Just a Memory (24 page)
He willed the happy feeling of their lovemaking to wash back over him. Would the hate-filled world he had to work in allow the feeling to stay? Or would he forget it like he forgot who murdered his partner?
The silence in the darkened room was shattered by the insistent beep of Mac's pager leaning on the base of the unlit lamp by the bed. His movements quick and automatic from years of practice, he grabbed it and depressed the button to display the message. The succinct word he uttered toward it as he turned it off elicited a small gasp from Carolyn.
"Sorry," he said as he kissed her hair and then moved to slide from under her.
"What is it, Mac? What's wrong?" She blinked her eyes and tried to wake up and focus on what was happening.
"It's my beeper. I have to call the Sheriff's office."
"But it's the weekend. I thought the Sheriff handled everything then."
"Must be something going on in town he wants me to know about." Mac slid out from under the quilt and pulled his jeans on. Sitting back down on the bed, he reached for the phone next to the lamp and punched in the number.
Carolyn pushed the two pillows together on the headboard and leaned against them. The quilt pulled up modestly to cover her breasts, she rested her hand on Mac's upper arm. He smiled to encourage her to keep her hand there.
"Macdonald responding to your page."
"Let me put Manny on the line," the voice on the other end of the line said.
Mac reached to take Carolyn's hand in his. He tried to let the new tension he felt from being forced to wait flow from his body. Why did they have to page him now? Mac rubbed the pads of her fingers and remembered how they had felt as she slid them all over his body.
A deep voice cut into the silence on the line. "Mac, I thought you'd want to hear this one right away. She was on the phone again just now, and this time she was about hysterical."
"Who, Manny?"
"This woman has called three times now about the guy who broke into Carolyn Blake's in Lakehaven a while back. She was going on about how he didn't mean any harm, but now that she knew he did it, she didn't know what to do."
"Who was it that called?" Mac asked again.
"Well, she didn't tell us the first time. She hung up 'cause he came to her door. Then an hour later she's back on the line, arguing with a male. She's trying to get him to tell me all about what he did at the costume place. He says he 'ain't doing no such thing' and the phone goes dead."
"Damn, so you don't know who it was?"
"Not 'til the third call just now. I got the calls taped, and we were playing the first two back when Jean here thought she knew the voice. So when she called back I used the name Jean gave me and the woman responded. She wanted to talk to you, but she couldn't call you 'cause the station was closed for the weekend, and you weren't in the book, being new and all."
"Manny, enough! Who was it?" Mac had no patience left. This phone call had already spoiled something beautiful that should never have been interrupted, and Manny wouldn't get to the point.
Mac hadn't realized how tense the call was making him, until Carolyn rose to her knees behind him to massage the tension from his neck and shoulders. He raised his head and leaned back against her breasts.
"You won't believe this, but it was Mavis Ashton, the lady at the county records office. Have you met her yet?"
"Not in person. Ellie has done most of the contact work with her. But the way she described Mavis, she'd be the last person I'd expect to be mixed up in a burglary."
Mac heard Carolyn's gasp as her hands stilled. "Mavis Ashton?" she whispered toward his upturned face. Mac nodded and continued to listen on the phone.
"Didn't sound like she was in on it," Manny continued. "She'd just found out who done it, and her civic duty was dictating that she call, no matter what the hour."
"She couldn't have picked a worse one," Mac mumbled.
"Not to worry, Chief. She wants to talk to you at nine in the morning at your office. Says she can get the guy to go there then and not before."
"You don't think she's in any danger from the guy now?"
"She said she wasn't, but here's one more wrinkle for ya." Manny chuckled in a way that made Mac feel uneasy. "You'll get a kick outta this part, Mac, if the rumors I hear about you and Carolyn are true. Mavis wants her, the owner of the costume place, to be there too. Don't ask me why," he quickly added, anticipating that would be Mac's next question. "She said they–that's her and whoever this guy is–they knew Carolyn would understand in case you didn't. Then she said she'd see you both there tomorrow at nine, and she hung up on me again."
Carolyn was still behind Mac and must have felt the tension returning to his shoulders because she started massaging the muscles again.
"I don't like bringing in a civilian into a questioning, especially when she was the victim of the crime," Mac responded. He hoped he sounded neutral to take Manny's thoughts away from his curiosity about the rumors, but at the same time he wanted to know what they were. He hated the thought of Carolyn's name being bandied about.
Manny was not easily led astray. "Listen, I'm sure you figure it's none of my business, Mac, but I've known Carolyn for a lot of years 'cause she helps us with the costumes for the children's show at the hospital each year. I think she's one special lady what with all she does for this community. But then from what I know of you, you just might be the best thing for her."
Damn. Did everyone have an opinion about him and Carolyn dating after just a few weeks? He felt a strong urge to protect her from any discomfort she would feel because of other people talking about them.
Mac let the sheriff know the subject was closed. He thanked him and said he would take care of the
meeting. He requested copies of the phone call tapes and hung up. He stretched and tried to let the stress he felt flow from his body by rotating his head in a circle while Carolyn continued her massage.
