In the Running Read online

“Not you, Reenie. Me.”

  She was not to blow up at him again.

  “I think Pete recognized me.”

  The diversion worked. The look of panic on his face made her wish she’d led up to it more gently.

  “My God, Reenie. Are you sure?”

  “He didn’t say it in so many words, but he did comment that the brown contacts were a good idea. Then he sent me upstairs on a wild goose chase so I wouldn’t have to answer the door when Gus stopped by to say he couldn’t work on the boat until Thursday. I think Pete wanted me to know he wasn’t interested in reporting my location to the hot line.”

  “I hoped we could keep him out of this. But, come to think of it, he was pretty obvious tonight about getting us out of the house without giving Bronwyn a chance to get a good look at you.”

  He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. “I’m going to keep you safe, sweetheart,” he vowed. “Whatever I have to do.”

  His kisses worked their spell and swept her away to that amazing and exciting place that was becoming increasingly familiar. The only difference tonight was that her sense of being cherished was almost as strong as her absolute knowledge that Matt wanted her as desperately as she desired him.

  When Reenie opened her eyes, she found Matt looking back at her with a tender, half-smile on his face.

  “Good morning, Blue Eyes.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “I wish we could spend the whole morning here.” He turned and swung his long legs off the bed. “But, I told Jeff I’d fly over to Bay City this morning to pick up some special fittings he needs to get started on those snow machines we contracted to service, and it’s almost time for you to get over to the house.”

  Half an hour later, brown-eyed again, Reenie sat beside Matt at Pete’s kitchen table, picking at her bran muffin. While they ate, Matt and his father argued about how they were going to organize the summer items that were stockpiled in the storeroom and had spilled over into the marina shop.

  “All right, we’ll do it your way,” Matt said finally. “But leave the engine parts. I’ll take them over to the machine shop.”

  “I’ll have to know where things are,” Pete grumbled, “when you find something more exciting to do.”

  Matt slammed his coffee mug down on the table. Deliberately, he got up from the table and handed a key ring to Reenie. “You can use the Jeep today, if you need to. I’m taking the pick-up to the airport,” he said, kissing her lightly on the lips. It was hard to believe that only a few days ago the husbandly gesture would have been a charade for Pete’s benefit. “See you this afternoon.”

  When Matt had left, Pete announced, “Ella and Emma should be here soon.”

  “Ella and Emma?”

  “Sisters,” he said, as if that explained anything. “Widow and spinster. Used to own the hardware store. Now they come to clean and do laundry Tuesday and Friday morning. They do Gus Thursday.”

  “I can clean and do laundry, Pete,” she said.

  Before he could respond, the telephone rang.

  “Pete Hanson,” he snapped into the receiver.

  “Of course, I remember you, Sandra,” he said, slightly more genially after a pause. “No, I’m sorry but Matt’s not around today. I can let you speak to Reenie, though.”

  He winked at Reenie, a little devil dancing in his black eyes. Sandra talked on. “Sure thing, Sandra. I’ll give him the message. Saturday, five o’clock, at the high school. He’ll be back at suppertime. He’s pretty busy these days, but I’ll get him to give you a call.”

  He replaced the receiver. “Some kind of reunion,” he explained. “Said she promised the committee she and Matt would represent their year but she forgot to mention it when she saw him yesterday. Probably didn’t want to when you were with him. Girl never could take a hint. And from what Bronwyn says she’s been on a serious manhunt since her divorce.”

  At that moment, there was a peremptory rap and the back door opened. Two wiry, grey-haired women bustled into the mudroom and hung their jackets on a couple of empty pegs.

  “Good morning, Peter,” one of them called out as she took off her hat and placed it carefully on top of her jacket.

  The sisters wore matching tartan skirts, white blouses and serviceable leather shoes. One’s large crisp apron was blue. the other’s yellow.

  “Morning, Ella,” Pete greeted the smiling woman in the blue apron. “Emma.” He nodded to the one in the yellow. “This is Matt’s friend, Reenie.”

  “Hello.”

