WITH A SQUEAK of surprise, Carly flipped onto her back and stared up at him.
“Luke, you startled me.”
“Well, imagine my surprise when I went to dampen the concrete around the fence posts and saw you sneak past then fall down and crawl. Were you trying to get a drop on the enemy?”
Sitting up, she tried for some dignity. “We’re not at war. I was just curious. I wanted to see what you’re doing over here since you can’t seem to share any information with me, even though it affects my land, as well.” She started to get to her feet and when he reached down a hand to help her up, she refused it, but the shale and gravel shifted beneath her boots.
“Oh!” She began sliding backward down the slope until her feet went out from beneath her and she toppled onto her back.
Luke made a grab for her but missed, falling as he overcorrected his balance and followed her down on his stomach.
“Umph,” she grunted as she slid to a stop at the bottom of the slope. She stared up at the night sky and tried to get her breath back.
Luke recovered more quickly than she did, crawling over to her as he said, “Carly, are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“I…doh…hon’t think so.” Her breath came in wheezes as Luke helped her up. “How about you?”
“Yeah, I’m okay.” He dusted himself off. “I think I ripped my jeans.”
“How can you tell?” she asked, glancing at the worn denim of his pants as she steadied herself.
He only gave her a steady look she could barely see in the dim light and said, “Now, do you understand why I said for you to stay away?”
Carly gingerly moved her arms and twisted to feel movement in her back, then reached behind her to scoop gravel from her back pockets. “Yeah, I understand, but I’m here now, so why don’t you show me around?” She took out her flashlight to brighten the path.
“I’m not going to give you the grand tour but—”
“Can you at least tell me where the drill itself will be?” she asked, determined that defying his request and sliding down a hill on her back should gain her at least one piece of information tonight.
“Sure.” He pointed toward a rise that was barely on his side of the fence line.
“Of course,” she murmured in dismay. “So I can see the lovely thing from anywhere on my property.”
He didn’t respond to her comment, but instead asked, “Would you like to meet Shelby?”
“The scientist who’s developing this mysterious process? Sure.”
“This way. Watch your step,” he advised. “There’s still a slope here. It can be slippery going down.”
“I’m recently familiar with the properties of shale, thank you,” she answered in a sarcastic tone, but she turned and followed him down the hillside and into the clearing.
“Are you two sharing the motor home?” Carly asked, dusting herself off again, then removing her denim jacket and giving it a good shake. It didn’t seem to be too much the worse for wear.
Luke smiled as he walked up the steps and knocked on the door. “I didn’t think you’d be that interested in my living arrangements.”
“I’m not.”
“I’m staying with Tom and Frances. This is Shelby’s home.”
When the door started to open, Luke stepped aside to reveal a woman standing in the doorway.
“Oh, hi, Luke. I thought you’d left. Come on in.” She stepped back but when she saw Carly, she gave Luke a swift look and said, “Oh, hello.”
“Dr. Shelby Wayne, this is Carly Joslin. She owns Joslin Gardens, right next door.”
“Oh, yes, I’ve seen the signs and your produce stand. In fact, I stopped to buy some squash and tomatoes. Delicious. Um, come in. Sit down.”
Once inside the cozy living quarters, Carly could see that Shelby Wayne was a very pretty woman who appeared to be in her fifties. She had dark eyes and curly brown hair, peppered with gray, which was cut in a short, convenient style. She moved with graceful gestures and her hands were more beautiful and artistic than Carly would have expected a scientist’s to be.
Dr. Wayne offered them something to drink, and when they both refused, an awkward silence followed.
Carly stumbled into speech. “This is a nice place,” she said, looking around at the living room and the minuscule kitchen. “I’ve always been amazed at how the builders can fit everything in.”
“Um, yes.” Shelby gave her a nervous glance and pressed her palms together.
Luke seemed to pick up on this, so he said, “Carly is very curious about what we’re doing here.”
