QR Code Killer (4 page)

The crew would be packing up tomorrow and
moving out the next day. Erik wasn’t sure he was ready to move on.
There was something peaceful here that whispered to his soul,
tugging at him to stay a while longer. He wondered if he could find
some other work in the area until he was ready to move on.

“What do you think, Boone? Should we go or
stay?” Erik asked, bending down to rub the dog on his head, where
he panted in the shade made by Erik’s pickup. Getting a plastic
bowl out of the pickup bed, Erik took a bottle of water out of a
cooler and poured some in the bowl then set it in front of the dog.
Giving him a look of appreciation, the dog lapped at the water
before licking Erik’s hand.

“You’re welcome, buddy.” Erik scratched the
dog behind his ears and patted his back. “What do you think? Go or
stay?”

The dog barked twice.

“Stay?”

The dog barked again and wagged his
tail.

“Okay, stay it is.” Erik smiled. Now he’d
just have to find another job and somewhere to live beyond the
cheap motel where they had been staying. It was fine for a few
weeks, but not somewhere he wanted to be on a long-term basis.

The crew was just finishing up their work
for the day, when Zach drove up the hill and surveyed the project.
He spoke with the manager for a few minutes before walking over to
Erik. They had talked several times the past few weeks and Erik
genuinely liked Zach and his dad. They were good, honest
people.

“Hey,” Erik said, grasping the hand Zach
extended to him. “What do you think?”

“It really changes the landscape, doesn’t
it,” Zach said, looking at the row of wind turbines on the
ridgeline.

“That it does,” Erik said studying the
altered landscape. “Hard to miss these.”

Zach laughed then turned a more serious look
to Erik. “Say, Dad and I are looking for some extra help this
summer, through wheat harvest. Is that something you might be
interested in?”

Erik couldn’t believe the perfect timing of
Zach’s question. Relaxing his stance, he smiled. “I would be
interested. In fact, I just made the decision this afternoon to see
if I could find another job here in the area. Your Walla Walla
Valley has grown on me and I’m not quite ready to leave it
behind.”

Zach grinned. “Well, that’s great to hear. I
know from what you’ve said, you have farming experience and you
seem like an upright kind of guy. If you don’t mind, we’ll do a
quick background check, have you fill out a brief employment form
and be ready to go. The position includes room and board and you
know we don’t mind having Boone around. He gets along great with
Rose.”

Erik nodded, thinking of the way the two
dogs liked to play together. He was surprised Rose had been so
accepting of a strange dog on her place, but she and Boone seemed
to be in puppy love.

“That sounds just fine.”

Zach studied Erik. He knew Erik was running
from his past, but the guy was well-spoken, hardworking, and the
project manager couldn’t stop raving about what an asset he had
been to the crew. With his sister coming home for the summer, Zach
knew he’d have his hands full and they were really going to need
some extra help. Despite his quiet nature, Zach trusted Erik. His
gut feeling was that Erik was a good guy and would be a great help
to them for the summer.

“If you want to swing by the house on your
way out, we can get the paper work out of the way. Are you
available to start tomorrow?”

“Absolutely,” Erik said, looking forward to
moving out of the motel and eating something that didn’t come
wrapped in paper or foil.

Thirty-minutes later, Erik walked up the
neatly swept steps of the farmhouse porch and rang the
doorbell.

A woman in her mid-sixties opened the door
and gave him a once over. Despite the cool greeting, her eyes
twinkled with warmth and a smile cracked the corner of her
lips.

“Well, don’t stand out there all day, come
on in,” she opened the door wide and took a step back. “You must be
Erik. Zach told me to expect you. He and Ethan will be in soon. I’m
Ethan’s sister, Ralene. Everyone calls me Lena.”

“Nice to meet you,” Erik said, taking off
his ball cap and holding it in his hands. He felt like he was under
intense scrutiny and wasn’t sure he would pass muster. Shutting the
door behind him, Erik swiped his boots on the rug at his feet
before stepping into the foyer.

