Christmas Vendetta Read online

  Recovering his balance, Clay asked, “What’s wrong? Why did you scream?”

  She simply held tight with her head turned and her cheek resting on his chest.

  Clay continued the hug as he urged her to step aside and spoke to the others. “It’s in the closet. On the doorjamb. If you can’t find it I’ll come show you.”

  Abe snorted a chuckle. “Looks like you have your hands full, buddy. Tucker and I will manage.”

  Because his own breathing had sped to match Sandy’s, Clay agreed. As soon as he’d guided her out into the living room, he asked, “What’s wrong? Why did you scream?”

  “You—you were gone. You’d promised you’d stay with me and then you didn’t.”

  “I was close by. Right out in the hall, waiting for assistance.”

  Her eyes glistened as she leaned away to watch his face. “Never, ever make a promise if you don’t intend to keep it.”

  “I was. I was just...”

  She silenced him with a look. “Never. Promise. Me. Anything. Again. Got that? Because I won’t believe you. Do you have any idea how scared I was? Huh? Do you? I thought something awful had happened to you. And then, when I heard the door open...”

  Clay spread his arms and gently grasped both her shoulders. “I’m sorry. I should have let you know what I was doing. I didn’t abandon you. I noticed a new clue, one that may tell us whether Charles Hood was ever here, and I fixed the front door so I could get back in. I had to call for backup because I’m not authorized to collect samples.”

  Sensing a slight relaxation, he loosened his grip and urged her toward a seat on the couch. Judging by the way she plopped down, she’d begun to come to her senses. Tears were rolling down her cheeks.

  She dashed them away. “You found another clue?”

  “Pretty sure I did. Enid was injured close to where she fell, but you were swinging a club. Either you wounded him or he cut himself when he was stabbing her and the jolt of the golf club sent drops of blood flying into the closet. That’s what I found.”

  “So it may be Charles’s, not Enid’s?”

  “Maybe. Only one way to tell for sure. Abe is taking a swab and Tucker is along as a witness so nobody can accuse me of tampering again.”

  “Th-that, too?” she stuttered.

  “They keep coming up with new charges. It started with the drugs planted in my car. I thought that was all, but Abe tells me some of my other evidence gathering is being questioned, too.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Clay leaned in to speak intimately without touching her again. “It may mean that some of my good arrests get thrown out of court. And that’s only here. If my previous department is eventually involved, I may be charged up there, too.”

  “That’s ridiculous!”

  It didn’t escape his attention that Sandy Lynn had grasped his closest hand. He could feel her pulse pounding through her fingertips and sensed his own beginning to keep pace so he broke away and stood. “That’s why I need to prove my innocence quickly.”

  “How?” Her gaze darted to the bedroom where the other two cops were working. “Is anybody on your side?”

  “Abe is. And I think Tucker may be, too. I’m sure there are others, but they may be afraid to speak and wind up on the wrong side of the frame. Right now, it’s just me.”

  “And me,” Sandy Lynn said. “I believe you’re innocent.”

  “So you’ve said. I hope you keep thinking that, because there’s a chance my situation may get worse, particularly if these initial charges don’t stick and they keep trying.”

  “Have you talked to your chief about it?”

  Clay nodded. “Yeah. He would have arrested me if he’d thought I was guilty. But he has to handle the case by the book. That means Internal Affairs is involved, too.”

  “They should be unbiased, right?”

  There was so much hope in her expression Clay hated to ruin it with his personal opinion. Nevertheless, he felt he owed her the truth. “You’d think so. The problem is how far the connections go. It was so easy for me to spot irregularities in the station I have to wonder how many others were aware or even involved. That has the potential to be a lucrative sideline, and some officers may have been tempted through need as well as greed.”

  “That is so sad.”

  “Spoken like a private citizen. It’s a lot more than sad. It’s criminal. And exposing theft and graft can prove lethal if too many are involved.” Clay paused and waited for the full impact of his statement to awaken her defensive instincts. It didn’t take long.

