Running for Her Life (17 page)

“She’s right here,” Jake said. He opened the door wider but didn’t step aside. There was no way for Waller to step into the house.

“I was worried about you,” Waller said, looking around Jake.

“I got a ride from a nice man. Then Jake happened by so he brought me home.”

The words seemed to come easy for her and Jake wondered how many other lies had rolled off her tongue. But Waller seemed to be buying it.

“That’s good,” he said. “I figured something like that must have happened. There wasn’t anyone home at the first house, so I had to walk farther. A car came along and they let me use their cell phone to call a garage. Then I walked back to the car but you weren’t there. I had to wait for the tow truck and once the tire was fixed, I went to Nel’s, looking for you. Your van was there but the lights were all off so I came straight here.”

Jake considered the story. It could have happened that way. But Tara had said that the man had picked her up just minutes after Waller had crested the first hill. They’d driven off, following him. They should have overtaken him. If not, they should have seen him farther down the road.

If somebody had stopped to offer a cell phone, then that person should be able to verify the story. “Who was it that let you use his cell phone?” Jake asked.

Waller paused. “Some older lady. Not somebody I knew. I guess I didn’t get her name.”

Of course not.

“All’s well that ends well,” Tara said.

“I feel terrible about what happened,” Waller said. “Maybe we could—”

“Tara, could you show me where your dish soap is?” Jake interrupted. “We need to get those dishes done.”

Waller looked perplexed, like he didn’t have much experience handling meddling friends.

“I’ll see you at Nel’s,” Tara said.

“Right. Sure. I’ll see you,” Waller stammered.

When Waller took a step back, Jake shut the door. Then he walked over to the window and watched Waller get in his car and drive off. Tires all looked okay now.

“I don’t like him,” Jake said.

Tara nodded.

“What? No argument?”

“The man didn’t have a spare tire and his cell phone wasn’t charged. What’s to like?”

“I suppose he will come in for his turkey sandwich on Monday,” Jake said.

“I suppose.” Tara pulled the soap from her cupboard. “Why wouldn’t he?”

Jake just shook his head and started running water in the sink. He quickly washed up the dishes. Then he sat down in the living room and stared at the dark television. She sat on the couch and looked at her hands.

Waller’s appearance had changed the mood. The laughter, the light conversation, all the things that they’d been doing to push it behind them for just a few minutes, was gone.

Finally, unable to take it another minute, Tara stood up. “Good night,” she said.

She got to the end of the hallway before he spoke. “Tara, don’t lock your door. If I need to get to you quickly, I don’t want to have to break it down.”

She didn’t bother to answer.

Once inside her room, Tara sank down on her bed, staring at the wooden door, the only barrier between her and Jake. She’d put on a good show about Waller, but she knew how hard it would be on Monday when she saw him. She would have to pretend that she believed that it had been a regular flat tire. She would do it. Her life, and maybe Jake’s, too, depended on it. Before, she’d had to protect only herself. Now she had to protect Jake, too.

* * *

O
NCE
T
ARA WAS IN HER ROOM
, Jake called and told Andy he could stop looking for Waller. Then he sat in Tara’s empty living room and willed the telephone to ring. In addition to putting Andy on Waller’s tail earlier, he’d also called the county sheriff and described the man, the license plate on the old truck and the location of the house. Although Tara had dismissed the incident, in his gut he felt that something was very wrong. If the guy in the truck had been innocent, Jake would rather look like a fool for calling it in than feel like an idiot because he didn’t. The sheriff had promised to contact him once they knew something.

He’d decided on pizza simply to have something to occupy his mind and hands while he waited to hear something. He wanted to be at the scene, processing the information himself, but he couldn’t tear himself away from Tara. Not after he’d seen the tears running down her face and how absolutely terrified she’d been.

The pizza had been good, and looking at Tara across the table was no hardship. When she’d crossed her legs and her black dress had ridden up her thighs, he’d been hungry for more than dough and sauce. When she’d licked the corners of her mouth, he’d almost begged
let me, let me.

Waller’s interruption had almost been a good thing. Afterward, Tara could hardly get to bed fast enough. He could not even contemplate sleep until he heard something. When his cell phone finally did ring, he fumbled in his haste to answer it, almost dropping the phone.