“Well, that’s understandable,” Shelby said cautiously. “Wouldn’t you be? Some aspects of gas extraction don’t have the best reputation.”
Carly relaxed, glad that Shelby seemed to understand.
“However,” Shelby went on, “I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything except that we’ll do our best to limit the impact we have on the local environment.”
Not exactly a guarantee, Carly thought. “But your process will involve chemicals, possibly injected into the ground, right?”
Shelby bit her lip. “I’m sorry. I can’t say. It’s a process I’ve been working on for a while, but at this point, it’s secret. You see, I developed another process a couple of years ago, but it was…stolen, so I don’t share any of my procedures or notes.”
“The agreement I have with Shelby is that I’ll provide the funds, help when I’m needed, but generally stay out from underfoot.”
Carly sighed. Shelby looked as though she really wanted Carly to let this go, and Luke was watching her warily.
While she could understand Shelby’s reluctance, she didn’t like not knowing what was going on. She had spent twelve years making sure she was in control of her life, gardens, finances—everything she could control. She was able to handle the unexpected things that happened, even make them work for her sometimes—the summer’s overwhelming rain had meant she didn’t have to water her gardens, making it possible to replace part of the sprinkler system that had seen so many years of use. This was different, though. She had no control over any part of it—except for her reaction to the situation.
Finally she smiled. “I appreciate your concerns, but if anything happens that I need to know about, any mishap that might affect my gardens, you’ll let me know, right?”
Shelby nodded with relief. “Of course.”
“I’ll drive you home, Carly.”
She said good-night to Shelby and stepped outside. When Luke joined her, she said, “I can find my own way home, Luke.”
She started toward the house, and he stepped in front of her. “Has all of this been worth it? Did you learn anything?”
“You know I didn’t, Luke. It was an exercise in futility.”
He gave her a cold glare. “Then stay out of it.”
“It’s my livelihood, Luke! People are depending on me.”
They were at an impasse, feet stubbornly planted on each side of a dividing line.
She stepped around him to stalk away, but he said, “At least let me walk you home. It’s getting late and it’s the gentlemanly thing to do. Omi would say my manners could use some brushing up.”
“She would be right.”
Because they had to watch where they were walking, they didn’t talk much until they reached Carly’s porch.
“I forgot to leave the porch light on,” Carly said, placing her hand on the familiar railing and mounting the steps.
“You probably didn’t need it for your nighttime reconnaissance mission,” Luke responded in a dry tone.
“Not when I’ve got my trusty flashlight,” she answered, patting her pocket. When she turned around to say good-night, he was taking a seat on the top step.
“Okay if I sit down?” he asked.
“I thought it was past your bedtime.” She sat at the other end of the wide step and turned toward him, resting her back against the post.
“Yeah, but I wanted to tell you I didn’t make specific plans for any of this to happen. Not here and not now. Not right next to you. The corporation owns other properties, but this one is the best bet for Shelby’s process.”
“Oh, why is that?”
“It’s rural, not too many neighbors. A stranger would be noticed if they were trying to spy on her process.”
Carly smiled. “Unless they were as successful at hiding their presence as our produce thief.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“So, her process is that valuable, hmm?”
“I think it can be. All she needs is time to develop it.”
“But she’s only got six months, right?”
“Thanks to my dad’s deadline, that’s right.”
“I’m still confused about how you even got into the natural gas extraction business.”
“By accident,” he answered on a sigh.
“Wendolin told me that after we…broke up, you left Dallas, worked on building projects in South America.”
“That’s true, and I wasn’t management, either. I was a carpenter.”
She smiled into the darkness. “That was always your favorite type of job. How did your father feel about that?”
“Oh, he wasn’t happy, but it suited me for a long time. Then I ended up on an oil field and got interested in the energy business at about the same time Sanderson Enterprises invested a boatload of cash in oil. It seemed to me that there could be more efficient ways of producing energy, more sustainable ways. Nobody wanted to hear that from a carpenter, though, so I came home, went back to university, took some chemistry and environmental science classes along with engineering, and tried to make a few changes in the way my dad does business.”
