In Memory's Shadow Read online

  “Mom? Mom!” Steffie’s voice turned to alarm. “Mom!”

  Keely was beyond hearing anything but the roaring in her head. Her stomach began roiling and she quickly jumped to her feet and ran outside just in time to become violently ill.

  “Mom, what’s wrong?” Steffie cried out, fast on her heels.

  Keely couldn’t answer as she collapsed on the bottom step.

  “I’m calling for help,” Steffie insisted, pulling Keely’s cell phone out of her purse.

  “I’ll be fine,” she whispered.

  But Steffie wasn’t listening.

  Keely had no concept of time as she sat there, breathing deeply and trying to calm the insane emotions racing through her body and echoes of screams in her head. The sound of a vehicle pulling in behind her truck faintly registered in her mind as did the sound of a man’s quiet voice and Steffie’s agitated one.

  With her face still resting against her knees she saw a pair of khaki-clad legs ending in highly polished brown cowboy boots before the legs bent slightly and a warm broad hand lingered on top of her head.

  “Hey.” Sam’s rusty-sounding voice was a welcome balm to her tattered emotions.

  Keely noticed a strip of silver in her line of vision. She gratefully accepted the stick of gum he held out. She pulled off the wrapper and bit down, savoring the burst of peppermint in her mouth.

  “Does that help?” Sam asked quietly.

  She nodded glad he hadn’t asked if she felt better, because she doubted she could feel any worse.

  “She walked inside and just looked really sick,” Steffie explained. The girl stood back, her face white with fear. “I thought she was going to faint or something.”

  “Steffie tends to exaggerate things,” Keely said feebly, starting to stand up. Sam held out his hand and she placed hers inside the warm palm, allowing him to pull her to her feet. “I guess lunch disagreed with me.”

  Sam didn’t look as if he agreed with her explanation. He looked past her at the door that stood open. The darkness beyond was uninviting.

  “Checking out the house?” he asked.

  Keely nodded. She didn’t look over her shoulder. “Maybe there isn’t enough air in there or something.”

  Steffie opened her mouth to argue, but a motion from Sam silenced her. Keely envied the ease he had in hushing her. Keely never had that kind of luck. She made a mental note to find out his secret

  “Why don’t I take a look around for you?” he offered.

  “Thank you.” She didn’t protest. At that moment she didn’t care if she ever went inside again.

  Sam walked up the steps and disappeared inside. In her mind’s eye, Keely could see him walking through every room, then climbing the stairs to the second story and checking out the five bedrooms. She swallowed the bile that started to rise up her throat again. Steffie hovered nearby as if fearing her mother would topple over at any moment

  “Steffie, why don’t you sit down?” she suggested. “I’m fine.”

  She wasn’t convinced.

  Keely shook her head. “Why did you call the sheriff?”

  “You were really sick and you looked so scared. I knew he could make things better,” she explained.

  Keely took a deep breath. “Steffie, you can’t just call up the town’s sheriff any time I look as if I’m going to toss my cookies.”

  “You didn’t just look as if you were going to toss ‘em, you did,” she reminded her.

  “Well, no matter, you can’t call a man whose job is to protect people from criminals just because your mother happened to…”

  “Freak out?” she supplied the description.

  “Allow her imagination to take over,” Keely corrected.

  “I found a lot of dust and it looks as if some mice took up residence in the kitchen,” Sam said as he walked outside. “But there’s no sign anyone’s broken in,” he concluded.

  Keely smiled her thanks, but she could feel her facial muscles working overtime.

  Sam peered closely at her. “You okay?” he asked.

  She nodded. “I guess I should stop watching those horror films about empty houses in the middle of woods.”

  He still didn’t look convinced. “Why don’t I follow you back to your house.”

  “I need to do a walk-through and make notes on what needs to be done,” she protested, although the last thing she wanted to do was step inside there again.

  Luckily, Sam overrode her protest. “I think you’d better make it another day. If you want, I’ll even go in with you.”

  “No, I’ll be fine,” she lied yet again.

  Sam’s smile was slow in coming and warmed his brown eyes.

  “I’ll still follow you home.”

  Sensing he wasn’t leaving until she did, Keely climbed back into her truck while Steffie bounced around to the other side.

  As she drove down the main road, she was aware of the sheriffs Bronco close behind. Sam honked twice when Keely turned onto the road leading to her house.

  “He’s very nice,” Steffie commented as Keely pulled into the garage.

  Keely had no trouble guessing the direction of her thoughts. “Steffie?”

  “What?” She gave her mother her most guileless look.

  “No.”

  “What?” Innocence coated the word.

  “You know very well what” Keely climbed out and headed for the back door.

  “What? Because I said he’s nice? But he is! And he’s not really old, either. Well, maybe a little older than you, but is that so bad?” Steffie followed her mother inside.

  “I have enough complications in my life, thank you very much.” Keely dropped her purse on the kitchen counter and walked straight to the refrigerator. She wanted nothing more than a glass of ice water.

  “I’d just like to remind you that you’re not getting any younger,” she went on. “And a nice man is hard to find.”

