CHAPTER 19

Jack Livingston poured another shot of whiskey into the cracked mug that Brady Kenton had just drained. They’d been talking for an hour, and Kenton’s voice was tired.

Livingston, never a man to sit silent for long, had done so while Kenton told his story. It was just too intriguing to interrupt.

Kenton had just finished describing his harrowing encounter with the now-dead son of David Kevington, who had come to the United States in pursuit of Rachel Frye because she was witness to a murder he had committed in England. Rachel Frye was the daughter of Brady Kenton, though he did not know of her existence until she tracked him down.

It was from her that Kenton had at last learned that his missing wife was still alive, living now as the spouse—and virtual prisoner—of David Kevington.

“Please … go on with your story,” Livingston urged when he could stand the waiting no more.

Kenton swished the whiskey around in his mouth, then swallowed and wiped his lips on the back of his hand. “The circumstances that I found myself in after Rachel and I were finally united allowed me to fake my death with relative ease, and with the cooperation of Alex Gunnison. With me officially dead, Rachel and I were free to travel anonymously to England. Rachel guided me to the Kevington estate, then went into hiding, at my insistence, at the home of some former Kevington servants who agreed to protect her and keep her presence secret … and to help her get away if I sent word for her to flee.

“I’ll pass over the details and tell you simply that I did manage to get into David Kevington’s estate. I found Victoria.… She was as overwhelmed at our reunion as I was. She hadn’t known whether I was living or dead. She was eager to leave the prison of a home he had given her, and we tried to do it … but I was caught. Kevington locked me away, literally threw me in a cellar, and would have killed me right away had not Victoria begged him not to and told him she would take her own life if he killed me.

“A sympathetic servant in the household cooperated with me, and sneaked word from me out to Rachel that she should leave the country at once and come back to the United States. She did that, I was told … but now, God help me, I have no idea where she is or what happened to her. There was a boat accident off the coast, right about the time she would have been returning.… Dear God, I hope she wasn’t on that boat.” Kenton paused, poured himself another drink, and took two long sips before continuing.

“Though Victoria’s protests might hold him back for a time, Kevington intended to kill me. I knew that. I was his prisoner, the man who had come to take away the woman he perceived as his wife, and even though he dared not do it directly because of Victoria, I knew it would happen. There would be an ‘accident’ of some sort, or a disappearance. I was doomed, unless I escaped. But I wouldn’t leave Victoria.

“It was the same servant who delivered the message to Rachel who proved to be my salvation and Victoria’s. At a great risk to himself, he arranged my escape and Victoria’s. He even had a wagon and a driver to get us away.

“But it was a nightmare. Kevington pursued us, and with Victoria’s condition, it was difficult to travel. Thank God that there are those in the world who will trust people based on their intuitions and give a hand to you even before they know all the answers.

“Through the help of good people and, surely, the hand of God himself, we made it to the coast and took passage to the United States. But we knew that Kevington would follow us. I’ve tried to deny it at times, but I can’t. It was for that reason that I didn’t even contact Alex Gunnison, my own partner, when we returned. I know that Kevington will try to get Victoria back, and if he can’t succeed, then I believe he’ll kill her, and me as well. He’ll not be able to bear the thought of Victoria being alive but no longer his possession. And he’ll not be able to bear the thought of me being alive at all.”

Livingston tapped his fingers on the table. “We’re all in danger, then. Anybody who helps you, anybody who is close to you, anybody who can lead him to you.”

“Yes. And I suppose it was wrong of me to put you in that situation, Jack. But I had to find a place to hide that would be remote and not easy to predict. Your place here was the closest I could come.”

Livingston looked Kenton in the eye. “You know that Victoria’s not fully yours yet.”

It stung, but Kenton did not flinch. “Yes. I know.”

“She stays in a room away from you. And I know she gets you all angry sometimes.”

“Not angry. I could never be angry with her.”

“Hell, if it ain’t anger, it’s something mighty like it. Why, you’ve sneaked down into town and got drunk two, three times since you’ve been here. And every time it’s been after she shrugged you off.”

Jack Livingston’s forthrightness was not easy to take, not so much because it was brutally insensitive—which was typical of Livingston—but because it was brutally truthful.

“I know,” Kenton said. “I shouldn’t have done it.”

“Hell, Brady, it was dangerous. You think that because your hair and beard are different people can’t recognize you?”

“Look, Jack, I’m not going to defend myself on that one. You’re right. I shouldn’t have showed myself in town. But this is a hard time for both Victoria and me. There have been times she just can’t bear my presence, and when that happens it hurts like a sword run through me. I’ve had to get out and away, or I couldn’t stand it. Do you really think I can stay hidden away in here forever?”

