No Way Out - Fern Michaels Page 0,64
have a son who’s a freshman in college.” It was his turn to clear his throat. “My wife and I—I should say my ex-wife and I—divorced when he was thirteen. But we were civil and made sure we did whatever was necessary to make sure Drew had a normal upbringing. As normal as you can, with divorced parents.”
“I could probably use some tips in that field.” Colleen was relieved to hear that the man wasn’t married. Or had he remarried? “So you’ve been divorced five years?”
“Give or take. It was my job as a cop that got to her. She didn’t like it if I was called away to a scene when I was supposed to be off duty.”
“That can be tough.”
“Well, it isn’t like Hibbing is the crime capital of Missouri,” he said, chuckling.
“True.”
“I think she just used it as an excuse. We got married straight out of high school. Right after I graduated from the academy, we had Drew. I think that after she turned thirty, she felt like she had missed something in her life and started to get restless. I don’t know. But enough about me.”
“Oh, that’s all right. We seem to have something in common.”
“What’s that?”
“Divorce,” Colleen sputtered. She had made up her mind. It was time to cut Mitchel loose. Or maybe herself.
“You’re planning on filing?”
“Yes. As soon as the hearing is over. I don’t want too many legal messes happening at the same time.”
“Good thinkin’,” Pedone said.
“I’d better get going and make sure Jackson is ready for school.”
“You betcha. See you around four. Enjoy your day, Colleen.” There, he said it. Her first name.
Colleen was all atwitter. She almost felt foolish. Was this normal behavior? Does every woman fall for the man who she thinks saved her? She shrugged, then smiled. At the moment, it didn’t matter. She felt safe, and she was moving forward.
“Jackson? Ready?”
“Yes, Mom.” Jackson came running out of his room. “Is it OK if I go to Ms. Bowman’s after I finish my homework?”
“Are you sure you’re not making a pest of yourself?” Colleen squatted down and looked him in the eye.
“Gee, I dunno, Mom. She was really nice yesterday.”
Colleen looked at him curiously. “You spoke to her?”
“Through the box.” Jackson was pulling on his backpack. “I showed her my arrowhead.”
“How did you do that?”
“What?”
“Show her your arrowhead?” Colleen’s curiosity was peaked.
“I held it up in the air.” Jackson thought nothing of it.
“OK. So you didn’t go in the house?”
“No, Mom.”
“And she didn’t come outside?”
“Nope.” Jackson checked his shoelaces. Tied. Double knots.
“What else did she say?”
“She said she was getting worried ’cause I was late. That’s when I showed her my good-luck charm.”
“Oh. OK.” Colleen realized that nothing Jackson had said differed from every other experience, even though she was secretly hoping for some kind of breakthrough.
“But she was cooking some kind of fried chicken when I was leaving. I told her it smelled real good.”
“So she was in the kitchen when you were there?”
“Yup.”
“And you could see her?”
“Yup,” Jackson repeated. “But I didn’t get a real good look.”
“Well, all righty! Let’s get moving. You remember that Frank is going to walk you home today, and he’ll sit with you while you do your homework. Then you can go play with Buddy.”
“Yippee!” Jackson put on his baseball cap and stomped out the door.
As the two of them headed toward school, Colleen noticed again that Mitchel’s car was not lurking on the side of the road. On the one hand, that made her feel better, but on the other, she wondered if Mitchel had some nefarious plan up his sleeve. She shrugged off her concern. For the moment.
* * *
At the end of the school day, Frank greeted Jackson outside the front entrance to the school. “Hey, Mr. Chadwick!” Jackson waved to his friends. “See ya tomorrow!”
“Hey, Jackson!” Frank put his hand on Jackson’s shoulder. “How was school today?”
“Oh, pretty much the same as yesterday, except Kevin brought a frog into class and it got out of its box. It was hopping all over the place. Some of the girls were screaming.” Jackson was laughing as he described the scene.
“Did someone finally catch it?”
“Yeah. Kevin put the box over him, but then he couldn’t figure out how to turn the box over without the frog getting out.”
“So then what happened?”
“Mrs. Massa called the custodian. He came with a net and threw it over the box. It was hard to see because he was bent over. But when he stood up,