“Why didn’t you explain just what had happened at Carruthers and Yale before?“ Colby held up one palm before she could answer. “Never mind. You’ve already told me why. My own fault. I didn’t ask.“
“It’s my problem. No reason you should be burdened with it.“
He eyed her closely. “You’re the most self-contained woman I’ve ever met, Diana.“
“I don’t think I’m any more self-contained than you are.“
He considered that. “We’ve got a few things in common, I guess.“ He resumed his pacing. “Damn, I wish I could spend the night with you.“
“Going back to your place to play chaperon?“
“Don’t laugh at me. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.“ Colby braced one hand against the wall and gulped the rest of the brandy. He stared out into the darkness. “Think he’s sleeping with her?“
Diana was taken aback. “How would I know? You’re his father and you’re a man. What do you think?“
“I can’t tell for sure. Maybe I don’t want to know for certain. Hell, Diana, if he gets her pregnant, if he’s as stupid about that kind of thing as I was at nineteen…“
“I assume that along with teaching Brandon how to cook and how to use good manners, you also taught him the facts of life and how to protect himself and a woman?“
“Are you kidding? I wasn’t going to have him grow up believing the usual garbled batch of rumors, misconceptions and mythical nonsense a boy picks up from his buddies. I drilled the facts into him from the time he was old enough to understand that little girls were different.“
“What kind of sleeping arrangements did they request?“ Diana asked. “One bedroom or two?“
“I didn’t give them a chance to make a request. I put them into separate bedrooms as soon as we got back to Aunt Jesse’s.“
Diana couldn’t restrain a burst of delighted laughter. “Poor Colby. I’m sorry,“ she managed when he scowled at her. “I guess it’s not really very funny from your point of view.“
Colby came away from the wall in a smooth, lithe movement, set down his glass and reached out to draw her quickly to her feet. “You’re right. It’s not funny. Brandon is a kid of nineteen. He hasn’t got a glimmer of what he’s getting into.“ Colby paused thoughtfully. “Maybe I should try to talk him into living with her for a while before they make a decision on marriage. I have a hunch the charm of the idea would fade quickly once they started playing house.“
“Easy for you to suggest. You’re the father of the young man involved. The parents of the young woman involved may not like the idea of their daughter living with a man at all.“
“Damn.“
Diana smiled up into his thoroughly frustrated eyes. “I suppose you should be getting back to your place. The duties of a chaperon are quite demanding, I understand.“
Colby swore again. Then he kissed her heavily. “Later,“ he promised in a husky voice as he reluctantly released her. “We’ll finish this later.“
Specter grinned a wide doggy grin as Colby stalked out the front door.
“So, what’s she like?“ Eddy Spooner asked after the second beer. “She any good in bed?“
“Get stuffed, Spooner. I didn’t come here to talk about Diana. She’s none of your business.“ Colby leaned back against the front porch steps and took a swallow of beer. He was already regretting his decision to drive out here this afternoon. The bonds of past friendship were looking weaker and less meaningful by the minute.
“Okay, okay, I was just askin’.“ Spooner concentrated on his beer for a while. “Maybe I’m just feeling a little envious, you know? Been a long time since I had me a woman. That Miss Prentice of yours is about the first really interesting female we’ve had in town in ten years. She looks classy but kind of chilly. Can’t blame a guy for wonderin’
what she’s really like.“
Colby didn’t respond to that. Diana was anything but cold when she lay in his arms, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to share that information with Eddy Spooner or anyone else. Colby considered everything about Diana his own personal turf. He was beginning to realize he didn’t want any other man even coming close to her.
He rolled the cold beer can between his palms and stared out at the swaying fir trees that surrounded the old, ramshackle house. The Spooner place looked almost the same as it had twenty years ago, he reflected.
A general air of neglect still enveloped every inch of it. The front porch still sagged, and one window was boarded up. There wasn’t a scrap of paint left on the wood. Eddy’s father had always been too drunk most of the time to tend to home repairs.
Both front and back yards were still filled with weeds and the skeletal remains of old automobiles. Eddy’s old Camaro was parked in front. The paint job on the car matched the design on Eddy’s fatigues, but Colby knew the engine would be in perfect condition. Eddy’s one great passion in life had been cars, Colby remembered.
