Authors: Christine Wenger
Mack smiled. He had the knack, be that good or bad, for intimidating people. It came in handy when he was trying to get out of a dangerous situation. His size didn't hurt either. But Kate stood up to him, challenged him both mentally and emotionally. Whatever made him think that she was shy?
It was the emotional part that he was worried about with Kate. He couldn’t afford to get emotionally attached to her.
It puzzled Mack that he was torn between facing Kate's rage, or getting Molly, the eternally-roving cat, back to the loving care of Mrs. Tucker. He wouldn't have hesitated before, and he wasn't going to hesitate now.
Mack drained the last sludge of coffee and hurried out the garage door to his back yard.
"I'll get Molly for you, Mrs. Tucker," he shouted, jogging over to the big maple tree in her back yard.
She clapped her hands together. "Bless you, Johnny. I don't know what's wrong with Molly. She has wanderlust today."
Today and every day, Mack thought. It would serve the fur ball right if he left her up there, but he couldn't do that to Mrs. Tucker.
Water from soggy leaves rained down on him as he climbed the slippery tree. Plucking Molly off one of the branches, he cradled the wet cat in his arms. She purred contentedly. This was just another adventure to Molly.
When he hit solid ground, he placed the cat into the outstretched arms of Mrs. Tucker.
"Bad girl, Molly," Mrs. Tucker said, turning her face to receive cat licks. "Johnny, would you put her in the kitchen for me? And I insist that you come in and have some sugar cookies and tea."
Mack let the cat in the back door, as he had a dozen times before. "Sorry, Mrs. Tucker, I have things to do today. I can't spare the time, but I'll take a rain check."
"Let me put some on a plate then and you can take them with you."
"No, really, that's okay. I have to get back."
"I insist, Johnny. Now don't argue with me. You can share them with that lovely girl, Kate."
Kate. She'd be arriving soon, no doubt. As much as he wanted to see her again, he wished it would be under different circumstances. He steeled himself for another altercation with her.
"It won't take but a minute," Mrs. Tucker struggled up the stairs with her walker. Mack opened the door for her. "Come in for a while, Johnny."
"I'm all wet and my shoes are muddy. I'll wait out here for the cookies, Mrs. Tucker."
It felt like an eternity before he was handed a yellow plate with a lacy paper doily, covered in plastic wrap. The dreaded cookies looked good, but they always did. He'd rather eat the doily and the plastic.
He raved about how much he would enjoy them, and Mrs. Tucker beamed. Waving good-bye to her, he hurried back through the wet grass toward his house.
Then all hell broke loose.
An explosion sent the yellow plate flying from his hand. Mack found himself face down on the lawn with a mouthful of grass. Wood, glass and burning cinders rained down on him. He brushed away the sparks that were burning his arms, then rolled on the grass to extinguish the ones burning his back. The ringing in his ears faded, and he looked up and saw flames shooting from his roof.
Another explosion rocked the air. More flames.
Mack got up from the grass and quickly reached for his pocket knife. Slipping the blade between the black strap and his ankle, he cut the thing in half and flung it into the flames.
Then he ran as fast as he could, away from his burning house.
#
Sirens wailed all around her as Kate tried to get to Mack's house. She pulled over three times for fire trucks and twice for ambulances.
"Must be a bad fire or an accident," she mumbled, before pulling over for several Rose Lake Sheriff cars. The traffic cops already on the street wouldn't let her get any closer to Mack's house.
Must be very bad. She swung into the parking lot of the Rose Lake Sheriff's Department and cut her motor, deciding to go the rest of the way on foot.
Throwing her purse over her shoulder and clutching the "drive by" machine, she walked briskly through the residential streets.
The smell of burning wood permeated the moist air, reminding her of a fall day. The sun was breaking through the clouds, but over to the north, a stream of thick black smoke spewed into the sky.
Her heart leapt again as a black and white cat crossed her path. "Molly? Are you loose again?"
The cat stared up at her.
She scooped Molly up and picked up her pace. "Mrs. Tucker must be worried sick. How do you keep getting out?"
Kate turned onto Pine Street, but was greeted by a sheriff and instructed to turn back.
