Her crotch was still humming so Val cleared her throat, checked to see if her voice might fail her, and attempted to regain some composure.
Cam pointed to the addresses. “Was your mom thinking of buying a new house?”
“I don’t think so. Why would she do that?”
“I don’t know, but that makes the most sense.”
They looked at the list together and Val tried to focus.
Each line had a home address, a seven or eight-digit number after that, and the listing agent’s name.
“Okay, so what do we know?” Cam’s finger tapped the paper. “The listing agent. All of them are Nedra Tobias.”
“If she was shopping for a new house, all this means is that Nedra handled every one she’s interested in. And if she wasn’t in the market, all these houses have something else in common.” She thought a moment. “Maybe mom confided in Nedra about something. I mean, they attended the same church so I could see that happening.”
Cam made a face that Val couldn’t read.
“Unless you just bit into an orange peel, you seem to have had a reaction to what I said.”
“All I can say is, Nedra Tobias isn’t someone I’d loan money to.”
“You don’t trust her.”
“Not at all. She’s a shrewd woman. I know that’s what it takes to be a top real-estate agent, but there’s something about her I’ve never liked. She wields a lot of power in Hemlock and owns a lot of property. If my candy shop were closer to the middle of town, she’d find a way to force me to sell. It’s happened to a few business people here. I guarantee you that she doesn’t drive around town in a bloodred Tesla because she’s conscious about the earth’s fossil fuels.”
“She’s the listing agent on my mom’s house,” Val said. “But to play devil’s advocate, if I were picking a real-estate agent, I’d probably go with the one that had the best success rate.”
Cam shrugged. “Nedra’s probably an okay person. I admit that I’m a little tainted from living in this town all my life.”
“I don’t blame you. You’ve been hassled a lot, and it sounds like you’ve had to fight for everything you have. It doesn’t seem that many people in Hemlock ever gave you much of a break.”
The lights on the stage suddenly turned off, and the stage became as dark as a coal mine at midnight.
Cam touched her arm and said, “I’ll go try to find the switch.”
Val followed the sound of her stepping slowly, with a shuffling noise that was only interrupted twice by her knocking into something and mumbling, “Shit.”
Cam must have then jumped off the stage because a thump and a grunt came from that direction.
Val waited. The silence was certainly creepy.
“Cam?”
A long time passed while she sat in the dark. She heard some muffled noises that seemed to come from a few different directions and began to get edgy. She didn’t like being so vulnerable and exposed. Was some crazy person watching her through night-vision goggles?
Then suddenly, a spotlight popped on, shining a bright tunnel of light that fell upon the set’s fireplace. It shut off and another, closer to Val, turned on. She squinted up into the light and then to the seats in front of her.
Val closed the box and set it back on the side table. She replaced the doily and put the key, as well as the paper, in her front pocket. She walked back toward the set wall, calling out to Cam again. A very loud bang came from that direction, behind the wall, and she stopped.
Out of the darkness, a silhouette emerged, and Val threw her hands up, ready to defend herself.
“Hey!” Cam said, “It’s just me!”
“You scared the hell out of me! What was that noise?”
“My shin and a chair.” She stepped closer. “I’m sorry.”
Cam held her shoulders gently. Val took a deep breath, knowing, of course, that the noise had come from Cam, but lately she’d been involved in too many incidents she hadn’t been prepared for. She was as jumpy as a Mexican bean in a Southwestern souvenir store.
“Are you all right?” Cam held her shoulders until Val said yes.
“Okay, then. Let’s get out of here so we can think.”
“Cam,” Val said just before they left the theater. “Thanks for backing me in this crazy mess.”
Just through the theater’s double doors, Val paused in the lobby and turned to Cam.
“I need to say good-bye to Phil. He said he’d be in the box office.”
When they looked in the tiny room, it was dark.
“That’s strange.”
She stood there for a moment.
“Did you see him backstage?”
“No.”
Val was perplexed. Would he just leave the building with them still in it? Maybe he trusted her. Maybe he never locked the theater. Maybe she’d never understand small towns.
*
Cam started her car, which was now the only one left on the street. The road was dark, and only a couple other cars drove down Coast Highway.
“Back to your house?”
Val pulled out the list. “Let’s take a drive.”
Val searched the houses while Cam idled down Pine Coast Road.
“There. Forty-seven. That’s the first house on the list.”
Cam stopped in front of the house. There was nothing unusual about it. The shutters were drawn, but a car in the driveway and a dim light in the front room indicated that someone could be home.
“I don’t see a for-sale sign in the yard,” Cam said. “I wish I knew what we were looking for.”
“Me, too.” Val glanced back at the house one more time. “Let’s go to the next house.”
Cam stopped in front of the second place listed. It looked as normal as the first.
Val looked down at the paper and confirmed the address. “217 Hillcrest. This is it.”
“Let’s see that list.” Cam held out her hand.
Val shared it with her, and they almost touched heads reading it together. Cam pointed to the list.
