Read Truth and Humility Online
Authors: J. A. Dennam
Truth and Humility (14 page)
While the adults caught up in the kitchen, Laney took her slice of plain cheese and decided to look for the robot vacuum cleaner. It was such a fascinating device. And since the housekeeper was on vacation, she decided she’d check to see if it needed emptied. The thing was always creeping around the big house like a hamster in a ball, and it was by far the best entertainment here.
But the thing was nowhere to be found. She decided it could have rolled down the hallway, through the back door if it was propped open, and may be on a destructive path toward the salvage yard facilities in the back. As she c&nbut the t passed by the closed door of the old servant’s quarters, Laney stopped and wondered at the light coming from beneath it. She wiped her palm on the skirt of her yellow Sunday dress and turned the knob. There was soft country music playing from somewhere and when she peeked in she was surprised to see a woman sitting on the bed sandwiched between the lamplight and the natural light streaming through the small window.
Laney boldly walked in and met the woman’s startled gaze. She had her back against the wall, her legs drawn up to serve as support for a large textbook and notepad. Her right hand was on a white open laptop at her side and there was a pencil in her mouth as her other hand was occupied with some loose pages.
“Hello,” Laney greeted, took another bite of pizza.
“Hurro,” the woman responded back, then put the pages down and pulled the pencil from her mouth. “Can I help you with something?”
She was pretty, Laney thought, and the girl curiously walked to the bed to find the source of the music. “Where’s that coming from?”
Danny glanced down at her computer in utter confusion. She knew this little person was referring to the music, she was just utterly surprised by the intrusion. “My laptop,” she offered hesitantly.
“Cool.” A pregnant pause, then Laney asked. “Whatcha doing?”
Another question, Danny thought uncomfortably. Uh-oh. “Trying to determine the structural behavior of EMS using the finite element method.”
The girl hesitated, blinked. “Huh?”
Back in the kitchen, Winston noticed the absence of his daughter as he poured himself a glass of wine. “Ruth, did you see where Laney went?”
“Oh, for God’s sake, Ruth,” Patricia scolded from her place at the breakfast nook. “Find her before she hurts something.”
“She won’t hurt anything, Mother,” Ruth responded and sent her husband a coy look as she took his glass and downed the contents. “You’re driving, dear,” she whispered softly and handed him back the empty glass. “
I’m
numbing the pain.”
Austin was busy at the sink with the dishes, heard the exchange and cracked a smile. It was a typical family gathering. Patricia Cahill had become positively unbearable since her husband Foster’s death, but she had a soft inner core that still revealed itself just enough to remind her children why they still craved her presence in their lives.
Before Ruth could make a sweep of the house in search of her daughter, Laney came strolling in from the back hallway. Austin noticed from which direction she came and instantly became wary. What had the little monster been up to or, more importantly, whom had she seen?
“Whatcha got, princess?” Winston asked grabbing the soapy dishcloth from his wife.
But clearly she had come back with more than she left with. Laney sauntered over to the bottom drawer by the stove and rifled through the contents until she chose an assortment of markers, then moved to a chair at the island.
“Watch it, honey, it’s still damp,” her father warned, shaking the crumb-encrusted dishcloth over the wastebasket.
Austin pulled the drain to let the dishwater out and looked behind him, curious about his niece’s find. A shape moved in the shadows of the hall behind her. It was Danny and she was desperately trying to get his attention without being noticed. He wiped his hands on a dishtowel and stepped a little closer. When his eyes adjusted, he could better decipher her frantic hand signals as she pointed to the child. Torn between curiosity and panic, he waved her back and disguised the movement when he noticed Ruth studying him.
“Uh...fly,” he grumbled and inched toward his niece to see what she was coloring on. His brows knit together in a frown. “Have you been in the library, Laney?”
“Nope.”
Before she answered, he knew she couldn’t have been. The library always remained locked. But the paper contained structural analysis flowcharts and tables that, upon closer scrutiny, had something to do with horizontal and vertical clearance limitations of God only knew. “Then where did you get this? It looks like something of Grandfather’s.”
Ruth peered over his shoulder and shoved her hands on hips. “Laney! You
were
in the library!”
Patricia gasped from her seat at the breakfast nook. “Austin, did you forget to lock it?”
