Chapter Six
From the moment he’d arrived home to hear that Brian wouldn’t be returning, Eric hadn’t stopped questioning Dad before he’d begun drilling Rick, unsatisfied with Dad’s answers. So Rick had been tossing and turning since he’d laid down to try and sleep.
But despite their family turmoil, it wasn’t Brian or his Mom and Dad’s situation that was on Rick’s mind.
It was Shanna Weldon. He was feeling dread at the thought of leaving her alone here in Crystal Rock.
He tried to tell himself that what he was thinking was crazy. She had her mom, and Anya.
And her dad…
There was just something about the guy that seemed off.
Rick kept remembering how her dad had yelled at her in the parking lot the previous day. There was something strange about the fact that he’d screamed at her about wearing makeup but didn’t seem to think that there was anything wrong with the way she was dressed.
Supposedly, there would be someone handling surveillance on their house tomorrow, but that wasn’t going to stop Rick. He was going to ride his bike to Callahan Construction early the next morning and speak with Shanna’s mom since he probably wasn’t going to be able to go to baseball practice after everything that had happened.
* * *
When Rick woke early the next morning, everything that was going on with the family suddenly hit him hard. Not only would he be attending a new school, but he’d also have to make new friends and not have any contact with anyone from Crystal Rock.
Well, he’d just have to suck it up, he decided, struggling to get out of bed. It was only about five, but it would be light soon, and he knew that the lumber yard and offices opened early since he’d already called and checked with them yesterday. It had probably even been Mrs. Weldon who’d answered the phone.
He showered quickly and dressed, deciding he’d take the bike path along the lakefront when he rolled his bike through the side door of the garage. He could see a couple cars parked along the road at the base of the driveway, but none of the neighbors would have noticed since it was fairly isolated where they lived.
Rick could bypass the guys who were watching the house by catching the road from the bike path farther along the trail. As he made his way along the path, he noticed that another vehicle with heavily tinted windows was parked near the intersection at the end of their access road.
Now, that seemed suspicious. Rick continued along the trail, stopping long enough to jot down the license plate numbers on the notepad in his bag before he caught the main road. Callahan Construction was on the west edge of town, so he could bypass the main roads completely.
Another twenty minutes later, he pulled his bike into the parking lot, just in time to see a woman parking a compact car in the row alongside the lumber yard.
Rick waited until she stepped out from the car. She had to be Mrs. Weldon. He could see the resemblance to both Anya and Shanna right away.
After dropping the kickstand for his bike, Rick called out, “Mrs. Weldon?”
She turned. “Yes?”
“My name is Rick O’Neill.”
She blinked. “Are you one of Eric’s brothers?”
“I am. I was wondering if I could talk to you for a minute? Alone would be best.”
“Sure,” she said. “Come inside. I need to start some coffee. Anyone who’s here is off loading orders right now, so we won’t be bothered. We don’t usually have many customers come in until after seven, when our salespeople arrive.”
When she unlocked the front door, he held it open, following her inside. Once she’d rested her purse on the desk in back, she looked at him curiously.
“I’ll make some coffee. Would you like some, Rick?”
“No, thanks, Mrs. Weldon. I should probably get home before anyone notices I’m gone,” he replied.
“Okay. So, what did you want to tell me?” she asked, stepping up to the coffee pot nearby.
“It’s about your daughter, Shanna,” he answered softly. “I think she might be in some real trouble.”
Frowning, she paused, giving him a startled look. “What makes you think that?”
When Rick went on to describe how he’d run into her at the park the other day, she looked at him oddly.
“She told me that she had a date to go to the beach with a boy she goes to school with and some of her friends. But you’re telling me, that’s not what she did?” Mrs. Weldon asked.
“She might have gone to the beach. She was wearing a skimpy bikini. But the guy that dropped her off was an older kid. I think his name is Wade Armstrong. She argued with him, and then your husband showed up at the parking lot to pick her up.”
“My husband ?”
“The odd thing about it was that he yelled at her about her makeup but didn’t say anything about the clothes she was wearing or the high heels. He wanted her to take off all the makeup because he didn’t want her to look like that when they went to Rice Lake. It seemed like wherever they were going was planned.”
Eric had been right. Mrs. Weldon appeared to care deeply about her daughter, judging by the look of concern on her face. “Shanna has been so rebellious, you know. She’s always been a daddy’s girl, and I’ve had so much trouble getting through to her. She won’t talk to Anya either. You’re right, Rick. Something is wrong, but I can’t get her to open up.”
“There’s more,” he admitted gruffly.
She paused before turning on the coffee pot.
“I rode my bike the night before last to Dragonfly Pointe, the same day I saw her at the school parking lot,” Rick said. “Shanna was there, listening to the concert, alone and just soaking in the water. When she stepped out, she had bruises all along her arms and around her wrists. Later, when I walked her home, I noticed that she had bruises inside her thighs too. She was wearing that really short skirt that she had on earlier, but I’d given her a towel when she got out of the water, so I didn’t notice right away.”
