The steamroller went by with scant feet to spare, and kept going until it plunged into the lake.
45
It was Saturday. Mitch’s funeral had been held in Nashville the previous day. Steve had attended, and Summer had gone with him, holding his hand tightly throughout the service. Steve had been stoic, his face grim, his eyes shadowed. No matter what Mitch had done, or why he had done it, there were still lifelong bonds of friendship between them that neither logic nor death had entirely managed to break.
Steve, simply, was not ready to talk about Mitch, and Summer was wise enough to let it alone.
At the funeral, she had met Elaine.
Steve’s ex-wife was a petite, attractive blonde, and Summer’s first thought on meeting her was to wonder if Steve had married her because she reminded him of Deedee.
But that was all water over the dam, Summer told herself. Elaine didn’t have Steve. Deedee didn’t have Steve.
She
had Steve.
And Steve was hers. She knew that as surely as she knew the sun would come up in the morning. Sometimes, in life, one was lucky enough to meet the person that God or fate or whatever higher power was in charge of these things had fashioned to be the
yin
to one’s
yang.
That had happened for her, and for Steve.
The details – marriage, children, incorporating Corey into their lives – had still to be worked out. As yet, they had had no time.
But the certainty of forever was there, for both of them. Summer knew it every night when she slept in Steve’s arms, every morning when she awoke and gazed into his eyes.
They’d been staying in the Holiday Inn in Murfrees-boro. Police investigation or no police investigation, Summer had a business to run.
She had returned to her house only long enough to pack her clothes. For her, the home she had loved was ruined, indelibly stained by the murders of Linda Miller and Betty Kern.
She hadn’t had time to start thinking about hunting for a house or an apartment yet, either. Monday would be soon enough for that.
At the moment, Summer was with her sisters and mother having breakfast in the coffee shop of the Mur-freesboro Holiday Inn. Muffy was in her mother’s room upstairs enjoying what must have been her dozenth can of Kal Kan. The other three McAfee women would be returning home the next morning, and Summer knew she would miss them. But right then, she could cheerfully have done without their presence.
Their topic of conversation was Steve.
„He seems very nice, I must admit. But, Summer, as far as I can ascertain he doesn’t have a job.“ This was her mother.
„You’ve only known him for a week.“ This was Sandra. „Don’t you think you need a litde longer to make up your mind?“
„If you’re in love that quick, he must be awfully good in bed. Or wherever.“ This was Shelly, with a giggle.
„Shelly!“ Both Margaret McAfee and Sandra rounded on Shelly with shocked faces. Shelly shrugged. Summer’s face burned. She hadn’t told them anything intimate that had passed between her and Steve – but then she hadn’t needed to. They had known everything, all three of them, just by looking at her.
Families!
„We’re all adult women here. And you have to admit, he is kind of sexy-looking. Of course, he’s not nearly as handsome as Lem,“ Shelly persisted.
„Lem was a total prick,“ Sandra said with precision. Her mother and sisters looked at the pretty forty-year-old with surprise.
„Well, he was,“ Sandra defended herself. „We could all see what he was doing to Summer: He was turning her into a regular little Stepford wife.“
Summer hadn’t realized that her family had known. She gave Sandra a grateful smile.
„That’s true,“ Margaret McAfee nodded. „I don’t think any of us have any real objection to your young man, Summer. Although he needs a job. How is he going to support…?“
„I can support myself, Mother,“ Summer said. „I have a business, remember?“
„But…“
„Good morning, ladies. Are you ready, Summer?“ Steve appeared beside the table, and Summer’s cheeks pinkened as she wondered just how much, if anything, he’d overheard. Oh, well, he’d have to get used to her family, just as she’d have to get used to his.
There would be plenty of time for that. They had all the time in the world.
