without looking at Robert again, she ran with all her might toward her car, feeling his heated gaze on her back the entire way.Breathing hard, she stopped beside her driver's side door.

Across her hood she could see him still standing beneath the streetlights. He was talking to Brantley but looking down the sidewalk at her. Her heart was breaking at the knowledge that she and Robert were ending. She would have to let him go so he could find the perfect wife to compliment his life in Claremont, and not be a distraction as she would. Getting in her car, she grabbed the key from under her mat and pulled off as the tears filled her eyes.

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"Yea, can I help you?" The medium height older black woman in a worn Denny's uniform stared at him through the screen door on the south end of Patterson Street. There were no lights or open windows behind her and the darkness of the house obscured her features, but even that didn't reduce the resemblance this woman had to Danielle.

"Hi, ma'am. My name's Robert and I spoke to you on the phone."

Brown eyes that would have been mirror images of Danielle, if not for the world battered haze distorting them, scanned him from head to toe. Returning her gaze to his face, she said, "You the one dat called about LaQuesha."

He nodded, even though she was making a statement.

"You're her mother?"

"Who else would I be…the maid?" she snorted a laugh. "I told you on the phone dat I hadn't seen Quesha in years."

This woman had been difficult to talk to on the phone, but it was nothing compared to in person. Now standing with her arms folded over her large bosom, she didn't look as if she was going to give him any more information than before. "I understand, ma'am. I'm not looking for her. Just trying to get to know her better."

She tilted her head and pursed her lips. "Why? What in the hell Quesha gone done now? Got into some trouble?" Checking out his Dockers and button down shirt, she asked. "You her lawyer or somethin'?"

Robert smiled, hoping to put her at ease. By the lift of the woman's eyebrow, he could tell it wasn't working. "No, Ms.

Smith, your daughter is not in any trouble." Taking a deep breath, he looked the woman in the eye. Whatever Danielle's 116

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problem with her mother was, he owed this woman his respect and honesty. "I love your daughter."

Ms. Smith didn't move for a full minute, just unwaveringly stared at him. He would have hated to have her on the witness stand. With her poker face, she would be a hard witness to break.

Without warning, the screen swung open. Robert had to step to the side to avoid being hit by it.

Flicking an interior light switch, she commanded, "Come in." Ms. Smith moved aside so he could enter. "I have a few minutes to spare 'fore I have to be to work."

Stepping inside, Robert took note of the worn furniture, dark worn curtains and nineteen-inch television. "Thank you, Ms. Smith."

"Harvey." Leaving the door open, she crossed the room and claimed a grey tweed recliner. "LaQuesha's last name is Smith from her daddy. But, I ain't never married his foolish ass. But a baby s'posed to have they daddy's name so all four of my kids is Smith."

"Ms. Harvey then." He sat on the couch across from her.

"What you want to know 'bout LaQuesha?" She leaned back, getting comfortable in her chair.

"Whatever you want to tell me." Robert didn't even know why he'd driven to Lowndes County. He just felt as if most of Danielle's issues and problems started here and when he discovered on the phone that she hadn't seen her mother in years, he knew he had to come.

"Hmph." She shook her head. "Quesha was a difficult child from conception. I knew when I was pregnant with her she was goin' be my last."

"Did you have complications?"

"No. Her ass just couldn't keep still. I don't think I slept for months while I was pregnant wit' her." She placed a fist on a plump hip. "I thought she was goin' to be a fat baby or a soccer team was goin' come out. But, shock me twice if she didn't come out a month early at barely four and half pounds, kickin' and screamin'."

Robert smiled. Danielle was still on the move to this day.

Not only did she run frequently to stay in shape, but she was 117

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running emotionally from him. The latter was enough to wipe the smile from his mouth. "How was she as a little girl?"

Ms. Harvey's shoulders raised and dropped. "Nothing much to say. She went to school and acted like every other child. But, she was always sittin' on the porch just starin' down the road at nothin'." Ms. Harvey glanced off for a moment, then looked back at him. "Maybe even then she was plannin' to leave. She never could just be satisfied with life as it is."

"In what way?" Robert asked.

"Every way. If I said go left, she wanted to see what was right. All my other children always did what I expected them to do. Grew up like good kids, got jobs in the city and knew where they came from and where they belonged. But, not LaQuesha.

No, she thought she was better than where she came from.

Where her family is from. Like her shit don't stink like the rest of ours."

It wasn't hard for him to pick up on the hurt and anger in Danielle's mother voice. "It must have been hard to let her go when she left for the academy."

"Let her. I didn't let her do nothin'." Leaning over her knee she said, "LaQuesha ran off because she found out one year that she can spread her thighs like the rest of us and found herself caught in a situation. She wasn't the same after that. Depressed and cryin' all the time."

Taken aback, Robert stared at Danielle's mother. Was she telling him that LaQuesha got pregnant? Maybe that was why she'd told him from the beginning, after they'd renewed their previous relationship, that she was on the Pill faithfully and he didn't have to worry about her trapping him with a baby.

