Nate gave Terri a quick kiss, then left the house, Rowan right behind him. She took a deep breath and went to the door to let in the first of the visitors. As she knew they would, they carried containers of food. She couldn’t help but think that the dishes were like a movie ticket. They were paying for a show. In this case it was information about the car found in the lake. And the people who’d been there for years wanted to know about Billy. And Stacy. Was it true that Terri and Billy were back together? Had Nate really dropped sweet Stacy flat? Good for Terri to dump him and go back to Billy.
More than one person admitted he/she was torn about Nate. “He fished our son/daughter/dog out of the water” was said many times. But they also said, “Stacy has always been so nice to us. I hate to see her hurt.”
Terri did her best to be gracious and thank them for yet another casserole—and she listened to all the gossip they told her. The only surprise was when they said that Billy Thorndyke was now a minister. “And he’s taking over St. Anne’s Church.”
“I can’t believe he didn’t tell you!” They waited for Terri to make a comment but she didn’t.
She called Nate three times to see how he was doing, but it went to voice mail. She figured he was as overwhelmed as she was and couldn’t answer the phone.
After lunch—eaten cold and quickly—she called Elaine and asked about her dad.
“He ranges between depression and relief. His beloved wife did not leave him, but she was murdered. He’s been talking about her all day. I’m taking good care of him.”
Terri wanted to hug Elaine. Most women would have been jealous, but not her. “Thank you,” she whispered as she choked up.
“Anytime, honey.”
Her talk with Elaine gave her new energy and she greeted the next batch of well-wishers with a smile.
At three, Nate called.
“You can’t believe how busy it is here,” she said. “I—”
“Terri! Where is the Chinese bowl?”
“It’s—” She looked at her coffee table. It wasn’t where she’d left it. “I don’t know. The guys gave it to me and I’m sure I put it on the table. It was still in that tote bag.”
“Could you have put it somewhere else and don’t remember?”
In other circumstances, she would have snapped at him that she was far from being senile. But the urgency in Nate’s voice kept her from replying.
With the phone in her hand, she ran through the house, throwing open doors to closets, the laundry room, bathrooms. “I don’t see it and there has been no time to tuck it away somewhere. Do you think it was stolen?” She remembered that Nate said it was valuable.
“Who has been there today?”
“Half the lake.”
“I need their names.”
“I’ll make a list and send it to you.”
“No!” Nate said. “Now. Tell me. I’ll write them down.”
Terri didn’t waste time asking why he needed it. She heard his tone. She thought back from the morning and gave him names. She opened the refrigerator and looked inside. The casserole dishes had the names of the owners taped on them. She read them off to Nate, and if she remembered, she gave him the cabin number.
When the doorbell rang, she ignored it. “Can I ask what this is about?” she asked.
“Not yet. I want you to go to one of the empty cabins and stay there. I want you to hide. Understand me?”
“Yes.” She tried to sound calm. “Nate, please don’t do anything dumb.”
“Change my entire personality in an instant?”
She didn’t smile at his joke as her heart was pounding in her throat.
“I love you,” he said, then clicked off.
“Back at you,” she said to the silent phone as she began running. She threw clothes in a bag with her cell charger, locked the house, then got into her boat.
She knew ways to move about the lake so no one could see her. Even binoculars couldn’t follow her as she ducked between trees and under plants that needed pruning.
At last she hid her little boat and made her way up stone steps to a cabin she’d only visited twice before. It wasn’t one she usually took care of so no one would know she’d be there. But she knew it was empty, the owners wouldn’t be back for weeks and she knew where the key was hidden.
She didn’t turn on the lights. Instead, she sat down in front of the glass window, phone at her side, and watched the lake. There wasn’t much activity and she thought that fear had taken over everyone. For all that her mother had been locked in a trunk long ago, the discovery was new. The fear was new.
At eleven she dozed off and woke at one with a jolt. Since ten she’d had no calls, but several texts and emails. None of them were from Nate or Rowan, Elaine or her father, so she ignored them.
She wanted to call Nate but she didn’t want to wake him. At least she hoped he was sleeping somewhere.
As she fumbled her way to bed, she wondered what was going on. Had one of the visitors to her house stolen the Chinese bowl? What made Nate ask about it? Was it related to her mother’s murder?
She didn’t sleep well and woke early. She managed to occupy herself until 10:00 a.m., then she left. She docked her boat at her house and went up the stairs. Right away she saw that Nate hadn’t been there.
She called him and got a message that his voice mailbox was full.
It took some doing but she made herself calm down. She ate a portion of one of the casseroles and tried to think about what to do. If these were normal circumstances, she’d call Frank. But he wasn’t here. She couldn’t call her dad. He was under enough stress without her adding to it.
She drove to the sheriff’s office. Calm, she told herself. Don’t panic, don’t cause anyone else to panic. Nate had probably slept in one of the jail cells. He’s probably just fine—and he’d bawl her out for showing up.
She hoped that was what would happen!
