CHAPTER Twelve
Roewynn had gone home, jerked the stupid sticks holding her bun in place out of her hair, thrown her beautiful navy and white dress with the fabric-covered buttons, diagonal color blocking and pencil-shaped skirt on the bed, huffed when it fell onto the floor, but refused to pick it up. She growled and kicked it for good measure.
She pulled on the softest pair of old faded jeans that she owned and threw on a salmon-colored tee shirt that said, What are you lookin’ at? It couldn’t have fit her mood more perfectly. Deciding the occasion called for bare feet, she looked down. Her manicured toes were the same color as the tee shirt, which irritated her. She didn’t especially want to be color coordinated, but it didn’t irritate her enough to motivate a change of clothes. She managed a disgusted huff instead.
The main thing, above all else, she wasn’t going to cry. She’d made up her mind. She was, however, looking around for things to throw. Wisely deciding she didn’t want to have to clean up broken glass or pottery, she settled on books. And began throwing them at the wall with all her might.
That might have made a bigger statement if they were hardcover books, but almost all of them were paperbacks. Still, it was a big enough statement to get a call from her neighbor downstairs.
“Hey.” She sounded awful. “I really hate to bother you, but I’m home sick today? I guess you’re home sick today, too?”
“Oh, shit.” Roewynn looked at the pile of books that had hit the wall and slid to the floor and tried to imagine how that must have sounded downstairs. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you were home. Go back to sleep. I’ll be quiet as a little mouse.”
“Thanks, Roewynn.”
Roewynn ended the call, glad that she hadn’t been asked what she was doing. She sat down on her couch and picked up the TV remote. After surfing through the channels and finding absolutely nothing interesting, she said out loud, “Where is Oprah when you need her? Bitch.”
She looked around the apartment with darkness behind her eyes wondering what she could destroy silently without regretting it later. While she was contemplating, she muted the show about the mating habits of zebras. The fact that the apartment was so quiet made her very aware when she heard footsteps on the old wooden stairs that led upward to her half of the house.
She went to the door, fully expecting to see her neighbor from downstairs asking to borrow tea or ramen or a can of chicken noodle soup. She swung the door open, almost grateful to have something else to think about, even momentarily.
It wasn’t the neighbor. It was Dash with his hand raised in the air to knock.
“I’m closing the door,” she whispered. “Whatever you have to say, I don’t care to hear it.”
“Why are you whispering?” he whispered.
“Because my neighbor is home sick.”
Roewynn was completely unprepared for the gleam that jumped to Dash’s eye. She wouldn’t have thought he was capable of the level of wickedness that infused the smile spreading across his face.
He raised a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture as he walked forward, knowing she couldn’t protest loudly without disturbing the neighbor. Feeling like she had no choice, she did back up and let him in.
Once the door was closed, he looked around. It was every bit as eclectic as he’d known it would be. It almost looked like the place was a study in how to furnish an apartment with stuff nobody else wants.
His phone rang, but he ignored it and let it go to voicemail.
Seeing the pile of books on the floor he said, “What happened there?”
“None of your business. Say what you have to say and get out.”
“Can I sit down?”
“No.”
“Wow. You’re tough.”
“Mr….”
“Cut the crap, Roewynn. I’m not Mr. anything to you. I’m Dash, who aspires to be your full time exclusive lover. But at the very least I’m friends forever. No matter what. You pinky swore.”
He’d hit home. She faltered at that. His phone rang but he ignored it and let it go to voicemail.
“That’s not fair. I couldn’t have imagined what happened this morning when I swore that.”
“Hence the ‘no matter what’ clause of the pinky swear. Of course it’s fair.”
She narrowed her eyes, took in a deep breath and let it out. “It looked like…”
“I know what it looked like. But it wasn’t what it looked like.” He looked at his watch. “Where were you three hours ago?”
She lowered her chin. “In bed with you.”
“That’s right. And that was the truth. It was what it looked like. It was what it felt like. I wouldn’t put that at risk for anybody. Least of all somebody like April.”
For a second Roewynn allowed for the possibility that he might be telling the truth. What if? “Where are you going to be tonight at eight?”
“Wherever you are.”
“Wherever I am? Every night?” The idea that he was telling the truth was beginning to take hold.
“No matter what.”
He stepped forward tentatively and reached out for her. The fact that she didn’t try to move away was a good sign.
When the phone rang again, he said, “Christ. Just a minute.”
After seeing the name on the face of his phone, he glanced up at Roewynn. “It’s Jack. I should take this.”
She nodded.
“Jack?” he said. Pause. “Oh.” Pause. “Uh-huh.” Pause. “Yeah. Ah. Okay.” Pause. “Alright.”
When Dash ended the call, Roewynn couldn’t have stopped herself from asking, “What is it?” Her feathers were still a little ruffled. But seeing the change on Dash’s face caused an immediate internal shift from concern about her own feelings to concern about his.
“You know I told you I was found near Central City?” Her brows drew together. She hadn’t been expecting that. She nodded. “They found the car I’d been driving in a canyon. I guess it went off the road.”
