Where You Least Expect It (9 page)

Penelope went to her instantly and knelt on the floor next to her. “What? What is it? What’s the matter?”

The Moon family had never been particularly demonstrative. Oh, sure, they could help you interpret your dreams and choose you a good mate based on your chart, but ask them for a casual hug and they would be dumbstruck, incapable of such a simple action.

Now Penelope found herself reaching for her grandmother’s too-thin shoulders, lightly touching them.

The older woman turned her tear-filled eyes toward her granddaughter. “Sometimes I just miss her so much,” she said.

The comment knocked the breath from Penelope’s lungs. Neither of them ever outwardly talked about Mavis’s daughter, Penelope’s mother. Heather Moon had always been a ghost of sorts that seemed to hang in the house, between them, forever present.

Mavis leaned back against Penelope, surprising her further. She engulfed the older woman in her arms and gently rocked her. “Shh,” she said softly, smoothing her grandmother’s hair back from her face in a way she distantly remembered her own mother doing for her. “I miss her, too.”

“You know, I ask myself over and over again if I could have done something differently. Said something. Asked for help. Maybe then… Perhaps if…” Her voice broke on a sob.

Penelope tightened her embrace. “It’s going to be all right.”

“It’s never going to be all right, Popi. Don’t you see that? Don’t you understand? Nothing is ever going to be all right again.”

Her grandmother’s words frightened her. Partly because Mavis had never voiced such a thought before. But mostly because Penelope was afraid she was right.

P
enelope was jarred awake by a loud banging in the middle of the night. It had taken her a long time to find sleep, and then her dreams had been filled with images of Aidan drifting far away from her, nothing she did bringing him closer.

She snapped upright in her twin bed.

Gram.

It had to be.

She couldn’t be sure how long they’d sat in the middle of the living room floor rocking each other, but by the time Penelope had finally let go and stood, her legs had been stiff and she’d had to help her grandmother up. She’d seen Mavis off to bed, tucking her in in much the same way Mavis used to tuck her in. The move had seemed so strange, yet so very right.

Another round of banging. And this time a voice drifted through her closed door along with it. “Miss Moon? Miss Moon, are you here?”

Penelope threw the top sheet from her legs, grabbed her robe and ran into the living room to face the figure standing in the open doorway.

“Mrs. O’Malley? Is that you?” Penelope whispered, holding her robe tightly around her.

Her heart beat triple time as her mind raced through the multiple reasons Edith O’Malley might be paying her a visit in the middle of the night. But only one emerged clear.

Aidan.

Penelope was distantly aware of Mavis stumbling into the living room behind her.

“What is it?” Penelope asked the obviously overwrought woman.

Mavis lit a couple of candles and came to stand next to Penelope.

“It’s Aidan,” Mrs. O’Malley said, her face looking older than Penelope had ever seen it look. “I’m sorry to come out here so late—it’s just that I don’t know if Aidan has family, and even if I did, I wouldn’t know how to contact them, and seeing as the two of you have been spending so much time together lately…”

Penelope realized the older woman was also in her nightgown and a robe and that her hair was up in tiny curlers. On the road behind her sat a beige sedan, the engine still running, the headlights slicing through the darkness like search beams.

Penelope reached out and touched the woman’s arm. “What
about
Aidan, Mrs. O’Malley? What’s happened?”

Edith shook her head a couple of times, as if trying to remember where she was. “He’s been arrested.”

Ten minutes later Penelope sat in the sedan beside Edith, after throwing on a cotton dress and a pair of sandals. In her lap she clutched her purse containing her savings passbook. Behind her, Mavis was buttoning up a blouse, having insisted on coming along.

“I didn’t know what was happening,” Edith said, her eyes overly bright as she focused intently on the road into town. “I still don’t know what happened. I heard this ominous knocking on the front door, you know? It reminded me of when Sheriff Bullworth—he was sheriff ten years ago—came by to tell me my Harry had had a heart attack while driving back from Toledo and had died.”

She gave a visible shudder as Penelope tried to make sense out of what she was saying.

Mavis poked her head between the two seats. “Aidan Kendall, Edith—what happened to him?”

“Oh. Oh! Yes—”

She swerved slightly, and Penelope was glad that there was no one else on the road at this hour, which according to the green digital dash clock was 3:06 a.m.

“Anyway, it was the sheriff again. Only, this time Sheriff Parker. And he said he wanted to speak to Mr. Kendall. I asked him if it couldn’t keep until morning, you know, because this is no time
for someone to want a casual conversation. He told me it couldn’t wait. When I turned to go get Aidan, he was already dressed and standing on the stairway.”

