“Good.” Harlan nodded his head numerous times to make his point. “We’re doing good. Would be doing better had you not stolen Beth Ann out from under me.”
Okay, so maybe the round of shots hadn’t achieved its purposes completely.
Chad moved his hand from underneath hers before leaning his arm on the back of her high-top chair. His reassuring touch on her back let her know that she wasn’t alone.
“Harlan, I didn’t seek Beth Ann out. As a matter of fact, she wasn’t even on my list of possible candidates to interview. She must have overheard that I was looking to fill the position and showed up on the day in question.” Gwen didn’t have to point out that all anyone had to do was eat a meal at the diner to know the day’s gossip. “If it helps plead my case, I originally told Beth Ann that it wasn’t a good idea and that she should talk to you.”
“Let me guess,” Harlan said, tipping back on what looked to be new cowboy boots. “Beth Ann told you that she had it all worked out.”
Gwen couldn’t argue that point, so she nodded her agreement. She gave Chad a quick glance to see if he was following along with the conversation, because he was being awfully quiet. He seemed as if he was only half-listening, because his gaze was steady on the front door.
Unfortunately, the new arrival wasn’t the man he’d been waiting on.
Chad refocused his attention on Harlan, but he wasn’t the only one taking in the overdue discussion. Gwen’s distraction had let her see that Harlan’s table—which included his wife, Chester and Stella, and Tiny and Rose—all raised their shot glasses when she’d peered around the town’s realtor.
“Is Mindy not working out?” Gwen had almost been afraid to ask, but she and Harlan might as well put everything on the table. “Beth Ann assured me that—”
“Gwen Kendall, I’m just giving you a hard time. Mindy is doing fine.” Harlan tipped back his head and gave a hearty laugh, giving the signal to everyone that bygones were bygones. He motioned for her to stand up, embracing her in a bear hug. Amazingly, he still wore the same Old Stetson cologne she remembered from so long ago. Lord knows how the company managed to stay in business all these years. “I’ll admit to being a bit peeved that Beth Ann wanted to leave me, but I also understood why. It was sweet of her to go the extra lengths to ensure my day-to-day business wasn’t affected. Did you know that she still stops in at the office every day on her lunch break to make sure that we don’t need anything? You have a time-tested winner there, Gwen, and don’t you forget come Christmas bonus time.”
Gwen stepped back, catching Lance giving her a thumbs up at the way this evening had played out. Honestly, she should have come into The Cavern weeks ago. It had been her own way of integrating back into the small-town life, so maybe Chad had been right about having a little bit of city left in her.
“How’s business?” Gwen settled back into her seat, now able to make some small talk and get caught up on something other than what was making headlines in the paper. “It seems as if my dad kept you rather busy there for a while.”
“You didn’t hear?” Harlan gave Gus a wave, knowing full well that the entire line of those sitting at the bar were staring their way. “Gus is paying for our next vacation down to Florida.”
“That isn’t much of a surprise, Harlan.”
“You didn’t hear this from me, but your dad’s business was what kept me afloat recently.” Harlan’s smile eventually faded to an odd look of concern, and Gwen had a feeling that those headlines she’d been trying to avoid weren’t being pushed aside. “Well, until this past month, that is. We’ve had a large number of sales around the lake, all from the same corporation. It’s odd considering the market is so slow. I’m sure you can imagine that houses here in town aren’t quite selling so well with that monster on the loose. Sure, the town itself is doing pretty good with all those reporters sniffing around and paying tourist prices at the few accommodations we have open this time of year. No one wants to come live in a place where young women are being abducted, killed, and dumped in the lake for the fish to—”
“We get it, Harlan,” Chad intervened gently, not really wanting to hear the end of Harlan’s description. The man was worked up, and rightly so. “It hasn’t been easy, and this town won’t be the same until this lunatic is caught. Hell, I’m not sure it will ever be the same if one company owns half the properties around the lake. Odd thing is that most of them aren’t even connected properties, from what I’ve heard. And you know that Rose and Tiny won’t sell any of the land or cottages they’ve got.”
“It does make you wonder, though.” Harlan leaned forward to rest his forearms on the high-top table. The fact that he was acting as if he were sharing a secret told Gwen that this wasn’t something the locals didn’t already know. “Have you two heard the latest? I’m sure you have with Mitch being the sheriff and all.”
Gwen had been uneasy all evening, and she’d chalked it up to Chad’s concern over Irish. He’d promised them that he’d stop in for a beer tonight, but he’d been keeping to himself ever since he’d revealed his past.
“Have we heard what, Harlan?” Gwen reluctantly asked as the tension in the air slowly began to rise. Chad’s fingers had abruptly stopped moving against her back, letting her know that he was steeling himself for what was to come.
“Rumor has it that one of the unidentified victims might be Pamela Graber. You know, the same Grabers whose house you live in now.”
Chapter Seventeen
Gwen had to have heard wrong, because Pamela Graber hadn’t even been living in Blyth Lake when Emma Irwin had been abducted. Besides, the Grabers would have said something to someone in town if their only daughter had gone missing. Nothing of that magnitude could happen without someone noticing.
