Bone Deep (8 page)

At the general store
,
Mrs. Davidson
enthusiastically
greeted her
.
Her husband
owned the shop, but his formidable wife ran it
…
and
the Ladies Auxiliary at the
Methodist
Church
, and the church choir, and the quilting club, and the annual bake sale and bazaar. She
ruled the social world of most of the ladies in
Fairfield
.

“Sarah, I’m so glad to see you. I’ve been worried. I told Dan to send that worthless Harold to check on you since the boy had deliveries to make out your way, but Dan forgot to tell him. You should think about installing a phone, dear.”

Sarah picked up a shopping basket. “I’m fine. Why were you worried?”

“Didn’t that carnival man Reed stop by your house and tell you about the escaped loony? I thought he’d been to every farm around.” Mrs. Davidson spoke while putting a new paper roll in the cash register. “It’s terrifying is what it is, like having a
wild
animal or crazy person from the mental hospital
running loose
. Anything could happen
.
And there you are,
all alone
out on that farm.
It’s not safe
.”

The shopkeeper beckoned Sarah close
r
, leaning over the candy display to whisper. “People are saying this freak
once hurt
a girl who went to the carnival. They say she was
assaulted.
” She raised her eyebrows to make sure Sarah understood the sexual connotation of the word. “You be sure and lock all the doors and windows at night. You should get yourself a watchdog.”

“I’ll think about it.” Sarah started down the dry goods aisle of the store.

Mrs. Davidson came out from behind the counter and followed her, her double chin bobbing as she rattled on. “That Reed fellow left town late yesterday. But the law is on
the hunt
now.
The carnival man
said he didn’t want the
sheriff’s office
involved, but that’s crazy. It’s
all of us who are
in danger
from this freak
.”

Sarah plucked a can of mushrooms from a shelf. “I don’t know, Mrs. Davidson, from what
Reed
said the man’s not a danger to anyone.”

“Well, of course he’d
say
that, but any man who’d mark himself up like a savage can’t be right in the head.” She
re
aligned the canned mushrooms to fill the gap Sarah had made. “Who knows what perverted things he’s capable of.”

With a non-committal “Hm” Sarah chose several cans of fruit. “So the police are involved now?”

Mrs. Davidson followed
her
up the aisle, straightening behind her. “Anybody who sees anything unusual, signs of somebody staying in their outbuildings, clothes missing off the line or vegetables from their gardens, is supposed to call the sheriff’s office.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Sarah moved from the row of canned goods to the store’s limited produce display and picked a few oranges and bananas.

“I’m telling you, you need yourself a good guard dog living out there alone. Jenny Samuels’ bitch had a litter. You should stop by and talk to her.”

Sarah
was
doubtful that a little puppy could frighten away anything
, but it was usually easier to simply agree with Mrs. Davidson’s chatter
. “I’ll think about it.”

The shopkeeper
continued to proclaim her opinions while Sarah gathered the rest of her groceries and brought them up to the counter.

As she rang up the purchases,
Mrs. Davidson
offered one more piece of advice. “I heard through the grapevine you went to the carnival with Andrew Hooper. He’s a good, solid, respectable man. You could do worse.”

Sarah blinked.
The
grapevine could strangle you in this tiny town where nothing stayed private for long. “Yes, well...”

She held out her hand to accept her change. Mrs. Davidson made her wait for it while she expounded.

“You know, dear, you’re not the only one who’s lost someone. You mustn’t grieve forever. It’s our patriotic duty as women and Americans to take up the pieces of our shattered lives and start anew. Andrew Hooper would do very nicely for you.”

Sarah’s mouth stretched in a frozen smile. Her hand was still extended, but Mrs. Davidson held her change tantalizingly out of reach. Sarah thought it might be worth the extra time and gas to drive over to Hooperstown to shop from now on.

“Well, that’s all I’m going to say, but it was about time somebody
spoke to you about these things
.”

The busybody
slowly counted change into Sarah’s hand. She put the change in her purse, grabbed her bags of groceries and headed for the door.

“Think about what I said,” Mrs. Davidson called out
before the door closed behind Sarah.

Her
next stop was the library. She selected a book on plumbing, a couple of mystery novels for herself and an illustrated book of King Arthur tales for Tom. She wanted to check out some beginning readers for him, but there was no way she could without stirring the librarian’s curiosity. It would seem odd enough to Agnes that Sarah was suddenly interested in a child’s book of Arthurian legends. Lack of privacy was one thing Sarah truly hated about living in a small town. She would certainly never dare to check out a racy novel for herself even if the tiny library possessed such a thing.

She carried her stack of books to the circulation desk where Agnes Chapman sat reading a newspaper. The white-haired librarian put down her paper and pushed her glasses up her nose. She accepted Sarah’s library card and examined it as if she
’
d never seen it before, although Sarah came in at least once a month. The elderly woman was a queen ruling her
small
kingdom. Rule-breakers were unacceptable in
her
world and she accepted overdue fines with a disapproving air that made one feel like a petty criminal.

