Nowhere to Run
Valerie Hansen
RUN AND DON'T STOP! Those were her former boyfriend's last words. Before the thugs he associated with murdered him in cold blood. Now they're after Marie Parnell. She flees with her five-year-old daughter–until car trouble strands her in Serenity, Arkansas. The handsome mechanic who promises to get her back on the road is suspicious–and purposely slow.With nowhere to turn and nowhere left to run, Marie tells Seth Whitfield everything. About her past, about finding faith, about how safe she feels with him. He vows to protect her and her child. But Seth isn't exactly who he says he is….
“I thought there might be something you wanted to tell me. Like why you’re so scared and what you’re running away from.”
Seth laid his hand gently over hers. “Maybe I can help you.”
Marie shook her head. “Just fix my car so Patty and I can get out of this town,” she said with a quiver in her voice. “Believe me, you don’t want to get involved.”
“I’m already involved,” Seth countered. “Let me help.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. But I can’t help unless you let me in on your secrets.”
“Either you read a lot of mystery novels or you’ve had personal experience with this kind of thing.”
When he didn’t answer, Marie studied his face. She didn’t want to place anyone else in jeopardy, but she desperately needed an ally.
“All right,” she finally said. “But the less you know, the better off you’ll be….”
VALERIE HANSEN
was thirty when she awoke to the presence of the Lord in her life and turned to Jesus. In the years that followed she worked with young children, both in church and secular environments. She also raised a family of her own and played foster mother to a wide assortment of furred and feathered critters.
Married to her high school sweetheart since age seventeen, she now lives in an old farmhouse she and her husband renovated with their own hands. She loves to hike the wooded hills behind the house and reflect on the marvelous turn her life has taken. Not only is she privileged to reside among the loving, accepting folks in the breathtakingly beautiful Ozark mountains of Arkansas, she also gets to share her personal faith by telling the stories of her heart for Steeple Hill Books.
Life doesn’t get much better than that!
Valerie Hansen
Nowhere to Run
The Lord holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
—Proverbs 2:7-8
This book is dedicated to computer gurus and dear
friends, Judy and Larry Vierstra, and to others in their
family who also advised me regarding the Internet.
Left to my own devices, I’d still be writing with a
pencil and using two tin cans with a string stretched
between them to communicate!
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
EPILOGUE
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
ONE
It took a lot to frighten Marie Parnell—unless the perceived danger affected her five-year-old daughter, Patty. That changed everything.
Trembling, she peered out the front window of her Baton Rouge apartment to see who was pounding on the door and shouting her name. It hadn’t been her imagination. Roy Jenkins was back. Her nightmares had come to life.
Marie froze, her brown eyes wide. She could hardly breathe. The tone of Roy’s voice had risen until he’d started to sound more afraid than irate. That was puzzling. It wasn’t like him to show weakness. Not at all.
She chanced another quick peek out the window, hoping and praying he was alone. The last thing she wanted was to expose Patty to the low-life types who had always been Roy’s cohorts.
Keeping her voice as calm as she could, she answered him through the closed door. “Go away.”
His fist slammed against the wood so hard it made her jump. “Not this time, Marie. If you don’t let me in I’ll break this door down. Don’t make me do it.”
Don’t make me do it. The familiar phrase sent chills zinging up her spine and turned her stomach. That was what Roy always used to say before he hit her. As if it were her fault and she deserved being punished. It had taken her a long time to realize that the problem was Roy’s temper, not her behavior, and she thanked God daily that she had not been fool enough to marry him, even though she had not been a Christian during the time they were together.
“Hush. You’ll wake the neighbors,” she warned. In her mind she added, and you’ll wake Patty. That mustn’t happen. The little girl had finally gotten to the place where she’d stopped asking for him, and Marie didn’t want to have to start that healing process all over again.
Outside, Roy pleaded more softly, “Marie, darlin’. You have to listen to me. If you won’t let me in, at least talk to me face-to-face.”
She knew better than to open the door. Experience had taught her well. Yet, there was something in Roy’s tone that tugged at her heart, made her remember the few good times they’d had before he’d turned to crime and begun to physically abuse her when she’d objected.
Twisting the dead bolt, she eased the door open a crack. Roy hit it with his shoulder and shoved her out of the way as he burst in, followed by a gust of humid air.
Marie staggered back, her hands raised in self-defense.
Roy gave a cynical snort. “Simmer down. I got no beef with you. I got worse problems. And so do you. That’s why I’m here.”
“I don’t believe you.” She sent a concerned glance toward the hallway leading to the bedroom, then realized immediately that she’d given away Patty’s location.
“I came to warn you,” Roy insisted. He began trying to edge past her toward the room where his daughter slept.
“Leave her alone,” Marie said, standing firmly in his way. “You haven’t bothered to even write her or send any support for over two years.”
“She’s my kid. I got a right to see her.”
“You have no rights. We were never legally married, and I have a restraining order against you.”
“Yeah, yeah. That piece of paper is only good if I pay attention to it. Tonight, I have other things on my mind.” He paused, shaking his head. “If you weren’t so stubborn you’d listen to me.”
“I stopped listening to you years ago,” Marie said.
“I know.” Roy began to pace. “Look, Marie, I’m in trouble. I’m going to have to leave town. And after I’m gone, there are some old buddies of mine who’re going to be royally teed off.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“Plenty. They’re bound to come looking for me. You and the kid are my only ties to this area. If you were them, what would you do?”
She folded her arms and faced him as he continued to walk back and forth. “You don’t want to know what I’d like to do,” she said candidly. “And I refuse to lie for you, so don’t tell me where you’re going.”
“That’s not the problem,” he said. “You’re dumber than dirt, aren’t you? Look. This is serious. You have to leave town, too.”
“Not on your life, Roy. Patty and I are finally happy. I have a good job, she’s starting school in the fall, and we’ve even joined a church. We’re not going anywhere, especially not with you.”
He laughed coarsely. “Not with me, you idiot. That’s the last place I’d want my kid to be, considering the jam I’m in. But you can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”
“Sure, Roy. Tell me another fairy tale.” She tucked strands of her cinnamon-brown hair behind her ears with trembling fingers. “Patty and I aren’t going anywhere. Understand?”
“Yeah, I get it. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He began to back away.
Marie followed him to the door, locked it as soon as he’d stepped outside and leaned her forehead against it. She hadn’t wanted Roy to see how deeply his anxiety had affected her, but she was terribly concerned. Could he have been telling the truth for once? He had certainly seemed sincere.
And he hadn’t forced her to let him see Patty, either. That, too, was totally out of character for Roy.
She shut off the inside lights so she couldn’t be seen as she peered out the window to watch him leave.
Suddenly, two shadowy figures appeared on either side of Roy. They grabbed him and held his arms as he squirmed.
Marie pressed her fingertips to her lips to stifle a gasp. The larger men easily dragged him to a waiting car, shoved him inside and sped away.
