Haven of Swans

by Colleen Coble

  “Then I’m sure she has police protection. This can’t wait, Captain.”

  If Eve would go with him, he’d take her, but he knew she’d say no. And he wasn’t leaving her here without him. “Then you’ll have to send someone to Rock Harbor. I’m not leaving Eve. If it means losing my job, then that’s the price I’ll pay to protect my wife.” From the long silence on the other end, he figured the man had hung up and he’d be getting dismissal papers in a few days. Then he heard Campbell clear his throat.

  “I’ll be there tomorrow morning. Make yourself available, Andreakos.” Without waiting for an answer, he hung up.

  Nick rolled his eyes and put his phone away. Just what he didn’t need right now. He should probably go over his report of the operation, but it was back at his office. Maybe he could get someone to overnight it. He called headquarters and made the request. His assistant offered to fax them to the sheriff’s office, and he jumped on her suggestion.

  He went back to the basement and told Oliver what the call was about.

  “I’ll look after Eve if you need to go,” Oliver said, standing and pressing his fist into his back. His eyelids drooped, and his skin was a sallow color.

  “Thanks, but I can’t leave her.” He stretched. “I think I’ll go for a walk. Want me to get you a soda or a candy bar?”

  “How about a Rolaids?” Oliver said, his white grin breaking out.

  “Got plenty of those.” Nick started to dig in his pocket, but the older man held up his hand.

  “I was only kidding. Those things will kill you, Nick.”

  “Probably.” Nick went toward the steps. “Sure I can’t get you something?”

  “Just Gideon’s head,” Oliver said, his gaze going back to the skull.

  “I’ll do my best.” Nick escaped into the sunshine. He decided to walk to the downtown area. The sun shone down from a sky so blue it hurt his eyes. A light breeze wafted off the lake and lifted his hair.

  He found himself watching for Eve. Maybe she and Bree would be walking the children home from the park. Things were strained between them since their discussion about Will Donaldson, but at least she’d admitted she had no feelings for the man now.

  Just around the corner from the coffee shop, he saw a familiar black hat and red beard. “Zack? We’ve got to quit meeting like this!”

  His German Baptist friend turned at the sound of his voice and grinned. “Nick! Has the geocaching bug bitten you that much? This is a rather obscure event for you to be attending.”

  “What planet do you live on, buddy? Haven’t you seen the papers? I thought Eve was killed by a serial killer, but I found her up here.”

  Zack pursed his lips. “I rarely read the paper. It’s full of distressing information that pollutes the mind. Is Eve all right?”

  “Yes, she’s fine.” Nick saw the GPS unit in Zack’s hand. “You’re here looking for a cache?”

  Zack nodded. “I live about an hour away. I come here often with my group.”

  “The folks I met in Bay City?”

  “No, the ones from Marquette. Though a big event is going on this weekend, so my friends from Bay City are here as well.”

  “What were their names again—the guys I met in Bay City?”

  “Judd and Hugo. Why?”

  Judd. That’s who Nick was thinking of. The quiet ones were the ones to watch out for, and this guy just kept cropping up. “Where is Judd?”

  “Out scouting the area.” Zack frowned. “Is something wrong?”

  “How well do you know him?”

  “We enjoyed the new adventure for a year before I moved. He’s quiet but studious.”

  Studious. Smart enough to put all those obscure clues online. “I think I need to talk to him,” Nick said. “Can we meet for coffee?”

  “As you wish.” Zack glanced at his watch. “In about two hours?”

  “Great. See you then.” Nick headed on down the street. He was probably going down a rabbit trail with his suspicion of Judd, but not a single alternative path had opened up to him yet.

  When he neared the jail, he saw several cop cars screech to a stop in front. Picking up his pace, he hurried to the building and rushed inside. He might be ordered out since he was technically suspended, but he hoped Montgomery would throw him a bone or two.

  “They found her shoe outside the bar this morning,” one deputy said as Nick entered the building. “And blood spatter on some leaves in the woods.”

  “A murder?” Nick asked Montgomery, who stood hiking up his pants by the watercooler.