Mrs. Weldon had gone pale, holding her hand to her mouth. Finally, she whispered, “I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you came here to let me know. There were things that I saw in the past that worried me and I didn’t want to admit that something terrible could be happening under my own roof. When Shanna started rebelling against her father, I was relieved. I thought that meant she was finally becoming her own person and had grown less starry-eyed about her so-called perfect father.”
Mrs. Weldon’s hand was shaking when she reached for a coffee cup, pouring some coffee into it.
Finally, she said, “I hope that this can stay between us—at least for now, Rick? I need to figure out the best way to approach Shanna away from her father.”
“Sure,” he replied. “I just couldn’t let it go.”
Reaching out, she squeezed his hand. “You’re a good kid. In fact, I’ve always been happy about Anya and Eric, although I do worry sometimes about how serious they are when they’re both so young.”
Rick nodded his understanding. “Mom and Dad feel that way too. But as long as the two of them are both hanging out with the family, they don’t say too much because they don’t seem to be trying to hide anything.”
“That’s how I look at it too. Thanks again, Rick,” she said as he headed toward the door.
“You’re welcome,” he replied, opening the door and heading outside, giving her a quick wave of his hand as he left.
It was only about six-fifteen when Rick got back on his bike, heading home. With any luck, no one would even know that he’d been gone since the earliest anyone got up during the summer was around seven.
When Rick reached the bike path and sped past the intersection, the car that he’d seen earlier no longer appeared to be there. Glancing down the street, he noticed that the other two vehicles were still parked at the end of the driveway.
He’d better take the bike path back to the house, he decided. It looked like someone was going to be watching the house throughout the day and not just at night.
But as he sped along the pathway on his bike, he realized that his absence hadn’t gone unnoticed when none other than Jake Loughlin came strolling up to him when he stopped and got off from his bike.
“Your brother and father are worried to death about you, Rick.” Jake looked at him sternly. “I hope that whatever you had to do was important?”
Rick was hesitant. He hated to betray a confidence, yet again, he was worried about Shanna and the fact that she was somehow being abused, apparently without her mother or her sister’s knowledge. He had no idea if he was right to be so suspicious of her father.
And since Rick would be leaving town, there would be no way to check up on her to see if her situation got better or not.
But it was as if Jake read his mind when he said, “I heard that you’ve been keeping an eye on Shanna Weldon.”
Rick frowned. “Says who?”
In an obvious effort to get Rick off the defensive, Jake held up a hand. “I’m not saying that I don’t think you should be. Someone needs to be looking out for her. She’s been out past curfew at Dragonfly Pointe more than once during the past year.”
Rick was still on guard.
That’s when Jake seemed to soften up. “Let me tell you something that not too many people know, Rick. I was abused by my dad while I was growing up and I don’t mean just physically, in terms of slaps and punches.”
Rick’s eyes went wide. “You don’t mean…”
Jake’s eyes met his. “I do. That’s why I’ve suspected that something might be going on with Shanna. Can you tell me anything at all without breaking a confidence?” He sighed. “I’m thinking that if you’re not here in town, I might need to follow up.”
“I just went to talk to her mom, and she didn’t seem to realize that it was that bad, although she’s known something was off. I think there might have been issues in the past, but from what she said, she thought that whatever had happened was behind them.”
Jake nodded, appearing thoughtful.
“What makes you think that she might have been abused?”
“The bruises that I saw on her the other night. They were pretty much everywhere, except on her face,” Rick admitted.
“And you think that her father might have been involved somehow?”
Rick hesitated. “I’m just not sure. But when I saw Shanna earlier that day, she didn’t have any bruises before her father came to pick her up at the Crystal Rock High parking lot.”
“Okay,” Jake replied, reaching out and punching Rick lightly on the shoulder. “I’ll keep an eye on things.”
“Thanks,” Rick answered.
“Well, we’d better head to the house so I can fill you and Eric and your dad in on how you’re going to get away from Crystal Rock,” Jake said.
“Hold on a minute. I want to give you something, Mr. Loughlin,” Rick said, unzipping the bag attached to his bike. Pulling out the piece of notepaper, he handed over the license plate number for the car that had been parked at the intersection earlier.
“You can just call me Jake, Rick,” he said distractedly. “What’s this?”
“A license plate number for a black sedan with heavily tinted windows that I saw parked at the intersection when I left this morning. I avoided the road because something didn’t seem right. I figured that the guys in the other two cars near the driveway were men that worked for you.”
“And you’d be right about that.” Jake pursed his lips. “You seem to be pretty observant.”
Rick shrugged. “It’s just that there’ve been so many weird things happening that I figured it would be better not to take any chances.”
Jake held his gaze as if he was sizing him up. “You’re turning sixteen?”
“Yes.”
“We’d better stay in touch. I might have a job for you someday, depending on your career choice.”
“Okay,” Rick replied, surprising himself. “I’ll be sure to remember that.”
“Good,” Jake muttered. “Well, let’s get moving. Get your bike put away. I’ll make sure that it gets packed up and sent to you once you’re out of town.”
“Thank you, Jake. I’d really appreciate that.”