Genesis: A Harte's Peak Prequel (10 page)

 

 

7

 

Jack sat in the patrol car at the intersection of Main and Second Street.

Ryan sat in the driver's seat. “If something doesn't happen in this town soon, I might just have to poke my own eye out for the excitement.”

So far, drivers had obeyed every stop sign, every stoplight of the three in town, and the speed limit. Of course, everyone managed to do so when they saw the cruiser in traffic.

Jack fought to keep his eyes open, because he'd worked the swing shift the night before. Now he worked the morning shift at Lonnie Smith's request. Might as well work because he still wasn't having much luck with sleep.

“What do you have against peace and quiet?” Jack asked.

“I've now had enough of it to last me a lifetime.” Ryan, an ex-professional competitive skier sidelined by a career-ending injury, apparently hadn't adjusted to the slower pace in Harte's Peak.

“Not what you had in mind growing up playing cops and robbers?” Jack asked.

“Yesterday I spent the day on the side of the highway catching speeders. Ben Bailey whipped out a fake ID. A bad one, with the picture scotched-taped on and barely in place. It's the most excitement I've had in weeks.” He sighed.

“Catch Vera again?” Jack lifted one eyebrow. The owner of The Bean, Maggie's boss, was notorious for whipping through town in her BMW as though the speed limits somehow didn't apply to her. Worse, she seemed to think her good looks entitled her to talk her way out of tickets. Not with him, though Ryan was an easy target, he'd heard.

“Nah. That would have made my day.” Ryan grinned.

Ryan definitely had a crush on Vera. “Why don't you just ask her out?”

“I do, about once a month.”

“Well, don't give up. Sooner or later she'll give in,” Jack said with a laugh.

“What about you? Have you asked out your neighbor yet?” Ryan wiggled his eyebrows.

“Me? What makes you think I would ask her out?” He didn't like it when Ryan pretended to know what he thought. Not everyone had Ryan's one track mind about women.

“Why wouldn't you?” Ryan fiddled with the visor while they sat at a long stoplight.

“One reason. The kid.” The teenager he'd been asked to mentor. What a joke.

“Yeah. I can't blame you. I once dated a woman with a kid and let me tell you, if the kid doesn't like you, there's no chance.”

He hadn't told Ryan about the cigar because the fact that he'd been fooled by another teenager was nothing short of humiliating. As far as he was concerned, the theft would remain between the mother, daughter, and the one who'd been duped.

“Anyway, I won't be here much longer.” Maybe if he'd start saying it out loud more it would come true.

“Where are you going?” Ryan's brow furrowed.

“Back to Virginia.” Kimberly wanted him to, and ever since her last phone call, the guilt had pressed down. Maybe he was supposed to be taking Robert's place somehow, though he never could. He'd never be half the man that Robert had been.

“When?”

That was the question of the hour. “Soon, I hope.”

“Guess I can't blame you. The most excitement I get around here is the occasional paper cut.”

“That's not why I'm going back.”

“Why, then?”

Going back wouldn't change anything, not in any real way. He'd have to face Kimberly again, and he wasn't sure if being around her would be any different now. The last time he'd barely been able to look at her since he'd failed her as much as he'd failed Robert. And now she was a single mom. Like Maggie.

“Honestly, I'm not sure anymore. I just know that I have to. Running away doesn't solve anything.”

A true friend, Ryan didn't ask any more questions.

 

****

 

Maggie wasn't sure whether unloading on Vera would do any good, but she couldn't stop herself. It helped that Vera was a good listener, and she stayed quiet as Maggie explained Lexi's latest antics. The cigar theft from their neighbor, a cop, and now this new friend she hadn't told Maggie anything about.

“And yesterday, I asked her for the rest of the day to tell me something, anything, about Anton, but she wouldn't. She just kept telling me he's her friend and nothing more.”

“Is that all? Are you done?” Vera pushed a button on the drip machine that would start another pot of coffee.

