Running on Envy Page 8

  “Och aye, but as you know, Jenny luv, I do depend on your intuition.”

  I groaned. “Charlie McNair, it was not necessary to put me through this. We could have been doing . . . other things tonight.” My mind flashed on MacGregor’s bed and the two towels that had remained between us. Fortunately Charlie didn’t read my mind this time, but judging from the gleam in MacGregor’s eyes, he did.

  “Sorry, lassie, but I think the Greens are still in danger, particularly Judy. I don’t want anything happening before I can solve this.” His tone had turned serious. I couldn’t argue with him there.

  “Aye, I have to agree with Charlie. I too noticed when Judy mentioned that George had not intended to accompany her on that trip. It seems that she may be the target.”

  I agreed with MacGregor’s assessment of the situation.

  “Aside from your discomfort at times, lassie, it wasn’t all unpleasant, was it? It was lovely to see Scott Morrison again, was it not?”

  “It was wonderful. He’s a sweet person. And he did give me information on the Elliots. He attended college with them.”

  “Did he now? Fill us in then.”

  I glanced down at MacGregor’s watch. “Tomorrow, Charlie. But before I head to the airport, I would like to hear if there is any news on Ally. Could you call Jack or Rochelle?”

  “Already done. Plenty of leads, unfortunately all false.”

  “The list the Elliots provided?” I asked. “Have they been able to make a dent?”

  “They’ve doled it out and covered a third so far. Only two names were suspicious but they’ll be following up with them. And they’ve made some headway through the long list of college athletes. Their questioning was simplified by the fact that several were in class. Others had reliable alibis.”

  It was good to know they were making progress. “Did they question Shelby and Carter separately yet?”

  “Interrogate is more like it. They were pretty shaken up. Apparently Jillian was so upset that after they questioned her, Shelby sent her over to stay with Maureen until after the police had finished. Apparently she felt as if they were trying to get her to incriminate her mother or Carter in some way.”

  “Ben Blaine?”

  “None other.”

  “Jerk.”

  “Aye, he can be that. But if he can get any information that will help find the wee bairn, it’s probably worth it.”

  “I suppose. But did he?”

  “Nothing they could pin on the Elliots. But knowing him, he’ll keep at them.”

  “Well, I’d better get going.” I hugged Charlie and kissed MacGregor who whispered that he would miss me. I understood. Things were going to be different now, at least during Holly’s visit. Those family dynamics. Get you every time.

  They stood on the curb watching as I climbed into my faithful 1982 Volvo, Winston. I started him up and waved, but before I drove off, I rolled down the window and called out to Charlie. “Could you get Greg Rallings’ address and phone number? I think we need to talk to him.”

  “Shelby’s ex-husband?” Charlie asked.

  “None other. Have the police questioned him yet, do you think?”

  “That, I don’t know.”

  “Perhaps they don’t know about him yet,” MacGregor said.

  “I suppose if they haven’t heard Jillian address Carter by his first name, they may not realize yet that there is an ex-husband,” I said.

  “He never came up in any conversations, at least not when I was present,” Charlie confirmed. “But they’re sure to have found him when they did a background check on Shelby which I’m certain they’ve done.”

  “Perhaps they do know about him, but may not have found him yet,” I said.

  “I’ll get on it tonight, lassie. I should have his information for you by the time you’re home from the airport.”

  I nodded and drove off to fetch my daughter who was likely to wreak even more havoc in our lives than that week-long day had already brought.

  Chapter 5

  I pressed Matthew’s phone number on my cell, put it on speaker, and set it in its slot on my dashboard.

  “Mom?”

  “Hi, honey.” I could picture my handsome son, lounging across his dorm room bed, most likely wearing sweatpants and a rugby jersey and his thick brown hair as messy as MacGregor’s. If I didn’t know better I’d have wondered if he was really Joe’s son.

  “Have you picked up Holly yet?”

