The Man She Left Behind (22 page)

Read The Man She Left Behind Online

Authors: Janice Carter

BOOK: The Man She Left Behind
5.76Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
“I can give you a lift home on my way into the village,” Spencer quickly offered.
“Thanks, anyway, but I’d like to spend some more time with Sam,” she countered, feeling slightly guilty about dragging poor old Sam into the fray.
The screen door flapped shut behind him. Two could play at the avoidance game, she thought, watching his ramrod back move down the stairs. But she had a hunch she’d see him again before the night ended. His face had bad news written all over it.
When the kitchen was tidy, Leigh peeked in at Sam and found him already fast asleep. She closed the door softly behind her and joined Jamie on the porch. He was sitting on the top step, gazing pensively out across the ocean. The sun had dipped below the horizon, but dusk had not yet become deep night. The air was still, heavy with moisture and the salty aftermath of low tide.
“Mind if I join you?” she asked, and sat next to him without waiting for an answer.
He glanced at her, then away, focusing on a callus on his thumb.
Leigh waited. After a few minutes she said, “It’s so quiet and peaceful here. In New York, there doesn’t seem to be any part of day or night that’s absolutely silent.”
“I can’t imagine that,” he said. “Even in Charlotte, nights could be real quiet. Too quiet.”
“The older you get, there’s no such thing as too quiet.”
“You’re not old!” Jamie scoffed.
“No, but once you get out of your twenties life seems to demand more settling down.”
“That’s not the same as being
old.
You know, like having old ideas and attitudes.”
“True. Although my parents often didn’t understand what my friends and I were up to, they never put us down. Maybe because they’d learned to be less judgmental than their own parents.”
“My parents aren’t really like that, either. ’Fact, my mom says she can’t point a finger at me because she was no angel when she was a teenager.”
Leigh laughed. “That sounds like your mother, all right.”
Jamie turned to look at Leigh. “You an’ her used to be best friends, didn’t you?”
Leigh glanced away. “Did she tell you that?”
“Yeah, she talked about you a lot. Always about how Leigh Randall was so smart and popular and stuff. I kinda got the feeling she was a bit jealous.”
Leigh felt her throat swell up. “Actually Jen was a lot more popular than I was. Everyone liked her because she was always cheerful and game for anything.”
“It’s funny to think of your folks being kids,” he murmured.
“Yes,” she said, then taking a deep breath, added, “and they weren’t much different from the kids today. We did lots of crazy things. I bet Sam could tell you some wild stories.”
Jamie grinned. “Yeah, he has. A few, anyway, about my mom and dad. None about you, though. Guess you were the good one, right?”
Leigh flushed. “I suppose that was the image I had, but believe me, Jamie, I wasn’t any better than anyone else.”
After a moment he mumbled, “Yeah, but I bet you didn’t get blamed for stuff you didn’t do.”
“I can’t remember, but I’m sure I did sometimes. I know I blamed myself for a lot of things I
didn’t
do, and I think that’s just as bad.”
“Like that accident you told me about the other night?”
She sighed. “Yes.”
“That was tough.”
“Yes, but it wouldn’t have been so tough on me if I hadn’t kept everything inside. I was afraid to talk about it with my friends because I thought they blamed me. But now I’m not so sure. Maybe they just didn’t want to talk about it because they were afraid to hurt me. Because I kept so quiet about it.”
“That’s only natural.”
“At first it was, but later it became something else. I don’t know how to describe it, but I do know I ought to have talked about it. To anyone. Silence is not a good thing, Jamie. It makes people draw the wrong conclusions. It puts up barriers between people.”
A night heron swung low over their heads, squawked and flapped toward the marshes.
Finally Jamie said, in a voice so quiet Leigh had to lower her head to hear him, “It wasn’t even my idea, you know. Shane came up to me and said he heard I used to set fires. I was real ticked off. Like, that was a dumb thing I did last year, but I did it because I wanted to get back at...at people I thought had deserted me. Since then, I realized what a jerk I was. No wonder everyone was fed up with me.” He played with the callus on his thumb again. “Anyway, I told Shane that was all in the past and to take a hike. Then a few days later I found this letter for my dad.”
He paused. Leigh guessed what was coming next.
“It was from some lawyer in Charlotte telling him I was going to be adopted by my stepfather. I couldn’t believe it.” Jamie turned to Leigh, his eyes red with tears. “I mean, like my stepfather’s okay—he’s not my favorite person, but I don’t mind him. We kinda get along but...he’s not my dad!”
Leigh wanted to put her arm around him, but was afraid he might stop talking. Instead, she gave a quick nod and said, “Your father wouldn’t let that happen, Jamie.”
“I don’t know that, do I?” he wailed. “He hardly ever talks to me, and when he does, it’s always to give me an order or a job.” He uttered a short sarcastic snort.
“I know he can be like that, but I think it’s because he’s afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Believe it or not, yes. He’s not good at talking about his feelings. He never was, even as a kid. Has he told you about his childhood?”
Jamie hung his head. “Yeah,” he muttered. “His mother took off and his father was a drunk.”
Leigh winced at Jamie’s cynical tone. “He told you that?”
“Well, my mother did once. He never really talked about it. Just gave hints about it.”
She waited a moment before saying, “Then your mother and he split up when you were very young. I know that hurt him.”
“It did?”
“Yes. Is that so hard to believe?”
“I don’t know. He just seems so tough sometimes. Always in charge and in control, you know?”
Leigh could barely talk around the lump in her throat. “I know. But he has another side, too. You have to look for it, though. And you may have to be the one to speak up first.”
“He wants me to tell him about the fire.”
“Of course he does.”
“Thing is, I couldn’t. Because I’d have to tell him I nosed around in his mail and saw the letter.”
“That’s a small thing, Jamie. He wants to talk to you about the adoption, but he’s afraid.”
“Dad afraid? Like, I don’t think so.”
“He’s afraid of losing you all over again.”
“He tell you that?”
“He did.”
Jamie rubbed his face. Then he stood up and leaned against the porch railing. “Shane brought all this stuff over to the house. He showed up almost right after I’d seen the letter. Lousy timing. I was feeling...bad. Real bad. Shane dragged me over to old man Haygood’s shed. I don’t know why he wanted to torch it. He said he just hated the guy. I think Shane’s a bit weird.” Jamie paused, wiping his forearm across his nose. “Anyway, the guy musta heard us ‘cause he came tearing in there mad as a bull. We took off, but he musta recognized us. Two nights later Shane went again, but by himself. He didn’t even talk to me about it ’cause I told him I didn’t want to even see him again. And I haven’t!” His eyes met Leigh’s. “I swear!”
“I believe you, Jamie. But you need to tell your father and the sheriff.”
He ducked his head. “I don’t want to rat on Shane.”
“Shane should get some help. He shouldn’t be allowed to set any more fires.”
After a while Jamie said, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Leigh stood up and held out her arms. When Jamie stepped into them, she closed her eyes, thinking how lucky Jen was.
 
