Not My Solution Read online

  He laughed with her. “Yes Gina, just like that. I think you will be good.”

  “Well, I can’t start this morning. I promised my daughter’s first grade teacher I’d help her this morning.”

  “That’s okay. I guess I should have told you the hours I need first. I’m sorry but I have a lot of clients who drop in after work between five and six. Can you work from two to six?”

  “Every day?”

  “Yes. Well, Monday through Friday.”

  “Sure. I can be back at two then if that’s what you want.”

  “Great. I’ll see you then.”

  Roger stood as Gina left the office. He followed her out to the outer door to lock it after her. But she turned to him.

  “Will this door be unlocked when I’m here?”

  He was again impressed with her observation.

  “Yes, it will. I leave it locked the rest of the time because I don’t want anyone walking in on me without me knowing it.”

  With that, she nodded and left.

  Roger went back to his desk with a smile on his face. That had sure been easy. He had expected to interview at least three or four before he found one he could work with. But Gina seemed to be perfect. He only hoped she would be as good as he thought she would be.

  He spent the rest of the morning working on several cases he had going and was surprised when Gina knocked on the door again at ten minutes before two. The time had certainly gone quickly.

  He brought her in and helped her get situated at her desk and explained the phone system to her.

  “Okay, you think you’ll be okay for an hour or so? I seem to have worked through lunch and I’m starving now.”

  She giggled. “Will that be one of my new duties? To remind you of things like that?”

  He laughed. “Yes, it certainly will. When I’m working, I tend to shut out everything else, especially the time.”

  With that, Roger left for the coffee shop which was closed when he got there but Jo saw him out on the sidewalk and rushed to open the door for him.

  “I’m sorry Jo. I forgot you close at two. I can go somewhere else.”

  She shook her head and pulled him in through the door. “Don’t worry about it. This is the time where we just sit and relax and eat a snack. I’m afraid the grill is already turned off, but I can fix you a cold sandwich or a salad.”

  She led the way back to the kitchen as she talked. Sue Ann called out to him from a table with four chairs at it.

  “Come on over here Roger. There’s plenty of room.”

  Jo stopped next to the table. “What would you like to eat?”

  He smiled at his little cousin and her big round belly. “Would it be too much trouble to make a club sandwich?”

  “Coming right up.”

  She left to fix the sandwich and when Roger looked up at Sue Ann, he knew he was in for something, so he braced himself.

  “Roger. Yesterday was the first time I was ever around Nicole Fuller.”

  She paused and glanced over to where Jo was making his sandwich. When she turned back to look at him, she had a grin on her face, and he knew he was in trouble now.

  “I also watched how the two of you were always watching the other one when you didn’t think they could see you.”

  He started to deny it but remembered it was Sue Ann he was talking to. “Yeah, I guess. It’s just that I really admire that woman for all she’s accomplished. You’d hardly notice she’s deaf. As long as she can see your lips, she knows what you’re saying.”

  Sue Ann said nothing but the big smile on her face said more than Roger wanted to hear right then, so he kept talking.

  “You should see that house of hers. Everything there is arranged so she can not only reach it but do it well.”

  Jo came over and after placing his sandwich in front of him, sat down to continue eating a salad she had obviously already started when he came in. He felt guilty for interrupting her lunch or snack.

  He left there with all he’d told Sue Ann on his mind. Yes, he really did admire Nicole. Yes, he felt like he could now call her Nicole, at least in his mind.

  * * *

  Nicole usually liked Monday mornings, but this one didn’t start out very well. She’d been halfway to school when she realized she’d forgotten to make her lunch. Then when she arrived, there was a truck parked in the van handicapped spot which was wide enough for her van to open for her lift.

  She’d called the office, and they had to find the person who had driven the truck and send them out. By the time she waited for the truck to move she was almost late for her first class.

  She’d thought the shooting incident last night hadn’t really bothered her all that much but that morning nothing seemed to be going right. She had to admit then it had upset her more than she realized.

  Someone was angry enough with her to not only threaten her but to take shots at her house. And that was another question. Were they trying to hit her or just scare her? The sheriff didn’t know enough about her past to be able to say.

  Ha! For that matter, she didn’t know enough to say either.

  Nicole had thought she might just go without lunch today since she dearly hated to go into either the cafeteria or the teacher’s lounge. Too many people.

  But when lunchtime came, she was too hungry to skip lunch. On top of everything else, she hadn’t eaten enough for breakfast to carry her through to lunch much less all the way to dinner.

  So, reluctantly, she left her room and wheeled herself toward the cafeteria. She only made it a short way before she felt someone tap her shoulder from behind her. She turned and saw Shelly standing there grinning at her.

  When she came around to the front of Nicole, Shelly took a moment to catch her breath. “Are you going to the cafeteria?”

  “Yes. I forgot my lunch this morning.”

  “Well, why don’t I push you and we can get there and back to your room in time to still have a nice lunch.”

