Out of the Shadows (Bellingwood Book 12) (14 page)

"I can't imagine what it must be like to have lived in one place for your entire life. Nothing surprises you."

He chuckled. "You surprise me all the time. Maybe that's why I married you."

"Pull over," she said.

"What?"

"Stop the truck."

Henry slowed down and pulled over onto the shoulder. "What's going on?"

"Can you turn around? I saw something back there."

"You have
got
to be kidding me." Henry did what she asked and made a perfect three-point turn in the highway and headed north. "Where am I looking?"

Polly pointed into rough land, marked with a winding creek, trees and brush. "In there. I thought I saw something."

"Something what?" Henry asked, driving slowly.

"Something like a car. What would a car be doing back there?"

"It's probably a turkey house or maybe a hunter's blind."

She puffed air out of her lips. "Whatever." Then, she pointed. "Right there. In the creek. Do you see it?"

Henry stopped on the highway, backed onto the opposite shoulder and aimed his headlights where she pointed. They reflected off something through the trees.

"I see it," he said. "What is it?"

"I don't even want to say," she replied.

"Just tell me."

"It might be that young man's car. They haven't found it yet and you know it's just my luck."

Henry shook his head. "I don't have a good flashlight so we can check it out."

Polly took out her phone. "Let's see if Aaron thinks I'm crazy."

"Maybe you shouldn’t actually ask him that question. You might not like the answer."

She swiped the call open and waited for Aaron to answer.

"Polly?" he asked with hesitation in his voice.

"It's not a body. At least I don't think so," she said.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You can do what you want with this, but I have a feeling that I found Jeremy Booten's car. The only problem is that it's in a ravine and I can't get to it tonight."

"Don't you dare go near it. Where are you?"

Polly gave him their location. They weren't that far north of Bellingwood, but she had no idea who owned this land. Aaron could worry about that.

"Someone will be there within twenty minutes. Can you wait?"

She giggled. "Oh goody. We have plenty of time to make out. Tell 'em to honk when they get close so we don't embarrass ourselves, okay?"

Aaron sighed. "Stop it. Please stop. Stu's on duty tonight. He'll be there soon."

"I'm not making out with you here on the highway," Henry said. "Don't even think about it."

"I can think about it all I want," Polly said. "It makes me laugh. You boys get yourself all worked up over the craziest things. Like I'd do that. Give me a break."

"And besides," he said. "There's this stupid console in our way. Remember back when we had wonderful bench seats in the front?"

"You mean like my dad's old truck?"

"Yeah. That. I miss those things."

Henry had re-oriented himself on the shoulder and lights from an oncoming vehicle flashed at them, followed by another flash of its emergency lights.

"That must be Stu," Polly said. "I'll get out and talk to him." She reached for the door, but stopped when Henry put his hand on her arm.

"Wait until he gets here and stops. You scare me to death, woman."

"What?"

"Don't
what
me," he said. "A million bad things could happen. It could be someone else, another vehicle could send him careening into you. Anything. Just be patient."

"You're a worrywart," she said.

"Someone has to worry about you," he muttered under his breath.

"I heard that."

The sheriff's vehicle pulled up in front of them, Stu Decker got out and walked up to the passenger side of Henry's truck.

Polly turned her window down and said, "Henry thought you might be a bad guy coming to hurt us."

"I did not," Henry said.

Stu just grinned at them. "So tell me what you saw."

"Can I get out of the truck now?" Polly asked Henry.

He rolled his eyes and opened his door, Polly followed suit. "It’s right over there," she said, pointing off into the darkness. "But unless we turn the truck around so we can use the lights, we can't see it."

"I've got this," Stu said. "You point to where you saw it and I'll use my lights. They should catch it."

Polly was overwhelmed by the lights that his car had available. It lit the night up, showing everything in the vicinity.

Stu got back out of his SUV and stood beside her. She pointed and he followed her finger. "It’s certainly something that doesn't belong there. The trees are in the way of me telling you for sure that it's a car, but I agree. It probably is."

"Can we stay and watch you pull it out?" Polly asked.

"Go home, Polly," Stu said. "This is going to take hours."

"But how am I going to know if it's that guy's car or not? Will you call me when you find out?"

Stu shut his eyes, measuring his words. "I’ll ask Aaron to let you know. He's not coming out tonight, but we'll keep him in the loop. I promise. Take her home, Henry."

"Got it. She owes me a little something anyway."

"Do I want to know?" Stu creased his brow in confusion.

Polly giggled. "Nope. It's too much information." She poked Henry's side. "Since when do you start telling our secrets?"

"Ten dollars. What you owe me is money!"

She looked back and forth between the two men. "Now I'm confused. I owe you money?"

"Get in the truck," Henry said and put out his hand to shake Stu's. "Thanks for coming up. I hope your evening isn't too messed up with this."

Stu shrugged. "It was a slow night. Whenever Polly calls at least we're assured that something interesting will happen."

Polly put her foot on the running board. "And Aaron is going to let me know?"