She smiled up at him. Clad in well-pressed khakis with a brown leather belt and a tucked-in navy blue knit shirt, with tan boat shoes on his feet and a watch on his wrist, he looked like a different man from the grubby bum with whom she had shared four days on the run. He was cleanshaven, his black hair brushed back from his forehead. With his strong football player’s body and his aggressively masculine face, he was a very striking-looking man. A man she could be proud of. Despite the fading twin shiners and the yellowish bruises along his jaw.
„Won’t you join us for coffee, Steve?“ Margaret McAfee smiled up at him. Like her daughters, she was an attractive brunette. The only difference was the passage of an additional twenty-five or so years – and the careful weekly application of a bottle of Loving Care in dark auburn to her head.
Steve shook his head. „Thanks, but I promised Corey we’d take her to pick out the puppy before lunch and she thinks before lunch is around nine a.m. She’s already called me twice, to find out what’s taking me so long. I appreciate your giving me the name of the kennel where you got Muffy, by the way.“
„I’m just glad they were still in business and that they had puppies available,“ Margaret said.
„Don’t think you’re doing your daughter any favor by buying her a Muffy clone,“ Sandra warned him. „She is not my idea of a house pet.“
„Muffy is a champion,“ Margaret, accustomed to being teased about her beloved dog by her daughters, said with dignity. „And, like all true champions, she has her idiosyncrasies. I admit that. But never think for a minute that she is not an extremely intelligent animal. Why, she even saved Summer’s and Steve’s lives.“
Margaret’s favorite part of Summer and Steve’s adventure was the part where Muffy peed on the bad guy’s foot.
„Yeah, and how!“ Sandra and Shelly dissolved into giggles. Summer took that as her cue to rise.
„We’ll see you later.“ She waved good-bye to her mother and sisters and walked out of the restaurant with Steve trailing behind.
Outside, in the parking lot, he caught up with her.
„I do have a job, you know,“ he said, entwining his ringers with hers and casting her a sideways glance.
So he
had
heard. „I don’t care whether you do or not,“ she said with perfect truth, smiling at him.
„Actually, I have my choice of several. Chief Rosencrans says he needs a chief of detectives. Les Carter offered me my old job back. And Larry Kendrick wants me to come on board at the DEA. Actually, I think he wants to keep an eye on me in case I suddenly start flashing wads of cash.“ He grinned. The van had been found, submerged just beyond the ramp leading from the boat warehouse into Cedar Lake, and the bodies had been in it. But the money Mitch had stolen was still missing. A search was under way. And not just by the police, either. Word had leaked out, as word always did, that fifteen million dollars in unmarked bills was hidden somewhere in the vicinity of Cedar Lake. People were coming out of the woodwork to hunt for it. As Sammy had said, if that money was not found soon, Cedar Lake was liable to become another Sierra Madre. Treasure hunters would be pouring into the area for the next century, looking for the lost millions in cash.
„Take whichever one you like,“ Summer said as they reached Steve’s car. It was a red Mazda 626 parked in the middle of a sea of other cars, and he had to maneuver past a badly parked green ‘88 Olds to open the passenger-side door for her.
„I thought I’d stay here in Murfreesboro,“ he said.
„Oh?“ Instead of getting into the car, Summer turned to face him. Her hair was washed and blown dry to curl softly around her face, she wore just the right amount of cosmetics for a hot summer’s day, and she was dressed in an airy yellow sundress and leather sandals. She was looking good and she knew it, and she basked under the appreciative glint in his eyes as they moved over her.
„Yeah. Since you have a house and a business here and all.“ His eyes were black and inscrutable as they focused once again on her face.
„I don’t have a house here anymore. I refuse to live in that one. Come Monday, I’m going to put it on the market and start looking for another place to live. Although my mother wants me to come to Santee to live with her, and Sandra says I should move out to California, and Shelly – “
„Wants you to come to Knoxville,“ Steve finished for her dryly. „I’m going to be house-hunting myself come Monday. Maybe we could join forces. Two people, searching for one house.“
Summer stared up at him. He was very close, with one arm draped over the top of the open car door and the other hand absentmindedly playing with her fingers.