“Pam went to college down south two years before I graduated high school,” Chad said skeptically, dropping his arm from the back of Gwen’s chair as he shifted forward. “How could she be one of the victims? Wouldn’t the Grabers have said something to someone back here that their daughter had been abducted?”
Gwen thought back to the first day she’d toured her new home. She hadn’t gone down to the basement until her brothers had been on hand. Had she known deep down inside that something terrible had happened to someone who had lived there?
“That’s something you’ll have to ask Mitch,” Harlan suggested, although his words were mostly directed toward Gwen. She hadn’t realized that she hadn’t taken a breath until she grasped that Harlan was waiting for her to speak. “I’m sure we’ll hear one way or another fairly soon. I saw that Agent Thorne walking into the police station after I had dinner over at the diner this evening.”
Patty must have said something in passing about today’s events, because Gwen was relatively sure that no one in her family had been made aware that Pamela could be one of the bodies discovered in the lake. Gwen had found it odd that her older brother had yet to make an appearance here at The Cavern, but he was the sheriff. Somebody could have had their boat stolen or something equally benign. He was technically on call twenty-four seven, but now they’d been made aware of the truth.
Harlan’s recap of events still didn’t make any sense.
“Chad’s right,” Gwen interjected, pushing her beer to the side as she rested her forearms on the table. Her heartrate had spiked, and her palms were now coated with perspiration. She couldn’t be living in a house that was connected to that…monster, as Harlan so eloquently put it. “Pamela left for college the same year that I joined the military. And last I heard, she was still living somewhere down south.”
“I’m just sharing what I was told earlier.” Harlan patted Gwen on the shoulder in sympathy. “Thanks for the shots. And no hard feelings about Beth Ann. It’s not like the pool of available talent around here is bottomless.”
Gwen and Chad didn’t say a word as they both watched Harlan walk back to his table. The others were looking curiously on, most likely trying to figure out where the conversation had taken
a turn from looking at their expressions.
“I know what you’re thinking, but I’m sure that Mitch is ruling it out as we speak. Harlan must have misunderstood whoever he was talking to earlier today.”
“Chad, you and I both know that it was probably Patty speaking out of turn. And that’s surprising, given that she usually never discusses cases unless it’s already been verified. She wouldn’t have let something like that slip if there wasn’t some truth to it.” A wave of nausea rolled over Gwen as she tried to slow down her thoughts. “What if Pamela was taken from—”
“The Grabers would have called the police first thing, and you know it.”
It was unthinkable that someone from this small town, even if he or she were away at college, had met a tragic end without anyone knowing. Had Pamela been taken from her childhood home? Had the Grabers called the police? Had the former sheriff determined that there was no reason to cry foul play?
Frank Percy had been running things back then. He didn’t have the best reputation for getting the job done, and that was one of the reasons Mitch had taken the so-called temporary position until a new election could be scheduled.
“What’s going on?” Lance had begun his trek from behind the bar to their table the moment Harlan had left to join his group. Her brother rested his palms on the table as he waited for an answer. “You’re as white as that napkin, sis.”
“Harlan just shared that Pamela Graber might have been identified as one of the victims found at the bottom of the lake,” Chad shared, rubbing the back of his neck in frustration. “I can’t wrap my head around that possibility.”
“How is that even possible?” Lance pulled his cell phone out of his front pocket, immediately pressing the home button to get to his screen. “Pam Graber left town after high school and still lives somewhere down south. Her parents moved away around three years later to be closer to her once they realized she’d most likely stay in Alabama after graduating college.”
“That’s what we thought,” Gwen replied softly, a dead weight having settled in her stomach. What if that welcome home message hadn’t been for her? What if Pam’s killer had returned to the house as some kind of sick reunion now that the girl’s body had been found? Gwen wasn’t sure she should be relieved or worried. “Do you know anyone who kept in touch with the Grabers after they moved?”
“Rose,” both Chad and Lance said in unison.
All of them glanced over at Harlan’s table where the three couples sat.
“My bet is that she’s already placed a call into Shelly Graber.” Chad gradually sat back in his chair, though it was clear that he was still bothered by this latest development. “Gwen, I know you’re not going to want to hear this, but—”
“Don’t go there,” Gwen warned, not planning on leaving her new home because of some idle speculation. “We’ll wait to see what Mitch has to say before—”
Lance had to go and ruin her hope that this was all a misunderstanding. Her baby brother held up his phone as proof.
“Noah and Reese are at the station now. Agent Thorne just issued a press release, and Charlene Winston is doing a live telecast in front of the station as we speak.”
Quite a few cell phones began to chime throughout the bar, not so much evident by the sounds as it was noticeable when the displays lit up like fireflies. Within seconds, the patrons turned to Brynn and urged her to turn on the large screen television in the corner usually reserved for Thursday night football games.
“Are you in the mood for a sleepover?” Gwen asked Chad, trying to keep things light and failing miserably.
“I thought you’d never ask,” Chad responded with a small smile, allowing her to get away with keeping this a date night instead of what it truly was—another night where the citizens of Blyth Lake were on edge because of some twisted psychopath.
