I can assure you she isn’t. Since it made enough sense that Mary Catherine might be right, the next time Mada called, I asked her straight out if she was Mary Pfeifer, or the visitor calling herself Maggie Bieber.”
Garreth’s stomach sank. He cursed silently. Lane knew about him. He could only hope she was unaware of him still being in town.
“Mada swore she has never been pregnant and never stayed at a boarding house in Sacramento. She also said she wasn’t Maggie Bieber…because she’d have to give a damn about someone to visit them and back then everyone except Ben and me could go to hell as far as she was concerned.”
“That’s cold.”
Anna sighed. “She was such an angry child.” She laid the album in front of Garreth and opened it and flipped a couple of pages. “That’s Mada in the middle.”
The photograph showed three little girls sitting on the running board of a twenties-style touring car in front of a farm house — fields lay visible off to one side behind it — whose porch had a fan of gingerbread between posts and roof. The description Mrs. Armour gave of the photograph in Lane’s bookcase sounded like a copy of this one.
“The other two are my daughter Mary Ellen, who’s a eighteen months younger than Mada, and their cousin Victoria. Mada and Victoria were about seven then.”
He studied the photo. “She’s the same size as the others.”
“Here’s the school picture when she was nine.”
No mistaking Lane now…towering a head above other children.
“Look at these.” She turned pages to show him grade cards with all A pluses — except for Deportment — and certificates for First Place in spelling and debate, blue ribbons in Archery and Track. “Mada is the smartest of all my children. She won all those, but would have given them up in a moment to be six inches shorter. My heart ached for her so often. She would come home crying because the other children taunted her about her height. When we sent her to high school in town, she stopped crying. She developed a terrible temper, flying into a rage at the least remark. She was always fighting someone. That only made matters worse, of course. ‘I hate them,’ she would say to me, with such savagery in her voice. ‘Someday they’ll be sorry.’ I’m so glad she’s past that now.”
Past anger because now she had her revenge…. living off people’s blood, reducing them to cattle, leaving some of them nothing but dead, drained husks. When she had been bitten by the vampire who made her, whoever it had been, Garreth doubted she loathed what she became, as he did. He suspected she had seen instantly what the change would bring her and embraced hell willingly, even greedily. In her place, perhaps he would, too.
In sudden uncertainty, he closed the album. He wanted to understand how Lane’s mind worked, the better to deal with her, not sympathize with her…not feel her pain.
“Is something the matter?” Anna asked.
He gave her a quick smile. “I was just thinking no wonder Mada ran away.”
She laid her hand on his arm. “It wasn’t all bad. We had happy times, too. It’s still good when everyone’s home together, once Mada relaxes. She’s always upset at first by the things that have changed since her last visit. Once she said she wished she could stop time so everything and everyone here would stay the same forever. Her hugs almost crush me when she leaves again, and I see tears in her eyes. I think those exotic places she works don’t make her happy.”
Guilt pricked Garreth. Lane enjoyed coming home. Only this time, instead of a happy family reunion and holiday, she would find a cop waiting, a date with retribution and justice. Creating yet more victims, as the arrest wounded Anna and the rest of the family, especially when made by someone they had thought friendly.
“So I’m a little surprised she says that instead of coming home this year, why don’t I come to her and spend the winter in Acapulco, where it’s warm.”
Dismay knocked out the guilt, like a shot to the gut. Lane not come here? Dodge the trap he had given up so much to set? “It would be warm. Are you going?”
She sighed “I don’t know. I can’t imagine Thanksgiving and Christmas away from my children and grandchildren. Maybe I’ll go after Christmas.”
Garreth forced a smile. “Let me know if you’re going, and where you’ll be staying. I’ll send you postcards from the shivering north.”
He worked the rest of his shift feeling sick and hollow. His head argued for calm. If Anna wanted to remain here through Christmas, Lane might still come home. But his gut felt otherwise. She knew he was still alive and looking for her, and even if Anna said nothing about him remaining in the area, Lane probably assumed he had notified local law enforcement to watch for her. She would not risk being seen here. Which meant he had to follow Anna to Mexico.
So at every call, guilt stabbed him. Staying on Lane’s trail meant abandoning this job…violating an oath he had just taken. Deserting people who had taken a liking to the person they thought he was…who would be angered and hurt learning friendship and trust had been betrayed.
12
The questions still churned in his head when Garreth woke. He tried pushing them aside, telling himself just to wait and see what Anna did. Meanwhile, he had a job to do, a job that deserved to be performed to the best of his ability for as long as he could.
Stepping outside and hearing distant yells from the direction of the football stadium reinforced that thought. Oh, yes, the big Homecoming game against Bellamy. Kickoff was supposed to be at, what, seven? That meant light cruise traffic downtown now…turning crazy after the game. Especially if Baumen won. Maggie and Duncan had traded shifts for tonight, Garreth remembered. He looked forward to the contrast of working with Duncan.
An ear-splitting shriek greeted him coming up the hall at the station, Sue Ann, bouncing up and down in her chair, two fists pumping the air. “Yes, yes, yes!”
Garreth stared at her. She wore a Bride of Frankenstein wig and a Timberwolf tattoo on one cheek.
Nat looked up from a typewriter with a laconic smile. “TD by Baumen, answering the one Bellamy made five minutes into the game.”
“How does she know — ” Garreth began.
Breaking off as Ed Duncan’s voice, triumphant, came over the radio. “
“Ed took a radio to the game with him.”
Sue Ann still danced in her chair. “I told him to, so I’d know what’s happening.”
“KBEL is broadcasting the game,” Nat said.
“KBEL!” Sue Ann blew a raspberry. “They’re all about how
Garreth shook his head. This was worse than home when Shane was playing. “I think you need to calm down, Sue Ann. You’re making your hair go all frizzy.”
She stopped and blinked at him, then patted the wig, giggling. “You like my new look?”
“It’s over a week to Halloween isn’t it?”
“This isn’t a costume. It’s part of my bridesmaid dress I picked up today and I thought I’d try out.”
Now Garreth blinked. “Bridesmaid dress?”
“My cousin Julie is getting married on Monday so it’s a Halloween theme wedding. Doris is switching shifts with me. We women are all Brides of Frankenstein, though Julie has even bigger hair than this, and the men are Draculas and the wedding cake is a Dracula Castle. Guests are invited to wear costumes, too. The wedding’s at seven but Communion and Mass ought to be over by eight-thirty so come by the reception at the high school gym. It’s going to be a blast!”
Nat said. “My wife Charly and I will be there with our dancing shoes on.”
