Holly Grove Homecoming (19 page)

“Same here,” Carly said, relaxing against him. His warmth enveloped her, and she wanted nothing more than to spend the morning in bed with him.

But she thought too much of Myrna to risk her being frightened and worried for no reason. She squeezed Trooper’s biceps. “You need to go. I don’t want you to go, but you really should.”

“You’re right.” Trooper blew his breath out in a long sigh, kissed Carly on the top of her head, and released her. He pushed himself up on the side of the bed and reached for his shorts. “What are your plans for the morning?”

“Well, since I seem to be unusually relaxed, I think I’ll rest a while longer. Then I really should write, but I’m more in the mood to continue my research online. What about you?”

“I need to go through those reports I got from the sheriff but I’m not really ready for that yet. Let’s go to Knoxville.”

Carly gaped at him. “Knoxville? What’s in Knoxville?”

“Some old newspaper files, for one thing. And, more importantly, my favorite Mexican restaurant. Have you noticed that you can’t get authentic Mexican food in Holly Grove?”

Carly laughed. “I have. Fortunately, I’m able to survive on the frozen Mexican dinners I buy at the supermarket.”

Trooper buttoned his jeans and reached for his shirt. “Those frozen dinners are better than nothing but for some reason, I have a real hankering for the authentic stuff. Are you game for a day trip?”

“Absolutely. What time do you want to leave?”

“I’ll be here to pick you up around one this afternoon if that’s okay with you.”

“Sounds perfect. I’ll be ready. But you mentioned old newspaper files. Are you going to a newspaper office before we go to the restaurant?”

“Yep. I talked to someone at the paper a few days ago and learned that they have the twenty-year-old papers available on microfiche. I want to see what was reported about the murders and apparently this is the easiest way to do that.”

Carly nodded. “I’ll help. Since we know the approximate dates when stories would have run, going through the back issues shouldn’t take too long.”

“You’re right. And then we’ll have our Mexican dinner.”

“Sounds great,” Carly said, smiling.

Trooper had finished dressing and moved to stand near the door leading out into the hallway. Carly climbed out of bed, walked over to him, and wrapped her arms around his waist. “If your aunt Myrna wasn’t likely to worry about you, I wouldn’t let you go.”

He pulled her close and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Nothing would make me happier than to stay but…” He paused to shrug one shoulder. “Neither of us wants Aunt Myrna to worry.” He stepped out of her embrace. “See you around one.”

“I’ll be ready.” Carly let her arms drop to her sides and flashed him a smile. She didn’t want to give him the impression that she was clinging. After all, she was the one who had initiated their lovemaking last night. Naturally, Trooper wouldn’t have turned her down. He was too considerate for that, but that didn’t mean he wanted their relationship to change appreciably. She’d have to remember to try to come across as a colleague rather than a lover.

“See you later.” Trooper hurried down the hall and opened the front door, turning at the last minute to shoot Carly a quick wave. Then he paused. “By the way…”

“Yes?”

“I almost forgot about the need to get your window repaired. As soon as I get to Aunt Myrna’s, I’ll call the glazier and see what time he can come by here. I’ll ask him to try to make it this morning so as not to interfere with our trip.”

“I’d completely forgotten about the window,” Carly admitted. “Thanks for handling that for me.”

“No problem. I’ll talk to you soon.” He turned and let himself out the door.

Carly no longer felt like going back to bed so after taking a nice long shower, she dressed in shorts and a tee and wandered into the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. FluffBall was there ahead of her, meowing her displeasure. Carly suspected the kitten was upset because she’d been shut out of Carly’s bedroom where she loved napping on the chair next to the window—the chair that might now harbor slivers of glass.

“I’m sorry, Fluff,” she said soothingly. “I’ll let you back in my bedroom as soon as possible. And because you’re upset, I’ll treat you to some wet food this morning.”

A few minutes later, the cat was happily devouring her treat, so Carly could now devote her attention to her own pursuits. It was still short of seven thirty, so she had plenty of time to do something with her morning.

But what to do? She needed to write but doubted she could concentrate. Perhaps she’d hop online again and see if she could track down any more references to the murder of Trooper’s parents.

But that prospect was less than appealing too. What she really wanted was to step outside for a while, away from the air conditioning, and to enjoy the cool air and heady fragrances of the morning before the day heated up too much. Besides, she should probably check the ground outside her bedroom window. She suspected most of the broken glass had ended up inside her house, but if any had fallen to the ground, she should pick it up before the glazier arrived.

She slipped on her oldest pair of sneakers and grabbed a couple of plastic grocery bags on her way out the back door.

The morning air was already humid, but she still enjoyed the feel of it on her skin. It was rather like a warm embrace, enveloping her with silky moisture that smelled of grass and honeysuckle.

The dew hadn’t completely dried yet, so she was glad she’d not made the mistake of coming outside in her sandals. Even her sneakers didn’t protect her ankles from the wet grass, which had grown considerably higher than usual and was interspersed with weeds that had shot up taller than the grass. She wrinkled her nose, aware that she should have hauled her mower out of the shed sometime this past week, but the weather had simply been too hot to work outside lately.

Picking her way slowly across the backyard, easing her way through the tall grass and the weeds, she rounded the corner of the house and bit back a scream.

Mr. Abbott stood under her bedroom window staring up. He turned when Carly gasped aloud, and his round face took on a bright pink hue that could not be completely attributed to the heat.

“Mr. Abbott, what are you doing?”

His shoulders drooped and he blew his breath out in a long, slow sigh. “I’m sorry, Miss Morrison. I really am. I’m almost certain it was Marge who broke your window last night but I didn’t want her to get in trouble, so I lied to Nelson. I was afraid he’d call the sheriff and Marge would have to go to jail. You know she hasn’t been herself since Larry died, and I worry about her.”