Immediately reaching for the phone, Marie dialed 911. The police might not be her ex-boyfriend’s first choice for a rescue, but the way she saw it, Roy was out of options. It never occurred to her that her story about his abduction wouldn’t be believed.
Seth Whitfield, the thirty-two-year-old garage mechanic who lived and worked in Serenity, Arkansas, didn’t exist. At least not in the normal sense.
Stepping out of his weathered barn into the spring sunshine, Seth removed his ball cap and raked his fingers through his thick, prematurely graying hair. Alice had always insisted he keep his hair dyed dark, so he had—until she’d been taken from him by the same men who had driven him into hiding.
After Alice’s death nothing had mattered, least of all his appearance, and with the addition of a bit of necessary plastic surgery and his farmer’s tan, he hardly recognized the face he shaved every morning.
He blew out a sigh. Looking across the unspoiled valley always made him a bit wistful. This morning was no exception. He could smell the fresh green grass and appreciate the balmy wind from the west that often brought showers to nourish the groves of oak, hickory and cedar dotting the rocky, gently sloping hills.
Alice would have loved it here, he thought absently, then realized the opposite was true. His late wife had been a city girl. She’d never have agreed to visit the Ozarks, let alone move there to live. That was one of the reasons he had chosen this spot for his relocation. He had had absolutely no ties there.
“And I couldn’t have picked a place that I liked better,” he told himself.
The black-and-white border collie at his side nudged the leg of his jeans, panting and begging for attention in response to his mellow voice.
He bent to stroke the dog’s head. “That’s right, Babe, you and I love this place, don’t we?”
Excited, she wagged her tail and spun in a circle, making Seth smile in spite of his earlier melancholy. As long as he continued to take one day at a time, the same way this smart dog did, and stop brooding over a past that couldn’t be changed, he’d do fine. Regrets were for fools and dreamers, neither of which was an apt description of him. He was intelligent. A survivor. A fighter.
And if he didn’t get a move on he’d be late for work, he added, glancing at his watch.
He patted his thigh. “Come on, old girl. Hop in the truck. We’re heading to town.”
The herding dog took off at a run, bounded through the open window of the cab of the old green pickup and turned to look back at him as if to say, “Hurry up, slow poke.”
Seth squared his Serenity Repair Shop ball cap on his head and slid behind the wheel. There were times, like now, when he could almost feel free, almost forget that he was still in jeopardy in spite of his secure niche in the rural community. If the time ever came that his enemies did locate him, he knew it was going to be harder to pack up and leave these friendly folks than it had been to relinquish his highly paid, undercover, security job and abandon his luxurious residence outside Philadelphia.
The one thing that spoiled his fond memories of that house, of the life he had once led, was the image of his late wife, Alice, prostrate on the kitchen floor with a note of warning pinned to her night gown.
Marie had not rested since she’d witnessed Roy’s abduction. The police had been no help; nor had they offered to guard her, as she had hoped. Consequently, she had followed Roy’s advice, taken Patty and fled.
Before she’d reached the Louisiana border, she was certain she’d spotted a car in pursuit. It was only after night fell again that she’d managed to elude whoever was after her. Then, she’d turned and headed northwest.
If she had been traveling alone, she never would have visited fast-food places or lingered in gas stations and truck stops. Keeping her curious, excited five-year-old cooped up in the car all the time, however, was next to impossible. When Patty wasn’t napping, she was wiggling and asking scads of questions.
In response to the child’s latest demand for food, Marie pulled into the drive-thru lane of a familiar hamburger chain. “Okay. Here we are. What do you want?”
“That!” Patty said, pointing to the colorful, inside play area.
“I thought you were hungry.”
“I am. I’ll eat, too. I just wanna have some fun.”
“We’re on vacation, honey. Seeing all these new places is fun, isn’t it?” The pout on the little girl’s face made Marie smile. “Okay. You win. I guess I can use a short break, too.”
She parked her overloaded blue sedan where she was certain she could watch it through the plate glass windows, then helped Patty unfasten her seatbelt and climb down from her booster seat. “Hold my hand,” Marie cautioned.
“I’m a big girl. I can walk by myself.”
“I know you can. But Mommy gets worried when there are lots of cars around.” Matching coffee-colored gazes met and held in a battle of wills. Marie won by arching her eyebrows and giving her daughter a silent, no-nonsense warning.
“I’ll get you a child’s meal,” Marie said as they entered the fast-food restaurant. “Stay in the play area where I can watch you.” She bent down to reinforce her admonition with a serious look. “This is important. If you can see me, then that means I can see you, too. Okay?”
Barely nodding, the child grinned and skipped off toward the play area.
Marie knew there would be a place for her to sit and eat near Patty and the other children. She cringed at the thought of all those sticky little fingers touching the same play surfaces, but this time she’d make an exception. Considering the fact that Patty had been dragged away from home in the middle of the night, the poor little thing was coping pretty well. Too bad her mama was such a nervous wreck.
As usual, it was hard to convince Patty to slow down long enough to eat. Marie had consumed her own meal long before the excited child was half-finished.
Running out of patience, Marie again gazed out the window toward her car. One of those big, boxy, delivery trucks had stopped sideways in the parking lot and was blocking her view.
She immediately got to her feet and started to gather up their trash. Trucks like that were common, yet there was something about the situation that set her nerves on edge. Then again, since Roy had been kidnapped, everything made her nervous.
“Come on, Patty. We’re leaving,” she called.
“Aw, Mom. Do we have to?”
“Patricia Anne. Now.” Marie knew her raised voice was attracting undue attention but she didn’t care. As long as she couldn’t see her car, there was no guarantee it was all right. Not only was that vehicle their current means of escape, but also practically everything they owned was crammed into it.
Dragging the reluctant little girl by the hand and praying silently, Marie hurried toward the exit. Something made her stop in the small entryway and look up just before she pushed through the glass outer door.
A muscular man in jeans and a sleeveless T-shirt was preparing to climb into the box truck. He had one booted foot planted on the step, his hand on the open driver’s door. Nothing about the scene would have bothered Marie if the trucker hadn’t paused to stare straight at her—and kept on staring.
She stood very still, wondering if she’d be able to make her feet move if she had to. Seconds crept by. A group of noisy, jostling teenagers piled out of a yellow school bus and filed between Marie and the menacing truck driver, temporarily distracting her and blocking her view.
She had to step back and pull Patty close to allow the rowdy teens to squeeze by in the confining space of the entryway. When she looked back at the parking lot, she was relieved to note that the worrisome truck was slowly pulling away.
Her relief was short-lived. As the unmarked vehicle passed, the menace in the driver’s piercing gaze gave Marie chills all the way to her toes.
Marie’s car didn’t begin to run badly until later that afternoon. At first it just stuttered and missed a few times. Then it began to falter as if it wasn’t getting enough fuel.
Marie nursed the car into a filling station and garage off Highway 62. Was it was possible she was out of gas? She was trying to figure the distances in her head and make an educated guess when a tall, broad-shouldered man came toward her.
