Born Innocent (25 page)

When he stopped, she stared at him, stunned.

Then he said, “It’s no use. We have to go. Do you understand?”

Numbly, she nodded. Then she instructed in an expressionless voice, “Let go of me, please.”

He dropped his hands to his sides. As soon as he released her, she turned and went down the porch steps to the street where her car waited to take her back to Pine Bluff.

When she reached the car, she got in on the driver’s side and stared out the window, waiting for Joe, who’d stayed behind long enough to exchange a few more words with Beth Hyland and the man in the house.

Within minutes, he was beside her, pulling open her door. “I think I should drive,” he said.

She didn’t argue. She got out, handed him the keys and went around to the passenger side. She stared out the window some more as he started the car, pulled away from the curb and drove away.

“
Beth Hyland agreed not to call the police,” Joe volunteered some time later, after all the tricky interchanges were behind them and they were safely on course, headed along Highway 80 toward Sacramento.

“
She did?” Claire didn’t glance at him. She kept her gaze out the window on the dry, rolling hills and the faded-denim sky.

“
Yeah. I don’t think she really wanted to make trouble.”

“
Right. She’s a real sweetheart.”

“
I don’t know if I’d call her a sweetheart, ” he said. “But I don’t think she’ll call the police.”

“
I guess I should be grateful.” Claire knew she sounded petulant, but she went on, anyway. “Now Sheriff Dan won’t have to arrest me—again.”

Joe sighed. “Damn it, Claire. Let’s get something straight here. If anyone calls in another complaint on you, the sheriff will probably be forced to revoke your bail.”

Claire stared at him. She knew he was right, but she hadn’t really let herself think about that up till now. She reminded him, “You didn’t bother to point that out last night.”

“
I know.” He stared grimly at the road.

“
Why?”

“
Because you looked so damned pitiful when you heard we had to give up and go home. I thought it would be worth it, just to see you perk up a little. But my idea was that we’d just walk away if things got the least bit tense. I was sure Dan would never know we went back out asking questions after I swore we would quit. I didn’t count on you making a scene like that.” He gave her a quick, understanding glance. “Look. I know you’re as desperate as they come about now. And what you did back there, that crazy scene, I
do
understand the frustration that caused it. I also know I’m not blameless here. I
was
the one who pushed you to go on, even after I promised Dan we’d leave it alone. And I was also the one who led you to believe there wasn’t much Dan would do if someone else complained about you. But the truth is, Dan Brawley has stuck his neck out about as far as he can for you. You’ve got to realize that he could be forced to lock you up for good, if Wayne Leven—who runs things strictly by the book—hears what we’ve been doing. Do you want to go back to jail?”

Claire stared down at her lap, feeling ashamed of herself. “No. And I’m sorry, Joe.”

“
Don’t be sorry,” he said. “Just think first next time.”

“
Okay.”

For a moment, neither spoke. Then he said, “Listen. I’m sorry. About shaking you like that.”

She shrugged. “It’s okay. It got my attention. And right then, there wasn’t much else that would have done that.”

Claire truly wasn’t upset about the shaking he’d given her. It had shocked her at the time—as he’d intended. But it had been a carefully calculated move, and it had worked with a minimum of fuss. He’d done what he had to do, and he’d done it for her own sake.

She couldn’t fault him for it, and she didn’t. Ever since that day last week—Lord, had it only been a
week
ago when he’d come to warn her about Alan Henson?—he’d done everything he could for her. He’d proved himself the best friend she’d ever be likely to know. And then, when she couldn’t believe all he’d done for her, he’d done more.

He’d known that the trip to San Francisco would be futile, yet he’d undertaken it anyway, because she begged him to. She’d been so idiotically naive. She’d insisted on believing that some new piece of evidence might come to light if she were to wander around the Bay Area, asking the people Alan Henson had duped if they knew anything about his near-demise that they hadn’t bothered to tell the police.

Lord, she’d been a fool. A fool about everything. Thinking for all those years that the world was fair.

And then, actually believing that she could do something to help herself out of the trap that was slowly swallowing her alive.

A fool, yes. A naive, innocent fool. Born innocent—and too dewy-eyed to get wise.

Even now, when she should have learned her lesson about this pointless excursion, she couldn’t stop thinking about the people they’d never reached—the Radners and the man in Sausalito. And then there were all the ones like Beth Hyland, who had yelled at them, and refused to let them get near.

Oh, Lord, the truth was,
any
of those people might have done it—or hired someone else to do it.

Claire fisted her hands in her lap. She clenched them so tightly that her nails bit into her palms. She hated—
hated—
that they had learned nothing, that Joe had been right.

They hadn’t the resources or the clout of the police. Only blind luck might have given them something to go on from one of the people on the list. And luck had not been with

them.

She had wasted four days of her life and learned nothing. And they were days she could never get back, precious days, once-in-a-lifetime days that she could have spent at the ranch with Joe, forgetting her troubles instead of pursuing them.

And now the time had come to tell Joe about the baby. She was fresh out of excuses for keeping the truth from him. At first, she’d felt justified in not telling him because she herself hadn’t decided what she wanted to do. Then she’d held off because she didn’t want him to know until they’d finished their business in San Francisco.

Now the only reason she had for holding back was the selfish one: as soon as she told him, she would lose him. This new intimacy they shared would evaporate like a morning fog over San Francisco Bay.