“Come on back to the kitchen and I’ll pour
you a glass of tea,” Lena said, leading the way to the back of the
house. Delicious smells of dinner cooking made Erik’s stomach
growl. He couldn’t think when he had last eaten a home-cooked meal.
He was fair in a kitchen, but most of the motels where he stayed
didn’t have kitchenettes and he was usually too tired to think
about cooking when he finished for the day anyway.

Lena turned to look at him with a raised
eyebrow.

“Sorry. It smells like you’ve got a fine
meal in the makings for dinner,” Erik said, his face flushing
red.

“At least you’ve got a good sense of smell,”
Lena said, motioning him toward a big farm table in the spacious
kitchen. She put ice in a glass, filled it with tea and set it in
front of him along with a plate of chocolate chip cookies, still
warm from the oven.

“Thank you,” Erik said, taking a long drink
of the tea before biting into the soft cookie. He closed his eyes,
better to appreciate the homemade goodness of the treat. It had
been so long since anything had tasted that good to him.

“You’re welcome,” Lena said, stirring
something in a pot on the stove. “So, Zach said you’ll be staying
on through the summer. That will take a load off that boy’s mind.
They’ve been shorthanded this spring and with Madelyn coming home,
he’s going to have his hands full.”

“Madelyn?” Erik asked, taking a bite out of
his second cookie.

“My niece. She got herself into a bad
situation and needs to come home for a while this summer. Since she
and her brother are both as stubborn as the day is long, things can
get quite interesting with the two of them,” Lena chatted while she
washed a head of lettuce and made a green salad.

“Are she and Zach close to the same age?”
Erik asked, struggling to remember how to make polite conversation.
It had been a while since he’d needed to, and he felt out of
practice.

“Zach is two years older, but she thinks she
can do anything he can, only better. She isn’t shy about making her
opinions known, either.”

“Can she?” Erik surprised himself with the
question. “Do things better, I mean?”

Lena laughed. “Sometimes, yes.”

Erik chuckled and took another drink of tea.
Before he could start on his third cookie, Zach and Ethan came in
the kitchen door. Striding across the room, Zach extended his hand
to Erik, who stood when the men came in.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Erik. Had a
little problem with the baler we were trying to fix,” Zach shook
Erik’s hand again. “Dad, you’ve met Erik before. Why don’t you two
talk while I get the paperwork from the office?”

“Yes, we’ve talked a few times,” Ethan said,
shaking Erik’s hand before sitting down at the end of the table.
“Zach says you’re willing to stay on and help us this summer. Says
you’ve got some farming experience?”

“Yes, sir, I do,” Erik said, hoping he
wouldn’t have to go into details. At Ethan’s probing look, Erik
swallowed down a sigh. “I grew up on a farm in Ontario, Oregon. My
family has been farming it for several generations. We raised
mostly hay, corn, some wheat and sometimes we put in a few
experimental fields.”

“What kind of experimental fields?” Ethan
asked, warming to the subject of new farming ideas.

“Seed,” Erik said. “One year we raised
zinnias, another carrots. We tried sunflowers and marigolds. It was
more for fun than anything. We used a field that was too small to
grow much else. I was thinking about putting in some grapes
before…” Erik’s voice trailed off as he remembered all the plans
that died right along with Sheila. He lost more than his wife and
unborn baby that day. He’d lost his ability to dream.

“Before what, son?” Ethan asked, genuinely
interested.

“Before my wife and baby died and I left the
farm.”

Lena stopped her work and looked at Erik
with teary eyes. She didn’t say a word, but the pain in his face
and voice was enough to make her sniffle before she turned back to
her work.

“I’m sorry, Erik. For a young man like you,
that must have been very difficult. Do you mind if I ask what
happened?”

“No, sir,” Erik found that he didn’t mind
talking about his loss as much as he once would have. He hadn’t
shared his story with anyone since he left home. It actually felt
good to talk about what happened. “My wife, Sheila, and I had been
married for ten years and wanted a baby so badly. We’d given up
trying when we found out she was expecting. A boy. She was six
months pregnant when she ran into a feed truck at the end of our
lane. She died on the way to the hospital. I just couldn’t stay on
the farm after that.”

Ethan leaned across the table and patted
Erik on the shoulder.

“I’m very sorry, Erik. That is a terrible
thing to go through. My wife was killed a few years ago, so I can
understand your grief and loss.”

