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He rewarded her with a wag of his tail and a glance before continuing to sniff his way along their route.
The afternoon was still warm and the air so clean and fresh she could almost feel it healing her sore throat. There was also peace and ambience to be enjoyed here; something she had neither remembered nor expected.
Traffic circling the square was heavier than she had anticipated, so she paused. Proceeding directly to the courthouse would entail extra crossings. Sensibly, she opted to take the long way around instead.
Flashes of buried memory began to surface. A few stores and even nearby homes seemed familiar, and not in a negative way. The same thing had occurred when she’d been exploring the old farmhouse, but she had not expected to experience such clear recollections anywhere else.
“I’m supposed to hate this place,” she muttered to herself, disgusted to be feeling almost comfortable.
A family was coming out of the tiny library, the excited children clasping books and dancing for joy. An older couple was entering the café on the west side of the square. The name over the restaurant door didn’t ring a bell but the building itself certainly did.
Jamie looked ahead and saw a sign for the police station. Good. If she couldn’t locate the motel once she turned the corner, she’d backtrack and ask someone in there for directions.
Cracks in the sidewalk where tree roots had lifted the paving slowed her briefly. That, and Ulysses’s insistence that he sniff every post and corner and square inch of the walkway.
Steep concrete stairs led up to the glass doors of the police building. They, too, were familiar. Perhaps it would be prudent to check here before proceeding. After all, she was already on their doorstep.
Ulysses made the first couple of high jumps, then pulled back so she’d pick him up and carry him the rest of the way. Traffic continued to pass, the drivers cautious because there were no stop signs to regulate right of way on the corners.
Jamie got to the top landing. Tried the door. Found it locked.
With her dog still tucked under one arm, she used her opposite hand to shade her eyes and peer inside.
The building was vacant.
She put Ulysses down and began searching for an explanation. That was when she saw the crudely lettered, faded sign taped to one wall. The entire Serenity Police Department and the sheriff’s office had moved to an address out of town on Highway 9!
From her higher vantage point she assessed her surroundings. Nine North bordered that side of the square. If she hadn’t been on foot she’d have followed it then and there. However, as things stood, she supposed it would be best to keep going and locate her motel.
For the first time since abandoning Shane Colton she was starting to wish she’d let him drive her. The worst part of that notion was the realization she was behaving exactly the way he’d described. Foolish and stubborn.
Jamie Lynn murmured, “Oh, well, what’s done is done,” bending to scoop up her short-legged pet for the trip down the steep stairway.
A second before her hand touched him he yelped and jumped away.
Startled, Jamie was caught off balance. She lurched. Dropped to her knees. Sensed an unmistakable ripple of fear. Was she simply reacting to the high-strung dog?
There was no time to speculate further.
Something crashed above her. Tiny shards of safety glass from the thick doors began to rain down.
She huddled over her little dog, unsure what had happened but taking her cues from him.
Together they crouched on the cement threshold, trembling, frightened, waiting.
Nothing more fell. Someone shouted from the street, “You all right, lady?”
She raised her head slightly to call, “I think so.”
Bystanders were gathering on the sidewalk in front of the deserted building. Some were quiet. Others were talking or yelling.
A figure broke through their ranks and raced up the steps.
When Ulysses began to wiggle and wag his tail, Jamie made eye contact with the new arrival.
It was Shane Colton. And he looked mad enough to spit nails.
FOUR (#ulink_2c606b5e-758c-5f3b-99fd-f611433c9cff)
Shane hovered over her. “You just had to do things your way again, didn’t you?”
“Don’t yell at me.”
“Somebody ought to. What were you thinking? You couldn’t be more vulnerable if you’d been carrying a sign that said Shoot Me.”
“Ha-ha. Very funny.”
“This is no joke.” He offered his hand, wondering if she’d take it.
Jamie continued to crouch. “Is it safe now?”
“Yes. The shot came from a rusty blue pickup. It laid rubber all the way to the traffic light and kept going.”
Her fingers closed around Shane’s and he helped her rise. It wasn’t too surprising to see her swaying as she regained her balance. He slipped an arm around her shoulders, telling himself it was merely to keep her from collapsing. “You okay?”
“Yes. I never dreamed anybody would recognize me dressed like this,” she said, sounding breathless.
“It was probably easier because of Useless. I don’t imagine there are many women with such dark hair and a dog that looks like a dust mop with legs. That’s how I spotted you.”
“You were following me?”
“I shouldn’t have had to.” He paused long enough to give her the once-over. “Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
“My pride is pretty bruised,” she said wryly.
“There’s a lot of glass in your hair.”
“Oh, dear.”
When she started to reach up he stopped her by tenderly clasping her wrist. “You need to let the police see you just as you are. I’m sure somebody in the crowd has called them by now.”
“Probably.” Jamie Lynn sighed. “If they’re not all too busy taking pictures with their phones.”
Shane stepped in front of her, forming a human shield. “It’s too late to keep your picture from ending up on the internet but we don’t need to give your attackers any more reasons to gloat.”
“Attackers? Plural again?”
He nodded soberly. “Looked like it. Judging by the direction the truck was heading, the driver couldn’t have hit this door. It had to be a passenger who could lean out the window and aim higher.”
“Wonderful. I suppose it’s the same two guys who tried to toast me yesterday.”
“There you go again,” he said with a shake of his head. “Why are you making light of these attacks? Don’t you realize that somebody is seriously trying to harm you?”
“Sure. Thing is, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Of course there is.”
She ducked out from under his protective arm and faced him more fully. “If you mean I should run and hide the way my mother did, forget it. Not gonna happen.”
