Chapter 14

Cody woke the next morning with a plan in place to get some answers to a mystery that had been bugging him for months but he knew he had to wait until his chores were done. Tucked away in his saddle bag were the photocopies he'd made at the library from the day before.

Jesse heard him coming down and looked up at him as he came into the kitchen. "Morning son," he said as he flipped the pancakes on the griddle.

"Morning dad," he said through a yawn. "Mind if I go take some photos today after my chores are done?"

Jesse raised an eyebrow, "You were just out yesterday son."

Cody nodded, "I know, but that was to see Matt. Clara suggested at one time I work to put some different things into my portfolio and I wanted to get some different shots of Eagle Canyon at different times of the day," he offered.

His father looked at him then looked back at the griddle, "Your brother radioed up here yesterday. He said Izzy told him you'd shown up to visit with him but then took off for town before he got back off a rescue. Care to explain that?"

Wincing, Cody sighed. "I started thinking about some things for school and doing some research on the whole photojournalism thing. They were so busy with calls that I figured if I waited for Matt, he'd probably just get called right back out if he ever made it back to the station. So I thought since I was close enough to the library that I'd go do some research. I got a bit distracted and when I realized what time it was it was too late to head back to the station and I knew I needed to get home."

Jesse looked back over his shoulder at him then sighed. "All right. You need to make it up to him. Get your chores done this morning before you take off and be back here before supper." With that Jesse put down a stack of pancakes in front of Cody and turned back to make some for himself.

Cody nodded before eating what had been put before him. Now he just had to come up with the courage to go through with his plans.

Morning was no longer a dreaded time of the day as Clara got up and got dressed. She liked coffee but tea was cheaper and she could usually get two cups per tea bag before it was too weak to call it tea. Shuffling out to the barn, she went to the chicken coop that Jaime had helped her repair and turned the chickens out into the enclosure they had before collecting the couple of eggs and heading into the cabin.

After a breakfast of scrambled eggs mixed with herbs and peppers from the garden, she finished up her dishes and dressed in a pair of old work jeans and her thicker flannel shirt. She was still working to put in a supply of wood for the winter. She had about three quarters of what Jesse thought she'd need and she'd spent the last three days dragging several trees up out of the valley in pieces so she could saw them into smaller pieces to split.

It had been five months since she'd left her old life behind and fall was definitely here in the higher elevation. She needed to cover the garden every night to keep the frost off of it so that she could get a few more weeks of growing time out of it before she had to give it up as a lost cause. The cabin had been fixed up with about two thirds of her remaining money and the rest of it she'd managed to stretch to last long enough to put food on her table until she'd canned enough from her garden and the animals that Jesse had taught her how to kill and dress.

Her hair had begun to grow out again and Jaime's mother had given her a decent trim about a month ago so it didn't look so butchered around the edges. Her hands were heavily callused now and she had put on a good layer of muscle where she'd never had much before. She felt better than she had in a long time. Even Matt seemed to be making an effort to try and stop by more often if nothing more than to see how she was doing. She wasn't sure of how she felt about that since letting someone close to her might expose her past, especially with what his job was. But she had to admit that her heart beat a little faster when she saw him riding that damned white horse of his.

Going outside, she struggled to get the first part of a tree into place so she could begin to saw it in chunks. Her morning progressed with the steady rhythm of the saw blade going through the dry wood. The sound of something caught her attention and she looked up, spotting Cody riding Cooper into the clearing.

"Hey Cody," she said, slightly out of breath.

He nodded and smiled a little. "Wow, you've been busy," he stated, looking around.

"I've got a lot of catching up to do and it's just me. At least Jesse has you to help him," she teased a little.

Cody rolled his eyes at that and slid out of the saddle, "Don't remind me."

Clara put the saw up and noticed he had the camera around his neck, "Been out taking photos today?"

Nodding, Cody smiled. "Decided to expand my portfolio like you suggested, so I focused my shots in and around Eagle Canyon."

She smiled, "Good for you. Come on. I haven't had lunch. Have you eaten yet?"

He shook his head and she led the way inside. "Let me clean up and I'll fix us something." With that she headed to the bathroom and drew some water into the basin, washing her face and doing a quick wash up of her arms and neck. Coming back out, she began pulling out chicken from the ice box and a plate of sliced vegetables.

