Deadly Melody

by Connie Mann

  He pulled her to a sitting position and then yanked the cloth up over her head. The blinding sunlight coming through the open door made her squeeze her eyes shut. She ducked her head, then slowly looked up, trying to memorize the man’s face through the hair hanging in front of her eyes. He had a baseball cap pulled low over his forehead and a bandana wrapped over the lower half of his face, so she couldn’t see much.

  He lifted her chin with one hand and held a cell phone with the other. “Smile for the camera, Catharine.”

  Catharine? Who is—wait. They thought she was Cat. Blaze opened her mouth to correct him but then snapped her jaw shut. She’d better not say anything just yet. What if they decided to kill her if she told them the truth? Best to stay quiet until she could figure things out.

  From outside the partially open door, another voice said, “Hurry up already. Let’s get out of here.”

  Blaze heard what sounded like air brakes. The smell of diesel fuel permeated the air. She looked around without moving her head. She was inside what appeared to be a metal box. There were cardboard boxes stacked up along the walls. Was she in a trailer?

  The man in front of her put his cell phone away, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe. Blaze’s heart sped up at the size of the needle and the look on his face. What would he do while she was unconscious?

  He jabbed the needle into her arm, and she cried out. Before she could say anything else, she felt her eyes slide closed.

  “Sleep tight, Catharine. I’ll be back.”

  He laughed, and revulsion crawled along Blaze’s nerve endings. But she couldn’t find words, couldn’t protest, couldn’t fight the drug that made her whole body feel heavy and drift into sleep.

  Chapter 16

  One of the worst things about small-town police work, Nick reminded himself, was also one of the best things about small-town police work. He hadn’t driven two miles before he got a call from Wanda telling him that Miss Ellen, who was ninety-six and still lived alone, had called about a big scary snake curled up on her veranda. Would that nice young Officer Stanton come by and shoo that awful critter away?

  Wanda was still snickering as Nick said he was en route. Miss Ellen called at least once a week, mostly because she was lonely. He dutifully shooed the pygmy rattler off the veranda with the help of his snake stick. He put it in a sealed bucket in the back of his SUV, then ate a few cookies and chatted with Miss Ellen before he drove out to a wooded area and released the snake.

  He arrived at the Safe Harbor police station later than he’d planned. Monroe and JD were deep in conversation when he arrived. JD sprang to attention as though he’d been caught doing something wrong, which made Nick wonder what they were talking about.

  Monroe walked over and perched on the corner of Nick’s desk. “Where are we with the investigation into Teddy’s death? His parents keep calling.”

  For a second, Nick wondered why the Winstons weren’t calling him, but he was still considered a newcomer in town, despite being born here. He figured he’d be somewhat suspect until about twenty years from now.

  He stayed standing, not wanting to have to look up at his boss. He opened his email program and checked to be sure the coroner had sent the follow-up report. “We have a cause of death.”

  Monroe’s and JD’s gazes sharpened.

  “I had the coroner run some extra tests, found enough scopolamine in Teddy’s system to cause a heart attack.”

  JD stepped over. “What’s scopolamine? I’ve never heard of it.”

  “It’s from South America. Also called Devil’s Breath or the zombie drug. In small doses, people lose their free will and the power to make decisions. In the case of an overdose, it can cause a heart attack.”

  “How would a drug like that get to Safe Harbor?”

  Nick looked from JD to Monroe and back. “That is exactly what I plan to find out.”

  “How can I help?” JD asked eagerly.

  Monroe turned to him. “JD, keep working on that report I need by—” His cell phone buzzed and he checked it. “Excuse me. I need to take this. Keep working,” he told JD and then walked into his office and shut the door.

  JD sagged in disappointment. Nick patted him on the shoulder as he walked past. “You’re doing fine, JD.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Back to the death scene. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Could it have been suicide?” JD asked. “What with the note and all?”

  Nick stopped. “It’s highly unlikely, given the nature of this drug, but I’m not ruling anything out yet.”

