Out of the Storm (7 page)

“Hi, Kylie,” Eric offered.

“Hello, Uncle Eric,” she whispered back, still staring at the ground.

“Can you go sit on the porch, honey? Then we’ll go inside and put your new things away.” Lu handed Kylie a bag. A pink teddy bear as large as Kylie stuck out of the top. “I’ll be there in just a minute. Promise.”

Kylie took the bag, eyes still studying the ground as she nodded and headed to the house. She sat motionless on the swing suspended under the window on the back porch, waiting for Louise.

“Well?” Eric shrugged.

“I got another bag in the back.” She reached in and pulled the second bag out as she looked toward the back porch. “Talk to you later. I don’t want the poor child to wait while we talk. I’ll let her in.” Kylie rocked in the swing. Her enormous eyes, a gift from her mother, were fixed on an invisible specter as she clung to her new teddy bear like a life buoy.

****

The three of them had devoured the Chinese food like a school of hungry sharks. Eric sat on the back porch smoking his nightly Marlboro. He allowed himself one cigarette a day. Elaine hated the habit. He’d picked it up in the army and could never quite shake it. Eric tried to limit his smoking to one after dinner. His small way of respecting Elaine’s memory. The clatter of dish washing came through the open window. Louise had shooed him out of the kitchen, asking Kylie to help her.

During dinner Eric had told Kylie her mother would be coming home tomorrow. She brightened. It was the closest thing she’d shown to a smile. Eric still wanted to talk to Lu about the session with Rebecca. So far there’d been no chance.

The late spring sun worked its way below the distant treetops on the far side of the street as Eric crushed his cigarette in an empty flower pot. He moved the swing casually, inhaling the fragrance of the late spring flowers—the ones Elaine had worked so hard to grow. They needed work. He’d have to get to them himself or call a landscaper. As he scanned his long narrow side street something caught his attention. A utilitarian van he’d never seen before, parked behind a large maple, almost out of sight.

As he stood and squinted to see if anyone was inside he heard the screen door open and looked, expecting to see Louise. Instead, Kylie came out clinging to her new teddy bear. Rusty followed close behind.

“Hi, honey.” Eric smiled.

“Hello, Uncle Eric,” she said politely. Lips firmly posed in a pout, Kylie took a tentative step, surveying the large backyard. Eric and Elaine had bought the house three years ago because of it.

Elaine had run down the stairs after seeing the master bedroom with dormers facing Nantucket Sound. From the low hill the house stood on, the blue-gray waves were just visible above the trees. You could close your eyes and smell the ocean.

“Oh, Ricky. I love it. Just love it!” Elaine’s voice echoed with excitement. “Don’t you?” The house offered more than a view. “Look at this yard.” She swooned. The PJM rhododendrons were in bloom, while the forsythia shed their yellow mantle. “Perfect for kids. Lots of kids.” Elaine raised her eyebrows and giggled. The lot was an oversized acre of low, rolling grass dotted with red maples, oaks, and the Cape’s traditional white pines. A pristine pond sat to the left, guarded by tall grass, separating the lot from their neighbors. Conservation land bordered the property to the right. The house was an estate sale at a bargain price. Eric had heard about it from one of his customers. The property was perfect.

“Do you think we can afford it?” Elaine took his hand and asked when the broker went to answer a call on her cell.

Eric had done the math. Despite the owner’s need to sell, it was still more than they wanted to pay. It would be tight for a few years. He was just getting the marina back in shape, and Elaine’s salary as a music teacher was modest. But it was an incredible opportunity. As he watched his wife’s eyes sparkle and the loving, reverent way she touched everything in the house, Eric knew there was no choice.

“Sure. It may mean postponing that European vacation for a couple of years,” he told her. They’d both studied French and talked of spending a month touring Normandy, the Loire Region, and Provence. That was just a dream. This pristine home was a reality and she was right: it was everything a young couple could hope for. “Let’s do it.” He nodded.

She ran across the kitchen and hugged him so tightly he couldn’t breathe. “We’ll be so happy here. Just wait and see…”

“It’s real nice here,” Kylie said as she sat down on the step next to Eric’s chair. Rusty joined her, wagging his stubby tail with enthusiasm. The little girl touched his curly head lovingly and studied the generous yard. “Just like she promised.”

