Shadow Dancer (The Shadow Series Book 1)

by Kline, Addison

  A squawk came over her CB radio on her desk, and a woman with a petulant voice spoke in a wave of static, “Available officers to 7 Cavegat Forest Lane, Fox Hollow. Missing person's report for Tristan Morrow, underage, potential runaway.”

  Morrow.

  Where had she heard that name before? Then it hit her, she scrambled through the file box on her desk. She pulled the file labeled Catherine Morrow, before grabbing her coat and running for her patrol car.

  * * *

  "I’m sorry to hear about your daughter, Jack. I'm afraid I will have to ask you and your family members some questions in order to determine our next steps.”

  "Shouldn't you guys be out there looking for her? We're wasting time!" exclaimed Jack, appearing nervous and impatient.

  "Mr. Morrow, please calm down. I assure you, we are doing everything in our power to find her. While we are asking questions here, we have officers on alert, and they are keeping an eye out for your daughter. Now, can we sit down and address the situation at hand?"

  Jack led the officers out to the dining room table as Frank hovered close by in the foyer.

  "I must say, in cases of disappearances, we generally allow a twenty-four-hour time frame for the person to come home before launching an official investigation. How old is your daughter?"

  “She is only fifteen."

  "Any chance she would run away?"

  "No chance. Where would she go? We live in the middle of nowhere!"

  "When did you last speak with your daughter?"

  "Last night, around 9:00... Why?"

  "What was your conversation like? Was there an argument?"

  "Well, yes... but I don't think she would run away because of it!"

  "I have to cover all possible scenarios. Where is your wife? I will need to question her next."

  "My wife?"

  "Yes, your wife. There is a Mrs. Morrow, correct?" DiNolfo added with a bite, eyeing the gold band on his ring finger.

  "There was...," Jack began hesitantly.

  "I'm sorry, Jack, but can we not play coy?"

  "My wife is dead. She died shortly after giving birth to Tristan."

  Jenna's face went white, shocked and embarrassed.

  "I'm sorry. I did not realize."

  "No big deal."

  "So what was your argument about?"

  "Actually, it was about my wife."

  "Oh?"

  "She was angry with me because I didn't tell her that her mother was dead. I tried to lessen the blow by telling her that she left."

  "Why would you do that?"

  "My wife didn't die an ordinary death, Sergeant."

  "I thought she died in childbirth."

  "No, not exactly. That is just an easy answer."

  "Now would be a good time to start telling the truth."

  "My wife drowned in the lake out there. The coroner wasn’t sure whether it was suicide or foul play. The case was investigated for a long time, but it was never determined whether she died at her own hands or another’s. I have my theories, though.”

  Jenna glanced down at the file that was lying across her lap.

  "Was her name Catherine?"

  "That is her."

  "I stumbled across her in the unresolved case files today."

  Jack stared across the table at Jenna, unsure of what to say.

  "I am on the case. We will do everything we can to find your daughter and hopefully get to the bottom of your wife's case as well. So, you told your daughter a white lie to protect her from knowing the truth?"

  "Not just my daughter. My sons too. The only one that knows the truth now is Adam, my oldest son, and Tristan found out she is dead last night, but she doesn’t understand the circumstances surrounding her death. I intended to tell the rest tonight, once things calmed down."

  “Was your daughter upset?”

  “Very. But I don’t think that is why she is gone.”

  "Where do you think your daughter is?"

  "I have no idea, but I know who has her. My sons found an outsider in the barn, and he was wearing a Trafford's Auto Body shirt. It was her English teacher."

  "What is his name and about what time was this?"

  "Bernard Kendricks… Around 7:30 this morning."

  "What happened next?"

  "My sons chased after him, and they think they recognize who it was."

  "I will check in with them next. How many sons do you have?"

  "Four – Adam, Liam, Tommy and Blake."

  "I counted five boys in the family portrait on the wall."

  "Good eye. My sister and brother-in-law live here, too, with their boy Shane, and my parents live seasonally in a guest house near the lake. Our kids were raised more so like siblings than cousins." Jenna scribbled into a notepad as Jack spoke.

  “Fifteen... did she have a boyfriend?”

  “Not a boyfriend exactly. There is a boy, he’s sixteen, who hangs around her and my sons a lot. He has an intense interest of her… but I don’t think he’d do anything to hurt her. He’s a nice kid. He comes from a good family.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Cole Piedmonte.”

  Joe’s kid.

  “We’ll be checking all leads. This Kendricks guy… why do you think he might have taken her?”

  “Kendricks was obsessed with my wife. He was actually one of the suspects in her case. Well, my daughter looks just like her….”

  "If you don't mind, I would like to have a look around before I start questioning the other family members."

  Jack nodded as if he had a choice. He knew that the police would scan every inch of the property. His only small blessing was that there was a new sergeant in town, and Amos and Earl were nowhere to be found. Maybe this time, the job would get done right. He just hoped they would leave the third floor alone.

