Читать книгу Appalachian Prey - Debbie Herbert - Страница 11

Chapter Three

This was going to kill Darla.

She’d put off bringing up the matter of the missing money, imagining Darla’s furious reaction at the news. For the past couple of days, she’d stayed tied up with all the paperwork concerning the robbery and fixing up Dad’s old place. Darla was much too busy to be bothered. Okay, that wasn’t entirely true or fair—she’d been avoiding this scene with her sister.

Tired as she was from the drama and all her duties, Lilah couldn’t up and leave the mountain without letting her sister know the money was gone. She sped down Dark Corners Road to the homestead where Darla, Ed and their three children lived. Her sister would be devastated about the stolen money. If only she’d just let her have it that morning like Darla had begged. And she could kiss goodbye that sisterly chat she’d planned on. After the news, Darla would be in no mood to offer advice and comfort over the matter that had weighed on Lilah for weeks. It wasn’t like there’d been much chance of Darla being supportive, anyway, if she was being honest with herself.

At the last sharp bend before hitting town, she pulled into Darla and Ed’s gravel driveway. An unfamiliar red pickup truck was parked near the side porch. Maybe Ed had traded in his old clunker. She picked her way through a barrage of mangy dogs and mewling cats that barked or hissed their displeasure at the invasion of their territory.

Old toys and broken furniture almost barricaded the doorway, and she impatiently scooted a rusted table out of her path. Through the screen door she heard Darla talking on the phone.

“Yes, I’ll hold. But only for a minute. Longer than that and I’ll take my business elsewhere,” Darla huffed.

Lilah pushed open the door and entered the kitchen where her sister held a tape measure stretched across the lower cabinets. “You back, sir? I want mahogany,” Darla said. “Only the best. And I want it pronto.”

Lilah blinked. Wow. This was a change. Ed must have been working overtime.

Darla retracted the tape and scribbled on a scrap sheet of paper, her face puckered in concentration.

“New cabinets, huh? Nice.”

Her sister snapped her head up, pencil poised. “What are you doing here?”

Not the welcome she’d expected. But then, she and Darla had never been particularly close. The ten-year age difference was large enough so that shortly after their parents’ divorce, a pregnant Darla had married Ed while Lilah had moved over a hundred miles away with their mother.

“Well, I’m leaving, and I thought I’d say goodbye first.”

Darla colored slightly. “Right. Sorry I couldn’t help out more with the estate stuff. Ed Junior’s been down with a tummy ache.”

“No problem.” Lilah shrugged and waited awkwardly.

“I’ll just, uh, get off the phone. Want something to drink?”

“Water, thanks.” Lilah plopped down on a chair in the den.

The TV blared, although no one was watching it. Where were her nephews?

Darla returned from the kitchen and tossed her a water bottle. “Where are the kids?” Lilah asked.

“I started them in daycare yesterday. I needed more peace and quiet ’round here.” She shuddered. “I’m still recovering from that intruder scare.”

“Me, too,” Lilah admitted. “I meant it when I said I’m not staying. I’ll come back when there’s papers that need to be signed when the cabin sells, and for the meeting next week in the probate office.”

Darla tossed back her hair. “Both stupid formalities. That cabin’s not worth much, and I doubt Dad had more than a few hundred dollars in the bank. A complete waste of time.”

“But he had thirty thousand dollars lying around the house,” she pointed out.

“Dad didn’t trust banks. Besides, I bet he was just holding that money for someone.”

Lilah suppressed a shudder. If that was true, was that why the intruder had been in the cabin? Would he return?

“Anyway, do you think you could take care of all the paperwork for me?” Lilah asked hesitantly. “I only got involved with everything because Jimmy was overseas and you said you were too busy with the kids to fool with it. Now that they’re in daycare...maybe you could take over?”

“You handle it. You always were good with all that complicated kind of stuff.”

Irritation flared between her temples. “But I live over a hundred miles from here, and I’m busy, too.”

“You?” Darla scoffed. “You don’t have other people depending on you to feed them and watch over them. Or a demanding husband. What else do you have to do?”

That about hit her last reserve of patience. “I have a j-o-b. Remember? I also take college classes in whatever spare time I have.”

“Pfft.” Darla waved a hand dismissively. “Why you wasting time getting a fancy degree...”