“The third address is about five blocks from here, and the fourth one is right around the corner from here. They’re just houses, pretty much like this one.” She flicked at the page. “It’s this last address that’s strange. And it rules out the possibility that your mom was looking to buy a new place.”
“How so?”
“It isn’t at all like these first four.”
Cam started the car.
“Where is it?”
“I’ll show you.”
In less than five minutes, Cam pulled up to a curb and parked.
“Here you go.”
“Nedra’s selling The Seeds of Light church?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Hell, that would make Hemlock front-page news for weeks.”
They sat in silence.
“Something smells.”
“I was just here yesterday.”
“Why?”
“Donna brought me here. She wanted me to talk to Pastor Kind.”
“About your mom’s death?”
“I suppose. I mostly just answered his questions.”
“That’s odd.”
“What?”
“Don’t they usually answer the questions we have?”
Val didn’t go to church so she wasn’t sure, but it made sense.
“What was he asking you?”
“At the church, he asked me what I was going to do with mom’s estate and what we talked about the last time we spoke. Then at my mom’s house, he asked me if I saw the attackers and asked what I thought…”
She hesitated, and her heart dropped with remorse.
“What’s wrong?”
“I told them you also knew that I was at the motel.”
“When you had your things tampered with.” Cam understood immediately. “What’d Pastor Kind say to that?”
“He…said he’d tell the police to come talk to you about it. I’m so, so
sorry!”
She watched Cam’s face for her reaction. The silence between them scared her.
“I think it would be better if I went to the police first.”
“You’re going to go talk to them?”
“As soon as we find out a little more about what’s going on.”
Cam started the car, but Val stopped her from shifting by touching her arm. “I didn’t know he’d say that when I told him you knew I was at the motel.”
“I know.” Cam placed her hand over Val’s. “It’s okay.”
“Where are we going?”
“Let’s get a bite to eat and regroup.”
*
At a back booth of a restaurant ten miles south of town, a waitress put down two cups of coffee and placed a hamburger in front of Cam. Cam thanked her and gestured to Val.
“Aren’t you going to eat anything?”
The waitress paused, looking at her.
“No, thank you,” she said to the waitress and watched her walk away. “I’m too confused to be hungry.”
“You really should eat.”
Val watched her dive into the burger. Cam looked up and smiled.
“One way to get to know someone,” Val said, “is to watch them eat.”
“What are you finding out about me?”
“You handle stress well.”
“It’s the red meat.”
“Cam, I’m sorry you got involved in this. You were just trying to be nice by coming by the motel, and now the police want to talk to you. Plus, you broke into the garage with me. I know you’re already seen around town as a troublemaker.”
Cam shrugged as she put the hamburger down. “I’ve got nothing to hide. Which, I imagine, is more than I can say for my ex.”
“I can’t believe she’s part of this.”
“I think you’d better start believing it.”
“I can’t figure out what’s going on. Nedra spends the afternoon in my mom’s house and someone goes through my things. I get gassed out of the house, go to a hotel that Donna leads me to, and my things are gone through again. And then you tell me Mack’s seeing your ex, who happens to be my ex and someone who seems to know more than I thought.”
“Don’t forget the young girl from the accident who was there when you got attacked.”
This was a little too much for Val. All she’d wanted to do was come to town, handle her mom’s estate, liquidate the assets, and leave town. She dropped her head to her hands.
“Are you okay?”
“They can’t all be involved in this.”
“Why not?”
Val looked up. “Nedra Tobias is an old high-society fart. What would she be doing with that girl from the accident?”
Cam nodded, but it didn’t seem like she was exactly agreeing. “And why would Donna mention a living trust that she supposedly didn’t know about?”
Val sipped her coffee. “If all these unrelated people are actually together on something, the only thing I could guess is that it’s for financial gain.”
“It makes sense. Nedra fits that bill hands down.”
Val pulled the list out of her pocket and flattened it out on the table. She ran her finger over the addresses on the listings.
“All of these places are residences, except for the last one, which is the nondenominational church. So, this isn’t a list of possible houses for Mom to buy. But there’s something here that Mom needed to hide.” She studied the seven-digit numbers on each line. “Maybe these mean something.”
“They could just be the multiple-listing codes.”
Val took out her cell phone and typed one address and its associated number into Google.
“The number comes up, but it’s not this house.”
“Try another one.”
Val did and she shook her head. “One, zero, zero, eight, nine, three, zero comes up as a residence in Allenspark, Colorado.”
“Okay, so it’s not an MLS number.”
Val stared at the numbers, but her brain couldn’t put anything together. “I got nothing.” She shook her head slowly. “But we’ve got to find out what the hell this list means.”
“And then we’ll go to the police,” Cam said. “If they don’t find me first.”
“Speaking of that, we’d better leave. I know we’re way south of town, but what if the police take a dinner break here?”
Cam’s eyes widened. “Let’s go.”
On the way out to Cam’s car, she said, “I guess we should assume Mack, Donna, and Nedra know by now that we’re together on this, or at least that you’ve told me about what’s been going on.”