"But officer, she has my cat!" Mrs. Tucker shouted, gripping her walker. "Please let her come to my house, so I can have my Molly back."
The cop glanced at Mrs. Tucker, dressed in her canary outfit and hanging on to her walker for dear life. She looked like she was ready to burst into tears.
"Go ahead," he ordered.
"What's going on around here?" Kate said, falling into place by Mrs. Tucker.
"It's just awful, dear. Johnny's house is on fire. It exploded, twice! I do hope he's okay. I was leaving to go check on him, but then Molly scooted out the door."
Kate felt sick. Sick. "Is Mack okay? I mean Johnny. Is he all right?" Her heart pounded erratically in her chest, and she was one step away from fainting. She had never fainted in her life, but it was happening right now. Gasping for breath, she managed to choke out, "Have you seen him?"
"No, I haven't, not since I gave him cookies. And I'm worried to death. It was quite a loud explosion. Two explosions."
Dumbfounded, Kate stared at Mack's burning house. There wasn't much left. The bile rushed to her throat, choking her. The smoke stung her lungs and tears sprung her to eyes when she thought of Mack dying such a horrible death.
Kate shook her head. He had to be alive. He just
had
to be alive!
She pictured him sitting on one of his green and white lawn chairs drinking coffee and lying through his teeth. She thought of him calling her last night and what he’d said. She thought of their conversation today. She remembered, yet again, how he looked in the shower. How he looked at her when she took her raincoat off. How he almost kissed her.
She had loved him her whole life.
Please be okay, Mack.
She let Molly in the back door of Mrs. Tucker's house. "I'm going to find him."
Mrs. Tucker said something else, but she didn't know what. She pushed her way through the crowd and found Mack's commanding officer, Captain Crowley, who she knew from her probation days.
"Is Mack all right?" she asked, grabbing his arm, praying for good news.
It took a moment for him to recognize her. "I don't know. No one's seen him."
"Then...then...." She didn't want to speak her question out loud. "I-Is he in t-there?"
"We won't know for a while yet," the captain said softly, as he stared at the burning building. "Isn't he supposed to be on your house arrest program?"
Tears burned her eyes, but it wasn't from the smoke. "Yes."
"Then I'm assuming that we'll find him...in there."
Kate swallowed a scream and ran, past Mrs. Tucker's house, and down Oak Street, running as if the devil himself was chasing her.
She couldn't see where she was going through her blinding tears. She tripped and fell on the sidewalk, scraping her knees and elbows, knocking the wind out of her lungs. When she caught her breath and got up slowly, she felt warm blood dripping down her legs. Her elbows stung. Her knees stung.
But she didn't care. She had to find Mack.
She leaned against a tree and tried to think, tried to catch her breath. Taking a tissue from her purse, she wiped her eyes and what she could of the blood dripping down her legs. But all she succeeded in doing was grinding the stones into her skin.
She took out another tissue and blew her nose. She willed herself to calm down and rethink the events.
She remembered the VV-98 going off. That meant Mack broke the circuit. He had left his house. Maybe he left to save Molly or to fetch sugar cookies. Whatever.
He broke the circuit. That gave her hope.
Of course, the circuit could have gone off if he...if he...
She let the tears fall down her cheeks, but she refused to give up hope. She limped toward her car, thinking that she'd cruise the street. If Mack was hiding, maybe she'd spot him, or he’d spot her.
But what if he was dead? The tears came again. She sniffed and blotted her face with her last tissue.
He was right all along. Someone tried to frame him, and they wanted him dead. Had they succeeded?
Kate hurried to the Sheriff's Department. Maybe they would have information about Mack now. She saw that the side door was ajar. Good. It would save her the distance from having to walk to the front of the building.
Opening the door, she took the steps down to the basement. Blood dripped into her shoes from her knees, making them wet and sticky. Finally, the stairs ended. She looked around for a cop, but no one was in sight.
Why wasn't someone taking care of the storage area? Why wasn't there a cop around?
They were all at Mack’s house.
With a sob, she headed for the elevator.