„Are you by any chance asking me to live with you?“ she asked, striving for a light tone.
He shook his head. „Nope.“
„No?“
„I thought we agreed that this is a forever kind of thing.“
„Yes, we did.“
„Well then – I’m asking you to marry me.“
Summer was dumbstruck. She hadn’t expected that. „But – but,“ she sputtered. „We’ve only known each other a week.“
„Sometimes that’s all it takes.“
Summer looked up at him, up at the lantern jaw and hard, thin lips and blade of a nose, up into dark eyes that she had once considered soulless. Now she knew better.
And she knew something else too: Steve was right.
Sometimes a week is all it takes.
„Yes,“ she said, and went up on her toes to lock her arms around his neck and her lips to his.
He kissed her breathless, right there in the full glare of the summer sunlight in the busy parking lot of the Mur-freesboro Holiday Inn.
46
„God gives quietness at last.“
– John Greenleaf Whittier
Dedee was very weak. At any time now the summons would come, she knew – but the summons to where? To Heaven – or back to that netherworld where she had existed before?
She had completed the mission that had kept her Earth-bound: She had made things right for Steve.
Soon it would be time to go. To join Mitch? If she had gleaned any inkling into the way the universe worked, he was locked in a netherworld of his own.
There were some things she needed to do before the summons came. But it was hard to make her atoms behave. Forget materializing – she didn’t have the strength for that. She just wanted to get where she needed to go.
With a tremendous effort of will she concentrated on her mother’s house. It took a while – the maelstrom was weak, too – but eventually she arrived.
Her mother was in the kitchen fixing a meal. Supper, she supposed, because it was growing dark outside. For a moment Deedee lovingly watched her as she cut up a chicken for frying. Her mother’s hair was iron-gray now. Her face was wrinkled. She was getting old.
Aunt Dot was in the living room, watching the news. The Ouija board was on the coffee table, temporarily forgotten.
Deedee concentrated hard. Slowly the pointer began to move, tracing aimless circles on the slick cardboard.
It took a few minutes to get Aunt Dot’s attention, but once she had it it was absolute.
„Sue!“ Aunt Dot’s screech as she jumped to her feet would have awakened a log.
„Goodness, Dot, what is it?“ Her mother came rushing in, wiping her hands on a frayed kitchen towel.
Wordlessly Aunt Dot pointed to the Ouija board. Just for good measure, Deedee induced the pointer to perform an extra-fancy swirl.
„Oh my God, it’s Deedee again! Dot, sit down here! Deedee, baby, talk to me!“
She hastily pulled up a stool, Aunt Dot collapsed back on the couch, and both of them dove for the quivering pointer. Her mother’s thick, chapped fingers were shaking.
„H-I-M-O-M,“
she began.
„Oh, God, it is Deedee,“ her mother moaned.
„Hush, Sue, what’s she trying to say?“
„T-O-N-I-G-H-T-G-O-D-I-G-U-P-M-Y-G-R-A-V-E
– “
„Go dig up her grave!“ Aunt Dot shrieked.
„Hush, Dot, hush! Deedee, baby, I love you!
Go on!“
„T-H-E-R-E-S-M-O-N-E-Y-T-H-E-R-E-L-O-T-S-O-F-M-O-N-E-Y
– “
„Money? In your grave?“ her mother whispered.
„D-O-N-T-T-E-L-L-A-N-Y-B-O-D-Y-I-T-S-F-O-R-Y-O-U
–
“
„What’s she saying?“
„She said don’t tell!
Now hush!“
„M-I-T-C-H-H-I-D-I-T-T-H-E-R-E-I-T-S-F-O-R-Y-O-U-“
„Mitch hid it?“
„Hush, Dot! Deedee, you didn’t kill yourself, did you? Baby, I know better. I always knew better!“