“There’s nothing cowardly about using your head and being cautious. You act like you enjoy taunting whoever is out to hurt you.”
Shane watched myriad emotions flit across her face, ending with stubbornness. “Look. Whether you believe it or not, my brother is innocent. This town conspired to ruin his life and destroy my family—and succeeded. After all that, I guess I’ve gotten fatalistic.”
“What about trusting God? Maybe it was His plan to rescue you and you’ve interfered so much you’re way off track.”
The fire in her dark eyes and the set of her jaw told him plenty before she ever spoke.
“God gave up on me long ago.”
“How can you say that?”
“Easy.” Hearing the approach of sirens, Jamie Lynn scooped up Ulysses and started down the steep steps, one hand following the pipe railing for better balance. “I prayed for my big brother and he still ended up in prison. I prayed for my parents and they both deserted me and disappeared. I prayed to come home and when I finally got here, somebody tried to kill me.”
“That’s not God’s fault. We’re all responsible for the consequences of our personal choices.”
She paused long enough to turn and speak over her shoulder. “Yeah, well, I choose to stand on my own two feet. I have since I was ten.”
And that’s about the saddest thing you’ve said so far, Shane concluded as he watched her work her way through the mob. If he and his mother had not had their faith to comfort and uphold them when his dad, Sheriff Sam Colton, had been killed, they might not have even survived, let alone made new lives for themselves.
Which reminded him. He needed to touch base with his mom and Otis to fill them in before they learned the truth about Jamie from the town grapevine.
He smiled wryly. Given the speed of gossip in Serenity, it might already be too late.
Dropping back, Shane fisted his phone, pulled up her number and dialed. A familiar ringtone echoed from just across the street. Marsha had apparently left the beauty salon when she’d heard the ruckus and was now standing next to Jamie Lynn.
The call went to voice mail as Shane shoved his cell back in his pocket and headed toward them.
He was halfway there before he realized he didn’t know whether he was on his way to inform Marsha who she was comforting or was simply eager to rejoin the attractive woman with the glitter of broken glass in her hair.
The fact that he had to ask himself that question in the first place was more disconcerting than the potential answer.
* * *
“Please,” Jamie pleaded with the officer, “don’t make me go to the hospital again. I needed treatment the last time but this is just superficial.”
The deputy radioed information, listened, then nodded. “Okay. The chief says you can go. For now.” His pencil was poised over a small notebook he’d pulled from his uniform shirt pocket. “What’s your cell number and where are you staying?”
She recited her number, then pointed. “I’m at the Blue Jay motel, on the left past the stoplight.”
“Got it.” He handed back her driver’s license. “Don’t leave town.”
The irony almost made Jamie laugh aloud. She let herself grin at the young rookie. “You don’t have to worry. I plan to stick around.”
Marsha patted Jamie’s arm. “Come home with us. I’ll get that glass out of your hair for you and then we can share supper.”
“No, really. I couldn’t.”
“Nonsense. Otis and I almost always have guests.” She smiled at her son. “Shane and Kyle are regulars.”
That comment hit Jamie so hard she reached for Shane’s forearm and gripped tightly without thinking. “Kyle! Where is he? What did you do with him?”
“Relax. He’s fine. I saw my pastor’s wife coming out of the courthouse and dropped him off with her.”
A lungful of air whooshed out, deflating Jamie like a cheap balloon. “Oh.”
The look Shane was giving her was anything but amiable as he shook off her touch. “There was a time, just a few days ago, when I wouldn’t have been afraid to leave him on a bench on the courthouse lawn all by himself. Then you showed up.”
Marsha gasped. “Shane! What’s gotten into you?”
“Her,” he said with a shrug. “Has she told you who she is yet?”
Jamie Lynn was shaking her head. She hadn’t intended to spread the news quite this fast but, given the present circumstances, she saw little reason to hedge. Instead, she offered her hand to the older woman. “My original name was Jamie Lynn Henderson. My brother is serving time for a crime he didn’t commit.”
“You’re R.J.’s sister.” It wasn’t a query.
“Yes. I am.”
As she watched, shock was replaced by an unexpected aura of peace that washed over Shane’s mother and gave her a beatific appearance. She clasped Jamie’s hand in both of hers. “I’m so sorry. That trial was a terrible ordeal—for all of us.”
“Mother!”
Marsha eyed her son. “Oh, hush, Shane. This young woman wasn’t involved. We can’t choose who our relatives will be or control what they do.”
Although Jamie Lynn didn’t pull her hand away, she did say, “My brother’s confession was coerced. He wasn’t driving that night.”
The disgusted noise Shane made needed no translation. Jamie Lynn looked into Marsha’s misty blue gaze and said, “I’m just here to find the truth.”
Behind her she heard Shane add, “No matter who it hurts.”
“The truth can set us free,” Marsha quoted. “Will you be able to accept it if you learn that your brother actually was guilty?”
“Of course.” But would she? Jamie had believed so strongly that her well-loved sibling was innocent, she’d never considered finding evidence to the contrary. What if she did? What if their parents had been trying to protect them from worse emotional trauma by inventing the story about receiving criminal threats?
But if that were true, if the threats weren’t real, then why send their daughter away? And why split up when Jamie knew how devoted to each other they had been?
No. There was a lot more to this puzzle, to this town, than met the eye. And one of the best places to start getting to the bottom of everything was by keeping company with someone who’d had a vested interest in the whole scenario, right from the start.
She smiled slightly, hoping Marsha was ready for what she was about to say. “I’d like to take you up on your offer but now that you know exactly who I am, I’ll understand if you want to withdraw your invitation.”
