Mist on the Meadow (24 page)

“I was told I could go back in today,” she
said, her breath visible in front of her face.

“Yes, ma’am. Quiet morning. I’m Officer Don
Walker. Thought you might prefer to have someone with you when you
unlocked the door.” He hunched his shoulders so that the turned-up
collar of his police jacket rose to the tips of the earmuffs that
extended beyond his cap.

“Marissa Maitland. I appreciate it.”

“Do you want me to clear the premises for
you?”

“Are you expecting trouble?”

The office cracked a smile. “No ma’am.”

She shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt, huh?” She
paused outside the back door and sniffed the air. No natural gas
that she could detect. The sign on the door said they’d turned the
gas back on. They must have repaired the leak. She turned the lock.
The policeman put a hand to his holster and slid sideways through
the opening. Marissa followed him inside, but waited by the back
door until he returned from the front. He checked the walk-in
cooler before he let his hand drop back to his side.

“Clear,” he reported.

“Thank you.”

He doffed his cap. “Like I said, not much
going on. I’ll make another swing by later on to see how you’re
doing.”

“Stop in after we open. Breakfast is on
me.”

He nodded once more. Marissa locked the door
behind him, slid out of her coat and surveyed the kitchen, hands on
her hips. A work order on the prep table confirmed that they had
fixed the loose oven connection. One of the ovens was pulled away
from the wall, black fingerprint powder evident on the edges. She
retrieved a broom to sweep up where the powder had fallen to the
floor and then wiped down the oven before she rolled it back into
place.

Mangela
had to open today. There was
no point in dwelling on what had happened. Marissa needed to lose
herself in her baking, but when Angela came through the door at
seven o’clock, Marissa still flinched and grabbed a knife to defend
herself.

Angela held up her hands. “I come in
peace.”

Marissa relaxed into a smile. “Ya never
know.”

“Derek said to thank you for the goodies.
You’re making me look bad, you know.”

Marissa went back to her rolls, her
cinnamon
rolls, and drizzled cream cheese icing over the
top. “Had to do something with my hands.”

“There are other ways to pass the time.”
Angela slipped her apron over her head. “How’s Wolf?”

“Need time to think about that.”

Angela scoffed. “You’re not supposed to think
about things like that. Go with the flow, Marissa. Don’t you
want
a relationship with someone?”

“Like you and Derek?” Marissa raised an
eyebrow in Angela’s direction.

“It might have started out shallow and
physical, but I’m getting to where I kinda like him. More than in a
shallow and physical way.”

“Uh-huh.” Marissa wished she could be more
like Angela sometimes, more carefree. She set down the icing bag
and laid a hand on her stomach once more. Protected sex, and still
she was worried. Didn’t Angela ever think about the consequences?
Then again Angela was more prepared to be spontaneous.

“Aren’t you feeling well?” Angela nodded at
Marissa’s hand.

Heat warmed Marissa’s cheeks. “I’m fine. Hey,
there was a policeman here when I got in this morning. He checked
the place. I promised him free breakfast.”

“Sounds like a good deal.”

Becky stomped against the cold outside the
front door and Angela went to let her in. “Was he cute? The
policeman?” Angela asked.

“Didn’t you just say you like Derek more than
in a shallow, physical way?” Marissa called after her.

“Never hurts to have a back-up plan, you
know?”

Becky peeked into the kitchen. “Good
morning.”

Marissa smiled. “Good morning.”

“So, I thought you’d want to know,” Becky
hesitated until Marissa raised her head to look at her. “Wolf
Harper is sitting in the parking lot. Not sure if he’s coming
inside.”

Marissa’s eyes darted toward the small
office, where he’d carried her the last time he’d knocked on her
door before the café opened. Had the policeman forestalled a repeat
performance? But Wolf hadn’t knocked this morning. “Okay,” Marissa
replied.

She steadied herself with both hands on the
prep table and closed her eyes. As much as she wanted to be more
like Angela, she wasn’t. Marissa needed time to catch up with
everything that had happened, from Uncle Balt’s unexpected legacy,
to her heated reaction to Wolf, to the funeral and most of all, as
she gazed around her kitchen, to the realization that someone had
broken not only into her place of business, but also to her
apartment. No, she couldn’t afford to be blithe.

