The Mahoney Sisters

Fifteen years. That’s how long he’d been away. He couldn’t help but remember that last day sitting with Keri on the bank overlooking the lake. He smiled at the memory of her sweet kiss. A first for them both.

Was she still in Briarwood? He didn’t count on seeing her, not in this weather and considering the cabin was at least an hour’s drive away from the small town where he’d spent the first fourteen years of his life. Still, the memories were sweet, and he couldn’t help but wonder how her life had panned out. Better than his, he hoped.

The twins mumbled their displeasure when he woke them a few moments later.

“Where’re we going, Dad?” Billy asked with a yawn.

“You’ll find out.” He settled the boys at the kitchen table. Made them toast, then snatched a leftover ham from the fridge. Just as he started to slice through the meat to make sandwiches for the road, a thud caught his attention, he turned and felt the pain in his finger as the blade nicked the tender flesh of his thumb.

He winced. “What happened?”

“Billy fell out of his chair.”

“You all right, Billy?”

The child sat up on the floor, sleepy-eyed but nodding. “I’m okay.”

“You’re bleeding, Dad.” Josh’s voice rang with tension.

Justin glanced at his throbbing finger. Blood dripped onto the floor. He turned quickly to the sink and ran his finger under the water, grateful it wasn’t a deep cut. He grabbed a bandage and covered the wound.

When he turned back around, Josh had wiped up the blood from the floor. However, the boy’s face had also lost all color and he sat holding the rag in his hand.

“Here, give me that, son.”

Josh relinquished the cloth and turned away.

With a sigh, Justin ruffled his head. “You two get some movies and toys. Only what will fit in your schoolbags.”

He watched them, Billy scrambling with his usual fervor, Josh slinking away as though he couldn’t care less.

A wave of helplessness washed over Justin. Nothing seemed to help Josh cope with the events of the past months. Counseling hadn’t helped. Not so far, anyway. Church wasn’t restoring the child’s soul. Yet he believed God was faithful. He had built a life and ministry on that belief. Once he’d returned to God, he would have built his marriage on the same belief if Amelia had been open. But religion was never her thing, as she reminded him every time he tried to talk to her about God.

If only she’d listened. Maybe she’d still be alive.

Chapter Two

“Let’s get one thing straight, Junior. No one made you crawl behind that wheel and drive drunk.” The barred door clanged shut with the same finality that rang in Deputy Keri Mahoney’s voice. “You’re in jail because you deserve it, so stop whining.”

“You just ain’t got no compassion in your soul.” Hours after his arrest for drunk driving, Junior Connor’s words were still slurred, doing little to strengthen his case with Keri. “But I don’t guess I should expect no more from a power-hungry female, doin’ a man’s job.”

Keri ignored the familiar comment. She was accustomed to the fact that most of the men in Briarwood, Missouri, hadn’t progressed past 1950 in terms of male/female relationships. But that wasn’t Junior’s only problem. He was a drunk. Keri had no tolerance for drunks, thugs or idiots who ran red lights through school zones. Junior embodied all three.

“Drinking and driving kills people. You remember my mama, don’t you?”

“Sure, I remember her. Fine woman.” He snorted. “Too bad you ain’t got none of her qualities.”

Keri stomped back across the lemony-clean concrete floor and glared at him through the bars. He’d already made it to his bunk and his eyelids were half shut, so she knew she was more than likely wasting her breath, but the words hissed from between her clenched teeth like steam from a kettle. “Maybe I’d have gotten some of her qualities if a low-life drunk like you hadn’t killed her before she had the chance to teach me.”

He opened one eye and shot up straight from his cot. “You know good and well I ain’t never killed no one. Ain’t even all that drunk, if you wanna know the truth of it.” He pointed his gnarly finger. “You didn’t have no call to go arresting me in the first place. I got half a mind to sue the department.”

Disgusted, Keri didn’t trust herself to answer. If Junior didn’t shut up pretty soon, she might have to accidentally toss the key to his cell out the window.

“You hear me, girl? I’ll sue you and this whole department. I’ll own the town before it’s all over.”