“That engine sounds like you have a problem,” he said amiably.
If he hadn’t been wearing a baseball cap with a repair service logo on it and wiping black grease off his hands as he spoke, Marie might have been worried by his approach.
She nervously combed her fingers through her cinnamon-colored hair and tucked the longer side tresses behind her ears out of habit. “I don’t know what’s wrong with it. It was running fine until a little while ago.”
“You from around here?” the man asked.
She tensed. “Why?”
“Just wondered,” he said, still smiling. “Want me to have a look at it for you?”
“I don’t know. I…”
“No charge,” he said. “I promise.”
Her eyes narrowed as she studied him, looking for hidden motives behind the magnanimous offer. Maybe the good Lord was looking out for her after all, she reasoned, feeling guilty for being so suspicious. If God chose to use this man to bless her, who was she to refuse or to doubt?
“I’m just being neighborly,” he said. “The name’s Seth Whitfield.”
“Pleased to meet you. If you think you can tell anything about my car by looking, go for it. Just don’t start taking things apart. I can’t afford expensive repairs.”
“It’s a deal.” He raised the hood, propped it up and leaned in.
Marie got Patty out of the car and stood with her in the shade of the service station bay while the man tinkered with her car. If she’d had the slightest warning that she’d need to make a cross-country trip she’d at least have had the car serviced first.
Penitent, she took a moment to thank God that she’d managed to escape the same fate that had befallen poor Roy. It seemed odd that she didn’t feel much connection to him other than simple concern, but she supposed the intervening years of separation had deadened her emotions. Roy had chosen to continue his illegal activities in spite of her pleas for him to stop, and the last time she had tried to discuss it with him he’d gotten drunk and given her a brutal beating. That had been the final straw. She’d left him that night and never looked back.
Marie smiled down at her daughter. The child was her joy, her whole life, and she wasn’t a bit sorry that she’d finally had the courage to distance herself from Roy. She was just sad that the little girl would grow up without the love of a decent father figure.
She sighed, remembering her own childhood. She’d managed to survive without the moral support of either parent and she’d turned out okay. Well, sort of, if you didn’t count her unwise alliance with Roy when she was only seventeen. He had promised her the moon, and for a while she’d been able to fool herself into believing him, to put up with his terrible temper no matter how much he hurt her.
Patty’s birth had changed everything. It had placed an innocent life in Marie’s hands, and for the first time in her life she knew what it was like to really love and be loved. The realization that there could be so much more to living had been such a shock she could still hardly believe it.
And it was concern for her little girl’s welfare that had drawn her into church, had brought her to acknowledge a faith she’d only glimpsed before circumstances had led her to make that choice. When she’d decided that Patty needed exposure to Sunday school, Marie had attended, too, and had found solace and acceptance there, as well as soul mates, when she’d finally turned to Christ.
Leaving her church family behind in Louisiana without so much as a goodbye had been hard for Marie. Those wonderful people cared about her, truly cared. And they would be so worried when they realized she had left town without a single parting word.
Sighing, Marie watched the mechanic move from side to side and tap on parts of her car’s motor. She had no idea what was wrong, nor did she care. All that mattered was getting the car fixed and being on her way again.
If the man hadn’t acted so friendly to begin with, she might have been put off by his rustic looks and grease-streaked clothing. She didn’t expect a garage worker to wear a suit, of course, but the employees of the place where she went to have her oil changed dressed in neat coveralls. This man’s tattered jeans and short-sleeved shirt looked anything but professional.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” she finally asked.
He straightened, grinning, and wiped his hands on an already dirty rag. “The boss thinks I do. But if you want to go on down the road, you’re welcome to.”
“Do you think my car will make it very far?”
“Honestly? No. I suspect you got some dirty gas the last time you filled up. Where was that?”
She wanted to snap at him, to tell him it was none of his business, but she stifled the urge. He wasn’t asking anything that a normal person wouldn’t be glad to answer. Rather than admit that her trip was far from typical, she shrugged. “Beats me. I didn’t pay much attention. We’ve just been kind of rambling across the country.”
“I see. I noticed the Louisiana plates and figured you were probably headed north.”
The license plates! She’d been so upset she hadn’t thought of that. “I—I borrowed the car from a friend,” Marie alibied. “She lives down there. I’m actually from Texas.”
Her daughter tugged on her hand and looked up at her. “Mama? No, we’re…”
“That’s enough, Patty,” Marie said, purposely interrupting. “You and I will go get an ice cream while this man works on our car. How does that sound?”
“Chocolate,” the five-year-old said. “Two scoops.”
“Fine.” She turned back to the mechanic. “I’ll trust you to do whatever the car needs, within reason. Can you have it running soon?”
“I can try,” Seth answered. He pointed. “There’s a café on the square that has good food. And Hickory Station, about half a block that way, sells ice cream and snacks.”
“Thanks.”
Hesitant to leave her belongings unattended, Marie nevertheless grabbed her purse from the front seat and walked off. She figured it was best to get Patty away from the service station before the child revealed too much. She knew it was wrong to lie, let alone to ask an innocent child to do so, but in this situation she was certain the good Lord would forgive them. After all, He was the one who now had their lives in His hands, the one who had promised to look after His children.
Marie started to smile in spite of all her worries. If that rough-looking guy with the sandy-gray hair was supposed to be a Heaven-sent guardian in disguise, his masquerade was working. He surely didn’t look the part.
He’d had nice eyes, though, she mused. Blue, like the summer sky, with tinges of gray to match his hair and little smile wrinkles at the outer corners. He didn’t appear to be very old, but she supposed it was possible for a man to be turning gray in his thirties, which was roughly what she estimated his age to be.
Pausing and waiting for passing cars before crossing the peaceful, tree-lined street, she glanced back at the service station.
Instead of working on her car as he’d promised, the man was standing beside it with his hands fisted on his hips. His eyes were shaded by his ball cap, but she could tell he was looking directly at her.
She stared back at him. He didn’t flinch. His intense, unwavering concentration gave her the shivers from her nape to her toes.
Grabbing Patty’s hand, she half dragged the little girl as she hurried across the street. The sooner they were back on the road and heading for parts unknown, the happier she’d be.
The only question now was how she could either change cars or find another license plate that wouldn’t reveal her origin. If she’d been a thief like Roy, she’d have simply stolen one. Being an honest person could be difficult at times, couldn’t it?
She glanced Heavenward. “Father, how about leaving a discarded license plate along the road somewhere, huh? I know it’s a lot to ask, but…”
“Mama?”
“Yes, honey?”
“Are you praying?”
“Yes, Patty,” Marie said with a nod. “I sure am.”
“Good,” the little girl answered, hurrying to keep pace with her mother’s rapid strides, “’cause you lied and I don’t want God to be mad at you.”