Swallowing down the lump in his throat, Robert asked the question he didn't want to hear the answer to, because selfishly he'd never dreamed that Danielle had been intimate with any man but him. "Where's the baby?" Glancing around the house, he saw a small toy car sitting on the floor by the TV. "Are you raising it?"

"Hello, no! I got seven grankids and I told all my children from the start that if they had babies they could break 'dey own back rasin' em. I aint doin' it."

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"I've been with your daughter for a year, I know she doesn't have a child."

Throwing her hands up, Ms. Harvey said, "I didn't say she had the baby." She gave a dry chuckle. "She was even too good for that I guess."

"What happened?" he inquired. Knowing that Danielle had been pregnant by another man didn't change how he felt about her, but maybe he could discover why she protected her heart from him so fiercely.

"I guess sometime during the summer before her senior year of high school. I don't know. She was never home and then the school year started and she was always depressed it seems.

Mopin' around the house. Then one day during the fall she left outta here in that ragged car her daddy gave her."

"Where'd she go?"

"Hell, if I know. Some chop shop I guess, because I got a call from the hospital. When I got there, she was cryin', all balled up in the hospital bed and dat baby was gone." Ms. Harvey glanced down at her watch and stood. "I ain't ask no questions, cause if she want'd me ta know, she'd said somethin'. She stayed close to home over the next few months, then before her graduation cap landed on the ground she had hightailed it outta here."Getting the message, Robert stood as well. "Thanks for your time."

Walking with him to the door, Danielle's mom grabbed her purse and keys off the hook by the door and escorted him out.

"I'd say it was my pleasure but I'd be lyin'." Lumbering down the steps, she moved to her late model green Stratus.

Stopping, she turned toward him. "How is LaQuesha?"

He wondered if Danielle's mother knew she changed her name. Smiling, he looked at the life-weary woman. "Good. She's doing very well."

She nodded. "When you get back to Claremont you take good care of her."

"I will." Frowning, he asked. "I never said where I lived."

"I said I hadn't seen her. But, I get a card and money from her every holiday and my birthday. All the things over the last 119

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year have been comin' from Claremont. I guess Atlanta got to be too much for a small town girl."

"I guess so." Robert got into his truck and pulled away with his heart heavy. He couldn't recall the last time he'd cried, but his eyes were stinging as he drove out of Lowndes County.

* * * *

Pulling a gown over her head, she crossed her carpeted floor to peer out of the peephole. Seeing Robert's face staring back at her, she placed her forehead against the door and took a few calming breaths. They had not spoken in two days. She didn't know if she wanted to begin the dreaded conversation of why they couldn't be together at ten o'clock at night.

"Danielle, I know you're standing by the door, I saw your shadow in the peephole."

Damn
. She should've looked out her window to the parking lot for cars that didn't belong to the residence.
Too late now
.

Unlatching the door, she opened it. "Robert, now is—"

He stormed past her into the apartment.

Looking at him, she shut the door. Her neighbors had probably already heard his banging. They didn't need to be a witness to the rest of their conversation. "Why are you here, Robert?"

He stood in the middle of her living room rubbing his forehead, clothes disheveled.

"How could you do it?" He pierced her with his red-rimmed gaze.

"Do what? Not talk to you? I needed time." She said, staring at him closely.

"I'm not talking about calling me!" he yelled.

Robert never yelled. "Keep your voice down," she spoke through gritted teeth. Her cop instinct kicked in and things became clear. "Are you drunk?"

He stepped toward her, where she still stood by the door.

"Have I been drinking? Yes. I'm not drunk. I wish I was, then maybe I wouldn't have to think about it."

Placing a hand on his arm, she tried to reassure him. "Look, Robert, this is hard for both of us. But we have to admit we knew 120

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it was coming." As she spoke, Robert closed the gap between them. Danielle moved backwards and came up against the door.

Around him, she always found herself in a constant state of arousal. If he touched her, they would end up having sex and that would just muddle everything all over again.

"Danielle." He said her name as if he were unsure of who she was.

The soft, hollow sound of his voice made her nervous. It wasn't sexual in nature, but different. "Ro-bert?"

His hands massaged her shoulders, then moved down to her breast and squeezed.

She trembled at the warmth of his strong touch through her silk gown. "Robert, what are you doing?"

"Why'd you do it?" His hands continued on past her stomach and stopped at her lower abdomen. With circular motions, his thumbs caressed her there, not moving any further.

"Do what?" She gazed at his face, dark with emotion. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I know you had to be scared and confused, sweetheart."

Setting her hands over his, she stilled his touch. "Scared.

Confused. I'm I supposed to know what this conversation is about?" The feeling of foreboding crept into her heart.

"I went to see your mother today."

Her lungs contracted, making it hard for her to breath.

"What?" she whispered. "Why in the hell would you do that?"

She knew it was a mistake to tell him her real name. Needing some space, she pushed away from him and the door.