Without warning, a hand covered her mouth and she was slammed back against a hard body. A male body. The smell of smoke assaulted her senses, along with the feel of damp clothes.
She struggled, but she couldn't escape his hold. She kicked out, but his arms were like bands of steel.
She bit down on his hand.
"Ouch! Dammit, Kate!"
A voice penetrated her fury. Mack’s voice. She fought against the blackness closing in on her, but she lost the battle. Strong arms reached out and held her tight against him. But she couldn't stop the ringing in her ears or the blackness from winning.
"Mack?"
"Don't faint, Kate! Not now. I need you."
CHAPTER 6
When she came to, Kate found herself stretched on a cold cement floor, cradled in Mack's arms. He was tapping her cheeks with his hand.
"Stop hitting me already," she whispered. "I'm awake."
"Finally." The worry that wrinkled his brow was replaced by relief. "I didn't realize you were so fragile."
"Sorry, it's not every day that I see a ghost."
"So you were worried about me, huh, Kate?" There was a twinkle in his eye. He was loving this. "That's good to know," he said.
"I thought you were dead." Kate started to get up, but her ears were ringing. She closed her eyes and sank back into his embrace. He hugged her close, and it was bliss. She shivered, not from the cold, but from how close she'd come to losing him.
He rubbed her arms. "You're all scraped up and bleeding. What happened?"
"I tripped on the sidewalk."
She could hardly think. Not when his finger was tracing her lips. She held his wrist steady. "For once, I was glad that you weren't doing my program."
He laughed. "I never thought I'd hear you say that."
"Where were you anyway?"
"Getting Molly down from the tree for Mrs. Tucker."
Kate was skeptical. "Now that's the typical cop cliché."
"It's true. Believe me."
She couldn't stop herself from reaching out and cupping his cheek in her hand to assure herself that he was real, that he was alive.
"What do you think happened to your house, Mack?”
"Well, it didn't blow up by accident." He shrugged his shoulders.
“Do you have any suspects?”
His sky blue eyes turned dark, troubled. Then he shook his head from side-to-side as if to erase his thoughts.
"Let me help you up," he said, changing the subject. He was a pro at that, especially when he was a sentence away from confiding in her. "You're cold and you have to get the hell out of here."
Without so much as a grunt, he hauled her up and held her until she found her feet.
"Kate, can you make it up the stairs?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Then you'd better get out of here. Now."
He walked over to a computer and sat down. She followed him, ignoring his order.
Mack pushed button-after-button on the keyboard, cursing when nothing happened. "Kate, go."
"Not without you."
"I don't have time to argue with you. I don't want to waste this opportunity."
"What opportunity?"
"To check on some things that have been bothering me. But I can't figure this damn thing out. What's wrong with paper files anyway?" He was clicking every button on the keyboard.
She gave him a shove. "Oh, get up. Let me do it."
"You're not going to listen to me and get out of here, are you?"
She raised an eyebrow. "What do you think? You're still in my program, dead or alive."
"Well, our previous tender moment sure as hell faded fast."
She chuckled. "Do you want me to help you, or not?"
He got out of the chair. "I bow to your computer expertise."
Kate sat down, and poised her hands over the keys. "What am I looking for?"
"Inventory...storage...drug storage...drug destruction... something like that."
"Do you have a password and a code?"
"Yeah."
"Well, type it in."
"What do you think I was doing? It didn't work."
"They probably deleted you," Kate said.
"Damn! Can you get in anyway?"
"This is going to get me in big trouble, isn't it?"
Mack met her eyes, straight on. "Probably,
if
they find out, and they probably will."
Kate hesitated, searching his eyes. She wanted to help him. He was on to something.
"Trust me, Kate. I know you have no reason to trust me, but that's what I'm asking you to do."
She studied his face and knew he was sincere. "Okay, Mack, but don't make me regret my decision."
He grinned. "You won't. I'm one of the good guys."
She started typing. "That remains to be seen."
"Kate, I hate to rush you, but can you hurry up? Do you think you can break into this thing?"
"I'm rushing! What's the code set-up?"
"Four letters and four numbers, run it all together. Can you do it?"