Redemption, p.3
Redemption, page 3
As far as not having a plan went? That was part of who Aiden was, part of his charm he liked to say, mostly to irritate his sister who planned everything. At least, that was who he was in his personal life.
“Lis, you’d be proud of me if you knew how seriously I took my job,” he muttered, then sighed. He’d not seen Calista in a couple of months, and as much as she irritated him, she was his twin sister and he loved her. As soon as this job was over, he’d head up to Ohio and pay her a visit. But until then…
He stretched, then started his truck. “For now, keep your mind on the task at hand, Aiden Joseph. You can’t afford to get distracted. Not on this one. If you do, the consequences for everyone will be grim.”
Chapter 5
Desi kept a low profile over the next week, not running into anyone who recognized her until the following Thursday when she went to place the ads for the business in the paper. Sampson Olman was standing at the counter when she went in, and he turned to greet her with a polite smile that turned quickly to astonishment, then pleasure.
“Oh, my goodness. I’ll be damned. Desiree?”
She smiled back at him, her eyes misting as she accepted the hug he offered. “None other. Sampson, how in the world are you?”
“I’m doing well. What brings you back to town? How long can you stay? Will you have dinner with an old man so we can catch up on things?” He kept one of her hands in his, squeezing gently.
Desi laughed and squeezed back. “I decided to try living in the lush, green land of Indiana. I moved back to town this past week, and I’m planning to stay for a while. And what old man do you want me to have dinner with? I know you don’t mean yourself, because you look absolutely wonderful.”
It was true. Yes, his hair was nearly solid white now, but it was still full, and he stood tall and straight, not stooped and decrepit. He could easily have passed for someone in their late sixties or early seventies instead of the eighty-something she knew him to be.
He grinned at her. “If I were twenty years younger, madam, I’d marry you on the spot. It’s so good to see you. What brings you in to the paper today?”
“I need to place some ads for the business I’m opening,” she told him. “I sold the agency in Arizona, and I’m starting something similar here. Speaking of—my landlord mentioned you might be needing someone to come in and help you around the house with some light cleaning.”
Sampson lowered his head to peer at her over his glasses. “Who’s your landlord?”
“Annie.”
“Humph. That girl… My entire family thinks that just because I had a part or two replaced, I need to become an invalid.”
Desi raised her eyebrows. “How much time do you spend fending them off?”
He narrowed his gaze. “More than I’d like.”
“Then why don’t you give in and use that time for something else? Unless you’ve become one of those gentlemen who lives to annoy his offspring just because he can, in which case, never mind.”
A lady in a floral-print dress came into the reception area in time to hear that last part, and she snorted. “She has you pegged, huh, Samp?”
“Vanessa, I’ll remind you who signs your paychecks,” he grumbled, then winked when she laughed. “Tell you what, Desiree. Why don’t you come out to the house and take a look around, let me know how much something like that would cost me?”
“I would be happy to help however I can,” Desi told him. “When?”
“Are you free tomorrow afternoon?”
She thought about her schedule, then nodded. “I can be.”
“Good. Then we’ll say around two?”
She smiled. “It’s a date.”
He laughed. “Young lady, if that’s your idea of a date, you aren’t getting out enough. What kind of men do they have out there in Arizona, anyhow?”
Desi sighed. “Not the kind they have in Indiana, that’s for sure.”
“Apparently not.” He kissed her cheek. “I’ll get out of your hair and let you do what you came here for. Vanessa, take care of this one. She’s one of mine.”
“Will do, Samp. What do you need, hon?” Vanessa asked her.
As Desi placed the ads, she considered the man who’d just left. She’d kept in touch with Sampson through the years, not frequently but enough that he wasn’t a stranger. Though she’d cut the ties she had with everyone else in town out of necessity, she hadn’t been able to cut her ties with him. He was the last connection to her childhood, to a time when she’d been happy, to the town and the people she’d loved. To the innocence she’d lost one awful night in March when she’d been backed into a corner and unable to escape.
Staying in touch with Sampson had helped her get through some hard times during the years she’d been gone. She owed him so much more than she’d ever be able to repay him. Whatever she could do about the situation with the cleaning, she’d do. It was a chance to start to pay him back, even if the recompense was small compared to what he’d done for her.
Chapter 6
“That’s a big hole,” Jason said. He was standing in front of what was left of a nice wall, studying the gaping wound that had been torn in the drywall by the people who’d broken into the place the night before. It was almost big enough to drive a truck through, albeit a small truck. “Damn, Lou. I’m sorry.”
The manager of the business nodded. “You and me both. We just finished an extensive renovation of this place. Brought it up to the ‘customers’ expectations,’ at least according to the owner. Though I don’t know how all this fancy metal work and high-gloss panels matter when you’re talking about parts for dozers and dump trucks, you know?”
Jason shrugged as he walked around. “It’s a nice package. You have tape for the security cameras?”
Lou’s cheeks flushed. “No. They’re just for show.” He lifted his hands when Jason stared at him incredulously. “They spent the money on the upgrades, not the security system. I tried to tell ‘em.”
