Lone Wolf Standing
There were plenty of people who were regulars at her shop, acquaintances but not real friends. With Marlene and Roxy and Aunt Liz, Sheri had never really missed having friendships with other people. Family had filled her up, but now that family had been fractured.
She entered her bedroom, where Highway lay on a rug at the foot of her bed. He raised his head, his tail beating a happy rhythm against the floor at the sight of her.
She sank down beside him and wrapped her arms around his thick, muscled neck. It was like holding a living, breathing teddy bear.
“You’re a good boy, Highway,” she said. He turned his head and gazed at her with adoring eyes. She released her hold on him and stood to change out of her clothes and into her nightgown. “I just wish I knew who you were barking at when I got home tonight.”
As she went into the adjoining bathroom to finish getting ready for bed, she hoped Jimmy found out that it had been Travis in her backyard.
She reminded herself that there was no reason to feel uneasy. Throughout the years there had been times when hunters or hikers had accidentally come onto her property.
She left the bedroom and got into bed and shut off the light on the nightstand. Within minutes she heard the soft sound of Highway snoring.
Jimmy. She had a feeling he’d be a good friend and it would be nice to fill some of the empty evening hours with human conversation instead of the one-sided monologues she shared with Highway.
She closed her eyes and tried to bring a vision of Jimmy into her head, but instead her thoughts drifted to her missing aunt, the sound of Highway’s frantic barking and the window she didn’t remember opening. Had somebody followed her home or had she simply been freaked out by a car that was coincidentally going in the same direction she’d been traveling?
Despite the lingering warmth of Jimmy’s visit, it took her a very long time to finally allow the uneasiness that plagued her to dissipate enough that she could fall asleep.
* * *
Something had to be done about the damned dog. The man stood in the deep cover of the woods, the only illumination a faint beam of moonlight that managed to find its way through the leafy trees that surrounded him.
The dog was like a hound from hell and had to be neutralized before he could get to Sheri. He leaned his back against a tree trunk as he stared at the now-darkened cottage.
And what had the detective been doing out here?
He’d been watching the cottage for weeks now, pleased to realize that Sheri was definitely a creature of habit. She returned home from the store about the same time each day, spent her spare time alone and often in the backyard.
She would have been an easy target, but the appearance of the detective tonight had confused him. Had the dog barking at him made Sheri afraid enough to call the law?
Surely the dog barked all the time when he was outside. That’s what dogs did, they chased squirrels and barked at the wind and chased their own tails.
Maybe Detective Jimmy Carmani and Sheri were starting some sort of a relationship? If that was the case, then he’d have to move fast to take Sheri to his underground bunker where hopefully she would be a far better candidate for his intentions than her aunt and the woman before Liz.
Liz. He frowned and clenched his fists at his sides. He’d been so sure that she was the right one, so certain that she would break and become the woman he needed her to be.
But she’d proven to be too strong, too bullheaded. After three and a half months of captivity she still showed no fear, no hint of weakness. She would have to be disposed of, as Agnes Wilson had been eliminated before her.
He focused his attention back on the small, moonlit cottage. There was his future. Sheri was the right one. He knew it in his heart, felt it in his very soul.
She was sweet and soft and he had a feeling it wouldn’t take her long to understand that her true destiny was to be his wife, to care take for him as she did all the wild animals in the forest.
She was the right one to take the place of his dutiful, submissive wife he’d lost. A man could only be alone for so long.
Now all he had to figure out was how to get past the dog and take what he knew belonged to him.
Chapter 3
Jimmy caught up with Travis at ten the next morning at the Wolf’s Head Tavern. The place wouldn’t open officially for business until noon, but Jimmy knew the owner was usually in about this time of the morning to start prepping for the day.
Jimmy knocked on the back door and Travis opened up to allow him inside the kitchen that served up mostly fried appetizers.
“I hope you’ve come by to tell me you’ve taken that shotgun away from Sheri,” Travis said as he led Jimmy into the main area where mounted wolf heads glared from the walls next to booths and tables. Jimmy opted for a stool at the bar and Travis moved behind the long polished wood.
