Shattered Secrets (Cold Creek #1)(61)

20

Blinking back tears, Tess stormed out of the pub and headed for Gabe’s office. As she walked in, Ann looked up and frowned at her. “I wouldn’t advise that you bother him.”

“So he’s here?” Tess demanded. “Alone?”

“Yes, but I’ll just have you wait for him and let him know,” Ann said, and moved to pick up her desk phone.

“I’m not waiting for him anymore,” Tess said.

“Hey, just a minute!” Ann shouted as Tess strode back to Gabe’s office. The door was ajar. He was on the phone, arguing with someone.

She pushed the door open just as he hung up. “That judge has dragged her feet too long,” he muttered as he looked up at her. “Did you see Grace and Lee and their—”

Tess slammed the door in Ann’s face. “Don’t blame Vic for this, blame yourself!” she shouted.

“For wh—”

“Oh, it’s my fault, of course! For thinking you were treating me like an adult. Vic let slip about our parents’ love affair. Your bored, lonely mother, my angry, supersalesman father, right? Right? And you wouldn’t tell me, not little Tess, who still can’t think things through for herself. If I’m willing to face what happened to me when I was kidnapped, don’t you think I can handle a family hardship?”

He put up his hands as if to hold her off, though she stayed on the other side of the desk. She was not getting near this man again, in any way.

“I was honoring your family’s wishes,” he insisted. “Since they hadn’t told you, why should I? You’re delicate enough, and I needed to protect—”

“Needed to use me to get what you wanted and needed! How can I trust you? Though I sometimes feel trapped in my past, I’m not a child, Sheriff McCord!”

“That’s obvious to me in more ways than one. My eyes—my entire body—are fully aware you are not a child, Tess. I thought protecting you from something that would upset you was the best way to go. And I guess I should have clued in Vic that you didn’t know about our parents.”

“No, you should have clued me in! Before you kissed me at the falls and at your house! Before you made me think you cared about me as more than just an eyewitness who could not remember one stupid thing! But now I’m starting to recall sounds and sights.”

“Sights, like what?”

“See, that’s all you care about! Like seeing a small graveyard out an attic or upper-level window.”

“Dane.”

“Probably. And I’m remembering what an idiot I was to think you cared about me.”

“Tess,” he said, slowly coming around the desk. “It’s the wrong time to say this, but I not only need you to help me solve this—your case—but I need you in other wa—”

“No!” she shouted, moving out of his reach. “You need to find Sandy Kenton and Jill Stillwell, Amanda Bell too—so if I think of anything that will help, I’ll let you know. Probably through Vic or Deputy Miller. Don’t worry about me. I’ll stay locked in my house at night until I decide if I’m staying or going from your Cold Creek kingdom!” She yanked open his office door.

Ann stood in the hall. She jumped back, knowing she’d been caught listening. Tess glared at her and walked out into the hall. No way was she going to run like a child.

“Gabe,” Ann said. “Jace called, but I told him you were...occupied. He said Dane’s driven his van into the Lake Azure area, but he didn’t follow him farther since he’d be spotted. And a fax is coming in for you from Judge Wilson’s office.”

“Thanks. Call Vic for me and get him back here pronto.”

Tess slowed to hear what was happening. She knew Gabe probably wanted to chase her, but he wouldn’t with his precious search warrant waiting. She hesitated in the empty outer office, tempted for one moment to go back.

“And tell Vic,” she heard Gabe call out to Ann, “as soon as Dane gets back on his property, we’re going in. I want to shake him up when we serve the warrant and start to take the place apart. Who knows what he’ll admit then?”

Tess went outside. She was working on her own now. It was nearly noon, and the farmers’ market was winding down. Shoppers were leaving; a few tables were being carried by vendors to their cars.

She went to her car and drove away, thoughts racing. Dane wasn’t home and Marva was still at her market booth. Gabe wouldn’t be on Dane’s property until the vet got back from Lake Azure.

She was going to go there herself on foot, through the cornfield, to take a look at the pet cemetery. It just had to trigger memories. And from now on, she was going to dig up her past not for the sheriff, not for herself, but for those lost girls. And any risk was worth that.

*

Tess dumped the contents of her purse onto her kitchen table, then took her new house keys and phone out of the pile of items. She put the two items in the child’s backpack she’d brought from home, mostly because it reminded her of her students. She’d stenciled SUNSHINE AND SMILES on packs for each of her kids last year.

For the first time, she analyzed the real reason she was so dedicated to her job as a preschool teacher. She realized she’d been trying to recover from her lost, damaged childhood through her students. She needed to protect and comfort them. She desperately wanted to have her own day care center, to make the lives of children better, sweeter, safer.