  Two pairs of keen, pale blue eyes zeroed in on Reenie. The sisters wore polite smiles while they waited for further enlightenment. When Reenie merely smiled back and Pete remained silent, Ella broke the silence.

  “It’s about time,” she pronounced. “Nature abhors a vacuum. And to my mind, two healthy single men living alone in a big house equals a vacuum.” She held out her hand. “Welcome to Millbridge.”

  Reenie shook her hand and Emma’s.

  “Thank you,” she said, equally formally. “It’s a beautiful part of the country.”

  “I hope, Peter, that this doesn’t mean we have to find someone else to work for,” Emma said with a little frown. She turned to Reenie. “If we didn’t have Peter and Gustav to do for, we wouldn’t have any excuse to avoid all clubs and organizations people have expected us to join since we sold the hardware store.”

  “Don’t worry girls,” Pete said with a broad grin. “You’re not going to lose me or my laundry.”

  Satisfied that Reenie was not posing a threat to their way of life, Ella settled in for a more complete briefing. “Have I met you before, Reenie? Or maybe you remind me of someone I know. Do you have any relatives in the area?”

  “Sorry to interrupt, Ella,” Pete broke in, “but Reenie’s going to give me some help over at the shop this morning. She’ll still be here on Friday when you come. You can have a chat then.”

  Pete was moving a lot more easily than he had a week ago. He maneuvered himself without too much difficulty into the passenger seat of the Jeep and sat whistling cheerfully, if tunelessly, until they got to the marina shop.

  “I should have kept you out of the way this morning,” he said. “That Ella has a memory like an elephant. She’ll worry away at your resemblance to someone she knows until she remembers that picture of you that keeps flashing on the TV screen.”

  Reenie’s fingers froze to the steering wheel. “You do know.”

  Pete reached over and patted her hand awkwardly. “No matter what Glad Fitzpatrick says, you are not a flighty woman, Maura Irene. I figure you must have a good reason not to want Jon Casen to find you. It’s not up to me to send you back to him.”

  “I can ruin him. He intends to kill me before that happens.”

  “Kill?” Pete’s eyes opened wide. “Good Lord! You’re serious.”

  He cocked his head and peered into her face for a few tense seconds. “Don’t worry, girl,” he assured her, apparently convinced that she was in her right mind. “Matt and I won’t let that happen.”

  The resemblance between Matt and his father had never been more evident than at that moment. Reenie gave him a quick hug. “Thank you, Pete. I wish I wasn’t involving either of you in this mess.”

  “Just tell me about the mess.”

  Briefly she told him what she had seen the night that Danny was killed.

  “Ames, too? No wonder you’re trying to make yourself look like a little brown mouse. But why’s Glad telling everyone you’re off your rocker?”

  “I was trying not to see it, but Gran’s slipped a lot the last few years. She’d simply rather believe Jon’s lies about me than suspect her golden-haired boy isn’t what she thought he was.”

  “I can’t believe Glad Taylor Fitzpatrick is losing her grip. She was such a vital, glamorous woman when I was a boy.” Pete whistled soundlessly.

  Reenie explained as well as she could how obsessed her grandmother was with Jon’s career and what major disappointments that first her father, and then Ree
nie had been to her.

  “My dad,” she concluded, “insisted on opening his restaurant and marrying my mother instead of the woman his parents had chosen for him. I resisted Gran and Jon for quite a while, but I finally said I’d marry him. At the time, I didn’t figure I’d ever fall in love and at least I could make the two of them happy. Not a smart move!”

  Pete was silent for a long while.

  “Sometimes, it’s tough to accept that your kids’ dreams and yours are different. Well, Reenie, my girl, let’s get into the shop. We might even accomplish something today while we hide out from the eagle-eyed sisters.”

  Reenie followed him inside.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Reenie and Pete were getting into the Jeep to head back to the house when the marina pickup came screeching to a stop beside them. Matt leapt out and ran over to them.

  “Is everything all right?” He looked anxiously from Reenie’s face to Pete’s. “I stopped at the house but there was no one there.”

  “All under control.” Pete huffed, indignantly. “I may have a bum hip but I can make sure the wrong people don’t see our little refugee for one day.”