“That’s a safe assumption.”
She unlocked the passenger’s door for Val. “So they’ll be looking for my car.”
As Cam walked around to the driver’s side and opened the door, Val said, “What should we do?”
They sat down at the same time.
“We need another car.”
“We’re going to steal a car?”
Cam’s laugh was hearty and very cute. Her smile seemed to lighten the atmosphere as naturally as helium lifts a balloon, and a welcoming wave of relief settled over Val.
“No, silly. We’re going to borrow one.”
As they drove off, Val still wasn’t sure what that meant. “Do you mean borrow, as in take without asking and hope to return it before someone finds out?”
Cam laughed again, caressing her hand. “You watch too many TV shows.”
“I guess I do.”
Cam’s warm hand on hers put her at ease, and in the strange and scary saga that was playing out, Val would take whatever comfort she could get. Coming from Cam, those touches also revved up a place of desire inside her that had nothing to do with solving the mystery. Still, she also experienced the uneasiness she would in an airport if someone told her to carry a piece of baggage for them. The smile and touch reassured her, but should she trust them?
Chapter Twelve
Cam parked behind the candy store, and when they got out, reached for her hand. They walked down the back alley and followed the tree line, passing a few streets that intersected with Coast Highway. At a very overgrown sign that looked like Sandpiper Lane, they turned left, toward the ocean.
The air grew colder, and Val knew they were close to the cliffs overlooking the beach. It was dark, but the heady aroma of saltwater and kelp was undeniable.
They stopped at the front door of a little blue house at the end of the street. Like most of the houses in Hemlock, it was worn from time and the salty elements. Voices accompanied by music came from inside, and Val guessed whoever was home had the television on. Cam knocked on the door. They waited a minute or so, and then Cam knocked louder. Finally the door opened, creaking so loudly, Val thought it might take the frame along with it.
An old man with black trousers and a white, short-sleeve T-shirt stood there. “Cam,” he said, his voice a bit gravely. “How the hell are you?”
“I’m fine, Mr. Harlin. I hope we didn’t wake you.”
“Hell, no. I was up watching Charlton Heston. Who’s your pretty friend?”
“This is Val, Mr. Harlin.”
The old man reached out and shook her hand, drawing her inside. “So very pleased to meet you. Come on in.” He turned to Cam as he shut the door. “What the hell are you doing up so late?”
“I need a favor.”
They followed Mr. Harlin to the living room, where he headed over to an old, threadbare easy chair that looked custom molded to his body. When he sat, he grunted and motioned for them to sit on the couch. The place was neat and tidy, but full of souvenirs and keepsakes, and Val guessed that most were older than she was. All the religious icons and pictures bathing the room declared loudly the dominant theme of his place. Jesus watched over everything from five different places, but the Virgin Mary surpassed him in prominence; she reigned supreme in three pictures, four statues, and one ashtray.
“How the hell have you been, Cam?” Mr. Harlin sai
d.
“Very well, thank you.”
He turned to Val. “Cam, here, makes sure I’m never out of my favorite candy.” He picked up a jar next to him, which had the Apostles painted on the outside. He removed the lid and offered Val the contents.
“Necco wafers?”
Val took a few and thanked him, and he swung the jar over to Cam, who reached in and took some, too.
Val couldn’t help but glance over Mr. Harlin’s head at a picture of an old-world priest offering communion to some villagers. She looked at her wafers and then back to the picture.
“Now, you never answered my question. What the hell are you two doing out at this time of night?”
“I’m in a bit of a jam, Mr. Harlin. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to borrow your car for a day or two.”
Without hesitation, he said, “It’s yours.”
He searched the lamp stand right next to him, picked up a few religious magazines, and found his keys underneath. They were on a keychain attached to a small wooden crucifix.
“I hope we’re not putting you out.”
“Oh, applesauce,” Mr. Harlin said as he handed her the keys. “I haven’t driven that car much since twenty aught nine. Old Mrs. Hutchinson brings me my groceries once a month. She’s real sweet.”
“Thank you, Mr. Harlin.”
“Think nothing of it.” To Val, he said, “Every week, Monday morning, she brings me my Necco wafers. I used to go by the candy store, but it’s getting harder and harder to get out and about. The first time I failed to show, she came by to make sure I was all right. Now I get personal deliveries. Sometimes, she comes by for no reason, just to see if I’m okay and to have a chat. Wish to hell my doctor would do that.”
“I really appreciate this,” Cam said.
“You’re a helluva good woman, Cam.” Again, he addressed Val. “She’s the real McCoy.”
Val smiled, hoping she was.
*
Cam and Val sat in Mr. Harlin’s old Grand Torino. Having stopped by a fast-food restaurant, they sat in the parking lot, and Val was devouring a chicken-breast sandwich, fries, and a Coke. Cam had one of Val’s napkins and was doodling on it with a pen.
The 45th Parallel Page 13
