Lust and Lies 04 - Pretty Maids in a Row

you now."
    Barbara laughed and gave him a hug. "Don't be in such a hurry to take over. Making all the decisions isn't half as much fun as you think." She gave him one last good-night kiss and left the room, his promise echoing in her mind.
    Once, before he was born, because she was too tired and sick and broken-hearted to keep going on her own, she had accepted someone's offer to take care of her . She discovered too late that the price of that care had been her freedom. Although Russ Latham proved to be a man of his word, he also turned out to be brutally possessive and dangerously unbalanced.
    It took a long time but she finally made a new life for herself and Matt, without giving up her independence. Even if she met the perfect man someday and fell in love, she would never allow him total control over her or her son.
    * * *
    As soon as Barbara opened the front door to bring in the newspaper the next morning, she felt the extreme drop in temperature. Wondering if it would be enough to prevent the predicted flood, she pulled the newspaper out of its plastic wrapper to see what the weather report had to say. The photo on the front page banished all thoughts of the weather, however.
    It was not surprising that the headlines of the Washington Herald focused on the train accident. What she hadn't expected to see was her face beneath those words. Shards of panic pierced her mind and froze the air in her lungs. Quickly she skimmed the caption beneath the photo— Fredericksburg residents, Barbara and Matthew Johnson, lend a hand to drenched survivor, Louise Pilcher.
    She recalled the moment pictured—Matt placing a blanket over the elderly woman's shoulders while Barbara handed her a cup of steaming coffee. She even remembered telling the woman their names and where they lived. But she had not noticed anyone taking their photograph. It could have been anyone with a phone.
    "Maw!" Matt called from the doorway. "What's taking you so long? You always yell at me if I leave the door open."
    Barbara pushed aside the paralyzing fear and hurried back into the house. Forcing a smile, she said. "Looks like we're celebrities, kiddo. I guess somebody thought you were so cute yesterday, they decided to put you on the front page."
    Matt's eyes opened wide with delight when he saw the photo. Then, just as suddenly, he frowned up at his mother. "Do you think he might see this, too?"
    At times like this, she wished her baby wasn't quite so smart. Keeping her smile in place, she did her best to reassure him. "I doubt it. I'm sure they only used it in the Herald because we're local residents. There's no way he'd see this paper."
    Matt looked at her suspiciously but he wanted to believe her badly enough to let it go. "Good, 'cause I like it here. I don't want to have to move again."
    She gave him a quick hug. "Neither do I, kiddo. Neither do I."
    * * *
    Russ Latham squinted at the photo on the front page of the Boston Times, then abruptly laughed out loud, despite the fact that he sat alone at the table in the coffee shop. The handful of other Sunday morning regulars turned toward him expecting to be let in on the joke but he waved them off. They wouldn't see the humor in the touching picture, nor was it something he could share with them. This joke was very, very private.
    The last name was different but that didn't mean anything. She had used other names before and he'd found her anyway. But she had learned how to cover her tracks better and better over the years, until she disappeared completely and he was forced to give up the hunt.
    Apparently, fate decided it was time for him to get back to his original plan and the photo was just the help he needed. He immediately thought of several other people who would be extremely interested if they saw it and realized who the Good Samaritans were. He would just have to move faster than they would.
    He took a long drag on his cigarette and snickered more quietly as he thought about the new angle he had come up with to gain Barbara's sympathy. He wondered if her different last name might be due to a marriage, though that wouldn't matter. Any man she might have married would be a mama's boy like Howard Hamilton had been—someone she could push around. Russ didn't even consider Howard's kind men, let alone obstacles to his goal.
    A bitch like Barbara needed a real man to control her. He had known from the first that he was that man but she kept running from the truth. He knew what was best for her