“I’ve got to tell you, she scared the living hell out of me the other night. There’s nothing more terrifying than a woman with a gun.”
Jimmy grinned. “Your chauvinism is showing, Travis.”
“Yeah, well, I’m just saying women are emotional and unpredictable. I could have been killed if she’d flinched the wrong way.”
“Yeah, you could have been,” Jimmy agreed, not spilling to Travis that Sheri’s shotgun had been unloaded. “I stopped by to see if you might have been hunting that feral pig again last night on Sheri’s property?”
“No way,” Travis replied, his green eyes emitting earnest truth. “You couldn’t pay me enough to go out there again. Seriously man, I really thought she was going to shoot me.”
“So, you weren’t in her woods last night,” Jimmy said to confirm the matter.
“Nope.” He shook his head. “If somebody was out there it definitely wasn’t me.”
Jimmy believed him. He and Travis had always had a good relationship and he knew that if Travis had been in Sheri’s backyard the night before he would have confessed to it. “That’s what I needed to know.” Jimmy slid off the stool.
“Is Sheri having some sort of problems?” Travis asked, genuine concern in his expression.
“She just thought somebody was skulking around her place last night and naturally we thought of you.”
Travis frowned and shook his head once again. “As if that family hasn’t been through enough already. First Liz’s kidnapping and then Steve’s ex-girlfriend trying to kill Roxy. Then his ex’s boyfriend trying to kill Marlene... You’d think enough was enough for that family.”
“Hopefully enough is enough and there’s no danger in Sheri’s future. At least something good has come out of all this. Both of my partners have found the loves of their lives and are happier than I’ve ever seen them.”
Travis snorted. “Women don’t do anything but complicate your life. I’d rather hunt a feral pig than deal with a woman’s drama.”
Jimmy laughed. “I guess we’re all built differently when it comes to dealing with the opposite sex. Thanks for your time, Travis.”
Together the two men returned to the kitchen where Jimmy went out the back door. He got into his car and sat, oddly upset to discover that Travis hadn’t been the person in the woods Sheri had been convinced was there. It would have not only eased Sheri’s concern to discover it had been Travis, but it would have also eased some of his own.
Travis was right, the Marcoli family had been through more crime and drama in the past three and a half months than any family should ever experience in an entire lifetime. Although the threats to Marlene and Roxy had been deemed not connected to Liz’s disappearance, the last thing Jimmy wanted was for anything else to happen to any of the Marcolis.
Especially Sheri. A tiny thrill shot through him as he thought of spending more time with her. She’d surprised him by agreeing to hang out with him. Oh, she’d made it clear that it was a temporary thing just until she found her prince.
But he’d enjoy whatever time she was willing to give him. It definitely beat his usual evenings after work, having a few beers with other cops and talking shop, or flopping on his sofa to watch a couple of hours of mindless television shows.
Jimmy had spent most of his life with a loneliness deep inside him, but lately the feeling seemed to gnaw a bigger hole in his gut.
He thought often about a desire to have what his partners had found: love and commitment with women who would stand by their sides for the rest of their lives. But at his very core he didn’t believe he’d ever have it, and he knew with certainty that the woman, if she really existed, wouldn’t be Sheri.
At least he was finally dipping his toe into social waters rather than being an all-work, no-play kind of guy. Even if he wasn’t a forever kind of man, that didn’t mean he couldn’t date.
He headed to the police station located on Main Street. Stores were opening their doors and a variety of people had taken to the sidewalks. It was easy to spot the unfamiliar faces of tourists who were visiting for the day and it was mostly the tourist industry that kept the small town of Wolf Creek alive.
The town boasted a long history that was highlighted in many of the quaint restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts. Specialty shops lined Main Street, like The Treasure Trove, an antique junk store where Marlene Marcoli had lived in the upstairs apartment, a taxidermy shop that displayed a variety of stuffed animals that were indigenous to the area, and it wouldn’t be long before Marlene’s Magic Bites would add confectionery delights for both tourists and locals.
He parked and headed into the station, where he greeted Officer Wade Peterson who stood duty in the common area. “Morning, Wade,” Jimmy said.