“Go ahead and sue, if you can get your lawyer to return your phone calls.” She spun around and headed back to the twenty-five-year-old metal desk, where a stack of paperwork and an extra-large pumpkin cappuccino from the local Quick Shop awaited her. If only Junior would go to sleep and give her some peace and quiet, she’d have it all done before her shift ended at 7:00 a.m. Then she had two weeks of vacation coming.

Dad had suggested—no, downright insisted—she take her two weeks this year, even if he had to sneak out and flatten all four of her tires once they got to the cabin to make sure she stuck to the bargain. He didn’t have to worry about that. For now, she needed solace. Quiet. Time for reflection.

Given her history of taking working vacations, Keri had to admit her dad was right to be skeptical. But this year things were going to be different. Her resolve was strong. Under no circumstance was she going to stay home where the chief could drag her out of the house with some flimsy excuse again, as he had every year since she’d joined the force.

With a weary sigh she plopped into her chair and rolled up to the desk. She scowled at the mountain-high stack of papers. As the only full-time deputy in Briarwood for the past ten years, she held a dead-end job in a dead-end town, and as far as Keri could see, looming before her was a dead-end future unless she could somehow convince the all-male city council that she would be a good replacement for Chief Manning when he retired at the end of the year.

She balled her fist, ready to pound the desk at the unfairness of generations of chauvinism, but then she thought better of it as Junior’s loud snoring sawed through the air. No sense taking a chance on waking him up—not if she intended to get through months of neglected paperwork.

Just why the town couldn’t dig up the money for a new jail with an up-to-date computer system when they had recently spent ten thousand dollars on park beautification, she couldn’t fathom. Instead the good folks of Briarwood were stuck with an Andy Griffith jail, and she and Chief Manning were the Andy and Barney jokes of the town.

Keri sipped a frothy taste of her pumpkin cappuccino. She sighed as the sweet spices licked her taste buds and tempted her memory with pictures of holiday mealtimes at the Mahoney house. She could picture them all sitting around the cherrywood dining table: her two sisters, Dad and Mom.

Holidays never were quite the same after Mom died. Nothing was the same. Keri was finishing up high school, but her older sisters Raven and Denni were already in college by then. She was alone. If only Justin hadn’t moved away, he’d have been there for her during that time, and who knew where her life might have ended up?

Impatiently, Keri dropped the drink cup into the wastebasket, as if to toss away the memories, but they persisted. And at the thought of her childhood sweetheart, the memory of Raven’s wretched phone call floated through her mind.

Keri’s gut tightened. Was Justin a murderer?

The heater fan roared to life, bringing her back to the present and to Junior’s whining.

“That thing woke me up. If I don’t get enough sleep I’ll get a headache.”

“Tough. This isn’t a hotel.”

“I could sue you for violation of my civil rights. And don’t think I ain’t got a good lawyer.”

“Yeah, a real good lawyer who couldn’t get you out of jail and won’t return your calls,” Keri muttered.

He didn’t respond right away, and Keri found herself alone with her memories once again. The thought of her Justin harming anyone, let alone committing murder was almost impossible for Keri to fathom, despite her years as a police officer.

“I need an aspirin. My head’s killing me.”

“Be quiet, Junior,” she said without looking up. “I’m busy.”

There had to be a reasonable explanation. Justin wouldn’t kill anyone. Not her Justin. Someone was making a terrible mistake.

At least that’s what Keri hoped. A desperate hope. She needed to believe him innocent. If the same gentle Justin who had saved her from bullies and brought her flowers and shared her one and only kiss was a wife murderer, she might as well let Junior out of his cell, hand him a bottle of booze and throw him the keys to his truck. Better yet, maybe she should just join him on his next binge. Belly up to the bar, boys. Here’s to the end of all my dreams….

Tears pushed at her eyes, but she blinked them away, and forced herself to focus on her paperwork. She made it through the end of the stack before Chief Manning walked through the door at 7:00 a.m.

“Morning, Deputy.”

“Morning.”

“I’m sure glad you’re here, Sam,” Junior called from his cell. “That girl ain’t got no heart. I been askin’ for an aspirin for the last hour, and she’s been ignorin’ me. Now I got me a headache the size of the Grand Canyon. I got half a mind to sue you both for prisoner abuse.”

