Lover's Leap (26 page)

She dressed in gym shorts, a T-shirt—her own, this time—and running shoes, and headed out. Her route took her up Aspen, and when she reached Cemetery Road, she challenged herself to take the hill. She huffed and puffed her way to the top, and once she arrived at the arched iron sign that marked the entry, she paused to catch her breath.

That’s when she noticed Celeste Blessing on her knees, weeding a flower bed, in the oldest section of the cemetery. Now why in the world would she be here, tending the cemetery, this morning? That was a task the garden club tackled on regularly scheduled dates.

Even as she asked herself the question, she dismissed it. Celeste had her own peculiar way of interacting with the world. It was part of her charm. Lori had mentioned she’d had one of those strange conversations with Celeste just yesterday. She’d worried that dementia might be hitting their friend, too.

Of course, every time Sarah misplaced something, Lori was certain it indicated a sign of early-onset Alzheimer’s.

“Hello, Celeste,” she called. “You’re out early.”

Celeste rolled back on her heels. “Hello, dear.”

She stood and dusted off the knees of her jeans. Sarah noted she’d been working in the Murphy family section of graves.
Ah, she must have seen something here that bothered her the other night
.

“I’m so glad to see you. I wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh? What about?”

Celeste waved her over, then folded her arms and leaned casually against Daniel Murphy’s grave marker. Okay, that weirded Sarah out a little bit. Once Sarah approached, Celeste knotted her brow and said, “Of our little group of friends, you’ve always struck me as the most plainspoken. You call a garden spade a garden spade, and you demand accountability in yourself and in others.”

“Um … yes.” Where was this going?

“That’s why I have decided to speak plainly with you in return. You wear your heart on your sleeve, Sarah. Today, the heart I see has a big old crack down the middle.”

Sarah grimaced. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Fine. Don’t talk, just listen. Listen and hear me.”

Celeste stood up straight, then reached out and thumped Sarah on the nose. “Leap like a lunatic.”

“Excuse me?”

“You have been courageous all of your life. Don’t let that courage fail you now. Life has taken you to the edge. It’s time for you to find the faith to leap, and the trust to know that love is the net that will catch you if you need it.”

“Who have you been talking to?”

“I know Cam is planning to leave for Australia when they return from the tournament in Durango. I know that it will be the biggest mistake of your life if you let him go.”

“Celeste …” Sarah protested.

The older woman folded her arms and arched a brow.

Disgruntled, Sarah said, “Aren’t you going to tell me to find my inner angel or something like that?”

“Oh, heavens, no. Your angel is right out there for everyone to see. What I’m telling you is to pay attention. You see, angels notice when their dreams are about to come true.”

At that moment, the bells of St. Stephen’s chimed the half-hour. Celeste said, “Oh, dear. I spent more time with Daniel than I had intended. I must hurry. I’ll see you in church.”

With that, she gave the gravestone a pat, then hurried to her Gold Wing and fired up the engine.

“Tell me that wasn’t a wheelie?” Sarah muttered aloud as she started down the hill.

Celeste’s words plagued her through her run, and later as she showered and dressed.

Leap like a lunatic
.

They bothered her during the late church service.

Leap like a lunatic
.

They even continued to whisper through her mind as she indulged in a most delicious order of veal parmigiana at Ali’s.

Leap like a lunatic!

“Oh, all right!” she exclaimed as she tossed her napkin onto the table and shoved to her feet. Feeling a little wild, she looked at Lori. “Tell Ali to put this on my tab. There is something I need to do.”

She left the Yellow Kitchen and, on foot, headed for the park. She wasn’t exactly sure what she intended to say or do. She just knew she had to see him, speak to him, before the Grizzlies left town. At the corner of Spruce and Fourth, a sense of urgency gripped her. Sarah started to run.

She arrived at Davenport Park just as the yellow school bus pulled into the parking lot. Cam was there, standing beside Colt. He wore jeans and a T-shirt sporting the Adventures in Paradise logo and a Grizzlies ball cap. He looked like a different man from the one she’d spoken with yesterday, wearing a smile instead of a frown, his stance relaxed. When he threw back his head and laughed, it made her heart hurt.

