Part 9 (2/2)

In the end, Gwen came in to get her, helped her wipe her tearstained face and repair her makeup. Apparently Brian had made up some story of a misunderstanding and Gwen did her best to pretend she believed it. But Elizabeth knew the truth. Brian had been cheating all along, just as she had suspected. Their marriage was over.

And the image of her husband s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g Lisa Doyle in the backseat of their car was forever burned into her brain.

The afternoon slid away. Zach returned to the hospital to spend a bit more time with his father, who seemed to be a little more lucid than usual. Zach pushed his wheelchair out onto the covered patio and they sat in the shade, absorbing the heat and listening to the water splas.h.i.+ng in the fountain. Zach got him talking about the old days on the farm, the older man smiling with pleasure at the distant memories that only occasionally returned.

He talked until he grew sleepy, then the nurse came out, chided Zach for tiring him and pushed the wheelchair back inside the building.

Zach thought it was probably good for his father and didn't regret the hours they had shared, something that had never happened when he was a boy.

As he left the rest home, the sun was setting behind the low range of hills to the west, casting the sky into deep shades of pink, orange and blue. The long day was nearly over. Driving down the highway, he thought of his disastrous lunch with Liz earlier that day.

Zach swore softly. If he had ever felt like getting drunk, tonight was the night. He wouldn't, of course. He'd been down that ugly road and he never intended to go there again.

He shouldn't have done it, shouldn't have pressed Liz for a date when he was still seeing Lisa. He wasn't sure why he had. h.e.l.l, he hadn't really believed she would accept. And for chrissake, it was only lunch!

He had always admired her honesty. He should have been honest with her. d.a.m.n!

Zach took a deep, steadying breath. From the start, there had been some kind of spark between them. Liz might not want to admit it, but it was there just the same. He had seen it in her pretty blue eyes whenever she looked at himthough she did her best to ignore it. And he had screwed it up.

He could still remember how pale she had gone when Carson had said Lisa's name, the son of a b.i.t.c.h. There was something going on there, Zach figured, something between Elizabeth and Lisa that Carson knew about and Zach didn't.

It didn't matter, he told himself. It was just a lunch date, probably wouldn't have gone any further anyway.

Still, he was done seeing Lisa. Whatever attraction he had felt for her had been fading for some time. He hadn't wanted to sleep with her last week, couldn't wait to leave the following morning and had gotten a room at the Holiday Inn instead of going back that night.

He'd talk to her tomorrow, tell her their arrangement was over. He didn't figure she'd be too upset. She had a string of admirers a block long waiting in the wings. Zach knew she saw some of them when he wasn't around, just as he dated whomever he wanted in L.A.

Nothing serious. Just women he met and enjoyed. They knew where he was coming from. Just like Lisa. For as far back as he could remember, Zach had always been a loner. h.e.l.l, his nickname in high school had been the Lone Wolf.

He didn't like people getting too close, didn't like letting his guard down enough to let them. If he did, something always seemed to go wrong. Better to keep his distance, play it safe. With Lisa that had been easy.

With Liz, he didn't think it would be.

h.e.l.l, maybe it was good things had turned out the way they had. Better for everyone all around.

At least that was what he told himself as he steered his Jeep along the highway that evening, slowing as he reached the gate to Teen Vision, meaning to have supper with the counselors and the boys.

He did that sometimes. Though visiting hours and phone calls were strictly limited, as the organization's founder he had special privileges. It gave him a chance to talk to the kids, try to encourage them.

He parked in the dirt lot, got out and closed the door, then pressed the lock b.u.t.ton on his key fob and headed across the parking lot.

Sam Marston met him before he reached the dining hall.

”Zach! I'm glad you're here.”

”What's up?”

”It's the Perez boy. He's skipped. If he's not back in a couple of hours, I'll have to turn him in.”

Raul was out of juvenile detention but still under strict rules of supervision and those did not include leaving the premises without special permission.

”What happened?”

”According to his friend, Pete Ortega, he made his usual Friday night call to his sister then headed back up to his room. Pete said he seemed upset about something and a little while later, he turned up missing.”

”Keep your cell phone handy. I'll call you if I find him.” Zach went back to his Jeep and cranked up the engine. A few minutes later, he was rolling along the highway toward the section of Harcourt Farms that contained the workers' cottages, the overseers' houses and the main farmhouse.

Zach had a very strong hunch Raul had gone to see his sister.

Ten.

Elizabeth pulled into the driveway of the Santiago home and parked next to the single car garage. As soon as she cracked open the car door, she was. .h.i.t by a wave of evening heat. The town was furnace-hot this time of year, the ground as hard as pavement except for the irrigated agricultural land that provided most of the jobs in the area.

She glanced at her surroundings, at the perfectly s.p.a.ced walnut trees in the orchard behind this section of the farm, the endless rows of cotton stretching for miles along the road. The heat worked miracles on produce, but it was h.e.l.l on the people forced to endure it five months out of the year.

Ignoring the perspiration beginning to dampen the back of her neck, she started toward the narrow cement walkway leading to the small, yellow stucco house.

Maria had called her at home, which she had never done before. Elizabeth was careful of the people she gave her home number to, but in the two years she had been working with Raul, somehow Maria and her brother had become people she particularly cared about, and she was determined to help them.

She thought of the young woman's frantic phone call.

”I am sorry to bother you at home,” Maria had said, an edge of panic in her voice, ”but I did not know what else to do.”

”It's all right, Maria. What is it? What's happened?”

”It is Raul. He called me as he usually does on Friday and I mentioned that Miguel was going to be working all night. He asked me if I was afraid to stay alone and I told him I was. I wish I had lied, but he would have known if I did. He said he was coming over to stay with me until Miguel got home. I tried to talk him out of it, but he would not listen. He is on his way here now.”

Elizabeth sighed into the receiver. Leaving the youth farm would have dire consequences for Raul. ”Once he gets there, just keep him there. I'll be over as quickly as I can.”

Elizabeth hung up the phone, grabbed her purse and car keys, and headed out the door. If Raul was caught AWOL from Teen Vision, he'd be sent back to juvenile hall. Neither Maria nor Elizabeth wanted that to happen.

She was out of the car and walking up the sidewalk when a dark brown Jeep Cherokee pulled up next to her car. Her mouth thinned as Zachary Harcourt got out and closed the driver-side door. Annoyance warred with a funny little tug in the pit of her stomach.

He caught up with her at the bottom of the front porch steps. ”I gather we're both here for the same reason.”

”I suppose so. Raul?”

He nodded.

”I'm not sure he's here yet. I take it he's not at the farm.”

”He was earlier. Turned up missing just after supper.”

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