“Isn't that enough? I've got a serious problem.” Why couldn't Vera see the danger that was imminent? Her daughter and a boy!

“I see that you think it's serious.”

“That's because it is.” Maggie stopped dipping carafes in the sudsy water and locked gazes with Vera.

“Well, I'll grant you that the cigar is a new one for me. Never thought I would hear about a kid stealing a cigar, but when I think of the reason, it makes my heart break. And honestly, Lexi is not the first girl in history to keep something from her mother.”

“No, but—”

“Are you going to stand there and tell me you never kept anything from your mother?” Vera raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow.

Not unless one counted fooling around with Matt when she had no business doing so, getting pregnant, and keeping it from her mother for the first two months.

“Your silence is speaking volumes.” Vera laughed.

“OK, so I kept some things from my own mother. But that's not what I wanted for my daughter.” She sighed. “I was going to do it better.”

“How?”

“Keep the lines of communication open, talk to her about boys, and let her know she can always come to me. It just all happened so quickly.”

It seemed like such a short time ago that Lexi was still cuddly and affectionate, but now everything had changed. Matt was gone, and on Lexi's thirteenth birthday a gong had sounded somewhere in the world and turned her daughter into some kind of cactus resistant to mother's hugs.

“So how have you been different than your mother?”

She'd benefited from June Callahan's trust, deserved or not. There had never been any question that Maggie would keep and raise Lexi, and Mom offered her support in every way. And though they'd always been close, there were some things you didn't tell your mother. Some of the things a girl didn't tell her mother made her breath catch in her throat now.

“It just dawned on me that I've been a lot like my mother. Trusting, expecting the best. The truth is, when I stopped telling my mother everything, it was because I had something to hide.”

“Like sneaking off with boys?”

“Exactly.”

“So you shouldn't be surprised that Lexi won't tell you if she likes this boy as more than a friend. You do remember what it's like.”

“I remember that there were times I wished my mother would interfere, stop me somehow. Save me from myself. It was so easy to fool her because she trusted almost too much.”

“So you think you want to be a little less trusting?”

“Maybe.” Maggie shook her head. “I mean, yes.”

“You want to be like my Aunt Debbie.”

Maggie stared at Vera. “What do you mean?”

“My mother allowed me to go to Europe for my modeling career as a teenager. Then you have my Aunt Debbie. That woman should have opened her own detective agency. It all started with her husband. He cheated on her, and she found out by tailing him. As a teen, my cousin was pretty wild. My aunt used to follow her in her station wagon, and she got pretty good at it. My poor cousin never knew when my aunt would be tailing her.”

“So she had to behave because she never knew when her mother might be following?” This sounded promising. Finally, a good idea.

“Nah, she just got better at sneaking around.” Vera smiled as she opened the door to their first customers.

Thoughts of Vera's enterprising aunt filled her head all morning as she filled orders for macchiato and mochas. She didn't want to spy on her own daughter, but she had to find a realistic way of knowing what was going on in that teenage mind of Lexi's. No more mistakes could be made when her in-laws watched, waiting for an opportunity for her to slip up. As the morning rush ended, Maggie pulled Vera aside.

“I need to borrow your car.”

“My car? What for?” Vera's face turned pale. Her precious sporty car was like her child.

“I'm going to spy on Lexi at lunch time. It's the only way I'll know what's going on.”

“When will I learn to keep my mouth shut?” Vera put a hand to her forehead.

“Your aunt was on to something. I don't know why I didn't think of it myself. I'll drive over and just sit in the car and watch them come out at lunch time.”

“But—why in my car?”

“Did you forget? I walked here this morning; my car is out of commission. This all has to be undercover, like your aunt. Lexi wouldn't expect to see your car there.”

“I knew I shouldn't have said anything.” She shook her head.

“Nonsense. You've been a great help. My eyes are wide open, and they'll never shut again. So, keys?” Maggie held out her hand.

