She didn’t want anyone but her Master.
At class she would simply tell him she wouldn’t feel comfortable making plans with him. He would either understand or not.
Besides, Steve was teaching the class. She could easily make herself unavailable.
A hope filled her that she had begun to think wasn’t possible. The light at the end of the tunnel was no longer an oncoming train.
It was conceivable she’d make it through this okay.
She took her time getting ready. By the time she reached the shop, Steve and the class were already on the boat and gone.
Sarah laughed. “Boy, there was one guy who seemed disappointed you weren’t teaching the class.”
Laura froze. “What do you mean?”
“What’s his name, Don? He asked for you specifically. I guess he thought you were teaching.”
A chill settled over her, wiping out the morning’s progress with her mood. “If he doesn’t like it, that’s tough. I never told him I was going to be the instructor.”
“Hey, don’t get upset. He just seems to have a thing for you is all. He’s not the first and won’t be the last, you know that. Sometimes we get people like that. They get their card, they go out a couple of times on the boat, and once they realize diving’s not Sea Hunt and that you don’t have the slightest bit of interest in them other than making sure they don’t die on their check-out dive, they quit being creepy.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” One of the things she remembered was Sarah was someone she could always talk to and confide in without worrying about it getting around. “Listen, I’ve got to talk to someone.”
“STS?”
“Huh?”
Sarah laughed. “Sworn to secrecy stuff?”
“Yeah, something like that.” She recounted Don Kern’s initial visit to the store, the call, and her lunch with him. She also mentioned recovering a lot of her memories about Rob, while leaving out the BDSM aspect.
When she finished telling it, Sarah let out a breath.
“Well, that makes it a little different.” She looked at Laura. “Why the hell did you go to lunch with him and not tell anyone?”
Laura shook her head. “I don’t know. I wish I hadn’t now. I just had this…feeling.”
“Were you attracted to him?”
“Not like that.”
Sarah chewed on her lip. “He might really be bent out of shape then.”
“I laid it all out for him at lunch. And I never promised him dinner. I said we’d talk after class, that’s all.”
“Yeah, but the difference in what you said and what he heard could be the equivalent between English and Swahili for all you know.” She thought about it for a moment. “Do you want to blow and let me handle him for you?”
“Is that something I would have done?”
Before?
The word was implied but ever-present.
“No, you would have told him to go take a flying jump off a really short pier.” She smiled. “Or you would have introduced him to Rob, who would have assisted him off the pier himself. You also probably wouldn’t have gone out to lunch alone with the guy, either.”
“Is Rob jealous?”
“Oh no, that’s not what I meant at all. Rob’s always very secure with you. You’re joined at the heart, not the hip. He’s just…you own his heart. If you asked him to bring you the moon on a string he would hijack the space shuttle without a second thought.”
That made her feel worse, not better. Guilty guilty guilty. “Why don’t you just tell Mr. Kern that my fiancé came and picked me up?” Laura grabbed her purse and some paperwork and headed for the door. “And don’t give him my home or cell number.”
“Duh and a half. Besides, you’re unlisted.”
It surprised her that Sarah knew. “What?”
“Well, yeah. Everyone here knows that. It’s SOP. No one gives out your home number or your private cell. Something about a creep a few years ago wouldn’t quit calling you.”
Frozen in her tracks, she forced herself to turn completely to face Sarah. “What?”
Sarah saw the look on her face. “What’s wrong?”
“Why did you say I got an unlisted number?”
Sarah realized Laura didn’t know this. “Years ago, before you met Rob and when you were still living with your parents. You dated some guy in college, but then later, you dated him again for a little while. When you broke up with him the second time, he didn’t want to take no for an answer at first. Your dad got the house number changed and had it unlisted. When you moved to your condo you kept your number unlisted. Rob and everyone who works here know that.”
She hadn’t read anything about the second relationship with the guy in the journals. Then again, there was still a lot she hadn’t read through yet, in both the older handwritten journals and the newer computerized ones. “Are you sure they knew? I mean about why it was unlisted?”
She thought back. “I’m pretty sure.”
“Do you remember the guy’s name?”
She shook her head. “No, not offhand. Steve might. He threw the guy out of the shop one day when your dad wasn’t here and the guy wouldn’t leave. That was before I worked here.” She frowned. “You’re not thinking Don Kern is that guy, are you?”
Laura considered it. “No, I guess not. If Steve threw the guy out, I’m sure he’d remember him.”
On the way home she checked her mirror every few seconds. Any car that pulled out behind her she watched like a hawk, and almost rear-ended someone when she took her eyes off the road for too long. When she walked in the door she called Det. Thomas and left a message asking him to call her. She double-checked her locks, set the alarm, and called Rob. When she got his voice mail, she left him a message to call her.
Who made the hang-up call after she got home from the hospital? They assumed it was the attacker. Was it? If the number had been changed, that meant it would rule out the old boyfriend, right? Or was her attacker someone close to her who she gave her phone number to? Or was it just a coincidence?
Her cell phone rang ten minutes later when Thomas returned her call.
“Listen, this might not be anything. I just found this out today and thought I should tell you.” She related the conversation with Sarah and her thoughts on the situation.
“You’re talking about”—she heard papers rustling—“Kevin Baldwin. Psych professor at USF in Tampa. Steve and Carol already told me about him and we checked him out. He was in front of a class of fifty people that ended at eight o’clock that night, and went with a group of other professors and students to a local bar after. His wife swears he was home by twelve, the friends say he didn’t leave until after eleven, and his credit card receipt for the bar tab was date stamped 11:20 p.m. There’s no way he could be your attacker. Tampa’s a good two-hour one-way trip. Plus he was uninjured. I saw this guy myself. Unless he killed you first, there’s no way he could have hurt you the way the attacker did. This guy’s maybe one-fifty soaking wet, about five ten. He’s a beanpole. If he turned sideways, he’d disappear.”
“Okay, I get the message.” She sighed. “I’m sorry I bothered you.”
“No, listen, anything you think of, and I mean anything, call me. It might not be important, but then again it could turn out to be the one thing we need to break the case.”
“No new leads yet?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Okay then. Thanks for your time.” She ended the call feeling disappointed and somewhat relieved.
A smile crept across her face as she stared at her engagement ring, finally back where it belonged on her left hand.
If nothing else, at least she had her priorities straight and had Rob back where he belonged in her life.