“What happened to your wife, sir?”

“She was shot in cold blood in our car on
her way home from the grocery store.”

Erik couldn’t think of an appropriate
response to something so harsh and brutal. “I’m so sorry,” he
finally managed to say.

“I know Elaine is in a better place and
she’ll be waiting for me to join her someday. I just hope the man
who shot her will be brought to justice.”

“I’m truly sorry, Mr. Weber. What a
tragedy,” Erik said, realizing him and Ethan had much in common,
except where he had the gift of closure, Ethan still waited. “The
man who shot her has never been caught?”

“No. I’m starting to wonder if he ever will
be,” Ethan said, his face registering his emotions of fear, despair
and raw pain.

Zach hurried back into the kitchen and sat
down next to Erik with a simple form for him to fill out.
Completing that task, Ethan insisted he stay for dinner and Erik
was not going to argue.

Lena served up pot roast with mashed
potatoes and gravy, hot rolls and green salad.

“This is the best meal I’ve had in years,”
Erik said, slathering butter on another roll.

“Well, for that compliment, I think you get
the first piece of pie.” Lena said, while Zach and Ethan
grinned.

Half an hour later as Erik scraped the last
bite of strawberry pie off his plate, he came to the conclusion
agreeing to work for the Webers was one of the best decisions he’d
made recently. If he got to eat like this on a regular basis, he
wouldn’t know what to do with himself.

“That was a fine, fine meal, Lena. Thank you
very much, and thank you for inviting me to stay,” Erik said,
insisting on helping clear the table. As he did, the phone rang and
Zach answered it.

“You’re where?” Zach hollered. “What did you
do a fool thing like that for? Why didn’t you give Dad or me a
call? Yes, I’ll be right there.”

Slamming down the phone, Zach grabbed his
keys and hurried to the door. “That was Maddie. It seems my
mule-headed sibling is at the airport and needs a ride.”

“What?” Ethan said, surprise registering on
his face and in his voice. “I thought she wasn’t getting released
until next week.”

“Apparently she encouraged them to let her
go early. I’ll go get her and be back soon. Lena, can you get her
room ready?”

“You bet,” Lena said with a shake of her
head as Zach ran out the door and across the yard.

From the kitchen window, Erik watched the
trail of dust that followed Zach’s speeding pickup down the
road.

“Maddie is your daughter?” Erik asked Ethan
as he helped Lena with the dishes.

“Yes,” Ethan said, running a hand through
his thinning gray hair. “My headstrong, independent daughter. That
girl is going to be the death of me yet.”

Lena laughed and patted her brother’s arm as
she walked by.

“If she isn’t, it won’t be for lack of
trying.”

Erik helped Lena finish the dishes, wished
both she and Ethan goodnight and drove to the motel, wondering
about Maddie Weber.

His mind conjured a picture of a tall, solid
girl with a stubborn streak and flowing dark hair. She would look
like a female version of Zack, which would explain part of the
reason why it seemed they antagonized each other.

Erik was in for quite a surprise.

Maddie lay in bed, knowing she should get up,
but enjoying the peacefulness of her old bedroom. She could feel
the sunshine sneaking through the blinds behind the ruffled chintz
curtains, creating streaks of warmth on her face.

Taking a deep breath, she inhaled the
fragrance of home. She could smell fresh cut hay, the invigorating
scent of outdoors on the sheets and the distinctive aroma of fresh
coffee and crisply fried bacon wafting up the stairs.

Opening an eye, she looked around the room
where she spent all her growing up years and smiled. It looked
exactly like it had when she left it fourteen years earlier, at the
ripe old age of 18.

She thought she knew everything there was to
know about life when she packed her bags, loaded her car, drove to
Seattle, and broke her mother’s heart. She never wanted to stay in
the small town of Walla Walla. She had her sights set on bigger and
better things. When the boy she’d fallen in love with her first
week at college shattered her heart in a million pieces, she
realized she might not be quite as wise and worldly as she
originally led herself to believe.

Maddie sighed, wishing she could go back in
time and give her 18-year-old self a long lecture about how lucky
she was, how much she had, and advise her to enjoy it while it
lasted.