But Lilah tuned out her words. Instead, she was mesmerized by the huge diamond flashing on Darla’s left hand. “Ed upgraded your wedding ring? It used to be on the small side.” Rinky-dink was more like it.

Darla abruptly lowered her hand and crossed her arms, hiding the ring from view.

The new pickup, ordering new cabinets, fancy jewelry. Well, that little mystery was solved.

“It was you!” Lilah stood and pointed her finger. “You’re the one who stole the money.”

“It wasn’t stealing. That was Dad’s money, and I’m sure he meant for me to have it.”

Of all the selfishness Lilah had witnessed over the years with her sister, this was the most outrageous. “All for you, huh? What about me and Jimmy?”

“Jimmy’s making plenty of money in the army.”

“And me?”

“You’re about to become a teacher. You’ll be rolling in dough. I need it more than you. I have a family. You don’t.”

Lilah closed her eyes, thinking of how much thirty thousand dollars would have helped in paying off her college tuition and upgrading from her clinker of a car to something more reliable. Rolling in dough on a teacher’s salary? Not hardly.

She drew a long steadying breath. “We’ll see what Jimmy thinks about all this when I call him tonight.”

“Do you have to tell him?” Darla flushed and bit her lip. “We ain’t spent it all yet. I could give you each a few thousand.”

She’d never been so angry. Lilah trembled from the injustice. Careful, careful. Don’t say something you’ll regret. “I’ll see you later, after I’ve spoken with Jimmy,” she said past numb lips.

“Ah, come on, LayLay,” Darla cajoled, using her old childhood nickname. “Don’t get all mad on me.”

Lilah strode past her, eager to avoid more confrontation. “We’ll settle up after I talk to Jimmy. I’ll be speaking with Harlan, too. He knows that money was stolen from the cabin. I’m sure he’ll want to question you about the theft.”

Darla paled. “Now, look here...”

“Save it for the cops,” Lilah said, marching out of the house and back to her car. Of all the nerve. Of course, she wasn’t going to press charges, but let Darla sweat it a little.

Inside her car, she backed out of the driveway and then paused. Go left or right? Left meant leaving the mountain, right meant having “The Talk” with Harlan. She dreaded it, but her conscience demanded she tell him. Besides, he’d already called, wanting her to sign the missing money report.

Digging deep into her reserves of courage, Lilah turned right.

* * *

THE MOMENTARY LULL in the crowded, noisy sheriff’s office alerted Harlan that something was off. He glanced up from his paperwork and followed the gaze of his coworkers to the front door.

Ah, yes. Lilah Tedder had that effect on the opposite sex. She turned her head, scanning the room until she zeroed in on where he sat. Her blond hair glowed like a halo under the harsh fluorescent lighting, but her eyes burned like two flames, hot and flickering.

She was no angel.

Lilah beelined to his desk in determined steps. He hoped J.D. wouldn’t come out of his office anytime soon this morning and witness them together. She stepped up to his chair.

“So you’ve already drawn up the report on the money?” she asked, cutting to the chase.

“Yep.” Harlan picked up the printed document. “Just need you to sign it.”

She sat down next to him and primly placed her purse in her lap. He slid the paper toward her, and she glanced down. “I’m not signing it. There’s no longer any need for a report.”

“Why? You found it?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

He was missing something. People didn’t “misplace” thousands of dollars of cash. “That’s good. Where was it?”

“I forgot I’d moved it from under the mattress to the bottom dresser drawer.”

She was lying, but why? Truth was, he’d been reluctant to write up the report, not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to her newfound wealth. At least not until the money was accounted for and safely deposited in the bank. Besides, her family’s name was mud as it was. This report would drag more fodder and speculation about Chauncey’s questionable activities.

“Are you sure about this? What’s really going on?”

“I’m more worried about intruders than...”

She stopped, obviously flustered about blurting out that tidbit.

“Intruders?” he honed in quickly. “You have any more men showing up to buy moonshine?”

“No. Never mind about that. I’m leaving today, anyway.”

“Sure you won’t change your mind?” He’d secretly hoped she would hang around long enough for him to try to win her back.

“It’s for the best.”

“You’re scared. Tell me what’s going on. Has someone hurt you or threatened you in any way?” If they had, he’d hunt them down like a dog and make them pay. He lowered his voice and took her hand. “Tell me.”

She jerked her hand away. “There’s nothing to tell. Forget the report.”