LATER THAT NIGHT, long after Leigh had left Sam’s cottage and headed wearily for home, a loud rattling at the front screen door woke her. She knew it was Spencer and was tempted to let him stand on the veranda until common sense drove him away. She lay in bed a few moments longer. The rattling continued.
Common sense has obviously deserted him.
Leigh climbed out of bed and threw her robe around her. She swung open the big etched-glass door.
“It’s not that late,” he offered by way of apology.
“It’s midnight.”
“Didn’t I say I’d drop by later?”
She shook her head, realizing at the same time how much better she was getting at reading his mind.
He frowned. “I thought I did. Anyway—” his face brightened “—here I am. I just came from checking on Sam and Jamie. Both are sleeping soundly.”
She raised an eyebrow. “And so was I.”
“Aw, jeez, guess I’ve blown it again. Sorry about that.” He shuffled his feet. Stared down at the veranda a bit and then raised his head.
It was his nineteen-year-old grin all over again. Leigh felt her heart do its seventeen-year-old flip. She pushed open the screen door. “Come on in, Spence,” she said, and turned without another word toward the kitchen.
“Coffee?” she asked when he pulled up the chair at the table.
“Decaf?”
“I don’t think I have any.”
He mulled this over. “If I have regular, I’ll be up all night.”
She ignored the knowing look he shot her way. As if he didn’t mind being awake all night if he had something to occupy him. Or someone.
“Then you’d better have herbal tea,” she said, smiling inwardly at the flicker of disappointment in his eyes. Does
he think he can just show up any time of day or nigh, dismissing the way he acted earlier?
No, she decided. It was too reminiscent of the old days.
Except that then, I was foolish enough to overlook his shortcomings.
“So it’ll be herbal tea. Just as well. I have an early charter.”
Leigh busied herself brewing the tea, reluctant to sit on a chair across from him and get down to the business that had been troubling her all day: his behavior. She wondered how long it would take him to get around to the subject.
But he surprised her. “I actually came by because there’s something I have to tell you.”
His opener didn’t bode well, she thought. “There’s something I have to tell you, too.”
“Oh?”
“At least, Jamie has something to tell you in the morning.”
“Did he talk to you?”
“Yes.”
“About the fire?”
“Yes, but he has to tell you what happened himself.”
“I appreciate that. And I appreciate whatever you did to...to make him change his mind.”
“Does it bother you? That he told me?”
Spence thought for a minute. “I guess I feel a bit let down. But the important thing is, he’s opening up. I can understand why he might have chosen you.”
She nodded, acknowledging the compliment and gaining some assurance from it.
Would he say something like that if he was about to tell me he couldn’t see me anymore?
Leigh poured the tea and sat down. She concentrated on spooning honey into her mug.
He sighed. “Thanks for that, Leigh. What I wanted to talk to you about...well, it’s hard to begin.”
She was afraid to look him in the eye, but forced herself, almost daring him to proceed.
Spence waited, took a sip of the hot tea and then made a show of blowing on it. He wished she’d find somewhere else to rest those big black eyes. Damn. He gazed down at the spoon in his hand, flipped it back and forth and then lifted his head to meet those eyes again. “When I was in Raleigh getting Sam discharged, I made a few phone calls to Elizabeth City. I have a friend there on the police force.” He waited for Leigh to say something. “I asked him to make a few inquiries. To, uh, check out Janet.”
Her eyebrows squiggled together in a frown. She sat very still.
Spencer pushed on. “He did that, but couldn’t find any trace of anyone by the name of Janet Bradley. None at all.”
Her eyes never wavered from his face. The cool unblinking stare unnerved him. It also annoyed him. “I did it as a favor, Leigh. I thought someone should check her out. And there’s no such person as Janet Bradley.”
“You mean, you didn’t
locate
anyone by that name.”
He shrugged. “Same thing.”
“No, it isn’t.” Her voice rose on the last word.
“This friend of mine suggests we hire a private detective to find out if she really is who she claims to be.”
“If she’s Janet Bradley? Or if she’s my mother?”
“Aren’t we talking the same thing here?”
Leigh’s hand slapped the table. “No, we aren’t. There could be any number of reasons Janet Bradley’s name isn’t in the Elizabeth City phone book, Spencer.”

Other books

Revenge of the Robot by Otis Adelbert Kline
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
A Novel Seduction by Gwyn Cready
Yoda by Sean Stewart
Get Cartwright by Tom Graham