Unforgettable. Molly Rice

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СКАЧАТЬ and I will let you know soon, if I plan to stay that long.” She looked around the well-appointed office, at the ashtray at Pam’s elbow, an accounts journal in front of her. She smiled. “Well, I won’t keep you from your work. I think I’ll go to my room and rest before lunch. I’ve had a pretty stressful morning.”

      Despite herself, Pam expressed an interest. “Stressful? Oh, you’re probably not used to our fog, it’s quite formidable at times.”

      “As a matter of fact, I had a near accident. A car came at me in the fog and almost ran me down.”

      Pam didn’t have to fake surprise. “You weren’t hurt, I take it?”

      “Just a little bruising from falling out of the way. But other than that, I was mostly shaken up. If Derek...uh, the sheriff...hadn’t come along and delivered hot tea and sympathy, I might have been worse off.”

      Pam bit her lip. Derek again. Coming to the rescue of a damsel in distress. “Well, good for our sheriff. And I guess you’ve definitely earned that rest. Would you like me to knock at your door when lunch is ready?”

      “Yes, please, I’m sure I’ll be restored by then.”

      As the door closed behind Stacy, Pam swiveled in her chair and reached for another cigarette.

      A near accident. Too bad. If she’d been driving she might have done a better job of it. She lit the cigarette and mused. Surely the person who wanted to keep Stacy from finding out... No! Nobody would go that far just to prevent a little information from leaking. Would they?

      She shivered suddenly. How desperate was the situation? She remembered the threats. Maybe she was better off not knowing. She opened the journal and forced her attention back to her work.

      * * *

      DEREK ENTERED THE LIBRARY, removed his hat, looked around. There were none of the usual patrons in sight and Edie was behind the desk, leisurely cataloging a new shipment of books.

      “Hi, Mom,” he called out as he strode toward her.

      Edie looked up, an expression of surprise on her round, still pretty face. She had a pencil tucked behind her ear and her short gray blond hair was tousled. “Hi, son. This is a surprise. Am I under arrest or did you get lost in the fog?”

      Derek chuckled. “Okay, so I’m a bad son who doesn’t visit his mother often enough.”

      “So, what catastrophic event makes today different?”

      “Mom, you ever hear of any family around here named Millman?”

      “No, never!” The pencil fell and Edie bent to pick it up, knocking a stack of books off the counter. She swore under her breath and Derek rushed around the counter to help her pick up the books. They bumped heads and Edie fell back on her rump, laughing and moaning and rubbing her forehead. Derek helped Edie to her feet and set her down on the stool. “Sit there. I’ll get the books.”

      He stacked them on the counter and then turned to his mother. “Where were we? Oh, yeah. The Millmans. You’re sure you never heard of them?”

      “I’m sure. What’s your interest in these people anyway, have they committed some kind of crime?”

      Derek shrugged. “No, not that I know of. For that matter, I don’t even know if they ever lived around here.”

      “So, who are they? Where did you get that name?”

      Derek pondered how much to tell his mother. Now that he thought about it, she’d answered his question much too quickly, as though she’d been primed for it and rehearsed her response. With all the names Edie came upon through her work as head librarian, she should have had to stop and sift through her memory before answering.

      “I met someone who thinks her parents came from here. Name of Millman.”

      “Her parents? And she doesn’t know for sure where they came from? What’s her name?”

      “Stacy. Short for Anastasia. Stacy Millman.”

      Was it only his imagination or did his mother blanch at Stacy’s name? But she immediately bent to get something from the shelf under the counter and he couldn’t be sure. When she raised her head, she was her usual composed head librarian persona. She had her purse in her hands and was removing tissues. She blew her nose delicately and shook her head.

      “Sorry, I can’t help you, Derek, and in my opinion, people shouldn’t go digging into the past, anyway. Tell your friend it’s better to live in the present than go snooping around into the past.”

      Derek chuckled. “I’m not sure I’d call us friends. But as for your advice, it doesn’t apply unless you know of something someone has to hide.”

      “Really, Derek, this is too much. I don’t see you for days in a town that has about a five-mile radius, and when I do you pump me for information and accuse me of hiding things from you.”

      “Gee, Mom, how did you get all that out of a simple question about a family name?”

      Her sputtering came to a halt and Edie fixed her son with a no-nonsense glare. “I’ve got work to do, Derek. Go away.”

      He laughed and leaned forward to pinch her soft, reddened cheek. “See ya, Edie.”

      He snatched his hat off the counter and ambled out. Standing on the front steps of the library, he set the Stetson on his head and surveyed the street. The fog had lifted and hung about seven feet over the pavements so at least people could walk around now and see where they were going. At this rate it would have dissipated by early afternoon and life would go on as usual.

      What was unusual he mused, as he went down the steps to the street, was his mother’s strange behavior. First of all, she definitely knew something...the name was not unfamiliar to her. And secondly, she wore the stereotypical image of a small-town librarian to a tee, never allowing anything to ruffle her feathers, never raising her voice, even when bringing up a feisty boy with a father who was more of a dreamer than a disciplinarian.

      Did those conclusions lead to support of Stacy’s determination that someone in town was out to get her, or to scare her away? Not necessarily. And then he realized what he’d left out in talking to his mother.

      Hurriedly he retraced his steps, bursting into the library to find his mother on the phone.

      She hung up as soon as she saw it was Derek.

      He blurted his question before she had a chance to react to his return.

      “Mom, can you think of any reason the Hunters would be upset by Stacy Millman’s arrival in town?”

      “The Hunters? Why should they be? What makes you think they are?”

      Again she’d answered too quickly. It made him think of something else that had begun to bother him lately.

      “Mom, why did the Hunters pay for my college education? Whenever I’ve been around old Mrs. Hunter she’s been downright disagreeable, as though she dislikes me, so why should she give you money for me?”

      He’d СКАЧАТЬ