“Is anything missing?” Jason asked.
“Nope. Not a thing. Think the same people who did this hit the other two places? I heard they didn’t take anything there, either.”
“That’s the question of the day. Who does your security monitoring?”
Lou told him. “But the system hadn’t been set off this morning. As soon as I called you, I called them to check.”
Jason frowned. “Are you sure it was set?”
The man sputtered. “Are you kidding me? Of course I am. I’d lose my job if I didn’t set the security system.”
He had his doubts, especially when Lou refused to meet his eyes, but Jason didn’t express them. “Okay. Well, I’ll get the report put together and take some pictures, and we’ll see what we can see.”
“Sure wish I knew what in the world they were after,” Lou said as he poured a cup of coffee for himself, then offered one to Jason.
“No, thanks. I fueled up earlier. Say… When you all did the renovations, you didn’t happen to find anything… odd, did you?”
Lou grunted as he sat in the chair behind the desk. “Nah, not really. What kind of odd do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Anything that didn’t fit.”
“Nope. We did find some old beer bottles walled up over by the bathroom, but that was it. Back when this place was built in the late seventies, there were only a few buildings in the park. We figured some kids had come out here and partied, and they threw their garbage down behind the drywall to cover up what they were doing.”
Jason snorted. “Wouldn’t surprise me in the least.”
His mind was racing, however, while he finished filling out the paperwork. After he had gone over the report with Lou, he returned to the question that was nagging at his gut. “Those other buildings that were hit. Do you know when they were built?”
Lou scratched his chest. “Well, best I recall, a whole bunch of these were put up about the same time. There was a big boom here locally, and everything kind of hit all at once. So I’d say the late seventies, maybe the early eighties. My memory isn’t what it used to be. Why do you ask?”
“Just curious.”
“You should talk to your dad. Unless I’m wrong, he got arrested out here one night for vandalism.”
Jason paused in the act of putting his papers back in his portfolio. “Excuse me?”
Lou grinned. “You didn’t think Doc Hudson had it in him, I guess, huh? Yeah, he and that friend of his, Carter, they were punks running around town. Never caused any real damage that I recall, but they sure got into things. They almost didn’t graduate that year because of the trouble they caused. Or maybe that was Carter. I can’t remember the details.”
Jason was floored. “Lou, do you know, I’ve never heard a whisper of a rumor that Dad was ever arrested? Are you sure about this?”
“Absolutely positive. Ask him. Better yet, ask your grandpa. He’s the one who got Richard out of jail. His own parents wouldn’t do it.”
The idea that Richard Hudson, a respected doctor and pillar of the community, had been arrested for vandalism was mind-blowing. Beyond that, the notion that it had happened and had remained a secret for so many years was nearly impossible to believe. But it was definitely something Jason would be asking about and sooner rather than later.
After he left, he headed to The Brown Bag for a late breakfast. He’d had coffee earlier, as he’d told Lou, but there hadn’t been time to grab anything to eat and he was starving. When he joined the short line at the counter, however, he saw someone he hadn’t been expecting.
“Chase Hudson. What are you doing back here so soon?” he asked, clapping his hands down on his brother’s shoulders. “And why do you insist on bringing back those atrociously bright shirts every time you and Annie go to Florida?”
“Excuse me?” The man in the lime-green shirt turned quickly, assuming a tense defensive posture that signaled he’d had at least some martial arts training.
That realization was a footnote in the shock Jason felt. He stepped back, holding his hands out to the side, palms facing the man. “You’re not Chase. I’m sorry.”
“No. I’m not. You make a habit of getting all touchy-feely with strangers like that?” The man’s hackles were clearly raised.
His surliness set off Jason’s own temper, but he tamped it down.
“Like I said, I’m sorry. I thought you were my brother. From behind, you look just like him. As far as that goes, you resemble him from the front, too. Who are you?”
The man’s eyes dropped for an instant to the badge Jason wore on his belt. “Nobody you need to worry about.” He turned back to face forward, where Lauren Clark stood at the register staring at them, her eyes wide. “Ma’am, I need to pick up an order for Lewis Construction.”
“Okay.” She leaned to the side to look at Jason. “Is this one of your jokes? Where’d you find Chase’s doppelgänger? Albeit the tanned, green-eyed version, which isn’t a bad thing.”
As the man in front of him sighed, Jason shook his head. “I have no idea who he is. And he isn’t volunteering any information.”
“You really aren’t related to the Hudsons?” Lauren asked as she rang up the order.
“Really,” the man said. He glanced at Jason over his shoulder. “And I know who my father was, so stop speculating on whether or not I’m some long-lost brother of yours.”
Jason scowled. “Who says I was doing that?”
The man snorted. “Please. I can practically see the wheels turning in your head. Thank you, ma’am.” He took the large stack of boxes from Lauren.
“I’m sorry if we insulted you,” she said. “But you look so much like Jason’s brother Chase, it’s eerie.”
