The Family Gathering (Sullivan's Crossing #3)(83)

“Good,” Dakota said. “I’ll take some of her money. The damage to the Jeep is considerable.”

“Agreed, but what troubles me the most is her playing around with dangerous items like knives and acid.” Stan shook his head and ran a hand through his sparse hair. “Jesus. I’m no genius, but I think she’s escalating. And I want her the hell out of my town.”

“Do we even know what she’s done?” Sid asked.

“Yeah, I know some things,” Stan said. “She claimed a man led her on. I don’t know what he did or if he did anything at all, but he was married. Neely put the family through quite a bit for a long time, until they moved. Then there was someone she met in a yoga class. A woman. A single woman. Neely wanted to be her best friend, stalked and pestered and created mischief until the woman got a restraining order. Apparently she did things like break into the woman’s house, did her laundry, set her table, prepared food left in the refrigerator. My wife asked, ‘What do I have to do to get her interested in me? I wouldn’t press charges!’ Four kids. My wife doesn’t have much of a conscience if housework and cooking are involved—she’d sleep with the devil.

“I’ve talked to Neely’s older brother. When I asked him if he knew a woman named Neely Benedict, he asked, ‘What did she do now?’ Our short conversation suggested she’s been like this since she was about five—no empathy or conscience whatsoever, very spoiled, very entitled. I suggested it would help mightily if they’d cut off her bottomless pit of money and he said he’s not feeding her family money. She’s getting paid out of a trust. Oh, and her brother doesn’t want her back.”

“Great,” Dakota said.

“She said she was invested in small businesses around Timberlake, but I sure can’t find anything about that,” Sid said.

“Oh, she’s made herself well-known around town, stopping in this business and that, acting like an heiress looking for a home for her money. But these are pretty simple folks around here and they’re not looking for a partner or investor. I guess we just don’t think like that.” Stan laughed. “Can you imagine this fancy woman driving out to Sully’s to try to entice him into letting her buy in?”

“Do we even know where she lives?” Cal asked.

“I’m not just some hick cop,” Stan said. “Of course I know, though I admit, work is harder when the suspect tells about half the truth. She lives in Aurora. Nice house on the country club golf course. I’m friendly with the Aurora chief. And the state trooper captain. We like to help each other out when we can.” Officer Tippin cleared her throat. “All right, no need to try to keep me honest, Tippin. I get most of my computer help from Castor. So what?”

“Do you have a plan, Stan?” Dakota asked.

“I do, indeed. I plan to appeal to her sense of fair play. When she comes to me to discuss the situation, I’ll offer to allow her to make restitution. She’ll want to do that. Then I’m going to suggest Timberlake isn’t right for her.”

“Swell,” Dakota said, not very encouraged.

“Meantime, until we get our differences straight, I’d like you to stay somewhere else. This cabin is awful isolated to be at the hands of some loony woman with acid. Jesus, I can’t even let myself think about the possibilities.”

“He’ll stay with us,” Cal said. Then he looked at Sid. “Plenty of room for you, too, Sid.”

“Thanks,” she said. Then she exchanged glances with Dakota. He knew immediately. She wasn’t hanging around for this.

*

A tow truck was called and eventually everyone had dispersed. Dakota and Sid rode back to Cal’s house with him, then Dakota borrowed Cal’s truck to take Sid home.

“Can we just talk a bit?” she asked. “Can we park somewhere and talk?”

“You know I’d always say yes to parking with you,” he said. She could tell it was all fake cheerfulness. He knew what was coming.

“Cody, none of this is your fault, but I don’t want to be in the middle of it,” she said. “With any luck Stan will have this sorted out and you’ll be done dealing with the crazy one. This is a perfect time for me to get this trip out of the way. I’m very loyal to Dr. Faraday. I’ve been trying to help him sort out a problem via computer but going there, to my old lab and my old colleagues, will serve more than one purpose. I should know if I want to go back to that career field. I did train for it for a long time. And I should know if I can make peace with the past. That’s the only way a person can move on.”

“And what else, Sid?” he asked. “Do you need to know if you’ll miss me?”

She smiled gently. “I know I’ll miss you. This will be good for us. We should see how we feel about things after a brief separation.”

“Didn’t we do that while I was in Denver looking for Sedona?”

“Kind of, but you were challenged with an important mission. I need to do the same thing. It’s been sneaking up on me, needing that important mission. I have to see how that feels.”

“It was so perfect for a while, wasn’t it?” he said, running a knuckle along her peachy cheek. “Like a time out from the real world. I know you have more important things to do than tend bar. I should probably stop pretending I’m a garbage collector. I should—”