I'll Be There Part 22

"Who will know where I am besides you?" She looked at Cord, then back. "Grady?"

"No one," Jay said.

Panic bubbled up inside her. Her body felt about to shatter, her soul began a slow fracture splitting her right down the middle. She looked at Cord again. How could he just quietly sit there? She stood. "If that's all for now, I-I-"

"Of course. We'll come get you a bit before two," Jay said. "Grady, I believe we have some prisoners to deal with?"

"Yes."

The two men showed themselves out, leaving Jenny alone with Cord in the parlor.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

Jenny walked over to the curio cabinet filled with angels. She couldn't breathe. She wasn't ready for this. She had to get out of here.

"I'm not feeling well. I think I need to lie down." She turned to walk out of the room and go upstairs without looking at Cord, but he was there beside her, grasping her arm.

"I'll take you up."

"No." She tried to look at him, but the pain surged strong and raw, and she couldn't. "I need to be alone."

He let her go and she ran up the stairs.

"Well what are you waitin' on, young man?"

Miss Estelee had appeared before him without his noticing. A door closed above them. He sighed and hung his head.

Miss Estelee sighed as well. "You're right." Eyeing the stairway, she held out her hand. "Help me get up these, would you Cord?"

Instead of offering his hand, he lifted her into his arms and carried her up the stairs. "Well! I must say, it's been quite some years since a strapping young man-"

He deposited her carefully at the top of the stairs before she could finish her statement. She smoothed her skirt and simply said. "Thank you."

Cord nodded and went back downstairs.

Jenny didn't know how Miss Estelee got up the stairs or how she knew which room she was in, but when the older woman opened and closed her door, she was not happy for the intrusion. She swiped at tears with the back of her hand, wishing she could just disappear and pretend the last few months were a bad dream.

Miss Estelee sat next to her on the bed. "You've faced everything up to now head on. What's holding you back now? I'd think you'd be happy to finally see an end in sight."

Jenny didn't know where to begin. All the months of running, hiding, being found, hidden and found again-she should be happy to see it all end. How could she say that's exactly what she didn't want? For it to end now? Miss Estelee had predicted she'd find the love of her life. She hadn't said she'd have to leave him behind.

"The Bible says that there is a season for everything. A time for beginnings and endings, a time to be happy and sad, a time to mourn and a time to dance. But as I see it, we spend most all our lives somewhere in the middle. Not starting or ending, not happy or sad, just being." She took Jenny's hand and held it in both of her old, bent ones. "It's what we do in those *in between' states that makes up our living.

"Look over there, dear."

Jenny sniffed and looked up to see Miss Estelee point to the corner of the room.

"Do you see that spider web over by the window? Isn't it beautiful, glistening in the sunlight? So intricate and complicated. The hours and creativity that creature must have put into making such a wondrous thing. Can you imagine creating something so delicate that in an instant a wind or a careless hand could come and tear it down, just like that?"

She snapped her fingers, then quiet settled around them like a cloak. "That spider, she gets knocked down with her web, and she might spend a time mourning the loss of all she's worked for and the shelter that it provided her for a time. But by tomorrow, there'll be another web. Maybe not in the same spot, but another just as intricate and beautiful. Persistence and tremendous patience is wired into that spider. It's how she survives."

Jenny was sure that the woman was telling her the story to drive home some point, but her heart was too heavy to decipher the meaning.

"You've spent your whole life doing good, meaningful work. You've traveled your road, working alone like that spider over there, and you built a good life for yourself. But now, some senseless bandit has come and destroyed all your hard work." She rocked back and patted Jenny's hand again. "Look at me, honey."

Jenny swiped at her tears again, and met the woman's soft blue eyes. "Spiders don't have souls or the freewill to make choices. They just do what they were created to do. They don't know why they keep building those webs. They only know they must.

"G.o.d put them here for a reason. I believe it was so we could learn something from them. You've got a new life to begin. You have no choice in the matter. Now, you can go sit in the dark and mourn the loss of your old life, and no one would fault you for it. But after the beginning, there's that s.p.a.ce in the middle where you'll have to choose. Are you going to just exist in that s.p.a.ce, or are you going to create something intricate and beautiful there for yourself?"

"I don't think I have it in me, Miss Estelee."

"Honey, you got more strength in you than you can imagine. And if that strength fails you, G.o.d will give you His if you ask Him. He'll even send his angels to carry you, if need be."

She stood. "Now, there's a young man downstairs with a face longer than yours. I'll send him up so the two of you can talk. You've come to an ending, but you both must now begin anew."

The s.p.a.ce she and Cord shared was closing. He'd built a web of protection around her. It had been beautiful but delicate, and Jay Kennedy would be the agent to tear it down. A new life stretched out in front of her, away from everything familiar and unlike anything she'd ever known. She couldn't imagine it.

When Cord walked in, she knew she'd be leaving her heart here with him. She stood and walked into his arms. This was home and safety and peace. Together, they were so strong. How could she leave this when she'd only just found it?

"I know," he said as if he'd read her thoughts.

She leaned back and looked at him. "I was actually hoping that you'd say something more along the lines of *let's just run away together'."

He took her hands. "I wish that were an option."