Both Austin and Laney answered defensively. “No!”
The little girl was quicker to defend herself. “I wasn’t in the library, Mom! The lady in the servant’s bedroom gave it to me!”
“What lady?” Ruth asked, her confusion mounting as her brother quickly straightened and grabbed the paper off the countertop. Then comprehension dawned and she asked the question again to her younger sibling. “What lady, Austin?”
“Hey!” Laney whined, twisting around to glower at the theft of her project.
Austin shoved the paper into Danny’s awaiting hand. “Sorry,” he murmured distractedly. His sleeve was tugged when he tried to beat feet back to the kitchen.
“Okay,” Danny whispered, “just so I’m clear...you
don’t
want me to be found out. Right?”
“Right.” Another tug.
“An c Ront sd you remember that I
don’t
have a lock on my door. Right?”
“No more intrusions, I promise.”
“Because I’d move to the commons room, but I have a lot of stuff.”
“Don’t worry, I got this.”
“You sure?”
“Danny, the longer I stay here talking to you, the door will be the least of our problems.”
“Right. Sorry.”
Ruth kept her eye on the darkened hall, heard the frantic whispering, a moment of dead silence. Then her brother reappeared absent the paper. Was he amused by something? She plunked her hands on her hips while Laney skulked over to the breakfast nook and crossed her arms dejectedly across from her grandmother.
“Austin Cahill. You have a woman stashed in this house,” Ruth accused, elbowing her husband in the process.
“No, I don’t,” Austin retorted and buried his head in the pantry. “At least not like that. She’s just one of the salvage crew.”
“Really?”
His sister’s tone challenged and he didn’t like it. He emerged from the pantry with a handful of freezer bags and a scowl on his face. “Yes,
really!”
“Nuh-uh,” Laney perked up by the windows. “ She’s too pretty for that. The only people who work in the salvage yard are dirty, smelly, ugly guys.”
“Hey, thanks!” Austin aimed a glare over his shoulder that sent his niece into a fit of giggles.
Ruth collected leftover slices and transferred them to the bags. “If you have a girlfriend, Austin, just say so. It’s okay to move on, it’s been eight months.”
Steam began to build again and Austin slammed the empty boxes one on top of the other. “I said she
works
here, Ruth.”
“Well, does she eat?”
“Of course!”
“Why didn’t you invite her for pizza?”
Because she’s not on the menu,
was the first answer that came to mind when he thought of what his family would do if they knew he had a Bennett in the old house. They would eat her alive, then serve him up raw shortly after. Instead he replied, “Because she’s not family.”
Ruth didn’t buy it. If this woman was pretty, she was a possible candidate for ccann>
“Ruth!”
“Up yours, little brother.”
Laney jerked to attention. “Mom!”
“Sorry, Laney.”
By the time Ruth reached the door to the servant’s quarters, she had quite a procession behind her. Austin’s panicked attempt to stop her only kicked her retaliation into a higher gear. She raised her knuckles and knocked.
“Hello, excuse me!” Despite the answering silence, she boldly opened the door before her brother could physically stop her. “Oh! I was beginning to think there was no one in here. Hi, I’m Austin’s sister, Ruth. It is a
pleasure
to meet you.”
After having a look at the startled woman on the bed, Winston raised an eyebrow at his brother-in-law. “Salvage crew, huh?”
Austin raised his arms, grabbed fistfuls of hair and paced quietly in the hall. Though he and his sister had grown closer after their father’s death, she could still be an intrusive pain in the ass.
The conversation remained on a friendly level. As usual, Ruth did most of the talking and Laney went on about the music on the laptop. Austin still paced in the hall dragging his hands over his face in abject misery.
“Well, it was nice to meet you, Danny. Sorry about Laney, she tends to ‘lift’ things. Trying to break her of that.” Ruth gave her daughter a playful swat as they exited the room. “Oh, and help yourself to the pizza, the rest is in the fridge. All you want.”
When the crowd cleared, Austin lagged behind, his nervousness showing as he peered through the vacated door. In a way, he wanted to make sure Danny was still in one piece.
His eyes met hers and he almost laughed. She looked shell-shocked, her nerves having taken the bigger hit. He could only imagine what was going through her head. A Bennett surrounded in a matchbox bedroom by a handful of Cahills and nowhere to run.