“Vernelli,” he said.

“Chief,” the county sheriff said, “I have an update. The house was empty. Neighbors say it has been for a couple months. However, it did look as if someone had been inside recently. A few tracks in the dust. Pipes in the kitchen were damp inside, as if somebody had recently run water through them. That kind of thing. My group did dust for prints, although I don’t think they picked up much.”

“What about the vehicle?”

“Registered to an old woman who lives in St. Paul. She didn’t even realize it was missing out of her garage.”

Damn it. “I should have brought him in,” Jake said.

“For offering the young woman a glass of water? From what you told me, he didn’t do anything else against the law. She willingly got in his truck.”

“I don’t think his intentions were aboveboard. There’s no way of knowing what might have happened to her if she’d gone inside that house.”

“You’re right. We don’t know and we don’t arrest people for their intentions. We will, however, slam his butt in jail for stealing that truck if we find him. That will at least give us a chance to ask him some questions.”

“Thanks for the call. I appreciate it.”

* * *

E
IGHT SHORT HOURS LATER
, the alarm blared. Tara shut it off fast and within minutes walked into the living room. She stopped short when she saw Jake, already up, an empty coffee cup sitting at his side.

“How long have you been up?” she asked.

“A while. I couldn’t sleep.” Not that he needed to offer the additional explanation. He’d already been to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Dark circles shadowed his eyes and his hair stood on end in several spots. He basically looked like hell.

“Jake,” she said, obviously coming to the same conclusion, “you need to get some sleep. It’s Sunday. Go back to bed. I’ve got a ton of paperwork to do today. Nothing is going to happen with you in the next room.”

“I’m okay. Don’t worry about me,” he said, dismissing the discussion. “I hope you can get your paperwork done in a couple hours, because that’s when we need to leave for Minneapolis.”

“What? Why are we going to Minneapolis?”

“That’s where my parents live. We’re going for dinner.”

She sat down hard on the sofa. “I am not going to your parents’ house. You cannot just show up at someone’s house unexpectedly for dinner. It’s rude.”

“It’s not unexpected. We’re celebrating my dad’s birthday today. My brother is coming, too. I called Mom twenty minutes ago and told her that I was bringing you. She always makes enough food to feed an army, so one more doesn’t matter. She sounded excited to meet you.”

The last family dinner she’d attended had been an anniversary party for Michael’s parents, about a month before she’d run. Michael had gotten drunk, his father had been even drunker, and his mother hadn’t said a word to her all night.

Did Jake’s mother ever throw plates? Michael’s mother had pulled that stunt once. Eggs Benedict had splattered the curtains.

“What did you tell her about me? Who does she think I am?”

“I told her you were a friend. That’s all.” Of course when his mom heard
a friend,
she was likely to read more into it. That was a given. But he couldn’t worry about that right now.

“I think this is getting too complicated,” Tara said. She got up, walked to the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. She held up the pot, offering him a refill. He refused. He’d already had a whole pot.

It’s complicated because you won’t tell me the truth.
“We just have to do the best we can with the circumstances we have. I’ll be outside for a while. Andy is coming by to borrow Veronica. He’s moving into a new apartment today. I’m not sure I trust his old car to make the trip to Minneapolis. Do you mind if we take your van?”

“We’ll have to pick it up at Nel’s. I guess that’s fine.” She sounded discouraged.

“You don’t get to Minneapolis much?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Hardly ever.”

Right. She’d been there exactly one week ago. At the library.

He walked out and let the door slam behind him.

Chapter Thirteen

Tara was ready on time. She wore a lightweight, long-sleeved cotton shirt and tan shorts that stopped a couple inches above her knee. She really had beautiful legs—slim, yet strong with feminine muscle. She’d pulled her hair up, leaving her pretty neck bare. She wore small gold hoops in her ears and a simple gold necklace. She looked delicious.

And innocent. Was she? During the middle of the night it had dawned on him that perhaps he was obtuse. He’d been assuming that she was hiding the truth to protect herself. Maybe she was hiding the truth to protect someone else. Maybe someone that she cared about? Loved, even?

