Eye of the Storm

EIGHT



By the time Gerard pulled into Kirstie’s driveway she had given him a succinct rundown of this morning’s episode, her talk with Megan and her desire that only Gerard was to know anything about her suspicions.

He glanced at the interesting cat decorations in her three front windows. One of them moved and jumped to the ground. Feline voyeurs.

“I know something’s going on with that girl,” Kirstie continued in that mellow, soothing voice that, despite her circumstances, tended to make one think all would be well. “Listen to me, calling her a girl. She’s a grown woman.”

“I know, but she’s like a daughter to you.”

“And to you?” Kirstie asked, looking up at him. “What is she to you?”

He felt a smile grow across his face. “A dream come true.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.” Kirstie unbuckled her seat belt. “She’d have already told me if not for these wicked blackouts.”

Gerard jerked when a white blur of cat jumped onto the hood of his car, then he looked at Kirstie in confusion. “Told you what?”

“Why she really left you. I’ll warn you right now, I’m an eavesdropper. I didn’t even have to try to overhear your conversation in the parking lot because you both have voices that carry well. She had good reason to leave that mission, and she hasn’t breathed a word to anyone about the reason. She seems to think she’s protecting me from the truth. She has a tendency to place her own needs last.”

“She seems to be following your example.”

“Care to tell me what’s up with her?”

“I’m sure when Megan is ready to tell you, she will. Until then I’ll respect her privacy.”

Kirstie’s gaze rested on two more cats as they jumped down from their perches on the windowsills and ambled toward the car. “Spoken like true husband material.”

Gerard battled opposing emotions of apprehension and elation. He trusted Kirstie’s insight. And that was all the reason in the world to feel joyful and apprehensive. “Poison, huh?”

She reached into the right front pocket of her blue-green scrubs and pulled out a package. “My blood. You won’t mind taking me to Springfield today to have it tested? Especially if I promise to speak to my uncle about the resort property?”

“Forget the property. If you think there’s a chance we can find out what’s really going on with you, that comes before anything else right now.”

Kirstie opened her car door. “In that case, would you keep Prissy, Poppy and Data company while I clean up?”

“Data?”

“The white one with black splotches.” She gestured to the inquisitive cat with yellow eyes who was making dust tracks on the hood of the car.

“You like Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Gerard nodded toward the cat.

“You’re a fan of the show?”

“I even attended a convention.” Gerard rushed from his seat and around the car to help Kirstie to the house.

She took his arm and allowed him to help her. “You know, I’ve been opening my own doors for a lot of years, and I don’t intend to stop now, but I do appreciate an attentive man. I have to admit my feet are killing me.” They waded through cats to the front porch.

“I’m not really a cat person,” Kirstie said as she stepped aside to keep the prettiest calico female from tripping her. “I rescued Data from the top of a truck tire at a truck stop out on the interstate. Couldn’t find a home for him despite the cuteness factor. Prissy and Poppy haunted my windows and doorstep for a month before I gave up and took them in. No one would take them.”

Gerard grinned. “How hard did you try?”

Kirstie chuckled. “Not hard enough obviously. They’re my buddies. It’s strange that sometimes the cats all gather around me, as if they’re afraid I may be getting ready for another blackout.”

“I’ve heard of animals doing that.”

“They’ll all jump onto my recliner and perch on my lap, my chair arms, touching me and purring, despite the fact that they’re typically so jealous of each other they won’t stay on the same chair all together.”

“You’ve charmed them.”

“No. As Dean Koontz once wrote in one of his Christopher Snow novels, cats know things.”

No doubt they did. Gerard gestured at the broad covered porch. “This is where you were last night before you blacked out?”

“It was my last clear memory. Data was, as usual, on my lap. Poppy was chasing ants on the concrete and Prissy was curled up in the other chair.”

Gerard studied the two beautiful calicos as they danced around Kirstie’s feet. “And Lynley?”