  “On my way. Just wondered if you had any advice.”

  Matt’s laugh was both infectious and comforting. “As in how to tell her about you and Mac?”

  “Exactly.”

  “’Fraid not. But maybe I’ll come over and spend the night so she has someone to talk to.”

  “In other words, I shouldn’t expect an exuberant reception to the news.”

  “Hmm. Actually you might have her stay at Charlie’s. Move Josh over to Mac’s and I’ll stay in his room. That way she’ll have me and Charlie there so she can vent.”

  Vent? “I should expect venting? But she likes MacGregor, adores him! Always has.”

  “Yeah, when he wasn’t your fiancé.”

  I hung up just as I pulled onto the freeway.

  My sweet and very wise son. And my moody and challenging daughter. Variety in ones life was important, I told myself.

  After I’d parked my car in the airport parking lot, the very same lot where Judy and George’s Lincoln Navigator had been vandalized, I called Charlie and told him about Matt’s suggestion. He agreed and promised to take care of it.

  “Hey, Charlie,” I said before hanging up. “Where was the Navigator parked?”

  “You want to check it out?”

  “Might as well. I have a few minutes before Holly’s flight lands.”

  “You want both? The one from when the vandal got Sharkey’s Navigator the first time by mistake?”

  “Good idea. Give me that one too.”

  He readily gave me the numbers of the parking spaces, and I headed for the eighth level where the first crime had been committed. Considering that the car was on level ground and a long distance from the ramp, the culprit must have realized that not much was going to happen. The driver would know as soon as he backed up that his brakes were worthless. That was exactly what had occurred. Sharkey knew immediately that his brakes were not working and had backed into a parked car. No injuries, except to the cars. That would not have been the case if the car had started down the exit ramp. It could have been a fatal accident. I shivered at that thought. I was sure Sharkey had as well.

  I took the elevator down to the third level. Again a fortunate choice of locations. It would have been better had they not parked adjacent to the ramp. But it could have been a lot worse. They could have been on a higher level and had to negotiate eight levels instead of three. And had George Green not backed into the spot, he would have been negotiating that ramp backwards. And although the accident had landed him and Judy in the hospital, the injuries could have been a great deal worse.

  I shivered again, thinking next time they might not be so lucky.

  I pulled out my phone to check the time. I needed to focus on my daughter, my daughter who unknowingly had people shifting homes and beds for her. I was shaking my head as I walked across the bridge and into the airport. My petite dancer daughter was far more powerful than she realized.

  She found me at the baggage claim. “Mom!”

  I opened my arms and she ran into them. I inhaled her familiar scent. Lilac and vanilla had always been her favorites. It felt so good holding my little girl again that I thought maybe we could just stand there for the next hour or two. In silence.

  Laughing, she wriggled her way out of her mother’s suffocating clutches. “It hasn’t been that long, Mom. You came to see me a couple months ago.”

  “A couple months is a couple months,” I mumbled intelligently. I took a step back to look at her. She was wearing jeans, boots, and her light blue down jacket.
Fashionable enough but warm. “How was your flight?”

  “Fine. Good, but I’m starving. Anxious to get home.” She frowned and I could read her thoughts as if they’d been spoken out loud. Where was home? This was the first time she’d been back to Seattle since she’d learned of her parents’ divorce . . . and since her childhood home had been sold out from under her. Charlie had broken the news to her on his way to Scotland during the summer. He had stopped in New York to see her during her summer dance program and had told her then. We had decided that it was best if she learned the news from a neutral party. Well, Charlie couldn’t exactly be considered neutral. But at least she’d had someone there to hug.

  “Where are we staying? We’re not going all the way up to the island tonight, are we? I’m kind of tired. It’s really late for me.”

  “No, you can stay at Charlie’s.”

  “Oh, whew. That’s a relief. Oh, there’s my bag!” She ran through the mob of passengers and snatched her duffle bag off the conveyer belt as if it weighed nothing. She could give Matt and Josh a run for their money when it came to upper body strength. Lower body strength, she’d win hands down. The girl was amazing.