  He’d go have another look around the quarry. In case they missed something the first time.

  And maybe, he’d find some clue that connected Cat and Blaze to all of this.

  Cat drove to the marina, making sure she hid her worry before she arrived. As usual, Mama was dozing on the porch. Sasha was rocking next to her. Both heads snapped up when she stepped onto the porch.

  “Did you find her?” Sasha demanded.

  “Not yet.”

  “What do her friends say?”

  “I’ve talked with several, but no one has seen her.”

  “I called the hospital, and she wasn’t brought in,” Sasha said. “And Jesse drove to town and back, but there’s no sign of her along the road.” She cradled her belly, made soothing motions. “He even went to the old barn where I was held captive by Demetri and Roy, to be sure she wasn’t there.”

  “Good thinking. No sign of her?”

  “None. Where could she be?”

  Mama’s eyes opened, and Cat realized she’d heard every word. “You will find her and bring her safely home.”

  Cat met her eyes. “I will, Mama. Don’t worry.” She patted Mama’s hand and went back to Blaze’s room and checked everything again. Her backpack was on the floor with earbuds, a paperback of To Kill a Mockingbird, and a sketch pad inside. Her cell phone wasn’t there. She checked the closet. An overnight bag sat on the floor, along with a neat row of shoes, one pair missing. Cat rifled through her drawers and found a sock tucked in the back full of singles, fives, and a few tens. Cat figured it was safe to assume she hadn’t packed up and run away, unless she’d gone without taking any of her possessions. And Cat knew that Blaze wouldn’t have left without the money or her sketch pad.

  The sketch pad triggered an idea, and she hurried across the porch and outside. She circled the property and ran to the clearing in the woods where she’d found Blaze the morning after Teddy’s death. The same place Cat used to hide when she’d lived here.

  She stopped at the edge of the clearing and looked at it with fresh eyes. Did anything seem different? She slowly walked closer, keeping an eye on the sandy soil.

  Something was sticking out from beneath a clump of Spanish moss, and she reached over to pick it up. A flashlight. The beam of light was so dim she didn’t see it at first. A chill of foreboding slid down Cat’s spine. It had been on when it was dropped.

  She squatted down and studied the soil. She wasn’t a trained tracker by any means, but there were obviously two sets of footprints here. One was from a pair of tennis shoes, and the other looked like the heel and toe of a cowboy boot. Much larger than the sneaker.

  Heart pounding, she scanned the clearing. She saw some leaves on the ground and bent closer. Yes, there. What looked like several bent and broken branches. As though someone had been dragged through there.

  She got on her hands and knees, and sure enough, there were the boot prints again. But no tennis shoes.

  Blaze had been kidnapped.

  But was it her uncle? Or Garcia—or his men—who had her?

  Why would they take her? Cat straightened and looked around, chilled to the bone. The only thing that made sense would be if they were trying to get Cat to show herself.

  Which meant she was out of options.

  She took a deep breath, realizing there was only one thing to do. She couldn’t let anything happen to Blaze. She was terrified
, but she didn’t have a choice, not really.

  Wait. What if she was wrong? She had to think it through. What if it wasn’t her uncle or Garcia? What if it had to do with Teddy somehow?

  If she was wrong, she’d bring all sorts of trouble to Safe Harbor and make things infinitely worse.

  But she didn’t think she was wrong. The instincts that had kept her alive for fourteen years were screaming that this was ultimately about her, not Blaze.

  She hurried back to the marina, made sure her violin was safely in the trunk, and then headed toward town.

  She would trade her life for Blaze, if that’s what it took.

  God, give me courage.

  Nick pulled his Safe Harbor police SUV into the parking area at the quarry and got out. There was one other car there.

  He walked over and saw that the two teens had the windows down and were wrapped in each other’s arms, missing most of their clothes, oblivious to his approach. He rapped on the doorframe and hid a grin as they yelped and scrambled for their clothes.

