Chapter 3
Lucy couldn’t believe her luck. What were the odds of finding a place like this to hide out in? It had a wall, for heaven’s sake! It was like a town from medieval Europe or maybe something out of a storybook. It was all so exciting.
There was just one little snag. She wasn’t supposed to have come. Robert’s shock at her appearance confirmed she should have sent a message ahead of her arrival.
“Lucy, I think we need to have a talk,” Robert said. His eyes were gray, which was so unusual that Lucy couldn’t stop looking at them. They were mesmerizing.
“Of course,” she agreed.
Everyone else seemed to realize that the street theater was over, and they dispersed, going about their business.
Robert led Lucy a little way up the street to another building. He opened the door and stood to the side to let her enter first.
There were two desks set back to back so that the people sitting at them were facing each other.
Another desk stood apart, and he led her to that one. There was a visitor’s chair in front of it, and Robert directed her to sit.
“Can I offer you some coffee?” he asked.
“I’m fine, thanks,” Lucy said. She was far too excited from the gun battle to drink coffee. Lucy could feel her blood singing in her veins, and she wanted to do things. She began to fidget.
“So, who were those men attacking the cart? Were they the bandits you’ve been fighting for so long?” she asked. “I couldn’t believe it when they started chasing us. It was just like your letters?—”
“Lucy!” Robert cried, holding up his hands. “Slow down.” He said it with a little hint of a smile on his lips. “Slow down a little. What are you doing here?”
This was the moment she’d been practicing for and dreading at the same time. But he was, at heart, an investigator, and he would understand, wouldn’t he?
Lucy bit her lip as she considered what to say. “Hypothetically speaking, how would you feel if, say, purely by misunderstanding, I got myself in some trouble and had to leave Boston in a hurry?”
Sitting opposite her, Robert leaned back in his chair. “Something went wrong with your undercover job?”
“You could say that. The man I was investigating turned up murdered.”
Robert shifted, sitting forward in his seat. “Murdered? Are you sure?”
“It’s hard to slit your own throat, even if you are a careless shaver,” Lucy said flatly.
She was trying for a little humor, all the better to water down the shock she was about to deliver to him.
Of course, trusting Robert didn’t come without risk.
He was a sheriff. He might feel obligated to arrest her.
“Any suspects other than you?” he asked.
She frowned, shock running through her. How had he arrived at that conclusion so quickly?
“Don’t look so surprised,” he said. “You wrote quite extensively about your investigation to me, and there is no way you would leave it now, at this point when you were so close, unless you had to. So, correct me if I’m wrong, but you were there …
You saw the murder, the authorities don’t believe you, and you had to make a run for it? ”
That was a good story. Lucy considered running with it and just agreeing with Robert.
It didn’t cast her in a bad light at all, but it really wasn’t the truth.
Robert was a bloodhound. How many letters of his had included instructions on how to track down the embezzler she was looking for?
He had been as invested in her work as she was, and he was miles away.
She owed him the truth. Still, it was hard to get the words out.
“It’s a bit more … than … that,” she finally said slowly.
Robert let out a disbelieving, disappointed breath. “You found the body, and they found you, right?”
She nodded. “Well, sort of. They saw me with the body. I swear I was just checking his pulse to see if there was any point in trying to help him. There wasn’t.
He was very dead. There was so much blood everywhere …
It got on me. And then the police arrived, and I knew they wouldn’t listen to me.
They hadn’t so far, even with all the information I had given them.
They yelled at me and told me to stay where I was.
I didn’t think I would get fair treatment.
There was always something rotten in that department.
So, I ran. I got on a train, and now … I’m here. ”
“What about your family? Surely your father could help? His agency works closely with the police, doesn’t it?”
She nodded. “It does, but I’m his daughter, and so they wouldn’t listen. He’s trying to find the real killer. When he does, then my name will be cleared.:
“Who was murdered?” Robert asked.
“My best friend,” Lucy said sadly, trying really hard to swallow the tears that had formed a solid lump in her throat.
“Not Simon?” Robert asked, looking shocked. “I was hoping to meet him someday.”
“You would have liked him,” Lucy said. “He was a real card and a natural financial investigator. That man understood numbers like I never will.”
Robert nodded. “Reminds me of Warren.”