Marissa wiped her hands on a towel and walked
to the front of the café under the premise that she was checking
the display cases. As nonchalantly as she could manage, she glanced
toward the parking lot. Sure enough, there was his forest green
Mercedes, exhaust coming from the tailpipe. Before she had a chance
to look away, the car veered into the street.

Angela appeared at her shoulder. “Seems as if
you might want to talk about something,” she whispered.

Marissa shook her head. “Not yet. What time
is your flight to Phoenix?”

* * *

Wolf wasn’t surprised that she hadn’t called
back. With her skills as a
Kundigerin,
she probably already
knew his uncle had been the one to break into her apartment. Who
could blame her for distancing herself from him and his
dysfunctional family? But he needed to know that she was okay.

As he steered onto the expressway, he
considered all the reasons Marissa might never speak to him again.
His uncle was only the first.

His impulsive profession of love certainly
didn’t help matters. Wolf shook his head. How many relationships
had he ended, only to have a woman say that to him? For the first
time, he understood how those women must have felt, and yet he
couldn’t lead them to believe a relationship would have amounted to
anything.

Marissa was different. That didn’t mean she
felt the same connection to him that he felt with her,
but he’d
seen her thoughts
.

She was supposed to be the psychic, not him.
And yet he’d seen the accident as clearly as if he’d been
there.
Wolf might have discounted the experience as imagination
if Chuck hadn’t confirmed it to be true.

And now she was in danger. Who had broken
into the café? Certainly the police would follow up with any
surveillance cameras that were in the area, the same way Marshall
had followed up at Harper Electronics.

If he was right, if what he and Marissa
shared was as powerful for her as it was for him, she’d come back
to him. If he was wrong, he’d have to find a way to let her go.
Wolf had already made a nuisance of himself by asking Don Walker to
be there when Marissa re-opened the café.

Control
. Wolf took a deep breath.
People might understand the need to release eleven years of pent up
emotion initially, but he had to get a grip. He couldn’t continue
acting like a lunatic.

Chuck had given the police enough information
for them to reopen the investigation into his parents’ accident.
Wolf would deal with the situation at Harper Electronics.

He turned the radio on to distract the
highly-charged thoughts racing through his head. The news station
cycled through the weather and the traffic, rotating headlines in
between. Wolf was a block away from the parking garage in the city
when one of those headlines registered.

“
Bears back-up quarterback, Rudy Kadlec,
has come forward, allegedly to offer information in regard to a
fatal car accident that occurred eleven years ago. The Bears are
declining to comment pending further investigation.”

Wolf swerved into the parking garage. Either
the police were moving quickly, or someone had given Rudy the
heads-up, someone like Chuck. Wolf navigated the ramps to his
parking spot and marched to his office. He passed Marshall en
route, and Marshall fell in step behind him.

Once they’d reached Wolf’s office, Marshall
closed the door.

“Thought you were on vacation this week,”
Wolf said.

“Yeah, my employer is a slave driver.”

Wolf smirked. “Got the call from security.
Thanks for pointing them in the right direction.”

Marshall shrugged. “If you want to see the
footage, I can show it to you once you boot up your computer.”

“You’re sure it’s Elliot?”

“Confirmed. Almost too easy. Pete could have
nailed him if he’d taken the time to try.”

Wolf hung up his coat and started his
computer.

“Elliot didn’t show up for work yesterday, or
today, and it would appear he’s in the wind, as they say,” Marshall
said.

“Security deactivated his keys?” Wolf
asked.

Marshall nodded.

The phone on Wolf’s desk rang two short
bursts. He grabbed the handset. “Yeah?”

“Someone in reception to see you,” the woman
on the phone told him, somewhat short of breath. “It’s Rudy
Kadlec.”

Wolf raised his eyes. “Keep me posted,” he
told Marshall by way of dismissal. “You might as well enjoy the
rest of your week off. I’m sure security can handle this.”

“Wish Elliot was the only problem I had to
handle. Don’t worry. I’m planning on a short day.” Marshall saluted
and left the office.

“I’m on my way,” Wolf told the receptionist.
“Is the conference room open?”