"Go," Stu said, waving her off. "Just go home."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Turning into a parking place in front of Pizzazz, Polly took a breath. She wanted to arrive before Sandy and Camille, but once inside, found Joss in her usual place, a glass of red wine in place of her usual iced tea.

"Rough day?" Polly asked, pointing at the glass.

"Horrible weekend," Joss said. "I fought with Nate, the kids were complete brats and none of us slept last night. I can hardly wait for Tuesday when I get to go back to work and rest."

Polly smiled. "Then wine it is. I'm glad you came out tonight. We have two new people joining us. You already know Camille and then I met this great girl - Sandy Davis. You'll like her."

Joss took a drink from her wine glass, opened her wallet, drew a five dollar bill out and tossed it on the table. "I'm heading out," she said. "Talk to you later."

"Wait. What?" Polly jumped to her feet to follow Joss out of the restaurant. "Where are you going?" She glanced back at Bri, their regular waitress and held up a finger, hoping Bri would understand she'd be back.

"I've had the worst weekend in months," Joss said when they got outside the front door of the restaurant. "All I wanted to do was get some sympathy and companionship from my friends and now you tell me I have to be social and nice because two people I don't know are showing up. I can't do it. I just can't do it."

Polly grabbed Joss's arm. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea it would hit you this way. We've talked about meeting more people and this all fell together."

"Well, it fell together on the wrong night for me. I know you didn't do it on purpose, but you could have given me some warning."

"I'm so sorry," Polly said. "Please don't go. We'll drink wine, complain about kids and husbands and I swear you'll love Sandy."

"Not tonight, Polly." Joss shook her head and pulled her arm out of Polly's hand. "I just needed a safe escape and since I'm not going to get it here, I'll go home and deal with my little mess of a life. It's fine. Nobody's problem but my own."

Polly followed Joss to her car and waited while her friend unlocked it, then climbed in on the passenger side.

"What are you doing?" Joss asked.

"I'm talking to you. I don't want you to go home and be mad at me."

Joss leaned forward and rested her head on the steering wheel.

"What in the world happened with you and Nate?" Polly asked, reaching out to touch Joss's shoulder.

"It's no big deal and it's probably all my fault," Joss mumbled.

"What's your fault?"

Joss sat back. "It's that damned, freakin' house. We never should have done this. We were perfectly happy in our little house and who knows whether or not we're ever going to have more children. If I hadn't let him talk me into that great big acreage with a great big house, none of this would be happening."

Polly understood this panic all too well. There was at least one point of freaking out in every building project she'd been part of since moving to Bellingwood. Now, sometimes the other people freaked out, but it always happened. "What's going on?" she asked quietly.

"It's one thing after another," Joss replied with a sigh. "We fight about flooring and windows. I want to enclose the porch so the kids can be outside and I don't have to be right on top of them watching their every movement. Nate thinks I should give them more freedom. We're arguing about fixtures and where to put electricity. I've never had this many fights with him."

"How long have you been fighting about it?"

"Mostly this weekend. And I feel like hell. My period should be starting any day and of course, you know that means I'm still not pregnant. I'm never going to be pregnant. I know that, but every single month it's like this shows up and slaps me in the face to remind me. Cooper and Sophie are into everything. They're terrors. Cooper fell off a chair yesterday and has a huge cut on his forehead. Then I caught Sophie trying to eat a clump of dirt by the back door. She'll put anything into her mouth. It drives me nuts."

Polly sat there, watching her friend fall apart. The biggest stress in Joss's life was that she couldn't have her own children. As much as she tried to be okay with that fact, it was never going to be easy. The house was a focal point for that stress and Polly chuckled to herself at the abuse Nate was taking for this. She knew him well enough to know that he was the last person in the world to be argumentative.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" Joss asked.

"You're in hell." Polly looked at her friend. "There, I said it for you. Is it better?"

Joss put her hand over her face and then rubbed her eyes. "Maybe. You think this is all my fault because I'm hormonal, don't you."

"No. I would never say that. Whether we're hormonal or not, the emotions still take us down. It probably has more to do with your disappointment every month than just your period showing up, though."

"I wish it didn't," Joss whispered. "It's not like I haven't been dealing with this for a couple of years and I love Coop and Soph. I love them so much I cry when I look at them. They're perfect and they're mine. And they're absolutely adorable when they sleep."

Polly chuckled. "That's what my dad used to say about me. And hey, I was a good girl. But you grieve for those babies you can't have every month. Have you ever talked to Nate about it?"

Joss was shocked. "No. I don't want to make it worse for him. He's so happy there are other ways for us to have children in our lives. I don't want him to have to worry about me and my inability to have babies."

"You're starting to think about adoption again, aren't you," Polly said.

"Yeah," Joss said, nodding. "But we don't want to do anything until the house is finished and we're settled in. That's too much chaos."

"I can't believe you and Nate are talking about flooring and fixtures right now," Polly said. "You don't even have a structure yet."

Joss rolled her eyes. "That's my fault. Nate doesn't even care. But I got some catalogs and started pushing him to make decisions. When he finally pointed at things on the page, it was all wrong."

"Of course it was. Men are stupid," Polly said.