The office was busy—and Della was running it. She was barking orders at one of the young deputies. When she saw Terri, she said, “Where is he?”
Terri put on her best fake smile. “At home reading Uncle Frank’s files. He won’t be in until later. He sent me here to get something.” She tried to look exasperated. “But he didn’t tell me what it was. You have any idea what he needs?”
Della stared at Terri for a full ten seconds before responding. “I gave him a package from his mother. It was a book.”
“Other than that,” Terri said. How did she pull this off without upsetting anyone? Should she say, I think Nate is missing? I think he found something and went after it? Would gossipy Della tell the press? The headlines would be Chain Saw Killer on the Loose. “What else?”
Della wasn’t one to let go of the topic. “He was really, really interested in the book. He went outside to make a call. He didn’t tell me who it was or what it was about but I saw that it was a Connecticut area code. Then he called you and asked who all the people were who went to your house.”
Terri’s fists clenched so hard her nails bit into the palms. Della the snoop. Della the spy. “Where’s the book?”
Della had it on her desk. It was a thick volume about Chinese antiques.
Terri tried to keep her eyes from widening. “This is probably what he wants. Thanks.” She started out the door but turned back. Della was staring at her, calculating. “You’d better not say anything about—”
Della cut her off. “I’m a deputy now. The days of this town getting free information out of me are over!”
That’s one way to look at it, Terri thought but didn’t say. She just nodded in agreement and hurried out of the office, the big book tucked under her arm. She drove down the road, then pulled to the side before she opened the book.
It took only minutes to find what Nate had seen. There was a full-page photo of her Chinese bowl. Not one like it bu
t hers. The dent in the base was clearly visible.
Under the photo, the caption explained that the bowl was old, rare and valuable.
What interested Terri was that in the margin was a handwritten name—Monroe—and a phone number. She guessed that the area code was for Connecticut. Della must have been so busy bossing the poor deputies around that she’d missed seeing the notation.
Terri called and asked for a person by that name. Monroe turned out to be the curator of a small museum.
He told her she was the second person to call him that day to ask about the bowl. Yes, it was a man who’d called, said he was the sheriff of a town in Virginia. The bowl had been stolen and Mr. Monroe gave her the date. Terri thanked him and hung up.
She sat there looking out the windshield. The bowl had been stolen two years before her mother arrived at Lake Kissel. Is that theft what caused her mother’s death? She was killed over a piece of silver? Was she the one who stole it? Did she run away to escape being caught? Or did someone else steal it and give it to her mother? Whatever happened, the silver bowl had ended up in her mother’s possession—and had passed to her father.
After his wife ran off—or so Brody thought—he couldn’t bear to look at anything that had belonged to her. He’d taken everything she’d owned to a Goodwill store. It wasn’t until years later, when his sister moved out, that they discovered that she had saved the bowl. They found it shoved to the back of a top shelf of a closet. Brody had wanted to set fire to it and melt it, but Terri wouldn’t let him. She put it back where they’d found it and didn’t bring it out until her guilt about Stacy was eating at her. After all, she’d been living with Stacy’s fiancé. The least she could do was help her with her booth.
Terri looked down at the picture. Based on Nate’s calls to her and the museum curator, Terri was sure that wherever Nate was now had something to do with the silver bowl. And it looked like someone else had found it and taken it.
“I need help,” Terri whispered—and she knew who she had to ask. Billy. He owed her.
She didn’t know for sure where he was staying but it was probably at the house his family still owned. The house where Stacy had so lovingly made an office for Nate. She’d heard that Stacy had “sold” the furniture she’d chosen for Nate and that he had paid for. She sold each item for pennies. Not even nickels were allowed. The big, expensive desk went for six cents. Stacy had dropped all the copper coins into a little velvet bag and left it on the floor of what would have been Nate’s office.
But maybe that was just gossip, Terri thought.
As Terri drove through Summer Hill to Thorndyke House she knew she was postponing dealing with the horror of her mother’s death. She wasn’t allowing herself to think about what her mother had been through. Didn’t want to visualize how she must have been pulled away from her sleeping two-year-old daughter. Was she forced to write a farewell note? Had she begged, pleaded? Had she...?
Terri pulled into the driveway of the house and put her head on the steering wheel. She couldn’t allow herself to think about any of that now. If she did, she’d be like her father and collapse.
Right now she needed to find Nate. Or Rowan. Needed to... To DO something. Anything. Just keep going. Don’t stop.
When she heard a lawn mower, she looked up to see Billy pushing it. His T-shirt was so sweaty he may as well have been shirtless. Stayed in shape, she thought as she put her hand out the window to wave to him.
But he didn’t see her because three young women came around the side. One of them was carrying a tray of glasses of lemonade. Another had a basket full of cookies. All of them wore short shorts and tank tops.
Billy was ignoring them but then one of the girls stepped in front of the lawn mower and he had to swerve sideways. He turned the machine off. “Melissa!” he said. “I could have hit you. Go sit on the porch. I—”
When he saw Terri, he looked relieved. She motioned for him to get in the car with her.