“Promised?” Eric asked. “Someone said it would be nice here, Kylie?”

She looked up and put her lips together, nodding, her large eyes fixed on him. “Yes, sir. Mommy promised. Just like heaven.” A sudden look of regret crossed her tiny face. Had she said something she shouldn’t have?

“Your mommy said that, Kylie?”

She shrugged. “I…I’m sorry. She made me promise. I’m not s’posed to tell,” she whispered. Her eyes filled up as she studied the porch floor. Kylie looked toward the small pond. “Can I go look at the lake now?”

She looked as if she was about to break into tears. Eric didn’t want to interrogate her. She’d had enough for today.

“Sure, honey. You and Rusty go check out the pond.” He let it go. If anyone had explaining to do, it was Ashley. “Just be careful,” he added.

Eric watched her scoot down the steps and run off to the small pond, Rusty at her heels. He was still thinking about what she’d said. Ashley had promised it would be like heaven. A bribe? An incentive to get Kylie’s buy-in for the trip? Or…was it possible that Ashley believed what she’d told Kylie?

He heard the door open and smelled the pleasant scent of Lu’s perfume. She saw Kylie and shouted a warning. “Stay back. Don’t get too close.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t. ’Sides, I can swim real good.” For the first time since their arrival, Kylie smiled as she and Rusty explored the pond and the tall grass surrounding it.

Eric looked toward his mother-in-law, turning Kylie’s words over in his mind.

He felt her eyes studying him. “You okay? You look confused.”

Eric shook his head. “I’m not surprised.”

Chapter Nine

“Nothing?” Eric asked, following Kylie and Rusty with his eyes. The giant pink teddy bear sat propped on the lawn, a spectator to his new owner’s adventures. “Nothing about how they got here? No details about their life?”

“I wasn’t there the whole time. Becky asked me to leave. But I was in the room when Becky asked Kylie how she and Ashley got here. Kylie looked frightened and whispered that she slept a lot. Said she didn’t wake up till they got here in the rain. Just remembered being
so
cold and tired. The poor kid even shivered as she talked. If it was an act, this child deserves the Academy Award, Ricky.” Louise shrugged.

“She must have said something else,” Eric insisted. “Maybe when you left the room.”

“Sure. It’s possible. All I know is when I was there Becky asked her questions to help her feel comfortable. You know, break-the-ice kind of things. How old she was, where she’d lived. That kind of stuff. Her eyes began to fill up, so Becky stopped. She shook her head and let it go.”

Lu continued looking toward the small pond. “Don’t get too close, honey,” she warned again.

“Promise I won’t.” Kylie took a step back and waved.

Eric watched her come back to retrieve her stuffed friend. “She sure loves that stuffed animal.” He thought of things that might have been. What their child might have looked like. Would she have grown into one as sweet and beautiful as Kylie, laughing with a magical smile as she chased her dog around their yard?

“She did say Ralph was a nice man.”

The comment brought him back. “What?” He shook his head.

“Your brother. Kylie said he was a good guy. Did nice things for her and Ashley.”

“Really?” If Ralph was such a good guy, why were they here? For protection? And what about his phone call? Was that for real or something his brother had scripted to create a sense of fear?

Eric jumped as his cell buzzed in the kitchen. He looked toward Kylie. “Let me see who that is. I’m expecting an important call.”

By the time he got to his phone it had gone to voice mail. Eric looked at the number. It meant nothing, but he recognized the area code. The same as his brother’s—Virginia.

“Can you keep an eye on Kylie?” he called through the open window. “This might be the call I was waiting for. I’d like to return it.”

“Sure. Make your call.”

Eric played the voice mail. “Eric, this is Lip. Call me back ASAP. We need to talk.”

Eric hit re-dial and waited. The phone rang twice, then three times. “Hi,” it was a woman’s voice.

“Jen?”

“Oh my God. Ricky?”

“Yep.”

“Ron said he’d talked to you.”

“How are you?” Eric asked.

“More important, how are you, honey? We’ve been so worried about you…” Her words faded into awkward silence.

“I’m okay. Thanks. Keeping busy with the marina. Trying to put the pieces back together.” He didn’t want to blow Jennifer off, but he needed his friend. “Is Lip around?”

“Just ran in the shower. He’s umpping one of Mattie’s softball games in”—she paused—“about thirty-five minutes.”