She stopped speaking. Penelope thought it might be because she needed to take a breath. Her blood surged through her veins as she waited.

Edith looked at her. “That’s when Sheriff Parker arrested him.”

“Just like that?” Mavis asked, incredulous.

“Just like that. He read something from this little card, the Miranda rights I think they’re called, you know, that stuff you used to see on
Matlock
about the right to stay silent.”

Now Edith went silent.

Penelope had always loved the familiarity of Old Orchard. But as she looked out at the dark, deserted streets now, she felt a foreboding.

She quietly cleared her throat. “Do you know what the charges were, Mrs. O’Malley?”

She shook her head. “No. No, I don’t. I didn’t even think to ask. Because, because…” She looked directly into Penelope eyes. “Because all I could think about was why Aidan didn’t seem surprised. It was almost as if he had expected the sheriff, you know, given the way he was already dressed and everything. And he calmly turned around and offered his hands to be cuffed.” She gave a visible shiver. “Then he said something like, ‘it’s about time,’ and then they were gone.”

“‘It’s about time’?” Mavis repeated, clearly as surprised as Penelope. “What kind of thing is that to say?”

Penelope shushed her, wishing she could have convinced her grandmother to stay home. It was taking every ounce of self-discipline she had not to shake.

“He’s all right, Mrs. O’Malley?”

“All right? He’s been arrested.”

“I mean, did he seem like himself?”

Edith shook her head. “He didn’t even look like the same man who’s lived under my roof for the past year. The man who ate dinner with me almost every night. He looked like someone else entirely.”

The car slowed. Penelope peeled her gaze from the older woman’s pale face and stared at the sheriff’s office. The front window was brightly lit, as it always was, and inside she could make out at least a dozen Old Orchard residents she was surprised to see up this late. She reached for the door handle, clutched her purse, then was out of the car as Edith parked.

Inside the sheriff’s office, she sought Cole Parker, who grimaced when he spotted her.

“Penelope. What are you doing here?” asked the sheriff.

Her grandmother and Mrs. O’Malley entered after her.

“I understand you have Aidan in custody,” Penelope said.

The sheriff’s intelligent eyes took in the three women, and he straightened his shoulders. “That’s correct.”

“May I ask what the charges are?”

“You may, but that doesn’t mean I have to answer.”

Mavis pushed by Penelope. “What, are they a state secret or something?”

Penelope opened her purse and fished around for her checkbook. “Tell me how much the fine is.”

“Fine?” Sheriff Parker asked.

Penelope found a pen, uncapped it and began filling in a check that didn’t include the amount. “For whatever he’s done.”

Amos McCreary snorted. “He’s robbed the General Store, missy. I don’t think any check can cover that.”

Penelope’s hand froze, and the shaking she’d been so good at controlling since she’d first spotted Mrs. O’Malley on her front porch began in earnest. “What?” she whispered.

Sheriff Parker frowned at the other man. “I’m afraid Amos is right, Penelope. Aidan Kendall has been arrested on suspicion of armed robbery. Two counts.”

“Two?”

He nodded, then glanced away from her as if unable to continue while looking at her. “That’s right. The General Store and Smythe’s filling station.”

It took her three attempts to shove her checkbook back into her bag, her fingers were trembling so badly. “But…”

The sheriff stepped toward her as if to steer her away from the small crowd. “I know this must come as a shock, Penelope. I swear, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the security camera tape.” He stopped walking. “It’s him. He did it.”

“When?” she asked.

He blinked at her. “I don’t see—”

“When?” she demanded again. “Did it happen tonight? At what time?”

He scanned her face and sighed. “Tonight. Or rather, last night, now that it’s three a.m. That’s all I’m going to say.”

“Was the store still open? It was, wasn’t it? Which makes it before nine p.m.” She swallowed hard and lifted her chin. “If that’s the case, Sheriff, then you have the wrong man. Because Aidan was with me.”

Aidan’s instincts had been right all along. His past had caught up with him. Right here in Old Orchard.

Aidan sat with his forearms resting on his thighs, his head in his hands, trying to make sense out of everything that had led him to where he was right now. Accused of two counts of armed robbery. One at the gas station. The other at the General Store. Perpetrated by a man who looked remarkably like him.

Davin.

His twin brother. A man who resembled him in so many ways. A man who was like him not at all.

A man who wanted to make Aidan suffer.

Correction, make
Allen Dekker
suffer.

A door opened and keys jangled. Aidan absently noticed the sounds without acknowledging them. He’d crawled deep inside himself, trying to figure out what he had done to make his brother hate him so—

“I’m letting you out on your own recognizance.”