“How has that worked out for you?”
“You’ve met my dad. What do you think?”
Robert Sanderson wasn’t someone she wanted to spend her mental energy on, especially not this late at night, but she knew the more information she had, the better.
“I think he gave you an ultimatum and not much time to finish what you had to do.”
“Yes. The big changes in the oil industry have had an enormous impact on him and his company. He’s not seeing the kinds of profits he’s seen in the past. No one is, and while some of the smaller producers are sticking with petroleum, he wants to cut his losses. Most of his management people agree with him.”
“So why this project?” she asked, pointing toward the rise of land that would soon be graced with a drilling rig. “Why Shelby’s process?”
“She was a friend of my mom’s. Shelby told me about her stolen process and her passion for developing an extraction method that was more environmentally friendly than some of the current ones.”
Carly glanced out at her darkened fields, wondering how friendly the process would be to her environment, but her thoughts circled back to Robert.
Luke’s father wasn’t opposed to new ideas, as long as he was in complete control, and as long as it made a significant profit. That was what every business owner wanted, her included. Carly frowned at the thought that she was anything like Robert.
“Well, I guess I’ve overstayed my welcome,” Luke said, getting to his feet. “So I’ll say good-night.”
At that moment the yard lights blazed on, the sprinklers came to life and someone released a surprised yelp.
“What in the world?” Carly jumped up and tried to see what was happening.
“There he is! I see him!” a voice yelled from somewhere near the shed. “Come on.”
As Carly and Luke watched, two figures detached themselves from the shadowy doorway of the shed and dashed toward the fields. She immediately recognized Jay but couldn’t see who the other person was, though she didn’t think it was Sheena.
Carly couldn’t see who they were chasing but, alarmed at the purposeful way the two were running, she took off after them with Luke close behind.
They had only run a few yards when the lights went out. Carly stopped suddenly, fumbling for her flashlight, and Luke ran into her.
“Oof,” she grunted, stumbling forward. “Watch where you’re going.”
Luke grabbed her around the waist before she went down. “It’s kind of hard in the dark,” he shot back, steadying her on her feet before letting her go.
As soon as Carly got her flashlight out and switched it on, the yard lights came on again and the sprinklers went off. Jay and the other person took off again, so she and Luke rejoined the chase.
As they dashed up the lane between the fields, she could see Jay stretch out midair in a full-on tackle. He wrapped his arms around the other runner’s legs, and the two of them landed with a crash that brought down two poles of green beans and a tomato cage.
Carly and Luke ran up at the same time as Jay’s companion.
“Owen Forester?” Carly said, recognizing the high schooler who was supposed to be at home updating her Upcycle website. “What are you doing here?”
“He’s helping me,” Jay said, sitting up triumphantly and untangling himself from a slim pole and a thick vine. Leaning over, he grabbed a flailing arm and pulled someone to their feet.
“I got you, you little creep,” he said, then looked up with a huge grin. “Carly, here’s our thief.”
Carly dimmed her flashlight and turned the beam on the person Jay held prisoner. It was a skinny, mop-haired kid with a bean vine over one shoulder and a beefsteak tomato smashed against the side of his head. His thin T-shirt was wet from where the sprinkler had hit him full in the chest. Angry eyes flashed at her as his mouth hardened into a stiff line.
“Why, he’s just a boy,” she said. “Who are you?”
When he didn’t answer, she looked from Jay to Owen. “Do you guys know who this is?”
“Never seen him before,” Owen answered.
Jay shook his head, too. When the boy’s shoulders slumped, Jay seemed to take pity on him and released his tight hold.
Seeing his chance, the boy started to take off, but Luke hooked an arm around his waist and said, “Hold on, son. Nobody’s going to hurt you.”
