Concealed (2 page)

“Maybe I don’t want to flirt,” Sydney snarled through her smile, refusing to give in to her desire to strangle Melissa.

“Liar.”

“Let the man enjoy his coffee.”

“Let the man look at you, dammit.” Melissa wrenched her arm and flung Sydney behind the counter. She hurried up to the window to ask about the turkey club, avoiding Wade for a few seconds longer. Pete slid the order through the window with a grin and, over her shoulder, Sydney could hear Melissa accosting Wade.

“So, do you have plans tonight?”

“No.” He took a long sip of his coffee.

“Seeing anyone?”

Sydney almost smacked her in the back of the head with her tray. She showed great restraint, though, but found herself holding her breath, waiting for his answer.

Not that she was interested, but if he said yes, she just might burst into tears.

Without skipping a beat, Wade grinned. “You asking me out, Mel?”

It was such a shame she was standing behind Melissa because at that moment, Sydney would have killed to have seen her friend’s face. The unflappable Melissa was actually rendered speechless—a monumental feat, for sure. Agnes snorted, hiding a grin behind her mug, enjoying Melissa’s stunned silence as much as Sydney.

Melissa recovered and tried to sputter an explanation. “M-Me? A-Are you s-serious? I-I never, I mean you’re cute but… I don’t mean like, cute like I want to go out with you, I mean cute like a puppy. No, you’re no puppy. Maybe a baby tiger. Or a shark, but they’re not really cute. I’m gonna shut up now.” Melissa spun around and retreated into the kitchen with Pete.

“Well played, Wade,” Agnes said with a laugh, slapping him on the back. “I’m going to go ask the reverend why he talks so damn long during those sermons on Sunday. See if I can’t make that vein pop out of the side of his head for a few seconds.” She winked at Sydney and excused herself, giving them an audience-free moment.

Sydney offered Wade an appreciative smile. The only thing she though could have derailed Melissa from her line of questioning was and atomic bomb—although apparently a gorgeous sheriff with a sarcastic streak worked too. “You’re my hero.” She slipped the sandwich across the counter and topped off his coffee. There was one piece of pie left in the case so she quickly grabbed it and placed it beside his lunch.

“Thanks for the pie.”

“It’s on me. It’s the least I can do after assaulting you.” She stood there awkwardly when he didn’t break their eye contact. Part of her wondered if he had something to say, but then she was startled from her reverie by Pete’s booming voice.

“Syd, it’s three o’clock. You better hustle over to school or little Faith is going to be ticked at you for picking her up late.”

“Oh, my gosh!” Sydney looked down at her watch. She was never late to pick up Faith. Never. She couldn’t be. But the distraction of Wade and Melissa made her lose track of time. She had been careless, and that couldn’t happen again. She scrambled to get her purse and keys from under the counter then raced out the door. It dawned on her as she tore out of the parking lot that she had walked out on all her customers without a single word.

Including Wade.

Swamped with guilt, Sydney managed to keep it together on the drive to school, but her mind was racing the entire way. How could she have let herself be late? Even five minutes would make a difference. The plan needed to be followed.

Always.

Her fingers tapped out an erratic rhythm on the steering wheel as she tried to stay calm. Years of paranoia never really went away, no matter how comfortable she was in a new location. Something always happened to disrupt her calm. Nine moves in almost six years would do that to a person. Obsessively she scanned the area and noticed an unfamiliar car parked down the street. She tamped down the unwarranted suspicion and tried to get control of her fear.

If only she had been on time!

She leaned across the seat, trying to see around the pickup truck in front of her, but it was impossible. Until she had Faith in the car, Sydney was going to be a ball of nerves. She never liked being apart from her daughter, but now that Faith was in school, Sydney was going to have to learn to deal with that better.

Don’t let Faith see you like this,
she told herself. When it was her turn to pick up, she took a deep breath and stepped out to take Faith by the hand.

“She had a great day,” Miss Westmore said as Faith barreled into Sydney’s arms.

“Momma! I made you something today.”

“I can’t wait to see it.” She looked over at her daughter’s teacher. “Thanks. Have a nice evening.”