*
“Hey, city girl.” Chad purposefully kept his voice low so as not to startle Gwen. Their night out hadn’t been what either of them had hoped for. Finding her staring out of her living room window with a cup of coffee in her hand at three o’clock in the morning rather solidified that fact. “Your bed is getting rather cold without you in it.”
“I left you in there to keep it warm.” Gwen rested her head back against his shoulder when he wrapped his arms around her waist. He pressed his cheek against her hair, breathing in her intoxicating scent. He still wasn’t sure how they’d ended up here together, but he’d learned not to question life when the goose handed him a golden egg. “Thanks for spending the night here.”
“You have clean sheets and are pleasant company. It’s a win-win for me. Someone’s keeping me so distracted lately that I haven’t had time to do laundry.”
“Does that mean soon you’ll be running around my house naked?”
Chad hadn’t meant to pause the banter, but he’d almost mentioned that wasn’t a possibility given the circumstances. He’d even put on his jeans after they’d made love earlier, because there was no way in hell he was being caught unaware should she receive another visit from that psycho scumbag.
“I can’t believe Pamela went missing all those years ago and her parents never said a word to anyone,” Gwen whispered, resting her left arm over his as they both continued to stare out the window. “Isn’t that what friends are for? To confide in? To be a shoulder to cry on?”
Chad couldn’t give her the answers she sought. He found his gaze inadvertently following the length of the fence around the barn and studying the shadows of the corral. Agent Thorne hadn’t felt it necessary to put another detail on Gwen or Shae, but that hadn’t stopped Mitch from having a couple of his deputies drive through specific areas throughout the night keeping a close eye on things.
Pamela had been one of the two unidentified bodies found in the lake.
From what Agent Thorne had included in the press release, Pamela Graber had gotten involved in drugs and alcohol to such an extent that her parents thought it would be beneficial to be nearby. That hadn’t been the case. They’d purchased a home near the campus, all but forcing Pamela to move in with them for her last year of college.
It had come to light that Pamela and her parents had gotten into a rather heated argument in her last semester, with the young girl storming out of the house and yelling profanities. Neighbors recalled that threats of leaving and never returning had been said.
The Grabers hadn’t been surprised when a couple of days passed without hearing from her. Though Craig and Shelly Graber eventually called the police, the investigation came to a halt when law enforcement gathered that Pamela Graber had left on her own free will.
“Why wouldn’t Craig or Shelly have said something when Sophia Morton’s body was found? They would have heard the news through friends.” It was clear that the coffee Gwen was drinking had kicked in. “I mean, it was national news. So was the fact that the killer had used the lake as his own killing ground.”
“Gwen, we could run in circles with this discussion until morning. We’re still not going to have answers. It sounds like the Grabers were ashamed of what had transpired with their daughter. We don’t know what they went through, just as they most likely never thought the crimes committed here had anything to do with events that happened there in Alabama.”
“But Craig and Shelly would have known about Emma Irwin’s disappearance. They were still in Blyth Lake at the time. Why wouldn’t they have—”
“It sounds like Pamela had taken a very dark path, and her parents thought their presence would shed a little light on her future plans. In the end, maybe they thought they’d exposed a little too much and their good intentions backfired. We just don’t know. Look, you’re having Sunday dinner with your family tomorrow night. Well, technically tonight,” Chad said, referring to the fact that it was three o’clock in the morning. “You’ll get more answers. After all, I’m sure Mitch is looking forward to being interrogated by all of you.”
Chad earned a point in the distraction arena when Gwen alm
ost spit out her coffee. It was a reminder that she’d had enough, so he gently took it from her fingers and set the mug down on the windowsill.
“It’s the truth, isn’t it?” Chad asked, taking her free arm and tucking it in between his. He held her tight as they continued to stare out onto her property as it was cast in a soft moonlight glow. It was easy to see that the grass had a light frost over the blades from the way they glistened in the bluish beams. “If it weren’t for your dad, I’d bet a hundred bucks that Mitch would bail on family dinner.”
“Why don’t you see for yourself?”
It took a few seconds for Chad to register the significance of what she was asking. It didn’t take a genius to know that he had to tread carefully in the waters she’d just mucked up. Mitch wasn’t the only man who didn’t want to face the firing squad. He almost gave the standard excuse that he’d let his errands build up, but he could literally feel her body tighten as she prepared herself for his negative response.
“How about I swing by for dessert?”
Chad labored his breathing, waiting for some type of response.
Three weeks. Gwen had been back in town for three weeks. Two of those were spent getting to know one another and all but going about their daily lives as if their evening talks were nothing more than a pleasant way to pass the time.
They’d been fooling themselves.
Who would have thought that two teenagers who used to run in different circles, if that was even possible in such a small town, would find themselves involved in such a short time?
“You don’t like grilled steaks?”
Chad had to smile as he tucked her in closer when she would have turned around to face him. Between her lists and her penchant for schedules, it didn’t surprise him that she was pushing the issue. Last Sunday, she’d even itemized each dish her brothers and significant others would be bringing in order to take the burden off their father.
What had Noah said the other day up at the lake when Chad had stopped in to check on the cottages?
Unlocking Shadows (Keys to Love, Book Four) Page 14