Chief Manning took the medicine kit down from the wall and chuckled. “Junior, if you sued us for all the things you threaten, you’d be a millionaire.” He grabbed a paper cup, filled it with water from the bathroom faucet, and crossed the room. “Here. Take this and be quiet for a while before you give me a headache.”

Junior took the aspirin and water through the bars and grumbled all the way back to his bunk.

Keri bit back a snide remark. The guy had been arrested for disorderly conduct and public drunkenness so many times he was a regular fixture at the jail. This time it was different, though. He’d nearly hit those kids. As it was, he’d wrapped his truck around a telephone pole.

The stunned group of teens milling about the accident scene, with shock-white expressions on their faces, had effectively squelched her last remnant of mercy for the likes of Junior Connor.

Why didn’t drunk drivers ever kill themselves instead of innocent people?

She slid the last completed file into place, resisting the urge to slap her hands together to dust them off. Two weeks of solitude awaited her, and she had every intention of using the time to reflect, pray and discover exactly what God was trying to show her by sending discontent into her life. She’d tried to escape its iron jaws, but it gripped her unerringly and Keri was powerless to stop the pain. The melancholy persisted no matter how hard she tried, how long she prayed or how many miles she jogged.

“Keri?”

“What?” Keri blinked back to reality at the chief’s gruff call.

“I asked if anything happened tonight.”

With a sniff, she sent a dismissive wave toward the cell. “No. Just Junior’s whining. Most of the paperwork is finished.”

“You still plan on spending your vacation at the cabin?”

“I sure am,” Keri said, defenses on high alert. “This is our first time at the cabin in years. No phones, no faxes and no radio except in the Jeep, so don’t even think about trying to weasel me out of my vacation this year. I need it, Chief. Dad’s already up there. Even Denni and Raven are coming up to the cabin for Thanksgiving Day.”

He heaved a heavy sigh and lowered himself to the chair with a grunt. “I know you need it, honey. I just have trouble getting along without you.”

Keri grabbed her coat from the rack behind the desk. “Better tell that to the town council, because if I don’t get your job when you retire, I’m quitting for good. Besides, Abe will do fine filling in for me.” The part-time deputy was just itching to spend a couple of weeks in her place.

“Well, you take care out there in those woods.”

“Thanks. I will.”

“You going over to the café before you head up there?”

“Yeah.” Though her stomach rumbled, Keri found it difficult to muster much enthusiasm for the greasy breakfast her future stepmother was undoubtedly preparing at the moment. Just like every other morning.

Maybe she wouldn’t go after all. Maybe she’d just grab a donut at the Quick Shop on her way out of town. She wanted change, didn’t she? She’d start with breakfast. Then, who knew what else? Maybe she’d dye her hair black and get some fake nails. Nah.

Still, a change of pace sounded great. A change of pace that included, for instance, a promotion and a nice fat raise in pay. Then maybe next year she could afford a trip to Maui for her two-week vacation. She smiled at the thought.

“What are you smiling about? I know it can’t be the thought of your stepmother’s eggs.”

The chief’s words brought Keri back from her daydream. “Ruth’s not my stepmother yet. And if Dad doesn’t stop stalling, she’s likely to get fed up with waiting and head back to Texas.”

He actually snorted. “I doubt that.”

“You never know. Some women don’t wait around forever.” Like I have.

Keri pushed back the melancholy threatening to settle over her once again. She patted the chief’s meaty shoulder and headed for the door. “You have everything you need. Abe’s capable of holding down the fort. Just remind him to check the radio every now and then to make sure it’s switched on.” The three-hundred-pound part-timer was notorious for knocking against the switch and shutting off the radio.

The chief chuckled. “Will do.”

Keri stepped into the frigid mid-November morning. The brisk air smelled clean, fresh. She gathered in as much as her lungs would hold, then released the breath with a smile, suddenly wide-awake. She glanced at the sky. Pregnant clouds promised the first snowfall of the year, a little earlier than normal, but not a record by any means. Forecasters called for up to eight inches before evening. From the looks of it, old Tom, the weather guy, might have hit the bull’s-eye this time.