And doubt crept in.
She
couldn’t laugh today if her life depended on it. How could he laugh? Didn’t he feel like his heart was torn in two? Maybe his talk of love was just that—talk. Maybe she should forget all about leaping and keep both feet firmly on the ground.

She hesitated, and that hesitation made the choice for her. Cam was one of the first people on the bus. Sarah stayed and watched as it pulled out of the parking lot, her heart heavy, tears a constant threat. The bus turned her way.

Her gaze met Cam’s through the open bus window as it passed. Upon seeing her, his smile died. Yet he didn’t appear angry like he had the day before. He looked sad and resigned.

Then the bus was past her, and Cam Murphy was on his way out of Eternity Springs. “But he’ll be back,” she murmured. “He’ll be back one more time.”

She had another chance. Would she find the courage to act? Would she leap or hang back again? What was holding her back? Well, she had until Tuesday to get her mind straight. Then she’d have to decide once and for all if she was going to look or if she had faith enough to leap.

Sarah returned home to find Lori packed and ready to leave. Ellen indicated she had a headache and wished to lie down, so Sarah called a teenager to stay with her mother until Sarah returned from the airport.

Mother and daughter spoke very little as they left Eternity Springs in Lori’s new car with Lori at the wheel. The weekend had been an eventful one for both of them, and Sarah suspected they both nursed regrets. She knew she did. An hour and twenty minutes into the drive, Lori finally brought up her father, albeit indirectly.

“Did you know that Nic agreed to board Mortimer?”

Sarah blinked. “During the baseball tournament?”

“Longer. Until he can be sent to Australia. I guess there is quite a bit of red tape where importing a pet is concerned.”

“Oh.”

“Cam should have started the process as soon as he decided to keep the dog. He shouldn’t have waited until the last minute.”

Sarah could think of a number of arguments she could have used in Cam’s defense, but she wasn’t in the mood to defend the man to his daughter right now.

“Are you glad they’re leaving, Mom?” Lori asked, her expression troubled.

Sarah took a long moment before she responded. “Honestly? I’m afraid.”

“Afraid! Why?”

“I’m afraid I’ll learn that letting him go was the biggest mistake of my life.”

After that, they drove another five miles in silence before Lori spoke again: “Because you’re lonely?”

“Because, despite everything, I never stopped loving him, Lori.”

This time only two miles passed by before Lori asked, “Am I the reason he’s leaving?”

Sarah thought it over. Had Lori asked, he might have stayed. But would she have wanted him on those terms? “I suspect if you had asked him to stay, then he would have stayed.”

“What about you? Would he have stayed if you’d asked him to?”

Love. Trust. Faith
. Inwardly, Sarah sighed. “I don’t know. I think maybe he would have, but we never had that conversation.”

Lori’s hands clenched the steering wheel. “Mom, there is something I need to tell you. Logan McClure gave me a file he found in the Trading Post’s basement. It had a bunch of papers in it, including letters from Australia.”

Sarah drew in a breath. “Cam’s letters?”

Lori nodded. “The envelopes were already open, so, well, I read them, Mom.”

Sarah absorbed the news, torn between the desire to scold Lori for overstepping and the need to demand to know what the letters had said. Before she’d decided what to say, Lori continued, summarizing the contents and finishing with “I wish I hadn’t been so nosy.”

“Why is that?”

“Because it just confuses me. He thought he was doing the best thing by staying away. Your parents thought they were doing the best thing for us by keeping him away. It’s not so black-and-white as I thought.”

“Life seldom is, baby.”

“This has all just happened too fast for me. I wish we had more time to …”

“To what?” Sarah asked just as her cellphone rang. Lori waited while Sarah dug it from her purse and checked the number.
Home. Oh, dear. What could this be about?

“Hello?”

“Sarah? It’s Jennifer.”

Hearing panic in the girl’s voice, Sarah tensed. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, Sarah. I don’t know how this happened, but your mom … Oh, Sarah. She’s gone.”

The bottom fell out of Sarah’s stomach, and her hands began to tremble. As Lori steered the car over to the road’s shoulder, Sarah forced the words from her throat. “She … passed?”

Beside her, Lori gasped. She braked the car to a stop.

“No … no … I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant.”

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief and smiled reassuringly to Lori until her sitter’s next words wiped the smile away.