Cody came in and sat at the kitchen table, setting his saddle bags to the side after pulling out a folder. Setting it on the table he waited for her to return. She put things out on table, eyeing the folder and once she set the bread on the table, pointed to it.

"Is that some of your recent work?" she asked curiously.

He shrugged, "Just something I was researching," he replied, handing it to her.

She took the folder and opened it, expecting to see photographs. Instead, she saw photocopies of articles from teen magazines, specifically about a famous band called 'Red Sky' and their lead female singer Shandra Lee. Article after article stared back at her about the band, their awards, concert tour and all the details anyone would ever want to know about their lives listed out in black and white.

She kept her face still, trying not to react to what she'd just seen. She shut the folder and handed it back to him, not noticing the shake of her hand, saying nothing to him. Turning her back on him, she walked back to the ice box and took out a jar of mayo as if nothing had happened.

Cody looked at her back in a confused manner as she turned and walked away, having seen the slight tremble of her hand and the sudden cold impassiveness of her face. It wasn't until the jar of mayo she'd gotten from the icebox hit the floor and shattered that he realized she was shaking.

"Clara…," he said, leaping to his feet. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." He approached her, hoping to guide her back to the table where he could get her to sit. The last thing he expected was for her to whirl just as he touched her shoulders and slap him across the face.

Tears streamed down her face, "WHY! Why did you have to do this to me!" she yelled at him, half in anger, half in fear.

Cody staggered back a step, never having been slapped across the face before. A hand had gone reflexively to the burning skin of his cheek. "I … I don't understand. That's who you are…isn't it? People are starting to speculate and say you've gone missing and…," he tried to stammer.

"I don't care! You have NO idea what it was like, what was happening!" she yelled at him. She was shaking with sobs now, her whole body trembling as if it was with sheer will she was keeping herself from slapping Cody again.

He was caught between wanting to retreat and feeling the need to take her in his arms and just hold her until she calmed down. He knew in his gut if he left her alone, she'd do something like try to run or worse. Finally he stepped back towards her, grabbed her by the upper arms so she couldn't slap him again and looked her in the eyes. "Then talk to me! You've got to talk to someone or you're going to go crazy. Sooner or later, someone's going to figure it out by finding out your real name and start digging around in public records and find out about the will and this place. They'll come looking," he said in what he hoped was the voice of reason.

She looked at him through the tears and felt all the fight leave her body as her shoulders sagged. She hung her head, shaking it a little. "God, I wanted to leave it all behind, I wanted to escape."

Cody looked at her and sighed softly, "Come on," he said as he guided her over to the table and sat her down. He pulled up a chair in front of her. "Talk to me. I promise no one else knows what I figured out." Reaching across the table he grabbed the dish towel and handed it to her so she could dry her eyes.

Clara took a moment to try to gather her thoughts. "My parents took me to an audition for an acting part in a commercial when I was eight, just after my last visit to Uncle Jake. The producers loved me and I got the job. It ended up being in a series of commercials. I was then enrolled in acting classes, dance and music lessons. I had no time to be a normal kid after that. That's why I never came back to visit. I was too busy being dragged around to lessons or auditions." She wiped her eyes as she looked down at her hands. "Things were all right at first. I got bit parts in TV shows, commercials, even got to do some background scenes in some movies. By the time I was fourteen, my parents had found a manager they really liked. They liked him because he knew how to manipulate the system to cash in on my growing fame. He took care of all the 'details' of the contracts and money, arranged for me to have anything I wanted, made sure I got my education and seemed like the best thing since sliced bread. I had nothing else to base him off of so I went along with it all. He landed me a major part in an up and coming sit-com. It went prime-time and it did so well, it was continued for almost three years."

Listening intently, Cody got up and poured her a glass of water and handed it to her, making her drink some of it before she continued.

"By the time I was seventeen, the sit-com had come to an end and my manager was trying to find other things for me to do to keep the cash cow…me, earning them money. I started realizing something wasn't right. My parents were living high off the hog so to speak, spending money like it was going out of style. My manager seemed to be doing quite well also, but I was seeing very little of this cash or at least I was told not to worry about it, that it was being taken care of. Sure, I was given anything I asked for, allowed to have fine clothes, a nice car, to go to parties and go shopping but no money ever crossed my hands. I began to question things though as I got older. To distract me, my manager decided to create a rock band and that's where 'Red Sky' came into play. All those music and dance lessons began to pay off. Young teen bands were the in-thing. He got us signed up with a major record label within six months and we were off and recording our first album and planning our first tour. I wasn't of legal age at the time so my parents signed the contracts for me without my knowledge and when the excitement of the band had subsided some I started to demand to see financial statements, the contract and more. The older, more experienced members of the band had been talking around me and by then, I knew how to listen so I knew that there was a lot I had been naively letting others take care of for me." She paused and looked up at him finally.