“Brady, don’t show yourself in town no more. I don’t care how worked up you are. You don’t know that you showing yourself in public hasn’t already caused word about you to get out. For all we can know, Kevington has ears and eyes everywhere. A rich man can afford to buy all the ears and eyes he wants. And all the trigger fingers.”

Kenton didn’t mention the sketch on the envelope that he’d accidentally left in the Buckeye Cafe … and the fact that it had disappeared. That one worried him a lot. He could take pains to change his own appearance, but his work was as recognizable as ever.

Livingston was right. He’d been overly careless.

“I’ll not leave again like that, Jack.”

Livingston was thinking. “No. You will leave. We all will.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There’s another place we can go. Even more hidden than this one. It’ll be a place we can hide Victoria a lot better and keep her safe until we know for sure how hard this damned British doctor will try or not try to get her back. My guess is he’ll try hard.”

“Where is this place?”

“Have you ever heard of a town called Caylee?”

“Yes, but the one I’ve heard of is abandoned. A ghost town.”

“That’s the town. It’s over the Culver Mountain, about fifteen miles from here. Hard miles, just a mule trail, no good road. But there’s a place there we can take Victoria. She’ll be as hidden there as anyone can be.”

“But a ghost town, Jack? I don’t want Victoria to have to live in some run-down abandoned cabin.”

“She won’t have to.” Jack Livingston leaned a little closer and lowered his voice, as if about to say something secretive in a crowded restaurant. “There’s one house there that’s not run-down at all. You can’t tell it much from the outside, though.”

“What the devil are you talking about?”

Livingston lowered his voice even more. “Uh, Brady, I might as well tell you, in case you don’t know it already: I ain’t exactly a saint. I’ve done some things that wouldn’t win me a gold star at church of a Sunday morning.”

“Well, all right.”

“One of the things I’ve done is, I had something of an association with a certain woman who wasn’t my wife … but she was the wife of another man. The mayor of Culvertown for some years, as a matter of fact, up until she died a couple of years ago and he moved off to Colorado Springs.”

“What does this confession of yours have to do with a house in Caylee?”

“We would meet there. That’s the point. Maude’s husband was a fearsome jealous man. We knew we couldn’t risk getting together here in Culvertown, not even here in my house. Too many prying eyes.”

“Not to mention a wife of your own.” Kenton’s tone was icy. As a man who had missed his own wife for many years, he had little use for marital infidelity.

A married man should honor his wife, Kenton believed, and give himself to no other.

“My wife was dead before any of this happened, Brady. I was never unfaithful to her.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Anyway, Maude and me would meet over in Caylee. She’d claim to be off on a trip to see her sister, who suffered terrible with the gout for many years, but in fact she’d spend a good part of the time with me in Caylee. There was a house there that I fixed up good and pretty on the inside, though I left the outside looking all weathered and run-down. You’d hardly know unless you look hard that it wasn’t just another relic. The way it’s situated, you can hardly notice the place at all, anyway. But it’s there.”

“I’ll be!”

“Maude’s been gone for two years and I ain’t had cause to be at that house, but I did go by about six months ago just to take a look at it. It’s still in right good shape on the inside. Victoria could be comfortable there, and hidden away where nobody is likely to see her. There’s nobody else at all living in Caylee.”

Kenton pondered this. The idea was appealing. Certainly not as a permanent arrangement, but as a good one for the moment. In such a place Victoria could grow strong again, and he could care for her like he wanted to.

“What about food and so on?”

“I’d provide it,” Livingston said. “I’d haul anything you need in on a pack mule.”

Kenton nodded slowly. “Jack, I think maybe that’s an offer I’m inclined to accept. If Victoria is willing, that is.”

“Then I’ll help you. But the truth, Brady, is that I think the wisest thing you could do is go to the law. Just tell them your whole story and ask for protection.”

“I’ve thought the same thing many a time. But there are uncertain things … and the fact that Victoria is scared to death to bring the law into the situation. Victoria is afraid that Kevington will somehow be able to use the law to his advantage. And mostly she’s afraid … blast it, I may as well admit that I’m afraid, too … that if we show ourselves this early, Kevington will do something extreme. He’d rather have Victoria dead than taken away from him.”

“You can’t hide forever, Brady.”

“I know. I know … and it worries me. Because I don’t think Kevington will stop until he finds us … until either he has stolen Victoria back or both Victoria and I are dead.”

At that moment there was a series of loud knocks on the front door.