“She was inside studying at the desk. I think she had fallen asleep before I wandered off into the night. I’m so worried about her.”

“But there’s hope that you can be helped. That’s a good thing.”

“True. But what if it’s too late? Or what if I’m wrong?”

He looked down at her and frowned. “That doesn’t sound like the Kirstie I’ve come to know.”

“Wait until you’re a mother.”

He grinned and opened his mouth for a flippant reply and then closed it again. She was right, he couldn’t identify with her motherhood. He knew she agonized about her daughter as he agonized about his family, those people who depended on him…and Megan.

Kirstie didn’t know what Megan had endured, but she understood it was something bad. The four people he’d spoken with in that waiting room also understood it now. He’d made sure they did. He only hoped they would be insightful enough to understand that Megan needed her space right now. Anyone who knew Megan well would realize something catastrophic must have happened to force her from the mission and the people she loved.

And he hoped she would be insightful enough to realize he could help her through this and that she really did love those people.

But first, they had to get to the bottom of Kirstie’s blackouts. As he stared down the hillside at the mill pond, it suddenly seemed urgent that they get to Springfield and place Kirstie’s blood into the right hands as soon as possible.





Alec reached down and chose one of the remaining cookies on the platter his mother had placed on the break room table, then glanced at Megan. “Mom’s good at what she does, which is controlling people.” He held the cookie up to the light, as if studying it for ingredients.

Megan winced at the sharpness in his tone. He and Nora both had hard-charging temperaments, and they had struck sparks off one another for as long as Megan had known him.

He sighed and shook his head. “Sorry. I need to take the edge off my temper, don’t I?”

He could still read her. “I didn’t say that.”

“She plays a good mommy role,” he said.

“Oldest sibling syndrome, Alec. Being an only, you wouldn’t understand.”

“She tries to carry the world on her shoulders,” he said. “No one is Atlas. People who try will break beneath the strain.”

“Some people are just wired to protect and help others.”

Alec held her gaze in silence for a moment. “Your expression still gives you away, Megan. You’re talking about your latest crush? Your former boss is the mommy type?”

“Crush? Really? I’m not a teenager anymore.”

“Okay, then, the former boss who raced from southern Texas to see you? Mommy type?”

“Gerard’s more patriarchal than matriarchal.” She thought about all the talks she’d had with Gerard. Standing in the hallways…discussing patients in the clinic, welcoming his help when there wasn’t enough staff to keep up with the onrush of patients…in the kitchen, helping prepare a community meal when not enough helpers showed up—which, granted, wasn’t a typical incident. The local churches had able and willing volunteers who helped support the mission with their time and finances.

“Strong man.” Was there a hint of mockery in Alec’s voice?

Megan felt her lips curve up. “You wouldn’t tease about that if you’d seen him break up fights and toss troublemakers back out onto the street.”

“Good with people, huh?”

“He is.”

“And you admire him.”

“I do. He’s kind of a mix between a preacher and a bouncer, if you can imagine.”

“A praying man, then?” The mockery in Alec’s eyes disappeared.

“He prays. He reads the Bible. He talks about God’s love to the people who must have more trouble than anyone believing in the existence of a god of any kind in their worlds.”

“Do they listen?”

“He has a way of getting to them.” He’d almost gotten to her. Probably would have if a killer hadn’t come between her and God.

And why was she talking to Alec about Gerard? Alec had obviously given him a bad time. Megan broke off another piece of cookie. Nora was always experimenting with new ingredients. The chocolate chip oat nut was Megan’s second favorite. This was her favorite.

“So maybe he’s one of those people who doesn’t take on the weight of the world, they hand it over to their Source of strength.”

Megan paused, unable to mask her surprise at the words she’d have never expected to come from Alec’s mouth. “You sound as if you’ve had some experience with that.”

“A guy’s belief system is tested when he thinks he might die at any moment, when death waits behind every rock and around the corner of every shack or building in a country that is foreign in all possible ways.”