“Sure, never mind that I wasted an hour writing this up,” he shot back, hurt and annoyed.

Lilah shrugged. “Sorry.”

Her tone implied she was anything but sorry.

“For God’s sake, Lilah, what the hell is going on here?” He was conscious of his fellow officers glancing their way. He lowered his voice. “First, the missing money, then you hint at an intruder and now you deny anything’s wrong?”

“Don’t badger me, Harlan Sampson,” she said, glaring. “I didn’t come here today to talk about the report, anyway. That’s not important.”

“Not important?” he asked, incredulous. “Are you for real? I demand to know what’s going on.”

She jumped to her feet, her face flushed and her voice raised. “You have no right to demand anything from me. Never did. I just dropped by to tell you that I’m—I’m...oh, never mind. I won’t bother you with the news.”

The room was the quietest Harlan had ever witnessed. From deep in the recesses behind their administrative offices, an inmate could be heard cursing in a holding cell.

This wasn’t happening. His mind spun in circles. Surely Lilah wasn’t about to say she was pregnant, was she? They’d been careful. Except, well, there were a couple of times they’d been too impatient. He felt like he’d fallen down into a deep well and couldn’t catch his breath.

Lilah raised her chin and strolled away, her back ramrod stiff. From the corner of his eyes, he caught Sheriff Bentley shaking his head in an I-told-you-so way.

Instead of heading to the front door, she made an abrupt turn to the right and entered the women’s restroom. Jolene Smithers, a fellow officer, rose from behind her desk. “I’ll check on her,” she said, eyes wide with equal measures of pity and curiosity.

To hell with J.D.

He found his feet and followed Jolene, aware that every eye in the room was upon them. Someone snickered, and the back of his neck flushed with heat.

* * *

LILAH PULLED BACK her hair and leaned over the toilet, gagging. A few deep, shuddering breaths later, she straightened, bracing her hands against the stall’s cool metal siding.

That’d been close. For a moment back there, she’d been ready to upchuck all over Harlan’s carefully prepared report. One that was no longer needed.

“Get yourself together and get the hell out of Dodge,” she muttered.

“You all right in there?” a female voice drawled.

Lilah stiffened. “I’m fine,” she said in a mind-your-own-business tone.

“Don’t sound fine to me.”

Lilah waited. Whoever was on the other side of the door wasn’t leaving and wasn’t entering the neighboring stall. Just what she needed. Why couldn’t a girl get a clean break when she needed to beat a hasty exit? Sighing, she pushed open the door and strode to the washbasin, determined to ignore the nosy stranger. From the corner of her eye, she took her in—a tall rangy woman, wearing a brown uniform and a badge.

“Quite a scene out there,” the woman commented drily.

Lilah splashed her face and rinsed her mouth out.

“I think Harlan’s worried about you.”

“Told ya I was fine.” She jerked a paper towel from the dispenser and dried her face and hands before throwing it in the bin.

“You with child?” the woman asked.

Lilah snatched the keys from her pocketbook and marched to the door. Another minute and she would be out of this stifling place.

“Is it Harlan’s?”

The nerve. Lilah’s eyes snapped to meet the intruder’s. She wore no makeup and her auburn hair was pulled back in a careless ponytail. Still, it was easy to see she was a beauty in a tomboyish, no-frills kind of way with a peaches-and-cream complexion and large hazel eyes.

“None of your business...” Lilah glanced at the nameplate pinned below her badge. “Officer Smithers.”

“We’re all good buddies working here. Family, even. So is it his?”

Lilah pushed past the woman but Jolene Smithers stepped in front of her.

“Following in your sister’s footsteps? Guess I should give you some credit, though. At least you managed to finish high school before populating our county with more Tedders.”

The hell? It may have been years since she’d lived in Lavender Mountain, but Smithers’s lip curl of disgust when she said Tedders slashed through time. Once again, Lilah was young and facing the taunts of schoolchildren or braving the slights of classmates who never came to her birthday parties. No parent wanted their child hanging out with the likes of Lilah and her family.

“Get out of my way,” she said coldly.

“I’m betting it isn’t. Good thing we have paternity tests these days. Keeps riffraff like you from tying down a decent man who—no doubt—will insist on doing the right thing. Either marriage or child support for the next eighteen years.”

Jolene’s words splattered like acid on Lilah’s heart. That much was true. Harlan would insist on doing right by her. But what kind of life would that be—knowing she’d unwittingly trapped him into marriage? He couldn’t know the truth.

