Rachel Lee - Cowboy Comes Home

She, Anna Fleming, had made the first date of her entire life. She should have been exhilarated, but instead she wondered if she’d just made another one of her gargantuan mistakes.

Jazz appeared to be pleased with her new environment. As soon as Anna set out bowls of water and food, the puppy dug in, in her eagerness making a minor mess that made Anna smile.

But she couldn’t smile for long. It was as if the shadows in the corners of the room were whispering to her, trying to call her back into the nightmares of her past. It was because of Lorna, she decided. She was watching her own nightmare unfold again through the child.

Remembering the roster she had put in her purse, she left Jazz eagerly eating and went to get it. She had to call the other girls from the youth group, to see if any of them had a hint of what was wrong in Lorna’s life. If she could find a key, any key, she might get the girl to open up to her.

The first two girls had nothing new to offer, but then she got through to Mary Jo Weeks.

“It’s awful, Miss Anna,” Mary Jo said. “I’ve been crying on and off all day. I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know how bad it was.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, bad enough that she would set a fire. I heard one of the teachers say he thought Lorna meant to stay in the room until the fire killed her. It’s terrible!”

Anna hesitated, aching for Mary Jo, but not wanting to give the girl empty platitudes. Finally she said, “We can’t know that, Mary Jo. That’s just somebody’s speculation.”

“But what’s going to happen to her now?

Is she going to jail?”

Jail, Anna thought, could be better than some things, but not many. She couldn’t say that to Mary Jo, though. “At present she’s going to be staying with Sheriff Tate’s family, until we find out what’s going on.”

“That’s not so bad, then. But what do you think is wrong?”

“I don’t know, not for sure.

But I need you to help me, Mary Jo. I need every little thing you can remember that might give me a clue to what’s wrong here.”

“You’re trying to help her?”

“Of course! There are a lot of people who want to help her. I don’t know anyone who wants to see her go to jail. But unless we find out what the problem is, she may have to.”

“Oh, no! I don’t want that to happen to her—ever!” Mary Jo started crying again, and Anna waited patiently, making soothing sounds. There was never just one victim, she thought bitterly. There were always others.

When the young woman had her tears under control, Anna asked her if she remembered anything, anything at all, that seemed unusual.

“Well, I thought it was weird when her dad wouldn’t let her come over to spend the night anymore. I mean, we’d always been best friends, and at least once a month I’d sleep at her place or she’d sleep at mine.”

“When did that stop?”

“About a year ago, I guess. But what was so weird was that he’d let me come over there, but he wouldn’t let her come to my house. I asked Lorna why, but she just shrugged and said nobody could explain parents. My mom and dad started to feel insulted by it and didn’t want me to go over there anymore after a while.”

“I can understand that.”

“Well, it made me mad, so a couple of times I made ’em let me go anyway.”

“Did anything strike you as unusual?”

“Not really.”

Anna felt something brush against her leg and discovered the puppy had joined her and was looking up at her with hopeful eyes. Bending, she scooped Jazz onto her lap. “This is a harder question, Mary Jo, and I want you to think very carefully about it. When you spent the night with Lorna, did anything happen that made you feel uneasy? Did anything seem not quite right? Anything at all?”

“Hmm…” Mary Jo was silent for a bit. “Well…it sounds silly, but her dad made us get ready for bed at eight o’clock. I mean, we always used to stay dressed until we went to bed, but the last few times he insisted we get ready before we watched TV. I thought that was kind of weird, but parents can be crazy sometimes, you know?”

“I know.”

“Anyway, that just seemed stupid to me, but…” She hesitated. “This sounds awful, Miss Anna, and I don’t want you to think poorly of me.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

“Well…” Mary Jo drew a long breath. “I don’t have a sick mind or anything, but it just made me uncomfortable to see Lorna running around in front of her dad in those baby doll pajamas. She didn’t put on a robe or anything. My dad would have a fit if I sat around in the living room dressed like that.”

It was now Anna’s turn to draw a deep breath. Her heart accelerated. “But he didn’t say anything or do anything?”

“Not about her running around like that. But then she was acting funny. I couldn’t figure it out. It was like she didn’t want to be dressed that way, either. She kept her arms all folded up and scrunched herself into a corner of the couch, like she wanted to hide. And she didn’t say much after that. Her dad got on her about being so gloomy. She just kind of ignored him, and then he tried to tickle her out of it. Tried to tickle me, too, but not much. I figured that was because I wasn’t one of his kids and he didn’t think it would be right. But he tried to tickle her, and she said the weirdest thing.”

“What was that?”

“She said, ‘Don’t touch me.’ And then she looked at him like she was gonna kill him. It sort of scared me. I didn’t know she hated her dad that much.”

Anna drew a shaky breath. “Thanks, Mary Jo.

You’ve been a great help.”

“Really? I hope so. Oh! I just remembered one other thing. The last time I was over there, she had this big old pipe wrench under her bed. I asked her what it was doing there, and she told me she was afraid of burglars coming through the window. Did you ever hear anything so crazy?”

Anna had.

Under her own bed she had kept a hammer. It required a lot of effort for her to find her voice. “Thanks, Mary Jo. This is what I needed.”

“Good. If I think of anything else, I’ll call you. But you know, Miss Anna, I haven’t been over there since. When my dad heard that Mr. Lacey had tried to tickle me, he flat put his foot down about me ever going there again.”

“Your dad is right, Mary Jo. Absolutely right. Don’t go over there again.”

When she hung up the phone, her hands were shaking. She looked down at the little puppy curled contentedly on her lap and tried to drag herself back to the present. But it was so difficult. Memories long buried were beating on the doors of her mind, demanding recognition.

Sleet rattled sharply against the window, and the wind moaned sorrowfully. A draft snaked across the floor and wrapped around her ankles, causing her to shiver. She needed to change. She needed to get into something warm and comfortable, and make herself some dinner. She needed to get busy so she could take control again and push the memories away. And she needed to figure out what she was going to do about Lorna.

It was going to be a long night.

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