Elusive Echoes (34 page)

Sandy averted her gaze for just a moment.
When she met Mel's stare again, her eyes looked sad. "He thinks you
would have done anything to get a lead on finding your
daughter."

The wound that probably
never would heal gaped just a little more at Sandy's words.
"I
would
have done
anything. Anything
but
hurt Sean—hurt
anyone
else. It's killing me that he wouldn't let me
explain." She cradled her injured hand, which had begun to ache
without the pain meds. She plucked the prescription bottle of pain
pills from counter and toyed with it, not really wanting to take
one. "I should have known Denny didn't know anything about my baby.
I didn't trust him. I was stupid. I guess you know how that all
turned out anyway."

Sandy nodded. "Justin told us. I'm so sorry,
honey."

Mel thought she'd cried herself out, but to
her chagrin, more tears fell. "I just feel like I let her
down."

"You were in a bad
situation. The adults in your life failed
both of
you
." Sandy paused, her hand on the door. "Are you going to be
okay here alone? I can call Ryan and tell him I'm staying the
night."

"I'm fine. Finding out about my baby hurts
but—" Mel looked down, biting her lip. "I—we need to talk about the
partnership. I can't stay if Sean—if we—"

Sandy dropped her hand from the door. "Have
you talked to DC?"

Mel shook her head. "He called but I was
asleep. He left a message to call him Monday at the latest."

"Denny is accusing you and Sean of being in
on his insurance fraud scheme. The horse he brought to Sean isn't
even Devil's Advocate. That horse died in the original fire."

Mel grabbed her kitchen table for support.
"No! Anyone who knows Sean knows he'd never do anything like
that."

Sandy leaned on the little table. "And you?
Would you do something like that?"

Anger flared, replacing the
despair Mel had been wallowing in. "Do
you
think I would use Sean like
that?"

Sandy lifted a shoulder. "I'm telling you
how it looks from the outside. Everyone tells me it's been you and
Sean since you were kids. But then they mention the time you spent
away. How you came back different."

"I
was
different. I was broken when I
came back."

"If it makes you feel better, most people
are giving you the benefit of the doubt, saying your brother forced
you to help him."

"I love Sean. I always have.
There is
nothing
that could force me to hurt him." She frowned. "Even the need
to find my daughter."

"Are you still broken?"

"Are you asking me that as your partner?
Because you don't trust me either?"

Sandy stepped back and sighed. "I'm asking
you that as your friend . . . because you feel broken to me."

Mel sighed, wiped her tears. "Maybe I
am."

"Give yourself time to heal. You know, maybe
you should talk to someone."

Mel stared in horror. "You think I'm
crazy?"

"I think you've been through a lot." Sandy
shrugged. "Just—please don't do anything too quickly. Sean's . . .
you know how slow he takes things. Sometimes, when his heart's
involved, he seems to need time to catch up."

Mel stared at the woman who had become her
best friend. "He hurt me. I needed him to believe in me and trust
me the way he needed me to trust him about my baby girl."

Sandy raised an eyebrow. "Took you a bit of
time to get there, too, didn't it?"

"But I didn't accuse him of doing something
to hurt me."

Sandy tilted her head to the side and
regarded Mel with a half smile. "No, you didn't give him the
chance. You didn't trust him with the information and didn't give
him the choice of how he would react before you closed him
out."

Mel stared, unable to move. "You're right.
Because I was afraid he wouldn't be able to accept the ugliness of
my time with Nick. And look what happened. Sean's answer whenever
we have an argument or whenever he has doubts is to run and
hide."

"You know, his whole life has been about
losing people he loves. Some, like Ryan . . . like you . . . came
back. Some, like his mom, didn't. He's always been a giver. He
gives so much of himself that sometimes there's nothing left for
him."

Mel gave in, went to the fridge, and poured
a glass of apple juice. She weighed the bottle of pills in her hand
thoughtfully, then opened it and took one.