“Isn’t that one of the men who arrived with me on the cart?” Lucy asked.
“Yes, he’s our finance man,” Robert said.
Perhaps that information might come in handy. Lucy filed it away in her mind.
Robert reached out his hand across the table to her. She took it and looked into those intriguing eyes. “I’m really sorry for your loss and the predicament you’re in.” He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.
“Thank you,” she said, squeezing his hand back. “I was afraid that you wouldn’t understand and would arrest me.”
“Arrest you?” he asked. He looked around the room. They were alone, and Lucy wasn’t sure what he was looking for. “Have you committed a crime in the general Unity territory?”
Lucy hesitated, considering what she had done since arriving. “Is shooting at bandits a punishable offense?”
“Not at all.”
“Oh, then no.”
“Good. Keep it that way, and I won’t have a reason to arrest you,” Robert said.
He gestured to his wall that held a couple of posters.
“Because there’s no wanted poster on my wall, no telegram from the Boston police asking for my cooperation in tracking down a ruthless killer … ” he smiled. “You’re safe here.”
Lucy let out a sigh of relief. “I owe you,” she said.
He waved her words away. “As it turns out, that’s the law here. If you’ve done nothing wrong in Unity, we can’t arrest you.”
With that covered, Lucy felt a weight lift off her shoulders. She had been worried that Robert wouldn’t feel this way. Luckily, she had used him as a sounding board for months on her investigation, and there was very little that he didn’t know about it.
“You’re going to need a place to stay,” he said, looking thoughtful.
That was something that hadn’t been at the forefront of Lucy’s mind. “Isn’t there a hotel or an inn?”
Robert chuckled. “Lucy, this is Unity. We’re a small town. Until a couple of months ago, we didn’t even have a church or a general store.”
Realizing how wrong her presumptions had been, Lucy couldn’t help but laugh.
“I guess I’ll have to change my expectations.”
“I guess so. Although that doesn’t help with the problem of where you will be living,” Robert said. “I have room in my house, only … We’re not married, and that will cause tongues to wag here.”
Lucy began to say that she couldn’t care less if people talked when Robert cut her off.
“I know that it doesn’t seem like much of an issue to you,” he explained.
“But as their sheriff, I can’t be seen doing things that go against the moral standing of the town.
I’m sure you understand. I believe that some folks have started renting out their spare rooms to visitors. We can find you one of those.”
“Sounds good,” Lucy said with a nod.
It turned out that finding a place to stay involved walking around the town and asking people who had a room to rent.
Lucy didn’t mind. With her luggage stashed away safely in the sheriff’s office, she enjoyed the walk around the town.
It was such a lovely little place, filled with buildings with pitched roofs, flowers in their front yards, and large windows.
Everything was neat and tidy. Even though it was November and chilly, there were still building crews working feverishly.
One project was a large town hall, and another was a proper school, according to Robert.
He pointed it all out with great pride as they walked around.
Lucy enjoyed seeing this side of him, the happy, well-liked, respected sheriff who greeted folks as they passed.
He introduced her to most of the people, and Lucy was inundated with more names than she could ever keep track of.
Eventually, he found her a room in an old lady’s house. She had moved to the town from one of the neighboring farms.
“It’s all new,” the woman said as she welcomed them into her home. “They finished building two weeks ago and you’ll be my first boarder, dear.”
“Oh, well, that’s an honor,” Lucy said brightly.
Mrs. Odenkirk frowned at her. “You are an odd one, aren’t you?”
Lucy didn’t know what to say to that.
“So, what do you do for a living, dear?” Mrs. Odenkirk asked.
This gave Lucy pause. There weren’t any large businesses that might need tea ladies or cleaners. Lucy could hardly claim to be an investigator here, so she went with her other profession. “I’m a seamstress.”
Robert nodded. “And a real good one, Mrs. Odenkirk.”
And that was that. Lucy had a room.
The room was on the second floor, and looked out over what would eventually be the backyard. So far it was just rough ground that surrounded the house. It backed onto a section of the boundary wall, and Lucy was kind of glad of that. If there was trouble, she’d be close to the action.
Robert brought her bags into the house but then had to go. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I have a meeting this evening.”
“Anything interesting?” Lucy asked eagerly.
Robert shook his head. “Just the usual town issues. We have a lot of those.”