One True Heart (28 page)

Johnny felt like he was going out of his mind. A few hours ago they'd been laughing about the colorful birdhouse he'd planted by her window. Kare had suggested they put little doors on each opening so the birds could have some privacy. He'd smiled all morning while he worked, thinking about Kare not wanting to watch the birds have sex.

She mattered to him, he knew that, but he didn't understand how much until she disappeared. He felt like he'd been growing inside every day since he met her. Since he'd left college to take over the farm six years ago, he'd been circling as if sleepwalking. Even marrying Scarlet was simply what he thought he should do. It was time. Life moved on like the seasons.

Only his little fairy woke him up. If she left, Kare would take half of a heart he didn't know he had. To make matters worse, his grandpa and several other senior citizens were parked around the reading table in Hatcher's bookstore staring at Johnny like it was all his fault.

“I told you to take care of that girl,” his grandpa muttered every time Johnny circled. But Johnny didn't stop. He was
too busy pacing and blaming himself. If the codger posse voted to hang him, Johnny had already decided he'd carry the rope.

Walking up and down the paperback aisle, Johnny tried to think of anywhere else he could look. The first person who came to mind who might have hurt Kare was Max Dewy. As far as Johnny knew, Kare didn't even know Max, but Max was a sleazeball. If styling and spraying his hair every day as well as sleeping with Scarlet didn't make him a criminal, Johnny didn't know what did.

Only, Max was out as a suspect. Max Dewy had been over at the courthouse bailing out about the time Johnny started worrying. One of the white-hairs said that the judge set his bail high thinking he'd never make it, but apparently Max had the money hidden away.

It must have been well hidden or Scarlet would have grabbed it. Last he heard she was still going around telling everyone who would listen that Max had been framed.

“Forget Max,” Johnny said aloud, but no one seemed to notice. The bookstore was packed. Everyone in town loved Kare, including him. He thought of her as his little fairy, but apparently so did a dozen others. Two of the quilters were crying and the old Marine was claiming he'd rip anyone apart with his bare hands if he hurt Kare.

Johnny bumped into an abandoned walker and almost stumbled into the sweet old lady who cooked at Martha Q's place. Mrs. Biggs just smiled her sad smile and said nothing, but she'd brought cookies to the worry party.

Johnny continued pacing. If it wasn't Max, then who? Johnny knew most of the folks around. Something Kare said the other night when he asked her what she was doing on her computer bothered him. She'd said she was looking for a bad needle in a haystack. She'd even told him about asking the group at the senior citizens' center if they knew anyone who fit a profile.

The profile was simple: a guy relatively new to Harmony. Someone who flew, or had access to planes. Someone trying hard to fit in. Someone with no means of support but flashing
money around. He'd know computers. He'd be intelligent. Probably speak several languages. Maybe join churches or charity boards to blend in. Had no family in the area.

Johnny mentioned that Max was the only one who fit that he knew of, but Max didn't have money. At least not lately. When Scarlet was dating Johnny she still went to charity balls and the like with Max. Also, Max had a job, if drug dealer could be called a job. It didn't pay much after his supplies were locked up.

One thing bothered Johnny. In the three years Johnny had seen Max around, nothing about him said “drug dealer.” He had a big townhouse over on the south side of Harmony that Scarlet had helped him redecorate twice. He always bragged about buying his clothes in Neiman Marcus. He'd disappear for weeks and show up with whole new wardrobes. He was always using foreign words, too. Only for all Johnny knew they were pig Latin and not some other language.

Now, Johnny wondered what his ex-wife and Max were doing over at his townhouse all those months when she'd say she was going over to watch a movie with her best friend. She was probably drinking wine naked.

Suddenly, he realized, he didn't care. The marriage was over. It had been for a long time. He just hadn't buried the body.

Johnny looked up, making sure Wendell wasn't around. His brother would turn him in for killing Scarlet again. He'd heard she'd talked Wendell into unlocking the townhouse door for her. After all, she had to live somewhere, and a five-hundred-thousand-dollar townhouse would have to do.

When Kare's brother showed up, Johnny figured he could add one more to the list who blamed him for her disappearance, but Drew walked over and stood beside him. He asked questions and looked worried. They were about the same height, but where Johnny was thick with muscles, Drew was slim. Right now the worry on their faces was the same.

He poured Drew a cup of coffee, and it hadn't had time to cool off enough to drink when the men walking the creek
bed came in through the back. Everyone gathered around and waited, hoping for news.

Nothing. They found nothing. Johnny had heard a few guess earlier that they bet she'd crossed the creek and the same guy who mugged Beau Yates probably got her. Only the men found no sign.

Johnny turned away as anger and fear built inside him. He'd run out of places to look and hope. Not even his fairy would just fly away.

“Show me where you found her phone,” Drew instructed. “It's as good a place as any to start trying to trace her steps.”

Johnny nodded. It was something to do, even if it wouldn't help.

They moved outside. The day was cloudy, as if the whole world were depressed.

“When I walked up I noticed her car door wasn't closed completely.” Johnny had already been over every fact with the sheriff. “There was no sign of her big bag she carries her laptop in.”

Drew studied the ground.

“We couldn't find any tracks thanks to the cracked blacktop out here.” Johnny gave the report. “If she walked to the bookstore or the alley, she wouldn't leave prints.” Johnny followed as Drew studied the ground he'd already been over ten times. “The sheriff said if she'd crossed the creek heading toward the inn we might have picked up footprints, but Kare runs over to see the captain sometimes two or three times a day.”

