A Husband in Time by MAGGIE SHAYNE Page A

neck. A feeling only another mother would understand. Frowning, she tilted her head, narrowed her eyes. Cody…
    She hurried up to the guest room where Cody had been sleeping and slipped inside, and then she had what felt distinctly like heart palpitations.
    Cody’s bed was empty.
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    â€œZach, look out!”
    Zach dropped to his knees automatically at the harsh whisper. And then he turned, squinting through the darkness at the small body that had landed there beside him. An automobile passed, its headlamps brushing the bushes in front of them with white light, then fading in the distance.
    Zach gripped Cody’s shoulders, staring into his freckled face in stark disbelief. “What in the name of heaven are you doing here?”
    â€œI followed you, Zach. Thought I could help. Did you get it?”
    Zach pushed a hand through his hair. “If your mother finds out—”
    â€œDid you get it?” Cody asked again, urgency in his tone.
    â€œYes. I got it.”
    â€œHow?” Cody shook Zach’s arm. “How, Zach?”
    â€œI broke a window, reached through and unlocked the door. The cabinet was right where you told m—”
    â€œYou shoulda waited for me!” Cody rasped. “Darn it all, Zach, there’s an alarm on that door. Dochas to punch in a code, even though he has a key. If you don’t…I think the sheriff…”
    â€œLet’s get out of here.” Taking Cody’s arm, Zach raced around the building, through the damp grass. He crossed the road, in the darkness. His breaths made little puffs of steam.
    â€œWe’ll never make it, Zach. That alarm probably went off as soon as you opened the darn door. Man, we shoulda brought my bike.”
    â€œOh, sweet Jesus,” Zach said, glancing at a vehicle in the distance with flashing red lights on the top. “Is that—?”
    â€œYeah, that’s Sheriff O’Donnell. Boy, are we in trouble! My mom’s gonna kill us.” Cody turned in a circle, then paused, at the sight of another vehicle approaching rapidly from the opposite direction. “Look, Zach! I think it’s… Yeah! It’s Mom! C’mon!”
    Gripping Zach’s hand, Cody raced toward the approaching vehicle, and away from the one with the red lights. It was dark, and the sheriff’s headlamps hadn’t yet fallen on them. Zach didn’t think the sheriff had seen them. Yet.
    â€œShe’ll be mad as all get-out,” Cody panted, still running and clinging to Zach’s hand. “But at least she’ll keep us outta jail!”
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    She couldn’t believe it. She could not believe what she was seeing. Her son. Her ten-year-old genius son, running away from a police car in the middle of the night, like some kind of fugitive. She gunned the accelerator, sped up beside them and skidded to a stop.
    Cody yanked the back door open, and the two of them dived into the back seat just as Quigly O’Donnell’s cruiser pulled up beside Jane’s car.
    â€œSit there and look innocent,” she ordered. She rolled her window down as Quigly sauntered across the street, looking serious.
    â€œHello, Sheriff,” she said, and tried to sound cheerful, which was difficult, given the fact that she was grating her teeth behind her smile.
    â€œWell, now, Jane Fortune! What in the world are you doing driving around town this time of the night?” He braced his hands on the driver’s door and leaned closer.
    â€œCouldn’t sleep,” she blurted.
    Quigly frowned. “Ayuh. And they couldn’t, either?” He nodded to the two in the back seat.
    â€œOh…well, no. None of us could. You see, my, uh…my cat disappeared today, and we were worried. So we decided to drive around and see if we could find her.” It was, she thought, the perfect answer. Quigly O’Donnell was a known animal lover. She caught Cody’s smirk in the rearview mirror and