Chasing Shadows(44)

He placed a hand on my arm in a comforting gesture. “Of course we do,” he said, then looked down and cleared his throat. “Listen, Saphrona, I’d like to ask you something.”

“What’s that, Harry?”

“How serious is it between you and that Singleton guy?”

My eyebrows went up. So Mark was right after all, I mused, sighing as I placed my hand on top of his. “Mark and I are in love, Harry.”

He looked at me. “How can you be so serious about a guy you just met?” he asked.

“I’ve known Mark a long time,” I countered, and I very much considered that to be true, given how long I had dreamed about him. “It’s not something we really talked about because he traveled so much with the Marines, but when he of all people answered that ad I put in the paper…that’s when it finally hit us.”

“A Marine, huh?” Harry mused. “Guess that’s why I can’t recall ever seeing him around before.”

He looked at me squarely then. “He makes you happy? Treats you good?”

I nodded, a small smile on my face. “He does Harry. And I do love him—I’ve waited a long time to love again.”

“So have I,” he replied, then smiled sheepishly. “Been hoping maybe I’d have it with you someday, but I guess the good Lord has other plans.”

“Hey,” I said, giving his hand a slight squeeze. “You’re a good man, Harry Mitchell—an attractive, honest, caring man, one whom I am honored to call my friend. I have no doubt that one of these days you will find someone who is right for you and for the boys. Don’t you give up hope, huh?”

He nodded and then smiled. “You staying to brush ‘em down or anything?” he asked, nodding toward my four horses.

I looked longingly at them. “I’d like to. Maybe I’ll come back later, if there’s time. But there’s a lot to do at the house, what with all kinds of strangers coming on my land. I feel like enough people I don’t know have been there, if you know what I mean.”

“That I do,” Harry agreed.

I backed up so he could come out of Cracker’s stall, and he walked with me out to my truck. After putting the tailgate back up, I climbed in the driver’s seat and he closed the door for me.

“You’re welcome to come down and see your horses anytime you want,” Harry said. “And since you aren’t likely to have a new barn up in the next day or two, I’ll see about making room in our loft for the hay in your field, when you’re ready to harvest. You know, seeing as you use my harvester anyway.”

I nodded and smiled. “Thanks, Harry,” I said, and started the engine.

“One more thing,” he said as I put the truck in gear. “You tell that man of yours I don’t care if he’s a Marine—he don’t treat you right he’s gonna have me to answer to.”

I laughed. “Harry, you have to take a number on that one. Our buddy Palmer at Tractor Supply already gave Mark the same warning.”

“Good. Means he’s outnumbered if it comes to a fight.”

I laughed again and backed down the driveway.

Back at the house, I noted the presence of the clean-up service. It was, apparently, a job for a Hazardous Materials disposal unit to come and remove the animal remains. Studiously avoiding the sight of the men and women working to sort through the burned-out wreck, I walked into the house through the back door. Soon after my return home my insurance agent arrived, and I recounted the last 36 hours for him, as well as compiled a list of the tools and other items of value that had been in the barn, including the animals.

After the insurance agent had gone, I retreated to my office, thinking that I might as well get some work done. I’m not sure, though, how long I sat in front of the computer without even turning it on before Mark came to find me.

He knelt beside me and put his arms around me, saying nothing, just giving me my space to think. Problem was…I couldn’t.

“I can’t think,” I said aloud. “I can’t seem to connect any one thought to another. I can’t seem to get past this feeling of numbness. I’m numb and I’m angry and I just…I can’t think. I don’t want to think, because then I will start thinking about how frightened the animals must have been, trapped in the barn with the fire, and the loft crashing down on them. I keep thinking that Angus, at least, ought to have gotten out, so why didn’t he?”

“We’ll figure this out, Saphrona,” Mark told me. “Whoever did this will be caught. We’ll build a new barn. We’ll get some more animals if you want them. I promise you, honey, we will get past this.”

I tilted my head so it was lying on top of his. “Nobody likes to feel like they’re not in control of their own life,” I said. “And that’s how I feel right now. Like my life isn’t even my own, that someone else is calling the shots. And that really makes me mad, but I’ve got nowhere and no one at whom to direct that anger. And I am afraid that what happened this morning will happen again if I can’t find some way of channeling it.”

I pulled away and stood, pacing away from him. “You know, it strikes me as a wise idea for you and your sister to get as far away from me as you possibly can, so you’re not caught up in the chaos. I don’t want you to regret answering that ad.”

Mark stood and walked over to me, taking me by the arms and giving me a little shake. “Saphrona, that’s enough. I don’t ever want to hear you talk like that—I could never regret making that phone call. I could never regret meeting you. We’re soulmates, remember?”

“But Mark, everything is such a mess now—I’m a mess. That which has not killed me doesn’t seem to be making me any stronger,” I said weakly.

“You know,” he said, drawing me to him and wrapping his arms around me. “My fellow Marine snipers and I have an unofficial motto we adopted: ‘That which does not kill me has never taken basic marksmanship.’”

I chuckled. “General Martok said that on an episode of Deep Space Nine.”

Mark seemed surprised by my knowledge of the Star Trek origin of the quote. “Still absolutely true, though.” After kissing my brow, he held me away from him. “Okay, how about this one? ‘That which does not kill me had better run damn fast.’”

I smiled. “That’s a good one, too. In fact, I think I rather like that one.”

As we were heading out of the office a moment later there was a knock on the back door. One of the clean-up crew had come to have me sign some forms. With a sigh, I took the clipboard he handed me and signed my name.

“By the way, ma’am,” the man said as he was stepping back down the stoop. “Your husband here said that there should be six cows, right?”

I glanced at Mark over my shoulder, standing behind me with an innocent expression on his face. I didn’t bother correcting the other man’s assumption, just turned back to him and said, “Yes, there should have been six cows, ten pigs, and twelve chickens.”

“Well, we only found five bodies that would fit the size of a cow. Don’t suppose you had a bull, did you?”

I nodded, a bright feeling stirring in my chest. It was possibly futile, but it was still a glimmer of hope.

“Yes, there was a bull,” I answered. “He had horns, small ones that I kept trimmed for safety reasons.”

“Well, at risk of sounding indelicate, none of the carcasses we found had horns, ma’am. Might be your bull broke himself out like the horses did. My suggestion would be to go searching these woods for him.”

I smiled slightly and nodded. “Thank you.”

He nodded and headed over to the large vehicle he and his crew had come in, and they left. But just moments after they had gone and Mark and I had turned back into the house, another truck came ambling up the driveway—two of them, in fact, for one carried a dumpster-like crate with the Waste Management symbol on the side, and the other what looked like a backhoe on its flatbed.

When the crew’s foreman came to have me sign some paperwork, I expressed my thanks for his getting there so soon.

“Well, Ms. Caldwell, my granddaddy had a farm,” he said, turning to watch as the backhoe, which had one of those clamshell scoops on one end, was being unloaded. “It’s a shame what happened here. Say, would it be too much trouble to get one of you to move that fine truck there, give us some room? I know it’s a nice, wide drive, but it would help.”

I nodded, and Mark went to retrieve the keys to my truck. “I’ll go park it in the front yard for now,” he said as he moved past me.

“And I’m gonna go look around for Angus,” I said, stepping down the stoop behind him as the foreman went to have a word with his crew.

Mark looked back at me and nodded, then climbed into my truck and started it, backing down the drive. I trotted across the driveway and headed into the woods, stopping a few feet in to sniff the air. The smell of the burned-out barn and animal carcasses still lingered, so I knew I was going to have to go deeper.