Just a Memory (13 page)

Friends. Period.

"Thanks, Ellie, for keeping an eye on Terri. I hope I haven't made you late getting home."

"We had fun, didn't we, Terri?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah. I want to be a policeman when I grow up, Mommy."

Carolyn smiled and held Terri's coat so she could pull it on quickly. The child saw Mac step into the doorway at his office. She ran right to him. "Hi, Mr. Macdonald. Is this where you work?"

"Yes, it is," he said with a smile. "I didn't know you were here. Wanna see my office?"

"Would I! I told the kids at school that I'd met the Chief of Police and nobody believed me. Wait until I tell them I've been in your office."

Mac stepped back while Terri walked into his office and looked around. "Wow. Can I sit in your chair?" He nodded and looked back as Carolyn walked up behind him.

"Come on, Terri. Let's not bother Mr. Macdonald. Time to get home for dinner."

"This chair is neat, Mom. How come you don't have one like this in your office?"

Carolyn laughed. "Because there isn't room in my office for a chair that size, honey. Now come on. We're keeping Mr. Macdonald from his appointment."

"I'm coming," Terri said, obviously disappointed she had to leave.

"Come see me again," Mac told her as she went past.

"Thanks," Terri said, looking up at him with a big grin. "Mom, can I come here again? Huh? Can I?"

"We'll see, dear. We'll see."

"Aw, Mom. That's what you always say when the answer is no, but you don't want to say it."

Carolyn heard Mac's chuckle behind them. She pressed against Terri's shoulders to hurry her across the room.

Terri turned and waved goodbye to Mac and Ellie. "Thanks for the tour," she called as Carolyn ushered her out the door. With a little wave from Carolyn, they left.

Mac watched the gentle sway of Carolyn's hips as she walked out of the station.
Quit looking at her that way, damn it. You've no right
.

The fact remained that he'd been enjoying Carolyn's visit, not only because of the fun he'd had teasing her until she relaxed, but because he now knew she was just as aware of him physically as he was of her. She looked so soft and feminine even in the tailored business suit with the skirt tucked above her knees, leaving her shapely calf exposed to his scrutiny.

When she'd left his office, he'd been surprised to see Terri run across the room to her mother's side. He hadn't realized she'd come with Carolyn to the station. On top of that he was surprised how much he enjoyed talking with the kid.

"I'm going now," Ellie announced, reaching for her coat.

"Oh, right. Good night," Mac called as he returned to his desk.

He sat in the chair where Terri had just been. She looked so much like Carolyn, the same blue eyes and blond hair, except Terri's hair was even lighter. She was cute, and when she grew up she would be as beautiful as her mother.

What would it be like to have a kid who looked just like him? Mac tried to picture such a child, but the child he pictured looked like Carolyn. "Damn it, Mac. There you go again," he said aloud, as he rose with enough force to send his desk chair bouncing off the wall behind him. He snapped off his desk lamp. "Enough!"

Grabbing his coat, he stayed only long enough to make two phone calls. First, to the special force director. Nothing new. The dealer against whom Mac had testified was awaiting sentencing. Mac told his boss he hadn't remembered any more of what happened that night and reported that his shoulder was much better. Still a little stiff was all Mac would admit to. He didn't want to add that his range of arm motion was still small. He was confident it would improve soon.

The second call was to Sandi Houseman, the too-friendly realtor. He didn't feel like looking at any properties tonight. It was already dark out.

"I'm so glad you called," she said when he reached her at home. "I tried at the station, but you had already switched the calls. I've got a lovely house to show you." She steamrolled on, not letting him get in a word. "It's not actually on the market yet, but I know the owners. It's a recently built house right on the lake–just what you're looking for. The people who built it are retired and they'd prefer to live in a warmer climate now. They've gone to
Arizona
to see how they like it there. They're inclined to sell, but they're not positive yet. I think you could rent now with an option to buy later, though."

"Sounds interesting. When can I see it?" Mac asked, feeling excited at last about the possibility of finding a place of his own on the lake.

"I was going to show you tonight, but you'll want to see this one by daylight. It gets dark so much earlier now. How about tomorrow morning? If you could get away at about eleven we could go see it, and then I… Well, I normally take my clients to lunch to talk about what we've seen."

Mac ran his hand through his hair. This woman didn't give up and he knew very well what
lunch
might mean. But he could handle it. What the hell. It wasn't as if women invited him to lunch all that often. "That would be fine, but I won't have a lot of time," he added to cover a quick exit in case he needed one.

"I can drive us out and back. I'll pick you up at eleven at the station."

"Well, okay. See you at eleven."

Mac mumbled under his breath, wishing he'd said he would drive himself as he headed for the apartment to see what he could dig up to eat for his dinner.