The boy jerked out of his grasp and stood with his head down. When Carly saw his shoulders shake, followed by a wipe of his eyes with the back of his hand, her heart clenched with sympathy.
“Wait,” Luke said after a second. He took off his denim jacket and placed it around the boy’s shoulders. “I know you. Dustin, right? I gave you and your bike and your boxes a ride into town one time, remember? I’m Luke Sanderson.”
Dustin nodded but still didn’t answer.
“What’s your last name? Where do you live?” Luke continued. “I asked my aunt to check on you, but she couldn’t find out anything.”
“And why are you stealing from Carly?” Jay asked, obviously reluctant to let go of what he considered to be the real issue here. “Talk or we’re calling the sheriff.”
“Jay,” Carly said in her warning tone.
“Well, he’s been stealing.” Jay picked up a gunny sack. Reaching inside, he pulled out a handful of green beans. “See?”
“Maybe he’s hungry,” Luke pointed out, repeating what he’d said earlier.
Jay snorted in disbelief, but Carly laid a gentle hand on Dustin’s shoulder and felt too prominent bones beneath her palm. He was almost certainly hungry. “Tell us your name. We promise we won’t be calling the sheriff. We want to help you.”
He shook his shoulder and Carly took the hint, lifting her hand away from him.
“It’s Salyer.” Dustin spoke so low, they could barely hear him.
“Salyer. You’re Era’s grandson,” Carly said, bending close. She resisted the urge to push back his hair and pluck the squashed tomato out of it. He didn’t seem to appreciate being touched. “I haven’t seen you since you were a baby. I didn’t even know you were visiting her.”
“Nobody does.” The tone of his voice was flat and dull. Hopeless.
“How long have you been with her? I haven’t seen you around.”
“Awhile,” he muttered.
“I’m Carly Joslin. This is my property. I’m a friend of Mrs. Salyer’s. I’ve known her all of my life and I know there’s no way she would condone you coming over here and taking things. Does she know where you are?”
“No. She’s asleep. She sleeps a lot.”
A wave of shame swept over Carly at the way she’d neglected her neighbor all summer. “Is she sick?”
He nodded. “I think so. I been taking her vegetables and apples, but she’s no better.”
“We need to go see about her.”
“I’ll come with you,” Luke said immediately. He reached for his cell phone. “And I’ll call 9-1-1.”
“No. I’ll call Gemma and Nathan.”
When he gave Carly a puzzled look, she said, “Gemma’s a nurse, remember? And her husband is the doctor who’s reopening the hospital, though that won’t be for a week or two. Whatever is wrong with Era, it’s probably better for them to start treatment now and then call the paramedics.”
“Oh, right.”
Carly quickly called Gemma, waking both her and her husband, but they said they would be at Era’s house as fast as possible.
As the group started walking back toward her house, Carly saw Jay look over at Owen and grin.
“You run pretty good for a geek,” he said.
“For a jock, your computer skills aren’t too bad,” Owen responded. “But we need to find out why the lights went off and came back on. That wasn’t supposed to be in the setup.”
“In the trap, you mean.”
The two boys laughed, obviously proud of themselves for having caught Dustin.
Carly wasn’t quite as thrilled about it as they were. Although she admitted, to her shame, that she had told him to catch the thief. But she hadn’t suspected the miscreant was an underfed kid.
“What did you guys do?” she asked.
“Owen helped me set up a motion detector on the lights and the sprinklers. I knew we could catch this guy if he got hit by the lights and the sprinklers at the same time.”
“Jay, he’s a kid,” Luke put in before Carly could speak.
“Well, yeah, but I didn’t know that, did I?” Jay’s voice had turned sullen.
“And I told you no traps,” Carly said. Her pride in Jay’s initiative was quickly turning sour.
“He didn’t get hurt!”
“Where did you get a motion detector?” Carly asked.
“I took it off my dad’s machine shop,” Owen volunteered. “It switches on the lights when something moves. My mom hates it ’cause the lights flash whenever a stray cat walks by. She won’t care if it’s gone.”