Carly’s anger dissipated. She’d always liked what she’d seen of Ralph Abbott, and she didn’t want to add to his troubles, but neither did she want him protecting his wife if she was unstable enough to hurt someone.

“I don’t think Trooper would have called the sheriff, but we need to do something to ensure that Mrs. Abbott doesn’t continue to harass us. Do you have any ideas?”

“I’ve talked to her already, Miss Morrison. She just wants Nelson to go away. She’s so afraid he’s going to make folks think bad about Larry all over again.”

Carly chewed on her lip for a minute. What she wanted more than anything at that moment was to assure Mr. and Mrs. Abbott that she was almost certain she and Trooper could prove their son was innocent of murder and that he was, in fact, a victim himself.

But she couldn’t afford to say anything just yet. Not when she hadn’t managed to learn what had become of Eric. So she forced a smile. “I don’t want to cause Mrs. Abbott any trouble, and I’m sure Trooper doesn’t either. Please try to explain to her that Trooper isn’t looking for information that would reflect badly on your son.”

He nodded. “I’ll try. In the meantime, I’d like to pay for getting your window fixed.”

“That’s not necessary, but thanks anyway. Trooper is having someone stop by this morning to take care of it.”

Mr. Abbott nodded again. “Okay, but if you change your mind, just send me the bill. And I assure you that I’ll try to talk to Marge again before I go to work. I’ll tell her I know Larry wouldn’t want her acting this way.”

“Okay. Thanks.” Carly watched her neighbor turn and slowly make his way back across her side yard and then onto his own property. She couldn’t help feeling sorry for the man. He’d lost his only son twenty years earlier and for all practical purposes, he’d also lost his wife.

But if she and Trooper succeeded in proving that Larry hadn’t been a murderer, perhaps Mrs. Abbott’s condition would improve.

Carly turned and made her way back to her front porch where she sank down onto one of the chairs and sat staring out at the street lost in thought. She really wanted to tell Trooper what she’d learned from Eric, but she’d sworn to the boy that she wouldn’t tell anyone what had happened to him.

She’d kept her word up to this point, but she was beginning to think it was time to break her vow. If what little she knew could help Trooper learn the truth and in turn help prevent a predator from harming another boy, that surely took precedence over her promise to Eric.

She’d done everything she could to locate the boy, and she would keep trying, but she’d come to believe that Eric would understand her reasoning for sharing information with Trooper. After all, Trooper had been damaged by that predator just as much as Eric, although in a different way.

Okay, she’d made up her mind. She would tell Trooper this afternoon on their way to Knoxville. He might be upset because she hadn’t told him earlier, but…

Her train of thought was interrupted when a vehicle pulled up next to the curb in front of her house. Large sheets of glass were attached to the outside of the truck bed, leaving no doubt that the glazier had arrived.

Carly pushed herself out of her chair and moved to the edge of the porch, waiting as the man exited his truck and walked around the front.

He carried a clipboard in one hand and raised the other in a friendly greeting. “Good morning. Are you Miss Morrison?”

“Yes. And you must be the gentleman who’s come to repair my window.”

“That would be me all right. Name’s Howard James. Trooper and me were in school together. I was glad to hear from him this morning. I told him I’d stop by here on my way to my first job and see what needs doing. Want to show me where the broken window is?”

“Sure. Right this way.” Carly led him upstairs and stood back while he moved the plywood away and took some measurements. Then he put the plywood back.

“Well, this won’t take long, but I’ve got to go to another job first. I promised Miz Marcum I’d fix her kitchen window first thing this morning. I figure I can be back here by ten o’clock.”

Carly nodded. “That will be fine. Trooper and I are going to run to Knoxville, but we aren’t leaving until around one.”

“I’ll have it done in plenty of time.” He stopped and rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, except for getting the caulking I need for your job.”

“Caulking?” Carly frowned at him.

“I’m running low on caulking and I’ll need some more for your job. I’ll have to make a trip into the hardware store to pick it up. That’ll slow me down some since it’s out of my way. I gotta go north to get to Miz Marcum’s.”

“Are you talking about Mr. Starr’s store?” Carly asked.

“Yep.”

“Could I pick it up for you? I need a few things from there anyway.”

“In that case, yes, ma’am. Here, I’ll just write down what I need and Arlis can pull it together for you and charge it to my account.” He pulled a piece of paper off the tablet attached to his clipboard and made a few notes, then handed the paper to Carly. “Here you go. Just give that to Arlis and tell him it’s for Howard James. He’ll take care of it.”

“No problem.” Carly flashed him a smile. “And I’ll be expecting you around ten.”

He smiled back. “That works fine for me.”

Carly walked with Howard down the stairs, then watched from her front porch until his truck pulled away from the curb. She stepped inside and grabbed her purse and cell phone off the hall table. She really did need to talk to Mr. Starr about weed control for her lawn.

Besides that, she welcomed an errand that would help keep her busy this morning. She couldn’t visualize settling down to do mental work when her mind insisted on dwelling on the night she’d spent with Trooper and the outing they had planned for today.

A tiny smile of contentment lifted the corners of her lips as she hurried out to her car and backed out of the driveway.

* * *

T
rooper had heard
Howard James’ truck pull up and had watched out his bedroom window as Carly got out of a chair on her front porch and greeted him. They chatted a minute before Carly led the glazier inside.

Although he was tempted to go across the street, Trooper decided against it. When he’d called Howard that morning, his former classmate had given every indication that he’d like to spend a good bit of time chatting with Trooper about their high school days even though they had not been close friends. Trooper had finally managed to get away by saying his aunt was calling him.