The Charity (25 page)

Jessica stopped fidgeting and paused as she remembered the second flash of lightning. A shard of recollection sliced to the surface, and she put her coffee mug down on the table to protect it from spilling. “Oh my God! There
was
someone here!” Searching Michael’s face, she asked, “Who was it? Why was he here?”

Michael drew a deep breath and looked at Jessica. He chose his words carefully. “Tess. I think there were two men here that night. They apparently cut the wires and came in through a window in the dining room. It looks like it was a pretty professional job.” He watched every facial and hand motion Jessica made. He knew something was going on under her surface. He had to find out what it was.

“What you are telling me is that someone broke into my house and killed my dog? Why? I don’t have anything here of any value. Just look around.”

“If they weren’t here for a thing, then they were here for you.”

Jessica tried to get off the couch away from Michael. Her ribs screeched their protest to her with a stab of pain. She grabbed her side and forced herself to straighten up, refusing his extended hand of help. “They? I don’t know what you’re talking about. If this is some big burglary or something, then why wasn’t this in all of the papers? Why is everyone having me believe I was fixing my roof like some crazy pioneer woman and that my dog ran off?” Her head pounded, and panic crystallized in her veins. A shadowy figure laughed at her from the corner of her mind. She held her ears against the dry cackle.

Michael followed her into the kitchen. “Look, Tess. I’m sorry to be upsetting you like this, but I have to know what happened here that night. What I know wasn’t in the papers.” He stammered at Jessica’s look of distrust. “I... I have some friends that helped me keep the lid on this.” Jessica’s blue stare turned to ice. “There’s something else I need to know. We found a body a few days ago on the other side of this ridge. We are still trying to make an identification. It looks like his face was peeled off by some kind of animal. But he had this.” Michael held out Tess White’s driver’s license. Her picture and Utah state seal could be seen against the off-white and green background of the card.

“Stop. Please,” she pleaded, voice small.

“I have to push you like this, Tess. Dr. McCarthy had said that the concussion and drugs would cloud your thinking and that it would take a while for all the details to become clear. The doctor also said sometimes after injuries like concussions or other emotional shocks that the memories of the time leading up to or surrounding their injury don’t come back.”

“So why are you pushing me? Why aren’t you leaving me alone?”

“Because I’ve gotten you to remember one man, I want to see how much more you remember.”

“I remember you. I remember you were here. How could that be?”

Michael shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “That night I tried to call you to find out how the storm was up here and to check on Snugs. I didn’t get an answer, so I decided to drive along the mountain pass just to have a chance to drive by your farm” He paused as he considered what to tell her. “I’ve done that a few times in the past, and each time I passed the house I would take in all the details. But that night all of the buildings were black even with the red light on the emergency panel on the telephone pole a mile back still on. That meant power was still being fed up the mountain. Radio dispatch told me that no trees or wires were down. I stopped and thought I saw an open window on the ground floor. In a storm like that, no one would have a window open.”

Jessica shook her head and walked to the far side of the room to put distance between them. Window? “So you crept around my house?”

“You had Pete and I didn’t want him to bark. I thought I would just check on the window and leave. That’s when I heard breaking glass. I tried to get in the front door, but it was locked or jammed. By the time I got inside I couldn’t find anything, especially you. When I heard you scream I ran outside where I found you lying in a bed of glass. I went to the cruiser to radio for backup. I guess that’s when whoever took your license and scared you enough to make you jump got away.”

Silent tears spilled from Jessica’s eyes. “I don’t remember.”

Michael was not going to stop. If he had just gotten there earlier, he chastised himself. He wanted answers. Now, Tess White was linked to a mutilated body of a man by her driver’s license—and a fake one at that.

Jessica reached out and took her license out of his hand. No attempt was made to disguise the growing contempt she felt for him. “Why didn’t you tell me you were a cop?”

“It’s a small town. I thought you knew.”

“It’s a small town that didn’t know enough about me and someone, like a cop, just had to find out more.”

“Tess. A dead man had your license. There’s more to this.”

Nothing was making any sense. She looked at him with cold eyes and waved the license in the air. “I didn’t even know this was missing. I guess the thief was nothing but a simple purse-snatcher.”

“Look, Tess. I need to know if you’re in some kind of trouble.”

“Please, please just go away. I don’t know what happened that night, but if the dead guy is the man who was here, then it’s over. He’s not coming back.”

“I just want to make sure it’s not more than that.”

“But you said two men? How do you know that? Did I say something at the hospital? How...?” Before she could finish the question weakness surged where she hoped she would find strength. Dizziness ripped through her.

Michael saw the weakness buckle Jessica’s knees. Instinctively, he grabbed her by her shoulders and guided her to a chair.

“Just go away. I don’t need your help, Michael. And I especially don’t need the help of a cop. It was just a stupid break-in. I must have panicked and fallen out of the window while trying to escape. He’s dead, so it’s over.” Jessica tried hard to put conviction behind her words and knew she was failing miserably. “I just want to be left alone and to be done with all of this. Nothing is making any sense.” A sob caught in her throat. Instincts told her she needed to run. But, this time, she just did not
want
to.

She felt his cool gray eyes study her.

“I’m as concerned about this as you are, Tess. Probably more so.” He was not expecting desperation to be mixed with the fear.

They parted, each sensing that the other was not telling all they knew.

Hoyt was directing a small team of carpenters to work on the porch and surrounding clapboards. He caught sight of Jessica clad in leather chaps and thick barn coat and bounded over to meet with her.

“Hey there! You sure are looking better all the time.” He stepped back and assessed her. “You’re not plannin’ on riding anytime soon, are ya? I heard the doctor said you couldn’t mount up for at least a week or so more.”

