Falling Darkness--A Novel of Romantic Suspense

by Karen Harper

  “Well, Cody Carson,” Julia said, “I’ll just let you explain that—and don’t worry whichever way you go. Just your being here is so much appreciated. Jenna,” she said to Claire, “how about you and Meggie come with me while I fix some coffee and we talk pony lessons and decide when you’ll get the back-of-the-island tour before the weather turns bad.”

  “Sure,” Claire said and tugged Lexi away. She saw Julia wipe a tear from the corner of one eye. Here, dealing with her father she obviously loved and wanted to protect, with her daughter, who wanted to leave island security for the big city—well, maybe the coming bad weather and even hiding WITSEC fugitives were the least of Julia’s worries.

  16

  When Nick and Claire finally headed up for bed, he noted Bronco standing on one foot then the other at the bottom of the staircase.

  “Something come up?” Nick asked him.

  “Didn’t get a chance to tell neither of you what Julia said to me today. You know, after I stayed with her dad for a while, watched a movie with him.”

  “Tell us,” Nick said with a quick glance around, a habit he hadn’t been able to shake, even here.

  “She told me a guy named Wade Buxton—looks like some kinda movie star, she said—and a Vern Kirkpatrick from Las Vegas not allowed to come in her house or get near her dad. Just to tell them no if they called or showed up.”

  “Claire’s told me about Buxton, so what did she tell you about the Las Vegas guy?” Nick asked. “I’ll bet he’s the one she mentioned who’s trying to buy her father’s Western collection. From what Claire told me, it sounds like Hunter Logan would go off the deep end of dementia without all that to keep him occupied.”

  A voice from above. Jace leaned over the banister at the top of the stairs. “I can tell you about Kirkpatrick. Sorry to say, I met him at the airport,” he said, coming down the steps. “He’s arrogant and obnoxious without even trying, so he reminded me of someone we all love to hate.”

  Nick saw Jace’s gaze hold Claire’s for a moment before she looked away. “First of all,” Nick said, “Bronco, did Julia say why she wanted you to keep Kirkpatrick away from her dad?”

  “Yeah. You’re right about him. He is the one tryin’ to buy her dad’s entire Gene Autry collection. But he doesn’t run what you’d think of as a Wild West show in Vegas, she said. It’s got half-naked girl shows, lap dancing, drinks, and it would kill the old guy to lose his stuff to a place like that—or anyplace. I swear, he thinks he is Gene Autry, and he calls me Kit Carson, not Cody Carson.”

  “I bet that’s exactly right about the Vegas place,” Jace put in. “I saw the guy’s business card because he wanted me to keep an eye on the rented plane he has here—even said he’d need help transporting a lot of stuff to it soon. He grabbed the card back when I said no thanks, but I saw his place is called Las Vegas Wild West Museum and Show. Some show, huh, and not steer roping. Who knows it’s not a front for something worse?”

  “I’ll have Heck check all that out online tomorrow,” Nick said. “Anything else about the Wade Buxton guy, Bronco?”

  Bronco shook his head, but Claire put in, “He’s obviously pursuing Liz, and Julia doesn’t trust him. Or else Julia knows something about him that means he should steer clear of Liz. I told Nick, so I might as well tell both of you too. When Gina and I met Wade, he said some people think that sound we hear at night is from a ghost up on the widow’s walk. He said some people claim to have actually seen the grieving, shrieking widow’s ghost. I was tempted to go up there the other day, but with Nick’s leg...”

  “I can check that out with you,” Jace said.

  “I don’t believe in them—we’ll see,” she said.

  Jace shrugged and turned toward Nick. “So, Jack Randal, all this is starting to sound like something we should steer clear of, since I give credit to Julia for handling things. I think she’s sure-footed in more ways than one.”

  Actually, Nick agreed with Jace’s warning to ignore Wade and Kirkpatrick, but he had to admit he was starting to miss this sort of give-and-take evidence gathering with his law team. But there was no crime, so he had to let it all go.

  “Claire and I are going with Lexi, Gina and Nita on a tour of the island with Julia tomorrow,” Nick said, “so we’ll pass on what you said about Kirkpatrick to her so you won’t have to.”