  Nicole was torn. She never liked to be pushed. But Shelly was right. If she took her slow time wheeling to the cafeteria, she probably wouldn’t have time to take her food back to her room and would have to eat it there.

  She quickly decided that eating in the cafeteria would be much worse than letting Shelly push her. So, she lifted her hands.

  “Have at it Shelly.”

  They were on their way out of the cafeteria with Nicole’s food on the table attached to her chair when they wound up behind a group of women teachers who were going out the door, probably to the teacher’s lounge.

  Darla Chadwick was one of them and she had her head turned enough for Nicole to see her face. Suddenly, Nicole knew why Darla was looking at her.

  “Too bad whoever it was didn’t aim a little better. That’s all I’ve got to say about it.”

  With that, the women were out the door leaving Nicole stewing and she was sure turning red from her anger.

  Shelly leaned over her shoulder. “Don’t worry about her Nicole. I have it on pretty good authority that her contract won’t be renewed at the end of this year.”

  That was a little consolation for Nicole, but she knew in the six months left in the school year, Darla could make her life almost unbearable.

  After that, there wasn’t anything Shelly could do to cheer up Nicole. She finally quit trying.

  After her last class, Nicole sat at her desk deep in thought. She had two major problems. Darla and whoever was threatening her. Then she wondered if both problems might be caused by the same person.

  Then she tried to think about the families of the two men who’d been killed when they’d been hit. Could it be someone from one of those families?

  Suddenly, she knew she had to find out. But how? She needed to find out everything she could about both of those families. Again, how?

  Then she had a thought. Didn’t most lawyers work with private investigators from time to time? Maybe McCracken would know someone she could hire to find the information she needed. T
hat’s it. She’d go see him and find out right now.

  So, she left school and drove her van over to the lawyer’s office.

  * * *

  When Roger left the coffee shop, his mood had vastly improved. Not that he had been in a bad mood before, especially since he’d hired Gina that morning and was sure she’d work out great. He just couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that someone had shot at Nicole’s house last night. She could have been killed before he’d even gotten to know her very well.

  What? Where had that thought come from? It was okay to be concerned about her safety as he would be for anyone else he knew. But why was he thinking like he was thinking? Wait a minute. How was he thinking?

  He knew he was thinking about how he could protect her from whoever was threatening her. Why? She seemed quite capable of protecting herself. And he had a feeling that if he got too close to her it would be like getting too close to a porcupine. That could be painful for sure.

  The woman sure had an independent streak. How could he help her without making her angry?

  When he entered his outer office, Gina looked up and gave him a big smile.

  “I think I’ve finally mastered this phone system Mr. McCracken. It was a struggle at first but I’m getting there. You have three phone messages and I put them all on your desk.”

  He tried not to laugh at her enthusiasm and caught himself in time. Then it hit him that she seemed awful glad to get this job. Maybe she and her husband were having financial trouble. He’d have to remember to ask Shelly later. She might know since Gina was a friend of hers and she was the one who had told him about her.

  “It’s okay for you to call me Roger. I’m not that formal of a person.”

  She nodded her head.

  “Do you have any questions about where things are or how to do anything Gina?”

  “No. I think I’m ready for you to give me work to do.”

  He spent the next half hour instructing her on how he wanted some contracts typed up and a few other things.

  When he was finally in his office with his door closed, he sat there for a moment thinking about how much his life had changed in the last three months. Finally, he pulled out the latest contract he’d been working on and got to work on proofing it.

  He was deep in thought when the intercom buzzed. He picked it up and Gina told him he had a visitor. Miss Nicole Fuller.

  He told her to send Nicole in and jumped up to open the door. He quickly stepped aside to keep her wheelchair from running over his toes.

  He pulled a chair aside so she could get close to the desk and went around it to sit back down.

  When she didn’t speak right away, Roger figured he’d better. “What can I do for you today Miss Fuller?”

  She frowned. “I would think after yesterday at church and your family’s farm, you could call me Nicole now.”

  Great! He’d already been doing that in his mind. “And you can call me Roger.”

  He thought for a moment. “Has anyone ever called you Nickie?”

  She made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh, closer to a growl and the picture of a porcupine popped into his mind again.

  “Never more than once.”

  Ouch! He’d better remember never to call her that.

  She watched his reaction to that statement, and he could see the hint of a smile.

  “I would like to gather information on the families of the men who were killed when we were hit. I can’t just sit here and let them play with me until they tire of it and do something drastic.”

  As he listened to her saying that, he could almost feel the heat of her emotions in what she said. Wow! He never wanted her mad at him.

  “Do you have a private investigator you either use or would recommend?”

  Even though he should have known where she was headed, he was surprised at that question. Then he remembered the phone conversation he’d had with Floyd last night after someone shot up her house.

