by Mara Purl
“A disagreement,” Calvin admitted, “even though she didn’t pick up.” He paused. “But she did listen to a voice message. I overheard it. That call altered her mood.”
Del’s mind leaped forward. “So … Ms. Christian has some kind of voice messaging? We didn’t find an answering machine.” Is the message still there? Does anyone else have access? Could they have erased it?
“Yes, yes, she’s a journalist, of course she has an answering machine. She never turns the blasted thing off. Drives me crazy.” Calvin’s voice dropped, choked off by the anxiety that seemed to rise by the minute.
Del edged forward in his chair. “Mr. Calvin, to your knowledge, did Ms. Christian erase that message?”
“Not while I was there.” Calvin composed himself, uncrossed his legs. “We both dressed in a hurry after that,” he continued. “She seemed distracted, rushed. I had an early business meeting. We made another date—a makeup date, we called it… literally, in this case—for that very evening, before she was due to take her trip. That morning, we then left immediately. I opened her car door for her in the parking garage—and watched her drive away before doing the same myself.” He paused again. “I never saw, or heard from her again.”
“What was in the message you overheard?”
“It’s been a while now. I don’t recall the details. But it was a man’s voice saying something about a time frame having changed, and that she had to go to some house if she wanted the story.”
“Perhaps we should start there, sir.”
“I’m sorry, where, Deputy?”
“The last place you were with Ms. Christian. At her residence.”
Joseph leaned forward in his high-backed desk chair. “I… it’d be terribly odd being there without her….”
“Her permission? I think she’d want your help, don’t you?”
Calvin sighed. “I do. Yes.”
“In that case, could we make an appointment sometime this week to meet at her apartment? Seeing it again might spark a suppressed memory. You might notice something missing that we wouldn’t be aware of. Could prove helpful to our investigation.” Best to get a commitment from him right now, “What day would work for you?”
Calvin glanced toward the dark window again, as though he could read his calendar on the pane. After a moment he replied, “I think Monday would work, Deputy. But it’ll have to be after hours again because of my work schedule.”
“I’ll clear this with Detective Dexter, see if he can come with us, or meet us there.”
“Either way, Deputy. It’s also fine if it’s just you and me at Chris’s home.”
Del nodded. “All right. In any case, I’ll call you to confirm, Mr. Calvin. The department will appreciate your cooperation. That much I can tell you right now.”
Outside in the driveway, Del saw the rain had turned to a light drizzle that misted the grounds.
He glanced at the circular drive, its exits marked by illuminated end posts. Each lantern seemed to hover, framed by a ghostly rainbow, the particulates of moisture that still hung in the air acting as tiny prisms. And that’s how a case gets solved… each clue acting like a lens.
He inhaled again the eucalyptus aroma tinged with smoke from Calvin’s fireplace. The missing woman probably stood right hear, inhaling this same fragrance, enjoying time here with Joseph Calvin.
Calvin’s connection to her… the fact that he’s now revealed more than we knew. . . . It opens up a whole new avenue of inquiry, gives us something solid. Maybe we can find Christine Christian.
Light shot through the kaleidoscope in her consciousness and made a new geometry of her soul. When had colors been so vivid… complexity of design so pure? Even as she yearned to touch it, flow through its matrix, lose herself to the rainbow of light and become its prism, something tugged at the edges of memory.
Christine. It seemed a nice name—a familiar one. Pristine Christine … a childhood song echoed but she regarded the taunt as though from a great distance.
Now an urgency began to press like a weight against her chest. A few moments ago—or was it a few weeks?—she’d wanted to breathe. Now that seemed irrelevant.
But something else prodded insistently. Yes, there it was— the need to tell.
She remembered now. The story—she had a story to tell, but she didn’t have all the details yet. She’d tried to write it. But first there was more research to be done.
She’d been good—delayed her dinner date, gone to the house on the bluff to follow the lead, meet her source.
The reporter’s instinct that still pulsed within her said danger was still coming closer, That story was the urgency pulling at her, dragging her back to the human circumstances, holding her in the dark. She had to get this story done in time.
Deadline.
The word carried with it the weight of the world.
COLOPHON
This book is set in the Cambria font, released in 2004 by Microsoft, as a formal, solid font to be equally readable in print and on screens. It was designed by Jelle Bosma, Steve Matteson, and Robin Nicholas.
The name Cambria is the classical name for Wales, the Latin form of the Welsh name for Wales, Cymru. The etymology of Cynru is combrog, meaning “compatriot.”
The California town of Cambria is named for its resemblance to the southwestern coast of Wales, where the town of Milford Haven has existed since before ancient Roman times, and is mentioned in William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline.
The dingbat is the Heart Cockle Shell, drawn by artist Mary Helsaple, and rendered graphically by cover designer Kevin Meyer. The heart cockle, or cardium cardissa, lives in open, sandy intertidal zones in California, Alaska, Florida, Japan, and on other beaches throughout the world.
The word “cockles” refers to the interior chambers of the heart, and to a person’s innermost feelings.
LIGHTHOUSE
Each of the MilfordHaven Novels features a real lighthouse. The Piedras Blancas lighthouse has a most unusual profile: the superstructure that once housed its light has been removed, and its original Fresnel lens has been replaced by a flashing beacon.
The Piedras Blancas light still serves California’s Central Coast, shining outward twentyfive miles from its isolated perch at the end of a prominent peninsula a few miles north of San Simeon. It’s named for the white rocks located just offshore.
