Halos by Kristen Heitzmann Page A

number of strange, hard places she’d slept—most of them preferable to the soft mattress of her Palm Beach bedroom.
    Life was an adventure, and this was just one more curve of the yellow brick road. So far Charity had presented no lions and tigers, only bears—one in particular. She could live with that. She drew in the bear’s scent, laid down the night before on the cot he’d accepted in her place. It was remarkable, really, how much he’d done for her in just one day. Waves of sleepy gratitude rocked her. She would work hard for him, make it worth it. Even after she got her car back….

Eleven
    A LESSI IMAGINED HER MUSTANG sitting out front, draped in fog. No wonder she couldn’t see it. But she could hear it, that familiar rev of the engine. Louder now, intentional, telling her it was there, calling her out of sleep. She startled, listening hard. It was still there. She jumped up from the cot, ran through the dimly lit store and looked out the front windows. A car was zooming up and down the street, spinning donuts at the intersection. Under the streetlight, she recognized the red body and tan rag top.
    “Hey!” She banged the window. “Hey!” She burst through the door and ran in her socks toward the intersection, waving her arms. “Hey you! Stop!”
    But the driver straightened the wheels and took off down the road, spewing snow behind. She tore after him, ran all the way to Ben’s gas station, but the taillights were long out of sight. She turned at the gas pumps and ran for the house, banged on the front door before she remembered Steve saying he left the kitchen door open. She ran around and through the door just as he launched himself toward her. In matching shirts and sweats, they grappled, grabbing each other’s arms and hollering together.
    “My car!”
    “The alarm!”
    “I saw my car!”
    Ben and Dave burst into the kitchen. “What’s going on?”
    “I saw my car. Someone was spinning donuts in the intersection. It’s here! In Charity!”
    Dave and Ben stared at her. Steve went to the closet and pulled on his brown bomber jacket.
    “Hurry!” Alessi caught his arm. “We have to catch him. And call the sheriff.”
    Steve scowled. “You already did.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You set off the alarm. Everyone within six miles is calling him right now.” He caught her arm and dragged her with him. Her feet were soaked and her teeth chattering. Steve took off his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders as he tugged her down the street. “Didn’t I say not to open the door?”
    “What are you talking about? I saw my car!”
    “You think you did.”
    She jolted to a stop and yanked her arm free. “I know I did.”
    He kept walking.
    “You don’t believe me? Do you think I’m making it up?”
    “I don’t know what to think.”
    After all his kindness, he still doubted her. She pulled off his coat and shoved it at him. “Then I don’t need you or anyone else. I’ll find my car myself.” She stomped up to the store and stormed through the door, her eardrums cringing at the strident tones she hadn’t even noticed before. She hoped the alarm woke everyone in town.
    She went into the back room, tugged on a pair of dry socks and her sneakers, then threw on the jean jacket and stalked out. Just as Sheriff Roehr pulled up, she pushed past Steve into the frigid night. “The alarm is my fault. I opened the door. And in case you’re interested, I saw someone driving my car. But I’m sure that doesn’t matter to you or anyone else in Charity!”
    She stalked toward the intersection where she’d seen her Mustang spinning under the streetlight. There had to be tracks to prove she was not hallucinating. Sure enough, big circles were churned into the snowy square. If she could match the tread from those, she could follow them out. That was not easily done in the dark with a streetlight on only one corner, but it was the only thing she could think of. While she chased one track after