Sydney ushered Faith into the car and buckled her seatbelt. The moment she was in the car, the tension and anxiety began to ease. Out of habit, she quickly scanned her surroundings and couldn’t help but feel like she was being watched. Her eyes darted to where the car had been parked on the side of the road. She froze when she saw someone standing beside it. Instinctively she reached for Faith, but when she looked back, the figure was gone.

Or it hadn’t been there to begin with, she told herself. Calm down, Syd. You sound like your mother.

On the drive home, Sydney did her best to reign in her fear. They were fine. They’d always been able to stay longer than this before anything happened. Elton was a blip on the map, if it even was on the map. It was that small. Who would think to look for them there? She made sure everything she did was in cash to keep their trail as invisible as possible.

Sydney glanced at Faith’s reflection in the rearview mirror. She was looking out the window, happily singing a song they must have learned at school today. She was happy and healthy. That’s all that mattered. There was no way Sydney was going to let anything happen to her.

Ever.

It was a promise she had made, and one she intended to keep.

PETE HAD SOUNDED FRANTIC
when he called, asking Sydney to come in for a few hours on her day off. He wouldn’t say much, other than something happened and the diner was packed. Luckily, Agnes was willing to give Faith a bath and get her ready for bed, as long as she didn’t miss the latest episode of Antiques Roadshow. The woman was a godsend.

As her headlights illuminated the parking lot, Sydney was taken aback by the number of cars that spilled out of the lot and onto the road in front of Pete’s Place. Through the windows, she could see bodies milling around or gathered at the tables inside as she drove around back to park. When she got out of the car, she was hit with an icy breeze that sent a shiver down her spine.

Something bad had happened. Sydney could feel it.

Plates were clattering together in the kitchen and the sizzle of the burgers on the grill signaled the rush of hungry customers inside the diner.

“What’s going on?” Sydney whispered to Pete’s wife, Cara, as she tied an apron around her waist. Cara was piling orders of fries onto her tray as fast as her hands would allow. A group of people were huddled around Johnny Rosley, one of Elton’s volunteer firemen and resident idiots, hanging on his every word.

The sadness in the room was palpable. Cara shared the awful news. “They found a woman dead in Greenville. Out past the Richardsons’ property.”

“Oh, my God.”

“The girl was in her early twenties, from what the police can guess. What a shame. Sounds like the poor thing suffered something awful.” Cara shook her head. “I hope they catch the bastard.”

Across the diner, Johnny’s voice continued to boom with more gory details he had overheard on his police scanner.

“It’s sick,” Cara said under her breath. “A woman’s dead and he’s acting like it’s exciting.” There was no missing the dirty look Cara cast Johnny’s way as she muscled past the group to serve her table. His voice instantly lowered, but the crowd just moved closer to hear him better.

“I didn’t realize we had so many rubberneckers in this town,” Melissa said with a huff as she slid two pieces of blackberry pie onto a plate. “They’re like old women, the way they gossip. They found the girl around three and by four o’clock every booth in here was full. And they just keep coming.”

“Ladies,” a deep voice said as someone slid onto the only vacant stool at the counter, “what a sight for sore eyes you both are.”

“Laying it on a bit thick today aren‘t you, Luke?” Melissa said with a laugh.

Luke Carter had grown up in Elton with Melissa and Wade. His dirty blond hair was cropped short at the moment, the bright highlights from a summer spent in the sun gone. Where Wade kept to himself, Luke was outgoing and flirtatious, someone you could easily talk to about any topic. He was a charmer, as Melissa knew all too well. The two of them were hopeless flirts, but after a few attempts at a romance between them, Melissa decided he was more fun to play with than date. They would have made a cute couple, the burly football player tamed by the blonde bombshell, but it wasn’t meant to be. Instead, they settled for good friends.

“Just tryin’ to raise a few spirits around here,” he glanced over his shoulder at the crowd, “because it shakes people up when they realize that bad things can happen in small towns. Even ones as tiny as Greenville. And Elton.”

“Johnny seems to be doing fine.” The details he was spewing about what was found at the scene was making her skin crawl.