“You ever marry, Eddy?“
Eddy closed his eyes and rested his head against a post. “Yeah. Girl I met right after I got out of the army. Her name was Angie. Lasted about a year. Then the bitch ran off with some dude from Seattle.“
Colby nodded in silent commiseration. “Never tried it again, huh?“
“There was another one. A sexy little redhead. I thought she’d be okay. Had the wedding all set and everything. I was gonna move down to Portland and find a good job, you know. But just before the big day, I found out she was still sleepin’ with an old boyfriend of hers. Figured there was no point tryin’ again after that. Bitches are all the same.“
“You like working at the gas station in town?“
Spooner shrugged. “It’s a job. Nothin’ else has ever worked out for me, not the way things worked out for you.
Came close a time or two, but things fell apart.“
“Close to what?“ Colby glanced at him curiously.
“Close to gettin’ a real break.“ Spooner stared at Colby through narrowed eyes. “Once, just after the army, I met a guy who had a line on something real hot. Something he’d set up during his tour in the Philippines. He was gonna cut me in on a piece of the action. But things folded.“
“Tough.“ Colby wondered what the action had been, and decided it would be better not to ask.
“Then, another time, I thought I had something set with some dude who owned a string of massage parlors. I was gonna manage a couple of them for him. Sort of be a bouncer, you know? Except I was gonna get a piece of the business. But that didn’t work out either. There were one or two other things but, like I said, nothin’ ever worked out.
Everything always went wrong.“
“So you came back here. Never thought you’d wind up in Fulbrook Corners, Eddy. I thought you hated this town as much as I did.“
“I still hate it,“ Spooner muttered. “But after Pa died, I owned this place free and clear, and Clark gave me that job down at the station. What was I supposed to do?“
“I don’t know,“ Colby said honestly, hating the whine in Eddy’s voice and simultaneously feeling guilty for his reaction. Eddy’s life had been a hard one.
“Hell, you wouldn’t understand. You got lucky. You weren’t trapped here the way I was.“
“No.“ Luck came in a variety of guises, Colby decided.
“You always came out on top.“ Eddy was silent for a moment. “Saw your kid in town today. Knew who he was the minute he drove into the station. He looks like you, but he’s got those Fulbrook eyes, don’t he?“
“Yeah. He’s got Cynthia’s eyes.“
“You gonna introduce him to old lady Fulbrook?“
Colby’s mouth twisted slightly. “Are you kidding? She met him once when he was a baby and told me she never wanted to see him again.“
“Dumb question, I guess.“ Spooner paused to open another can of beer. “I read one of those books you wrote.
Shock
something or other.“
Colby felt a flicker of surprise. “Did you? I didn’t think you liked to read, Eddy.“
“TV’s more interestin’ than books, usually, especially now that Sam’s renting movies down at the grocery store.
Got me a VCR and old Sam’s got a few of them X-rated flicks he keeps behind the counter.“
“I see. Old Sam sounds like he’s decided to move with the times. What made you read
Shock Value!“
“Dunno. Guess I was kind of curious about what you’d been up to. Everybody in town was talkin’ about that
Shock
book when it came out. Reckon they couldn’t believe it was you who wrote it. Bessie must have sold a hundred copies the first week it came into her shop. She said everyone in town wanted to read it. Maybe they was worried you’
d put a couple of local folks in the story.“
Colby couldn’t suppress a certain grim satisfaction. “It was the first book of mine to hit some of the major bestseller lists.“
“Make you rich?“
Colby grinned. “Not exactly, but I’ll admit it sure changed a few things for me and Brandon.“
“I always figured that of the two of us, you’d probably be the one who’d make out okay.“
The bitter resignation in Spooner’s voice bothered Colby. “It’s not too late for you, Eddy. You’ve got no obligations. No wife and kids to tie you down. You’re only forty-one. Why not get out of this town and try someplace else?“
“Sure. Doin’ what, for instance?“
“You’re a first-class mechanic. You always had a way with cars. You could get a job in Seattle or Portland or maybe somewhere in California. Good mechanics are always in demand, especially by people who own those foreign jobs.