"I probably should have gotten out of the house before tonight." Joss put her forehead on the steering wheel again and bounced it twice. "This was the worst weekend."

"You said that. Do you want to come in and eat pizza now?"

Joss tilted her head and looked at Polly. "You don't think I'm crazy?"

"Of course I think you're crazy. But no more than the rest of us. Especially no more than me," Polly said. "Come on in. Meet new people, drink wine, eat pizza and bread and when you go home, tell Nate that you're making all the decisions for the inside of the house and that's the way it's going to be."

"He'd be relieved."

"Of course he would. And by the way. I need to tell you something about Sandy based on this conversation. She just had a new baby this summer and quit her big architecture job. They moved to Bellingwood because her husband’s family lives here."

"What does that have to do with me?" Joss asked, then it hit her. "Oh. She's not thrilled about a baby."

“She’s doing her best to be happy with this life change, but it was a surprise. Are you okay with this?"

"Maybe another glass or two of wine would help," Joss said. She took a deep breath and sat up straight. "Okay. I'm ready to head into the fray. Don't say anything, okay?"

Polly shrugged. "There's nothing to talk about. If it comes up tonight, it will be from you. Come on, let's go. Everyone else has gone inside."

Before she put her hand on the door, Joss reached across. "Thanks for not letting me get away with this. I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about either," Polly said. "It was a bad weekend and you didn't want to face new people. I get it. You're better now, though, right?"

"Right."

~~~

"Do you really believe a ghost lives there?" Sal asked Polly.

Polly shrugged and pushed the last piece of pizza toward Sylvie. "You've been quiet. What do you think?"

"I don't know," Sylvie said, pushing the pizza away. "Every year about this time, people work themselves into a frenzy about it. When I was in junior high, it was the same thing. We'd walk by the house after dark, just to get a glimpse. Some of my friends said they saw her. They weren't usually the types who would lie either."

"But not you?"

Sylvie dropped her head. "I was too afraid to look."

"What?" Sal threw her head back in laughter. "You didn't even look?"

"No," Sylvie said, looking up with a wry smile. "I was such a chicken. Somebody told me that if we looked and saw her, we'd have bad luck for the rest of the year. I didn't want to chance it. My life was hard enough."

Sandy Davis sat forward. "Did it happen every year?"

"By the time we were in high school, we had other things to think about. I forgot about it until Andrew came home last week, asking questions."

"Did Jason get caught up in it?" Polly asked. "I don't remember him ever saying anything."

"You had just gotten here and his life became all about those horses," Sylvie replied. "He didn't pay attention to much else. And since it's been seventy years and the house is about to go up for sale, there's been a lot more focus this year. I think people kind of let it die." She snuffled out a giggle. "That was bad. Sorry."

"We should go over there tonight," Sal said in a whisper. "Do any of us have a car that will hold six?"

Sandy put her hand up and wrinkled her nose. "If we move the baby seat, I have a van." She looked at their laughing faces. "I know. One kid and I already have a minivan. Please don't laugh at me. Benji insisted. Said it would be a good idea if we have more kids. He sold my Charger."

Camille patted Sandy's hand. "That's the saddest thing I've ever heard."

Everyone broke out in laughter.

"You have to stop letting that man change your life. It's only one baby," Sal said.

"You're right," Sandy said. "It all came as such a shock that I'm afraid I just stopped thinking. For nine months I focused on being pregnant and tried to wrap my head around taking care of a whole other person. I lost myself."

"It doesn't have to be one or the other," Joss said. "Sure, there are changes, but you don't actually die."

Sandy nodded. "I'm learning that." She opened her purse and took out her wallet. "But if we're going to go see this ghost, I probably need to start now. Benji's mom is at the house because my husband is scared to death of staying alone with the baby. This is the first evening I've been gone from them."

The others took out their purses and divvied up the bill. It always seemed to get left to Polly to make sure there was enough. She counted the cash and nodded. They rarely miscalculated. It was nice to be with people who could add.

"I'm right out front," Sandy said, standing up. "Give me two seconds to warm the van up and make sure there aren't any weird crumbs or gooey stuff there."

After she hit the door, Joss turned to Polly. "That husband of hers is a real pip. I'd deck him."

"Neither of them were ready for this and she shot right down the old-fashioned, traditional wife path," Sylvie said. "Benji was okay when I knew him. His parents are nice people. Probably a little overly involved with them, but all Sandy has to do is put her foot down. Once she realizes that she isn't the first person who's had a baby, she'll be okay."

Polly handed the money to Bri and they trooped outside. Sandy was in her van on the phone. She popped the side door open as they approached.

"I'll be home later," she said. "Love you, too. Bye."

"You were worried about crumbs and gooey stuff?" Sylvie asked. "This is cleaner than any mommy van I've ever seen in my life. Even the ones that come new off the lot."

"If I have to drive this thing for the next ten years, I'm keeping it clean," Sandy said. "I can't stand a dirty car."

Polly crawled to the back row of seats and scooted over so Joss could slide in beside her. "Is your house this clean?"

Sandy smiled. "I’m used to a high-paced job. Being a mom is crazy, but since I don’t sleep much, I have a lot of free time."