  “What’re you talking about?” Matt wheeled around to face him.

  Pete glared back at him. “You know damned well.”

  Reenie grabbed Matt’s arm. “Matt! Pete’s not going to tell anyone where I am.”

  “You and I have to figure out a better place for her, son,” Pete said, urgently. It crossed Matt’s mind that he couldn’t remember when Pete had last called him that. “The marina’s too dangerous, now that Bronwyn’s got us all tied up with her GEL bunch.”

  “You’re right,” Matt decided. “I have a key to Ryan’s place. No one would think of looking for her there.”

  “Does this family make decisions for everyone they meet?” Reenie’s deadly sweet tone warned him that he had crossed an invisible line again. “Or perhaps I’m a special case.”

  “Sorry about that, sweetheart,” he said, beating a strategic retreat to the truck. “Lost my head. I have to get these parts to the engine shop. Jeff’s waiting for them. We’ll talk about this later, Pete. And you, too, of course, Reenie.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” she said pointedly.

  It took about an hour for Matt to unload the pickup and to talk to Jeff about a time line for putting the new contract into effect. He hoped he had given Reenie enough cooling down time, but when he got to the house, he could hear pots and pans banging in the kitchen. This might be a good time to check his voice mail.

  He found a message from Ryan saying that, this morning, the IRS had requested a more in-depth report on his activities with the agency. Matt’s ex-boss hadn’t seen any reason to deny it. For the life of him, Matt couldn’t fathom why the IRS had the faintest interest in him. No doubt, he’d find out eventually.

  Bronwyn had called, but said not to bother returning the call. She’d speak to him sometime soon.

  Sandra Field wanted him to call back. Had she recognized Reenie? Well, there was only one way to find out. The moment Sandra’s pleased voice came on the line, he knew he should never have answered her call so promptly. She was clearly determined to try to jump-start their seventeen-year-dead relationship.

  “So when Thelma, who is chairing the school reunion committee, said they needed a couple to represent our year,” she bubbled on, “I said I was sure you’d agree to do it. Won’t it be wonderful to see some of the old crowd again?”

  He allowed, cautiously, that he did wonder what had happened to some of the people he’d known in high school.

  “Then come. The reception begins at five on Saturday. We’ll have such a wonderful time. It’ll be like old times. You and I used to be so great together, Mattie,” she purred.

  He didn’t want any part of old times. He certainly had no desire to be coupled with a high school girlfriend he no longer even knew.

  “I’ll have to check with Reenie, but we might just do that,” he said, pretending to misunderstand her invitation. “We’ll be in the building for the GEL fundraiser anyway. I’ll see if I can convince her to drop in on the reunion.”

  “I have to let Thelma know for sure if you’ll be the co-host for the room they’ve set aside for our year.” The bubbly tone had gone flat.

  “You’d better tell her that I can’t make it then. It was nice of you both to think of me.”

  Sandra’s good-bye was unexpectedly icy. What did the woman expect? He’d tried to make it clear yesterday that he and Reenie were a couple.

  “I gather that was the good doctor.” He hadn’t heard Reenie come into the study. “Sounded to me as if she’s eager to pick up where you left off.”

  He was relieved at the warmth in her smile.

  “The only woman I want to boss around is you, sweetheart,” he hazarded as he drew her into his arms for the kiss he’d been wanting since she left their bed this morning.

  “You must have a death wish,” she murmured against his mouth when they both came up for air.

  She pulled away. “I came in to tell you Pete wants to see you before dinner for a short talk about the stubborn cook who appears to be your mutual problem. And to confess I overreacted this afternoon. My control button is extremely sensitive these days.”

  “I’m sorry I acted like a bulldozer,” Matt said.

  He wished he could promise it wouldn’t happen again but he’d been making decisions on his own since he was seventeen years old. Liz, the Washington press aide he’d been seeing occasionally until six months ago, said he was an emotional coward. Another thing she’d said when she’d broken off their on and off relationship for the last time was that he would never experience real intimacy because he refused to lose control. Liz would laugh at his inept struggles to control his relationship with Reenie. Hell, most of the time, he couldn’t remember why he should try.