"Bottom line is, your brother's trying to
make you and Sean take the fall for something you say you're not
involved in. You need to decide if you're going to do something
about it." Sandy pulled a large gold envelope out of her bag. "Did
you put a copy of your will in the safe downstairs?"

Mel started. "Excuse me? That's a random
question. And no. I have my will up here."

"Then you might want to give this to DC,
since it's got all your information on it and lists Denny as your
sole heir should you die." Sandy laid the envelope on the
table.

Mel cringed at the sight of Sandy's name in
Denny's ultra-neat handwriting.

When Mel reached for it, Sandy stopped her.
"Don't touch it. Give it to DC the way it is. You know how he
doesn't like his evidence contaminated. The thing is, I wonder if
your brother put that in the safe when he broke in. And Mel, the
tampering with your car—makes me think he was planning to kill
you."

Mel stared at Sandy in disbelief. "But I
don't have anything."

Sandy's laugh was genuine. "Check out the
net worth of this bar sometime. Oh, and it's really late, so I'm
not going to argue with you about this. Stop putting half your
salary back on the books unless you want me to treat it as an
investment."

"Sean told you?"

Sandy laughed. "No, but now that I know he
knew about it, I own him." She pulled the door open. "If you're
sure you don't need anything, I'll call you tomorrow."

Mel sat and stared at the wall for a long
time after Sandy left. It cut to the bone that Sean believed she
would hurt him for any reason. But it just plain enraged her that
Denny was trying to make things worse for them. She couldn't figure
out his angle. She'd have to talk to the sheriff tomorrow and make
sure he knew Sean had nothing to do with any of this.

****

"Thanks for coming here on your day off,
DC." Mel poured the sheriff a cup of coffee, parking it on the bar
in front of him.

"Aw, you know I'm never really off duty." He
glanced around. "This place looks different with no customers.
Almost peaceful." DC took a long drink. "That's good. Thanks."

"Sandy said Denny is implicating Sean in the
fraud scheme."

DC's eyebrows went up and he
sent Mel a considering glance. "He's implicating
both
you and
Sean."

"Sean had nothing to do with it."

"Melanie, do you realize you're implying
that you were working with your brother?"

"Will that get Sean cleared?"

DC sat back on the barstool and crossed his
arms in front of him. "What's going on, Mel? Come clean here. The
real story. I can't help anyone if you don't tell me the
truth."

"I'm telling you that Sean didn't even know
the man pretending to be Dallas Northrop was really Denny DeVayne
until I told him so right after the fire." Mel's hands shook. If
she could do nothing else, she could make sure Sean's name was
cleared.

She slid the envelope Sandy had left with
her across the bar. "We found this in the safe here. I haven't
opened it but Sandy has. She says there's a will in here,
supposedly my will, leaving everything to my brother in the event
of my death." She leaned on the bar. "This isn't my will. I would
never have made Denny my heir. I'm guessing Denny put it in the
safe the night he broke in."

"I thought you said he hadn't gotten into
the safe."

Mel shrugged. "I didn't think he had. Point
is, whatever's in here, I didn't write it."

"You realize this means nothing in the
context of whether you and Sean were helping your brother with his
scheme." But DC set the envelope with his hat. He took another
drink of coffee. "Tell me what he had on you, Mel. What was he
holding over your head?"

"He hinted that he knew how I could find my
daughter. I had a baby when I was fifteen and Nick stole her from
me right after she was born."

DC slumped on the stool and
blew out a breath. "So you
were
the hypothetical person you asked me
about."

She held his gaze without flinching. "Yes, I
was."

The sheriff shook his head, his mouth
tightening into a harsh line. "I was hoping it was just someone you
knew."

Mel lifted her shoulders. "Turns out the
baby died before Nick could sell her and he left her in a trash
can."

"That's—wow. I'm sorry, Mel." DC averted his
eyes but not before she saw a flicker of pain. "Do you think
DeVayne knew this?"

She shook her head. "I don't
think so, but who knows? Either way he knew I
didn't
know it. Look, DC, all I care
about is making sure Sean's in the clear."