“Yes, sir.”

Rudy might know where Elliot had gone. Wolf
could only imagine that Rudy had come to pin the accident on Chuck.
Wolf stormed through the corridors until he reached reception.

Rudy rose from one of the chairs to greet
him. In high school, Rudy had been scrawny. Not anymore. His
shoulders strained against the seams of his suitcoat and Wolf could
see Rudy’s thigh muscles through the khaki pants.

Rudy extended his hand. “Wolf.”

Wolf walked past him toward the conference
room without accepting the handshake. “This way.”

Rudy followed. Wolf closed the door, but
remained standing, not sure he wanted to hear why Rudy had come.
Rudy rubbed his palms against designer slacks, his eyes wide and
bright. He didn’t look like someone bent on blackmail or extortion.
He looked like a big, dumb jock who’d been caught out after
curfew.

“What?” Wolf demanded.

“I’ll admit to being in the car,” Rudy
said.

“You were driving the car.”

Rudy’s hands tightened into fists. “I’ll
admit to being in the car,” he repeated. “That alone could spell
the end of my career with the NFL.”

“Then why bother?”

Rudy’s eyes combed the room. “I wanted to
come forward that night, but I was young and I was stupid. And then
Elliot started screaming that we had to leave, that we couldn’t say
anything. I was scared, Wolf. I never meant for it to happen. And
then when Elliot said we’d all go to jail, that no one had to know,
and we’d already left the scene, there didn’t seem to be any point.
And your grandmother—” He stopped to swallow. “I keep hearing her
say ‘dead is dead. It won’t bring them back.’ I figured she didn’t
want to know, or Chuck had told her something and she chose not to
pursue it. Wolf, I’m sorry.”

Wolf drew a deep breath.
Control.
“Where’s Elliot?”

Rudy folded his trembling hands. “I don’t
know. He called me yesterday asking for a payoff. He said he’d tell
everyone I was the driver and he’d get off scot free. I’m the one
with the most to lose.” He licked his lips and grabbed hold of his
fist. “I’ll admit to being in the car. I shouldn’t have let him
convince me to stay quiet. I should have spoken up years ago.”

“Ya think?” And yet Wolf believed him. Wolf
was willing to hang everything on Elliot. Was Elliot the one who
tried to blow up
Mangela
?

“Probably time I moved on anyway. Seven years
as a back-up. Too many quarterbacks ahead of me.” He stared at his
hands while he flexed and unflexed them.

“So what do you want from me?” Wolf asked,
not ready to completely absolve the scrawny kid who still lived
inside the athlete’s body.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry.” Rudy took a step
toward the door and paused. “You were a hell of a pitcher, Wolf.
Maybe you wouldn’t have quit the team.”

“Wasn’t in the cards for me,” Wolf said. “I
need to know if you hear from Elliot. There’s more to this than the
accident.”

Rudy still had the clean-cut look to him. His
eyes opened wide once more. “He probably won’t come around now that
he knows I’m going public.”

Wolf took a step closer to Rudy. “Why doesn’t
Elliot come forward if he thinks he can put this on you guys?”

“He thought it would be funny to cut them
off, but I didn’t want to wreck my car. He reached in front of me,
took the wheel.” Rudy hung his head. “I’m sorry, Wolf.”

“And then he told everyone to keep quiet. And
now he’s trying to blackmail you.” Elliot was the one who had
bilked Harper Electronics of hundreds of thousands of dollars of
inventory. “So even though he’s the one who did it, you were the
one behind the wheel. He’s going to push that advantage, don’t you
think?” Wolf narrowed his eyes. “I want to know where he is.”

Marissa sat beside the café window watching
snow fall. Again. She wrapped her hands around her coffee mug. Even
her magically enhanced—if that’s what happened when she baked—treat
of the day couldn’t entice her customers to come out once the
weather had turned again.

She pushed Uncle Balt’s journal across the
table. The legacy she’d inherited wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
Her quest for answers had turned up as many negatives as positives.
Sure, Rosalie had helped Bernadette find her missing child. She’d
used her gift for good, and still she and Friedrich had to leave
their families behind to start over on a different continent, along
with Uncle Balt.