“What – the – hell
,” Danny mouthed silently, putting a hand over her heart. God only knew she was doing her part to stay away.
“I’m – sorry!”
Austin mouthed back with an overzealous shrug. He didn’t want her discovered any more than she wanted to be, but he had to admit… it was an interesting situation. Danny and Ruth would most likely get along famously if their last names didn’t interfere.
Danny breathed a sigh of relief when Austin finally pulled the door closed. She had two seconds to celebrate life when her phone vibrated cone daughter again. She glanced down at it, closed her eyes and banged her head back against the wall. “Great,” she ground out. Just when she thought things couldn’t get worse.
It was the fourth time Brett’s name appeared on the lighted screen. When she realized her mistake in answering the unknown caller the first time, she had hung up in his face. After the second call, she labeled his number so she could easily identify the unwanted caller. Now, with this fourth call, it was bordering on bold harassment and she absolutely refused to listen to the messages he left. The pompous ass would only blast her for the prank she’d pulled and, frankly, she liked Baker’s version of it just fine.
“You called it, little sister. Guy’s got shit for hand strength. Once the rope was gone, he was at a dead hang for about six seconds, then he cried all the way down to the net. Didn’t shit himself, but he did piss those fancy pants of his. Almost felt sorry for him.”
Settling for the mental image since she wasn’t able to enjoy it in person, Danny giggled impishly.
“Was Derek there?”
“Yeah. Wasn’t easy keeping from him why we were torturing the fellow, but he understood once I filled him in.”
“He didn’t get mad?”
“Are you kidding? Laughed his ass off, but he agreed he would have gone half-cocked on the guy. Your way was better.”
And Danny knew her brother.
Eventually, the house grew quiet and the sun descended behind the western horizon. Danny was cramming one more assignment into her last hour before facing the busy workweek ahead. By the fifth call, she swore heavily, grabbed her vibrating phone and threatened to throw it across the room when she saw Melanie’s face splashed on the screen. Should she answer?
“Crap!” she groaned, knowing it wasn’t in her to ignore Melanie. The woman may be naïve about men, but her heart was easily bruised when she thought her friends were mad at her. She slid her thumb over the blinking bar.
“Mel?” Danny frowned at the sound of raspy erratic breathing. “Melanie?” she prompted again.
“D-Danny?”
“Melanie, what’s wrong?”
“I’m standing at the gate. I need to see you.”
“You’re
where?”
“Please, Danny!” Melanie shrieked. “I’m right outside the gate, please come outside, I need to see you!”
Her pleas were broken and gurgled as if she’d been crying. Danny stared at her phone in alarm as the panicked sounds continued to come. “I’m cbspast h coming, I’ll be right there!”
She bounded off the bed and slipped into a pair of light sneakers without even untying them first. Then she tore down the breezeway at a dead run and streaked past the offices without slowing.
Austin noticed the blur of motion outside the office window, returned the folder to Sue’s desk and stepped out onto the walkway only to catch a glimpse of Danny’s dark shirt and cut-off shorts disappear around the corner. He reared back to check the gate monitor.
All kinds of horrific thoughts entered Danny’s head during her frantic dash to the gate. In what shape would she find her friend? Had that bastard, Brett, done something to her? Was she hurt? As the gate grew closer, the one light aimed at the area illuminated Melanie’s lone figure on the other side of it. Her friend was jiggling as if she were in a hurry to see her, egging her to move faster. Danny knew she couldn’t open the gate without a code and she used her momentum to launch herself up and over the eight-foot wall of chain link. As soon as she was on the other side, she reached for her friend and took her shoulders in her hands, made a quick inspection. Melanie’s soft blond hair was mussed, her cheeks flushed. She appeared to be fine but was in such a panicked state of distress, Danny’s insides buzzed with tension.
“Oh, my God! Melanie, you’re a mess! What’s wrong?”
Melanie’s chin trembl
ed where her mascara-blackened tears had gathered to drip to the ground. “I’m sorry, Danny,” she moaned, and succumbed to another wave of misery.
“For what?”
There was a tap on her left shoulder. Danny turned around and took a violent hit to the side of her face. Pins exploded in her head as her sight gave way to needles of light. Her world tipped…and she went down.