“They’ll stop you. You’ll leave over your dad’s dead body.”
She shot Chris a look. “Don’t be such a drama queen. If I decide to do it, I won’t tell them. I’ll just go.”
“Deni, you’re making a terrible mistake. I really wish you’d reconsider.”
She finished filling the garbage can, then dragged it out. “I’ll die if I stay here. If we’re going to be stuck in the dark ages, I at least want to be with the person I love. I have to get there before he . . .” Her voice trailed off.
“Before he what?” Chris asked. “Before he forgets about you?”
“Of course not. He’s not going to forget about me. He loves me.”
“Then let him come to you. It’s his job to come for his bride, especially when he doesn’t know if she’s dead or alive!”
Deni’s face burned. “I’m sure he would if he could. The fact that he hasn’t tells me something’s wrong. All the more reason I have to go.”
Disappointment glistened in Chris’s eyes. “Now who’s being the fool?”
Deni was getting tired of this. What did Chris know about love and commitment? What did she know about moving on? “Chris, if you had a fiancé you’d feel exactly the same way.”
“If I had a fiancé, I would hope I’d take better care of myself for when he did come, than to put my life into the hands of a stranger.”
“I’m not putting my life in Vic’s hands. If things get bad, I can leave him and set out on my own.”
Chris shook her head. “You’re not thinking. What will you eat if you set out on your own?”
“I’ll find something.”
“Where? Berries on trees?”
“God will provide,” Deni said.
Chris groaned. “You’re testing God, Deni. You’re not expecting provision, you’re demanding it. You know it isn’t God telling you to do this.”
Deni didn’t want to hear anymore. “I’ve got to get the water home.” She dragged it across the grass.
Chris kept standing there, hands on her hips. “Deni, you need to pray about this.”
Deni spun to face the girl. “I’ve been doing nothing but praying. Praying the outage would be over. Praying I’d hear from Craig. Praying that my family would stop driving me crazy. Praying that they’d find the killer. God isn’t listening to my prayers.”
“Deni, you’re going to regret this.”
“No, I’m not.” Water sloshed out of the garbage can onto her legs as she pulled it to the street.
Chris crossed the grass and stepped in front of her. “Will you at least tell me before you go?”
“Maybe. If there’s time.” Deni wished Chris would just get out of the way and leave her alone. But she wouldn’t budge.
“I don’t want you to go. I’ll miss you. Who am I going to hang out with?”
Deni softened then. “It’s not like we’ve had a lot of time on our hands. I’ll write. Maybe they’ll reinstate the Pony Express.”
“It’s not the same.”
Deni tried to smile. “Hey, it’s not like we’ve kept in touch all these years, anyway. Until the outage, I hadn’t seen you in a year.”
“That was different. I always knew I could get in touch with you if I needed to. But now . . . if someone’s not right down the street . . .”
Were those tears in Chris’s eyes? Surprised, Deni stopped trying to get by her. “Chris, don’t cry.”
Chris just looked at her. “We used to be best friends, Deni, and I still think of you that way, even if you didn’t ask me to be in your wedding.”
Deni felt like a heel. She’d only asked sorority sisters and had forgotten all about Chris.
“I don’t want you to go, not just for selfish reasons. I don’t want you to do it because it’s stupid.”
Deni sighed. “You know, I haven’t even decided for sure yet.”
The grim look on Chris’s face told her she didn’t believe her. But she didn’t say so.
“Just promise you’ll tell me first.”
That wasn’t a promise Deni wanted to make. But she supposed she didn’t have to keep it. “Okay, I promise.”
Chris just looked at her, clearly not buying a word of it.
Deni didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “I have to get home now. My parents are waiting for the water.”
Chris stepped out of the way. Deni rolled the garbage can past her, aware that she hadn’t fooled her for a moment.
forty
The screams almost made Doug jump out of his skin.
They echoed over the neighborhood, and Doug dropped his shovel and grabbed his rifle from the patio table. It was broad daylight. Surely the killer wouldn’t strike now! Doug stood still, trying to determine the origin.
Kay grabbed Beth and Logan and hurried them to the house. “Inside. Now!”
Deni and Jeff just stood there.
“Dad, which house is it coming from?” Jeff asked.
Doug shook his head. “Not sure. Both of you, go inside. Jeff, stay on guard in case anything happens. I’m going to find out.”
Deni caught her breath. “Dad, no. You might get shot.”
“I’ll be careful. But somebody needs help.”
As Jeff pulled Deni into the house, Doug saw Brad crossing the yard. He still limped, and that wound on his head hadn’t yet healed. “You hear that?” Brad asked.
“Yeah, I hear it,” Doug said. “Come on, let’s go see what’s going on.”