  “Yeah, some friends reported a young woman missing this morning in Houghton.”

  “Any resemblance to Eve?” Nick asked.

  “Well, she’s a blonde,” Montgomery said.

  “Age?”

  “Hannah Pelton, thirty-two. We’ve got a picture,” the deputy said. “I’ll call Bree. Maybe she and Samson can track her.” He hesitated. “I’ve got papers to deliver to Eve.”

  “From Patti?”

  Montgomery nodded.

  “I’ll go with you.” If only Nick could shake some sense into his sister-in-law.

  TOURISTS PACKED THE OUTSIDE SEATING AREAS. Eve claimed the last table available outside the coffee shop. Bree was getting their drinks, and both children and the dog had wanted to go inside with her. Through the window, Eve could see the children press their noses to the pastry display case. Nick’s parents had returned to their hotel for a rest.

  The sun was hot on her head. She glanced around the town street and saw Nick approaching at a brisk pace. Deputy Montgomery lumbered behind him. Patti followed with a triumphant expression brightening her sallow skin.

  Nick reached her first. “We knew this was coming,” he whispered. “Hang on, we’ll get through it.”

  Eve put her coffee down on the table. Patti’s gaze locked with hers. There was no remorse in her sister’s face.

  Montgomery stopped in front of her. “Eve, I’m sorry, but I have to serve you with these papers. Your sister is suing for custody of Keri.” The deputy handed her the bundle.

  Eve shook her head. “No.”

  “Sorry, Eve. You have to take them.”

  “You can’t have her,” Nick said, raising his voice. “Just so you know. We’ll fight you every step of the way.”

  Patti tossed her mousy hair back from her face. “She’s my daughter.”

  “The initial hearing is set for Wednesday,” Montgomery continued. “One o’clock. The judge will decide temporary custody until the full trial.”

  Maybe an emotional plea would work. Surely there was some kind of feeling left between her and her sister. Eve’s chair scraped as she stood. “Don’t do this, Patti. Please. Keri has had enough upheaval in her life.” She reached out and took Patti’s cold hand.

  Patti tugged out of Eve’s grip. “I’m her mother. She belongs with me.”

  “She doesn’t know you.”

  “I never lied to her. You did.”

  “You abandoned her!” Nick said. “Why are you so set to get her back all of a sudden?”

  “Her father wants to meet her.”

  Eve wet her lips. “Who is it, Patti? Is he a decent man?”

  “I think so.”

  “Why didn’t he stand behind you when you were pregnant?” Nick demanded.

  “He was married then. His wife couldn’t have kids, and he wanted them, so they divorced. If I can get custody of Keri, he’ll marry me.”

  “Oh, he sounds like a real winner.” Nick thrust his hands in his pockets.

  “Don’t do this, Patti,” Eve begged. “Please think about it.”

  Patti’s eyes were as hard as ice chips. “He loves kids. And he wants Keri. I’m going to make sure he gets her.”

  “So it’s not that you care about her,” Nick said. “You just want to use her as bait to hook some guy who was too much of a good-time Charlie to stick with his wife. He’s not getting our baby.”

  Our baby. Eve was beginning to like the wa
y he wrapped them both in his protection.

  Patti’s mouth worked, but she said nothing before stomping off. Eve wished she could call her sister back, heal the wounds between them. Instead, she tucked the papers in her purse. “Tell me she won’t win, Nick.”

  “She won’t.” His gaze held hers.

  “Thank you.” Little by little he was creeping back into her heart, and she didn’t know how to stop him. “Want to join us for coffee?”

  His smile emerged. “Sure. I’m supposed to meet someone here later anyway.”

  She almost warned him not to get his hopes up, but she found that her own kept resurrecting as well. Who was she to tell him not to do something she found impossible to resist?

  EVE AND BREE LEFT WITH THE CHILDREN WHEN Montgomery asked for Bree’s help, and the rest of the crowd thinned out at the coffee shop. Nick kept the outside table and watched the people walk by. Zack should be along with Judd any minute.