“And what about his career?” Jolene continued. “He’d be the laughing stock of this county, running for sheriff after a shotgun wedding to a Tedder.”

She’d had enough. Lilah went around Jolene and flung open the restroom’s door before delivering her parting shot as she stepped into the lobby. “It’s not his baby. Okay? You happy now?”

Whipping her head back around, she faced a tall uniformed column of stubborn human male.

Harlan.

His feet were planted less than six feet from the doorway and his face was set like carved granite.

How much had he heard? He couldn’t have missed her saying the baby wasn’t his. Lilah lowered her head and walked quickly to the door. She’d come by to tell him she was pregnant with his child, but maybe it was best this way.

So why was she near tears? If he had ever loved her, that love hadn’t been enough to erase the stigma of her name. Believing she was pregnant by another man, so quickly after their own affair had ended, would be proof to him that she was fickle and unworthy.

* * *

OUTSIDE, THE GEORGIA sun beat down like a whip on his face. “Lilah. Stop.” He placed a hand on her shoulder, and she froze. He stepped in front of her and gazed at her pale face. Now that he had her attention, he hadn’t a clue what to say.

“Sorry you heard the news that way,” she said flatly. “Didn’t want you to wonder if it was yours, though—just in case we ran into each other in the future or you heard something.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. This didn’t feel right.

“Positive.”

Anger churned his gut. There hadn’t been anyone else for him since he’d cut off ties with Lilah. How had she moved on so quickly? “Who?” he ground out past numb lips.

Her brows raised and she regarded him blankly.

“Who’s the father?”

“Oh. You don’t know him. He’s not from around here.”

She was lying. He was—almost—sure of it.

“Is the baby mine or not? I deserve the truth.”

She hesitated. “You deserve a life with a woman you love. You deserve to be sheriff.”

“Is that what this is about? Let me decide what I want.”

“Do you love me?” she asked abruptly.

His mind drew a blank. Love? He cared for her...mightily cared. But love? “I... I’m...”

Her lips trembled, and she pinched them together. “Whatever happened between us is long over. I have to figure things out on my own.”

“You shouldn’t have to face this alone. What about this...this other man?” His mind whirled at the possibility she was telling the truth. “Will he marry you? Or at least support you?”

She gave a harsh laugh. “The days of shotgun weddings ’round these parts are long over. Plenty of women have been single moms. I can do the same.”

A memory pierced him—her dad at the Foxy Lady bar/motel, hunting down Ed after getting word that Darla was with child. By all witness accounts, Chauncey had stormed into the dive, red-faced and waving a shotgun, searching for the hapless culprit who’d deflowered his eldest daughter. Seeing Ed shirk into the corner, Chauncey had approached and grabbed a fistful of Ed’s camouflage jacket. “Congratulations, you’re getting married,” he’d announced.

Harlan ran a finger over the collar rim of his stiff uniform shirt. Those days of forced marriages weren’t entirely over. Chauncey Tedder would be mighty displeased about this situation if he were still alive. He cleared his throat. “But you don’t have to raise a child alone if he—”

“Just go back to work, Harlan. This is my problem, not yours.” She darted around him, but not quickly enough for him to miss the tears brimming in her eyes.

“Are you going to be okay driving home?” he asked. Damn it, he still cared about her even though he shouldn’t.

She didn’t bother responding. Instead, she climbed in her car and backed out of the parking space a tad too carelessly. She whipped out of the lot and accelerated onto the highway. Within a minute, the car disappeared in the distance.

It was as if Lilah couldn’t wait to be rid of him.

“She gone?” Jolene was suddenly beside him.

“Looks that way.”

“It’s for the best, Harlan.” She ran a hand along his arm. “Time you moved on. If you ever want to talk, I’m here.”

He frowned and moved out of her reach. This wasn’t Jolene’s first hint she wanted something more than friendship.

“Plenty of other fish in the sea.” She smiled and practically batted her eyes.

But he had zero interest in his comely coworker. Instead of a tall redhead, his interest was decidedly marked in favor of a certain petite blonde. One who clearly was over him and might even be pregnant with another man’s baby.

So why was he so upset? Hadn’t that been what he wanted all along—a clean break with Lilah? But he walked away from Jolene and headed back to work weighted with a heaviness that made him feel suddenly ten years older.