Hell, some of those folks would probably put you on a retainer just to keep their BMW or Mercedes running.“
“I told you, Colby. I already tried to get out of here. Things always fall through. I never had the magic touch like you did.“
“There was no magic touch, Eddy.“
“Who are you trying to kid? You always got the breaks. I couldn’t believe it when you actually talked Cynthia Fulbrook into marrying you. Richest, prettiest girl in town. Nobody could believe it. People talked about it for months after you and she left. Old Lady Fulbrook and her old man ranted and raved and cursed you up one side and down the other. Then old man Fulbrook croaked and we heard about Cynthia dying in that car crash. Old lady Fulbrook hasn’t been quite the same since. Serves her right, the old bat. Always thinkin’ Fulbrooks was so much better than everyone else.“
Colby concentrated on an old tire that was lying in the front yard. He didn’t want to think about Margaret Fulbrook. “When did your father die?“
“The year I finished my hitch in the army. Drunk as a skunk, as usual. Went out huntin’ and fell off the top of Chained Lady Falls. No loss. To tell you the truth, I was kind of surprised he bothered to leave me this place. Course, who else did he have to leave it to?“
“That’s a fact. You were his only kin.“ Colby remembered the bastard who had been Eddy’s father. The man had been violent when he drank. Eddy had suffered from that violence frequently when he was younger.
However erratic life had been with Aunt Jesse, however emotionally neglected Colby had been while Jesse pursued her poetry, at least he’d never been subjected to physical violence the way Spooner had.
Eddy finished his beer. “You still hate this town as much as you used to?“
“Yeah,“ said Colby. “I still hate it.“
“Why’d you come back?“
“I needed a place to finish the book I’m working on. And I decided it was time to get rid of Aunt Jesse’s place. Too much trouble keeping it rented to summer tourists.“
“Larry Brockton down at the real estate office said once that you’d given him instructions to keep the place fixed up and rented out during the summer.“
“I didn’t know what else to do with it after Aunt Jesse died.“
“So you’re here to take care of that old business and finish another one of them horror books, huh?“
“Right. I thought Fulbrook Corners might offer some inspiration for my writing,“ Colby explained dryly.
“Inspiration! Here? That’s a laugh.“
“It is, isn’t it?“
“Come to think of it, Chained Lady Falls might be sort of inspirational for a horror writer,“ Spooner remarked slowly. “Remember that night we were gonna spend there?“
“I remember it.“
“You never told anyone I didn’t stay with you in that damned cave.“
“No point.“
“Guess I never thanked you for keepin’ your mouth shut about that.“
“Forget it, Eddy. That was a long time ago. It doesn’t matter now.“
“That’s kind of what I figured. It doesn’t matter much now. Nothing does.“
Diana stood staring up at Chained Lady Falls. The billowing mist dampened her hair as well as the oxford cloth shirt she was wearing with her khaki trousers. The rocks at the base of the falls were slippery. She’d almost fallen once or twice, trying to get close enough to see the hidden entrance to the cave. She still couldn’t spot it through the thundering water.
And she still wasn’t sure why she had driven out here to take another look at the falls this afternoon. Something about the place had drawn her back for another look. She peered upward, trying to envision a path behind the white veil. The cliff behind the falls looked sheer, offering no obvious footholds.
But Colby had said he and Eddy Spooner had climbed up to the cave the time they had dared each other to spend the night in it. There must be a path. She just couldn’t see it.
The legend of Chained Lady Cave had begun to fascinate her. She’d awakened this morning thinking about it, and now she couldn’t seem to stop.
At her side. Specter whined softly. Absently, Diana reached down to pat his mist-dampened coat. “What’s the matter? Don’t like getting wet, do you? You’ve never been real big on taking baths. Well, come along, then. I think we’
ve seen enough.“
Diana made her way carefully over the wet rocks toward the car. “I wonder if Colby would agree to show me the inside of that cave?“
She pondered her own curiosity all the way back to her cottage. It wasn’t until Specter gave a sharp, warning bark as they pulled into the drive that she realized someone was sitting patiently on her front porch.