“Why?” Drew asked, more to himself than Johnny.

But Johnny answered anyway. “I think they're friends. They're working on some kind of puzzle together. I've heard Kare mention it a few times.”

Drew raised his eyebrow and turned as Millanie limped over the broken back steps. “What kind of puzzle?”

Johnny started to answer, then realized the question wasn't directed toward him.

The captain straightened as if thinking about giving only her name, rank, and serial number. Then she looked at them
both and seemed to reconsider. “Kare is helping me research people new to Harmony. We're looking for a man who may be living around here and handling illegal activity on a global scale. He may be laundering money or sending it overseas to fund criminal activity.”

Both men frowned, Johnny because he didn't understand and the professor because he probably did.

Johnny threw out his one guess. The only man he hated in Harmony. “Max Dewy is probably your man. I wouldn't put any crime past the man.”

“He's on the list,” she answered honestly. “The criminal we're looking for may have found out about our investigation and is stalking Kare. If she uncovered something, he could have gotten to her before she could pass the information along to me.”

Johnny had no problem moving to the next step. “He may have found her, you're saying. He could have kidnapped her. He's probably trying to frighten anything she might know out of her right now. Maybe he's torturing her.” This was the worst-case scenario yet.

“When she called, she said she had news.” The captain put her hand on Johnny's arm as if to calm him. “Maybe all he wanted was her computer. If he knows she's found him, that means she had some proof and that proof would be in her computer.”

“If this man has her computer, he'll never get in.” Drew's words were calm. “We've played a game before of trying to break into each other's systems. She cracked mine in five minutes, but I couldn't break hers. Knowing her, Kare will have more than one password and several walls protecting her find.”

Johnny looked from Drew to the captain. “What does that mean?”

Millanie spoke first. “It means that Kare is still alive. If this guy is as bad as I think he is, he might kill Kare, but not before he knows what she found. Her life won't matter to him, but her information will.”

Johnny felt like his head was exploding. “He's torturing
her! We have to tear this town apart. We have to find her.” Johnny stormed across the back lot, no longer able to stand in one place. He had to think. The thought of someone hurting Kare was more than he could stand.

At the corner of the building where an old metal vent from the cleaners used to release exhaust, a scrap of material seemed to be waving at him. Walking a few steps, he stared at the scrap, then grabbed it.

Kare was helping him out. Her scarf had wiggly gold lines in it, just like this tiny piece of silk.

Drew must have seen him pull the bit of fabric down, for he was at Johnny's side in a blink. “It's part of one of Kare's scarves.”

Johnny nodded.

Drew turned back to Millanie. “Stay here. We'll be back.”

She moved toward them. “Not on your life,” she announced. “I'm going with you.”

Within twenty feet along the back alley, they found another scrap, then another. The wind had blown trash and old newspapers into corners, but she'd managed to hook the light silk on broken bricks and twigs.

No one spoke. They just moved, sometimes running, sometimes backtracking. Johnny knew they probably should go back and tell the sheriff, but if Kare was in trouble seconds might make all the difference.

The last scrap they found was wedged between the back door of the theater and its frame.

Drew tried to turn the handle. “This place has been closed for a month. Someone said the old guy who ran it had a heart attack.” He pushed and pulled, but the door didn't budge.

Frustrated, Johnny backed away and ran full-out for the door, slamming his shoulder into it and buckling the metal enough to pop the lock. He stepped back a moment to recover, and Drew disappeared inside.

Though the last to step inside, Johnny knew Kare was inside. He could feel her near.

For a few minutes they moved in silence. Then Millanie whispered, “Spread out.”

The low glow of the exit signs was the only light in the place. Johnny felt his way along the back wall, careful not to move his big feet too fast or he might bump into Kare. If someone had taken her and hurt her, Johnny would find the guy if it took him the rest of his life.

“I've got her,” Drew shouted from somewhere in the blackness. “I've got her,” he laughed. “She's alive but tied up.”

Johnny turned as Drew stepped into the red light. He was cuddling his sister in his arms. Her colorful scarves now seemed like black waves floating below her, but she was wiggling. She was alive.

Within seconds they were out into the alley and untying her. As soon as the gag came off, Kare started talking. “He's coming back. He took my computer, but he knew someone would see him if he went any farther with me. We have to get out of here. He's coming back tonight.”

“Who?” Millanie asked as she worked on the knots binding Kare's hands.

“I don't know. I've seen him somewhere, but I can't place him. I know I've never touched him because when I did, pure evil sent a shock through my senses. Maybe he works around here, somewhere in the background. You know, like one of those people you see but don't see.”

Drew looked up. “Hundreds work around the square. There's shops, the courthouse, the sheriff's office, the fire house, the diner, Buffalo's bar. You could have seen him anywhere. We need to get you somewhere safe fast, Kare, and then we'll worry about him.”

Johnny stood. “Stay here. I'll get my truck and come pick you up. Kare can identify this guy. There's no telling what he'll do next. You're right. We have to get her away.”

He broke into an all-out run. Without stopping at the bookstore, he swung around the corner of the cleaners and jumped in his truck parked by the diner. Now he had a plan, and this time he wasn't going to fail Kare.

Drew had just pulled the last rope off Kare's legs when Johnny drove into the alley. He pulled his big truck to within three feet of them, careful to block Kare from anyone who might step into the alley.

Her brother helped Kare into the backseat of the pickup while Johnny lifted Millanie into the passenger seat. With all passengers' heads down, Johnny raced out of town.