  “The other incidents? You think they could have been about you instead of me?” She was on her feet, starting to pace. “No. No way. Think about it. They kidnapped me, not you. They wrecked my car, not yours.”

  “And they also knew I’d try to help you, follow you, stay involved no matter what. What if that’s what they were counting on?”

  The wider her eyes got, the more he wanted to pull her back into his arms and offer comfort. Parting her lips, she started to speak, then paled and stopped. “No.”

  “Yes. Either way, your welfare is in jeopardy. If it’s Hood and some of his prison buddies who are after you, there’s no telling what they’ll do.”

  Sandy Lynn stared, trembling. “But if the evil comes from your side of this human equation, the only way they can hope to prove you meant to harm me is if I’m not alive to testify otherwise.”

  This time, seeing how deeply she was affected by her dire conclusion, Clay stepped forward and opened his arms.

  To his dismay, Sandy Lynn turned away and headed back into Enid’s room. It didn’t matter that he agreed with her that they should put a stop to any notion of growing closer. It still hurt. A lot.

  TEN

  Sandy Lynn couldn’t decide who to be mad at. She had plenty of choices, including herself. That was the worst thing about making mistakes; the consequences tended to follow you throughout your life. The way she saw it, once she recognized an error it became her responsibility to avoid repeating it. Sometimes doing that was easy. Sometimes, as in the case of her feelings for Clay Danforth, it got harder as the years passed. How much better it would have been if she had never encountered him again.

  But then she might not be alive to fret over what to do next, she reasoned, growing ashamed for wishing he hadn’t stepped back into her life. If God had sent him to help her, she should be grateful.

  Or I could be imagining things, Sandy Lynn concluded. That was more likely. Her practical nature seemed to have vanished the instant she’d seen Clay standing in her doorway, armed and ready to defend her. That picture refused to go away. Yeah. Kind of like the real thing who kept showing up in the nick of time.

  She waited until Abe and Tucker left Enid’s room, then took more care choosing clothing items for her friend than she had for herself, knowing how important matching outfits were to Enid. As far as Sandy Lynn was concerned, anything decent was acceptable. There had been a time when she’d cared about styles and fashion the way most teens did but that had ended when she’d left foster care and eloped with Charles.

  The mere thought of him made her shiver. He had escaped, that was clear. Whether he’d risk his freedom and perhaps his own life to get even with her was not. The man might have a cruel streak, but he wasn’t stupid. He must realize that coming after her was going to get him caught. At least she hoped so.

  The pillowcase filled with personal items for Enid turned out lighter than her own because she’d chosen with such care. Sandy Lynn figured she and Clay could always return for more. If Enid agreed to change apartments or even buildings, as Sandy wished she would, they could simply pack up everything at once and have it delivered to wherever they went. In the meantime... She hefted the second makeshift tote and headed for the living room.

  Clay was speaking on his cell phone. That reminded
her of what he’d told her to do with her own so she slipped it from her pocket and checked for messages one more time before turning it over to remove the batteries and SIM card. She didn’t realize he was paying attention to her until she heard him react.

  “I told you to do that long ago.”

  “I still don’t see your rationale, but I’m doing it. Okay?”

  “I told you. It was to keep us—to keep you—from being tracked.”

  “And I told you Charles doesn’t have the tech savvy,” Sandy Lynn countered. She was making a face at him as she pocketed the memory card and gave him the other pieces of her phone.

  His hand remained out, arm extended. “That card, too. You won’t be needing it.”

  “I will later,” she argued. “A lot of these numbers are unlisted and not written down anywhere else.”

  He rolled his eyes dramatically. “Then it stays here, not in your pocket or purse.” That solution suited her fine. Let him be as brusque and standoffish as he wanted. The less solace he offered, the better her emotional state would be. Her breath stuttered as she recalled how he’d opened his arms to her the last time, right here, and she’d almost failed to convince herself to resist.