  Jenna departed from the dining room, and began to make a tour of the house while Rutledge continued asking questions and getting important details from Frank and Adam. Jenna scanned the house carefully; they needed to get a handle on what it is that they are dealing with. Was this a simple runaway, mad at her father for withholding a hard truth? Or was there something more sinister at work? Jenna had a feeling that many answers may lay within Catherine's case file. At the very least, we can learn a bit more about the family than Jack was telling. And there was definitely something that he wasn’t telling her. It all seemed a bit too cookie-cutter.

  Somehow, Jenna believed that in order to crack Tristan's case, she would have to crack Catherine's too. I hope I'm wrong. Jenna climbed the stairs, passing the generations of photographs that hung on the wall. When she finally reached the landing she paused, taking in the floor plan and determining where to check first.

  * * *

  Fog drifted off the mountain and lingered over the valley as the last drops of rain fell from the dark sky. The sun made several futile attempts to shine down upon Fox Hollow but was met with great resistance. Escaping from the negative energy inside, Blake Morrow sat on the porch steps of the Morrow Manor as a dark mood overcame him. Distraught with fear and worry over his sister’s disappearance, Blake placed his hands over his knees as his eyes burned with tears. He could not hold back anymore. While everyone else argued, pointed fingers, and answered questions, Blake found himself overwhelmed with heartache.

  The sun set over the mountain top as fog danced over the tree line. From the mouth of Cavegat Forest, the sound of rustling leaves and branches cracking could be heard. Blake looked up to the forest opening and what he saw made him do a double-take. Standing in the shadows of the forest was a figure staring back at him. The figure’s face was hidden by shadow caused by the dark of the forest and the heavy canopy of trees overhead.

  Shocked to action, Blake rose from the porch steps and moved swiftly down the gravel path into Cavegat Forest, his cross trainers skidding down the steep hill. As Blake moved, the figure retreated into the darkness. Where manicured lawn turned to unbridled wildlife, Blake paused to take
a breath before entering the forest. Blake didn’t take entering Cavegat Forest lightly. He feared what lay beyond in the deep woods, especially in the dark. Having gotten lost in the forest once, he was not especially keen on entering it again, and Tristan wasn’t there to save him this time. But he would enter for her.

  Though some sunlight remained, it was cloaked by storm clouds. In the forest, Blake could only see a few feet in front of him. Heart pounding, Blake stepped into the forest as his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. He could not see the figure anywhere. But where his eyes failed him, his ears would guide him. In the distance, he could hear wings flapping, and directly to his right, the rustling of leaves continued.

  Blake looked up the path where the figure was last seen. As he began to follow the dirt path, he was stopped, dead in his tracks. A black raven stood in his path. The bird peered up at him, curious and unafraid. In an instant, the raven spread its wings and took flight, circling around Blake’s body thrice before landing on a nearby fallen tree. From its mouth hung an old key adorned with a red satin ribbon. Blake recognized the key immediately. An ancient skeleton key made of bronze with the likeness of a Victorian-era woman’s face on the grip. He had seen this key before. It hung for many years on the wall of his father’s study, and he was warned often never to touch it. How on earth did the bird get it? Blake wondered.

  Blake cautiously reached for the key as the bird delicately dropped it into his palm. The dark bird gave Blake a strange glance and flew off into the forest. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a dark figure standing in the clearing of the forest, but when he turned around there was no one there.

  “Blake!” called a voice from behind him, shocking him nearly out of his skin. Blake could not move, still recovering from his brush with the creepy forest.

  “Dude,” said Adam calmly as he put his hand on Blake’s back. “Are you okay?”

  Blake shook his head, but all the color had been removed from his face, minus the red scrape that now appeared on the left side of his face from scraping it against a sharp tree branch. Liam helped Blake up from the ground and brushed off his khaki coat.

  “DiNolfo is ready for you now.”

  * * *

  Blake sat in a rickety wooden chair at the end of an isolated hallway, awaiting Sergeant DiNolfo's line of questioning. She did not keep him waiting long, and for that he was grateful; his nerves on edge, like razor blades just below the skin, threatening to push through.

  “Blake, my name is Sergeant DiNolfo,” Jenna announced as she held out her hand to shake. Blake shook it politely, keeping his eyes on the floor. The wheels in his head were turning, distracting him from his usual courteous nature. “I just need to ask you some questions.”

  Blake nodded his head in understanding.

  “When was the last time you saw your sister?”

  “Last night, just before bed.”

  “What time?”

  “I don't know.”

  “Estimate.”

  “Like 9:30?” guessed Blake.

  “What happened last night? Any arguments?”

  “Well, yeah, actually. My sister and father were going at it. I overheard her say that he was lying about something. It had to be something big; she doesn't get upset like that often. She's usually pretty quiet. Then when I went to talk to her about it just before bed, she was annoyed and said she didn't want to talk about it, which is really unlike her.”

  DiNolfo scribbled in her notepad as Blake spoke, capturing key testimony from the youngest Morrow boy. She flipped back in her notepad to review the notes she wrote after interviewing Adam for the name of the man they had seen in the barn.

  “What can you tell me about Bernard Kendricks?”

  “He's our English teacher.”

  “Who's English teacher?”

