Pretend You're Mine: A Small Town Love Story (43 page)

“I understand what you’re saying and we’ll cross that bridge when we have to. Now go get some coffee. Two sugars in mine.”

Luke got coffee and, because it was almost time for dinner, a pizza. The late afternoon sun glinted off of the small mounds of snow on Main Street. You couldn’t get more quintessential than Main Street in Benevolence at Christmas. Sunday, the caroling would start in the park near the Christmas tree and wind its way through the neighborhoods before ending at the fire station for hot chocolate and a toy and clothing drive. Balancing the cup carrier on top of the pizza box, Luke nodded a greeting to his high school math teacher and his wife on their way to the second-run theater. He waved hello to Sheila from Remo’s when she whistled at him from across the street.

No one was a stranger here, no matter how often he wished he could be. Walking down the idyllic street under the snowflake lights and garland strung over anything that would hold still gave residents the feeling that nothing bad could ever happen here.

But bad things did happen, even in Benevolence. Luke just hoped he could prevent this one.

When he pushed back into the station, he was greeted with a blast of warm air and silence. Alma, the sheriff’s wife and station office manager, had headed home for the day so Luke let himself in and walked back to Ty’s office.

Ty was just hanging up the phone when Luke walked in.

“Pizza, coffee, and I got to punch you in the face? This must be my lucky day.”

Luke dumped the pie on the desk and rubbed his jaw. “Yeah, about that.”

“What about that?”

Luke plucked his coffee from the carrier and sank into the chair. “I guess I owe you an apology for acting like an asshole.”

“Apology accepted.”

“Well that was easy.”

“We all do stupid things for the women we love.” Ty didn’t give him a chance to argue, he just plowed right on with his drawl. “And speaking of the woman you love, I got some information and I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

“What is it?”

“I found the case file on this Clive Perry. It was pretty bad. James had a houseful of kids who were all beaten, malnourished, and suffering from neglect. Harper lived with him for about eight weeks. According to the report, one night he came home drunk and started wailing on one of the younger ones, and Harper got the others out of the house to a neighbor’s and went back for the little one.”

Luke braced his hands against his knees.

“Anyway, there was a confrontation, and she put herself between him and kid and held steady until the neighbor’s husband busted in with a shotgun and got Perry cornered in the kitchen. Police showed up and Harper was pretty beat up. Broken arm, cuts and bruises. Took her to the hospital and found she had broken ribs from an earlier beating. She told them everything. Got him put away for twelve years.”

“She was just a kid.” Luke stood up to pace Ty’s miniscule office.

“I put in a call to the investigating officer. He’s retired now, but I got him at home. He gave me the name of a rookie cop who was on the scene. Seems she bonded with Harper and the two of them have testified at every one of his parole hearings.”

“Did you talk to her yet? Does she know Harper’s a target?”

“I have not. I was about to when you showed up with Dawson’s.” He eyed up the pizza box.

“Call first, eat later.”

“On it,” Ty nodded, picking up his desk phone. “While I’m dialing, here’s a little something to brighten your day.” He slid a printout across the desk.

Luke picked it up. It was a news story, from a year and a half ago, about a building fire in the city. The lead picture was Harper, covered in ash and soot, half carrying an elderly woman in her nightgown out of the flames.

Luke pinched the bridge of his nose as a stroke threatened behind his eyes. “Christ. She just told me she was home when the fire started. She didn’t say anything about dragging people out of the building.”

“Two people and one cat,” Ty said, covering the receiver.

Luke skimmed the story while Ty talked his way through a police station switchboard.

His brave, wild girl. Ready for any challenge. He wondered how she felt about Perry. Was she scared? She was probably planning something stupid like meeting him face to face.

Like hell she would. He’d make sure that she never had to face that monster again.

“Detective Rameson? This is Deputy Adler out of Benevolence —”

“No, she’s just fine, but she is the reason I’m calling. I’m here with a ... colleague,” he darted a look at Luke. “Do you mind if I put you on speaker phone? Great.” He stabbed a button on the phone and hung up the receiver.

“You there, detective?”

“I’m here,” her voice was clipped with a touch of Jersey. “What’s happening down in Benevolence?”