TWO
Seth frowned. He had an uneasy feeling about that woman. Oh, she’d seemed innocent enough at first, but she’d definitely wanted to hide where she’d come from, so there was no telling what else about her story was false.
The real question was, why not tell the truth? Was she the stranded motorist she pretended to be, or was there a more sinister reason for her supposed breakdown? He hadn’t thought his enemies would use a child to get to him, but that woman looked enough like his late wife to be her younger sister. Same light reddish-brown hair, same few freckles, same long lashes and beautiful brown eyes.
That uncanny resemblance gave him pause. If someone was trying to send him a message or make sure his real identity was exposed, what better way to do it than through a pretty woman pretending to be in distress?
He turned back to the car. If she was a planted informant and he let her go, there was no telling how long it would be before someone else followed. Perhaps someone more lethal. If he kept her in town for a few more days and checked her background, however, he’d have a better idea whether or not his real identity had been discovered.
It made sense to know his foes up front, he told himself. And it looked as if it wasn’t going to be easy to repair the woman’s car without disassembling the fuel system, so that would give him overnight, at least.
He slipped into the passenger’s seat and popped open the glove box. The car was registered to a Marie Parnell. If the driver had actually borrowed this vehicle from a friend, that friend must be named Parnell. That, or the woman had fibbed about where she’d gotten the car.
Either way, it looked as if he’d offered to be a good Samaritan for a bald-faced liar. He just hoped he hadn’t made a big, big mistake. Then again, it wouldn’t be his first.
He huffed in self-disgust. One mistake had cost him dearly. He just wished he’d recognized the looming danger in time to have saved Alice’s life. Perhaps, if he hadn’t been so caught up in his work, he’d have realized that she was planning to file for divorce and he could have made the news public. Then, the men who were trying to frame him might have changed their minds about eliminating her.
Or, they might have gone ahead and killed her anyway so they’d have even more to blame him for, he argued. Corporate espionage could be just as dirty and just as deadly as covert government operations. In his case, he had been pegged as the fall guy because he’d been doing deep undercover work for Corp. Inc. and hadn’t been able to prove his innocence. If he hadn’t had friends who had warned him, he’d probably either be buried beside poor Alice or serving time for her murder, along with a conviction for corporate theft.
Seth shuddered at the thought, then turned back to the car he’d been working on. Reliving the past was counterproductive. As long as he kept his guard up and didn’t let a good-looking woman like this car’s driver get too close to him, he’d survive. At this point in his life, that was all he could ask for.
By the time Marie and Patty returned from their ice cream quest, Seth had put the compact car up on a rack in the garage and was poking around under it.
“What do you think?” Marie asked, holding tightly to her daughter’s hand.
He shrugged as he continued to work. “Beats me. I disconnected a plugged fuel line, and it looked as if somebody had dumped sawdust into your gas tank. Did you tick someone off?”
“No, I…” The memory of the incident in the fast-food restaurant parking lot flashed into her mind. If anyone had been tampering with her car, she couldn’t have seen the individual doing it because the van had blocked her view. And if that was where her gas tank had been fouled, that meant her instincts had been correct: she hadn’t shaken her pursuers after all. The conclusion made her shiver in spite of the warmth of the afternoon.
Seth turned to look at her as he pushed a button that lowered the car to the ground. “What?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly. “Nothing. I have no idea who might have done such a thing.”
“Well, it won’t be an easy fix. The fuel filter is inside your gas tank. That means I’ll have to drain the gas and drop the tank in order to flush it out, clean the lines and change filters.”
“How long will that take?” She noted the lack of his usually warm smile.
“Depends. If I can pick up a new filter here in town, probably a day or two. If I have to wait for parts, maybe a week or more.”
“No. That’s impossible. I can’t stay here that long.”
“You don’t really have much choice,” he said. “I’m good at my job, but if you don’t let me replace the filter, I can’t guarantee that you’ll get very far.”
She peered past him at the quaint little town. “I don’t even know where I am. Is this Missouri?”
“Not yet. You’re about twenty miles shy of the border.” He pointed north. “Missouri’s that way. This is Serenity, Arkansas.”
“Where can I rent a car?”
Seth laughed. “Here? Lady, you’re lucky there’s any place that can even repair your car, let alone rent you another one. I suppose if you’ve got enough money, you might be able to trade for a different vehicle down at Tony’s sales lot.”
“I’d love to,” Marie replied. “Unfortunately, I’m not rich.” She gave a wry chuckle. “But I guess you figured that out from the car I’m driving.”
“Never can tell about folks around here,” Seth said. “Some of the people who look as if they can’t even afford their next meal could buy and sell this garage and have change left over.”
“Are you the owner?”
“Nope. I just work here. You’ll need a place to stay. We have a nice family motel close by. Maybe you noticed it when you drove past.”
“I’m afraid not. I was too concerned about the way my car was running. Or I should say, not running.”
“That makes sense. Look, I’ll be glad to give you and your daughter a lift to the motel, as long as you have no objection to sharing the truck seat with a friendly dog.”
“A dog?”
Seth pointed toward the corner of the service bay where his black-and-white border collie was napping on an old blanket. “That’s Babe. She never lets me out of her sight, and I wouldn’t want her to get hurt trying to follow us on foot.” He smiled benevolently, easing Marie’s mind.
She looked down and saw an eager expression on the little girl’s face. “Patty loves animals. She’s always asking for a pet. I’m sure she’d love to meet Babe. Wouldn’t you, honey?”
“Yeah!”
“I thought so. All right. We’ll accept a ride that far. And thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Just give me a sec to tell the boss where I’m going. I’ll be right back.”
Marie reached her free hand toward him, barely touching his sleeve to stop him. “One more thing,” she said soberly, quietly. “I need to ask a favor.”
“Sure. What?”
“If anyone should come by looking for us, promise me you won’t tell them where we are?”
“Why not? What’d you do, rob a bank?”
She frowned. “That’s not funny. Will you do as I ask, or not?”
“Of course,” Seth said with a casual shrug. “I don’t even know your name so I can hardly blab all your secrets, can I?”
“It’s Marie. Marie Smith. And this is Patty.”
“Pleased to meet you, ma’am. Pick out whatever luggage you’ll need from your car and go wait by that green pickup truck over there. Babe and I’ll join you in a minute.”
As he hurried away, Marie felt Patty’s tug on her hand. When she looked down, she saw the child’s lips pressed into a thin, thoughtful line. “What, honey?”
“You did it again, Mama.”
“I know I did. And I’m sorry to be setting such a bad example for you, but sometimes grown-ups have to make up stories.”
“Why?”
“To keep our wonderful children safe,” Marie said. “Someday, when you’re older, I’ll explain everything. I promise.”
“’Cause that man’s a stranger?” Patty asked.
“That’s right. He is a stranger. And you know how I’ve warned you not to talk to strangers.”
“But you talked to him.”
“Only because I had no other choice,” Marie said.
“I think he’s nice. And his dog is real pretty,” the child said with a smile. “Maybe if I’m good, he’ll let me play with her.”