“A little late this morning, aren’t you?” Wade teased as he buzzed open the door that led to the large area where police desks and officers were the decor. “Hot date last night?”
“Yeah right, because I do that so often,” Jimmy replied drily. He pushed open the door that led to the inner office and immediately spied his two partners at their desks.
Steve Kincaid shot him a lazy grin. “Ah, look what the cat finally dragged in.”
“Nice of you to join us this morning,” Frank Delaney added.
Jimmy sat at his desk between the two. “I’ve been working already, interviewing a potential suspect.”
Frank frowned. “A suspect for what?”
Jimmy quickly explained first his call to Sheri’s house and finding her holding Travis at gunpoint and then his subsequent visit the night before. “Travis swears it wasn’t him on her property last night.”
“It could have been anyone or it might have been nothing more than her imagination,” Steve said. “Maybe with everything that has happened with all the other members of her family she’s feeling particularly vulnerable right now.”
“Maybe,” Jimmy agreed reluctantly. “But she was pretty sure somebody was out in those woods by the way Highway was reacting when she got home from the store.”
“Maybe Highway was just acting like a normal dog and barking just to bark,” Frank said.
“According to Sheri, Highway isn’t a normal dog. He’s been highly trained by Jed.”
“Then maybe Sheri just wanted to see you,” Steve said with a sly look in his blue eyes. “After all, two of the three detectives in town have found love with her sisters. Maybe she’s looking for a trifecta.”
Jimmy laughed and shook his head. “No way. I’m the antithesis of what she’s looking for in a man.”
“What does that mean?” Steve asked.
“Sheri is waiting for a blond-haired, blue-eyed prince to ride into her life, and if he’s a prince you know he’ll be tall. She’s definitely not looking for a short meatball like me.”
His partners laughed. “You aren’t round enough to be a meatball,” Frank protested.
“And you aren’t short, you just aren’t overly tall,” Steve added.
“I’m average,” Jimmy said. “And if Sheri is looking for a prince, she’s definitely not interested in an average kind of guy like me.”
“You definitely aren’t an average guy, Jimmy,” Frank said. “Average guys don’t have black belts in martial arts training and they don’t have a brain like a computer that stores even the most minute detail of a crime.”
“This is a stupid conversation,” Jimmy said. “What’s going on with our armed robbery case?” He was more than ready to change the topic of conversation.
It didn’t matter what Sheri thought about him. Jimmy wasn’t made for any kind of a long-term love and Sheri definitely wasn’t the type of woman to be a “friend with benefits” or a drive-by, hit-and-run kind of woman.
As the three men began to discuss the details of the armed robbery, Jimmy shoved thoughts of Sheri out of his head. He was a detective and that was all he would ever be. He’d never be a husband or a father and he’d made peace with that fact a long time ago.
* * *
“Go home,” Abe said to Sheri at three in the afternoon. “I’ve got you covered for the rest of the night and I know that you usually like to spend some time in the later afternoons and evenings with your critters.”
“Thanks, Abe, but I think I’ll go ahead and hang out until closing,” Sheri replied.
“With Marlene not working here anymore you should probably hire on somebody. You can’t keep showing up early in the mornings and working until closing. You have to have a life outside of the store.”
“You’re right,” Sheri conceded. “I’ll put a sign in the window tomorrow and see who shows up.” She frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe I should give Michael Arello another chance.”
Marlene had fired the young man when she’d caught him stealing food, but it was later learned that Michael was trying to feed three young orphans who were holed up all alone in a mountain cabin. Their grandmother had died of a heart attack in town and nobody had known that she was raising her three grandchildren.
Abe grunted. “His heart was in the right place but he made some bad choices. He’s not a bad kid, he’s just young.”
“He’s old enough to need a job. I think I’ll give him a call.” Sheri went into the small office in the back room and pulled up her employee records, both past and current. It took her only a minute to find Michael’s contact information. She called and left a message on his voice mail.
That finished, she returned to the front of the store and with Abe standing behind the counter she wandered over to the four quilt racks that displayed beautiful handmade quilts, including the one Jason King had brought in two days ago.