“Clive Perry. What kind of a threat is he going to be to Harper?”

Luke heard her sigh. “Thank freakin’ God she finally decided to tell someone. I’ve been on her for a year. ‘Yagotta have a plan,’ I keep telling her.”

Luke snorted. Harper with a plan.

“I can tell by that response that you know her pretty well then. You’re not the asshole who dumped her, are you? God, she’s got shitty taste in men.”

Ty cleared his throat. “I’m not, but my colleague is. He’s not so much an asshole as a dumbass.”

“You ask me, pretty often they’re one and the same,” Rameson said.

“Look, we just need to know if this Perry guy is going to come after her when he gets out,” Luke cut in.

“You read the letters?” she asked.

“I read them all. Ty here read enough to call you.”

“Here’s the deal. This Perry moron writes to her every couple of months since she hits eighteen. Everywhere she goes, he finds her and the letters start again. Always the same shit ‘You owe me, you’ll pay, blah blah blah.’ Good thing is, the letters didn’t play well for him in his parole hearings. Bad thing is, he never directly threatens her. No one’s gonna take him as a serious threat unless he gets more specific, know what I mean?”

“What’s your take on him?” Ty asked.

“I don’t know too much. I’ve kept tabs on him and the locals keep me up to date occasionally. Professional courtesy. Guy’s in his sixties and not the strapping, healthy, TV-commercial sixties. More like the ‘my liver’s failing and I smoke two packs a day’ sixties. But there’s something dark about this guy. My gut tells me he’s trouble, only I don’t got the proof. I need something on him that’ll get the key thrown away. I’m concerned we won’t have that something until he’s out and pulls some shit on Harper.”

“That’s not an option,” Luke growled.

“In this case, I agree with the dumbass. But I got nothing on the creep right now.”

Something shimmered at the edge of Luke’s consciousness and slowly started to take shape. “He’s in Sussex, right?” Luke asked.

“Yeah, been there his whole sentence.”

“Ty, where was Glenn serving time?”

“Son of a bitch.” Ty’s fingers flew over his keyboard. “Overcrowding in county and a repeat offender? Yeah.”

“You got something?”

“A few months back, a local guy awaiting trial in Sussex — assault and battery, domestic — gets out on bail and shows up at Harper’s house with a very large sharp knife and tries to tear the place apart. Harper and the girls took him down. We thought he was there for the girlfriend and the rest of them were just collateral.”

“God damn that girl. She never mentioned a B and E. You thinking he knew Perry?”

“I’m thinking we should have a talk with Glenn.”

“Mind if I tag along?” Rameson asked.

“Counting on it, detective,”

***

H
arper pulled the car over next to the curb and dropped her head against her seat. She closed her eyes and willed her heart rate to slow. The phone call from Melissa had rattled her when she was already feeling vulnerable.

When they met, Melissa was a rookie beat cop and Harper was a scared twelve-year-old. Academy-fresh Officer Rameson, with her immaculate uniform and scary perfect bun, had sealed their friendship with a hot chocolate and her straight out of Jersey accent.

Things were a little different now. Melissa had made detective in Baltimore a few years back and Harper was anything but a scared kid. But their dynamic hadn’t changed much. Melissa still looked out for her no matter how much the adult Harper protested. Together, they attended every parole hearing and testified, facing the monster. Clive Perry had never made parole.

In twelve years, he had laid nothing but his gaze on Harper. He witnessed her growing stronger while she watched his slow descent into frailty. He wasn’t a physical threat to her anymore, she felt sure of that. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t still do harm.

Would he target her, or someone she loved? Or was it all a game? Maybe he would decide to make the best of his freedom and ...

What? He was a bitter, warped old man. There was no remorse, no hope for the future. He would die having lived his entire life in hate and pain.

A life wasted.

Well, she wouldn’t waste hers. And she wouldn’t bring danger to the people she cared about. She would pick up and move on. Fremont wasn’t an option at this point. He could find her there and with her, Hannah.

