Missing in Lavender: A Time Travel Romance (Lavender, Texas series Book 6) Read online

  Missing in Lavender: A Time Travel Romance

  Barbara Bartholomew

  Cover Photo by Melchelle Designs

  Missing in Lavender: A Time Travel Romance

  Published by Barbara Bartholomew at Amazon Kindle

  Copyright March 2016 by Barbara Bartholomew

  Books by the Author

  The House Near the River

  The Ghost and Miss Hallam (Lavender series)

  Letters From Another Town (Lavender series)

  Leaving Lavender (Lavender series)

  Lavender Blue (Lavender series)

  Lavender Dreaming (Lavender series)

  By The Bay

  At This Time of Year (novella)

  Dreams of Earth

  Nightmare Kingdom

  Wrong Face in the Mirror (Medicine Stick series)

  Wakening the Past (Medicine Stick series)

  Bobbi and the Bootlegger (Medicine Stick series)

  Everyday Magic (Three Sisters series)

  More Than Magic (Three Sisters series)

  Almost Magic (Three Sisters series)

  Through Flame and Fire

  The Pot-hunter’s Daughter (Ancient Cities series)

  Stolen Years (Ancient Cities series)

  Poet and Dreamer (Ancient Cities series)

  For Younger Readers

  The Time Keeper (Timeways series)

  Child of Tomorrow (Timeways series)

  When Dreamers Cease to Dream (Timeways series)

  The Second Jeep Harris

  Finding Endymion

  Royal Blood

  Princess Alice

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  He hadn’t spent his teenaged years in the usual fashion, but had become what his friends called a techie with little time for dating and friendships with kids his own age.

  He kept company with some of the brightest men and women in the country and became known as Zan’s number one assistant. After completing several steps in formal education provided at top colleges, he joined Zan’s company officially and was given an astronomical salary, which meant less to him than the exciting challenges in the new science.

  But now, for the first time in his life, he was in love and his obsession with the developments he and Zan were making, discovering a while new world of exploring beyond the possible, he found his thoughts fixed instead on a slender, dark-haired girl who had gotten a raw deal in life by losing her parents at a young age and ending up spending her childhood in a home for unclaimed children.

  Ever since barging into Mac and knocking her down outside a supermarket two nights before Christmas, his main goal had been to spend as much time with her as possible, moving slowly so as not to frighten a girl who seemed as sensitive as a doe, but making it clear that he loved her.

  Still dreamily thinking of her, he’d got into his auto and allowed it to drive him to her home. They had a date for this weekend. He was taking her to the family ranch in western Oklahoma to spend time with his parents. A trip home to get to better acquainted with Mom and Dad, certainly that would be a clear statement of his intentions.

  Imagining the pleasures of taking her riding across the remote acres of the ranch and spending the late summer night out under stars that seemed brighter than those reflected against the bright lights of Dallas, he stepped out of the auto in front of her shabby little apartment building and forgot for those moments everything he’d been taught by Zan and his cohorts about being alert for danger.

  They attacked before he got to the steps leading up into the building and though he fought with all the strength of a young, athletic man, he was quickly wrestled to the ground and buzzed into unconsciousness. His last thought was of McKinley. She would think he’d forgotten to come for her.

  Chapter One

  Summer did not lie sweetly on the part of Dallas where McKinley lived. The temperature highs for the last few days sizzled at over a hundred degrees and the abundance of paved surfaces reflected that heat in glittering mirrors that dazzled the eye and heated the blood.

  As she waited with little hope for her boyfriend’s call within the apartment that felt only minimally cooler than the outside world, she watched her apartment mates as they sprawled in front of the television in shorts and halter tops, barefoot as they watched an ice skating display on the theory that it would make them feel cooler.

  At six o’clock on a weekday evening, they knew it would be hours before the temps began to slide downward and the limits on the amount of air conditioning provided to their apartment would not keep them comfortable, but only hopefully prevent death from excessive heat. Like the rest of the city residents, the limits on electricity usage was meant to serve the best good for the most people, as the apartment management insisted, though she knew their main interest was in their own bottom line.

  She went into the kitchen, piled cracked ice into tall glasses and poured tea from the pitcher in the frig into each glass. When she returned to hand a frosted glass to each of her friends, they accepted gratefully.

  “I was just thinking about doing that,” tall, brown-haired Belle said, “but I couldn’t get up the energy.”

  Stacy, the southern beauty of the three with her blazing red hair and big blue eyes, gulped down a third of the glass’s contents with unladylike fervor. “That’s so good,” she said. “I may just live to see another day.” She glanced at the other girl, sprawled on pillows on the floor, “This ice skating thing isn’t working for me.”

  Belle began to change channels. “Me either. How about a good movie?”

  McKenzie back on the sofa, sipped her own drink and watched as Belle settled on a romantic video about true love.