She handed Sarah her library card then stamped each book, stopping to check damage to the binding on the Round Table legends. She tsked mightily as she taped the spine.

Agnes pushed the stack of books
across the counter
. “I suppose you’ve heard about this circus person running loose.” Her nostrils flared in indignation. “These traveling carnivals shouldn’t be allowed to
exist
. It’s a wonder someone doesn’t die on those ramshackle rides.” She peered at Sarah. “Your house is right near where the carnival was set up, isn’t it? You be sure and take extra care, young lady.”

“Yes, ma’am.”
Everybody seemed far too concerned with her welfare today.

S
he
put her books in the car and headed to McNulty’s Hardware. It seemed everyone in town was gossiping about Tom. It shouldn’t have surprised her. There wasn’t a lot of excitement here. People would be remembering “the fall that crazy man escaped from the circus” for years to come
, which
didn’t bode well for Tom.

Sarah had
been too overwhelmed by the surprising advent of this stranger in her life to
really th
ink
about the
long term
consequences. She couldn’t hide him forever
, and it didn’t appear
the townspeople would be receptive to letting him
stay
in the community.
If anyone knew he was living in her house—that would be disastrous for her reputation.

She pushed open the door of the hardware store
, ringing
the bell over the door. Andrew Harper looked up from stocking a shelf and
beamed at the sight of her.

“Sarah, hello!” He
came over and half offered
his hand to shake
before dropping
it to his side.

“Hi, Andrew. How’s”
—f
or the life of her she couldn’t remember anything he
’
d told her about himself the other night
—
“the hardware business?”

“Busy. Everybody’s getting things ready for winter. I’ve sold a lot of caulk and weather stripping.”

“That’s good.” She looked past him toward the paint aisle as awkward silence fell between them.

He cleared his throat. “Is there, uh, anything I can get for you?”

“Yes. I need a gallon of paint.
Flat w
hite
while do
. I’m repainting my
picket
fence.”

“Oh, I see.” He led her through the store. “Do you need any brushes or turpentine?”

“Some turpentine, I guess.”

They walked to the paint aisle
. “
Have you
heard the news about that tattooed
man
?”

She picked a brush from one of the hooks in the pegboard. “Yes.”

Andrew hefted a gallon of paint
and
a can
of turpentine
off the shelf and carried th
em to the checkout counter where he rang them up.
“It’s so
strange
to think we actually saw him up close and now he’s God knows where.
Kind of sad, though, isn’t it?
I mean, it sounds like the guy’s lost more than anything
. L
ike a little kid. We should probably have search parties out looking for him or something.”

“I guess so.” Sarah paid for the
supplies
and started to lift the box.

“Let me get that for you.” Andrew hurried around the counter. He carried
the box
out to her car and stowed it in the trunk between bags of groceries. He closed the lid and turned to lean against the car.

“I had a real nice time the other night.” He
folded
his arms and scuffed his shoe on the pavement. “I wondered if you might like to go out again some time ... with me. There’s a dance over in Chadwick on Friday. Grace and Mike are going. Maybe we could double again.”

“Oh! I don’t know. I might be...”

He must know
her schedule wasn’t busy. She was a widow living alone on a farm. Her social life wasn’t exactly buzzing.

“I’ll have to think about it.” She didn’t want to have to find a polite way to say no. She didn’t want to have to
make excuses to
Andrew Harper at all.

“
Oh
,
sure
.” He ran a hand through his crew cut and rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe I could stop by later in the week to find out what your answer is. I mean, since you don’t have a phone.
And if you need help painting that fence, I could do that for you.
”

She didn’t want to deal with
him
a second time, especially not at her house with Tom hiding somewhere like a rainbow-colored ghost. Sarah took a deep breath.

“Andrew, I think you’re a swell guy. Really. But I’m not ready to start dating anybody yet. I don’t know what Grace told you, but I’m
just
not.”

“I understand.” Andrew nodded, frowning and flustered. “I didn’t mean to be pushy. I know you must
still be grieving, b
ut
, just so’s you know,
if
you
ever are
ready to date again
,
I’d sure like to take you out.”

“Thank you.” Sarah
managed
a smile and moved around the car toward the driver’s side. “I’m sorry, Andrew. Maybe sometime.”

He rushed to open the car door for her. “That’d be great. I’m sorry I asked so soon. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“I’m not upset. It’s okay.” She slid behind the wheel and started the engine, anxious to get away.

Andrew closed the door and stepped back.

Sarah pulled away from the curb. When she looked into her rearview mirror, Andrew was still standin
g there watching her drive away—another figure receding into the distance behind her.
She thought she would cheerfully kill Grace May right now for creating this situation. Andrew was a sweet, friendly man and she hated bursting his hopeful expectations.

Driving home, Sarah was almost to the turn off for the farm when saw the sheriff’s cruiser approaching from the opposite direction. The red light on top flashed and the siren
gave
a brief whoop.

Sarah stopped in the middle of the road parallel with the other car. Heart pounding she cranked down her window.