Maybe she would head east. Find a cozy beach town and stay for a few months. It wasn’t much, but it was a plan. She wasn’t ready to go back to Joni’s yet. Harper eyed her gym bag on the passenger seat. She could hop on a treadmill at the gym until she was ready to laugh at everything.

A
run on the treadmill led to half an hour of circuit work and then a quick shower. By the time she got back to Joni’s, it was already dark and she was exhausted. Lights glowed through the frosted windows, beckoning her tired body.

Harper let herself in the front door and sniffed the air and followed her nose back to the kitchen. “What is that amazing smell?”

Joni looked up from the pot she was tending on the stove and grinned. “Oh, just my Grandma’s chicken corn soup with fresh biscuits. Grab a bowl,” she said pointing at the kitchen island where two soup bowls waited to be filled.

“If it tastes half as good as it smells, I might just cry.”

“That’s all right and then you can tell me how it was Luke delivering your groceries here and then moping around when he found out you weren’t here.”

“Oh my God, the groceries!” Harper clapped a hand to her forehead. “I walked right out without them!”

“Not to worry. They were delivered personally by Luke, who also dropped off your coat and some sweaters. He kept muttering about it being winter and you running around with no clothes.”

Harper sighed. “I just don’t understand him. How can he say he doesn’t love me and doesn’t want me around and then do all this?”

“He’s scared, Harper. I think you bring out feelings in him that are bigger than what he can handle.”

“I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse.”

“You can imagine how many different versions of the story I’ve already heard so I’m pretty anxious to hear yours. Luke was sporting a pretty nice bruise on his jaw.”

Harper covered her face with her hands. “I went to the gym and tried to run until it was funny, but I got too tired. So I’m still in the pissed off and embarrassed phase.”

“Well, why don’t you grab the bottle of wine in the fridge and we’ll drink until it’s all funny.”

Harper obliged and grabbed two wine glasses out of the cabinet. She filled them both and handed one to Joni before hugging her. “You’re the best, Joni. I really, really, really appreciate everything that you’ve done for me.”

Joni hugged her back, hard. “Oh honey, right back at ya. Now come on, let’s eat, drink, and be merry.”

They took their soup into the living room where a fire crackled in the fireplace and Harper filled Joni in on the grocery store incident. She left out the mention of Melissa’s phone call.

“They were throwing punches and slamming each other all over the cooler. There was glass and beer everywhere and they kept going. Thank goodness for Ty. He broke it up fast. Linc stopped right away, but Luke kept coming, so Ty punched him right in the face. And then we all had to do the walk of shame out of the cooler and face half the town.”

Harper pulled her feet up under her and spooned up more soup. “It was the first time I’d seen him since ... since.”

“And he finds you in Linc’s arms, smiling up at him. Oh that’s too good,” Joni snickered.

“He thought we were making out!”

“Honey, it’s better that he sees you in the arms of a drop-dead gorgeous fireman than moping around in your sweats with ‘I’ll shower next week’ hair.’”

“Excellent point.”

“He got to see exactly what he was pushing you into. A life without him.”

“It was so hard to see him. I just can’t look at him and not love him. Why can’t I just accept it and move on gracefully. You know, like an actual adult?”

Joni laughed into her wine. “Harper, I think you proved today that you’re handling it more maturely than he is. You didn’t throw a hissy fit that involved the police.”

“That’s true. Do you think he and Ty will make up? I feel like I caused a lot of trouble in the family today.”

Joni patted her leg. “They’re men. I’m sure they’ve already made up with beer and meat.”

“You are so wise when it comes to men. Do you think you’ll ever dip your toes back into that pool again?”

“It just so happens that I have a dinner date tomorrow night.”

“What?” Harper sat up so fast she almost bobbled her soup. “Who?”

“A gentleman named Frank Barry. I believe you may have met him.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“You and Angry Frank? How did that happen?”

“Well, a long time ago, Frank was my high school sweetheart. We only dated a short time, but it was memorable.”

“Are you the reason he never got married?” Harper gasped.

Joni waved it away. “I doubt that very much. But I am looking forward to dinner with him. I asked him, by the way. I ran into him at the diner when I was picking up lunch today.”

“Good for you! What are you going to wear?”

“Probably something warm since it’s so damn cold.”