Completed in 1875, it rose onehundredfifteen feet and housed a firstorder Fresnel lens. Later that year a twostory Victorian dwelling was built, and in 1906 a fog signal and additional keeper’s dwelling were added.
The lighthouse was operated by the U.S. Lighthouse Service until 1939, when the U.S. Coast Guard assumed jurisdiction. In 1949 a storm damaged the lantern room. The Fresnel lens was removed and a rotating aerobeacon was placed on the tower, which is now 74 feet high.
The Coast Guard staffed the lighthouse until 1975, at which time the tower was automated and the station unmanned. In 2001 management was transferred to the Bureau of Land Management, whose team has already extensively reclaimed native plants and who have plans to restore the upper portion of the tower and replicate the original light. The original lens, slated for destruction, was saved by the Lion’s Club, the Coast Guard and the community of Cambria, where the lens is on display on Main Street.
Funds are being raised by local community groups to restore the lighthouse. Visit www.ca.blm.gov/bakersfield or call the Bakersfield office of the BLM 661-391-6000 for information or tours.
While the geographical and technical elements of this lighthouse are accurate in my series, the chronology has been compressed so as to present as much as possible of its rich history.
Secret of the Shells
Special Messages about a Woman and Her Self,
and about Discovering the Next Chapter . . . of Her Life
Shell 1: What Your Heart Knows
Do you often have intuitions? When they come, are they thoughts or feelings? Do you identify them by other terms such as instinct, feel
ing, or premonition?
What do you do when you have an intuition? Do you dismiss it as “silly”? Do you evaluate them carefully to learn whether they’re fear-based or inspired?
There are many expressions that use the word “heart.” Examples are hardhearted, put your heart into it, heart-to-heart talk, and heart in the right place. What are others?
Does your own sense of purpose come more from your head or from your heart? Is it possible to be committed to a life purpose or mission if your heart isn’t in it?
Create a one-page collage from magazine pictures. Use only images of things your heart desires, no matter how outlandish they seem. Live with the collage for a month. Do your feelings about it change? Does anything new come into your life?
Can you think of a scenario where your head says the situation is hopeless, but your heart says something can be done? Challenge yourself to use this awareness to do something special for another person or for an organization.
To discover more about the Secrets Of the Shells
visit www.MaraPurl.com
To join the author’s blog
visit www.MaraPurl.WordPress.com.
To reach the author, by email: [email protected]. by mail: Mara Purl c/o Milford-Haven Enterprises
PO Box 7304629
North Hollywood, CA 91603
What the Heart Knows
Reading Group Topics for Discussion
1. What is nurturing and supportive about a small town? When should privacy take a back seat to “public good”?
2. Is Samantha in crisis? What function does journal-writing perform in her life? Have you ever kept a journal? What did it do for you?
3. Is reporter Chris Christian courageous or foolhardy? Was her trip to the Clarke House impetuous or well-calculated? Should a journalist do almost anything to get at the truth?
4. Do relationships make us more complete? Or are we already complete, and we bring this quality to a relationship? Would you choose a life partner with your head or with your heart? Why?
5. What makes an artist like Miranda Jones essentially different from other people? Is she a serious artist, or should she get a “real” job when she “grows up”?
6. Why do some women manipulate every personal and business relationship? What are Zelda’s motives? Have you known anyone who stops at nothing to get what she wants? Do you admire or resent her behavior?
7. Is Miranda responding to a deep and soulful recognition when she meets Zack? Is there such a thing as the “right” partner? How can you tell? Can there be more than one?
3. As a former journalist who wrote for the Associated Press, the Financial Times of London, and Rolling Stone (among others] Mara Purl was trained to do extensive research and to report accurately. How does her journalistic background seem to influence her as a novelist?
9. Why is this book called What the Heart Knows? Does this phrase apply only to Samantha and her journal-writing? Does important information come to you through both head and heart? How do you decide which to trust?
To share or print these discussion points please visit:
http://www.BellekeepBooks.com
Mara Purl, author of the popular and critically acclaimed MilfordHaven Novels and MilfordHaven Stories, pioneered smalltown fiction for women.
Mara’s beloved fictitious town has been delighting international audiences since 1992, when it first appeared as Milford-Haven, U.SA.©— the first American radio drama ever licensed and broadcast by the BBC. The show reached an audience of 4.5 million listeners in the U.K. In the U.S., it was the 1994 Finalist for the New York Festivals World’s Best Radio Programs.
Early’ editions of her novels have won fifteen finalist and gold literary awards including the Benjamin Franklin, Indie Excellence, USA Book News Best Books, and ForeWord Books of the Year.
Mara’s other writing credits include plays, screenplays, scripts for Guiding Light, cover stories for Rolling Stone, staff writing with the Financial Times (of London), and the Associated Press. She is the coauthor (with Erin Gray) of Act Right: A Manual for the On-Camera Actor.
As an actress, Mara was “Darla Cook” on Days Of Our Lives. For the one-woman show Mary Shelley: In Her Own Words, which Mara performs and co-wrote (with Sydney Swire), she earned a Peak Award. She was named one of twelve Women of the Year by the Los Angeles County Commission for Women.
Mara is married to Dr. Larry Norfleet and lives in Los Angeles, and in Colorado Springs.
Visit her website at www.MaraPurl.com and subscribe to her blog or to her newsletter. She welcomes email from readers at [email protected].
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Prologue