“No offense taken. And don’t they say everyone has a twin somewhere?”
He headed for the door, leaving Jason and Lauren staring after him.
“That’s some coincidence,” she said.
“Yeah. I thought he was Chase. I’ll be right back.” Grateful there were only a handful of people in the café to have seen the incident, Jason hurried across the dining room to see if he could catch a glimpse of the man’s vehicle. He got to the door in time to see the back end of a silver and black pickup truck turning the corner past the courthouse, and he cursed.
“Well?” Lauren asked as he walked back to the register.
“Nothing. Has he been in here before?”
She shook her head. “Not that I’ve seen him. What are you thinking?”
Jason wasn’t sure what he thought, except… “I think I’m going to have one helluva conversation with my dad.”
Twenty minutes later, Jason was sitting across the desk from an astonished Richard Hudson. His father’s outrage was patently obvious from his tone and his expression.
“What did you just ask me?” Richard asked.
“It’s a simple question, Dad. Is there any chance there’s another Hudson kid out there running around, one who’s a little younger than me? That’s all.”
Shaking his head, Richard stood and stalked to the window, hands on his hips as he stared out at the parking lot that separated the doctor’s building from the hospital. “Have you lost your mind, Jason Hugh? I mean, really. Have you? No, there’s no chance! Not any of my offspring, anyhow. How about you? Sowed any wild oats you want to tell me about?” He skewered Jason with a hard stare.
Despite the fact that he was thirty-four years old, Jason felt like squirming. “No, Dad. Look, I’m sorry, but I had to ask. You didn’t see this guy. I literally thought he was Chase. And when he turned around, he was enough like him that it’s plain weird.”
“And you didn’t get his name? Age? Nothing?”
“Nothing. To be fair, we didn’t get off on the right foot for me to chat him up. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s probably about six or eight years younger than me. But his height, his build, even his features… it was like seeing a really well-tanned Chase with green eyes, just like Lauren said. Shoot, even the way he moved reminded me of Chase.”
Richard calmed down enough to settle on the edge of the desk, his arms crossed over his chest. “You know your brother looks like the Olmans, not me. He and Joely both take after that side of the family. Maybe you need to be having this conversation with Sampson.”
Jason shuddered. “No. It was bad enough having it with you. And that’s not even why I’m here.” He eyed Richard, trying to figure out if he should proceed or not.
“Spit it out. I have patients waiting.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask. Tell me about when you got arrested for vandalism.”
For a couple of seconds, Richard stared at him. But then a flush tinted his cheeks and his lips tightened. He cleared his throat. “Oh.”
Jason lifted an eyebrow. “Oh? That’s it? Oh?”
Richard shrugged and picked a ball of rubber bands up off his desk, tossing it casually from one hand to the other. “It was a long time ago. Where’d you hear about it?”
Now this was getting interesting. His father clearly didn’t want to talk about the incident. Jason settled deeper into his chair. “In the course of an investigation. So this isn’t just a personal visit. Talk to me, please.”
With a hard sigh, Richard put the ball back and shook his head. “I came home from college for spring break to take your mom to her senior prom. Things didn’t go… We broke up. I didn’t take it very well. Carter and I and a couple of buddies decided to blow off some steam, and we went out to the industrial park and got drunk. And in our infinite, alcohol-soaked wisdom, we thought breaking down some of the construction they had erected would be a good idea. We got caught, got arrested, made reparation for the damages, and that was that.”
Jason was the one shaking his head this time. “I never would have thought… Why haven’t you ever told us about this?”
“Because A, I was ashamed of it, and B, I know how kids are. ‘Dad did it. He can’t yell at us if we do something like what he did.’ Or am I wrong about that? I mean, look at Joely. She copied what you all did with the mayor’s garden gnome.”
“Creepy-ass things, garden gnomes. And yeah, you have a point. Still… what else have you done that you don’t want us kids to know about?” Jason eyed him with a speculative grin. “You sure there aren’t any other Hudsons out there running around?”
Richard narrowed his eyes. “Jason Hugh…”
Jason laughed and stood. “I’m kidding, Dad. But it sure makes a man wonder. Anyhow, Lou—from the diesel parts place? He’s the one who told me about you getting arrested. What was the industrial park like back then?”
“Wide open spaces, for the most part. It was all old pasture and woodlands. The building we beat up on was one of the first ones out there. I think there might have been one or two out there besides that one. Why?”
“Just a hunch. There’ve been three break-ins now with nothing taken that we know of. When Lou said what he did about all those buildings going up at the same time, I wondered if maybe something had happened during the construction, if something got left behind that someone’s looking for now.”
“Makes sense. Any idea who’s behind the break-ins?”
“No. They’ve been careful, very crafty about not leaving evidence. Which buildings were up when you were there?”
“The sewing factory—that’s the one we hit—and the big green one at the front. And… I think there was one more, but I can’t remember exactly what it was. That would have been around nineteen seventy-six if that helps.” Richard stood.