  “You’re free to hire a PI if you want to Nicole and I do know a good one over in Springfield. But Floyd told me last night after we left your house that he would be checking on those families as part of his investigation into this whole thing.”

  When she only stared at him, he went on. “In fact, he should be contacting you at home a little later this afternoon. He’ll need all you can give him on the families.”

  She finally spoke. “Excellent. I not only have the names and addresses of each one’s parents, but I still have copies of the letters I sent them.”

  “Good. If you could find them and have them ready for Floyd, that’ll make things quicker for him.”

  She placed her hands on the wheels of her chair as if to move away from his desk, but he raised a hand in the air to stop her.

  “Before you go, I wanted to know how you are doing after last night.”

  At first, he was sure she wouldn’t answer him but wheel herself out of his office then a change seemed to come over her face.

  “Thank you for asking … Roger. I can tell that you are sincere when you ask. Too many people say things like that just as platitudes, not really meaning it or even caring.”

  Before he could stop himself, he blurted out, “I care.”

  “Why? You don’t know me.”

  “I would like to.”

  She was quiet for another long moment. “Again, I ask why?”

  He shook his head. “To be honest, I don’t really know. It’s just that as Floyd said last night, I admire the person you’ve made yourself into.”

  She stared at him for a long time before nodding her head. “Thank you. To answer your question, I am not frightened. I am concerned and most of all I am extremely angry.”

  This time when she looked at him, it was much softer. “Does that answer your question?”

  “Yes, it does. Let me put it this way Nicole. I want to help you any way I can.”

  She started to argue.

  “No. Wait. I want to help you, not because you’re in that wheelchair and not because you’re deaf. I want to help you because of the person you are.”

  She surprised him then when he was sure he saw her eyes glisten. But before he could say anything else, she turned her wheelchair toward the door thus ending the conversation since they both knew she wouldn’t know what he was saying if he said anything else.

  He watched helplessly as she opened the door, still without looking back, and wheeled herself out his door and on to the outer office door which Gina was holding open for her. He’d have to thank Gina for being so considerate and observant.

  Roger sat there with his elbows on the desk and his head in his hands for so long he lost track of time.

  Chapter Six

  After leaving the lawyer’s office, Roger’s office, she went straight home, thankful that she didn’t need to stop anywhere on the way.

  As soon as she was inside her house, she wheeled her chair straight to her recliner and pulled herself up into it. She had to wait a moment for Snowball to jump up and get herself situated in Nicole’s lap.

  Then she punched the direct dial number for Nick’s cell phone, and he picked up on the first ring.

  “Did anything else happen Laine? Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine Nick and nothing else has happened. I just wanted to talk to you.”

  The Captioned Phone picked up his loud sigh. “That does it. As soon as I can get home and pack, I’ll be on my way down there.”

  She knew she couldn’t stop him, and the strange thing was she didn’t really want to.

  She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. She was almost asleep when she felt Snowball rubbing her hand. The cat wanted petting and when she did, Nicole always had to stop whatever she was doing and pet her.

  She was scratching behind Snowball’s ears when the doorbell light began flashing. Leaving Snowball in her recliner, she slid into her wheelchair and wheeled over to the door. When she looked through the peephole that was at her height, she saw th
e sheriff. Good.

  She opened the door and rolled back to let him in.

  “Good afternoon Sheriff, Roger told me you were coming over but I’m afraid I just got home myself and haven’t had time to get the things you need. It’ll only take me a few minutes to find it all.”

  She gestured toward the living room. “Won’t you get comfortable while I look?”

  He walked over to the sofa and sat down.

  “Can I get you anything to drink Sheriff? I have iced tea.”

  “I’m fine ma’am. Thank you.”

  As she’d told him, it didn’t take her long to find the letters she’d sent to the families. She was back in the living room within five minutes.

  She handed him the letters. “Other than the parents that those letters were addressed to, I have no idea who else the two men had for relatives or friends.”

  He smiled back at her as she parked her wheelchair in front of him.

  “That’s okay ma’am. This will give me a good start. Hopefully the parents should be able to give me any other names I need to look at.”

  “I wrote down on a separate piece of paper, the names and ranks of the two men killed. They were MPs under my command. You should be able to request their personnel records. Is there anything else you need Sheriff?”

  “That’s good ma’am.” He gave her a sheepish grin. “Don’t you think you could call me Floyd now. It seems that all the women folk in my family enjoyed being with you yesterday. They’re all still talking about you.”

  Nicole’s temper flared up for a moment then the look in his eyes showed her that he wasn’t making fun of her nor were the women in his family.

  “Thank you, Floyd. My name is Nicole and before you ask, no one calls me anything else.”

  He laughed then. “Yeah, I can imagine Nickie would be a problem with your twin brother named Nick.”

  “How …?” She was surprised at first then she remembered. “You have a good memory if you remember that from the background check you did on me three years ago.”

  He laughed a booming laugh she could almost feel. “I wish that was the case, but I looked back at it recently.”