Just a Memory (26 page)

"Don't you see? I couldn't get White to replace the door," Charlie insisted. He turned back to Carolyn. "I tried to pile up the costumes real gentle-like, but I tripped on them and my elbow came down on the front of the glass case. I'm
real
sorry about that. I left quick then so's I wouldn't get blood on them pretty things. I cut my elbow pretty good, see?" Charlie showed them the cut sleeve of his coat.

"Charlie!" Mavis said with alarm. "Did you have a doctor look at it?" Charlie assured her that he had.

The next half hour was spent listening to Charlie's answers to all their questions.

"Charlie, this is a long way from being straightened out, you know," Mac finally said. "After you give me a written statement down at the station, I'm going to release you into the custody of Ms. Ashton here. She's as reliable as they come. That okay with you, ma'am?"

Mavis nodded, still twisting a torn tissue in her hands. Carolyn felt relieved that Mac didn't arrest Charlie.

"Charlie, you have to tell her where you are all the time, and that had better be here in Lakehaven. I've got to see what charges are going to be pressed against you. Do you understand?"

Charlie said he did, and Mavis promised to keep an eye on him from now on. They left with Charlie's arm around Mavis, trying to comfort her. Charlie insisted he would drive her to the station and meet Mac there. He was busy telling Mavis everything would work out, and then they would leave for
Arizona
right after the holidays.

Carolyn had wanted to assure him that she would never press charges, but the look she got from Mac when she opened her mouth to speak had stopped her. It didn't stop her now they were alone together. "I think Charlie feels better for having admitted it. Maybe he'll sleep better now. He looked awful," she mused as she watched them leave.

"Yeah, I know what not being able to sleep can do to a man," Mac admitted, running his hand through his hair.

Carolyn thought he meant long hours of work. "What are you going to do now? About Charlie I mean?" She ignored the overall less-than-pleased look on Mac's face and looked out the window at the empty slot in the driveway. "I think it was real sweet of him to want to help me get a new door." She heard Mac's "
Hmph
" behind her and turned to him. "Oh, I know it was all illegal, but he never hurt anything. He only wanted to make it right for us–for Terri and me."

Still not a word from Mac. He was putting on his coat and pulling his keys from his pocket.

"I always wondered why nothing was taken," she added weakly.

No answer. Mac stood there scraping his fingernail along one of his keys as if to remove a speck of dirt.

"Okay, he shouldn't have done it," Carolyn said in a louder rush. "But isn't there something you can do without charging Charlie and putting that sweet old man in jail?"

Mac sighed and raised his gaze to meet hers. He spoke softly but firmly. "Charlie broke the law." She started to object, but his raised hand didn't even allow her to begin. "I have to contact the landlord. There's a chance that if Charlie makes restitution and nobody presses charges…" He shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, I won't press charges. I wanted to tell Charlie, but you scowled at me."

He studied her face for a minute. "Maybe you should think about it a little longer. He did break the law, trying to take matters into his own hands. Where would this country be if everyone tried to do that?" Mac stepped around the desk, and with his hands on each side of her waist he pulled her against him. "I'll go see what I can do."

Carolyn knew he would kiss her and she wanted him to. She had wanted to kiss him since she walked into his office.

"Mm, peppermint." Mac chuckled, and his eyes sparkled like silver. "Kissing me back like that isn't conducive to my going to the station and getting Charlie's statement."

"Well, I guess I'll have to stop kissing you then." She moved her hands from the back of his head to his chest, but didn't push away one little bit. "Mavis and Charlie did look so sweet together. I really hope there's something you can do."

Then it was her turn to stop him when he started to object. She didn't let him get in a word.

"I understand what you have to do, Mac, honestly I do. But Mavis needs someone like Charlie. A real chance at happiness with someone later in life doesn't happen often. I could never be the one to spoil it for them."

She realized her words could refer to herself too. Of course, she wasn't that old, but was there a chance for her to find happiness with Mac? Or was she setting herself up for more pain when he left? "It would hurt even more to lose a chance at happiness at that point."

"Yeah, healing takes a lot longer when you're older," he said, slumping his injured shoulder a little. "But you can appreciate more what you have while you have it." He kissed her gently. "I'll do what I can for Charlie." He turned to leave and stopped. "Oh, I wanted to tell you that I have to go to a sentencing in
Albany
that has been set for Wednesday. I'll drive up Tuesday and I should be back Saturday."

"You won't be in Lakehaven for Thanksgiving?" she asked, trying to hide her disappointment.

He shook his head. "As long as I'm up there, I thought I'd make the rounds and see how things are going without me. And the doc wants to take a look at my shoulder Friday morning."

Carolyn nodded. "Sure. I understand."

They made arrangements to have dinner together with Terri that evening. The disappointment inside her was building because she'd hoped to share Thanksgiving dinner with him. She was glad she hadn't mentioned it to Terri yet. When was she going to learn? She shouldn't build any expectations.