Aidan lifted his head and stared at Sheriff Cole Parker. “What?”

“You heard me.” Cole unlocked the cell door, not looking too pleased with his decision.

Aidan rose unsteadily to his feet. “Why?”

Cole caught and held his gaze. “Penelope Moon insists you were with her at the time of the crime.”

Penelope…

Aidan moved purposely forward and grabbed the cell door.

Cole’s eyes narrowed. “I figure she’s not telling the truth, but she’s not budging an inch.”

Aidan raked his hand through his hair, wondering what could have compelled Penelope to step forward on his behalf. He looked back at the cell and considered the past two hours he’d spent there. The lifetime he would spend in a similar cell if Davin had his way.

“So are you coming, or not?” Cole asked.

A part of Aidan wanted to tell him to close the door. He didn’t want to cause Penelope any problems.

Another part told him he would seal his own fate if he didn’t accept this opportunity.

He walked out, his mind crowded with possibilities and ideas…and fear for the woman who had just pointed out her existence to the man who could hurt them all.

Penelope stumbled to her feet from where she’d been sitting next to her grandmother on the front bench, trying to prevent the woman from saying anything that would find her behind bars alongside Aidan. Given her past history with the sheriff’s office, Mavis wasn’t shy about sharing her feelings
about them. Actually, considering Gram’s fountain activities, Penelope was beginning to suspect that her grandmother wasn’t shy about much of anything anymore.

But after tonight’s crying jag, she also knew Mavis was as soft as a Moon Pie inside and that her soul had been bruised irreparably when her daughter took her own life.

“Shh,” Penelope said, sensing something was happening. Everyone in the office turned as Cole came from the back. She curled her fingers into her palms as Aidan followed after him.

The room was so quiet, she could hear her heart beat. Especially when Aidan gave her little more than a brief, hard glance and passed her on his way down the street.

Penelope’s throat tightened to the point of pain. She seemed to be frozen to the spot, incapable of hearing anything beyond the crash of blood past her ears. Somehow she managed to force her legs to move and she stumbled out of the office after him, blind to everything else around her.

“Aidan?” she said quietly.

He strode purposefully down the dark street away from her.

“Aidan!” she called.

He turned to face her, and they both stood as still as the lampposts that illuminated the night.

“Why did you lie, Penelope?”

She blinked at him, confused, then glanced toward the glass front of the sheriff’s office. Mavis and Mrs. O’Malley were watching through the window, along with the sheriff and the others gathered. She managed to move the short distance that would put her out of their line of sight.

“I don’t understand…” she whispered.

Why would her convincing the sheriff to let him go until arraignment the following morning upset him?

A brief shadow of sadness moved over his features. But it was gone too quickly for her to respond. She could only think of her first impression of him—that he looked sadder than any man she’d ever seen.

“You risked yourself for me,” he said evenly. “I don’t ever want you to do that again.”

Her knees felt strangely elastic. “I’d do anything to help you.”

“And if I had committed those crimes?”

“You couldn’t have,” she said.

“Who says?” he asked, his dark brows raised ominously. “You? Do you think you really know me well enough to say that I’m incapable of such an act?”

Suddenly he had moved and was standing directly before her, his presence both menacing and reassuring. She swallowed hard.

“Yes,” she breathed.

He grasped her arm roughly. “You think so, do you? You think you know me, Penelope?” He leaned in close so that his hot breath swept over her cheek. She shivered in excitement and a hint of fear.

“I know your heart,” she said firmly.

His gaze flicked over her face and that sadness again entered his eyes. His fingers released her, but she still felt his touch.

She knew this man’s soul as well as she knew her own. Inside and out. And the man she knew could never, would never, have committed the crimes he was accused of.

“What you know can get you hurt,” Aidan murmured.

She stared at him.

“You didn’t know that, did you?”

She slowly shook her head. “You’d never let me be hurt.”

“And if I couldn’t prevent it?”

Her mind went blank but for one thought. “Well, then, that’s my decision to make, Aidan. Not yours. Not the sheriff’s. Not anybody’s but my own.”

He tore his gaze from hers and appeared ready to step away. She quickly reached out and touched him. “Please. I don’t know if I can help. But I want to try.”

The sadness in his eyes disappeared, replaced by a brutal void that made her shudder.

“Nobody can help me, Penelope. Not even you.”

A lesser woman would have been gone with his first comment. But not Penelope. Never Penelope. Despite her lack of self-confidence, when it came to others she was there, no questions asked.