"Sounds like a viable plan to me. We can relocate ourselves somewhere that no one can find us. You've already done it once. You could do it again."

"Jenny..."

She took a step back and looked at him, really looked at him through her well-trained critical eye. Something wasn't right.

"You're an ex-cop. I figured that out right away. But there's more isn't there?"

"Yes." He looked everywhere but at her.

"Tell me."

He sat on the bed. "I don't know where to start."

"Just say it, Cord."

"My name isn't Cord, and I can't relocate with you because-"

He broke off then and raked a hand through his hair.

She took a step back and braced herself. "Because?"

"Because I've already been relocated. I'm in the program, too."

Chapter 18.

"Never let it be said that a little bit of snow would keep the residents of Angel Ridge from turning up at my door expecting to be fed."

"A foot of snow doesn't qualify as a *little' snow," Dixie's brother, Blake, said. "And we have Cole and Bud DeFoe to thank for cleaning the sidewalks, or no one would have ventured out. I'm sure a lot of people are glad you're open. I bet there were plenty of people who weren't able to lay in supplies before the storm hit."

"I'll be open as long as I have food," Dixie said as she poured Frannie Thompson a cup of coffee. "I'd imagine I won't get another delivery for a few days. So, I'm afraid the selection is limited to the special. I hope you like homemade vegetable soup and grilled cheese sandwiches."

"I'll just have coffee," Frannie rasped.

"If you don't mind me sayin', you look a little green around the gills. Are you under the weather, hon?"

"Didn't sleep well last night," she explained without looking up from her coffee.

"Well, that's not surprising given that you're staying at Jenny's house for the first time."

"Thank you for the coffee," Frannie said between sips.

Patrick Houston and Grady came in with a frigid wind blowing through the open door. "Get in here and close the door," Dixie said. "It's colder'n a witch's you-know-whats out there." She set two more mugs on the lunch counter and poured, then took in a disheveled Patrick with dark circles and blood shot eyes. "Good Lord, Patrick. What happened to you?"

"Didn't sleep well last night," he grumbled.

Jenny's sister did look up then, but quickly turned away.

Dixie frowned. "Seems to be goin' around. You boys havin' lunch?"

"Yeah, and I'm kinda in a hurry. It's crazy at the station." Grady said. "Can I just get two specials to go?"

"We didn't finish our conversation last night, Grady, and don't think I've forgotten it."

"I'm sorry, Dix. I just don't have time to go into it right now."

"Uh-huh. How 'bout you, Patrick?"

"Just coffee."

"Glad to see you, Miss Thompson," Grady said. "I haven't forgotten about meeting with you either. I'm sorry I've been so out of pocket. I won't be free today until four. Will that work for you?"

Frannie nodded, but never quite looked at him. Dixie frowned. Something was not right here. And then Patrick confirmed her suspicions by saying, "Dixie, I'll just take that coffee to go. I forgot, but I have an appointment."

"Really?" She filled a paper cup with coffee, put a lid on it and handed it to him. "In this weather?"

He put a dollar on the counter and slid on sungla.s.ses before heading back outside, but not before he chanced a sideways look at Jenny Thompson's sister.

"What's with him?" Dixie wondered aloud.

"Cut him some slack, Dix. He's got a lot on his plate," Blake said as he filled bowls with soup and set them on the counter in front of the waiting customers.

"Oh right, poor Patrick," Dixie replied sarcastically. "He's not the one with cancer; his wife, who I'm sure you remember is my best friend as well as the finest woman I've ever known, is the one with the real struggle."

"They're both going through it, Sis," Blake said softly.

"Whatever. Can I get you anything else?" she asked Frannie.

"Is there a bathroom?" Frannie asked.

"It's in the back."

The woman bolted just as Bud Defoe from the hardware store burst into the diner. "Sheriff! There's trouble over to the hardware. You best come."

"Calm down, Bud. What is it?"

"Some kids were sleddin' down the hill on Lover's Lane, and little Sam Houston's gone and fallen into a hole! We need help. Somebody should go for Doc."

"Sammie's daddy just left," Dixie said.

"I caught him. He's on his way over there now."

"Blake, I have to-"

"Go."

Dixie took off her ap.r.o.n and was the first to the door, grabbing her coat and shrugging into it as she set off across Town Square at a run.

"What do you mean she's gone?" Jay shouted at Cord.

"She's gone," Cord repeated. He still wasn't sure how it had happened. As soon as he'd told Jenny the truth, she'd rushed out of the room. He followed, but couldn't find her anywhere. He figured she had gone into the bathroom since the door was closed. Thinking she needed some privacy, he'd waited. But after fifteen minutes had pa.s.sed, he knocked on the door, repeatedly. When he got no response, he opened it, found it vacant and the window open. He still couldn't believe she'd climbed down from the second floor. "I came here to tell the sheriff before doing a more thorough search. She has to be in town somewhere."

Kennedy grabbed his coat and punched some numbers into his cell. "Sheriff, our package has disappeared." To Cord he asked, "How long?"

"About an hour."

Kennedy relayed the information and then added, "Right. Meet you there."

Cord tried to follow, but Jay rounded on him. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To find Jenny."

"The last thing I need is two protected witnesses exposing themselves to the general populace."

"I can't just stay here and do nothing!"