Cold Betrayal

“Did you love him?” Ali asked.

“Jack?” Athena shrugged and paused for a moment before continuing. “I cared about him, but what I felt for him isn’t anywhere near what I feel for Chris. I can see now that I married Jack more to get back at my folks than anything else, and the whole thing blew up in my face. It turns out, karma is like that. Jack just graduated from dental school. The plan is that he’ll gradually take over my father’s practice so Dad can retire. And that’s what hurts more than anything—the idea that my parents would choose an ex-son-in-law over their own daughter.”

Athena paused again and seemed to be thinking about what to say next. “I can see now how wrong it was for us to rush into marriage. We were both too young. He wasn’t ready to settle down; he still wanted to sow some wild oats—which he did, by the way. We ended up in different National Guard units. Mine deployed; his didn’t. I found out he was cheating on me with Janice before I even shipped out. Jack started talking divorce while I was still in Iraq. He had me served with the papers while I was deployed, and the divorce became final while I was in Walter Reed. I didn’t fight it because by then a divorce was what I wanted, too. Still, it blew me away to think that he and Janice were already married and expecting a baby before I got out of rehab and made it back home to Bemidji.”

Ali remained quiet. She knew more than most how much loving and losing at a very young age can hurt. If there was more to this story, she needed to wait patiently until it finally spilled out.

“There was no way I was going to go back home and live with my folks, so I stayed with Gram instead,” Athena went on. “She had a wheelchair ramp built on the front of the house and let me sleep in her downstairs bedroom. I felt guilty that she had to go up and down the stairs, but she said climbing stairs was good for her. I lived with her while I went through rehab, got fitted with my prostheses, and got my teaching degree. I was able to sign up for school with one of the earliest distance-learning programs, one that allowed me to take courses online and go at my own pace. I finished my degree in three years and took the first job I was offered—here in Sedona.”

Ali nodded. “What happened when you and Chris went back to visit?”

Athena sighed. “I didn’t tell my folks we were coming. I told Gram, of course, because we were going to stay with her, but I asked her not to tell my parents. I wanted to surprise them. They were surprised, all right, and so was I. It turns out that Janice now works in my dad’s office as a receptionist, and Mom takes care of Jack and Janice’s son, Jason, while they’re at work. While Jack was away at school, Janice and the boy stayed with my parents, living in my old room. I found that out when I went by the house. Mom wasn’t exactly overjoyed to see me. I left and haven’t been back.”

Ali already knew that Athena’s parents had never bothered to acknowledge the arrival of Chris and Athena’s twins, which made their betrayal of volunteering to look after a non-grandchild all the more hurtful to their daughter.

“That must have been a shock,” Ali said. “Why didn’t Betsy warn you?”

Athena shrugged. “She probably didn’t know about it. She and my mother aren’t exactly pals. Never have been; never will be. Mom and Dad try to boss Gram around the same way they tried to with me.” Athena paused. “So what am I supposed to do now?”

Ali thought for a moment before she answered. “We make sure your grandmother knows that we’re behind her—that we believe that someone did indeed try to harm her last night. Now, tell me. Does Betsy have a security system?”

“Yes, but she turned it off when she came home from bingo. She doesn’t leave it on when she’s at home because it’s inconvenient when she has to take the dog out. Thank goodness Princess smelled the gas and woke Gram up.”

“But she didn’t bark earlier when whoever turned the burners on was in the house?” Ali mused.

“I guess not.”

A dog that didn’t bark? Ali didn’t like where that thought was taking her. The last time that had happened it had been because the intruder had been someone the dog in question knew quite well.

“Okay,” Ali said, without passing along that last conclusion. “Tell your grandmother that from now on, inconvenient or not, the alarm stays on.”

Athena nodded.

“Is there anyone left in town that you trust who could stay with your grandmother for the next little while?”

“Not really.”

“Does Betsy’s house have Internet access?”

“It does. She had Wi-Fi installed while I was there, but she may have discontinued the service. She had a computer, but it’s most likely dead by now. She doesn’t use it.”

“Tell her she needs to reinstate her Wi-Fi because she’ll have a new computer shortly,” Ali said.

“Why?”

“Because your grandmother is about to become a client of High Noon Enterprises,” Ali said with a smile. “I’ll talk to B. and to Stuart and see what kind of security equipment is needed in this particular situation. Come to think of it, I may even have to go to Bemidji myself to oversee the installation.”

“You’d do that?” Athena asked.

“Of course,” Ali said. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Athena glanced briefly at her watch, then she sprang out of her chair, came over to Ali, and bent down to give her mother-in-law a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered in Ali’s ear. “Thank you so much.”

5

Walking close to the buildings with her eyes modestly lowered, Enid didn’t worry about being recognized. People would know from her ma

When voters in and around Colorado City had suggested creating a local law enforcement district and hiring their own marshal, Bishop Lowell had organized enough opposition to defeat the proposal. For one thing, the Mohave County deputy they had now, Amos Sellers, was a member in good standing of The Family. When the next vacancy occurred, he’d most likely be elevated to the status of Elder. Besides, Bishop Lowell was opposed to having any more law enforcement scrutiny than absolutely necessary.

Even though women in The Family weren’t allowed to vote, Enid had heard all the pro and con discussions before the election. She knew that the Colorado City area fell under the jurisdiction of the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, which was headquartered in the town of Kingman, a place she had never seen. Because the Grand Canyon—another place Enid had never seen and often wondered about—lay between The Encampment and Kingman, travel between the two places wasn’t easy. The most direct route took four hours and required crossing three separate state lines. The other, all inside Arizona, made for a seven-hour one-way trip. Lack of law enforcement oversight was one of the reasons The Family and groups like them had chosen to settle in this remote part of the state.

Kids and women from The Family weren’t allowed to spend time in town without being supervised. Just being caught walking alone on the street would have been enough to call for a public caning from Bishop Lowell. Although Enid didn’t worry about people in town recognizing her, she was anxious that someone from The Family might see her—someone who had come to town that day to pick up a tractor part or stop by the bank. If the person who found her turned out to be one of the Elders, there would be hell to pay. As far as the townsfolk were concerned, though, the only people who knew her, other than the nurses in Dr. Johnson’s office, were the clerks and bag boys in the supermarket and maybe, just maybe, the clerk at the gas station where Enid was headed.