Kathleen Creighton: One Summer’s Knight

Riley tapped his lips thoughtfully with his little finger. “You keep referring to your husband-”

“Ex,” she corrected him with a bitter smile. “Please.”

He acknowledged that with a nod. “Your ex-husband…in the past tense. Do I assume that to mean you still haven’t heard from him?”

She sat forward, the frown-pleat deep between her eyes, focused and intent once more. “No, nothing. It’s been over a year.”

“I assume you’ve been to the police?”

Her lips curved, a tight little smile that left the frown intact. “Yes, well, they seem to think the most likely scenario is, Hal’s gambling finally got him way over his head with some dangerous people and he decided to take an extended leave for the sake of his health, and that he’s probably laid up on some tropical island somewhere, living off what he stole from me and the kids.”

“Well, I’d have to say I pretty much agree with that,” said Riley, moving the hand that had been supporting his chin in such a way that he could glance at his watch without being obvious about it. Fifteen minutes until his next appointment. “You have any reason to think otherwise?”

She shook her head. “Oh, I’m sure that’s what happened. It’s the only thing that makes sense. It seems to me it would take a great deal of money to make yourself disappear without a trace. And that’s what he took…everything I had, anyway.” She looked away again, but not before he saw the telltale movement in her throat that told of emotions ruthlessly suppressed.

Selfish bastard. Riley picked up a pen and began to manipulate it with quick and angry movements, venting with his fingers what he dared not say in words while he waited for her to continue. When she did not, he smiled and said gently, “Mrs. Robey, I’m sorry as I can be about what happened, but you still haven’t told me why it is you think you need a good attorney.”

“I’m coming to that.” For the first time, her voice took on a hard edge.

But she wasn’t there yet, not quite. First she had to take a deep breath, and then another, while she shifted around in her chair as if she was going to need a good solid support from which to launch this tale of hers. Riley felt a pulse begin to beat behind his belt buckle, an annoying little tick-tock of impatience.

“Anyway, I got the divorce and moved here-or rather, to Georgia, to be near my sister,” she said finally. “I just wanted to put it all behind me, start over, for the children’s sake as well as mine. And we’d been doing okay in spite of…one or two setbacks.” Resentment flared in her eyes and then was veiled when she closed them briefly. After a moment she went on. “Then, about… three months ago, I started getting phone calls.”

“Phone calls?” Now it was Riley who frowned. “You mean, from your husband?”

“No, no-I don’t know who it was. A man. Some men, actually. Different ones. At first, you know, they’d call late at night, when the children were asleep. They said they were friends of Hal’s and that they needed to find him. But there was something…I don’t know, just sort of scary about it. I told them I didn’t know where Hal was, but the calls kept coming, and they kept getting more and more threatening.”

“Threatening? How?”

“Oh, you know-vague things. ‘Tell us where your husband is, or you’ll regret it.’ Stuff like that. I didn’t take it too seriously, but still, it was…upsetting.”

Riley murmured, “I’ll bet.”

“But then… one day someone called when my kids were home. David-my nine-year-old son-answered the phone. I don’t know exactly what the man said to him-David won’t tell me-but I do know he was terrified. First he wouldn’t go to sleep at all. It was like he thought he needed to stand guard, or something. He’s been sort of like that since his father left, anyway-trying to be the man of the house, you know. Then when he did finally crash, he had nightmares.” She shifted in the chair, edgy with anger. “That was it-the last straw. So I went to the police.”

Riley nodded; it had been on the tip of his tongue to ask. “Good move. And?”

Again that tight, joyless smile. “They suggested I change my number. So I did. The calls stopped-for about a week. When they started up again, they were even more vicious than before. They-” her voice quivered unexpectedly; she shut it down and began again, this time in a lower tone “-they said they would take my children, and…hurt them…if that’s what it took to force Hal out of hiding.”

Pain reminded Riley to unclench his jaw. Tearing his gaze away from the woman’s mouth, from lips that were taut and vibrant as bowstrings, he forced them to focus on the terror in her eyes instead. “Mrs. Robey, I don’t know whether you need a lawyer or not, but I know you should be talkin’ to the police.”

“Oh, yes.” She dipped her head in a quick, angry nod. “I did. They didn’t seem to think there was very much they could do for me, not unless they had more to go on. They suggested I could change my number again, get caller ID, things like that Oh-and they told me I might consider hiring a security guard-for my peace of mind. As if I could afford such a thing.” Her voice had climbed the scale; now it was high and incredulous. “It was almost as if they didn’t believe me, as if they thought I was lying.”

“All cops sound like that,” said Riley with an impatient wave of his hand. “I think they teach it at the police academy. Do you mean to tell me-”

“No, wait,” she said grimly, “there’s more.” She spoke rapidly, and her eyes had a glow now that he could have sworn had as much anger in it as fear. “So, anyway, I had to drive back from the police station to where I was working that day-I work for a mobile vet, so we’re at a different location every day, usually two or three in a day-which was about ten miles, with quite a few turnoffs. And I started noticing this car, this tan sedan, following me. Now, naturally, after those phone calls, I thought the worst, you know? I mean, I was scared. So I stepped on it. What else could I do? I was out in the middle of nowhere! And I’m driving like a bat outta hell-mind you, my car isn’t capable of a whole lot, but it was doing its best-and this tan sedan is staying right with me. By this time, I’m terrified, shaking like a leaf. Finally, I make it to the parking lot where the mobile vet is set up, I go screeching up to the van, and before I can do a thing, the tan sedan pulls right up beside me, this man jumps out and yanks my door open, flashes a badge and says-” she lowered her voice at least an octave “-‘Mrs. Robey, I’m gonna have to ask you to come with me, please.’ ”

Riley didn’t know when he’d been so completely captivated. His heart was actually pounding, and he could feel the quiver of terror in his own legs-empathy, unfortunately, being another of Riley’s gifts, one he took great pains to keep secret. “You mean to say they arrested you?”

She shook her head almost gleefully; her lips parted. “They weren’t cops.”

“Then who…?”

“You’re never going to guess…”

“FBI, ma’am, Special Agent Jake Redfield.”

FBI? Summer felt a sudden and very brief impulse to laugh. Still on an adrenaline high, she spoke in a clipped, breathless voice. “May I see that ID again, please?”

“Of course” The man took his ID case from his inside jacket pocket as he settled into the seat beside her He gave the driver’s shoulder a tap and the car moved silently forward.

Summer studied the photo ID carefully, glancing up several times to compare it with the man sitting next to her. He returned her gaze obligingly with somber brown eyes. Not a bad-looking guy, she decided, handing the ID back to him with a sniff. A long, rather melancholy face, dark brown hair with a tendency to disobey orders, a perpetual case of five-o’clock shadow…somehow not exactly what she’d have imagined an FBI agent would look like.