  He turned his back, gave them a few minutes to get organized, then said, “Come on out here.”

  They stepped out of either side of the car, the girl’s face beet red as she stared at her feet and hid behind her blonde hair. The boy stepped out, and Nick didn’t try to hide his surprise.

  “Bryan? What are you doing out here?”

  His face was almost as red as the girl’s. “Hello, Officer Stanton. Nicole and I came out to, uh, pay our respects to Teddy.” He indicated the wilting bunch of flowers on the dashboard.

  Beside him, the girl nodded vigorously.

  “Have either of you spoken to Blaze recently?”

  Bryan’s head snapped up. “I tried to call her a couple of times this morning, because she was supposed to come with us, but it went right to voice mail. Is something wrong?”

  “We’re not sure yet, but nobody has seen or talked to her since last night. Would she have taken off for some reason?”

  Bryan shook his head. “No. She talked about trying to figure out why Teddy died. I said I wanted to help, and she promised she’d let me know. I don’t think she’d lie about that. Is she OK?”

  Nick turned to Nicole. “How well do you know Blaze?”

  The girl shrugged, clearly still beyond embarrassed. “Not that well. We say hi at school sometimes, eat lunch together. But she spent most of her time with Teddy. They’re both wicked smart brainiacs.”

  “You’ll let me know if you hear from her?”

  Both promised they would. Then Bryan asked, “Why are you here?”

  Nick eyed both teens. “Still looking for evidence, trying to put all the pieces together on Teddy’s death.” He hitched his chin toward Bryan’s car. “Y’all go on now.”

  They scrambled to climb into the car and escape. Nick waited for the dust to settle and then turned in a slow circle, trying to see everything from a new perspective.

  He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the coroner again. “Listen, Doc, I’m real sorry to bother you again, but have you finished the autopsy report? Is there anything else you can tell me?”

  “I know you wants answers, Nick, but yours isn’t my only case.”

  Nick waited while the silence lengthened. He heard papers shuffling.

  “Actually, I did find something. I was just about to call you. I found bruising under both sides of his jaw consistent with someone forcing his mouth open. It was slight, though, so I didn’t notice it right away. Whoever did it was very careful. They wore gloves. There were no prints or DNA in that area other than the victim’s. And before you ask, once I found the bruising, I checked the whole body for any DNA that didn’t belong to the victim. There isn’t any.”

  “So he was forced to ingest the scopolamine.”

  “Looks like it. You’ll have my final report in a couple of hours.”

  “Thank you, Doc. I owe you a steak dinner.”

  “I’ll hold you to it. With a nice bottle of bourbon.”

  “You got it.”

  Nick hung up and considered. He’d suspected as much, but the confirmation left him cold. Who wanted the teen dead? Why? From what Blaze and Bryan had said, and the bag of weed Teddy had, it made sense that it was drug related. But marijuana and Devil’s Breath were two very different kinds of drugs. What was the connection?

  He scanned the area again. Was Teddy poisoned here? Or was he drugged elsewhere and his body dumped here?

  With the cars that came and went on a regular basis, he wouldn’t find any distinct tire tracks. They had found a button, which may or may not have anything to do with Teddy’s death, but he still hadn’t had any luck tracing it to a manufacturer. It was a long shot, at best.

  He needed some hard evidence. Something that linked someone to the crime. After he walked the perimeter of the area, he headed back to where the body was found. The crushed underbrush had perked up since the body had been moved. There were several bent and broken branches, but nothing out of the ordinary.

  He walked farther into the surrounding woods and bagged a recent-looking cigarette butt and an empty beer bottle. He kept walking, tracking back and forth with his eyes, searching for something the killer might have left behind.

  He came upon an almost empty water bottle, far off the path. It didn’t show signs of being out here for any length of time, so it must have been tossed into the bushes recently. He bagged that, as well. He’d have JD check all three for prints. Maybe they’d get lucky.