"See you for dinner then," she said, hoping her voice sounded light.

Carolyn watched him leave the shop, wishing she could do something more. She wanted to help Charlie, but most of all she wanted to help Mac. He had something gnawing at him. It was evident each time he referred to his previous job and trying to remember something about one of his cases. Maybe the trial being resolved would settle matters for him.

It might help if he talked about it to her, but he never did. He didn't seem to want to share that part of his life with her. She would be wise to remember there was a great deal she didn't know about Mac and probably never would.

She should remember what she did know: he was going to be leaving town as soon as a permanent Chief of Police was found.

Carolyn slid into her coat to go get Terri from Judy's. She turned her thoughts to the coming week without Mac. Thursday her shop was closed for Thanksgiving, but Friday and Saturday were the traditional starting days of the Christmas shopping season that she couldn't miss. She locked up the store and headed for her car, thinking of what else she had to do to keep herself busy. There was plenty.

The completed dolls for the charity Christmas party were coming in. Each fall anyone who wanted to dress a doll to give away to needy kids picked up the doll, made the clothes to fit, and then brought it to her store when finished. She'd volunteered every year to pack them each back into its box and see that they all got delivered to the community party where Santa handed them out.

Carolyn had a lot of work ahead of her and she was glad. She hoped she would be so busy she would not miss Mac while he was gone from Lakehaven.

Fat chance.

She missed him already, and he'd only gone across town to his office.

Chapter Ten

Mac attended the sentencing and spent a couple of nights out with men he'd worked with over the years. Most of the predominantly male unit were not married, and for many the Thanksgiving holiday was just like any other day except for the better ball games on television. He joined them for the casual occasion, but for Mac, nothing felt the same as before he had left.

At headquarters Mac got the friendly slaps on the back, gentled by consideration for his shoulder after the first one made him wince. The men asked questions reflecting their concern about how he was doing, but he somehow felt as if he'd become a stranger, an outsider to the group.

"Macdonald, is that the back of your ugly head I see?"

Mac turned to see Bob Morris entering the room behind him. His hair was bleached a lighter color than Mac had ever seen it though all the men knew the color was never his own. "Yeah. I'm just slumming," Mac announced, forcing a grin as they shook hands.

"How's it going?" Morris asked. "Where ya been hiding?"

"Hey, what can I say? I'm working in a quiet little town for the time being. Not much happens," Mac said with a non-committal shrug.

"That so? How's your head? Hey, some of the guys have big bucks riding on when you get your memory back." He laughed, but no one else joined in.

Mac felt as if he'd taken a physical blow. Had they all made bets on whether his memory would return? He looked from Morris to the other men in the room. Some concern they showed.

One of the men cleared his throat and walked over to Morris. "Here's that report you wanted to see," he mumbled before beating it back to his desk.

Morris thanked him. "Well, I gotta go. Take 'er easy, Mac."

"Yeah. Sure," Mac responded. "You too." He looked around at the other men again, but not one made eye contact with him. They all seemed hard at work. Mac felt as unwanted as a fly sitting in the middle of a bowl of stew.

He didn't belong here anymore. What surprised him was not the fact he felt like an alien, but that he didn't feel upset about it. He was surprised he actually felt comfortable with the fact it was time to move on to do something new with his life.

What choice did he have? That's what the doctor had told him to do, too. With every shot of pain the doctor's tests had put him through that morning, he was finally willing to face the fact his shoulder would never be strong enough to pass the rigorous physical for the special force again. He still hated the idea that he would never be one hundred percent his old self again.

"I've got to send an updated report about you to the director," the doctor had told him.

"Yeah," Mac had said, knowing the report would trigger his reassignment from the special force.

"I'm sorry," the doctor added.

Mac could do nothing but nod as his mind raced to consider the options open to him. When he got back to Lakehaven, he would tell Sandi to get the owners to make up their mind on the house on the lake. He hoped they would sell it to him. On second thought, he wouldn't wait until he got back to talk to her, and he would do anything he could to get them to sell. He stopped at the first pay phone he found and called Sandi long distance.

"You can move in as soon as you get back to Lakehaven," she told him. "They'll rent it to you until arrangements can be made for you to buy it."

Mac felt elated. Sandi had arranged everything. After he learned all the details from her, he wasted no time calling the storage warehouse holding his furniture from his old apartment. He arranged for everything to be delivered to the lake house the following week.

Until that could be accomplished, he would sleep on the floor. If he could spend all night sitting in a car on a stakeout, he could sleep on those deeply carpeted floors with no problem at all.

When he bought new bedroom furniture for the lake house, he wanted Carolyn to help him pick it out. He would ask her first thing when he got back.

Then, once he was set up in his home on the lake, he could figure out what to do next with his life.