“She’s gone, as in missing. I don’t know how she got out of the house without me seeing her. It had to be one of the times I went to the bathroom. I went twice. I thought she was taking a long nap, and her door was always closed, but then I decided I should check on her, and that’s when I discovered she wasn’t in her room at all! And, Sarah? I think she took your car.”

“The car!”

“It’s not in the garage. I called the sheriff’s office before I called you, and he’s going to put out a bulletin and start looking for her.”

Sarah closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “Okay, call Nic for me, too, would you, please? Tell her what’s happened and ask her to phone everyone. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

She ended the call and relayed the information to Lori. “So what do we do? Go on to the airport or—?”

“No! Of course not.”

“But your job—”

“Is just an internship. She’s my grandmother. I’m turning this car around, Mom. We’re going home.”

EIGHTEEN

The Grizzles trailed 8–2 in the bottom of the eighth during the second game of the day. They’d won the first game 6–1 with Mike Hamilton pitching, but their pitcher for this game had struggled. Cam coached third base. Colt was at first. As the next batter stepped up to the plate, Cam saw Colt answer his cellphone and his eyes widen in alarm.

Oh, no
. Cam didn’t like the looks of that. Colt carried his phone onto the playing field because his wife Sage was only a few weeks away from her due date. He wouldn’t be taking anyone else’s call.
Hope there’s nothing wrong with Sage
.

When Colt glanced his way as he continued his conversation, Cam felt a stirring of unease. At that point the batter hit a line drive into the outfield. Colt motioned the runner to second and ended his call, and Cam’s focus returned to the game. That hit sparked a rally that scored five runs before the end of the inning. At the door to the dugout, he remembered the call and asked, “Is everything all right with Sage?”

“She’s fine.” Colt hesitated for a fraction of a second before adding, “I’ll explain after the game.”

Since their pitcher put away the batters in order and the Grizzlies’ bats remained hot in the bottom of the ninth, the game ended sooner than Cam might have expected. After Colt instructed the boys to pick up the dugout, he motioned Cam aside. “The call from Sage was about Sarah.”

Cam went still. “What’s wrong?”

“Apparently Ellen wandered off yesterday while Sarah was taking Lori to the airport. She took the car. The whole town is searching for her now, Zach has bulletins out, but so far, nothing.”

“Oh, no.” Cam’s thoughts raced. An older woman with Alzheimer’s driving a car and missing overnight? Sarah must be out of her mind.

“Sage said Sarah held it together at first, but now she’s just a basket case. She blames herself and won’t listen to anyone. Sage thought you should know, but she asked me to wait until the end of the game to tell you.”

“I need to go back,” he said. “What about Lori? Did she leave?”

“No. She’s with Sarah.”

Cam nodded, glad for that, and pondered his options. “I need a car. Is there a rental place here, do you know?”

“I don’t know about that, but the Hamiltons arrived midway through the last game. He could take you back or loan you his car, and they could ride back on the bus. After the incident last week, he owes you.”

Cam looked toward the bleachers and spied Mike Hamilton’s parents. “I’ll ask them.”

“What about Devin?”

“He’ll want to come with me, but let’s ask him. Would you do that while I talk to the Hamiltons?”

“Sure.”

Fifteen minutes later and with three and a half hours’ travel ahead of them, Cam and Devin were on the road, headed back to Eternity Springs. Devin hadn’t thought twice about bailing on the tournament. Like he’d said, whether she liked it or not, Lori was his sister, and family should be there for family.

Once they were on the road, Cam called Nic Callahan for an update. After speaking with her, his concern escalated. A thorough search of Eternity Springs proper had been completed with no sight at all of Ellen Reese or Sarah’s car. After Cam caught Devin up on the details, the teenager asked, “You’re not holding a grudge in the least, are you?”

“Against Ellen?”

“Yeah.”

Cam thought about it. “Maybe just a little bit. Someone told me not long ago that resentment was an anchor, and I’m doing my best to cut the line. Besides, my beef against Ellen Reese is with the woman she was ten years ago, not the Ellen of today.”

“I wonder why she’d take off like that,” Devin mused.

Cam explained about Alzheimer’s disease and sundowning.

“That’s wicked cruel,” Devin observed. “I feel bad for Sarah and Lori.”

