Annie's Rainbow - Fern Michaels [56]
“I guess fluffy is better than nothing. They probably found some prints and just aren’t saying they did.”
“Nope. Not a one. That insurance man said he personally inspected each and every bill and it took him forever. The insurance company got half their money back from the bank. Everyone’s happy but the kid in jail.”
“You see, Elmo, that’s the part that doesn’t make sense. He should be happy he’s getting out of jail early. I don’t want to talk about it. I keep remembering how miserable that man made all of us.”
“It’s okay with me, Annie. I didn’t mean to upset you. I knew that old fool wouldn’t get anywhere harassing us. Are you going to your fifteen-year college reunion later this month?”
“Jane asked me the same thing not too long ago. She wants to go. I’ve been thinking about it. Fifteen years is a long time, Elmo.”
“When you’re my age, it’s even longer. I’d like to see the old store again. I liked talking to the kids and hear them call me Pops. Guess it will depend on how I feel at the time. The man that bought my store promised to send me back my sign, but in thirteen years he never did. I called him and wrote a dozen letters. You don’t think he’s still calling the store the Richardson Pharmacy, do you?”
This was safe ground. “Could be. I’ll have our lawyer look into it. Was it part of the contract?”
“Yes, it was. When I die, I want that sign to go with me. Make a note of that, Annie.”
“Stop talking like that, Elmo. You told me that three hundred times and three hundred times I said okay. You’re going to live to a hundred and ten. You know how psychic I am.”
“About as good as I am at predicting rain,” Elmo snorted. “I’m going to take a nap.”
Annie stared straight ahead until her eyes started to water. She thought about the strange tone she thought she’d heard in Elmo’s voice. Almost as though he was trying to warn her of something. There had been moments over the years when she thought the pharmacist suspected something. But then she’d thought Jane felt the same way. All the while it was Jane Peter Newman was homing in on. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Did people who got out of jail really go after vengeance? Wasn’t jail supposed to rehabilitate the prisoner? Would the kid who was no longer a kid throw in his lot with the insurance investigator? To what end?
“Phooey on the lot of you,” Annie muttered. “I’m off to Paradise, and I’m not going to think about any of that junk now. Maybe later. A lot later.” For now she was going to close her eyes and dream about wearing the rainbow island dress Mattie had made for her years ago. Where she would wear it, she had no clue. She supposed she could wear it to sit behind the waterfall Parker had taken her to. Maybe, if she was lucky, she’d see Annie’s Rainbow again. Where are you, Parker? What are you doing right this minute? Do you have a sixth sense that soon I’m going to be within shouting distance? Is there even the remotest possibility that we might run into each other? She wished now that she had called Daniel on some pretext or other and in some offhand way, casually mention that she was going to Hawaii. Why didn’t I do that? Because I’m a fool, that’s why.
A moment later she was sound asleep. She didn’t wake until the steward tapped her shoulder lightly. “Fasten your seat belt, Miss Clark, we’re about to land.”
Annie walked the groggy dogs while Elmo opted to stay on the plane. They were airborne again forty minutes later. She closed her eyes in the hopes she could continue the wonderful dream she was having about Parker Grayson.
It wasn’t to be; a dark-eyed young man wielding a gun, a money bag slung over his shoulder, stalked her as she tried to hide behind the waterfall where she’d spent blissful hours with Parker Grayson. Lurking on the other side of the falls was Peter Newman in a yellow-rubber raft, a gleeful expression on his face. “Gotcha!”
Annie woke with perspiration dripping