Wrapping her arms about herself to stop the shivering, she headed toward the café before remembering her decision to eat a donut. She heaved a sigh. She was definitely in a rut.

Barely noticing the familiar insurance building, the thrift store, the General Dollar, she continued toward Ruth’s Café.

Her mind whirled, her heart a tumult of emotions as her thoughts returned to Justin. If she were to be perfectly honest with herself, she wasn’t sure what ticked her off more, the possibility of him murdering his wife, or the fact that he’d married someone else in the first place.

His see-into-her-soul eyes invaded her mind, and Keri could almost feel the featherlight touch of his lips on hers—the sweetest of memories.

Even after fifteen years, she felt as though she were betraying him for even considering the possibility that he might be guilty. Love, as strong as ever, combined with aching heartbreak at the thought that Justin was somewhere in trouble, and she couldn’t help him. Worse still was the nagging worry that he might have actually committed the murder.

As much as her heart rejected the thought, the realist in her had to admit that anyone was capable of changing for the worse. The drunk driver who’d killed her mother was proof of that. If a man could fall off the wagon after years of sobriety and slam his car into an innocent mother of three, a clean-cut teenager could grow up to be a killer.

She’d been following Justin’s case through the papers and regular reports from Raven. Raven was sure he’d be declared innocent any moment, but Keri had to wonder. After all these months, an innocent man surely would have been cleared by now.

“Hey, Keri, honey, where you going?”

Keri stopped short and turned at the soft Texas drawl. Her dad’s fiancée, Ruth, stood in the café door looking at Keri as though she’d lost her mind. Heat rose to Keri’s cheeks. “Sorry,” she said, retracing her steps. “I was just spacing, I guess.”

“Just wait until you’re my age, you’ll be lucky to find your shoes. Get yourself in here and eat your breakfast.”

Meekly, Keri followed, but her mind drifted back to Justin. Had he been charged with the crime?

Please, God. Take care of him and see him through this trouble he’s somehow gotten himself into.

Despite the treacherous driving conditions, Justin couldn’t help the excitement he felt as each mile brought him closer to the cabin. He hadn’t seen the Mahoney cabin since his parents’ death fifteen years earlier. Despite Aunt Toni’s promise that she’d take him back there for vacations, she’d promptly forbidden any contact with his past. Said it made him mopey thinking about his old home and that made for bad karma. By the time she was out of her karma phase, Justin had moved on with a new circle of friends.

It hadn’t taken Justin long to figure out that Aunt Toni never took vacations. She worked sixteen hours a day every day except for weekends when she shacked up with her most recent boyfriend and left Justin with cash for pizza and movie rentals. By the time he’d graduated high school and moved on to college, Justin hadn’t even wanted to go back to Briarwood.

That wasn’t true exactly.

He didn’t have the guts to face Keri Mahoney after all the promises they’d made each other. He pictured her exactly the way he’d left her. Fresh, wholesome, eyes wide with wonder and hope. Pure.

His back wheels slid and Justin brought his attention back to the highway, which was quickly becoming snow-and ice-covered.

The curvy, hilly highway became treacherous with nearly zero visibility by the time he found the country road leading to the cabin. He breathed a sigh of relief when the landscape began to look vaguely familiar. Just a few miles into the woods, and they’d be safely tucked away from it all.

Chapter Three

Plump flakes of fairy-tale snow gave way to a wintry mix, and ice pellets bounced off the hood of the Jeep. Keri held her breath and prayed. With extra caution, she maneuvered the vehicle onto Highway 13, wishing she hadn’t taken the time to go home and change out of her uniform.

Snow-frosted trees lined the winding road with breathtaking beauty. She loved the picturesque view from this road during any season, but the winter scene was her favorite. How could something so beautiful be so potentially fatal?

She tried to keep her thoughts focused on the frozen pavement, but her mind drifted toward Justin as it often did. Rarely did a day go by without memories of her childhood friend invading her consciousness and even her dreams.

Now, she imagined him once again sitting beside her, next to the lake, tossing sticks into the water. The promises, the kiss, the declarations of unending love.