“Okay, don’t bother him. Just tell him I called.”

“Will do, Eric. Now you take care and promise to get down here real soon for a visit.”

“Sounds good, Jen.” Eric hung up. His friend called from home to avoid being monitored. He looked at his watch. Assuming Lip wouldn’t call with his daughter in the car, it would be two to three hours before they could talk.

Eric walked through the kitchen to the back door. The sound of Kylie’s laughter in the backyard was catching. He smiled. When he went onto the porch he saw Lu chasing Kylie and Rusty around the ancient maple that stood between the house and the garage. Kylie held the teddy bear away from her pursuer.

Eric ran down the stairs while Kylie looked back at Louise. Suddenly, the little girl ran into his arms. He hesitated, then picked her up. She stared at him, looking confused. When Eric swung her over his head, Kylie erupted, squealing with delight. Eric found himself facing her, bringing her close to him and squeezing her tightly as her tiny body rocked with the welcome sound of laughter.

As Eric hugged Kylie, something caught his eye. The hidden van came alive, did a U-turn, and sped off toward the main road.

When Kylie was upstairs in bed and Lu was watching a reality show, Eric got into his gym shorts and T-shirt and went to the basement. He unlocked the door that led to his private room. It had lain fallow for too long.

The dehumidifier hummed as he flipped on the light switch and went inside. Eric surveyed the walls covered with photos, memorabilia, medals, and the accompanying citations.

His arsenal rested on the opposite wall in locked cabinets. Eric had been a champion wrestler in college and a natural in several martial arts disciplines in the military. He kept his service issue .45, two 9mm automatics, an illicit M-16, and two 12-gauge shotguns locked away. A generous gun safe beneath his weapons held enough ammunition to start a small war. Outside the gun cabinet were two swords, throwing, commando, and assault knives with varying blade types in different lengths. Next to this deadly array hung his favorite weapon—his crossbow.

Elaine abhorred violence. She never visited his personal domain or asked about his experiences. His tours in Iraq and Afghanistan remained hidden behind a wall of silence. That suited Eric. He had no desire to relate the hellish years that trailed him like the cashboxes hanging from Marley’s ghost. Besides, unless you’d been there you could never understand.

The room also served as his gym. An empty forty-five pound bar lay propped on the weight bench. Next to it sat a rack with tandem weights from ten to eighty pounds. After some stretching, Eric sighed and hit the heavy bag—lightly at first to make sure it was hanging properly. Within five minutes he’d worked up a good sweat as he thrust his hands and feet in tight circular arcs, landing blow after blow.

Eric lifted a few weights. He was on his way out of the room when he spotted the picture of his team next to the door. It had been taken the day they landed in Kuwait. Ten men, all strong, deadly, and superbly trained, yet forged into a team they were much more than the sum of their parts. Only five came home. So much loss and for what? Eric had a strange feeling about the last two days. Nothing he could put into words but still…something made the hairs on his neck stand up. It was why he’d decided to revisit his fortress of solitude.

****

He lay on his bed long after his steaming shower, his body tight and sore. It was a feeling he enjoyed. Eric never realized how much he’d missed it. The sheer curtains blew weakly, moved by a soft southerly breeze. The distant sounds of night on Nantucket Sound offered a pleasant counterpoint to the turmoil running through his mind. His TV was tuned to the Red Sox, but Eric was somewhere far away again.

So many questions: Ralph? The kind man from the girls’ stories or the scam artist of Eric’s memory? Ashley—frightened, innocent victim or first-class manipulator? And Kylie—sweet little girl or the youngest participant in one of Ralph’s convoluted schemes?

Just as a dazzling triple riveted his attention on the game, Eric’s cell rang. He grabbed it and looked at the number. It was local. Somewhere in Barnstable County. He didn’t recognize the number. Maybe a boater desperate to find a slip. That was common this time of year.

He sighed and answered, “Hello, Eric Montgomery.”

“Hi. Hope it’s not too late?” asked Ashley in her soft drawl. Eric turned and sat at attention, picturing Ashley the way she’d looked that afternoon.

“No. It’s…it’s fine,” he stammered as a warm feeling swept over him. A smile crossed his lips. “I’m glad you called.” He couldn’t explain it, but he was. Very glad. “Is everything okay? Are you okay?”