Cody saw fear and anger in that look. There was more in that look than words could ever tell him. She'd been betrayed by the people who were supposed to protect her interests, who were supposed to love her. She'd been used for nothing more than what she could get them…money.

"When I finally was able to get a hold of those records through some investigative work of my own, I was shocked at what I found. My parents had signed an eight year contract with my manager who had in turn signed a contract with the studio our record label was under. He would get the money from the studio to 'manage' for me, but then by wording of his contract with my parents, it would get put into bank accounts that I had no access to. Basically I was left out of the equation. The terms and payout were astronomical to them. The money I would get from this was very little. Basically by the time the contract came to an end, my career would be near an end at twenty five, I'd have nothing to my name. My parents and manager would have it all. I don't know how it could be legal but I decided to start making plans of my own. I found a way to get my hands on a few thousand dollars by selling off a couple of my guitars that I autographed. After the latest tour was over, I had made plans to run. I threw a big party at my house and that night, I called a cab during the height of the party and slipped out wearing some guy's clothes. Went to the nearest bus station and in the bathroom I cut my hair and dyed it." Her voice trailed off as she looked up at him, tired and scared.

Cody stared at her for the longest time. Finally he sighed, "Do you have a copy of the stuff you got a hold of, the contracts and statements? Matt knows this lawyer he rescued a year ago. She might be able to help you out in looking things over to see if there's something that can be done to take it all away from them and get you out of the contract."

Clara blinked at him. She had expected a lot of things from him. Advice like this was not one of them. But then again, he was a fairly level headed young man. She blew out a breath, "Yeah, I kept it with me. I had it hidden in my duffle bag just in case."

"Would you trust me to talk to her for you if I can…privately? She helped represent my dad during a case when a couple of guys tried to accuse him of murdering their brother. She got the case dropped and actually went after them for false accusation." He looked at her hopefully.

She chewed on her bottom lip for a few minutes and then got up and went into the main bedroom, coming out carrying a folder thick with papers. She held it out to him. "This is everything I could get my hands on. Don't lose it. I don't think I could replace it if any of its lost," she said nervously.

Cody blinked at the thick folder and then nodded, taking it gingerly. "I'll make a copy of it so you can have the originals back in case Lisa wants to see the documents." With that, he tucked it into the saddle bag along with the folder of the photocopies he'd made the day before then looked back up at her. "I'm sorry I discovered your secret. It's just you left little things out there hanging. I was at the Ranger station yesterday and they just got cable and Izzy thought it would be cool to show me MTV. So I sat and watched it. They had a form of news and some of it was on you and how people think you've disappeared and your manager is covering it up. They played a video clip of you on stage singing a song that became a hit on your last tour. They said that you were going to go into the studio after the tour to record it. I recognized it because you hum and sing bits of it to yourself when you're working around here. When I realized you looked somewhat like this singer too, I left the station, went to the library and started digging."

Clara snorted, giving a little quavering smile, "You'd make a good private investigator if you didn't want to be a photo journalist," she teased a little. She looked at his face. "Sorry about slapping you. I'm afraid I reddened your cheek pretty good. That's not going to go away before you get back to your dad's. Just tell him you snuck up and startled me. Say I spun around and slapped you before I realized it was you?"

His hand reached up to touch the red spot on his cheek as he flushed. "Yeah. He's probably going to ground me for life for being disrespectful to a lady. Well as long as you're willing to match your story to mine, it will keep me from getting into too much trouble if he asks you about it."

She nodded, "Sorry," she apologized again.

Cody smirked, "Hey, at least now I can say I know this really famous rock star and can brag about how I got to help fix up her house and how I was slapped by her and all that kind of stuff," he joked as he went over and began to clean up the broken mayo jar off the floor.

Flushing, she chuckled a little and began to put plates of food together for lunch. "You are such a brat," she said jokingly.