“Don’t count on it. We aren’t going to stay here one minute longer than we absolutely have to. As soon as our car is running again, we’re leaving.”
“Aw, Mama. I like it here.”
“Why?”
“I dunno. ’Cause everybody’s friendly?”
As Marie scanned the almost deserted street, looking for evidence of another nemesis, she saw nothing but a peaceful place of safety. It was future hidden dangers that she knew she must fear. If she allowed herself to be lulled into unquestioning acceptance of the rural Ozark town and didn’t remain alert, she’d be an easy target. And so would Patty. That must never happen.
The white truck cruised slowly along the stretch of highway that passed through Serenity. Its driver peered out the windshield. He didn’t know what could have happened to the Parnell woman. He’d been so sure he’d find her car broken down along the road because of the way he’d doctored her fuel tank that he hadn’t felt it was necessary to actually keep her in sight. Now it looked as if he’d miscalculated.
Not that he wouldn’t eventually pick up her trail again, he told himself. He’d better. His partners did not take kindly to failure.
There was a lot more at stake here than just lives, too, he added. Roy had made off with enough money to make anybody drool. Even if he hadn’t passed the cash to his old girlfriend for safekeeping, they figured to use the kid as a bargaining tool. Old Roy didn’t have much that he cared about except his little girl. Once they got their hands on her, they knew he’d reveal where he’d hidden the ransom money.
The driver smiled to himself. And then they’d kill him. With pleasure.
Seth delivered his passengers to the redbrick, Hilltop Motel, followed them into the small, sparsely furnished lobby and lingered near the front desk to see if the woman produced a credit card. She didn’t.
The clerk looked concerned. “I’m sorry, ma’am. We prefer you pay by charge card.”
“All I have is cash,” Marie said. “Surely, you don’t mind taking real money.”
“Well, I don’t know. Most people…”
Seth spoke up. “It’s okay, Clarence. We have her car down at the station. She’s not going anywhere till it’s fixed. And I promise to give you time to count the towels before I let her leave town.”
“If you say so, that’s good enough for me,” the clerk replied with a smile. He programmed a key card and handed it to Marie. “Your room is around back, by the pool. Ground floor. I trust that’s satisfactory.”
She nodded and managed to return his grin. “That will be fine, thanks.”
“Can I hug the dog goodbye?” Patty asked her.
“That’s up to Mr. Whitfield.”
“How about we both walk you to your door?” Seth suggested. “I need to deliver your suitcases for you, anyway.”
He could tell by the reluctance in the woman’s movements that she wasn’t keen on letting him help, so he gave her no options. As soon as they left the office, he whistled to his dog and swung the heavy bags out of the back of the truck.
Marie was crouching to join her daughter in petting the joyful border collie when she suddenly froze in that position.
Seth followed her line of sight to the street. There was nothing about the passing traffic that he saw as threatening, but the woman sure seemed to.
He paused. “Are you okay?”
“Fine. Fine,” she answered, grabbing the child’s hand and hurrying her around the side of the motel building.
Babe bounded along beside her new playmate and Seth followed. As soon as Marie had unlocked the door, the dog ran into the room ahead of everyone, much to Patty’s delight.
“Look, Mama! She wants to stay and play with me.”
“Well, she can’t.” Marie practically yanked her bag from Seth’s grip. “Thank you for your help.”
He bowed slightly and smiled, placing Patty’s smaller suitcase at the foot of the closest bed before backing toward the open door. “My pleasure. C’mon, Babe. I think we’ve overstayed our welcome.”
When the door slammed behind him, he was certain he heard the deadbolt click into place, too. Something had sure spooked Marie, although he had no idea what.
Sauntering back to his truck, he motioned to the dog to jump in ahead of him, then scanned the street as he pulled out of the driveway. There were more pickups passing than there were cars, which was normal for a place like Serenity. A slow delivery van was partially blocking traffic halfway up the block. The driver was probably lost, which was not unusual either, since so many of the outlying streets were unmarked, dirt roads.
When Seth had eased up even with the idling van, he leaned across his truck seat, past Babe, to peer at the driver. “Can I help you?”
The man’s “No” was followed by a curse that caused Seth to recoil. Folks in the South were so well known for their amiability that this kind of response stood out like a red flag. If the stranger truly was an innocent delivery man, there was no earthly reason why he should act so inhospitably.
Pulling ahead and back into the line of traffic, Seth raced for the service station. He wasn’t sure that any of this pertained to Marie, but he wasn’t about to take the chance that it might. Something had frightened her when she’d stared at the street a few minutes ago, and as far as he could tell, there were no strangers in the area except the foul-mouthed guy in the delivery truck.
Therefore, Seth was going to do all he could to hide her car from prying eyes until he found out exactly what was going on.
And he was going to find out.
One way or another.
Marie was beside herself. She immediately drew the heavy, maroon drapes together and peeked through a thin slit where they met in the center of the motel room window.
Had the van’s driver spied her? She didn’t think so. But what about her car? Although it was parked inside the repair shop for the present, Seth would probably move it out of the way until he was able to get the necessary replacement parts. If he did so, the man in the white van would surely spot it. And then it would only be a matter of time before Roy’s enemies were able to track her down.
Hands trembling, she picked up the thin local phone book and looked up the number of the garage. She didn’t want to involve Seth in her problems but saw no alternative.
The pleasant-sounding man who answered the telephone quickly put the mechanic on the line when Marie requested to speak with him.
“Where is my car?” she blurted.
“Marie? I mean, Mrs. Smith?”
“Yes. Where did you put my car?”
“I left it inside,” he answered calmly. “Where nobody can see it if they drive by.”
She was taken aback. “You did? Why?”
“Beats me. It just seemed like the best thing to do. Would you care to tell me what’s going on?”
“Not really.”
“I didn’t think so.”
“It’s better if you don’t know.”
“Is it? That remains to be seen. How can I help you if you won’t confide in me?”
“All you have to do is keep my car out of sight, like you already have, and everything will be fine,” she said.
“What are you afraid of?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t you know it’s a sin to lie?” he asked.
“That’s what Patty keeps telling me.”
She heard him chuckle before he said, “Smart kid. What was your response to that?”
“I told her it was probably okay if it was absolutely necessary.”
“Can’t argue with you there, although I imagine my pastor would,” Seth said. “Look, I’ll be off duty in a couple of hours. How about if I stop by and pick you both up for supper? I know a couple of great little places to eat. Patty likes pizza, right?”
“We aren’t going anywhere with you,” Marie said flatly. “We don’t even know you.”
“Do you want your car left in the garage or shall I move it outside, tonight?”
“That’s blackmail.” She didn’t want to give in to his demands but saw no easy way to avoid capitulating.
“Not exactly. Let’s just call it Southern hospitality in an extreme form. Be ready at seven. I’ll pull around back, and you won’t have to show your face until we’re out of town if you don’t want to.”