“But your dad might. He’s got it on his shop for a reason. You undo and unwire everything you rigged up and get the motion detector back where it belongs,” Luke said. “Do your parents know where you are?”
“Sure.” Owen looked insulted. “I told them I was helping Jay with a project.”
“Awesome project,” Jay said, obviously still buzzed about its success.
Carly knew it was going to take a lot more talking for Jay to understand the harm that might have come from his scheme. She decided to tackle it later.
“After you replace the motion detector, both of you go home and go to bed. As far as I know, you’ve still got school tomorrow,” she said.
“Sheesh,” Jay grumbled. “You’d think some people would show a little appreciation around here.”
The two teenagers hurried away, talking excitedly.
While Luke and Dustin climbed into her truck, Carly ran inside to get the keys. When she slid in behind the wheel, she and Luke looked at each other over the head of the wet, bedraggled boy between them. Luke gave her an encouraging smile and a shrug.
Within a few minutes they were pulling up in front of Era’s house, which was completely dark.
“Dustin, is the house locked?”
“Yeah. I don’t want nobody going in and bothering my grandma. I use the window.”
When neither adult moved right away, he sighed. “I ain’t gonna run away. You’d just call the sheriff to come find me. And he’d put me in jail. Maybe put Grandma in jail.”
“No one’s going to jail,” Luke assured him as he stepped out of the truck. “Go on in and open the front door for us.”
Dustin hurried around the side of the house and, within a couple of minutes, lights flicked on and the front door opened.
Inside, Carly was shocked at the messy state of the house. She had been in here many times and had never seen it like this.
“Where is your grandmother?” Luke asked.
“Her room is this way,” Carly answered, heading down the hallway and flicking on lights as she went.
In Era’s room, she switched on the bedside lamp, which caused the older lady to groan. She turned her face away, but Carly bent over her and gently took her hand, which was hot to the touch. Alarmed, she felt Era’s face.
“She’s burning up with fever,” she said over her shoulder. “I was wrong, Luke. Better call the paramedics right away. I know that’s what Nathan would recommend.”
With a nod, he hurried from the room.
Carly rushed to the bathroom, where she dampened a washcloth and brought it back to bathe Era’s face. Seeing a water glass with a straw on the nightstand, she placed the straw between Era’s lips and tried to get her to drink. The older lady took a couple of sips, but struggled to open her eyes as she murmured, “Don’t go outside. Don’t let them see you.”
Carly thought she might be delirious. Talking softly, she assured her friend that everything would be okay, but she received no response. Pulling up a chair, she held Era’s hand.
“I tried to take care of her,” Dustin said from where he stood in the corner of the room.
Startled, Carly looked around. In her concern for Era, she’d forgotten about him. She tried to give him a reassuring smile.
“I’m sure you did. How long has she been like this?”
“Just today. She cut her arm a couple of days ago, but yesterday, she could get up and go to the bathroom and stuff.”
“Cut her arm?” Carly lifted Era’s right arm, and then her left, where she saw a long red cut on the inside of her upper arm.
“I put a bandage on it, but it fell off.”
“Do you know how she cut it?”
Dustin looked at her suspiciously for a few seconds, as if trying to figure out if she was accusing him of something. Finally he said, “She went down to the road to get the mail. When she was coming back, she got dizzy or something and fell. I think she tried to grab the gate, but something sharp cut her. I helped her get in the house and then I put a bandage on the cut.”
“When you saw how sick she was, why didn’t you call for help? Call 9-1-1?”
“She told me not to, said they’d put her in jail.”
“Who did she think would put her in jail?”
Dustin hitched up one shoulder in a shrug. “The sheriff, I guess.”
Which explained his fear of the sheriff, Carly thought, but not why Era had feared arrest.
“Don’t worry,” she said, giving him an encouraging smile. “No one is going to call the sheriff. We just want to make sure your grandma is okay.”
