“Sure thing.” she said, pushing her glasses up her nose. She had two straws stuck in the hair piled on top of her head.
“I have an appointment. I won’t be long.”
“Okay.” She scribbled a note to herself on one of the blue library pads. “How’s your shoulder?” she asked, as I turned toward the door.
“A lot better,” I said. “I think I’m going to go to Roma from now on.”
Susan laughed and I gave her a little wave good-bye. I stepped outside, hoping I’d given Maggie enough time to make it over.
A dilapidated pickup was parked in the far corner of the lot. It looked like it was being held together mostly with dirt. Could that be Maggie’s brown truck? I walked across to it. Mags was slumped in the driver’s seat. The passenger’s window was open. “Hi,” I said.
She glared at me. “Get in,” she whispered.
I glanced around the lot. No sign of Will. His truck was parked on the street.
I opened the passenger’s door. It groaned like I was trying to rip it off the truck body instead of just getting inside. I climbed in. “I’m not hiding on the floor mat with my head squashed under the dashboard,” I said.
“You don’t have to get down on the floor, but you could at least duck down your big, giant head,” she said.
I slid down until I was sitting on my spine.
Maggie watched the street from her window. Roma drove into the lot. That made me sink a little lower out of sight. I didn’t want to have to explain to Roma why I was hiding out in a truck that was stuck together with hope, grime and duct tape.
“There he is,” Maggie said.
I took the chance of sitting up enough to see. Will was getting into his truck, talking on his cell phone.
“Let’s go, Starsky,” I said.
She made a face and turned the key in the ignition. Nothing happened. She gritted her teeth and tried again. Nothing. Thumping the steering wheel didn’t help, either.
“C’mon, you piece of scrap metal,” she muttered.
Will had started his truck. Maggie looked out the windshield. She opened the driver’s door. “C’mon, Kath,” she said. “Run.”
I ran after her. “This isn’t going to work,” I huffed, already embarrassingly out of breath. “I think he’s going to notice us running behind his truck.”
She reached back to grab my arm and dragged me over to Roma’s SUV, pushing me toward the passenger’s door. Maggie climbed in the back and I got in the front seat. Roma looked at us, more bemused than surprised.
“Roma, you have to follow Will Redfern,” Maggie said. She pointed. “That way.” Roma snapped on her seat belt, started the car and pulled out of the lot. Will was at the end of the street at the stop sign.
“There,” Maggie said.
Roma nodded. “I see him.”
Will kept going straight along Old Main Street. Roma settled in behind him, far enough back that I hoped he wouldn’t notice. She looked in the rearview mirror and gave me a quick sideways glance. “Hello, Kathleen. Hello, Maggie,” she said. “Lovely afternoon for a drive, isn’t it?”
“I can explain,” Maggie said, leaning farther forward in the seat than she probably should have.
“I’m sure you can,” Roma said.
Maggie touched her shoulder. “He’s turning,” she said.
“I see him,” Roma said. “It looks like Will has one of those trucks with a turn signal.”
I bit my tongue so I wouldn’t laugh. Roma merged smoothly onto the highway, leaving one car between Will and us. I had no idea where we were going, but it wasn’t to the building-supply store.
Maggie sat back in her seat. Roma glanced at me again. “You were going to explain,” she prompted.
“Mags.” I did my best sweeping, Vanna White gesture.
Maggie summed it all up very quickly for Roma.
“Kathleen, I had no idea you’d been injured so many times during the renovations,” she said.
“I didn’t realize it either, until Maggie pointed it out,” I said. “But I’m finding it hard to believe Will made all those things happen on purpose. Why would he do something like that?” And if Will really is capable of violence . . .
“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Maggie chimed in from the backseat.
“Wherever Will’s going, he’s in a hurry,” Roma said, glancing at the speedometer. She pulled out to pass the car between Will and us. Will was almost out of sight, over the next hill.
“You’re good at this,” Maggie said approvingly.
“This is not my first rodeo,” Roma said with a smile.
“You make a habit of following people?” I asked.
“No. But I did a lot of car rallying in college.”
Another couple of miles up the road Will suddenly turned off, seemingly into the trees.
“Where did he go?” Maggie asked.
Roma checked the rearview mirror. “There’s no one behind us. I’m slowing down. Watch for a driveway or a turnoff.”
I twisted sideways, but it was Maggie who spotted the road.
“There it is,” she said. “See the gap in the trees?”
“I see it,” Roma said. “I’ll turn up there and we’ll double back.”
She turned around on a service road, drove back to the turnoff and pulled onto the shoulder, just past the gravel road that went back into the woods. “If we’re going any farther it’ll have to be on foot.”
“Let’s go,” Maggie said, undoing her seat belt.
“It’s probably a job site,” I said. “The only thing we’re going to find down this road is Eddie scratching his armpit.”
Maggie paused, already half out of the backseat. “Kath, if all we find is Eddie scratching his armpit or anything—anything—else, I’ll take you to Tubby’s and buy you the largest container of frozen yogurt they have.”
She wasn’t going to give this up, I could see. “Okay,” I said.
We all got out. Maggie led us down the road, sticking close to the grassy edge by the trees. Roma and I followed, dodging low branches.
“You’re going to share that yogurt, right, Kathleen?” Roma said behind me.
“I’m thinking no,” I said.
“I’m thinking it’s a long walk back to the library,” Roma countered.
“You like strawberry?” I asked, without turning around.
“I love strawberry. How nice of you to ask.”
Maggie abruptly stopped in front of me. “Shush,” she whispered.
“What is it?” I said.
Ahead the trail opened into a cleared area. Will’s truck was parked on the left. Up a slight rise a small building was being framed—four walls on a slab, like a boxy, wooden skeleton.
“I don’t see anything,” I said in Maggie’s ear.
“Over there,” she said softly.
She reached back with her hand and pushed my head a little to the right. And then I saw them. Will was standing in front of the framed cabin, kissing a blond woman almost his height.
Roma leaned out around me, then pulled back and looked at Maggie and me. “That’s not Eddie,” she said. “That’s Ingrid. Why is Ingrid playing tonsil hockey with Will Redfern?”
22
Step Forward and Punch
“Ingrid?” I asked.
Maggie waved Roma back behind us. “That’s not Ingrid, is it?” she asked.
“Yes, it is,” Roma said. “Her hair’s blonder, but it’s Ingrid.”
Maggie leaned forward again to look. “You’re right,” she said slowly. “It is Ingrid.”
“Ingrid?” I asked again. “Is that the same Ingrid who was head librarian before me?” Will had his arms around the woman—Ingrid—and their faces were close together.
“Let’s get out of here,” Maggie said. She turned and gave me a little push.
We followed Roma back to the main road and got in the SUV. Roma started the car, eased off the shoulder and started back toward town. “Well, I didn’t see that coming,” she said.