  He hasn’t dumped me, she told herself. Not Jerry. He loves me. He wouldn’t dump me.

  He’d only been missing for a couple of weeks. No big deal. But it did seem significant considering that since they met at Christmas, few days had gone by without them spending some time together. It had been as though Jerry Caldecott couldn’t get enough of her company and she, losing her shyness in the face of his evident feelings, had made it clear she felt the same.

  And then on a Saturday a little over two weeks ago, he’d stood her up. He’d been supposed to come by and pick her up so they could go spend the remainder of the weekend at his parents’ home in western Oklahoma. They’d made plans to go previously, but with her job and Jerry’s busy schedule, trips to the Caldecotts’ small ranch seemed an impossible treat and McKenzie had looked forward to spending time with Jerry and his parents.

  But though she’d waited by the window for hours, watching for his auto, he hadn’t come. Neither had he phoned and when she tried to call him, she received only a messenger repeating that he was not currently availabl
e. He would call back, the message promised, but he didn’t, not in all the days ahead.

  She said little, but her friends noticed. Stacy asked if he was away on one of his business trips. “I’m not sure,” she hesitated over the answer, not wanting to say the painful truth right out loud. “He didn’t say anything about a trip.”

  Belle, who was more sensitive, changed the subject quickly and the next night Stacy invited her on a double date, just as company for her current boyfriend’s cousin. “Mark is so good looking and has a good personality. You’re sure to like him.”

  Having previously suffered through the dates her popular friend had arranged she declined politely. “Jerry and I have agreed to be exclusive,” she said, and saw the look that her two friends exchanged. She knew what they were thinking.

  They carefully skirted around the subject of Gerald Caldecott and did their best to focus her attention on other matters. Keeping her spine straight and her tears for her pillow in the dark of night, McKinley did her best to act as though untroubled. She was sure Jerry would pop up any day, surprising her by appearing in front of her desk at work or calling from some distant spot across the world, apologizing for the business emergency that had kept him out of touch for so many days.

  But yesterday she could stand no more. Putting her usual timidity aside, she braced herself for a visit to his office. After they’d met last Christmas they’d quickly learned they worked for the same company. She as a lowly tech, he in the upper ranges as cousin and associate of Alexander Alston, part owner and lead scientist.

  In Lavender, Texas where McKinley had spent Christmas with Jerry’s family, he was called Zan and though beloved was considered more than a little eccentric. Here at the company, though rarely seen by the regular troops, he was the brilliant, somewhat legendary, leader.

  At her own insistence, she and Jerry kept their distance at work, she not wanting to stand in the circle that shone so brightly around him and his cousin, agreed that would be best. “Safer,” he said, though he did not elaborate on what he meant or whether it was her safety or his own that concerned him. So it had worked out that he picked her up at her apartment or they met at a commonly agreed on location.

  But today, having tried once again to call his parents’ home in Oklahoma, only to be told that both Caldecotts were away visiting relations and could not be reached, she determined to go to his office and see what could be learned.

  Never having visited such elevated premises, she was taken aback to find that the badge that admitted her to her own offices was not good enough to get into these higher reaches. She was refused admittance by the buzzing of a closed doorway and more than a little shaken when a uniformed guard appeared to frown at her.

  “Can’t go in there, Miss,” he said. “Restricted area.”

  She stood her ground, even though her knees felt wobbly. “I’m a friend of Jerry Caldecott’s.”

  “And I’m close with the big boss. Don’t give me a right to go in there.” He pointed toward the elevators. “Go back to where you belong, Miss . . .” He paused to look at her badge. “Miss Alva, take off before I have to report you.”

  A scruffy looking young man in what looked like well worn jogging clothes, emerged from the elevator, walking toward them, but evidently not seeing them as his gaze stayed fixed on the floor, his concentration obviously elsewhere.

  The guard grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the way before the guy could run into her. “Good afternoon, Mr. Alston,” he said.

  Alston? Was this man Jerry’s cousin. “Please, Mr. Alston, I’m worried about Jerry,” she said quickly, barely getting the words out before the guard started speaking, murmuring quick apologies and assuring his employer that he would see the intruder removed immediately.

  The sweats-garbed young man didn’t seem to notice. His thinking obviously elsewhere he stepped up to the door, which opened automatically to admit him even though she didn’t see an identifying badge anywhere on his person.

  The guard, his expression furious, grabbed her by one arm and started to drag her toward the elevators, but before they’d moved more than a couple of steps, the man in the dirty gray sweats returned, stepping through the doorway with a questioning frown on his face.

  “You must be Jerry’s girl,” he said, his eyes bright with interest. “McKenzie something or other?”

  “McKinley,” she corrected, shaking her arm free of the guard’s grip. “McKinley Alva. And I’m guessing you’re his cousin Zan.”