“We’re leaving town?”
“Just as far as Gumption. It’s about five miles away.”
“All right,” she said, although every instinct told her to stand her ground. “But the dog comes, too. I want an impartial chaperone.”
Seth’s resulting laugh sounded warm and not at all threatening. “It’s a deal. Babe loves pizza almost as much as I do. And it’s going to be a warm evening. We can make it a picnic in the park—totally public—if you’re worried about being alone with me.”
“I’m a lot more worried about being out in public, with or without you,” Marie admitted ruefully. “We’ll be waiting.”
THREE
Marie had showered, washed and dried her hair and changed into lightweight slacks and a casual top long before it was time for Seth to pick them up. It had occurred to her that perhaps it would be wise for both her and Patty to dye or bleach their hair, but she couldn’t bring herself to alter the child’s beautiful, natural coloring.
Besides, the way she saw it, as long as they were driving that old blue car of hers, there was no way a changed physical appearance was going to help much. What she needed to do was ditch the car, the way pursued victims always did in the movies. Unfortunately, she had barely enough cash to continue running away, let alone buy a different vehicle.
Another problem was Patty’s insistence that her mother always tell the absolute truth in spite of the danger of doing so. Smiling, Marie recalled being the same kind of stubborn, exasperating child she was now raising. Except in her case, her mother had simply given up. And her father? He had been gone so much that, although Marie had an overall impression of his being rather handsome and suave, she could barely envision his face.
Marie promised herself that she was not going to make that kind of mistake in regard to Patty. With the blessing of having a child came serious responsibility, not only for that child’s physical needs but for the spiritual, as well.
A knock on the door brought her back to the present and made her heart leap. Instead of answering verbally, she hurried to peer out the peephole.
It was Seth. He had picked up Babe and was moving the dog’s foreleg so that it looked as if she was waving hello.
Relieved, Marie opened the door. “Hi. You’re early.”
“I figured you two might be hungry, so I hurried,” he said with a smile. The minute he released the dog, she bounded through the door and jumped onto the bed, trying to kiss her new buddy.
Giggling, Patty pushed her away and ran back to the door, with Babe in pursuit.
Marie gathered up her purse and jackets for her and Patty in case the evening turned chilly, made sure she had her key card and closed the door behind them before remarking, “You clean up pretty nicely, mister.”
“Thanks. These are my best jeans and a new shirt. Are you surprised?”
“I wasn’t referring to your clothes,” she explained, feeling her cheeks warming. “I just didn’t think you’d ever be able to get all that grease off your hands.”
“Sandpaper does it every time,” he quipped.
She arched an eyebrow and played along. “Must be painful.”
“Not if I use a fine-enough grain.”
The deadpan way he delivered the silly explanation made Marie laugh. She’d had serious misgivings about going anywhere with Seth—or with anyone else—and it helped to find humor in the situation. There had certainly been little to laugh about in the past few days.
“How about if I hold Patty on my lap and we let Babe have the window seat?” she suggested as Seth opened the truck door for her.
“Sorry. Seat belts for everybody. It’s a rule of mine.”
“We didn’t use belts when you drove us up here,” Marie argued.
“No, and we should have.” He pointed into the truck. “I took the liberty of pulling Patty’s booster seat out of your car. She can sit in the middle.” He began to grin. “I suppose you could hold Babe on your lap if you want, but you’re liable to get covered with dog hair if you try it.”
“Then I guess I should have worn something black and white instead of light blue,” Marie said, making a face. “All right. You win. I’ll sit by the door and use my seat belt.”
“Good decision. We don’t want to set a bad example for your little girl.” He was grinning. “I’ll fasten Babe in the truck bed so she won’t fall out and we’ll have more room up front for people.”
“Really, I…”
“I know. You want to hide behind the dog.”
Marie was astounded that he’d deduced the truth so easily. “Well…”
“Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me, whatever it is. Here.” He held out a dark blue ball cap similar to the one he’d been wearing when she’d first seen him. “It’s brand-new. No grease or anything on it, honest. Tuck your hair underneath, pull down the brim to shade your face, and your own mother wouldn’t recognize you.”
“That’s the truth,” Marie replied, accepting the cap and doing as he’d suggested. “The color almost matches my jacket.”
“I suppose I should say I did that on purpose, but to be perfectly honest it was accidental.”
As Patty crawled into the booster seat, Marie held her side of the seat belt while Seth pulled the opposite end into place.
When their hands brushed, she jerked away. His fingers had felt a bit calloused, yet warm and gentle at the same time. The mystery was, why had she noticed? After all, she had sworn off men for good, thanks to Roy, and nothing had happened since then to make her change her mind. Perhaps someday she’d feel free to seek happiness other than in her role as Patty’s mother, but right now she had plenty of problems without inviting more.
She took her place beside the little girl, drew her own belt over her shoulder and snapped it shut. It would pay her to remember that this trip to the pizza parlor was not her idea. She had been coerced into going, and she was not, repeat not, going to enjoy herself.
Glancing sidelong at Seth, she was able to observe him without being too obvious. He looked awfully pleased, didn’t he? That was off-putting. Distressing. When he had first insisted on this trip, she had assumed he was simply playing a macho role. Now that she’d had a chance to judge his reactions more closely, however, she was beginning to wonder if there was a deeper reason behind his behavior.
Of course, he might just be a nice, friendly guy who felt sorry for a stranded mother and daughter, Marie thought.
She huffed quietly. Yeah, right. And Roy Jenkins was just a misunderstood bad boy who had accidentally gone afoul of the law. If she had learned anything from her lonely childhood and disastrous time with Roy, it was that men could not be trusted or relied upon. Especially not good-looking, seemingly nice ones.
Seth drove toward Gumption on back roads, careful to avoid what little late evening traffic there was on a week night. His adult passenger had scooted down in her seat and was hiding her face with her raised hand. Therefore, as he pulled up to the pizza parlor, he chose a parking place as far away from the rest of the cars as possible.
“Here we are. How’s this?” he asked, taking care to keep his tone light and easygoing.
“Fine. It doesn’t look crowded at all.”
“That’s because this is early in the week. Friday and Saturday nights are much busier. Some places around here don’t even stay open in the evenings except on those two days.”
“Wow. That’s amazing. Back home the restaurants are busy all the time.”
Seth circled the truck to open her door for her. “And where would that be?” he asked nonchalantly.
“Alaska,” Marie quipped. “Fairbanks.”
Patty’s eyes widened. “Mama…”
She smiled. “I know, I know, honey. It’s not true. It was just a joke, okay?”
Seth didn’t think the child looked convinced, but he let the moment pass. Sooner or later, one of them would slip and reveal the truth. Until that happened, he couldn’t let down his guard for an instant. His heart told him that Marie and her little girl were innocent of any wrongdoing, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy him. He’d been careless in the past, and it had cost him dearly. This time, he was determined to root out the truth before he permitted “Mrs. Smith” to leave Serenity.
