“Marianna, I never questioned your abilities. But who knows what this guy is capable of?” On impulse, he reached over and took her hand to give it a squeeze. “I… we…just want to make sure that nothing happens to you.”
Narrowed eyes nailed him. “Then why didn’t you want to come?”
Her question sucker punched him. She’d read him, his reluctance. “No offense, but I don’t want to talk about that.”
The fact that she let it go amazed him. “Then tell me about your sister.”
Another direct hit, that one to the gut. He swallowed— hard. “Ashley was…amazing. She went to the deaf school.”
“Ashley O’Hara.” Realization dawned. “I knew her. The girl who was killed in the parking lot of the local high school by the…”
“…drag-racing teens,” he finished. “Yeah, she’d been to a ball game with some of her hearing friends from church. They were a little late getting back, and with the parking lot almost empty, she wasn’t paying attention when she headed toward…” The lump in his throat surprised him. After almost three years you would think he’d be at the point where he could at least talk about the accident without getting so emotional. If only the regret, the feeling of being responsible for…
“Oh, Ethan, I’m so sorry.”
Fresh guilt sideswiped him. He dodged it. “She would be twenty years old this year.”
“And the boys who were responsible? I don’t think I ever heard what happened.”
“It was ruled a negligent vehicular homicide. Both boys had stiff fines and the one who actually hit her served some jail time. They’re still doing community service stuff.”
Time to change the subject. He asked, “Did you call the school dormitory and cancel basketball practice yesterday?”
Blinking at the sudden turn, she answered, “No, of course not.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Someone called the dormitory on the TTY and pretended to be you, canceling practice.”
Anger flashed over her features, mixed with fear and frustration. “So, this person not only knows my schedule, but also knows who to call, how to call and what to say to impersonate me.”
“I’ve got Catelyn working on tracing the phone call. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t hold my breath on finding anything out there.”
“I know. That call could have been placed from anywhere that has a public TTY.” She leaned her head against the window, staring at the passing scenery. Josh held a Nintendo DS game that kept him enthralled.
Unable to stop himself, Ethan reached over to grasp her hand once more. Her eyes shot to his. He squeezed, a gentle pressure meant to offer reassurance. He felt the fragile bones, the slender, graceful fingers, and he appreciated her courage as she gave him a wobbly smile and squeezed back.
Ethan returned his attention to the road. Checked the side mirror, the rearview mirror.
Made a mental note about the car coming up behind them.
And noticed it was coming fast.
NINE
Marianna registered the sudden tensing in Ethan’s shoulders, his body’s abrupt shift to alert mode. Wondering at the lightning-fast change, she watched his eyes, not wanting to ask and take his concentration from whatever it was that grabbed his attention.
Flicking a glance in her side mirror, she noticed the black car approaching at a high rate of speed. Instant terror blindsided her. “Ethan?”
“Just hold tight.” She caught the words even though they were muttered between clenched teeth.
Ethan kept his eyes fixed on the road before him as well as the car behind him. Marianna did the same. Closer, closer. Bracing herself for either the impact or Ethan to swerve suddenly, she was almost floored by surprise when the car flew past in the left lane. Then relief left her shaking.
A breath blew out of Ethan, and she watched the tension ease from him, his fingers relaxing their white-knuckle intensity on the steering wheel.
“Wow.” Marianna couldn’t keep the word from slipping out.
“Yeah.”
Josh continued to play his game in the back, oblivious to the tension oozing from the front seats.
“That was a government car. I glimpsed the license plate as he went by. Stupid. Driving like that. Guy must have been going ninety-five, a hundred miles an hour.” Disgust emanated from him.
“Maybe there was an emergency somewhere.”
“Humph. In the form of being late for some bureaucratic meeting or something.”
Marianna gave him a grin, glad she could find it now that the false alarm had passed. “Don’t have a very high opinion of our government officials, do you?”
He slanted her a glance and offered a wry smile. “Only a select few.”
Absentmindedly she wondered out loud, “I wonder how the campaign will handle Mr. Luck’s death. I guess Steven Marshbanks will have his work cut out for him, although maybe moving from assistant to the campaign manager position into the primary campaign manager position won’t be a big deal for him. Who knows?”
“Clayton Robertson will bounce back. Nothing negative ever seems to touch that guy. He oozes charm.”
“Hmm…which is why he’s so popular with the people, I guess.” She lay her head back on the headrest. “I think all my adrenaline just seeped out. Do you mind if I close my eyes for a few minutes?”
“Go right ahead. We’ll be there in about an hour.”
* * *
The rest of the drive passed in peaceful silence, broken only by the sound of the video game coming from the backseat. Finally, Ethan pulled into the entrance to a small, well-kept farm. The long driveway wound around and up to the side of a large white house with black shutters.
Even in January, the grass was green, showing loving care and skill in the maintenance of the property. Two horses grazed behind the house out in the large pasture. A brown barn nestled underneath a grove of trees gleamed in the bright sun; bales of hay stacked neatly to the side brought to Ethan’s mind the one summer he’d gone to a wilderness camp. He’d been about nine years old, and he and his cabin buddies had sneaked down to the barn and scattered and piled the hay about five feet deep under the loft.
They’d had themselves a blast jumping into the mess. He’d been sent home early, and his parents had never let him forget it. But he wouldn’t have given up those rare carefree moments for anything…not even his parents’ short-in-supply approval.
Marianna’s eyes flickered open when he put the car into Park. “We’re here?”
“Yep. Safe and sound.” Thank You, God.
She gave him a small sleepy smile and his heart lurched. Uh-uh. She was part of a case. Don’t get your emotions involved with a case.
Then he wondered what their first date would be like.
Get out of the car, O’Hara.
He climbed out and Marianna followed, opening the back door for Josh. Josh put his game away and let out a squeal when he realized he was home.
As he ran for the fence that held the horses in the pasture, the door to the house opened, revealing a heavyset, gray-haired woman in her late sixties.
Grief showed on her plain face, but her joy at seeing Josh shone through. “Joshie!”
The woman smiled at him hanging over the rail petting the nose