As Billy began running, he grabbed two glasses of lemonade, half a dozen cookies, and stuck out his elbow to hook his shirt off a fence post.
Terri flung the car door open. He slid in, handed her a big glass and closed the door.
As Terri backed out of the drive, the girls were glaring at her. “More people who hate me,” she muttered.
“And again it’s my fault.” He handed her a cookie, which she devoured in two bites. “I see you’re still always hungry. So where are we going?”
“I’m trying to find Nate.”
“From the gossip I heard, you two are conjoined twins. Did you really live together while he was engaged to Stacy?”
“Yes. And the gossip I heard about you is that you’re going to be the new preacher at St. Anne’s.”
“True.”
She glanced at him. “I think that profession suits you. You’ll...for my mother?”
“Yes,” he said solemnly. “I will conduct the service.”
For a moment they were silent. “You like this guy, huh?” he asked.
“I do.”
“Save it for later.”
“What?”
“The ‘I do.’ Save it for the ceremony that I’ll perform for you two.”
She gave a little laugh.
“So tell me what’s going on. Are we playing detective?”
“Maybe.” As quickly as she could, she told him about Nate’s call and the missing silver bowl.
“With the FBI here, it could be that they discovered an unrelated robbery.”
Her expression told him what she thought of that idea.
“Yeah, I don’t believe it either.”
Terri pulled into the parking lot by the clubhouse. “I want to know what Anna’s heard, then you and I are going to check cabins.” She drained the last of her lemonade.
Billy stopped her as she started to open the door. “Terri, I want to tell you that I’m sorry for what happened. I’ve been talking to people and I’ve heard what you’ve been through because of me. I should have contacted you but I was wallowing in self-pity. I was a kid and about to be a father.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s over now.”
“But it isn’t really. This town seems to think I’m a...a...”
“A saint?” she said. “The Great Billy Thorndyke.”
He was looking at her as though he was understanding something. “It wouldn’t have worked with us, would it?”
“No. I saw that when you were here the other day. We’ve become different people. But then, I guess we always were. Youth and hormones kept us together.”
“You were a challenge to me.”
“I was the only girl who didn’t run after you.”
Billy was silent for a moment. “I hear Nate and you save lives every day.”
“Not quite, but Nate reacts well to emergencies. He thinks quickly. He can fix anything. Boat motors and kids’ bikes and roofs. And he can cook. And people really like him. And he—” She broke off, her face turning red.
“I’m glad for you. Very happy that you found each other.” Billy kissed her cheek, then got out of the car.
“Stacy’s not,” she said over her shoulder as they went to the clubhouse.
With a laugh, Billy opened the door into the office.
Anna didn’t look up. “I don’t know anything. Go ask Nate.”
“We can’t find him,” Terri said.
Anna looked up at them in relief.
“Been bad here?” Billy asked.
“Worse than you can imagine. I don’t know why people think the FBI reports directly to me. I would close up the office but...” She shrugged.
“I know. People who live here need looking after.” Billy sounded reassuring.
“The minute after they found the car it was in the news.” Anna pushed aside a stack of papers. “So far, w
e’ve had eight people pack up and leave. They said they wouldn’t stay where there was a serial killer on the loose.”
“This happened years ago!” Terri said.
“I told them that but they wouldn’t listen.”
Terri was frowning. “Has anything unusual happened? Other than morons being themselves, that is.”
“Nothing. I just listen and act like I understand their fear. We had six people call and cancel their reservations. What’s this about Nate? I heard he’s now the sheriff. Bet Frank loves that!”
“Can you print out a list of who is still here?” Terri asked.
“Sure.” Anna turned to her computer. Minutes later, she held out a list. They had a rule that even people who owned a cabin needed to tell the office when they arrived and left. If nothing else, it was for fire safety. “Oh wait. This couple left this morning.” She crossed off names.
“That’s a lot of empty cabins.”
“And all out of fear that a killer might be on the loose,” Billy muttered, and they turned to leave.
“Except for the rats,” Anna said, and they looked at her. “The tenants in Mr. Owens’s cabin said they’d had an invasion of rats during the night. Tore up things and left a mess.”
“Sure it wasn’t raccoons?” Terri asked.
“Who knows? Whatever it was, the renters were angry and said they wanted their money back. I called Mr. Owens and asked him what he wanted to do. I suggested he double the rent for the cabin and I’d put a reporter on an expense account in there.”
“You did what?” Terri asked.
Billy put his hand on her shoulder. “What did Mr. Owens say?”
Anna looked at Billy. “He was very nice, but then he always is. Spends every August here. He said he couldn’t stand to hear what was happening at dear Lake Kissel and he said he’d take care of it in person. Wouldn’t even let me hire someone to clean it up. I don’t know how he got here so fast since he lives in Connecticut. But, if there’s food rotting it’ll draw even more rats.”
Neither Terri nor Billy gave a hint that Connecticut meant anything to them. “We’ll take care of it,” Terri managed to say before they left the office.
Met Her Match Page 27