  Curious, she sought to distract him. “Who were you talking to?”

  “A cab company,” Clay said flatly. “In case you haven’t thought of it, we’re out of wheels.”

  “When do you think my car will be released?”

  His shrug spoke volumes. “We’ll know more after the police are finished with it. I wouldn’t count on it being drivable. It didn’t look promising to me.”

  “What about yours?”

  “Impounded. Remember?”

  “Then we can catch a ride with your friend Abe, right?” She scanned the room and realized they were alone again.

  “We could have if he and Tucker hadn’t been called to a bad traffic accident on Battlefield Blvd. That’s why I decided to order a taxi.”

  “Good thinking,” Sandy Lynn said as she fought against moving closer to him to feel safer. Now that the apartment was quiet again, she was starting to grow more antsy. That was silly, of course. Until Enid had been attacked she’d always felt completely at home there, a conclusion that only magnified her current uneasiness.

  Her eyes fell on the half-decorated Christmas tree and she sighed. Realizing that Clay had noticed, she quickly looked away.

  “You can put up Christmas stuff at my place. I don’t mind.”

  Sandy Lynn shook her head. “Not me. I told you how I felt. Unless Enid is out of the hospital by Christmas Day I don’t intend to do anything special.”

  “Not even one sprig of holly?”

  “No. Not even that.” Sandy Lynn was adamant.

  “Seems like kind of a shame.”

  “Oh? What kind of holiday decorations are up in your new apartment? You don’t have any either, do you?”

  “I’ve been busy.”

  “That’s what I thought. So lay off lecturing me, okay?”

  “I wasn’t lecturing you. Not even a little.”

  “Oh yeah, then what was it?”

  With a slow shaking of his head and sadness in his eyes, Clay said, “Suggesting Christmas decorations was my way of trying to make you feel happy and at home in a temporary place, that’s all.”

  That brought a wry chuckle. It wasn’t hard for Sandy Lynn to make up her mind to elaborate. “Don’t you get it yet? The closest I’ve ever come to feeling at home was when I moved in here with Enid, and even doing that was hard because I didn’t think I’d like sharing with a roommate.”

  Pausing, she studied Clay’s face, looking for a glimmer of understanding. He still looked puzzled so she went on. “It’s me. I have no roots, no place to call home. I’ve accepted it, and I wish others would do the same and stop trying to fix me.”

  “I was trying to do you a favor, not change you.”

  “That’s what you don’t get. Enid didn’t, either, not for a long time. It has taken me years to see that it’s not in my nature to accept lifelong belonging. I tried. I did. But after getting married and having...” She broke off, unwilling to say more.

  The stare coming from Clay looked like a cross between empathy and disgust, presumably over her choice of a husband. Well, too bad. If he’d listened to her, really listened to her back then, maybe she’d have had hope for their one-sided relationship and put off eloping.

  Then again, there was no use imagining a different outcome. What was done was done. Irrevocable. She knew that as surely as she knew her own name. Even her faith in Jesus Christ wasn’t enough for her to accept a second chance.

  She’d heard Clay ask the cab company to hurry, but as time went by she began to wonder if their ride was coming at all. He checked his watch, then his phone, evidently saw something and clicked on it to read, then closed the screen.

  “What was that? You don’t look very happy,” Sandy Lynn observed.

  “Understatement, lady.” Clay took her by the elbow. “We’re going downstairs.”

  “Is the taxi here?”

  “No. And I strongly doubt it’ll be here for a long time,” he said flatly as he grabbed one of the pillowcases. “Come on. We need to go somewhere else.”

  “Your apartment?”

  “If we can get there without being stopped, that will do for a few minutes,” Clay said. “There’s been another development.”

  “As long as nobody died,” she said with a roll of her eyes, intending to lighten the mood and quell some of the nervousness that was passing from him to her.

