Moonlight Masquerade Read online

  Reede held her and he felt her fall asleep, but he was wide awake. His mind was too full of all that was going on in his life for him to be able to sleep soundly.

  Sophie had turned his world upside down. A week ago all he could think about was how many days before he could get out of Edilean forever. He complained about Betsy’s x’d calendar, how she counted the days until Tristan returned, but the truth was that Reede checked that calendar a dozen times a day. He too counted the days. How long was it before he could leave and go back . . . Back to what? To flying from one town to another, from one danger to the next?

  There were times when he’d been so lonely, when he’d missed home so much that he’d wanted to leave right then.

  He kissed Sophie’s forehead, and she snuggled closer to him. She made him feel needed. She made him feel as though he had a purpose in life, a place to go. She made him feel that he belonged.

  When Sophie turned over in his arms, he slipped out of bed, opened Kim’s bedside table drawer, and withdrew a flashlight. He hadn’t told Sophie it was there.

  Reede made his way into the living room and removed the torn envelope from the desk drawer. It didn’t take him long to dress and slip out the front door. He needed food and he needed someone to talk to.

  Twelve

  Reede raised his hand to tap on the window of the diner, but Al saw him and unlocked the door. Many times Reede had been out all night with a patient and had stopped at Al’s for breakfast. The diner wasn’t open yet, but Al would fry a couple of eggs and toast bread. Reede would sit at the bar and eat and they’d talk while Al made coleslaw for the day.

  “What are you lookin’ so glum about?” Al asked as he poured Reede’s coffee. “Everybody in town knows you spent the night with that little doll Sophie. After they turned out their lights, that is.”

  When Reede looked up with a doleful expression, Al chuckled. “Let me see if I get this right. You’re in love with her but she thinks you’re somebody else and when she finds out the truth that you, from what I heard, nearly killed her, she’s gonna hate you.”

  “I think ‘love’ is a little strong. I only met her a few days ago,” Reede said.

  “And you two haven’t been apart since she came to town. So what mask are you wearin’ today?”

  “I was thinking of a motorcycle helmet. I’d say the clasp was broken and that I can’t get it off.” Reede looked at Al as though asking his opinion.

  “Ever think of manning up and showing her your naked face and taking the consequences?”

  “No,” Reede said honestly.

  Al shook his head. “I’ll give it to you that you two have done a lot in the time you’ve had. Last night I heard that somebody tried to blow up the whole town. That true?”

  “More or less.”

  “And that your girlfriend stopped it?”

  “She was the one who identified the thief. Peter Osmond.”

  “That insurance guy?”

  “He’s an actuary, but yeah, that’s him. He’s in custody now.”

  Al put a plate of eggs, bacon, ham, and heavily buttered toast in front of Reede. It was all swimming in grease. Not good for you, but the taste was divine.

  “I hear you rode down the streets on one of the McTern horses. Had on those girly boots, like in that movie Pretty Woman.”

  “Not exactly, but close enough,” Reede said.

  “And you and that girl walked across the roof of the old Haynes house.”

  “It was inside and on a beam, not the roof, and who told you all this?”

  “Who hasn’t told me? Those three women you boss around come in here all the time and they don’t talk of anything but you. They say you’re not like—”

  “Don’t say it!” Reede half shouted. “I’m not Tristan. Model beautiful, loved by everyone, always patient Tristan. He’s so good I don’t know why he hasn’t been taken directly up to heaven.”

  Al was unperturbed by Reede’s anger. “Same reason the devil ain’t reachin’ up to grab you!”

  Reede filled his mouth and calmed down. “So what am I going to do about Sophie?”

  “Nothing,” Al said. “Nothing you can do. You nearly killed the poor girl. I heard she had to jump into some trees just to keep from being run down by you. You examine her bruised places?”

  “No, I didn’t examine—” Reede stopped because he knew Al was trying to make him angry. “I like her. I like her a lot. I’ve not liked a woman this much since—”

  “Don’t dive into that pool of self-pity again!” Al said as he put a couple of quarts of mayonnaise on the cabbage he’d chopped. That mayonnaise was one of the highest calorie foods known didn’t bother him at all—and he had the giant stomach to prove it. “That Chawnley girl did you a favor by dumping you.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Reede said as he put even more butter on the already saturated toast. “If I’d married her and I met Sophie now, it would be even worse.”

  Al started to say that if Reede were happily married he might not be so interested in another woman, even one as pretty as Sophie. But he didn’t say that. Instead, he took pity on the young man. “How bad is it for you?”

  When Reede looked up at Al, all he felt was in his eyes.

  Al gave a low whistle. “All of you oldies seem to fall so hard for a woman that it eats you up. I’m glad my family is a Newcomer.” Al’s ancestors had settled in Edilean in the 1880s. “You need to make a plan. Hey! I know what you should do.”

  Reede looked up with eyes of hope.

  “Get a mask tattooed on your face. It’ll hide your identity forever.”

  At first Reede frowned, but then he gave a low laugh. “I guess I deserved that. I know I’m going to have to come clean eventually and take the consequences.”

  “That would have worked at first but now you’ve lied to her for days. My guess is that when she learns how you’ve humiliated her in front of the whole town she’s gonna be pretty damned mad. If she’s anything like my wife she’ll wait until night and set your bed on fire—with you in it.”

  “You are a real joy,” Reede said. “I’m so glad I came to you for advice.”

  “You came here for my gourmet cuisine,” Al said without so much as a hint of a smile. “The advice is free.”

  Reede had finished his food, but he still sat there on the stool. “You know of a house I can rent for Sophie?”

  “Don’t your rich relatives own most of this town?”

  “Yeah, but I’m looking for something special. It has to have a place where she can do her sculpture. She makes things in clay.”

  Al stood there blinking at Reede for a moment. “You mean like an art studio?”

  “Exactly like one.”

  “Old man Gains’s wife used to do crafts and he built her a little place out in back of their house. Between you and me I think she was more interested in getting away from him than in twisting all those weeds around wires. But then the tourists seemed to like them.”

  “Barry Gains? Isn’t he—?”

  “In a home in Richmond now. After his wife passed there was no one to take care of him and his Alzheimer’s was bad.”

  “So what happened to the house?”

  “It was rented out until six months ago, but that guy moved. It’s empty now, and the realty company is supposed to be looking after it but they don’t. You wanta get it for your Sophie? Like the pumpkin eater?”

  “What does that mean?” Reede asked.

  “Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater, had a wife but couldn’t keep her; put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept her very well,” Al quoted.

  “You know, don’t you,” Reede said, “that all those old rhymes are based on truth. Some man probably locked up his philandering wife and some smart-ass made a rhyme about it.”

  Al didn’t blink. “You want the house so your would-be wife doesn’t take to philandering? Keep her busy making mud pies?”

  Reede started to defend himself but changed his mind. “I want to keep