  Steffie made sure to escape to her bedroom before her mother could go after her.

  “With her arguing skills, she’ll make a wonderful attorney,” Keely muttered, sipping her water. She was determined to put that episode at the house out of her mind and chalk it up to erratic hormones or something. She’d go back to the house tomorrow and step inside and everything would be just fine. She knew it would.

  It was in those eerie hours of the night when anything can happen that the ugly dream crept in to destroy her sleep.

  Chapter 3

  Keely was asleep. She had to be dreaming. So why did the child’s whimpers she heard seem so real? One tiny part of her mind told her she was dreaming and to just fall back fully asleep. But the whimpers in her mind refused to stop. The cries that seemed to come from a distance were those of a frightened adult. The picture in her sleeping mind was hazy, but she imagined she could see the vague outline of a child climbing out of a bed. Searching for slippers, putting them on and heading for the door. Her tiny hand covered the knob and slowly turned it. She shouldn’t go out there. If she did, she’d never be the same again. It was as if someone screamed the warning in her head

  Keely shot up in bed. Her body felt clammy from the sweat coating her skin and her heart pounded so hard she feared it would burst out of her chest. When she raised her hand to wipe her face, she noticed it shook violently and that her face was slick with sweat. Since Steffie hadn’t

  burst in to And out what was wrong she had to assume she hadn’t cried out as she thought she had. She collapsed back against the pillows, forcing herself to breathe in and out in a steady rhythm to calm her racing pulse.

  She wanted to turn on a light to banish the horrors from her nightmare. She didn’t want to turn on a light because she feared what she might find. Instead, she focused on the moonlight spilling in the room. She decided the shadows streaking the room were safer than full light

  As Keely lay there, she thought back to her nightmare. She hadn’t eaten anything that evening to cause one. She hadn’t watched a scary movie, either. Not even
a suspense. So why did she dream something so powerful that it scared the hell out of her?

  “Next time I’ll eat a jar of sour pickles before bed,” she muttered, turning her pillow over and punching it into a desired shape.

  It was still a long time before she fell back asleep.

  Keely wasn’t sure when the feeling of something wrong started to invade her bones. For the next few days at odd times a strange prickling sensation would travel up her spine and she’d catch herself looking out the window as if she thought someone was out there watching her.

  “Expecting company?” Steffie asked one evening as Keely fingered the drape to look outside although it was too dark to see much of anything.

  She jumped, still holding on to the edge of the drape she now wished she’d closed earlier.

  “I guess I’m still not used to all the peace and quiet” She jumped again when an animal howled in the distance.

  “Oh, yeah, real quiet” Steffie drawled, dropping into a chair and draping her legs over one of the arms. “I’ve never heard so many bugs and all sorts of critters in my life. I guess it’s better than car horns and noisy neighbors, but you’d think they’d get tired of chirping and whatever else they do all night. How can they call country living quiet with all that going on?”

  “Homework done?”

  She nodded. “Will you double-check my math for me please? Some of those problems are so weird! I don’t know why the teachers bother with something we’ll never use in real life.”

  “I’m not sure you’re doing any better asking me. English was my stronger subject.”

  Steffie examined her nails. “I could call Sam and ask him about the problems. Lisa said he’s really good in math. He helps her all the time.”

  “Sam? You mean Sheriff Barkley.”

  “He said I can call him Sam. Just like the deputy who’s sometimes driven us home said I can call him by his first name.” She wrinkled her nose. “Although, I really think somebody should bring Rick up to date about women’s issues. He is such a chauvinist pig. We heard him talking to one of the other deputies once about this woman he dated and he actually rated her performance in bed!”

  Keely was stunned. “Do you mean to say he was discussing sex in front of you girls?”

  “Not exactly. He was obtuse enough to think we two dumb little girls wouldn’t understand all those guy words,” she said, rolling her eyes.

  Keely smiled at her daughter’s sarcasm.

  “I mean, like we wouldn’t know what he’s talking about.” She threw up her hands. “The guy is so lame!”

  Keely broke into a coughing fit. She groped for the back of the couch and dropped onto the cushion.

  “Steffie, I am too young to die because my daughter sent me into shock about her knowledge of sexual situations,” she wheezed. “And please, keep it to theory only for a very long time. Say for another twenty or thirty years.”

  “Mom, I know there are a lot of fifteen-year-old girls having sex, but I don’t plan to be one of them,” she informed her mother with a resigned air. “Personally, I don’t think it’s all that it’s cracked up to be.”

  Keely decided this wasn’t the time to tell Steffie it was more than what it was cracked up to be when a woman was with the right man. No, she’d wait and explain it to her in five or ten years.

  “As if I know what the right man is,” she muttered to herself, heading for her office. She booted up her computer, prepared to finish the updated logo for a fledgling clothing boutique.

  “Mom, what would you think of my getting a 300 ZX?” Steffie called out

  “We’ll visit the toy store this weekend to see if they have any available,” she called back in what she called her sweet mother’s voice. “One of those nice models you can build yourself, so you can feel it’s your very own.”