“I hope this one sells quickly,” she said as she touched the colorful patchwork. “I have a feeling the King family is in crisis. Jason was in the other day and said his father isn’t doing much work in the fields, that he disappears from the family for long periods of time and Jason doesn’t know where he goes or what he does.”
“That poor kid has more on his shoulders than most men twice his age,” Abe replied. “But at least they won’t go hungry. The community will always help their own.”
Sheri nodded. That’s what she admired about the Amish, their sense of community, of family. Like she’d had with her aunt Liz and Marlene and Roxy before the rug had been pulled out from beneath them with Aunt Liz’s disappearance.
It frightened her just a little bit that the grief that had been with her for the past three months each time she thought of her missing aunt had begun to dissipate, as if the last vestiges of hope had left her and resignation had moved in to reign.
She felt as if she was moving on with the unspoken knowledge that she’d never see her aunt again. There was no rational reason for Liz’s absence other than foul play that had ended in her death.
It would be nice at this point to have some closure, to have remains to bury, to know the reason everything had happened. She would never, ever be able to guess why anyone would want to harm somebody as kind and as loving as Liz Marcoli.
Part of the reason she was reluctant to call it a day and head home was that she was still a little nervous about the events of the night before.
She knew she was probably being silly, but danger had come too close too often to everyone in the Marcoli family except her. Last night before Jimmy had arrived she’d instinctively felt threatened, sensed danger lurking nearby. A case of the heebie-jeebies or some sort of primal feminine survival instinct?
All thoughts of danger and family disappeared as the door to the shop swung open to admit two adults and three small children who instantly began to run wild among the aisles.
“Jerry, Richard and Susan, come back here right now,” the harried mother exclaimed, and then shot an apologetic smile at Sheri. “Sorry, cooped up in the car too long.”
“We’re going to Hershey Park!” A little boy about six raced up to stand next to his mother, his slender body vibrating with excitement.
“And we’re going to see how they make chocolate.” The little girl joined the discussion.
“That will be such fun. Where are you coming from?” Sheri asked. She noticed that the man had taken the other little boy to the restroom.
“Indiana. It’s been a long drive,” the mother replied.
Sheri smiled. “The good news is you’re almost there. Hershey is less than thirty miles from here.”
“That’s great. We just couldn’t drive by this place without stopping in to see some of the Amish things you have for sale.”
Sheri led the woman to the area where Abraham Zooker’s beautiful furniture was displayed and then to the special cheeses that Isaaic, Abraham’s brother, provided. There were fresh herbs provided by Sarah Fisher, who had the best herb garden in the county, and the quilts and embroidered sacks and bags that several of the women in the Amish community brought in to sell.
They finally left with bags of chips and sodas and all three children sporting Wolf Creek hats complete with stuffed little wolves on the top.
“I’ve just been reminded why I never had kids,” Abe said. “I don’t think I ever had the energy for them.”
“I can’t wait to have children,” Sheri said, her heart warming at the very thought. Her head filled with a little boy with dark curly hair and she frowned. No, that wasn’t right. Her children would all be blond, like their father.
“You might want to find a man before you think about having any children,” Abe observed.
“I don’t have to find him. He’ll find me when the time is right.”
Abe eyed her in bemusement. “He’s not going to find you as long as you’re holed up in the store ten hours a day.”
“You never know who might walk through that door,” Sheri replied. “One of these days it will be the man of my dreams.”
At that moment Michael Arello walked in. Sheri grinned at Abe. “Definitely not the man I was looking for.”
“I got your message that you wanted to talk to me.” At twenty-one years old Michael Arello was a handsome young man when a sullen cast to his lips wasn’t present. At the moment there was no sign of the sullenness, just a wary glint in his brown eyes.
“Come on back to the office and let’s have a talk,” Sheri said.
It only took fifteen minutes of speaking with Michael to pin down the hours he’d work, talk about what had happened when he’d worked before and been fired, and elicit a promise from him that he’d be a good employee.
“You sure you know what you’re doing with him?” Abe asked when Michael left the store.
