He was vulnerable in spite of his wealth, in spite of the chain of sporting-goods stores that bore his name. The child, his precious reputation, the attachment he’d been forming with Jennifer since the reunion, these were his weaknesses.
She’d make him pay. The taste of revenge was sweet in her mouth. She’d make them all pay before she was done.
THREE
Jennifer checked the supplies in the art room for the after-school program in the church education wing, trying to focus on something other than the news about Penny and the child who might be Josie’s. And on Mason’s reaction to that news.
It was no use. She’d just counted the stacks of construction paper four times, and the amount still hadn’t registered. She may as well give in to the temptation to speculate on the news like everyone else.
They’d all been upset. After all, their little group had known Penny and Josie better than most people. Despite the police’s attempt at discretion, rumors were all over town, most of them garbled versions of what they’d heard at the pizzeria.
Everyone was upset. So why did Mason’s reaction bother her?
The classroom door opened, and Pastor Rogers poked his head in. “Am I disturbing you?”
She smiled. “Not unless counting construction paper is more important than I think it is. Come in.”
“I won’t be a minute. Is everything going all right?” Robert Rogers gave her the warm, interested smile that drew people to Magnolia Christian Church and kept them coming back again and again. Showing Christ’s love wasn’t just a credo to Rob Rogers; it was an all-encompassing way of life.
“I’m doing fine, thanks to your willingness to give me a chance.”
Affection for the big, burly minister warmed her heart. He hadn’t changed much in ten years—maybe another gray hair or two, maybe an extra pound or so around the middle, that was all.
He shook his head. “You’re an asset to the staff, Jennifer. I knew you would be. You don’t have to keep thanking me for doing something that was good for all of us.”
She flushed slightly. The praise was welcome, but they both knew that he’d taken a chance in hiring her. Other people might not be as quick to accept her innocence as he had been.
“Well, I just wanted to see—” He started to turn away, then turned back, slapping his head. “Honestly, I’ll have to start putting sticky notes on my sleeve. I came down here to tell you that Mason Grant called. He’s on his way over with some equipment he said he’s donating to the after-school program.”
“That’s great.” She’d see Mason, and she’d realize that there was nothing unusual about his reaction.
“I told him you’d meet him at the gym door. I hope that’s okay.” He beamed. “I’m sure we have you to thank for this donation. Mason hasn’t shown any interest in the program in the past.”
She shrugged. “I asked him, that was all. I’m sure he’d have responded the same way to anyone else from the church.”
Or was she? Mason’s faith, or lack of it, was a mystery to her, like so much else about his life.
“Must go.” Pastor Rob raised his hand in a gesture vaguely reminiscent of a benediction. “I have a worship committee meeting and I’m probably late already.” He hurried out, perpetually late but always forgiven because people knew that when he was there, they had his undivided love and attention.
She gave the room another glance. It wasn’t easy to make the switch from the preschoolers who occupied it in the morning’s nursery school to the elementary and middle school kids who swarmed in for the after-school program, but she and her volunteers had it down to an art by this time.
She hurried out into the hallway, passing the colorful murals she’d added to the cement block walls. Fanciful animals, two by two, marched all the way down one wall, headed for the ark at the end where Noah waited for them. On the opposite side, images of Jesus’s miracles filled in the walls between the classroom doors.
The gym was in the basement of the old education building, which had been replaced in the fifties by the cement block building in which the nursery school was housed. The link between the two, on this level, involved pushing open a heavy fire door, passing through the low-ceilinged janitor’s room with its doors into a maze of even older sections of the church’s underpinnings, and spurting out into the teen lounge and then into the gym.
Mason would come to the door closest to the driveway, no doubt. She went to unlock it, her footfalls echoing hollowly on the bare wooden floor.
Funny. She was usually alone on this basement floor from the time the nursery school ended until the after-school crew came charging in. She’d never before felt this urge to look behind her.
She shrugged, trying to shake off the tension that prickled along the nape of her neck. She’d been thinking too much about Josie, lying in a makeshift grave all those years when people thought she was living happily in Europe.
And about Penny. Kate thought Penny might come after her, the way she had everyone else who’d been involved with the class website. She shrugged that off. Once Josie’s body had been found, everything was bound to come out. Her connecting the dots through the website was a minor part in solving the mystery.
Mason probably felt that empathy for poor Josie, too. That was why he’d reacted with such tension to Kate’s news the previous night. There was nothing else to it.
She stood by the door, staring out the small window at the driveway. The gray stone walls of the sanctuary and the old education wing loomed over the drive on either side, turning it into a shadowed tunnel with the afternoon sunshine a gentle glow at the far end. Somewhere a door fell with a soft thud, and then the silence took over again.
She’d been back in Magnolia Falls for nearly a year now. The job was going well, and she had a sense of accomplishment with what the Lord had allowed her to do here. She’d renewed cherished friendships with people she cared about, including Mason.
Especially Mason if she were being honest with herself. But she still wasn’t sure what he felt, if anything, for her. He seemed to enjoy spending time with her, but she had yet to see behind the pleasant facade he presented to the world.
A white panel truck with the Grant’s Sporting Goods logo on its side pulled into the driveway, turning almost gray in the deep shadows. Mason drew up, made a neat three-point turn and backed up to the gymnasium door. He slid out, walking with easy, athletic grace to the rear of the van.
She pushed open the heavy door and propped it with the wooden wedge that was always left handy. “Hi! I thought you’d come in this way.” She scurried up the four steps to ground level. “I’ll help you carry things in. This is so nice of you.”
He passed her a cardboard carton and then pulled out two more to carry himself, giving her the slightly crooked smile that had a way of melting her heart. “As if I had a choice about it,” he said.
“You did,” she protested, remembering what Pastor Rob had said about it. “All I did was ask if you had any sports equipment you could donate. You could have said no.”
He followed her back down the stairs and into the gym. “Like you’d have taken no for an answer.” His voice was light and teasing, the tension of the previous night vanished. “You’d have pestered me to death if I hadn’t agreed.”
“Well, you belong to the church. Naturally I assume you want to support it.”
“Naturally.” There was a dry note to his voice that she didn’t miss. “As it happens, my check to the church arrives promptly every week.”
“You might bring it