Oh, he wouldn’t desert her, she knew that. Joe was a real man—even more of a man than he gave himself credit for being. He would stick by her. He would probably even insist that she marry him. Even though he’d told her both times she’d begged him to love her that he was never going to marry—that he didn’t believe in marriage, or in bringing children into a world like this one.

In this, her darkest time, he’d shown himself to be the best friend she’d ever known. And for that, he’d get a wife he didn’t want and a baby he hadn’t asked for. And if she went to prison, he’d have to make some hard choices about how to take care of that baby until her release....

“
Claire?”

She felt his quick glance. But when she looked, his eyes were focused on the road. “Umm?” She made herself face him, until he glanced her way again, and their eyes could meet.

Sweet heaven, had there ever been eyes like his? Or goodness, or strength like his?

Her love was a knife, turning in the deepest part of her. To love as she had always loved him,
would
always love him. And to know that as soon as she told him she was pregnant, he would ask her to be his wife—he would offer her the one, impossible, shining dream of her life. But not because he
wanted
to—because it would be his
duty
to.

He looked at the road again. “What’s the matter?”

Tell him,
her conscience instructed.
Tell him right now.

“
Claire?”

“
I...”

“
Yeah?”

“
I just...”

“
What?”

“
I...really don’t want to talk about it now.”
Coward,
her conscience coldly accused.

His eyes found her, then shifted back to the highway again, but he didn’t push her further. Instead he suggested, “Get the pillow from the back seat, why don’t you? Rest a little. We’ve got a good three hours until we reach home.”

Home,
she thought grimly.
Where we get to report to Sheriff Dan that we’ll be good from now on.

She said, “Yes, I think I will close my eyes for a while.”
The better to block out reality, my dear.
“
I didn’t get that much sleep last night.”

“
I noticed.”

Claire got the pillow and put the seat all the way back. Soon enough, the whisper of the spinning tires lulled her into a fitful sleep.

* * *

When they pulled up behind the courthouse, Sheriff Dan was waiting right there in the parking lot, sitting behind the wheel of his big white 4X4.

Claire knew he was waiting for her, that he’d hung around the parking lot in an attempt to catch her before she went inside and gave Wayne Leven the opportunity to ask what was going on. Right then, she understood that what Joe had said about Dan must have been true. The sheriff had stuck his neck out for her.

Dan Brawley made a big show of casually getting out of his truck. He hitched up his belt and strolled over to the car. He leaned in Claire’s open window.

“
How’re you doing, Short Stuff?”

“
Okay, Sheriff Dan.”

Dan tipped his Stetson at Joe. “Right on time, Joe.”

“
Just like I promised, Sheriff.”

Dan looked at Claire again. “Well, it’s good to see you back safe and sound.” He coughed then, as if trying to find the right way to say what was coming next. Then he plunged in. “Now, Claire. You know I hate to see you in this trouble...”

He looked so uncomfortable that she helped him. “Go ahead, Sheriff Dan. What is it?”

“
Well, it’s just that running off like that was not wise. And from now on, as long as you’re out of jail on bail, I want to be able to count on you to stay in the county, fair enough?” Claire nodded. Dan wanted a little more than a nod. “Can I have your word on that, Claire?”

Claire bit her lip, and then forced herself to promise. “Yes, Sheriff Dan. You have my word. I won’t leave the county again as long as I’m out of jail on bail.”

“
And you’ll stop trying to do my job for me.” His smile urged her to give up playing amateur sleuth—and to admit the futility of such foolishness. Claire thought it a
patronizing smile. She wanted to get angry, to shout at him that as long as she still had breath in her body, she wouldn’t stop trying to find out what really happened to Alan Henson— especially since the sheriff’s office of Excelsior County wasn’t trying at all anymore.

But instead, she forced herself to remember that he had put himself on the line for her in not revoking her bail immediately as soon as he learned she’d gone outside the county limits. Sheriff Dan was a good man with a job to do. Shouting at him wouldn’t accomplish any more than throwing herself against Beth Hyland’s locked door had done.

“
Well, Claire?” the sheriff prompted.

She nodded again. “Yes. All right. Next time I want to do police work, I’ll apply at the sheriff’s office for a job.”

Sheriff Dan seemed relieved. “That’s what I was hoping you’d say.” He looked across the seat at Joe. “And as for you, Joe—”

Joe cut him off with a shrug. “Hey, Sheriff. Last I heard, it’s a free country. Claire’s got some problems right now, so maybe you have a right to rein her in. But me, I’m just a guy with a curious mind. Is there a law against me asking people questions?”

The sheriff snorted. “Hell. I suppose not.”

“
Good,” Joe said.

“
Just...be careful.”

“
I will. And thanks. For...everything.”

“
It’s all right. Did you learn anything?”

“
Not a thing you don’t already know.”

‘ ‘
Would you tell me if you had?”

“
You bet.” Joe shifted Claire’s car into drive. “See you later, Sheriff.”

“
Good enough.” Dan Brawley stepped back from the car. “Stay out of trouble.”

“
We will.” Joe waved as they backed out of the parking space and slowly drove away.

Once they’d turned the corner of the courthouse, and the sheriff’s imposing form had disappeared from view, Claire slumped back into her seat and closed her eyes. “There,” she sighed. “That’s over with.” Then she thought of her mother and made herself sit up. “You’d better stop at the motel.”