“Me, too, son. Me, too.”

Cam managed to cut fifteen minutes off the trip without killing them, and as they hit the Eternity Springs city limits, he debated where to go first. According to Nic, the staging area for the expanded search was Davenport Park. Would he find Sarah there, or would she be at home?

He decided to swing by her house first, and as he arrived, he saw Lori open the door to admit Nic, Sage, Celeste, and Ali. “Sarah must be here.”

He stopped the car and got out. Lori was still at the front door. Her reaction upon identifying him would be forever etched into Cam’s mind.

Lori’s eyes widened and filled with emotion. Relief. Hope. Anguish. She clasped her hands to her chest, and Cam held his breath.

Lori took off running. Toward him. Toward him! She called, “Cam!”

The look on her face turned Cam’s knees to water.

“Help us. Please, help us.”

His daughter threw herself into his arms. Cam’s heart grew three sizes. Her hair smelled like baby shampoo, and tears filled his eyes.

“You have to help us find Nana.”

Lori burst into tears, and Cam held her while she cried. He swore to himself that he would do just that, or die trying.

“I’ll sure try, honey.” He stroked her hair and shushed her. “Now calm down and talk to me. Okay? How is your mother?”

“Terrible. She’s scaring me. She’s over the top with guilt. When we finished searching the town without finding Nana, Mom came back to the house and sat down on the sofa, and she hasn’t said a word since. I’m afraid for her, and I’m afraid for Nana. Please, we need help. I need help. I don’t know how to get through to Mom. All my life I’ve dreamed of having a father to fix things. Fix this, Cam. Please, make it better.”

“Ah, baby.” Cam drank in the sensation of holding his daughter in his arms. “I don’t know that I’ll be able to fix this, but I’ll try. I promise you that I’ll do my best. I give you my word.”

“What if we don’t find her?”

“Then we’ll keep looking.”

Sarah stepped out onto the porch, and upon seeing them, she covered her mouth with her hand. Their gazes met and held. Tears spilled from her eyes, and she reached for a post to steady herself.

Just as Cam extended one arm to invite Sarah to join their embrace, an angry voice sounded from behind him and doused icy-cold water on his heartwarming moment. “It’s your fault that this has happened, Cam Murphy!”

Pauline Roosevelt. Cam swallowed a sigh.

“Ellen has been all het up since you came back to town. You stirred her up. Things were just fine around here until you returned to Eternity Springs. Now poor Ellen has driven off in a fog of confusion, and there’s no telling what has happened to her. She could have picked up a hitchhiker. She could have driven off the side of a mountain. She could be lost in a national forest. She could be dead! It’s all your fault!”

Throughout Pauline’s diatribe, Lori had stiffened in his arms. Now she pulled away from him—to Cam’s regret—and whirled on the older woman. “That’s ridiculous! For one thing, we don’t know where my grandmother is, and for another thing, Mrs. Roosevelt, you need to stop saying such wicked things about my dad! That’s just wrong.”

My dad. Dad! She defended me. Lori just defended me and claimed me publicly
.

If the circumstances weren’t so serious, he’d feel like shouting “Hurrah!”

Pauline stood sputtering in indignation. She was, Cam realized, the personification of all the wrongs done to him by the people of Eternity Springs. He thought of sailboats and anchors and angels and—the winds of forgiveness.

“He’s a Murphy!” Pauline exclaimed.

He’s a Murphy. That says everything, doesn’t it?

This time, for the first time, Cam had the perfect response. He unsheathed his mental knife, cut the anchor line, and allowed the winds to blow. He gave Lori one more squeeze, then released her and stepped toward Pauline Roosevelt. “Mrs. Roosevelt, I need to say something to you, and I truly believe you need to hear it. I know that my father was a difficult neighbor. I know you must have been frightened of him and wanted nothing to do with us. I forgive you for not answering the door when I came to you for help the night my mother died.”

She gasped. “Why, how dare you … I didn’t …”

He said no more, just looked at her.

“I didn’t …” she tried again. “It wasn’t … Oh … oh … oh, dear.” She wilted right before his eyes and burst into tears.

“It’s all right, Mrs. Roosevelt. Really.”

“I’m sorry, Cameron. I’m so sorry. I did you a terrible, terrible wrong.”