“Probably not, but I believe everyone deserves a second chance and I think at heart he is a good kid.”
“You’re a good woman, Sheri. You’ve got a heart just like your aunt Liz. Of the three of you girls I see her in you more than in Roxy and Marlene.”
Sheri smiled, touched by his words. “Thanks, Abe.”
“That Roxy, she’s got firecracker in her and Marlene has always seemed kind of cool and distant. But you have all the qualities Liz had.” He flushed, as if realizing he’d spoken of her in the past tense.
“You have to remember that Roxy lived with our real mother, Ramona, for the first seven years of her life, and the experience was the stuff of nightmares. Even Marlene spent four years in Ramona’s care before she showed up at Aunt Liz’s and left her there.”
“And you?” Abe asked.
“I was just a couple of months old. I have no memories of anyone else as a mother other than Aunt L...L...Liz.” She bit her tongue and swallowed against the sudden emotion that threatened to prompt the stuttering.
“I’m sorry, Sheri. Damn, I’m sorry,” Abe said, his blue eyes growing darker in hue.
She shook her head. “It’s fine. I’m fine.” She stiffened her shoulders and pasted a smile on her face as the door opened and an older woman walked in. “Welcome to the Roadside Stop. Just let me know if I can help you with anything.”
The woman nodded, a long salt-and-pepper ponytail swaying across her lower back. “Thanks, I’m just browsing.”
Sheri moved behind the register as Abe went to the storage room to take care of cleaning shelves and checking stock. Sheri watched the skinny, older woman checking out the items for sale and her thoughts suddenly filled with a vision of Jimmy Carmani.
Yes, it would be nice to have a friend to hang out with, to spend a few hours a week chatting with him and enjoying his company. He appeared to have a fairly laid-back personality, as did she, and neither of them were in the market for anything romantic, so it could be an ideal friendship.
The older woman carried a cold canned drink to the register and pulled several dollar bills from a purse that looked worn. “This should do it,” she said, her chocolate-brown eyes intent on Sheri.
“Just traveling through town?” Sheri asked as she rang up the drink.
“I haven’t decided yet. The town seems quite charming. I may decide to hang around.” She smiled.
“It’s a wonderful place to live with terrific people,” Sheri said as she handed her the change.
“Thanks, maybe I’ll see you around.” Without a backward glance the woman went out the door with her cold drink in hand.
By eight that evening Sheri felt a dread creeping over her and was stunned to realize it was the anxiety of going home. It was an emotion she’d never known before. Normally she was eager to head back to her cottage and snuggle with Highway.
On impulse she pulled out her phone and punched in Jimmy’s number. He answered immediately. “Hey, Jimmy, it’s Sheri. Are you still at work?”
“Actually I am,” he replied. “But not for too much longer. What’s up?”
“I was just wondering if maybe you’d like to meet me at the tavern for a cold beer in about a half an hour or so.” Her stomach clenched. She’d never initiated a date with a man before. No, she corrected herself. It wasn’t a date, it was just two people getting together for a little conversation and a beer.
“Sounds perfect to me. I might even indulge in some of Travis’s hot wings with that beer. Shall we make it around eight-thirty?”
He sounded ridiculously pleased that she had called and a sweet wave of answering pleasure swept through her. “I’ll see you at eight-thirty,” she agreed.
The store had been quiet for the past hour, so she sent Abe home, locked the front door and then went into the bathroom with her purse in hand.
She stared at her reflection in the mirror and then dug a brush from her purse and quickly pulled it through her shoulder-length hair. There had been a time when she’d been jealous of Roxy’s rich black curls, of Marlene’s cool blond strands, but as she’d gotten older she’d made peace with her chestnut-brown hair. At least it was thick and required little more than a daily brushing.
She thought about lipstick, but never wore it. She also considered mascara but again, makeup had never been her thing and she wondered why she was even thinking about it now. It wasn’t like she was going to meet the man of her dreams. She was just going to hang out with Jimmy. She settled for a quick spritz of her purse-size bottle of her favorite perfume and then left the bathroom.