That was why he’d looked like something the cat had dragged in this morning. Because his mind had been working overtime in the dark hours of the night.

“It’s a scorcher,” he said. “Must be near ninety degrees. My parents have a pool, so you’ll want to pack a suit.”

She chewed the inside corner of her mouth. “Okay. I’ll get a bag.”

Ten minutes later they were on their way. They drove Andy’s old Malibu to Nel’s and switched over to the van. She tossed him the keys and he slid into the driver’s seat. “You’re going to need to stop for gas,” she said.

Jake pulled into Toby Wilson’s place. He got out to pump the gas, and Tara went inside to buy water for the trip. When he was almost finished, he saw Alice and Henry drive up. Henry started pumping and Alice went into the store.

He was inside, pulling out his forty dollars, when Alice stopped next to Tara, who was squatting in front of a refrigerated case, pulling bottles of water off the bottom shelf.

“Honey, I hear you and Jim Waller had a spot of trouble last night.”

Tara’s head jerked up. “Who told you that?”

Alice looked a little startled. “Henry heard it in town.”

“We had a flat tire,” Tara said. “No big deal.”

“Something horrible could have happened to you along that road. You could have been raped or worse.”

Tara’s face was pale and her eyes bleak. Jake moved across the store quickly. “Morning, Alice. Ready, Tara?”

They were in the car and a mile down the road before Tara spoke. “She didn’t mean any harm.”

Probably not. Besides, she’d been right. Tara had been lucky. Would she be as lucky the next time? “Mind if we listen to the game on the radio?” he asked, trying to change the subject. “The Twins are at home.”

“That’s fine. I’ll just enjoy the scenery.”

Like it had changed a lot in a week. An hour later, Jake pulled the van into his parents’ flower-lined driveway. He put it in Park and turned toward Tara. She looked up and down the quiet residential street.

“Nice,” she said. “Beautiful trees.”

“Yeah.” He’d managed to calm down during the drive. If he tried real hard, he thought he’d be able to make it through the day. “We’ve lived here since I started middle school. Chase Montgomery lived across the street.”

“Must have been fun to have a pool.”

“They didn’t put the pool in until a few years ago. I asked them why they waited and my mom said she hadn’t wanted to be the neighborhood entertainment center.”

“Sounds smart.”

“Yeah. I think she was afraid that my brother and I might drown each other.”

“That wouldn’t happen to be your brother, would it?” Tara pointed to the man walking around the corner of the house, one hand covered by an oven mitt, the other holding a plate.

Jake nodded and opened his door. “That’s Sam.”

Tara got out, too. His brother stood five feet from the vehicle. He had on a white Bruce Springsteen T-shirt, loose blue shorts and deck shoes.

Jake craned his neck to see the plate. “I thought we were having steaks?”

“We are. These are the appetizers.” He held out the plate of grilled shrimp and Jake took two. He handed one to Tara.

“What happened to Veronica?” Sam asked, frowning at the van.

“Hello to you, too,” Jake said. He gave his brother a rough hug. “It’s Tara’s.”

“Scared me for a minute. Veronica’s like one of the family,” Sam said. “Welcome. You must be Tara.” He extended his oven mitt and Tara shook it.

“I just have to ask,” she said. “Why do you both call Jake’s truck Veronica?”

Jake rubbed his chin, looking unsure.

“Tell her,” Sam urged.

“It’s no big deal. A couple years ago, my mother got nervous that I didn’t have a steady girlfriend. She was worried about never having any grandchildren. She didn’t say much to me, but she did bug Sam about it.”

“That’s an understatement,” Sam added.

“Anyway, Sam decided he couldn’t take it anymore.”

“Secret Ops guys wouldn’t have been able to take it anymore,” Sam defended himself.

“So every time my mom said something, he’d tell her not to worry, that I had taken Veronica to the movies, or that Veronica and I had gone out to dinner.”

She couldn’t help it. The story made her smile. And she thought five years had washed off Jake’s face. “Your poor mother. Does she still think Veronica’s real?”

“Yeah. But she thinks I’m better off without her. She was insisting on meeting Veronica, so Sam got the bright idea to tell her that Veronica stepped out on me.”