“How did you do it?”

He shrugged. “I’m my mother’s son in some ways. I gritted my teeth and bore it, did what I was told. But I also prayed.”

Megan blinked. Sure he did.

“Come on, Megan, the same church van took us both to Sunday school. We do know how to pray.”

She walked to the window and stared out at Nora’s garden just below the windowsill. The woman loved beauty, and she loved to share it with others. Maybe she was an overindulgent mother, and her overcompensation had taught Alec to expect everyone to meet his demands. Odd to hear him talking about spiritual things. But he seemed to have changed a great deal from the macho jock she once thought she loved.

Years ago, the night of graduation, for the final time, she refused to give in to his pressure and he broke up with her. If only she’d realized at the time that he’d done her a favor. They’d been great friends, but they weren’t suited for more than that.

“You don’t believe I could ever be a praying man.” Alec had stepped up behind Megan in his silent way.

“I guess your prayers were answered. You’re home safely.”

“What do you call safe?”

Megan glanced over her shoulder at him, glad he wasn’t invading her space. Glad he’d learned that valuable lesson.

“I wasn’t wounded physically.” His voice had gone quiet. “But then, I lost half my heart.”

“Nora told me your wife left you soon after you were deployed. I’m sorry.”

His attention switched to the garden, and in the morning light Megan could see for the first time how the past few years had caught him in their unforgiving jaws. He hadn’t aged much in the face, but there was bleakness in his eyes that she’d never seen.

“I thought she loved me enough to wait for me to come home. Word reached me overseas that she was partying in LA less than a month after I left.”

“It’s an awful thing to happen to a person protecting our country. Are you expecting her to come back?”

He shook his head, still staring into the garden. “You never met her. She wasn’t as…” He glanced at Megan, then away. “She wasn’t as considerate as you are, but then, who is? She’s always liked the city. I guess she had second thoughts after the ceremony when she realized she’d be stuck here in Jolly Mill forever.”

“She moved away with another man?” Megan had heard Lynley talking about it.

He nodded.

“Let me guess…he had money.”

Alec winced visibly, and Megan felt a stab of anger at the woman. She recalled Tess telling her about Gerard’s fiancé breaking their engagement when she discovered she wouldn’t be living a life of lavish spending on his family’s money, that he was using his wealth for more important things. But he’d been a member of the Corpus Christi police force when he was engaged. That should have given the woman some clue that he wasn’t just engaged to her, he was engaged in life, in helping others.

Alec’s glance swept over Megan as he turned from the window. “I’d have thought you would feel avenged.”

“What? No. I’m thirty-two, Alec, not seven.”

His eyes closed, and his square jaw clenched as sorrow etched him. “I didn’t mean it to sound like that.” He picked up a cookie and handed it to her. “What I meant was that it’s probably what I deserved after the way I treated you.”

“No.”

“How can I make the past up to you?”

She didn’t take the cookie. “You gave me a job. That’s enough. Let the past stay where it belongs.”

“I was worse than a jerk to you.”

“You were a teenager with raging hormones. You’re a different person now. Give yourself the break your wife never seemed to give you.”

“I thought she would file for divorce, but since the marriage contract doesn’t mean anything to her, obviously she doesn’t see a good reason to dissolve it.”

“Is she waiting around for you to inherit?”

Alec gave her a genuine smile. “Probably. Thing is, because the Thompson empire isn’t mine yet and because Mom’s young and healthy, and I don’t earn a large salary, that won’t work. When we had to lay off people at the casket factory I took a cut in pay.”

Good. If the woman married Alec for his money, she must have discovered Nora’s firm hold on the businesses after the ceremony. “You still love her?”

“Maybe I do. If so, that makes two lovesick men in this town right now. Vance must want you back pretty badly to come all the way here.”

“That’s what he told you?” Megan reconsidered the cookie. She picked it up and took a bite.