“Well, that’s Johnny for you,” Luke said with a shrug. “I guess he’s always had a fascination with the gruesome. When he was a kid, he used to pull the wings off flies and the legs off spiders just to watch them flop around in his hand.”

“That’s disgusting,” Sydney said as she poured Luke a cup of coffee. “Someone lost their life. He shouldn’t be so excited.”

“Did you forget he’s the county’s mortician, too?” Luke asked with a laugh. “Death doesn’t bother him like the rest of us. It’s what he does.”

Overhearing part of their conversation, Pete stuck his head out the window and surveyed the crowd. “Death’s good for business.”

“That’s horribly morbid,” Sydney said, shocked, but from the look of it, Pete was right. All around her, people were huddled together talking in hushed voices and when they weren’t talking, they were eating. As fast as Pete could cook it, they were shoveling it down.

“Remember a few years back when the Parkers lost all that cattle? The same thing happened. People filled this place, hypothesizing about the cause,” Luke offered, trying to distract the girls from the heavy topic.

Pete let out a snort. “As I recall, Johnny insisted it was aliens to anyone who’d listen ‘til Agnes came in here and threatened to shoot him for being stupid.”

“She did take a shot at him once.” Melissa patted Luke’s hand, smiling. “Remember in high school when she and her husband had that old mare? One night Johnny thought he’d be funny and scare the poor thing because she made the oddest noise when she was upset. So late at night, he snuck out there howling and growling at it like a coyote. Agnes strolled out in her nightdress, looked Johnny in the eye, and shot the hat off his head. Then she closed the door, turned out the lights, and went back to bed.”

“She didn’t!” Sydney covered her mouth to hide her laughter.

“Oh, she did,” Luke assured her. “The sheriff showed up at her house with Johnny’s dad. The sheriff asked her if she fired her gun and she said yes, she shot at a deranged coyote that was squawking around her mare. Mr. Rosley got in her face, yelling that it wasn’t an animal, it had been his son. Agnes looked at the sheriff, then Johnny’s dad and said, ‘Well, he does one hell of a coyote impersonation. Keep him off my property,’ and slammed the door in their faces. Her husband, George, never even said a word during the whole altercation.”

“To this day,” Melissa said, handing Luke a cup of coffee, “if Agnes howls, Johnny hightails it in the opposite direction.”

They shared a much needed laugh at Johnny’s expense, until Pete motioned toward the door. “Wade looks like hell. Poor guy.”

“Wade always looks like hell,” Luke mumbled under his breath earning a whack to the head from Melissa. “There he is, moping around for attention.”

Sydney looked at Luke, unable to fathom where the sudden animosity came from. A second ago he was laughing and now he was a sourpuss. It was obvious Luke didn’t think too highly of Wade, but considering he probably had been dealing with the murder in Greenville all day, a little sympathy was in order.

The diner erupted with questions as soon as people realized the sheriff had walked in. Wade didn’t even seem to notice the circus going on around him. Instead, his eyes scanned the room until they locked onto Sydney at the end of the counter. He gave the slightest nod of his head in her direction. There was a deep sadness in his eyes that made her heart ache. Without a word to anyone, he walked through the crowd and slid into a booth in the back corner of the diner.

“I can’t even imagine how difficult this has been for him. He’s been in Greenville for hours.” Melissa shook her head. “You should go talk to him, Sydney.”

“Why me?”

“Yeah, why her?” Luke asked with a growl. “The guy’s been to Iraq, for God’s sake. If he can’t handle this, then maybe he isn’t the half man everyone seems to think he is.” As he walked away he mumbled, “Like I’ve been saying for years.”

“He’s such a jerk when Wade’s around,” Sydney said, incredulous that the same guy who had flirted with them was now storming through the crowd like a missile. “Why the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde routine?”

Melissa refilled a couple sodas before answering. “The two of them have a history. It goes way back. They’ve never gotten along well.” She shrugged. “You’d have to get the details from one of them.”