  “I hear you, counselor,” Jace said with a mock salute. “But, maybe since I have to miss that backwoods island tour, Julia will give me a private one.”

  * * *

  Jace was starting to think Julia had been a genius to get him a job at the airport. Without being around many people, he learned who came and went and he’d really floored Nick last night with all he knew about Kirkpatrick. The Vegas guy needed watching all right, but no way Jace believed he was actually tied to Ames.

  Here it was only his second morning on the job—he got off early at 3:00 p.m. today—and he’d also seen the local mayor and the doctor Nick was planning to visit to keep an eye on his healing bullet wound. Actually, with a couple of other people, several local bigwigs were here for a meeting about something that had to do with the airport.

  But the big bonanza of the day so far was the chat with a guy whose name he overheard was Michael Collister. He’d been one of four passengers off the regular Great Lakes morning flight. He was a good-looking, slender, physically fit guy, maybe fifty, casually dressed, who seemed to know his way around in the terminal where Jace had gone for his break. Collister had greeted the two reservation desk workers by name and they’d called out his.

  “Did I overhear your last name is Collister?” Jace asked as he held the door for the man when he headed outside. He had a suitcase in one hand and two huge bouquets of roses in clear plastic in the other. “There’s a Collister family here—one I’ve heard of, at least.”

  “Collister Stables?” he asked. “That’s it. I’m Mike Collister. My ex-wife runs that, and my daughter has a shop here, though I won’t mention what she sells. See you around. Thanks for playing doorman.”

  Jace watched while he went out and chatted with a driver holding the reins of a carriage. Then motioning for him not to bother to get down to help, Collister hefted his bag up and climbed in.

  Jace went back inside, wanting to not like the guy, but first impressions—he did. The opposite of Kirkpatrick. Julia may have said she had no husband, but then, they were divorced. At least one of those bouquets had to be for her. Scratch off the idea of taking her a thank-you gift like that tonight and asking her to give him a private island tour later, at least for now. Didn’t that big suitcase mean the guy was here to stay for a while? On the other hand, maybe she’d prefer to take a new guy called Seth on an island jaunt instead of her ex.

  * * *

  “I appreciate the heads-up on Vern Kirkpatrick,” Julia told Claire and Nick as she harnessed two of her horses to one of the stable’s wagons just after lunch that afternoon, so they could see what she called the “back side” of the island in broad daylight. “I know he’s still lurking, even though I’ve told him to steer clear. I appreciate Bronco’s spending some time with Dad again today, especially since Liz is set on leaving, no matter how I try to fight that. I had hired Jeremy Archer, the sheriff’s son, to help watch Dad before. He’s got school and his pizza delivery job, but at least that kept the sheriff up on Kirkpatrick’s attempts to hound and con Dad. That man’s determined. But I don’t want to ruin this trip with talk about him, believe me.”

  “The sheriff knows you do something else besides the stable, right?” Claire asked.

  “It’s the law—WITSEC law—that the local authorities always know, so even though they ride bikes here, they are real law enforcement, if you ever need any help, or I’m not available. Okay, let’s go, right, Meggie? How about your mom and dad sit back in the wagon and you sit up here on the seat with me?”

/>   “Can I, Mommy and Daddy Jack too? I’m glad we’re not taking that rented carriage we came in, and we’re going with Julia’s horses now.”

  “If you’re going to be taking riding lessons,” Claire told her, “you need to learn to do what Julia says, so you be careful up there.”

  “Too bad Cody can’t go too,” Lexi said. “And why can’t your daddy go, Julia?”

  “He used to love to ride where we’re going, but he always wants to get out of the wagon and I’m afraid to let him ride a horse anymore. His mind isn’t quite right, Meggie. He used to be an excellent rider. Lately he’s taken a horse from time to time before I could stop him. Once in the interior of the island, he rides off into the woods and is hard to find or, worse yet, sometimes stands at the edge of a cliff, and I worry he might slip.”

  “That’s something, isn’t it?” Lexi asked. “I mean that a dad doesn’t do what the daughter says ’stead of the other way round.”