The boy’s dark eyes searched her face, as if he wanted to believe her, but before he responded they heard voices in the living room and then Gemma and Nathan hurried into the room.
Relieved that the professionals had arrived, Carly told them what she knew, showed them the inside of Era’s arm and then ushered Dustin from the room. “Come on, Dustin,” she said. “They’ll take care of her. We’ll wait out here.”
In the living room, he sat in an armchair and gazed anxiously toward the hallway, waiting for news. Carly, full of nervous energy, began straightening the room and carrying dirty dishes to the kitchen, where she found Luke filling the sink with soapy water and rolling up his sleeves.
When she gave a small, surprised laugh, he glanced around. “I’m not good at waiting. Thought maybe I could help.”
“I’m sure Era would appreciate it.”
She told him about Era’s cut and he said, “There’s no food in the place except for a dozen melons in the refrigerator. So, Jay was right.”
“Yes.” She looked back toward the living room, where Dustin appeared to have fallen asleep. “What was he going to do with a dozen melons?”
“No idea, but that may have been all he and his grandmother had to eat.” He nodded toward the back door. “And there must be a hundred empty canning jars out there.”
Guiltily, she nodded and turned away as she tried to recall the last time she had brought food over, or had one of her employees drop some off. It had been a couple of weeks. But why hadn’t Era called her? Asked for help?
She stepped out the back door and looked at the rows of clean, empty canning jars and felt even guiltier. Era had canned her fruits and vegetables for years. Since she hadn’t raised a garden this year, she and Dustin had eaten up her stock. Their diet had been supplemented by what Dustin had taken from Joslin Gardens.
Something strange was going on here, and she had no idea what it was. She thought back to the early summer day when Sheena had told her there was something wrong with Era, but Era hadn’t seemed to want help, or company. Was that when all of this, whatever it was, had started?
Era was only seventy, hardly in her dotage, but was it possible she had early-onset dementia?
Her troubled thoughts were interrupted by Gemma, who came in to say, “Era’s seriously ill. That cut has turned septic.”
Luke dried his hands on a kitchen towel, which he tossed over his shoulder as he came to stand beside Carly. “And that means blood poisoning, right?”
Gemma’s astounded gaze went from him to the sink full of soapy water and back.
“Yes. I’ve called the paramedics again. They’re still ten minutes out, and this place might be hard to find in the dark.”
Luke held out his hand. “Carly, have you still got your flashlight? I’ll go out onto the highway and flag them down.”
She handed it over and he hurried outside.
Gemma stared after him. “Well, of all the people I ever expected to see standing in Era Salyer’s kitchen washing dishes, Luke Sanderson would have been the last one on the list. I’m dying to know what’s going on, but right now we have a patient. Don’t think I won’t bring this up again.”
“I know you will,” Carly said with a smile.
Gemma hurried out, muttering, “Five days. Only five more days and we’ll have the hospital open.”
Carly checked on Dustin, who was sound asleep. Now that he was still, and she could get a good look at him, she saw that he looked like his father—Era’s son, Joseph—who had died a few years ago in an oil field accident. But where was the boy’s mother? And how old was Dustin now? She tried to think back, to recall when Dustin had been born, when Era had proudly showed her pictures of him.
The memory came back with a pang. It had been a few months after she’d miscarried her own son, after she and Luke had broken up.
Carly swallowed the lump in her throat as she recalled Era’s excitement. She had chattered on and on about the baby, blissfully unaware of Carly’s pain. After all these years, the memory still hurt even though she knew Era had meant no harm.
Glancing around the living room, Carly saw the same photograph of a dark-eyed, chubby baby boy.
He was twelve. Dustin was the same age as Carly’s own son would have been. She picked up one of Era’s many crocheted throws and spread it over him, noting again how skinny and generally unkempt he was. He and his grandmother had struggled to take care of themselves, but she didn’t understand why they had thought it was necessary to go it alone.