“Fine, but this is a bad idea, and I want it on record that I said so.” Vera placed the keys to her BMW in Maggie's hands. “Take good care of it. And whatever you do, don't speed. Ryan issued a warning last week. He's not letting me off again.”

 

****

 

Maggie determined within minutes that sporty cars like Vera's were great for spying on people. Her problem was that like her own mother, she'd been too trusting. Too trusting of Matt, her in-laws, Lexi. The only one she could really trust in was the Lord, and she was pretty sure He'd approve of her looking out for the one person He'd put in her care.

She sat low in the seat as she pulled alongside the curb on Main Street, where the fenced in schoolyard faced the street. From here, she had a good view of the kids as they came out of class and stood in the lunch line as it snaked outside.

Now that spring had arrived and the temperatures rose into the sixties, the kids ate their lunch outside under the large awning that covered the tables. Some kids wandered past the tables and on to the grassy knoll area as Maggie craned her neck toward the passenger side of the car.

She noticed Lexi standing alone in the lunch line, and her heart dropped. She'd hoped that by now Lexi would be part of a group of girlfriends. Instead, she looked so helpless and alone.
Lord, when will the mistakes stop adding up?

She should have never moved back to Harte's Peak
,
never agreed to move out here at Paula and Richard's insistence. Being close to extended family or not, Lexi had been forced to abandon all her friends. No wonder she was having such a difficult time. Maggie shut her eyes against the pain.
No. She wouldn't go there again. God had pulled her out of that, out of the darkness and depression that had threatened to ruin everything.

When Maggie opened her eyes again, and with what looked to be an answered prayer, Lexi was no longer alone. But the problem with this new picture was that Anton had sidled up next to her, and in a matter of seconds, the two were holding hands. Lexi and Anton looked like much more than friends.

A few of the kids stared in her direction, causing Maggie to slink down further in her seat. There was nothing wrong with watching her own kid, but she sure didn't want Lexi to see her.

She heard another car pull up beside her and turned to see Jack and Ryan in the cruiser. Jack, sitting in the passenger seat, leaned out the window and motioned for her to roll down her own.

Busted.
She swallowed and obeyed his request. “Yes?”

“Maggie, what are you doing here?” Jack's brow was furrowed in confusion. Surely, he didn't suspect her of doing anything wrong.

“Why? Is there a problem? I'm not parked illegally, am I?” She tried to dig up some righteous indignation from where she'd left it behind, somewhere in her teen years. Stupid police, ruining her good time.

“We just got a call that someone suspicious in a vehicle was observing the kids from the street,” Jack said.

“And actually, you shouldn't park here,” Ryan said from the driver's side. He probably loved this, her punishment for turning him down. She couldn't go out with Ryan when anyone with a lick of sense could see he and Vera belonged together. Not that she could go out with anyone, but especially not Ryan.

Both of them looked as if they could hardly keep a straight face. Ryan turned his face away from her, but she noticed his shoulders shaking, and Jack bit his lip as though he was trying not to smile.

Lord, please let the ground open up and swallow me whole.

The cruiser had now gathered them even more attention, and some of the students began to turn their heads and stare in their direction. If Lexi noticed her, she'd never live this down. She had to get out of here, and fast.

“I'm sorry. I'll leave now if that's OK. If you want to give me a ticket, follow me.” She didn't wait for an answer but started up the car again and pulled out into traffic praying they wouldn't follow, sirens blazing.
Soccer mom, caught loitering, evades police.
She'd probably make tomorrow's headline in the Harte's Peak Times.

A check of the rearview mirror told her they were not following her. Maggie rubbed her neck and tried to ease the strain.

Back at the café, Maggie explained what had happened to Vera, leaving out as many embarrassing details as possible.

“Don't worry. You didn't do anything wrong.” Vera didn't crack a smile, no doubt realizing Maggie's mortification.

“How do I know that? Somebody thought I was suspicious. And isn't there some law about loitering near a school or something?”

“Calm down, Maggie. As long as Lexi didn't see you, that's all you really had to worry about.”