  I squeezed her when she returned to my side and slipped my arm around her as we walked together toward the escalator.

  “What did you mean I can stay at Charlie’s?” Damn. I thought it had slipped by unnoticed. I’d hoped we’d at least have a peaceful drive home before the tension set it. “Where are you staying, Mom?”

  “Uh, about that—”

  “What?”

  “We’ll talk in the car.”

  She stopped walking and dropped her bag on the floor. “What’s going on? Mom? Does it have to do with this kid who you took in?”

  “Josh?”

  “Yeah, Josh.”

  “Uh, not really.”

  “Isn’t he staying at Charlie’s? Or is he spending Thanksgiving with his real family?”

  Real family? “Uh, we are his family, Holly.” The only one he had available right now. At least until his mother got out of prison.

  “Yeah, I know. Sorry. It’s just weird, you know? So if it doesn’t have to do with Josh, what does it have to do with? And is he staying at Charlie’s too?”

  “Uh, no, Matt’s staying with you at Charlie’s.”

  “He is? Great!” She always had been crazy about her brother, at least when he wasn’t hogging the bathroom or yelling at her for sneaking his CD’s or referring to her as his “kid sister” in front of his friends.

  “So, back to you and Josh. Where are you staying?”

  Bite the bullet, Jenny. Get it over with. She’s five-foot two. How much harm can she do? “Josh and I are staying at MacGregor’s.”

  “Oh, across the street. That’s a good idea.” She scooped up her duffle bag again.

  It was?

  “But he only has one guest room, doesn’t he? The other bedroom is his office.”

  “Uh, about that—”

  Down went the duffle. “What’s going on, Mom?”

  “Going on?”

  “Yes, going on. You’re blushing.” She shoved her long golden-brown hair back over her shoulders and stared at me with her blue eyes that matched her father’s.

  “Actually it’s good news. Great news. MacGregor and I are engaged.”

  She quite literally paled before my eyes. “Engaged? You and Mac? Seriously?”

  “He’s wonderful. You’ve always been very fond of him.”

  “He’s old!”

  “Not that much older than I am. Only eight years.”

  “He was your professor!”

  “That was several years ago! Twenty!”

  “Still—”

  “He’s a wonderful person, Holly.”

  “But it’s just so—”

  “Soon?” I took her hand and held it as the little girl emerged, tears streaming down her cheeks.

  “You and Dad just split up,” she mumbled as I pulled her back into my arms.

  “The divorce is final.”

  “Yeah, I know, but— It’s just—”

  “You were hoping we’d get back together?”

  “I don’t know what I was hoping. I just didn’t think—I can’t imagine you with someone else.” She pulled away from me. The tears had stopped and her blue eyes had turned piercing. “Has this been going on for a long time?”

  The one thing that had not occurred to me—my daughter accusing me of infidelity.

  “No. No! Apparently Mac has had feelings for me for a long time, but I didn’t even know that. Not until recently. Very recently.”

  “And you’re engaged already?”

  “I love him, honey.”

  She cringed. She actually cringed. I’d have to remember to bite my tongue the next time I was inclined to express my feelings for my future husband. She scooped up her duffle bag and started walking. I had to run to catch up to her. We stepped into the elevator in silence. When we reached the car, she waited silently for me to unlock it, an impatient glare on her face. I rarely locked my car—only when I parked downtown and now in airport parking lots. Once the lock was released, she swung open the back door and tossed her bag inside and climbed into the passenger seat. Silence all the way down the ramp and out of the airport. The road signs must have been particularly interesting at night because they were certainly absorbing her attention.

  Not a word until we pulled onto Pleasant Beach Drive where police activity was still very present. One of the cops recognized me and waved me past the blockade which they were still using to stop people in order to question them as to what they might have witnessed.