  The guard’s face paled and she thought for a minute that big, burly man would faint from sheer shock at her so addressing his boss.

  “That’s me.” He looked as though he didn’t know what to say next and she guessed he was feeling as awkward about this meeting as she was. “Jerry’s always talking about you. No, that’s not quite right.” He shifted uneasily from one running shoe to the other. She noticed the shoes were well worn and not exactly as white as they’d once been. “It’s more like when he says your name, it’s important. Though most of the time he calls you Mac.”

  She smiled. “That’s my nickname.”

  The guard looked like he would explode any minute now. Even Zan noticed. “You wanted to see me,” he said.

  “Not exactly. I was hoping to run into Jerry.”

  He acted as though he hadn’t heard the correction. “Well, come on back to my office and we’ll talk about that.”

  He turned to the guard. “Next time see that Miss Abba, gets shown through.”

  “Alva,” she corrected for the guard’s benefit. “McKinley Alva.”

  Alexander Alston’s office was huge and luxurious with an enormous desk, a wet bar and deep, comfortable chairs. He didn’t seem to fit in at all in his casual clothes and unkempt look. He saw her looking around and said rather apologetically, “I don’t really spend much time here. It’s just for show.”

  She sat in one of the chairs without being invited and instead of taking his place behind the desk, he took a similar chair. “He’s missing, you know. We don’t know where he is.”

  She felt as though the room had shifted and wondered for a moment if there had been an earthquake. Her head whirled, she felt sick at her stomach, and almost fell out of her chair.

  “You’re not going to faint, are you?” he asked anxiously. “Eddie always tells me I’m too abrupt. That I don’t understand tactful and she’s right I don’t. It always seems best to just say things straight out. After all how can I tactfully break the news that we’ve misplaced Jerry.”

  She abruptly felt so angry. “You might have told me.”

  “Eddie said no. She said there was no need to worry you until we knew something definite. And, of course, we knew from your phone that he hadn’t called you either.”

  “You spy on my phone?”

  “Not me,” he said with obvious horror. “But they do, of course.”

  “They who?” she demanded.

  “The people who spy on everybody. I can’t identify them by name, of course.”

  “You mean you don’t know?”

  “I mean I can’t say.”

  None of this banter got her any further to finding out what she needed to know. Mac was beginning to understand why Jerry’s relatives in Lavender had referred to Zan as unusual. “What about Jerry?” she demanded. “What’s happened to him?”

  He seemed to be counting to himself. “Thirteen days ago Friday, he called me on his way to work. He had this great idea, he said, and he’d tell me about it when he got here. He never got here and his phone vanished with him.”

  She thought hard. “That’s the last time I talked to him. We made a date.”

  He nodded. “We know. He asked you to spend the weekend with him at Lynne and Moss’s ranch.” He shrugged at her look of indignation. “We were desperate to find out what we could.”

  “Have we no privacy?” she asked indignantly, though the tears she blinked from her eyes were for fear that something awful might have happened to Jerry.<
br />
  He shrugged. “None of us have much. Only in Lavender.”

  She didn’t understand, but didn’t have time to figure it out right now. “What could have happened to him?”

  In halting, anything but transparent tones, he managed to convey that he—and because of him—her Jerry might have certain enemies who wished to gain certain information from them. They feared Jerry had been abducted.

  This didn’t make a lot of sense to McKinley since, as she well knew, the company Alexander owned made popular technological toys, games and such, and she couldn’t see why that made him important enough for someone to kidnap his cousin. Not unless, of course, the motive was ransom.

  “Have they asked for money? The kidnappers, I mean.”

  He looked startled. “No,” he said. “They haven’t.”

  “What do his mom and dad think?”

  He sighed. “They don’t say it, but they probably wish he’d never met me since it’s my fault he’s in the business.”

  “High tech?”

  “Sure,” he agreed, “high tech. Anyway we sent them off to Lavender where they’ll be safe while we look for their boy.”

  Suddenly he frowned. “We should do the same with you. If they’re not safe, neither are you.”

  He’d dismissed her after that, refusing to answer other questions by the simple method of not seeming to take in a word she said. But she was sent home with two armed guards in a secure auto and now when she looked out from her window, it seemed the same guards stood outside watching after her.

  More than anything, this convinced her that something awful must have happened to Jerry and her heart ached with fear.

  Chapter Two

  A girl who grew up in a children’s home learned to plan for herself and in Mac’s case that meant working hard at her lessons until she’d won scholarships and grants to go to college and working twice as hard to support herself and get an education. But it didn’t mean she’d learned to be either daring or adventurous.

  Now she lay awake in the early hours of the morning, listening to the traffic already beginning to stir on the busy streets outside and thought about what she could do to help Jerry.