Marie had decided that it would be best to remain inside the restaurant to eat, rather than take their meal to the city park, as Seth had suggested earlier. She was hungry and the pizza smelled delicious, but she was so nervous that she could hardly choke it down.
Worse, Seth and Patty were chatting away and seemed to be becoming fast friends. The child’s trusting nature was very worrisome, especially where that enigmatic man was concerned. On the surface, he seemed perfectly normal, yet there was something about him that made Marie’s nerves tingle with unexplained warning.
She had tried repeatedly to pray for the Lord’s guidance and had found it impossible to keep her mind from wandering with unanswered questions and baffling suspicions. Had she been so traumatized that she was unable to trust even the most casual acquaintance? Or was God warning her to stay alert despite a seemingly innocent situation?
Either alternative was possible, she finally decided. And until her car was repaired and she was free to continue her flight, there wasn’t a thing she could do about it except cope as best she knew how.
“You’re not eating much,” Seth remarked with a smile.
“I’m not all that hungry, I guess.”
“Well, Patty and I are,” he replied. “We’re saving our crusts for Babe. See?”
“I’m sure she’ll enjoy them,” Marie said, glancing at her daughter with a wistful smile. “We probably should be getting back to the motel. Patty’s up way past her usual bedtime.”
Seth stifled a yawn. “Yeah. So am I. But then, I get up at dawn and work hard all day, so I need my beauty sleep.”
“Where do you live?” Marie asked. “In Serenity?”
“Sort of. I have a place out in the country, near Heart. It used to be a bustling town, even after Serenity was named the county seat back in the 1800s. Later, as people got cars and began to move around more easily, the heart of Heart kind of withered and died.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Times change. Places change. It’s just the way things are.” He paused and Marie noticed how seriously he was looking at her before he added, “Take you and Patty, for instance. I get the idea that you’re not going back to wherever you came from.”
“Really? Why would you think that?”
“Mainly because you have so much stuff crammed into your car. It looks more like you’re making a permanent move than taking a simple vacation.”
“Maybe.” She stared at her half-eaten slice of pizza rather than look at him and take the chance he could read her thoughts. “I haven’t decided.”
“What made you head this way?” Seth asked quietly.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. It seemed sensible.”
“Yes. Especially if you’re running away from someone or something down south.”
Her head snapped up, her gaze locking with his. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really? Well, if it’s not that, then why are you so afraid of being seen? And why did you practically beg me to hide your car while it’s in the garage?”
“I did no such thing.”
His grin was lopsided and his eyes bored into hers as if he was positive he was right and was gloating about it.
“Don’t look so smug,” she added. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“No, I don’t. But I’d like to. If I’m going to stash your car for you, don’t you think you owe me an explanation for why it needs to be kept out of sight?”
“Absolutely not.”
Seth’s eyebrows arched. “Okay. But if I had some idea of why you were in such a hurry to leave town, I might be more inclined to hurry the repairs.”
“Are you threatening me?”
With a nonchalant shake of his head he shrugged off her question. “Not in the least. I already told you it might take a few days to get the parts. Remember?”
“Yes, but now that I think about it, you didn’t say you’d install them right away. Promise me you will.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m asking you to. And because there’s no reason why you shouldn’t.” Her eyes narrowed. “Is there?”
“Of course not. We at Serenity Repair are always prompt and efficient. You can ask anybody.”
“I’d rather ask you. Will you do the work in a timely manner, or are you going to stall?”
“Now, why would I do that?” he asked, sobering and staring back at her as if he had suddenly discovered she had three heads or something equally as bizarre.
Marie’s lips were pressed into a thin line. “I can see no reason why you should,” she answered. “I’m not looking for romance or a meal ticket, so if you’re trying to court me, you can forget it.”
When he chuckled, she was taken aback.
“Court you? Lady, that’s the last thing on my mind.”
“Then why take us out to eat? And why all the questions?”
“Maybe I’m just trying to be friendly.”
She huffed in self-derision. “In that case, I apologize for misjudging you. I’m not used to men paying me this much attention for no reason. Just so you understand, a pizza and a little repair work on my car won’t get you anywhere with me.”
Seth laughed again, this time more loudly and with evident glee.
“I hardly think it’s that funny,” Marie insisted, scowling across the table at him.
He managed to get control of his high humor and reduce his laughter to a wide grin before he said, “Forgive me. If you knew what I’ve been thinking you’d probably be laughing, too.”
“Are you going to tell me?”
“Nope,” Seth said, still smiling. “You’ll just have to trust me the way you want me to trust you. I have no amorous intentions. I promise.”
She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or not, considering the fact that he was practically insisting he didn’t find her attractive.
Well, that was what she had wanted, wasn’t it? And since she’d had the opportunity to state her views implicitly, there was no way he could misconstrue her reasons for agreeing to let him treat her to supper.
Still, there was something odd about the man, a hidden part of his psyche she’d only glimpsed in an occasional unguarded instant that came and went in a flash. Whatever that ominous-feeling insight was, it was too brief for her to interpret.
Seth’s constant probing of her background was nevertheless unsettling. Granted, he might be no more than an interested bystander, yet he asked questions like a professional inquisitor, never missing the opportunity to slip in another query and never taking his eyes off her face when she answered. It was almost as if he knew more than he was letting on.
Her breath caught. There was no way this man could be in cahoots with the people who were pursuing her, was there? Of course not. He might be nosey, but he wasn’t a dangerous criminal the way those other men were. No one could possibly have known she’d break down in Serenity and end up stopping at that very garage for assistance.
She shivered as more of the truth settled in her befuddled brain. If someone had sabotaged her car, as Seth surmised, they had known she would have car trouble. It was only by the grace of God, literally, that she had made it as far as Serenity and had managed to find temporary sanctuary.
Peering at Seth from beneath the brim of her cap, she studied him carefully. There was a hard edge to his personality, an undefined cautiousness, a strength that lay behind those smoky blue eyes no matter how wide his smile was or how casual his conversation might be.
Was she imagining things because she was so tense? she wondered. Or was the good Lord enabling her to glimpse reality in order to know how best to proceed?
She had trusted Roy once, and look where that had gotten her. She’d be twice the fool if she placed her future in the hands of a stranger like Seth. Then again, he did seem to care what happened to her, or he wouldn’t have taken it upon himself to keep her car where it couldn’t be seen in passing.
The fact that he had done that, before she had asked, was the biggest puzzle of all. It was as if he had been on his guard all along.
That was why she had felt such an immediate affinity for him, she concluded, shocked by the turn her thoughts had taken.
Her eyes widened and she stared across the table. Of course. It was suddenly all too clear. Seth had empathized with her plight because he, too, was deathly afraid of someone or something.
FOUR
Roy’s head was spinning and his whole body throbbed from the beating he’d received. Drifting in and out of consciousness, he thought of Marie and his darling daughter. He must hold out long enough to allow them sufficient time to get away. If he was going to die—and he was pretty sure that he was—he wanted his death to be for a good cause.