"Mavis Ashton says she knows who broke into your shop and wants to meet with us in the morning," he offered.
"Mavis knows who did it? She is the last person in town I would picture hanging out with criminals. Wait a minute, you said
us
."
"Yes. She specifically asked that you be there." Mac told her about the morning meeting as he rose and walked to the window. He parted the drapes and looked out toward the street to see the noise he'd heard while on the phone had been a snowplow making a pass down the street. It doubled the ridge of snow at the end of the drive, but the street was passable now. He turned back to Carolyn, letting the drape fall closed.
She was tangled in the sheet, sitting on one leg with the other bent and her head resting on her knee. Her hair was tousled from their lovemaking, and he wanted nothing more than to get right back into bed with her.
He sat beside her and ran his hand up and down her bare back. She looked up at him and he saw her creamy breasts peeking above the sheet. He was startled by a fresh tightening in his groin. In a couple of months he would be forty years old. Here he was feeling like he was twenty again. He leaned over and kissed her soundly.
"You're even more beautiful after you've made love." He straightened up. "This isn't easy, but I'd better take advantage of the plowed street and get to the apartment. Neither one of us wants Terri to come bounding in here and find me in bed with you." Carolyn nodded and Mac heard her sigh.
"Tomorrow, can Terri stay at Christie's long enough for you to come down to the station at nine?"
"Sure," she said.
"I've got to go," he said, kissing her temple.
"I understand." She ducked her head, but Mac saw doubts flashing across her face before she succeeded in hiding them. He didn't think she was thinking about the meeting in the morning. He grasped her shoulders and pushed her back down to the mattress. Covering her body with his, he kissed her deeply.
"There. That should erase any ideas you might have entertained that I was leaving your bed because I wanted to. I don't. I want to stay." He kissed her again. "You stay here where it's warm. Then I can remember exactly how you looked in bed with me. I can remember how great we are together. And how much I want to make love with you again."
Carolyn released her breath. "It was special for you too?" she whispered.
"Special doesn't begin to describe it as far as I'm concerned." He watched the smile fill her face. He was surprised when she kissed him on the tip of his nose and wriggled out from under him.
"If it's still snowing as hard as it was before the plow went by, we have some shoveling to do to get you out of the driveway."
Before he could object, she gathered up her clothes and disappeared into the bathroom. Mac used the time to finish dressing, and within a few minutes they were both hefting shovels of snow off the drive.
They got wet from the snowballs that happened to be thrown during a work break. Then they had to shovel that part of the drive again.
"We look like a couple of snow people," Carolyn told him, unable to stop laughing.
"I've never kissed a snow person before," Mac said as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cold lips. He was delighted to see the smile return to her face when he lifted his face a few inches.
"I hope we don't shock my neighbors. I'm acting like a teenager."
"You make me feel like one again. I'd love to take you back in and get you all warm again, but I'd better go."
"Yeah," she agreed, not sounding convinced that that was a valid reason not to go back in.
Mac gently brushed some snow from her hair. "Do I get a goodbye kiss?"
She kissed him primly with a light smack on his chin and he groaned in dramatic disappointment. Carolyn giggled, but her face quickly lost its smile. "Be careful driving in this stuff, Mac. I don't want anything to happen to you," she said softly.
He leaned down and rubbed her cold nose with his. "Caro," he began, as if he would go on and say something else. She looked up at him expectantly, but Mac had too many reasons not to say anything of what he was thinking. He stepped back. "You be careful driving in the morning. I don't want anything to happen to you either."
After a second or so, her face relaxed into a gentle smile. She watched Mac leave for his apartment. He had brought her happiness in a way her husband never had.
Alone in the house she'd lived in since her marriage, she walked back into her bedroom with the intention of getting some sleep. She reached into her dresser drawer to get a clean nightgown and her fingers hit the picture she'd stored on the bottom of the drawer. Her hand closed around it and lifted it out.
It was a candid shot of her and Richard in front of the house just after they'd bought it. She looked at her own bright and happy smile. She'd been so excited at the prospect of setting up their household, preparing their nest for the children they both expected to become a part of it.
She looked at Richard's face. It was a color photo, but too small to see the color of his eyes. She couldn't remember what they were. Above his eyes, though, she noticed the frowning brow. He wasn't squinting in the sun. It didn't look that bright in the photo. He just didn't look as happy as she thought he had been.
Only a couple of years later, she opened the costume shop. She'd planned to expand the custom sewing part of the business when she discovered she was pregnant. Carolyn frowned when she remembered how soon after Terri's birth Richard insisted she pick up where she'd left off with the shop expansion. She took the baby to work with her each day except for the busiest days of the Halloween season. She loved being able to care for her and of course, it saved the cost of a sitter, too.
Before Terri reached her first birthday, Richard became ill. There was nothing that could be done, the doctors told her, and months later he was dead.