  He shouldn’t be wasting his time. A better use of these minutes would be combing the woods for the missing woman. He sipped his strong black coffee. The nisu bread was smelling better and better.

  He was about to go get a snack when he saw Zack’s black hat. The other man spotted his wave and came toward him with Judd in tow. “What can I get for you?” Nick asked when they reached the table.

  “Nothing for me,” Zack said. “I don’t drink caffeine.”

  “How about you?” Nick asked Judd. It was an excuse to look the guy over better. The casual clothes fit him, but the man looked out of place in the jeans and plaid shirt. He’d be more comfortable in a suit and tie.

  Judd nodded. “Thanks, but I limit my coffee to the morning.”

  “Suit yourself. Have a seat.” Nick dropped into the green metal chair again. He waited until the other men were seated. “We’ve seen each other several times now, Judd, and I’ve never asked what you do.”

  “I’m a physician’s assistant.”

  Nick would have guessed he was a lawyer or something. “Did Zack tell you about the serial killer I’ve been tracking?”

  “A bit.” Judd looked bored.

  “You choose which caches your group goes after, is that right?”

  “Yes, of course. They trust my judgment.”

  “What about the day we went out by the bay? The day we found the woman whose hands were cut off.”

  “I chose those caches.”

  “What were your criteria?”

  “Just one: I wanted to go out to the bay that day. It was a nice day.”

  “That was all?”

  Judd looked up with an angry flash in his eyes. His cheeks surged with color. “You suspect me, is that it? Typical pig,” he snarled.

  The transformation from confident professional to infuriated man made Nick rear back in his chair. “Whoa, I’m not accusing you of anything.”

  “No? It sure sounded like you were.”

  “We know Gideon has some ties to the geocaching sport. I’m just trying to get a feel for how it all works. You’ve been present at the discovery of two bodies now. Seems strange, don’t you think?”

  Judd set his chin. “No.”

  “Do you have much contact with others who play?”

  “Of course. It’s a small community, so to speak. I’ve been to many events.”

  “Ever been up here?”

  “Sure. Many times.”

  “Is the sport popular up here?”

  “It’s popular everywhere.” Judd stood. “I really need to get going. I’m meeting a friend for dinner.” He glanced at Zack. “Coming?”

  Zack offered Nick a glance of apology as the two shook hands in parting, but he followed Judd. Nick watched them leave and wondered how he might find out some more information about Judd. That flash of temper just might have been telling.

  18

  The dogs strained at the leashes. Another twenty people thronged the small sidewalk where the woman’s shoe had been found. Bree kept a tight hold on Samson as the handlers listened to the instructions.

  Montgomery had them lined up. “You’ve all got walkie-talkies. Call in your position if you find anything. Don’t approach the site. We don’t want the evidence contaminated.”

  “He’s sure we’re going to find a body and not a survivor,” Bree whispered to Naomi.

  Naomi took a firmer grip on Charley’s leash. “Heel, Charley!” The dog sat back on his haunches.

  Deputy Montgomery dismissed the line searchers and went to join the dog teams. “I want you to move fast on this, Bree.”

  “As long as he didn’t put her in a car, we’ve got a good shot,” Bree said. “Are you coming with us?”

  He shook his head. “I’ll stay at search headquarters, eh? Call me when you find something.”

  Bree nodded. “Let’s go,” she told the other searchers. Naomi followed her. Bree had trained ten other dog teams, but none of them were available today. This victim’s chances rested on Bree’s and Naomi’s shoulders.

  She opened the paper sack containing the woman’s shoe and let the dogs sniff. “Search, Samson,” she said.

  His intelligent eyes turned toward the woods, and he strained at the leash anew. Bree unclipped it, and Samson sprang into the underbrush. She ran after him. His tail swished in the air, and she knew he had the scent. The trail led deep into the forest, past stands of white birch and oak trees. Charley barked as he ran in the same direction and caught up with Samson.

  Samson leaped over a fallen tree and splashed through a creek. On the opposite side, he stopped. His legs stiffened. His tail came down. While it was exactly what Bree expected, she slowed and hung her head. Dead. Hannah was dead. The dogs had stopped by an old outhouse. The remains of a cabin sat by the stream, a few rotting rafters supported by crumbling walls.