“But you didn’t,” she said, only realizing when she played that back in her head that it was stupidly obvious he had not fallen off a cliff.
“I didn’t.” He took a deep breath. “They’re bringing it up right now. They’ve called Dr. Parsighian. He’s headed up there. He thinks it would be a good idea for me to be, ah, on the site.” He looked at Roewynn. “So…”
She sprang into action. “So let’s go.” She grabbed a jacket, her purse, and her keys. “I’ll drive.”
Dash looked down and pointed at her bare feet.
“Oh. Just a minute.” She ran off to put on hiking boots. Just in case.
He accepted her offer to drive and was quiet on the way.
“How do you feel about this?” she asked cautiously.
He looked out the passenger window for a minute before saying. “Definitely curious. I mean I’d kind of gotten used to the idea that there’s this huge part of my life,” he chuckled, “almost all of it I guess, that’s a mystery. Dr. Parsighian as much as told me that’s how it’s going to be. So I hadn’t expected to learn anything more about what happened.
“I mean I know I hit my head.” His hand went up toward the back of his head involuntarily. “I just don’t know how or why. This will probably be nothing new. I mean it’s a car. I don’t know how looking at a wrecked car is going to change anything. But I want to see it anyway.”
Dash shifted in the seat to take his vibrating phone out of his pocket. “It’s Dash.” Pause. “Yeah. We’re close.” Pause. “Where?” Pause. “Okay.”
Dash tapped a search address into his phone and looked over at Roewynn. “Jack says to pull into the sheriff’s station. He’s going to meet us there and give us an escort.”
“An escort?”
“Yeah. I don’t know why.”
They followed the vocal GPS instructions until they saw Jack waving from his pickup and pulled in behind him. He turned on his lights, but not the siren, and started away.
“I guess we’re supposed to follow,” Dash said.
Within ten minutes they’d pulled over and parked at the northern entrance to Oh My God Road. There were a couple of other cars there, including another Sheriff’s Department vehicle.
“This is Roewynn.” Jack reached out and shook hands. “My girlfriend.”
Roewynn gave Dash a surprised look followed by an intimate sort of smile that made her eyes sparkle.
“The road’s too slippery to drive on today. So we’ll have to walk up. The doc is already up there. Him and my boss.”
“The sheriff.”
“Yeah. Him.”
Looking at the road, Roewynn was glad she’d chosen hiking boots.
As they walked, Jack said, “They’ve attached cables to the car. It’s a Tahoe. I guess you already knew that because it belonged to your… to Mr. Fonteneau. The doc has insisted that they wait to take it out until you get here.”
“How are they taking it out?”
“Helicopter.”
They turned a bend and saw where the others were waiting.
Dash introduced Roewynn to Dr. Parsighian. Jack introduced the sheriff.
Dr. Parsighian turned to Dash. “Anything?”
Dash shook his head and looked around. “No.” Looking at the sheer drop off, he said, “Is it down there?”
“Yeah,” Jack said. “Do not go near that edge. Like I said, it’s slippery today.”
“Tell them they can go ahead and bring it up,” Dr. Parsighian told the sheriff.
Everybody watched in fascination as the helicopter flew in and hovered at a height lower than where they stood. Within five minutes, the sound of the engine changed. They watched as the helicopter seemed to rise out of the ground.
After what seemed like a very long time the smashed SUV came into view.
Dr. Parsighian looked at Dash, who just shook his head.
“Okay,” said Jack. “They’re taking it over to the compound. Let’s go. You can get a closer look once it’s on the ground.”
When they were back in Roewynn’s car, Dash said, “I know what you‘re thinking.”
“You do not.”
“Yes. I do. You’re thinking that only an idiot would go for a drive on Oh My God Road.”
“Okay. I guess you do know what I was thinking. You got nothing?”
“Nothing but embarrassment. Because I kind of agree with that assessment.”
“I don’t know why you weren’t in the car, but after seeing it, I’m glad you weren’t in it.”
They parked where Jack was indicating and got out. The helicopter was already gone, the wreckage sitting in the middle of the lot like a testimonial to staying home. When the Tahoe had gone over the cliff, it had either gone nose first or gravity had changed its trajectory on the way down, because it landed squarely on the front end, collapsing the body all the way to the back seat. The rear end, however, seemed relatively intact.
So much so that Jack was able to walk up to it and open the rear hatch back. Dr. Parsighian was hanging back, watching Dash’s reactions.
“Look here,” Jack said. “Your bag looks like it hasn’t been touched.”
Dash glanced at the doc then moved forward, repositioned the rolling suitcase and unzipped it. The people watching him from behind were able to observe nothing more than that he was still, staring at the contents of the bag.
At length he moved a shaky hand and took something out of the bag.
Turning around his eyes found Roewynn immediately.
At first she looked at him with a question mark on her face, but that changed. Something was different about Dash. She’d seen many things on his face. Amusement. Lust. Curiosity. Determination. But that was the first time she’d seen the light of recognition dancing in those distinctive gray eyes.
He smiled almost shyly, then proudly held up a length of red fabric with a beaded hem.
“I got you a scarf.”