Keri fought her way back from the bittersweet memory that was worlds away from the reality of a treacherous road. With the wipers barely making a difference, she was forced to roll down the window and stick her head out to see the turnoff. Ice pelted her face and stung her eyes. She eased the Jeep onto the gravelly path. Krahoney Road. Despite her precarious situation, a smile tipped her lips. She and Justin had dubbed it that—a combination of their two last names. Keri sobered and focused her attention back to driving a straight course as her back wheels slid to the right. Gasping a prayer, she eased into the slide just in time to avoid the three-foot ditch.

When she was only a couple of miles from the cabin, she noticed faint red lights flashing ahead. She squinted, trying to make out the source of the glow. Recognizing the flashings as hazard lights, she prepared to stop.

Anxiety burst through her veins, sending a warning of caution to her brain. Who in their right mind would be out in this weather and on Krahoney Road in the first place? As far as she knew, no one had been out here since this summer when Dad had commissioned all the remodeling for the cabin.

She eased the Jeep to a stop and started to open the door. Then, just to be safe, she grabbed her gun from the glove box and stuffed it in her belt, behind her back. Cop or not, a woman alone on a deserted road was still at a disadvantage to a man who might be up to no good. Leaving the door open and the Jeep running, she walked carefully toward the car. A man was attempting to meet her halfway, walking slowly, his feet unsteady beneath him.

“Thank God you happened by,” he said. Though he wore a heavy coat and a hat, his teeth were already chattering.

Keri took another step and, as she did, lost her footing. She struggled to stay upright, but felt herself falling despite her best efforts. The stranger grabbed on to her, the momentum slamming them both onto the road. Her mind fought to process the rapidly changing events as she caught a good look at his full face. She gasped.

“Are you okay?” he asked, sitting up.

If she hadn’t already been on the ground, Keri knew her legs wouldn’t have held her up, anyway. Her stomach turned over unpleasantly.

Justin.

Even with a five o’clock shadow, his face was unmistakable. The good-looking teenager she’d loved so long ago had turned into a gorgeous man.

He attempted to stand and crashed back to the ground. “Cowboy boots!” He gave a disgusted grunt.

She wanted to throw herself into his arms, tell him how wonderful it was to see him again, demand an explanation why he had never come back for her. But reason and maturity prevailed. What if he was running from the law? Had he been charged?

Knowing she had to be on her feet first if she was going to gain the upper hand, Keri crawled to her knees and inched to a standing position. She reached behind her and pulled out her pistol. “Hold it,” she commanded in her best I’m-a-cop tone of voice. “Turn around and put your hands behind your head.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Make one wrong move and you’ll find out how serious I am,” she dared, her heart sliding into her throat. What would she do if he turned violent? If he gained the upper hand out here in the middle of nowhere in blizzard-like conditions.

“Okay, just take it easy. My wallet is in my back pocket. You can have the money. Just…don’t get nervous with your trigger finger.”

Keri blinked. He thought she was the criminal here? “No. I’m…” What was she doing? As far as she knew, he hadn’t yet been charged. Still…why would he be up here in the winter unless he was running from something? “I’m a cop,” she blurted.

He glanced over his shoulder. “You can’t arrest me. Last I heard there’s no law against sliding off the road.”

“I—I know who you are—and about your wife.”

Dropping his hands to his side, he turned with a scowl.

Keri adjusted her position, praying that she wouldn’t lose her footing.

“I don’t know what you saw on the news, lady, but I’m bringing my boys for a vacation.”

“Up here? In the winter? That seems a little suspicious to me.”

“Look, I don’t really care what looks suspicious to you. I’m not running away. I’m free to go wherever I want.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, until I have a little chat with my chief and verify that, I’m going to have to detain you.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

Was that a challenge? She sent him her fiercest frown. “Any way I have to, tough guy.”

He smirked at her bravado. “I meant, how do you plan to get back to town in this ice? You know, for that ‘little chat with the chief’?”

Her cheeks warmed, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d rattled her. Instead, she tossed him a glare icier than the pellets stinging her eyelids. “I’m driving a Jeep, if you hadn’t noticed. As in four-wheel drive.”

He gained his footing and faced her, all traces of amusement gone, his voice steely. “Jeep or no, you’re not taking my boys out on the highway in that ice.”

“Boys?”