Chapter Nineteen #2
“Mind if I use it?” She didn’t get up, waiting to see if she was allowed.
Luther stood leaning against the kitchen counter, a scowl on his face.
His brother had pulled up a straight-backed chair not far from him.
Neither looked friendly. But neither looked like killers either.
As if she knew what a killer looked like, she reminded herself.
They seemed to be waiting either for Sarah to return and give them orders to kill her, or for Sarah to kill her herself.
When neither man said anything, she rose and headed for the small door into the bathroom. She hoped she’d find something she could use as a weapon. But a quick look inside disappointed her.
The room was tiny, with a sink, toilet and a claw-foot tub. She closed the door and leaned against it. As she did, she felt her phone in her sweater pocket. Clancy had forgotten she had it and Sarah hadn’t seen it, so she hadn’t taken it from her.
She quickly pulled it out. She’d call Max and tell him where she was and why she needed his help. She blinked. No signal? She moved the phone around the small bathroom, but couldn’t even get one bar. Maybe she’d have better luck outside.
But she’d have to figure out how to get away from Sarah’s cousins first.
Discouraged, she decided she’d better use the toilet.
She couldn’t help but notice again how clean and neat and decorated everything was.
As she did her business, she tried to get her head around this place.
If true that Sarah owned it and was fixing it up, this was a side of Sarah she’d never seen, a side she’d actually never suspected.
Like Clancy, Sarah’s trailer in town was small and old. The one time Clancy had gone over there was when Sarah’s car hadn’t started and Clancy had offered to give her a ride to work. The time she and Sarah had spent together was almost always at work. Except for that trip to Billings.
That day, she’d only gotten a glimpse inside the trailer, but it was clear that Sarah hadn’t done any more with her trailer to make it feel like home than Clancy had. Clancy had known she was leaving by her upcoming birthday, so she hadn’t bothered, telling herself it was temporary.
But Sarah, as far as Clancy had known, had no intention of quitting Shady Rest and leaving her trailer. Maybe she’d been waiting for the windfall from her aunt.
Sarah had been counting on that money, so she’d known she wouldn’t be staying there long. Clancy wondered what her plan had been for the cabin after she got rich.
As she finished and washed her hands at the tiny sink, she wondered if the cabin was a backup plan in case there was no Mildred money. Maybe, but it didn’t feel that way. Sarah had already put too much love into this cabin.
Clancy flinched at a loud knock on the door.
“Are you about done?” Luther demanded.
Hurriedly, she dried her hands on a towel with HAPPY DAY embroidered on it, then opened the door. As she did, she wished she knew how long Sarah had been gone, how long it would take her to get to the bank and back, and what would happen when and if she did come back.
Earlier she’d thought that once Sarah had the money—if there was some—she’d be gone and it would be the last the three of them saw of her.
But now she wasn’t so sure. This cabin meant something to Sarah. She’d at least come back to say goodbye to it.
She opened the door to find Luther and Abel standing in the middle of the cabin. They looked impatient and not in the least bit happy to be babysitting her. This cabin meant nothing to them, but Sarah must mean something to them. Or maybe they always did her dirty work for her.
“What happens if she doesn’t come back?” Clancy asked as she sat back down in the comfy chair. The two men glanced at each other for a moment. Were they wondering that themselves? Or had Sarah already told Luther what to do in that case?
“She said she’d be here. She’ll be here,” Luther said as if not concerned.
But the look he gave Abel said differently.
He wasn’t so sure. These two were invested in whatever Sarah found in that safety deposit box.
She had told Clancy that according to Mildred’s will, she got the pendant and whatever was in the safety deposit box.
Her cousins got the land and house where they had lived with their mother until she’d gone into the retirement home.
It suddenly struck Clancy that maybe none of them believed Mildred had a fortune hidden in a bank safety deposit box.
Earlier, Clancy had hoped that when Sarah got to the bank and opened the box, she would find it empty.
She would have loved the irony of it, but now it just felt too painful.
Earlier she hadn’t known Sarah had dreams she’d never shared.
Probably they were too precious, too fragile, too easily dashed.
Clancy understood that a person could jinx herself if she dared admit her hopes and dreams. Had that been what she’d done with Dub?
Was that why he’d left without any word?
If only Sarah hadn’t felt so desperate that she’d killed to get her hands on the key. She might have been able to make all her dreams come true. No matter what Sarah found in the bank box, there was no going back.
As Clancy looked around the cabin, tears burned her eyes. She knew what it was like to yearn for something to call her own. That kind of yearning could make a person do desperate things.