He wished he’d given Marie some of the stolen ransom so she’d have had traveling money. But it was too late now. He would probably never see Patty again. That was his punishment for trying to double-cross his three partners in crime, for hiding the whole ransom and trying to make them believe he’d never collected it. How was he to know they’d had a cohort on the inside who knew the truth? If he had it to do over again…
Someone yanked his hair to raise his head. Through swollen eyes, Roy peered at Frank, the largest of his captors, while Earl stood back out of the fray, nervously cleaning his thick eyeglasses.
“You might as well spill it,” Frank said. “Al’s already closing in on your girlfriend and her brat. If you don’t want this same thing to happen to them, you’d better tell us what you and she did with our money.”
The portent of the beefy man’s words hit Roy in the gut like a sucker punch. It had never occurred to him that his former partners would think he actually had passed the ransom to Marie. His silence had not protected her, as he’d hoped; it had made her a target!
The only thing to do was confess, he reasoned. Even if they killed him as a result, at least it would call the wolves off his little girl and Marie.
Through split, bleeding lips he managed to croak, “I—I…”
His response apparently wasn’t fast or lucid enough to suit his abuser. Frank’s meaty hand smacked him on the temple. His head snapped back and he doubled over. Blackness encroached. Flashes of colored light obscured his already blurry vision.
Roy stayed conscious long enough to hear Frank begin to laugh while Earl’s squealing voice berated him for being so rough.
Then, picturing his darling little girl, Roy smiled, let go and sank into the peace of oblivion.
Seth was disappointed that his questioning of Marie had been so unproductive. He’d thought about trying again as he drove her back to the motel but had decided to back off and let the woman relax in the hope that that tactic would loosen her tongue. He had plenty of time. As long as her car was broken down, she wasn’t going to leave town before he was ready for her to go.
Marie entered her motel room, turned and blocked the door with her body, shielding her little girl and making it clear she did not intend to invite Seth in. “Thanks for the pizza,” she said flatly as she doubled the front sides of her lightweight, navy blue jacket across her body and held them in place like a shield.
“My pleasure.”
“About my car…”
“I told you I’d fix it and I will. Whoever dumped sawdust in your gas tank didn’t intend for you to get very far, you know. You’re lucky you made it to the station.”
He saw her shiver and grow pale. “I know. I’m so glad I didn’t stall along the highway.”
Nodding, Seth agreed. “Exactly. There are some pretty isolated stretches between here and the major cities like Little Rock or Memphis. You’d have been much more vulnerable if you’d broken down way out there.”
He watched as his statement sank in. Clearly, she was afraid. And given the circumstances of sabotage to her vehicle, that reaction made sense. What remained a mystery was why she was so frightened and what had driven her from her home in the first place.
“Well, good night,” Seth said, politely touching the brim of his cap. “Stop by the garage tomorrow afternoon. I should be able to give you an idea of the time frame for repairs by then.”
The look on her face was unreadable as she shut the door. Seth knew she was desperate to be on her way, and he didn’t intend to keep her in Serenity one minute more than necessary. But he wasn’t going to let her leave until he made sure that she wasn’t a plant sent there to unmask him.
Yes, his appearance had changed. And, yes, he had made a secure place for himself in the little town in the past three years. But that didn’t mean that his enemies had given up searching for him. It only meant that they had not yet found his trail.
Leaving the motel, he drove straight to his farmstead. As he pulled into the darkened yard, he carefully scanned the shadows before getting out of the truck. While he’d been at supper with the woman and child, he’d left his short-barreled .38 locked in the glove compartment instead of carrying it, as was his usual practice. Now, he stuck it into his belt.
No matter how much time passed, Seth was never totally at ease. Hunted men who got careless were the ones who died. There had been some dark days in his past when he’d almost wished for the solace of death, but his Christian faith had kept him from giving up. Rather than alienating him from God, as was sometimes the case during difficult times, his trials had brought him closer to the Almighty than ever before, and for that he was thankful. The way Seth saw it, if the Lord wasn’t ready to call him home, there must be a good reason.
He climbed out of the truck. Babe followed and ran her usual pattern of wide circles around the yard, sniffing and checking the territory. Seth had gotten her for a companion rather than a watchdog, but as it had turned out, she was both. If Babe indicated that the place was secure, that was good enough for him.
Slapping his leg and calling to her, he entered the house and flipped on the lights. It was late and he was tired, but he had some work to do on the computer before he’d be able to sleep.
It had been a long time since he’d checked in with his old acquaintances at Corp. Inc.—for very good reason. However, since he needed inside information on the woman calling herself Marie Smith and their database was the best place he knew of to get it, he’d make a one-time exception. As long as he routed his access through a couple of anonymizer sites and kept his query time short so no one had time to actively trace him, Seth didn’t see much threat to himself—or to her.
He brewed a cup of coffee and carried it from the large farm kitchen to the computer desk in his bedroom. His fingers hovered over the keyboard. Contact with those involved in his former life, even via false identities, held a risk, yes, but if that was the only way to find out what Marie was hiding, he’d have to chance it.
First, though, he’d try a search of common, open databases and see what those turned up. Smith was too generic to be useful but Parnell, the name he’d found on the car’s registration, might lead to some answers.
With Babe curled up at his feet, Seth checked the telephone listings for Louisiana and quickly located a Marie Parnell in Baton Rouge.
“Got her!” he said aloud, causing the dog to open one eye and blink up at him. Seth chuckled. “Sorry, girl. Didn’t mean to disturb you. This is turning out to be a lot easier than I’d thought.”
From there he checked local Louisiana newspapers online and found nothing of note. He did, however, see that crime was at its usual level and that law enforcement seemed to be struggling. In other words, everything was normal and other men like him were probably working undercover to do what the regular officials could not openly condone.
That conclusion brought his thoughts back to his former colleagues at Corp. Inc. They had access to a covert information network second to none. If there was anything about Marie Parnell that he should know, it would be found on that well-guarded database.
Seth cracked his knuckles, took a deep breath and started hiding his tracks through one site after another, eventually coming to the point where he could enter Corp. Inc.’s system through a “backdoor” by using the access code he’d been given before he’d gone into hiding.
It still worked! He was in. Seth’s eyes widened as the information about Marie appeared below her photograph. Not only was she tied to the disappearance of a known criminal named Roy Jenkins, but also she was suspected of having been involved in a kidnapping that had occurred several months before. The ransom had been paid and the victim released, but the perpetrators were still at large.
Seth sighed and sat back. “Well, well, Mrs. Smith,” he said softly. “What have you been up to?”
Marie hadn’t expected to sleep well that night and her expectations unfortunately had been fulfilled. Patty, on the other hand, slept like the carefree child she was and awoke full of energy and enthusiasm.
Choosing the most nondescript outfits she could put together, Marie dressed herself and Patty, added their jackets against the morning chill and went to the motel office.
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