Jenn McKinlay - Due Or Die

“No, don’t,” Carrie said. “It could be the murderer.”

“We have to,” Nancy said. “It could be someone in trouble.”

“Nancy’s right,” Lindsey said. “You two stay back. Nancy, get your cell phone ready. If it is someone bad, shut yourselves in a back room and call nine-one-one.”

Nancy opened her mouth to say something, but the pounding on the front door resumed and they all jumped.

“Go now,” Charlie ordered.

As the two women stepped back into the apartment, Charlie and Lindsey stepped forward. She held Heathcliff’s collar to keep him from jumping.

Charlie unlocked the door and pulled it open just a crack. “Who’s there?”

“It’s Sully, and I’m freezing.”

Charlie yanked the door open. “What are you doing out in this weather, boss?”

“Looking for Lindsey,” he said. He had to shout because Heathcliff started barking an enthusiastic greeting and launched himself at Sully, obviously recognizing him.

“You found me,” Lindsey said with a wave.

Sully knelt down and let Heathcliff lick his face. “How are you doing, boy?”

Heathcliff wiggled even closer to Sully, and Lindsey had to smile. There was a definite mutual-admiration-society thing happening there.

“Come on in,” Lindsey said. “We have a fire and I’m sure Nancy has some hot tea.”

“Sounds nice,” he said.

They stepped toward the door and Lindsey realized Charlie wasn’t following.

“Are you coming?” she asked him.

“In a minute,” he said. He started up the stairs. “I need my guitar. ‘Looking for Lindsey’ sounds like a top-ten hit to me.”

Lindsey and Sully exchanged a look and then a shrug. Charlie was always looking for his one-hit wonder.

Nancy was already making Sully’s tea when they returned to the living room.

“Michael Sullivan, what are you thinking?” Nancy asked. “What could bring you out in this?”

Lindsey glanced at Carrie. She was looking at Sully with scared eyes, as if she had expected something much more malevolent and couldn’t quite process the large quiet man before her.

“Bad news, actually,” he said.

He had their attention now. Lindsey mentally ran through a panicked list of people who could be in trouble. Was it Beth? Or Jessica? How about Ann Marie? Her boys? Surely, nothing had happened to them. Was it one of her crafternoon buddies? Or Milton? What about Milton? Yes, he was fitter than men half his age, but he was still in his eighties and he lived alone.

Sully took a sip of his tea and then glanced up. Lindsey realized that the others must have looked as nervous as she did, because he frowned and said, “No one is hurt.”

“You might want to lead with that next time,” Nancy said, and she swatted him with the dish towel she’d been fretting in her hands.

“Sorry,” he said. To his credit, he really did look remorseful.

“What’s the bad news, then?” Lindsey asked. She gestured to a seat by the fire, and Sully gratefully sank down into it.

Heathcliff took the opportunity to wriggle into Sully’s lap, even though he was by no means a lap dog. Sully grinned and let him try to curl up on his legs while he held his tea out of tail-knocking range and steadied the puppy with his other hand.

Lindsey glanced at his face and realized he must have been working all day and well into the night. His skin looked stretched and his eyes had a heavy-lidded weariness that bespoke someone who hadn’t slept in a few days.

“The heavy snowfall caused the roof to collapse on the Drury Street storage facility,” he said.

“Oh, no,” Carrie said. “Are you sure no one was hurt?”

“Luckily, because of the weather, no one was out there, but the damage to the goods inside is going to be severe.”

Carrie nodded. Then she turned to Lindsey and said, “That’s where the Friends store all of their donated books for the annual book sale.”

Lindsey thought the name sounded familiar. “That’s the one on the edge of town that’s owned by Owen Pullman, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Yes,” Nancy confirmed. “Was the whole place destroyed or just a few of the sheds?”

“About half,” Sully said. “Owen called me a few hours ago. I use a shed out there to store old paperwork and boating equipment. Owen was pretty distraught, so I told him I’d get word to the other owners if he gave me a list.”

“I hope he was insured,” Lindsey said.

“I think the physical structures will be covered, but I don’t know if the contents will be,” Sully said.

“I’ll call Mimi Seitler tomorrow and see if we can get a list of what we had in the shed,” Carrie said. “I know we had some rare books donated a while back. I hope they weren’t just boxed and put out there. That could be disastrous.”

“Do you want me to call Bill Sint?” Lindsey asked. “He may be more forthcoming, talking to me.”

Carrie thought about it for a moment. “I appreciate that, but he’s going to have to start talking to me sometime. It might as well be now. I’ll call him in the morning, too.”

Lindsey noticed that Carrie had a little color in her cheeks and her eyes had lost some of their grief-stricken haze. She was a doer; maybe having a cause like the warehouse collapse would help her through this stressful time.

Sully finished his tea and Nancy reached out to take his mug.

“Thanks,” he said. “That hit the spot. If you all don’t mind, I’m going to get some shut-eye. The storm is supposed to blow over by morning, but I have a feeling the digging out may take a few days.”

Lindsey felt the sore muscles in her shoulders bunch in protest at the thought of more digging, and she winced.

“Care to walk me out?” Sully asked her.

Lindsey was about to answer when Nancy said, “Of course she will.”

Lindsey turned to look at her. Subtle, Nancy was not.

“What?” Nancy asked, the picture of innocence. “Someone has to lock the door behind him.”

Sully grinned at Lindsey as he rose from his seat. He picked up a candle and stopped before her chair and held out his free hand to help her up. Lindsey let him pull her out of the chair. To her surprise, he didn’t let go of her hand as they walked toward the door.

Lindsey felt her pulse kick up a notch. As if he knew, Sully looked down at her and grinned. His dimples bracketed his mouth and his smile almost outshone the candle he held in his other hand.

The strains of Charlie’s guitar could be heard up above, and Lindsey noticed that Heathcliff hadn’t followed them to the door. When she glanced back, he was getting a treat that looked suspiciously like bacon from Nancy.

She closed the door behind them. The foyer was cold and she shivered. Sully set the candle down on the windowsill above the radiator. Their shadows flickered against the wall as a small draft from the window made the candle dance.

“I had an ulterior motive for getting you out here,” he said.

So much for the cold; Lindsey felt her whole body flash hot with anticipation.

“Really?” she asked. “So you were trying to get me alone?”

Sully’s grin deepened and Lindsey was mortified to hear that her voice held a decidedly flirty tone. It was too late to retract the words, and she felt her face heat up in embarrassment.

“What I meant to say was-” she began, but he interrupted her by pulling her close.

“You’re shivering,” he said. He opened his coat and hugged her close.

The proximity to his warmth made her dizzy, and she was relieved that he was holding her up or she might have toppled over from the contact.

His voice was close to her ear, and when he spoke, his words were little more than a whisper.

“I didn’t want to say anything to Carrie,” he said. “But I don’t think the warehouse roof collapsed because of the snow.”