  “Ha, ha, ha. Very funny.”

  Keely fingered the door key to her family home. For the past week she had put off going back there. Every time she thought about driving over, her stomach began churning and the roaring sound began in her head again. Just as it did this time. She released a deep sigh and hooked the key back on the key rack set up near the back door. She started to reach for it again when the phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Keely? It’s Sam Barkley.” His low mellow voice seemed to wash over her like a warm spring rain.

  She smiled. “And to what do I owe the honor of this call?” she teased

  His grave tone should have been her first warning. “It’s Steffie.”

  She gripped the receiver. “What about Steffie?” she demanded. For some reason the memory of the unsigned note she had received popped into her head. All she could remember were rambling words about families. Not her baby. She couldn’t stand it if anything happened to her Steffie!

  “It was an accident at school. Now she’s fine,” he hastily assured her. “But she had to be taken to our clinic. I’ll be by to pick you up.”

  “Where is it?” she demanded. “I can drive myself.”

  “I think it would be better if I drove. I’ll be there in less than three minutes.”

  Keely counted off the seconds as she made sure her medical insurance card was in her wallet. She was out front waiting when Sam’s Bronco skidded to a stop.

  “What happened?” she asked the moment she climbed into the passenger’s seat.

  Sam put the truck in gear and took off.

  “An accident during her gym class,” he replied.

  “Why didn’t they call me?” Her question came out more like a wheeze.

  Sam looked over and noticed she was holding on to her purse strap with a death grip. “They tried but couldn’t get through for some reason. Lisa told them to call me,” he continued. “I tried you by phone first as I drove over there. We have a small-town mentality here, Keely. Neighbors help each other.”

  She looked out the window, blind and deaf to everything but her imagination.

  By the time Sam stopped in front of a two-story white framed building with a sign in front indicating it was a medical clinic, Keely had imagined the absolute worst. She quickly stumbled out of the vehicle and ran up to the door.

  “Stephanie Harper,” she panted to the woman standing behind the waist-high counter. “I’m her mother.”

  “Oh, Mrs. Harper, yes.” The woman smiled. “Your daughter is fine. Hello Sheriff.” She nodded at Sam.

  “Fine.” She took several breaths to slow her racing pulse. Fear was rapidly overshadowed by anger at the woman’s calm reply. “I find out my daughter has had an accident so serious she had to be taken to the doctor and you dare to stand there and tell me she’s fine?”

  “Allison, you’re scaring people again.” A slender woman wearing jeans, cotton shirt and a white lab coat walked out. “Mrs. Harper, I’m Dr. Rogers.” She held out her hand. “Why don’t you come on back and take a minute to calm down before you see your daughter? Sam, I’m glad to see you were able to find her for us. Go ahead and have a seat.”

  He nodded and took a chair in the waiting area

  “What happened to her?” Keely followed her down a hallway. She vaguely noted people in several of the examination rooms, looking out with curious eyes.

  The doctor gestured for Keely to enter the end room which was her office.

  “Steffie had an accident during her gymnastics class,” Dr. Rogers explained. “She fell off the balance beam and got the wind knocked out of her, along with cutting her chin open. I had to put four stitches in it.”

  Keely felt queasy and feared her face had turned an unattractive shade of green. Her one weakness was her daughter’s health. When Steffie was sick, Keely was too. Blood and Steffie did not mix well in Keely’s stomach. She blinked several times to clear the dancing lights in front of her eyes.

  “Sit down.” A pair of hands planted themselves on her shoulders and pushed her into a chair. “Put your head between your knees. Take several deep breaths.”

  “I once fell and ended
up with a chunk of glass in my hand,” Keely wheezed. “Six stitches and I didn’t turn a hair. I passed out when Steffie was a baby and had her first shots.” She straightened up. “Otherwise, she’s all right?”

  The woman smiled. “The only thing she was upset about was that she couldn’t ask me questions while I stitched her up.”

  Keely managed a wan smile. “That sounds like Steffie. When she had her tonsils out the doctor was positive she was trying to talk to him. I was surprised she didn’t ask him to videotape the procedure for her.”

  “Well, she won’t have much fun talking for a while.” She leaned against her desk. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  Keely nodded. “Other than wanting to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head, I’m fine. On second thought, I’m dragging Steffie in there with me too.”

  She smiled. “Keely, I think I’m going to like you. I’m Melanie.”

  Keely stood up. She was relieved the nausea had left and her world felt balanced again. “Melanie, would you like me to get my daughter out of here before the pain medication wears off and she vies for the Academy Award for major injuries? She can act the part of an ailing patient like no one you’ve ever seen before.”

  “Sure, Allison has the paperwork. As a precaution I’d advise you keep her home about a week, but there’s no reason why she can’t go back after that.” Melanie picked up a prescription pad and scribbled on it. “She can take these when the pain gets too much. They’re like a heavy-duty aspirin.” She tore the sheet off and handed it to Keely. “Bring her back in a week to have the stitches out. I don’t think it will even leave a scar, although your daughter did assure me that she didn’t mind if it did. That it might even add character.”