Sherryl Woods - Twilight

Still, she craved the sense of connection that sitting in Ken’s favorite chair gave her. It was personal, something he’d used daily, yet it lacked the intimacy of their bed. She wasn’t sure when she’d be able to sleep there alone, if ever. From the night she had learned of his death until she had left for Florida, she had slept in this chair. It had brought her a small measure of comfort.

Now, once again, she wrapped the afghan around her and curled up, cradled by leather now, instead of Ken’s strong arms. Even so, the restlessness that had plagued her in Florida eased. For better or worse, her journey to find the truth behind Ken’s murder had begun.

Finally, as dawn turned the sky gray, then mauve, and at last a pale, winter-weary blue, she slept, more soundly than she had in weeks. It was as if her body were preparing for whatever lay ahead.

Her dreams, though, were disturbing. They were not of the man she’d loved so fiercely, but of a shadowy gunman, his face tantalizingly obscured.

Dana awakened at midday to find her best friend staring down at her, hands on generous hips, a worried frown puckering her brow.

“How’d you get in?” she muttered groggily.

Kate Jefferson waved a key ring under her nose. “I found these in the front door. Even if I hadn’t, I have the one you gave me so I could bring in the mail, remember? When did you get home? You were due in at eight. The plane was on time. I checked. I called until all hours, but you never answered. I finally decided you’d changed your mind or missed the plane.”

“I got here in the middle of the night,” Dana said without elaborating. She struggled awake. Her back ached. Her neck was stiff and she was freezing. She’d forgotten to turn the heat up when she’d come in the night before. It couldn’t be much more than fifty-five in the room, the temperature her father had decreed would at least keep the pipes from freezing.

“Where are the boys?” Kate asked. “Didn’t they come with you?”

“No. I enrolled them in school in Florida for the rest of the year. They’re with my parents.”

Kate stared at her in shock. “You’ve enrolled them in school? Have you decided to move to Florida, after all?”

Dana sighed. “No, not for sure. I haven’t decided anything definitely. I can’t think that clearly. I just wanted them to get some sense of normalcy back into their lives.” She stood up and headed toward the kitchen. “Any more questions will have to wait until I have coffee.”

“It’s already made,” Kate said, proving once again that she had an admirable, take-charge attitude. Dana had often told her it should have been put to use running some company, instead of being wasted on her often unappreciative friends or two typically rebellious teenage daughters.

“An hour ago, in fact,” Kate added pointedly. “I’ve been banging pots and pans ever since, hoping to stir some sort of a reaction from you. I thought maybe you were planning to sleep into the next century.”

“Would if I could,” Dana told her as she filled a mug with the gourmet blend she hadn’t been able to give up, despite Ken’s conviction that instant served the same purpose. Leaning against the kitchen counter, she carefully avoided looking outside toward the small church where Ken had preached and beyond to the cemetery where he was buried. She drank deeply, one long swallow, then another. Finally she met Kate’s worried gaze. “Stop frowning. Aren’t you glad to see me?”

“Of course I am. You just gave me a fright when I found the keys in the door and you didn’t answer after I knocked or rang that awful, screeching bell.”

Dana figured it was a testament to Kate’s anxiety that she’d touched the bell at all. The sound was more appropriate for some creaky Addams Family domicile than a parsonage. Kate shuddered every time she was forced to ring it. Dana had always thought it was a hoot, which probably showed just how perverse her sense of humor was.

“If the boys are in school in Florida, why are you here? I thought you’d be down there a few more weeks at least,” Kate said. “I thought the plan was for you to get some rest before you came home to tackle everything that needs to be done here.”

Dana shrugged. “Plans change.”

Kate’s brow puckered again. “Meaning?”

“There are things that can’t wait.”

“What things?”

“The house, for one thing. Sooner or later, I’m going to have to get out of it. It belongs to the church.”

“Lawrence Tremayne told you it was yours for as long as you needed it,” Kate reminded her. “Local pastors are taking services for now. If they hire a new pastor, they’ll make temporary arrangements for him, if they have to.” She gave Dana a penetrating look. “So, what’s really going on?”

“You know, you’d make a great private eye,” Dana observed. “You poke and prod with the best of us.”

“I thought you’d retired.”

“I did.”

Kate’s frown deepened as she apparently guessed what was going on in Dana’s head. “Dana, you can’t investigate Ken’s murder,” she protested. “Leave it to the police.”

“Who said anything about me investigating?”

“I know you. You’re impatient. You’re frustrated with the lack of answers. Anybody would be. But it’s harder for you, because you think you could do the job better. Plus, you’ve been evading every question I’ve asked. How am I doing so far?”

Dana thought about denying it, but couldn’t find the energy. “On the money.”

“Bad idea,” Kate shot back. “You’re too close to this one. I know you were one of the best private eyes in the business. That’s how we met, remember? You found the proof I needed to take that low-down ex of mine back into court and show that he had hidden assets in half the states in the country, even though he claimed he couldn’t come up with child support. I know you have contacts up the wazoo, but this is personal. You can’t be objective. You won’t be cool and rational, the way you need to be. You won’t be able to analyze the risks. You can’t very well sashay around gang turf asking questions. You’ll stand out like a sore thumb.”

Dana wasn’t about to be dissuaded. “I’ll just have to work even harder to keep my emotions out of it....” The way she had done it last night, busting into the Yo, Amigo headquarters without a plan, she thought dryly. If Kate ever heard about that, she’d be muttering “I told you so” for the rest of Dana’s days.

“What about the boys?” Kate demanded.

“What about them? They’re perfectly safe with my parents,” she said. “They like the new school well enough. Best of all, there are no sad memories for them in Florida. They’re adjusting, better than I am, as a matter of fact.”

“That’s all lovely, but they need you. I don’t care how well adjusted they seem.”

Dana sighed. “I know, Kate. And they’ll have me, they’ll have my full-time attention just as soon as things are taken care of here.”

Kate clearly wasn’t satisfied. She leveled another of those penetrating looks straight into Dana’s eyes. “This could wait. They should be with their mother so they won’t start to worry that they’ve lost her, too.”

That last one cut. It stirred guilt that she’d worked hard to bury. “You’ve made your point,” Dana said tightly. “Now drop it.”

Kate was a wonderful friend—compassionate, thoughtful, levelheaded. She was also tenacious. Dana figured she was wasting her breath trying to shut her up. Kate’s next words proved it.

“I will not drop it. You can’t put yourself in danger, Dana. It’s not fair to your sons. What if something were to happen to you? Their sense of security is already shaken by losing their dad. As for your parents, they’re great people, but they’re older. How long will it be before three rambunctious boys get to be too much for them?”