Cam wasn’t ready to hug her, but he did place a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It’s all right. The truth is, you couldn’t have saved her. Neither one of us could have saved her.”

“I’ve felt so guilty all this time. I knew he was hitting you, and I didn’t do anything about it. I didn’t help you. I am ashamed.”

“It was a long time ago, and I’m not concerned about it one bit.” He glanced toward Sarah and said, “Right now, I’m concerned about finding Ellen.”

This time Sarah was the one who wilted. She sank down onto the porch and wept. Cam was beside her in seconds, and he took her into his arms and rocked her, murmuring, “Ah, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”

“I shouldn’t have tried to keep her at home this long,” she said, her voice breaking. “This is my fault.”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true. It was selfish of me, stupid of me. I thought I could do a better job than anyone else, and what do I do? I leave the car keys hanging right out in the open.” She looked up at him with her soulful red-rimmed and watery violet eyes. “If she’s hurt … If we don’t find her and bring her home safely, I’ll never forgive myself.”

“We’ll find her.” Cam gently wiped her tears away with his thumb. “We will find her, Sarah, and you know how I know? Because for the first time in my life, I believe that miracles can happen.”

He held her while she cried for a few more minutes. Then, when she finally appeared to be out of tears, he asked, “Now, what can Devin and I do to help?”

“Honestly, I don’t know what any of us can do. We searched every inch of town, we searched out at the lake. Zach says now it’s up to law enforcement. Since she’s driving and we only have two main roads out of town, he says that narrows the search grid. He told me Jack Davenport called and offered to sweep the area from his helicopter. Jack told him you called.”

“I knew he was at Eagle’s Way. I spoke with him yesterday.” Cam had called his cousin to let him know that he and Dev were headed back to Australia.

Nic Callahan said, “Sandwich stuff is out in the kitchen. Why don’t you come get something to eat, Sarah? You haven’t eaten all day.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Cam rose and tugged her to her feet. “You need to stay on top of your game and ready to give Ellen all the TLC she needs when we find her.”

Cam coaxed her into eating a sandwich, and while she ate, Sage managed to distract her briefly with tales from maternity world. Sarah actually had a faint smile on her face when Lori approached the kitchen table. “Mom, the youth group at church is holding a prayer vigil. Dev and I thought we’d go over there for a little while, if that’s okay with you.”

Sarah blinked away sudden tears. “I think that’s a great idea.”

Once the kids had left the house, she rose from the table and tugged a tissue from the box. “I didn’t cry once until mid-morning. Now I can’t seem to stop.”

Celeste reached out, gave her a hug, and quoted, “ ‘There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief … and unspeakable love.’ ”

“That’s lovely,” Sarah said.

Ali Timberlake snapped her fingers. “I know that quote. I’ve seen it somewhere.”

“Washington Irving,” Cam said. When everyone in the room except for Celeste gaped at him, he explained, “It’s the quote hanging over the john at the house.”

Sarah laughed, and then everyone joined in, happy to hear the sound. The moment was cut short, however, when Zach’s cruiser pulled into the driveway. Sarah reached for Cam’s hand and squeezed it like a vise. She tugged him out onto the front porch, where they waited as Zach approached.

He wore sunglasses, so Cam couldn’t read his eyes, but his body language was clear. He didn’t bring good news. Cam moved to stand behind Sarah. He wrapped both arms around her, holding her as the sheriff said, “We found the car. We didn’t find your mother.”

In a little voice, Sarah said, “Okay. Where did you find it?”

Zach reached up and removed his sunglasses. “Sarah, the car went off the road going down Sinner’s Prayer Pass.”

Oh, hell
. Sarah shuddered, and Cam tightened his hold on her.

Zach continued, “There were two people in the car. Two men.”

“Two men!” Nic Callahan exclaimed.

“You are sure Ellen isn’t at the scene?” Cam asked.

“We’re sure she’s not in the car, but they’re just starting to search beyond it. I’m on my way there now. I wanted to update you first.”

Sarah didn’t respond, so Cam said, “Thanks, Zach.”

Once the sheriff returned to his SUV, she finally spoke in a thready voice: “I have to go, too.”

Sage said, “Oh, honey, are you sure you want to do that?”

“No, I don’t want to go, but I need to be there.”