  He let go of her arm long enough to yank open the door and push her into the hallway. Instead of the usual stairway, he headed for the back way out.

  “Whoa.” She put on the brakes. “Where are we going? The last time we went out that way a couple of thugs were waiting for us.”

  “They won’t be this time because they don’t think we’d ride my bike in this kind of weather.”

  “They’d be right,” she said. “I won’t be getting on that thing with the streets so slippery and visibility bad, to boot. That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”

  “We have no choice. Unless the cab pulls up within the next few minutes we’ll have to either ride or walk, and walking gives us no advantage whatsoever.”

  “Neither does being plowed over the curb like a pile of dirty snow,” Sandy Lynn told him, hoping he’d see the logic of her sensible opinion. “We don’t have to go outside at all. Let’s go wait in your new apartment.”

  “We can’t. Abe overheard a couple of cops talking to a suspect they’d brought in, and he thinks there are at least four guys helping Charles Hood. Maybe more.”

  “Why should that change our plans?”

  “Because they’re on their way here, that’s why.”

  “You’re positive?”

  “As positive as possible, under these circumstances.”

  Sandy Lynn shrugged. Though she’d followed him down the back stairs to the ground floor, she wasn’t about to hop aboard a motorcycle with him. No sirree. No way.

  She halted before they reached the exit. “So, you’re not sure? Then be sensible like me. Stay right here and wait.” Resisting his tug on her arm, she shook her head at him. “Nope. Not going. Check on the ETA of the taxi. I’m sure it’s almost here.”

  With a roll of his eyes and an expression of frustration, Clay pulled out his cell and dialed. “This is Danforth again. How much longer will we have to wait to be picked up?”

  A scowl wrinkled his forehead. His eyes darkened and narrowed as he said, “I see.”

  “What?”

  “The unit that was coming for us is still being held up by a traffic jam. That road is essentially closed. They can start someone else, but it will be at least another half hour before anybody gets here to pick us up.”
<
br />   * * *

  Clay would have much preferred to ride his motorcycle alone. Too bad that would leave Sandy Lynn unprotected. He gritted his teeth and scanned the parking area. It appeared deserted except for a shivering squirrel huddled on an overhanging limb and some intrepid starlings pecking at pebbles through the slush-filled ruts left by passing vehicles.

  Thankfully, enough new snow had fallen to obliterate the footprints of his prior attacker and blanket the place where he’d stopped her car and been knocked down, so he could tell at a glance that nobody else had recently passed by.

  The comfort of seeing that reinforced how foolhardy it was for either of them to ride his bike in this weather. Was it truly necessary? Clay asked himself that and answered with a strong yes. However, as long as there was no sign of trouble, it probably wouldn’t hurt to delay, just in case the taxi did show up soon.

  Turning, he thrust the second bulging pillowcase at her. “Here. Wait inside where it’s warm while I fire up the bike and make sure it’s good to go.”

  “I’ll come with you.”

  He blocked her way. “No. There’s no need for you to get chilled before you need to be. Believe me, riding in winter isn’t something I’d do for pleasure. Even with helmets and the windscreen it’s going to be really cold once we get started.”

  “One more good reason to stay right where we are and wait for the cab.” She was chewing on her lower lip, her cheeks and the tip of her nose rosy from the cold.

  “It’s just as foolish to stand here idle when I could be preparing for an emergency.” He tried a smile, hoping it would ease her mind. “We won’t ride unless we’re forced to, I promise.” The quirk of the corners of her mouth reminded him of the warning she’d recently given. “That’s a promise I won’t have any trouble keeping. I don’t want to go slipping and sliding all over Springfield any more than you do.”

  “Yeah, right.” Sandy Lynn made a silly face that brought out the lightheartedness he’d been hoping and praying for. Yes, she needed to be on her guard. And, no, she did not need to be so scared that fright disabled her brain.