Brad followed him between the houses behind him, and as they came out on the other street, they saw Hank Huckabee, who lived across the street from the Morton’s, heading for the front door.
The screaming grew louder as they got closer. “That’s it,” Brad said. “It’s the doctor’s house.”
Hank banged on the door, and the screaming stopped. They all looked at each other.
Finally, the door swung open, and Derek looked out. “What?”
“We heard screaming.” Doug looked past him into the dim house, and saw Cathy standing there, her red face wet with tears.
She was gasping sobs. “See? They think you’re a killer! Sneaking around at night, lying about it—”
Doug tightened his grip on his rifle as he stepped inside, but Derek didn’t seem to be armed—either physically or emotionally.
“Cathy, please calm down,” Derek pled. “I know you’re upset, but—”
“Let them arrest you! Let them lock you up for something you haven’t done. You deserve it for what you have done!”
“What’s going on?” Brad asked her. “Did he hurt you?”
Cathy’s rage seemed to melt into sorrow. “Did he hurt me? Ask him!”
Doug, Brad, and Hank turned to Derek as he slowly sank onto his couch, his hands on his face. “Derek?” Doug said.
Derek slid his fingers down his jaws. “This is a personal matter, guys. I’m sorry we were so loud.”
Doug looked at Cathy. “It sounded like screaming.”
Derek nodded. “That’s because she was really upset. She thinks . . . that I’ve been cheating on her.”
“Thinks?” Cathy spat out the word. “I don’t think it, I know it. When I took him back the last time, he swore he’d be faithful. But I knew in my heart he wouldn’t. And then I heard those girls talking about him being the killer because he’s been sneaking around at night while he thought I was asleep. He’s not a killer, he’s a cheat! A stupid, lying cheat! And here I am, five months’ pregnant!”
She punched a fist into the cushion next to him. “What’s the matter, Derek? Am I so fat and ugly now that you have to look for someone else?”
Doug wished he hadn’t come. The last thing he needed was to be smack-dab in the middle of a domestic squabble, refereeing a marriage. Brad was shaking his head, and Hank was backing toward the door.
“I’ll bet these men don’t cheat on their wives. I bet they thought their wives were beautiful when they were pregnant!”
The woman needed comfort. He’d ha
ve to send Kay to talk to her. And if he could get Derek alone, he’d throttle him.
“Cathy, I’m sorry,” Derek said. “I was just going to talk to her. Nothing happened.”
“You thought you could get away with it. I should have known when I found out we’d moved into her neighborhood! I should have left you while I still had a way to do it.”
As disgusted as Doug was at the man, he could see the remorse on Derek’s face as he stood up to face her. “I don’t want you to leave, Cathy. I love you.”
She reared back and slapped him. Derek stumbled back, his hand on his face.
Cathy’s eyes flashed. “How dare you tell me you love me? How dare you say those words to me?”
A knock sounded on the door, and Hank’s wife stepped into the house. “Cathy? Honey, I couldn’t help hearing . . .”
Relief washed through Doug. Thank goodness. Maybe Stella could calm the woman down, while he took Derek outside to talk.
Cathy fell into the woman’s arms, weeping over her dying marriage.
Doug looked down at Derek. “Want to go out back and talk?”
Derek nodded.
“Look, I’m not comfortable getting in the middle of a fight,” Hank said. “I think I’ll just go.”
Doug waved as Hank slipped out the door.
Derek led him and Brad into the backyard. Closing the door behind him, he said, “We should have closed the windows and doors before the screaming started. Didn’t mean to alert the whole neighborhood.”
“Well, we’re a little on edge these days.” Brad’s words were weighty, given his obvious injuries.
“I knew I was in trouble when the sheriff questioned me about sneaking around at night.” Derek rubbed his jaw and looked into the pool. “Man, I must be the stupidest idiot on earth.”
Doug sat down in a patio chair. “What did you tell the sheriff?”
“I told him the truth. That I was going to see another woman.” He looked from Doug to Brad. “I told him her name. He confirmed it. But if you don’t mind, I don’t really want to broadcast it to everybody. She’s married. I don’t want to break up her home.”
Brad shook his head. “You should have thought about that before you did it.”
“Tell me about it.” Doctor or not, Derek reminded him of Jeff the day after he’d caught him drunk.
“Don’t worry, I’ve learned my lesson. I’m not seeing her again.”
Doug wasn’t convinced. “Sounds like you’ve had this lesson before, and didn’t learn it then. Cathy has every right to leave you, you know.”
Derek nodded again. “Maybe she won’t. It’s really hard right now. Nowhere to go. Her parents aren’t in town. I guess I at least have that going for me.”