  The dogs were milling around outside the outhouse. “I’d better check it out before I call Montgomery,” Bree said. She approached the doorway. The door itself had long since been torn off its hinges.

  The body lay just inside the door. Bree stepped away but not so fast she missed seeing the partial peanut butter sandwich on the woman’s chest. Or the fact that she had no face. Her feet, severed just above the ankles, were nowhere to be seen.

  “She’s in there?” Naomi asked.

  Bree nodded. She leaned her forehead against a tree and waited for the shakes to pass. No matter how often this happened, she never got used to it.

  “Want me to call the deputy?” Naomi asked.

  “I’ll do it.” Bree settled on a fallen tree and dialed the jail. “I found her,” she said. She read him the GPS coordinates. When she hung up, she called Kade at the park headquarters. “Can you check the geocaching site? See if there’s anything new.”

  “Sure, hang on.”

  She listened to his steps move to his computer. “We found her, Kade.”

  “Oh, baby, I’m sorry. Dead, I assume from your voice?”

  “Very. He didn’t bury her though.” She told him about finding the body’s location and listened to the tapping of the computer keys over the phone line.

  “Hang on a sec.” His keyboard made a few more clicks before silence fell between them for a few seconds. “Nothing here,” he said. “Maybe he didn’t want it found yet. You might have messed up his plans.”

  “I’d like to mess up more than his plans,” she said. “Thanks, honey.”

  “You okay?”

  “I will be. See you tonight.” She ended the call. The brush rustled, and Bree turned to look. They probably shouldn’t have come out here without any protection, though most people would hesitate to approach with two dogs guarding them.

  Will Donaldson stepped from behind a tree. Two other men with rifles flanked him. One man had a deer over his shoulder—a doe to boot. Will put his hand out to stop their progress when he saw the women.

  He looked so different from the other members of Job’s Children. Bree had to wonder why he was drawn to the group. His hair was spiked and styled, and his jeans w
ere pressed. He could have stepped out of an Esquire magazine, yet here he was in the woods with hunters.

  Bree gave a pointed stare at the guns and deer. “Hunting season doesn’t start until November.” Will’s smile struck her as ingratiating and smug. When he didn’t answer, she nodded at the other men. “I’m Bree Matthews. My husband is a park ranger. None of you should be carrying weapons. And that deer is illegal.”

  “Bree,” Naomi murmured. “We’re a little outnumbered here.”

  Will laughed and spread out his hands. “Hey, back off, Mrs. Matthews. We found the deer.”

  “And I suppose someone else shot it?” She pointed at the gaping hole in the animal’s side, an obvious gunshot wound.

  “We heard a shot and came running,” the man on Will’s right said. Bulky and balding, he wore a T-shirt that read “Live Off the Land.”

  “Then you should have called the park department,” Bree said. “I’m afraid I’ll have to seize the deer and call this in.”

  “I don’t think so,” the man said. “We found it fair and square.” The three men turned and plunged back into the thick brush.

  Bree started to go after them, but Naomi grabbed her arm.

  “Don’t be stupid,” Naomi said. “They have guns. We can tell Kade about it. It’s not like they can get very far. We both identified them anyway.”

  “I hate poachers,” Bree said.

  “I hate getting shot more,” Naomi pointed out. “I think we’ve got enough trouble right here without asking for more.”

  Bree nodded as her phone rang. She pulled it out and saw Kade’s number. “Hey, I just found a poacher,” she said.

  “And the GPS coordinates just popped up,” he said. “She’s one of Gideon’s.”

  THE SUMMER DAY COULDN’T BE PRETTIER, BUT Nick was in no mood to enjoy it. Not with the investigation hanging over his head. The last thing he wanted to do today was answer questions from IA.

  He popped a Rolaids into his mouth, then got out of his SUV and approached the jail. The village looked quiet and peaceful, too, a chimera that hid the darkness swirling around their heads.

  He stepped into the office and saw Montgomery sitting at the desk. “Is IA here yet?” Nick asked him.