Jessica smiled at Hoyt’s paternal concern. “No, Hoyt. Don’t worry. It’s only been a few weeks, and I’m more comfortable dressed like this.” She surveyed the work going on. “Hoyt, you are really doing too much. All of this repair work can wait. Please,” she hesitated and then spoke in a lowered voice, “I just don’t know how to pay for all of this right now.”

Hoyt put down his hammer and wiped his hand on his overalls. He took her gently by the arm and led her out of earshot of the other workers. “Now. You listen to me, young lady. I’m the one repayin’ you a debt. Got it? My store is busier than ever with people coming in to shoot the breeze with the owner of that horse that jumped the chasm an’ put ol’ Chad Bleauvelt in the debt of a hardware store owner. I am havin’ the time of my life, an’ I won’t be hearin’ anythin’ about you owin’ me, got it?”

Jessica brought her arms up around Hoyt’s skinny neck and hugged him. Her ribs were well on the way to mended, but the motion still caused a dull ache. “Hoyt, you are so good to me. Thanks.” She kissed him on the cheek.

Embarrassed, Hoyt pulled away and looked around. Safe, he smiled at Jessica. “Tess, it is ClaireAnne’s and my whole pleasure.”

“I’m glad the farm and the horses are progressing. I’ve spent a lot of time making sure the owners know I’m keeping to my training programs in spite of my injuries. People around here don’t give second chances, and I don’t want to blow it. With winter just around the corner, it’s a load off my mind knowing that the farm is in good repair and that the horses are in good care.”

“So y’all like it here, eh?”

Jessica looked around her farm. Hoyt’s questions caused a brief pang. “I like it here more than I should or ever thought I would.”

“You make it sound like that’s not a good thing.”

Jessica straightened her shoulders. “I have a chance for a home in these mountains and it’s going to take more than a fall off a roof to make me move again. Besides, I’m broke. I don’t have the cash to run, I mean
move
again.” Jessica rubbed her mouth on her sleeve as if to wipe away her slip of the tongue. “Just walking around still hurts,” she said, refocusing the conversation. “Electra’s army made another pot of coffee and delivered some food. Join me?”

Hoyt looked at the workers. “Nah. I’m gonna finish up here and git back to the store. ‘Nother time?”

“Sure.”

Jessica turned and walked across the gravel drive to her house with her head down. Emotions and logic conflicted. It would be hard to begin on nothing again. She had played a lot of roles running across the country, but the one of Tess White was the closest to who she was. She loved her farm and her horses, and she had to face the fact that she needed time to recuperate. Not hearing anything more from Michael, her growing panic subsided, and she assessed her position as objectively as she could.

The concussion did not make it easy to think through the past events clearly. Her memories were like puzzle pieces. All of the pieces were face-up but without them locked into place the whole picture was impossible to see. She would have moments of panic and not understand why. It was maddening to the point that she questioned her own sanity. What did Dr. McCarthy say? That an injury or event could cause memory lapses? Jessica knew her panic and fears all too well. She knew the emotions that drove her actions, but she did not know the facts. The memories were just too tightly locked away. It was not just the night surrounding the fall that was fuzzy. Something from a much younger time began to nip at her.

The cruelty of not knowing the whole picture meant that sometimes the puzzle pieces would get locked together in ways that distorted the image. From her earliest memories, an overriding sense of guilt gnawed at her. She was alone because she deserved to be, somehow feeling she had done something wrong and her just punishment was that everyone was taken away. Being in Perc was both a salve and a thorn. Jessica was happier than she had been in years, but her panic attacks came more frequently.

What she had told Hoyt about being broke was only partially true. Jessica reviewed her years out west and what would cause her to flee. Sometimes it was a drunk trying to hit on her or a gaze from a stranger that lasted a minute too long that would send her running. Now she realized she was just jumpy. The only threats to her were ones she imagined. She assessed and planned for a new life as carefully as she could and the envelope from Bridget contained the foundation she needed. Her quirky and oddly paranoid aunt squirreled away enough money to make buying the farm a reality. But why the warning to move the funds as soon as the accounts were accessed? The accounts had to be accessed within seven years to avoid being unclaimed or abandoned and seized by the state. That timing is what prodded her into action to leave Utah. Could it be that accessing the accounts somehow prodded Rowdy Howe to be at Electra’s party to check on Perc’s newcomer? It had only been eight months since she arrived in Perc, but the threats Jessica sensed were much greater now than ever. She cursed herself for not understanding why and vaguely suspected accessing Bridget’s accounts had something to do with it.

Jessica filled another mug with coffee, padded over to her favorite chair and clicked on the reading light. It had been years since she allowed herself the luxury of savoring the huge Sunday edition of any newspaper and the thick stack beside her chair appealed to her idea of relaxation for the day. She settled down with the most current issues of the
Louisville Gazette
,
New York Times,
and the
Boston Sunday Globe
. Leisurely she scanned the
Gazette
to familiarize herself with notable people and places. She recognized the names of some of the people she had met at the hunter pace and made a mental note to ask Electra more about them. The
New York Times
was running a series of articles on different political factions in the United Kingdom and the alleged ties of some groups to organized crime. Jessica perused the articles to keep current with world events, but the nature of the stories was not relevant enough to her to keep her interest. She really looked forward to curling up with the
Boston Sunday
Globe
.

She smiled as she picked up the
Metro
section of the
Globe
and read the familiar names of towns she knew as a child. Malden, Methuen, Ipswich, Swampscott, Marblehead were all names in various stories concerning one local event or another. It was all so far removed from her as she read the names with only a mild interest. She let her mind wander and continued scanning the paper. An article on a young attorney general caught her eye.