  Claire had to smile at that, and Nick grinned and rolled his eyes. Surely, this place and these people—especially Julia—were going to help Lexi get over her past traumas and, Claire hoped, losing Lily.

  All smiles, Lexi scrambled up to sit proudly next to Julia, and she flapped the reins. They headed past the house and down the drive, but it was blocked by a carriage.

  A man bounded down from it, holding a huge bouquet of red roses in a plastic wrap.

  “Oh, Michael,” Julia cried and halted her horses. “I had no idea. I—We... Some friends and I are just heading out.”

  “Mind if I take the guest room? I’m sure Dad can use the company.”

  “He has someone with him now and too much change upsets him.” She turned around and told them, “This is my former husband, Michael Collister, from Baltimore, obviously here for a surprise visit.”

  She briefly introduced them all as renters of one of her father’s properties, then individually. As flustered as she appeared, she didn’t miss a beat on their fake names or cover story. After brief hellos, Julia ended with, “I hope those roses are for Liz, Michael, because they’ll go perfectly with the reds in her shop. She works this far ahead for Christmas and even Valentine’s Day, you know.”

  “Yeah, well, she needs some parental guidance not to be working on that kind of thing at all, and since she’s not getting advice here, I came in person. But to see you too.”

  Claire’s stomach clenched. Shades—actually dark shadows—of herself and Jace, tensions just below the surface, the tug and pull of past dilemmas and disasters as well as the good times.

  When Julia just stared at him, he said, “Yes, I have some roses for her too. I’ll go see her first, then. Is she home or at the shop?”

  “At the shop, but as busy as ever.”

  “I’ll be back. Meet you at our old spot later, if I can borrow a horse.”

  “A restaurant will do. Are you staying at the Island House again?”

  Ironic, Claire thought, since that was where she and Nick had eaten dinner. Like Nick, she sat riveted to this little domestic drama.

  Michael only nodded, as if he’d run out of civil words, though he was well-spoken with a calm demeanor and managing to hold his anger in, especially under the circumstances of being publicly shafted by his ex-wife. But, crashing in like this, what did he expect?

  Julia sat like a statue until he motioned for his carriage driver to pull up so their wagon could get out into the street.

  As crazy as her life had been lately, Claire couldn’t help thinking Julia’s no doubt tough FBI training would pull her through the stress of a former husband hanging on. But then, had her own psychology and forensic training helped her handle Jace?

  17

  As Julia drove the wagon away from her house, Claire noticed Bronco, who was staying with Hunter Logan, peering from an upstairs window. Maybe he was wondering if Michael Collister was Wade Buxton or Vern Kirkpatrick. Poor guy: he might now have another persona non grata to watch out for.

  “We’re heading through the heart of the island to get to the north shore,” Julia told them as she turned the team right to start up the hill on Fort Street. As they passed Fort Mackinac, Claire stared at the statue of Father Marquette standing alone in the middle of a grassy yard. Even in the sun and in this wider setting, her brain flashed back to that statue of the dead woman in the cemetery with the baby in her stony arms.

  She shook her head to clear it. They were turning onto Huron Street, going more uphill into a heavily forested area, then onto Arch Rock Road. Wasn’t Arch Rock the site Julia had said she especially wanted them to see today?

  As if Julia could read her thoughts, she said, “Wait until you see Arch Rock and the amazing staircase that climbs up the side of the cliff near it.”

  “Maybe great for looking at,” Nick said. “But with my leg and Meggie being small, it sounds like the staircase should be saved for later.”

  “The Arch Rock view is worth the trip,” Julia insisted. “I’ll just show the stairs to Jenna, and she can take you back there when you’re ready. There was an older staircase there for years, just log steps, dangerous and rotting with erosion under it. But it’s all been rebuilt, widened, and the view is breathtaking, my favorite place anywhere on Earth.”

  “Are there flowers to pick around here?” Lexi asked. “You’re not ’sposed to pick them in the Everglades, only in gardens.”