  “Mine, Tristan’s, Tommy’s, our cousin’s, too. We all had him.”

  “What do you think of him?”

  “I don't like him.”

  “Why is that?”

  “He's annoying and overbearing.”

  “What else?”

  “He was constantly keeping Tristan after class for study sessions.”

  “Did she struggle in class?”

  “No, she is very smart. Has an A+ average.”

  “Why would he keep her then?”

  Blake shrugged and told her, “You should ask Tommy his take on that.”

  “I'm asking you.”

  “She is pretty. He always seemed to stare at her while she was working. Not just glancing. Staring hard, eyeing her up. It made us uncomfortable.”

  “Did it make her uncomfortable?”

  “We never mentioned it to her. He would only stare when she was preoccupied with her work, and he thought everyone else was busy. It’s something worth looking into. He seemed overly interested in her.”

  “Was he interested in other girls at school?”

  “No, just her.”

  “Thank you. That is worth looking into. Did you hear any sounds from Tristan's room last night?”

  “No. It was very quiet, but with the thunderstorm last night, who knows?”

  “I understand you were very close with Tristan. Where do you think she is?”

  “She didn't run away if that's what you're asking. She might have been mad at Dad, but she would never leave this place. I think he took her.”

  DiNolfo raised an eyebrow as she wrote her notes. “That's enough for now. Thank you.”

  Blake watched as Sergeant DiNolfo retreated down the long hallway, heavy-footed and determined. She walked into the living room where Rutledge was still talking with family members. Bridgette stood next to Rutledge looking beside herself while Jack continued to speak with the officer. Tommy, Liam, and Shane had left earlier in the day to search for Tristan in all different directions. In the corner Angus and Moira stood amongst their luggage, home from their trip and to a family crisis. “Rutledge! Let's go!” DiNolfo barked, as she tapped on her watch.

  “Jack, what I want you to do is continue reaching out to various people in town, friends, asking if they have seen her. We are going to try tracking down Mr. Kendricks, as well as survey the school to see if anyone knows anything. Her room has been partitioned off and is considered a crime scene. No one is allowed to enter. We will be back tomorrow with a team to continue. Meanwhile, if you can gather up a search party...”

  Jack nodded in understanding. “We actually started hours ago. Frank, and the boys split up in town, but they haven't found anything yet.”

  “We will, Jack,” DiNolfo assured him. “We just have to get the facts first.”

  With that, Rutledge and DiNolfo left, slamming the heavy oak door behind them.

  * * *

  Jenna settled onto her couch with a glass of brandy and Catherine Morrow’s case file, exhausted from the day’s activities. She wanted nothing more than to nod off for a solid eight hours, but she didn’t want to show up in Fox Hollow tomorrow without all of her information sorted out. There was much that had to be done in the morning. There was the matter of the Trafford’s shirt found in the barn. She would send Rutledge over to Trafford’s in the morning. Surely he could handle questioning those guys over there. Somehow, she thought a male officer would be able to get more out of that lot than she ever would. Forensics would need to be called in, too. It would be an early morning. While the statute of limitations had expired on Catherine’s case, she wanted to find out the truth. For one, it could provide closure to her family, and secondly, it could provide clues to Tristan’s own disappearance.

  With a deep sigh, she opened the manila folder, determined to get to the bottom of the Morrow cases. On top of the file’s contents sat two pictures of Catherine. The first picture showed a vibrant woman with curly black hair, a flawless complexion, and radiant smile. Catherine looked very happy in this picture. Jenna moved the picture to the side to reveal another picture, Catherine post-mortem. Catherine was lying on the bank of the lake in a white night gown
, her hair was wet and matted, her eyes foggy and lifeless. The radiance was gone, her warmth replaced with a terrible coldness. She must have been lying there for a few hours, as frost began to form on her limbs and her lips had turned an unnatural shade of blue. The photograph gave Jenna chills, and she had to turn it over, away from view. What happened to you, Catherine?

  Jenna continued browsing through the file, scanning the original police report. Her body was found on Christmas Day around 8 A.M. by Angus Morrow, her father-in-law. Significant evidence of frostbite was found on the body, but no other signs of physical harm. Blood on her nightgown was not caused by trauma but is a byproduct of delivering a child in the early morning hours. There were interviews with various family members who were able to confirm her whereabouts until 5:00 on Christmas morning. According to her husband, Catherine had given birth to a daughter at around 4:00 A.M. Additionally, she is known to have suffered from moderate depression, and high levels of anxiety. No one ever saw her leave the house - they all assumed she was recovering from giving birth in her bedroom.

  Jenna moved the police report to the side to reveal further investigation notes. There was a coroner’s report as well as written logs from interrogations, medical records, even official documents listing Jack Morrow and Bernard Kendricks as key persons of interest. One by one, she moved the papers to the side, on top of the others, until she noticed something that intrigued her. A life insurance policy that was taken out just three weeks before Catherine’s death listing Jack Morrow as the sole beneficiary, and a restraining order against Bernard Kendricks taken out just a week prior to Catherine’s death. Now this would be worth remembering.