A gray sedan pulled in behind Carolyn's vehicle as she and Terri left the station. She noticed in the rearview mirror the driver was slouched behind the wheel, hidden under the brim of a baseball cap. He was still about half a block behind her when she pulled into her driveway at home. Carolyn saw the car go on by as she and Terri climbed out of the car in her garage. Despite not knowing who was driving, she waved in the friendly manner typical of her neighborhood. If he waved back, she didn't see it.

Carolyn locked the garage and went into the house after Terri, leaning on the door to shut it. She tried to think of supper instead of Mac while she washed her hands and pulled salad fixings from the refrigerator. She was chopping vegetables when the doorbell rang, making her heart do a flip-flop. An image flashed into her mind of Mac coming to apologize for his strange behavior this evening.

"I'll get it," Terri called as she ran to open the door. Then, a moment later… "Mo-o-o-ther-r-r-r!"

Carolyn hadn't heard that tone of voice since Terri cut her hand in the yard and needed help desperately. She hurried into the hall to see who was at the door. The coldest black eyes she'd ever seen in her life looked back at her. Heavy black brows frowned over them. Black hair peeked out from under the cap shadowing his face and making his skin look pasty. She couldn't help a shudder at his hard expression. The man beyond the storm door stared at them without blinking.

Terri moved close to Carolyn's side and wrapped her arms around her leg. Carolyn put her arm protectively around her daughter's shoulder. "Yes, what is it?" she asked as she pulled the door much closer to being closed.

This town rarely had salesmen go door to door, but this guy couldn't be one anyway. With a sneer on his face like that, he would have to be selling condos in hell.

"Sorry to bother ya, ma'am. I'm looking for, ah,
Cramer Road
. I saw your light. It's hard to see them street signs in the dark. I was hopin' ya could direct me."

While Carolyn met new people in the store all the time, especially in tourist season, she'd never had them affect her like this. On the other hand, they never looked like this man. "Go to the corner and turn left," she said, pointing south. "Cramer is the little road that goes to the right just past the bushes that come down to the road. Just look for the bushes and turn right after them."

She watched the way his nose seemed to twitch as he listened. Kind of like a rabbit's, but it looked anything but cute.

"Thanks. Sorry to bother ya." He looked down at Terri. "You got a cute kid there, lady. You wanna take real good care of her so she don't get hurt."

Carolyn looked down at Terri, who tightened her grasp. She was clutching Carolyn so tightly her knuckles were white.

"Thanks again, lady," he said, making Carolyn look back at him. "You've been real helpful."

As soon as he stepped off the stoop, Carolyn shut the door and this time she locked it. That was one man she knew she wouldn't ever like to see again.

"Mom, he was spooky," Terri said.

"I'm sure he's no one we have to be concerned about, honey. We'll never see him again." She gave Terri a reassuring hug. "How about setting the table?" Carolyn handed her the dishes and Terri took them to the table.

Carolyn glanced out the window over the sink and watched his car pull away. Her neighbors across the street were putting away their gardening equipment in their open lit garage. She wondered why the man hadn't just pulled into their driveway and asked them for directions instead of coming all the way up to her door. It gave her an uncomfortable feeling that was hard to dismiss.

Mac had told her to pay attention to strangers and here they had opened the door right up without looking out to see who was there. Terri didn't have to unlock the chain first because Carolyn had forgotten to fasten it when she got home. Habit. She'd never felt the need for much security. This was Lakehaven, after all.

Not even small towns are safe anymore, Mac had said. She would have to start remembering bad guys were everywhere, even in Lakehaven. And that changed everything.

Her quiet, safe life would never be the same again.

Chapter Six

"Why does a Police Chief in a tiny town like this get so much mail?" Mac said after Ellie dumped another stack of envelopes on his desk the next morning.

"Just lucky, I guess," she quipped as she went back to the outer office.

Mac struggled through the stack, sorting it into 'today', 'this week', and 'lose it' piles. Much of the last pile lay on the floor because he had missed the paper-recycling bin. The cleaning crew last night had moved it from its usual spot.

Still sitting at the bottom of the second pile for about the fifth day was an invitation to attend the formal retirement dinner of the Chief of Police of a
Syracuse
suburb. Mac was ignoring it, of course, because he just couldn't picture himself at a black-tie affair. All those years in undercover work meant no ties at all, much less a black bow. Two tickets were available for him and a guest, the invitation said.

Carolyn would fit in perfectly at that kind of thing. He wondered if she would even accept his invitation. Figuring the worst she could say was 'no', he reached for the phone but was stopped by the buzz of the intercom.

"Chief, Mavis just called to confirm that Elliot White, who owns the property where The Costume Nook is located, hasn't bought or sold any other properties within the past year. She also mentioned that the gray sedan was illegally parked by her building when she got home last night a few minutes after six. A man was in the driver's seat just like last time."

"Did she get the license number?"

"Said she couldn't see that well without walking right up to it. She's convinced he's 'up to no good', to quote her exactly."

"The next time she calls, have whoever is on duty run right up there and check it out."