  “Let me put it this way,” Julia said, gesturing at the magnificent orange, gold and scarlet hues of the October trees on both sides of the narrow road. “Mackinac State Park, which we’re in now, is 80 percent of our island and includes all these big trees with their beautiful, colored leaves, so you can pick those off the ground. We’re proud of its being the second created of all the national parks, after the more famous Yellowstone out west. And, Meggie,” she said, looking down at her seat partner, who kept watching the two-horse team over everything else, “though the woodland flowers are gone right now, the park rangers can make you pay a fifty-dollar fine per flower if you’re caught with them. They are protected and how!”

  “I think that’s real good,” Lexi said. “I’d like to be protected or somebody has to pay.”

  At that, Claire’s eyes filled with tears she blinked back before Nick could see them. Out of the mouths of children...her child and yet, a ways off yet, another to come.

  “Ta-da!” Julia sang out and pointed ahead after a twenty-minute drive through what became mostly dark green spruce, pine and cedar. Their lofty limbs seemed to lord it over the dense, shadowed forest floor with its thick carpet of leaves and needles. “Arch Rock ahead, but we’ll tie up here and just enjoy the view. Usually, this place is crawling with people, but not this time of year. Great—no one else in sight!”

  The view of Arch Rock, framed by the autumn trees, was stunning. They climbed down from the wagon and walked slowly closer to the edge of the cliff from which to view it. They stopped and stared. Rising from supporting stone below, with the azure Lake Huron beyond, rose a huge, rough rock arch of stone with a hollowed-out center, like a massive, open gate.

  “Can you believe people used to be allowed to climb all over that?” Julia asked. “Way back to Native American times when the tribes believed this was the entry door to Earth for their Great Spirit, people have been in awe. They thought Gitche Manitou would then climb the giant staircase, which has since tumbled into the sea, so they believed mankind built a staircase from this height down to the shore level. It’s a bike trail and picnic place below now, on Lake Shore Drive if you ever want to ride your bikes or even snowmobiles there—when Jack’s leg heals. This place has meant many things to many people over the centuries, including me.”

  Claire noted that even Lexi was quiet at the sight.

  “It’s amazing,” Nick said.

  “Thanks for sharing it with us,” Claire added.
r />   “I’ll be right back,” Julia said, suddenly sounding stuffed up. “Just give me a moment.”

  Claire and Nick looked at each other as Julia walked away. Nick shrugged. Claire wondered if she was heading for the public restrooms she’d seen nearby. But no, she wasn’t going that direction.

  “Hold Meggie’s hand,” Claire whispered. “I think Julia needs someone to hold hers.”

  “She more or less said she wants to be alone.”

  “I know. I’ll just see if she’s okay. It’s everything at once for her, being kind to us, her ex showing up, Liz leaving, her father’s situation, then Buxton and Kirkpatrick.”

  “And getting ready to give me riding lessons,” Lexi put in.

  Claire gave Nick the take-care-of-Lexi look and hurried after Julia. Though at first she thought she’d disappeared, she saw she had sat just a few board steps down on what must be the new staircase she’d talked about. Yes, a sign read SPRING STAIRCASE TO LAKE SHORE DRIVE.

  Claire hesitated a moment as she looked down at Julia and below. The staircase was ingeniously constructed with a bolted concrete base to cling to the side of a very steep hill, really a cliff, though trees, rocks and exposed roots clung too. And yes, in spots were remnants of the much older staircase Julia had mentioned, one much cruder and narrower.

  Holding on to the sturdy railing, Claire went down a few steps and halted. “I don’t want to bother you, Julia, but just want to know you’re all right.”

  She didn’t look up but nodded. “Well, not really. I’m trying.” She dug into her jacket pocket, produced a tissue and blew her nose.

  Claire went down a few more steps and sat three up from Julia. “You don’t have to say anything,” she added.

  “Your dossier said you have a psych degree,” Julia said and blew her nose again. “Even if my life was on an even keel right now, I’d probably cry at this place. It moves me deeply, the beauty and timelessness of it, even with this fairly new staircase. I love it here when it’s not swamped with tourists, though I’m glad they come. These winding, steep steps and my life—intertwined.”