  He gave Reenie a perfunctory kiss; then, resigning himself to an interminable wait before he could kiss her properly, followed her to the living room where Pete was waiting.

  “Get yourself a cold drink.” Pete gestured at the glasses, beer, and chilled white wine on the coffee table. “We need to have a civilized discussion about what’s best for our girl.”

  “You’ll never win an award for dealing with today’s woman, Pete,” Reenie told him. “You have to accept that ‘your girl’ is going to have the final say.”

  “Yes. Yes,” he grumbled, pouring beer carefully in to a tumbler. “That’s why you’re here.”

  Matt reached for the wine bottle and raised an interrogatory eyebrow at Reenie. At her nod, he poured her a glass of wine.

  “It’s too dangerous for you here, Reenie,” Pete began. “Ella and Emma are here two mornings a week, and Gus drops by at least once a day. You haven’t met Donna yet but she comes by. Jeff, too. Then there are delivery people.”

  “How am I going to cook your meals if I’m not here?”

  “Meals be damned!” Matt exploded. “We’re talking about keeping you alive.”

  “Just listen a minute.” Reenie stared them both down. “All the people you mentioned expect your housekeeper to be here, doing the cooking. They also expect her to be living in the apartment with Matt. If I move into an empty cottage, someone will be sure to wonder who I am and why I’m there. If you move in with me, Matt, and there are cars going in and out, that will start another group of people wondering about an unknown woman in the area. I can’t think of a better way to alert the people looking for me. Can you?”

  “She’s right, Pete. She’s better off here.” Matt turned back to her. “But only if you agree to spend less time at the house.”

  “I can get my own breakfast and lunch.” His father was in total agreement with him. That was certainly a first.

  “And if you prepare some meals that can be frozen, he can reheat them in the microwave.”

  “But that wasn’t the agreement.” Reenie stood by her guns. “I’m supposed to be a cook and general errand per
son. I get to stay here and Pete gets fresh home-cooked meals. There are lots of rooms I can retreat to if someone comes calling.”

  “Why don’t we compromise?” Matt offered. “Pete gets his own breakfast and calls you if the coast is clear at lunch time. Late afternoon and dinnertime is pretty safe. Wouldn’t you say?”

  Reenie gave in more easily than he’d expected. The shadows under her eyes showed strain - or perhaps her disturbed nights. Memories of those nights swept over him. They would be alone again soon. And she could sleep in tomorrow morning.

  From the color in her cheeks whenever she caught him looking at her, Reenie’s thoughts paralleled his. Two long hours later, they had Pete settled in front of the television set with his telephone at his elbow. Pete had drawn Tuesday evenings to monitor the GEL hot line for the Millbridge group. During the week, the office staff in Lansing did the monitoring but evenings and weekends the line was manned by volunteers.

  “We’ll talk to you in the morning, Pete,” Reenie said, giving him a light kiss on the forehead as they left.

  “You can sleep well tonight,” Pete replied. “If anyone calls in on my shift, we’ll be the first to know.”

  The moment they stepped out of the house, they could hear the dogs barking furiously. The German Shepherds ran free around the complex at this hour. However, they weren’t barking as if they were chasing an intruder or a squirrel. To Matt, they sounded as if they were still confined and wanted to get out. Could be though, that they wanted to get inside somewhere.

  “Get in the pickup, Reenie. We’ll see what’s annoying those dogs.”

  Matt drove directly to the large fenced enclosure by the storage barns where the dogs were kept most of the day. Sure enough, they were still there, barking and leaping at the chain link fence, eager to be released. When he opened the gate, they immediately sped off in the direction of the main buildings.

  “Jeff always lets the dogs loose before he goes home.” He wondered what could have happened to make him leave them in the run. “That’s at least an hour ago.”

  Matt went directly to the lock-up in the storage barn and retrieved one of the shotguns that were kept there in case of thieves. Some very expensive pleasure boats were moored at the marina in season and stored there over the winter.