"As far as I'm concerned, Mel, I heard what
Denny said to you and some of it seemed like you knew about the
whole scheme." He shrugged. "And some of it sounded like you
didn't. But none of what DeVayne said implicated Sean. In any case,
everything's in my report. The FBI will want to talk to you, so I'm
sure they'll be in touch. I'm not really handling this
investigation."

She walked him to the door. "Thanks again
for coming to see me, DC."

"No problem. By the way, how's the
hand?"

She held it up, smiling wryly, and wiggled
her fingers. "Doing this hurts."

He laughed. "Then don't do that."

She closed the door behind DC and turned the
lock. Silence fell in the darkened barroom. Mel looked around,
remembering the first time she'd walked in, answering Sandy's ad
for help. She'd been so scared. Not of whether or not she'd get the
job, but of being back in Orson's Folly. And of seeing Sean again.
He'd been dating someone when Mel had returned, but it hadn't
lasted long after she was back. Even so, it had taken her and Sean
years to get together, to find each other again. And less than a
week for Denny to wrench them apart.

Except, she realized now, they'd both pretty
much managed to screw things up themselves. They hadn't needed help
from Denny at all.

She picked up DC's half-full coffee cup and
carried it toward the kitchen, stopping at the end of the bar to
hurl it at the wall instead. China shattered and fell in pieces to
the floor. The liquid blossomed like an inkblot on the wall, little
streams running downward to form tiny brown rivers.

"Mel?" Sean's voice came from behind
her.

Breathing heavily with her pent-up emotion,
Mel turned in the direction of the voice. He hung in the doorway,
his brows pulled together in a frown of confusion.

"How did you get in here?" she demanded.

"I used the key on your ring with the car
keys to unlock the back door. Ry helped me bring your Jeep
back."

"Thank you."

"Can we talk?"

Was this it, then? Had he come to return her
Jeep and break things off? She nodded. "Okay. Here? Or do you want
to go someplace else?"

He looked like he didn't want to be anywhere
with her. But he sat at the bar on his usual stool.

"Dad told me about your baby.
I'm—sorry."

Mel shook her head slowly. It was a fresh
wound every time someone said they were sorry. For Sean to mention
it was like having her heart shredded. She began to tremble.
"Please don't. I don't want to talk about it."

"Honey, you're grieving."

Mel held up a hand. "Just stop. You don't
understand. You can't possibly, so please just don't."

"Mel, please," he whispered. "Please don't
go back to shutting me out."

She blinked in surprise. A half laugh
escaped. "You don't get it, do you? It's not me shutting you out.
It's you shutting yourself out this time."

Sean stared at her in stunned silence.

"You think I'd deliberately hurt you. You
think I let my brother hurt you so I could find out about my baby,
that I would make that choice." It was getting hard to talk around
the lump in her throat. The more she reasoned it out, the more she
realized that it had been easy for Sean to blame her, because he'd
never really trusted her to choose him over everything and everyone
else.

"I want you to know I understand. You were
afraid for her. She was just a child. Denny used her like a carrot
to lead you into helping him. You wouldn't have done it if not for
your little girl." He stood and walked around the bar.

Mel backed away. "Is that what you think?
That I helped Denny hurt you?"

Sean hesitated, then nodded twice, short and
sharp. Each nod felt like a punch to the gut. "Mel, I
understand."

Her heart pounded madly against her chest
wall. "And . . . you forgive me?"

His response was instant. "Yes, of
course."

Mel actually felt her soul being torn in
half to match the pieces of her heart. Tears spilled over and she
let them. He forgave her. But he had no doubt in his mind—or his
heart—that she'd been guilty.

She held out her left hand. "I promised I
wouldn't take this off. You'll have to do it."

Sean stared, first at the ring, then at her
face. "I don't understand."

"I know you don't." Mel
struggled to keep her voice even and businesslike. "Sean,
you
have been in my heart
from the time we were kids and sat together on that big
rock.
You
have
been my world. Everything good, everything real I ever had in my
life came from you."