At the Quiet Edge(40)

His narrow face popped into view with a scowl.

Lily scowled back. “Dr. Ross?”

“Yes. Hello.”

She’d used his office a few times after Everett’s original doctor moved. Then she’d stopped after the charges against Jones. Dr. Ross hadn’t been personally involved, but he’d commented snidely to her about the money Jones had stolen from the county hospital system. Lily had found a new doctor.

If he hadn’t stood there so awkwardly, she might have apologized for disturbing him and been on her way, but his stiff posture forced her eyes to the space beyond him. A burgundy Turkish rug spread across the floor. Two beige recliners faced a large oak china cabinet. A sturdy end table lurked between the two chairs and held a large electric lantern that glowed weakly in the gray space.

An “oh” of surprise escaped her lips when she spotted the paperback novel on the cold cement next to one of the chairs. That had been the slap she’d heard. His book falling to the ground.

“I . . . I was out for a run, and I thought I’d check on things,” he explained, clearly lying. His voice had gone breathy. One of his hands shook at his side.

“Of course,” Lily said immediately. “No worries, Dr. Ross. I was only concerned you were a thief.”

He nodded but otherwise didn’t move, his eyes hard on her, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment. Or was it anger?

“It’s your space,” she assured him again. That wasn’t quite the truth. There was no “occupancy” allowed in a unit, but he was obviously only there momentarily. “Let me know if you need anything.”

When he didn’t respond, she spun on her heel and marched away. She wasn’t moving toward the office, but she didn’t care. She just needed to escape the awkwardness.

He was a busy doctor, and his first spouse, Francesca, had been the type of wife who’d done everything else for the family, at least according to Sharon. She’d raised the kids, kept the house, planned the vacations, cooked the meals, and scheduled every appointment. Lily imagined he’d been lost without her, a restless widower, wandering the rooms of his big house alone.

He’d seemingly jumped at the chance to marry Kimmy, who was twenty-one years younger, but Lily imagined that Kimmy wasn’t the least bit interested in bleaching his dirty whites and making sure the cars got their oil changes. And she clearly wasn’t interested in sitting in overstuffed recliners with him and enjoying a good Western. Apparently he did that in his solo time now.

“Yikes,” Lily whispered as she finally made it around a corner of a building and out of sight. With the way he’d set it up, Dr. Ross clearly meant to visit repeatedly, probably pretending he was going out for a long run. Another drop in the huge bucket of her phobia of commitment. Kimmy Ross likely had no idea.

When she got to the far edge of the complex, Lily finally spotted Ross’s car, or she assumed it was his. A gray Lincoln sedan sat just inside the back gate, beyond the view of the camera that pointed out toward intruders instead of in toward embarrassed visitors.

He’d recognized her when he’d first come to rent the unit. She’d seen the flash of recognition in his eyes, but then he’d pretended to be a stranger.

She hadn’t seen that reaction in quite a while, but it had happened often during that first year. She appreciated it because the other reaction had been anger and sometimes yelling. Still, part of her had been relieved by the yelling. Part of her had welcomed it. She’d brought Jones to this town, and she’d had his biggest accounting clients over for summer barbecues as he’d dedicated himself to embezzling every cent he could.

These weren’t big corporations with extra padding built into their profits. They had been small-town places that could be ruined by a bad year. The county hospital. An ob-gyn practice. A car dealership. Even the Town of Herriman itself. It had seemed as if every single person in Herriman had known someone affected.

As she approached building B, Lily heard noises, but this time they were the normal rhythms of the storage business. Cardboard sliding over cement, a car door opening, the thud of something heavy being dropped into place. She heard music as she walked past the wall to see an old SUV with the liftgate raised high. A few seconds later, Alex Bennick stepped out of the unit with a cardboard box.

“Hey!” he said when he saw her, his face immediately lighting with a smile.

“Hi. How’s it going in there?”

He slipped the box into the back of the SUV and dusted off his hands.

“I’m making progress.”

“Let me know if you need any tips. I know every junk dealer, pawnshop, and mover in the county.”

“It’s mostly papers,” he said. “I’m just trying to go through a few things a day. My next gig fell through, so I might stay for a couple of weeks.”

“What do you do?” she asked, drawing a little closer. She liked the feeling of someone else being here after Dr. Ross’s weird skulking around.

“I’m a reporter,” Alex said. “I worked for a local paper in Memphis, but the newspaper industry is . . .”

Lily winced. “Yeah. Not exactly upwardly trending?”

He smiled. “Not so much. But I’m putting together some freelance work, so hope springs eternal.”

Lily found herself smiling back, which probably wasn’t the appropriate response to his talk of job loss, but he did have a rather infectious grin.