Where to call from was the problem. Jill suspected her house would be high on John Heathcliffe's list of places to look. Even if he didn't already know where she lived, all he had to do was look in a phone book to find her address.
He might overlook her shop though, she thought. In fact, he might not even know about it. He'd said he'd been watching her brother's house, not that he'd been following her around. Her store might be a safe place to go to call Kyle.
Mouth thinning with determination, Jill tightened her hold on the steering wheel and increased her speed. She then suddenly spun the wheel, taking a sharp and abrupt right that almost saw her car on two wheels. Managing to maintain control, she shot up the street, watching the rear-view mirror as much as the road ahead.
"Yes," she breathed with relief when she saw the van shoot past the end of the street, wheels squealing as he tried to bring the vehicle to a halt to follow her. Jill was already turning left down another street by the time he managed to bring his car around.
Jill lost sight of him as soon as she turned the corner and her attention was again divided between the rearview mirror and the road ahead, grateful it wasn't a busy area. The last thing she needed was to hit someone in her efforts to escape her pursuer.
When there was still no sign of the van behind her before she turned up the next street, Jill felt her shoulders relax the smallest bit. But she continued to drive a little faster than she should and continued to take turns right and left and right again to be sure she'd lost the man before heading for her store.
Due to the parade, the streets around her store were all blocked off. The closest Jill could park was in the lot at the end of the road from where the parade was to launch. It was blocked to the public today, open only for parade participants to park. There were several tents set up at one end for everyone to don costumes and do their makeup.
Jill bit her lip as she gazed over the floats and costumed people milling about as she parked her car. If she hurried to the store, called Kyle, and then changed into her costume, there was really no reason she couldn't come back and be a part of the parade as planned. Surely Kyle could handle John, she reasoned. It wasn't like there was anything she could do. Besides, she'd committed herself to the parade and had her costume in her knapsack. She could hardly just leave them without a Mrs. Claus. But she had to make that call first, Jill decided as she got out of the car.
Slipping past the tents without running across anyone she knew, Jill hurried up the street to her store. She unlocked the door, slid inside and headed straight for the phone.
A curse slipped from her lips when her call was answered by the answering machine. She listened to her brother's recorded voice, frowning as she tried to sort out where Kyle and Claire could be. Kyle had mentioned going to the hardware store, but surely Claire was still there feeding Beth?
Her gaze slid to the clock on the wall and she frowned as she realized that while the store was only fifteen minutes from Claire and Kyle's house, she'd wasted almost half an hour making sure she'd lost her pursuer. Claire could very well have finished feeding Beth and headed out for some last-minute Christmas shopping.
"Kyle," Jill said when the beep finally sounded. "I need to talk to you. I—" She paused to worry her lip as she realized he wouldn't be able to reach her. Her cell phone was dead and she'd be on a parade float, nowhere near a phone for the next hour or so. Letting her breath out on a sigh, she said, "I'll try calling again later. But it's important."
Unsatisfied with the message, Jill hung up and turned to peer out the front window of the store, stilling when she spotted John Heathcliffe crossing the street headed straight for the front door of her shop.
Cursing, she whirled away from the counter and hurried out the back door, then started up the alley behind the shops, her mind racing. It seemed John hadn't just been watching the house. He must have followed her around and learned where she worked when he'd decided he needed a guinea pig.
"Jill? What on earth are you doing here? I was just heading to my store to try to call you. You aren't even dressed yet."
"Oh, Bev." Jill swallowed guiltily as the woman hurried up the alley to her. "I—"
"You can explain while you dress," Bev interrupted firmly, catching her arm and steering her toward the back door of her salon.
"You don't understand," Jill murmured, glancing nervously up and down the alley, sure John was going to pop up at any moment. "I can't be in the parade."
"The hell you can't!" Bev snapped. Getting the door unlocked, she dragged her inside the dark shop. "Do you know what I went through to make sure you would be Mrs. Claus? Every unattached female shop owner on this street wanted to play the part to get their hands on Nick."