  “What’s going on?” Holly asked.

  “A baby was kidnapped from the park.”

  “Oh my God! Whose?”

  “The Elliots’. I don’t think you know them. They live down the street a little ways and across from Charlie’s.”

  “Are you and Charlie helping with the case?”

  “Yes, they hired us to help find Ally.”

  “I guess that’s good. I mean, for them.” A compliment? It was probably for Charlie. “I guess you’ll be pretty busy while I’m here.”

  “Not too busy to spend time with you.” My assurance was met with a shrug which translated as that she didn’t really care one way or another.

  I parked on the street in front of Charlie’s. When she pulled her duffle bag out of the car, she turned and headed up the stairs to her grandfather’s house. “Guess I’ll see you tomorrow. G’night.”

  How was that for a dismissal? I stood on the sidewalk watching her go. The hell with that! I trotted up the stairs after her. “I thought you were hungry.”

  “I’m sure Charlie has food.”

  “I’ll bring something over.”

  “That’s okay. I’ll be fine.” Her voice was moving into martyr territory. I recognized it easily. I’d been raised by my mother, after all. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll stay here with my grandfather and brother while you stay with your new husband and new kid.”

  “Josh isn’t my kid.”

  “Might as well be.”

  “And MacGregor isn’t my husband.”

  “Yet.”

  Okay, so she had a point. I sighed and reconciled myself to the fact that this was going to take some time. “I guess I’ll see you in the morning then.”

  “I guess. Although I’ll probably sleep late. It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to.”

  I could take a hint. “Okay, then. I’ll wait for you to call me.”

  She nodded and reached for the front door handle. Silly girl. She wasn’t getting off that easily. I snatched the strap of her duffle bag, yanked it out of her hand and dropped it to the ground. Before she could protest, I reached out and hugged her. She reluctantly hugged me back but it was better than nothing.

  “I love you, honey.”

  No response so I turned and headed back down the steps. Maybe I’d find peace with my new family.

  I stoo
d on the sidewalk, staring out at the water of Puget Sound as the glow of the stars and moon were reflected in it. The scent of pine surrounded me. It was a year-round luxury but stronger now as if calling attention to the impending holidays. I loved the Pacific Northwest. I was grateful that Charlie had chosen it as a sanctuary when he and my mother had divorced. When, at age fourteen, I had made the decision to move in with him and his new wife, Catherine, I had never looked back. California was wonderful but my mother was there.

  Does it always have to be that way? Do we as children always choose one parent over the other? Clearly Matthew had chosen me, and almost as clearly, Holly was choosing her father. At least she would, once she forgave him.

  The sound of a car door caused me to look up toward the Elliots’ house. A man jumped out and ran toward the house. Instinctively, I followed the movement, walking down the street toward him. Just as he reached the top step, the front door swung open and Jillian ran outside and into his arms. Greg Rallings. Maybe she was the exception. Maybe she hadn’t chosen one parent over the other. She adored and doted on her mother, yet loved and found comfort in the arms of her father. Unless, of course, appearances were deceiving.

  He patiently held her through the tears, stroking her back as she sobbed against his chest. I couldn’t see his face, but the porch light revealed that he was tall and muscular. It wasn’t until the door opened again that he released Jillian, but only enough to open one arm to the other grateful recipient. Shelby. The three held onto one another for dear life. A family reunited. Shelby was sincere in her belief that this man would not harm them. She hadn’t said that simply to protect her daughter and the father of her daughter. She trusted him. I waited until they made their way inside, still holding onto each other. I was glad I did. Otherwise I would not have been there to see the embrace between the two men, Carter and Greg, who were, according to Scott Morrison, best friends since college.

  I was lying in MacGregor’s arms, not finding sleep. He was staying awake to keep me company. I told him not to do that. He didn’t listen. I was grateful. I needed more than his warm body.

  “She’ll be okay, McNair. She’ll come around.”