“Wait a minute,” Brad said. “Do you really want to save your marriage?”
Derek looked up at him. “Well, yeah. I mean, I do love her.”
“Man, you got a funny way of showing it.”
“I know! I told you I’m stupid. I’m twenty-nine years old. I know better.”
Doug struggled for something positive to say. “You know, Derek, your wife is going to need some grand gestures. Some assurances. She’s going to be angry for a long time. She won’t trust you. If there’s any hope of saving your marriage, you’re going to have to change.”
“I know. And I will.”
Doug knew he meant it . . . right that moment. But it was doubtful that his resolution would last. “Having your wife stay with you out of hardship and limited options hardly makes for a solid marriage. But I guess it’s a start. You have a baby on the way. Be a man, why don’t you? Start being a good father by loving your baby’s mother.”
Derek assured them that he would, but Doug didn’t have much hope.
As he and Brad started back home, Brad looked over at him. “You believe all that?”
“What? That he was having an affair?”
Brad nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, of course I do,” Doug said. “He came clean. Confessed it.”
“Something bothers me about it.” Brad looked down at the ground as they walked. “I mean, the whole fight was because Cathy assumed he was sneaking around because he was having an affair. What if she assumed wrong?”
Doug wasn’t following him. “Well, didn’t he say the sheriff confirmed it?”
Brad seemed to think that over. “Yeah, he said that. But do me a favor. Ask the sheriff, to make sure.”
Doug frowned. “Okay, but why can’t you ask?”
“Because I think Scarbrough’s got it in his head that I’m still a suspect.”
“No, he doesn’t. He knows you didn’t kill anyone.”
“Oh yeah? Then why didn’t he arrest our little vigilante gang? It’s because the sheriff thinks they did the right thing.”
Doug wished he could reassure Brad, but how could he when he suspected the man was right? “Then we’ll just have to find the real killer.”
“Oh yeah,” Brad said, a note of determination in his voice. “I’m highly motivated to find him and prove that the black neighbor had nothing to do with it.”
forty-one
“Why did I let you talk me into this?” Soaked with sweat, Kay leaned all her weight into the Expedition, pushing it the last of the four miles home. Logan sat behind the wheel, steering it as the rest of the family pushed. “It’s not like we don’t have anything else to do.”
“I’m dying! We have to stop.” Beth looked close to fainting. “Can’t I drive for a while?”
“Sure.” Doug called up to Logan, “Son, swap places with Beth. Let her drive for a while.”
Logan put on the brakes and hopped out. “Glad to. I’ve never seen anything move so slow.”
“Oh right, Twerp,” Deni said. “If we’d only had your help we could have gotten home an hour ago.”
“I wouldn’t have had to stop so often. You girls are such wimps.”
Deni was clearly too tired to fight back. “Just shut up and push.”
Jeff shoved with all his strength. “It wouldn’t have taken so long if all these stupid cars weren’t in our way.”
It was true. Several times along the way they’d been unable to get past without moving other people’s cars out of the way. Since most of them had been left in “drive” when they stalled, it proved to be easier than they expected. It had taken them all morning to move it this far. They’d had to stop every fifteen minutes to rest and catch their breath, and Doug and Jeff had needed the rests as much as Kay and the girls had. The uphill roads were a nightmare. And the uphill roads with cars blocking them were worse still. Thank goodness most of the trip was downhill.
Though having the car at home served no purpose, Doug claimed he would just feel better with one of their vehicles in their possession. He’d insisted that it would help the community if people moved their cars out of the streets. Then their bicycle paths would be less hindered, and life would be grand. Or something like that.
When they finally reached the Oak Hollow sign, Kay wanted to weep with relief. They turned the car into the neighborhood, rolling it the last few yards to their driveway. She couldn’t wait to get some water.
Brad’s wife, Judith, was in their side yard, hanging out wet laundry on a line she’d strung up between two trees. She looked at them like they were insane as they rolled the Expedition past. Kay took the opportunity to quit pushing and went to talk to her.
“How far’d you push that thing?” Judith asked as she approached.
Kay shoved her sweat-soaked hair back from her face. “Four miles. Oh yeah, it was fun. You should try it. Gotta have it home, you know, so you can look at it each day and remember the good ole days.”
“I don’t think so. Ours are each twenty miles away.”
Though the sight of the family struggling to get it into the uphill driveway should have been amusing, Judith’s eyes were dull.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little jumpy.”
“Brad doing better?”
“For now.”
It was clear Judith was depressed. She couldn’t blame her.
Kay pulled a wet shirt from the laundry basket. “So how’d you wash all these? I’ve been putting it off, but I’m going to have to do it this afternoon.”