  He went back to his SUV, stored the evidence, and was getting ready to leave when the chief pulled up.

  “You find any more evidence out here, Stanton?”

  “Not sure, sir. Got a few things to check for fingerprints, nothing concrete, though. But the coroner says he found bruising under Teddy’s jaw, consistent with someone forcing him to swallow the drug.”

  The chief shook his head as he climbed out of his car. “I don’t know which is worse for that poor boy’s parents. Suicide or murder.” He sighed. “I’ll just give the area another quick look-see, make sure we didn’t miss anything. We need to find who did this as quickly as possible.”

  Nick nodded and left, surprised Avery Ames hadn’t pulled in behind the chief. It would be just like Monroe to find something so he could make a grand announcement and have his picture in the paper.

  He shook his head. Maybe Monroe really was just trying to figure out what happened to his friends’ child.

  Cat’s hands shook as she climbed out of her car on Main Street. She took several deep breaths, trying to calm her racing heart. If she didn’t get a grip, she’d hyperventilate and faint.

  Now was not the time to cave in to fear. She could do this. She had to do this.

  She swallowed hard as she scanned the downtown area. The mayor had recently installed a weather cam downtown, hoping it would attract more tourists to Safe Harbor. Cat was betting her life that her uncle or Garcia was monitoring the live feed.

  First, though, she walked to the drugstore, where she bought a brightly colored sheet of poster board and a thick black marker. She used the hood of her car like a desk.

  Then she walked back to the trunk, pulled her violin out of its case, and spent a few minutes tuning it and getting into her music mind-set. Her hands shook, so it took longer than usual, but she couldn’t seem to make them stop.

  She just had to play and let herself get caught up in the music. If she could focus enough to do that, she’d be OK. Otherwise, she didn’t think she could do this.

  After more than fourteen years of running and constantly looking over her shoulder, she was coming out of hiding in a big way. She’d avoided cameras of any kind, worn a wig and glasses, and sometimes adopted an entirely different persona. She traded cell phones regularly, left no electronic trail, and moved every couple of months.

  Now she was throwing all that protection away to stand in the spotlight. On purpose.

  She blew out a calming breath and glanced around, but no one was paying any
attention to her.

  Was this the right thing to do?

  If Blaze had simply run away, was trying to figure out what happened to Teddy on her own, then Cat was bringing danger right to the marina’s front door.

  But if Blaze had been kidnapped, then this had to be about Cat. Whether her uncle or Garcia had Blaze, this was the only way Cat knew to get their attention. Nothing like a live-feed camera to let them know where to find her.

  She couldn’t hide anymore. If something happened to Blaze and she could have prevented it, she’d never be able to forgive herself. She hadn’t helped Joellen, even though she knew she was in trouble. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  Her time had come to stand and fight. She’d gladly offer herself in trade, if it meant freeing Blaze and keeping her family safe.

  She’d always known that, someday, it would come to this. But she’d thought they would finally catch her. Not that she’d go to them willingly.

  But this was Blaze. And her family.

  Her knees were knocking like a pair of old bones and she felt ill, but none of that mattered. She could do this.

  She located the camera on a lamppost and positioned herself so it was trained directly on her face. She opened the violin case and set it beside her, propped the sign inside the case. It read: A life for a life.

  Then she took a deep breath, tightened her grip on the bow, and started one of her favorite pieces, Pachelbel’s Canon in D. She’d played it as Eve walked down the aisle and had always loved the beautiful, haunting melody.

  It gave her courage now.

  She saw people stop and turn in her direction as the sounds reached them, so she closed her eyes until she found her equilibrium. She missed a note but kept going. Flow with the music.

  After a few minutes, she opened them again, scanned the crowd that had gathered.

  Would her uncle show himself? Would Garcia?

  She forced a smile and nodded, a little surprised by how many people smiled back. A few scowled, but she should have expected that. The Martinelli girls had always been labeled troublemakers in stuck-in-the-past, conventional Safe Harbor.