Sydney could tell Melissa was avoiding the question, but there wasn’t time to get into it because they were swarmed with orders. Pete was piling the food on plates as fast as they could take it out. Cara was bussing the tables while Melissa and Sydney frantically delivered items. When there was a lull in the action, Sydney went back behind the counter and her gaze once again drifted over to Wade.

He was deep in thought as the crowd continued to inch closer. They were desperate for information and he was the prize they were after. Once the first question flew, an endless stream of horrible inquiries followed, which were none of their business and completely inappropriate.

“Was she naked?” Johnny’s disgusting question had Wade grinding his teeth together. He seemed to be using a considerable amount of self-control to keep from punching someone in the face. Without thinking, Sydney snagged a piece of his favorite pie from the rack and pushed her way through the crowd that had assembled around his table.

“Do you have any manners?” Sydney gave a hard shove through the throng of bodies and found herself stumbling in front of Wade clutching the pie in one hand and a fork in the other. The tired smile he gave when she shooed the gawkers away melted her heart. Before she thought to stop herself, she was sliding onto the bench across the table and pushing the piece of pie toward him.

“Hi.”

“Sydney.” He plunged the fork into the crust and dug into the slice.

Sydney watched his lips part to welcome the tiny piece of blackberry pie inside. His teeth were gorgeous and white and straight and… she was staring at him again like some sort of lecherous pervert. The man had been working a murder scene all day and she was thinking about curling up in his lap and kissing him. She quickly looked out the window and shook her head.

“What’s wrong?” The deep rumble of his voice made her hyper-aware of how close he was. She could feel his leg stretch out under the table and bump against her knee.

“Nothing, I’m just sorry that everyone’s forgotten how to behave like human beings.” She nervously tugged at her ponytail and twirled it behind her head into a messy bun. She enjoyed the way he watched her so intently. “So, how was your day?” The grunt of laughter he gave in response made her smile. “That good, huh?”

He took another bite of pie, avoiding the topic. “This isn’t your night to work.”

She hid a smile at his observation. So maybe he had been watching her a little. The thought sent a flutter of excitement through her stomach. She liked the idea of him watching her more than she should have. “Pete needed help when the vultures descended.”

Wade shook his head. “Murder turns normal folks into gossipmongers.”

“Want to know what the LBI has come up with?”

“LBI? What’s that?”

“Lunatic Bureau of Investigation, of course,” she said with a grin. There was such sadness behind his eyes she wanted to do what she could to make him smile.

“Let’s hear it.”

“They said she was a prostitute who was found naked at the edge of town. Old Jim told ten people her body was mutilated with a message scrawled into her skin. He had the whole table believing him, too, until his wife mentioned that was what happened on some police drama he watched last night. Then he shut up pretty quick.”

Wade sat back and continued eating his pie, listening. It was strange to be crammed into the tiny booth with him considering the circumstances, but it felt right. All around them people tried to interrupt their conversation, but he ignored them, his full attention focused on Sydney. She found it incredibly sexy.

“Johnny has a theory that it was a mafia hit, revenge for some bad blood back in Jersey. Personally, I think he just said that to piss off Pete because he burned his grilled cheese.”

He finished the pie and leaned back, casually draping his arm along the back of the seat. “Any others I should know about?”

Sydney counted off the others on her fingers. “The victim of alien abduction, werewolf attack, and the Sasquatch theories were some of my favorites.” She rolled her eyes. “Highly delusional, but entertaining nonetheless.”

A group of men barged over to their table and began peppering Wade with more questions. “Was she tied up? Any signs of a struggle? Did you do a rape kit on her?” The improper musing from the crowd continued until Sydney’s fist slammed down on the table, rattling the fork on Wade’s plate, and stunning the men around them into silence. Wade’s head swiveled in her direction but he didn’t say a word. There was no need to because, disgust and frustration getting the best of her, Sydney erupted with anger.

“Have you all lost your minds? A woman is dead. Dead. Some psycho robbed her of her life, of a future with those she loved. She has a mother and a father somewhere, a family who is probably devastated, and all you can do is play junior deputy coming up with awful scenarios that might have happened, for your own entertainment. Show a little respect, light a candle, say a prayer or two, and stop all the asinine questions!”