“Oh, no. He wouldn’t show his hand like that.”

“He told me you weren’t in favor of the homeless rehab plan.”

“I’m not. I don’t want Jolly Mill to be a different town when more of our soldiers return home.”

“I’m sorry you see it that way. This plan of Gerard’s could help a lot of people.”

“Maybe. But his first thought is for you. He’s a man willing to do whatever it takes to follow the woman he loves.”

Megan snatched another cookie for later and turned to walk from the break room. “You might want to try that yourself,” she said over her shoulder.

“Why? Because it worked on you?” he called after her.

A grin blossomed. She didn’t reply aloud. It was time to put Gerard out of her mind, difficult as that seemed right now. She wanted to recheck the exam room where she’d treated Kirstie and make sure everything was cleared away and no evidence was left of the blood tests she’d taken.

But as she entered the empty room she heard Alec’s footsteps behind her. “Did he tell you about all the things he’s planning to do to Jolly Mill?”

Okay, now he was invading time Megan couldn’t afford to lose. “I don’t think he was sure it would be Jolly Mill, but of course I know what he’s planning. He’s spoken of it often. It’s been in the works for some time.”

There were no signs of the recent activity that had taken place in the room. The tubes of blood had been concealed on Kirstie’s person. The order form was filled out and ready for the lab, and Kirstie could call ahead to the doctor’s office in Springfield for her medical records. Nothing here gave away their quietly constructed strategy.

Megan spotted an alcohol swab on the corner of the counter, covered with Kirstie’s blood. “I think you may want to do a little more research before you make any decisions.”

“I don’t like what I’ve heard so far.”

“Because?”

“I want Jolly Mill to remain Jolly Mill.”

“Of course you do.” Her words were sharp, and she took a couple of seconds to curb her tongue. “No one wants change,” she said more gently. “But you traveled to the other side of the world to risk your life for people who weren’t even your countrymen. Now Gerard’s offering our town a chance to make a difference in countless lives, to return them to productivity. Trust me—he does things right.” She paused as she thought of Joni, but even Gerard couldn’t control everything. It occurred to Megan that it seemed a whole lot easier to forgive Gerard than herself.

“I don’t want to let our own people down either,” Alec said.

“Just think about it, and while you’re doing that, where’s a good place to eat dinner out these days?”

He seemed relieved by the subject change. “You still like Cajun food?”

“Only if it will melt my tongue.”

“You could try The Bayou in Monett, if you think Gerard could handle it.”

“He’s from southern Texas. They all like it hot down there.” She gave the exam room a final look and then turned to leave.

Alec placed a hand on her arm. “Wait. Megan.” His voice was soft enough to not reach Nora, Lynley or Carmen, who had their heads together in the front office. She caught the scent of his bergamot soap—she knew he used it because Nora gave him a year’s supply of the stuff every Christmas. He either liked the scent himself, or didn’t care enough about it to change. Megan used to love that scent, but she’d forgotten it over the years. It did nothing for her now.

“I know we never talk about the past,” he said. “Small talk seems more our style this time around.”

“This time around?” She looked up at him.

“What I’m trying to say is I know there was something between you and Vance, but you came home, right? Obviously, that story hasn’t ended happily, no matter how he seems to feel about you.”

Megan sighed. “That story hasn’t ended yet.”

“Your choice or his?”

She narrowed her eyes. “You pretty much told me you’re still in love with your wife. Why do you care about my relationship with another man?”

He took a deep breath, put his arms behind his neck, stretched and exhaled. “Did you stop to think that maybe the reason one man would follow his beloved halfway across the country and another man won’t isn’t because of the quality of the men, but of the women? You’d have never abandoned your vows.”

“No. I wouldn’t.” And she’d have never married a man for his money either. “Neither of us has called off the relationship.” She hesitated, realizing the words she was about to say were true and that they frightened her. “There’s still a story between Gerard and me.”