“Good morning, Officer Dalton,” I slyly responded.
“Officer Dalton? Please, Sara, call me Rex,” he kindly requested.
I paused, bit my lip. “Rex, these are my parents, Jan and Will Lewis. Mom, Dad, this is Rex. He’s a Nisswa police officer, as you can tell. I met him a few days ago when he pulled me over and politely reminded me of the posted speed limit,” I told them.
“Sara Martin, you were speeding?” my mom scolded. Her tone was stern. I suddenly felt like a naughty fifth grader.
“It’s okay, Mrs. Lewis. I gave her a warning and she has been good ever since,” he said winking at me. Dad extended his hand towards Rex, receiving a friendly shake. Then Rex reached for my mom’s hand and shook hers too.
“Please, we’d love for you to join us,” Dad said as he slid over. He looked at me and nodded. “We just ordered,” he told Rex and patted the seat. Rex was a little taken aback, I thought as I tried to read his reaction. My dad was not normally so … outgoing. Rex looked at my mom, and then at me.
Chapter Seven
Ah, sure … if that’s okay with everyone else,” Rex replied
“Yes, please. We’d love for you to join us. Right, Sara?” my mom said, elbowing me in the ribs.
“Of course,” I answered and shot my mom a quick look as he sat down.
The waitress came over and filled up his cup and took his order. Dad started drilling him about his job and life. I learned that he’d grown up in Fargo, North Dakota, and had gone into the police academy right after high school. He had gotten a job offer here upon graduation ten years ago. I did the math and that made him about thirty, although he looked twenty-five … and his body even younger. Ahem! I gave myself a mental head slap to refocus.
“So, Rex, are you just starting your shift or are you on a break?” Dad asked him.
“No, sir, I worked the night shift, so I’m just getting done for the day. I thought I’d grab a good meal before I went home,” he answered.
The waitress delivered all of our meals and left. We all turned our focus to our food. Dad grabbed the pepper and started shaking it over his eggs. He looked up and shot me a raised eyebrow look that I didn’t understand.
“Rex, if you have a little time today, I could use some help with something,” he started. Oh no, I know where this is going. Bad idea. Well, actually it’s a great idea … but a bad idea too. Oh, boy. “Ya see, Sara just moved here and she doesn’t know many people. She owns property on Lake Hawsawneekee that has a dock and pontoon, both of which need to come out today,” he informed Rex.
Rex was eating and nodding and looking back and forth between Dad and me with a smirk on his face.
“Sara’s friend had a family emergency and wasn’t able to help us today. So I was wondering … maybe if I paid for your breakfast here, then you might spare an hour or two and help us out today. What do ya say, Rex?” he asked him, not leaving him much opportunity to decline.
I opened my mouth to say something, but just as I was about to speak I got another elbow to the ribs from my mom. Instead, I forked some food into my mouth and uncomfortably waited for his reply.
“Of course, I’d love to help you out,” he said, looking at me.
I smiled, chewing my food with raised eyebrows.
“And I love a free meal, so how can I say no?”
“Great. Thanks, Rex, I … we really appreciate that,” Dad said. “Do you know where Sara lives?”
“Yes, sir, I do,” he answered and looked at me again.
I was frozen and had no idea what to say. This guy really has an effect on me.
“There are only three homes on that lake, and everyone would love to be out there,” he added.
I suppose that’s true. It’s a nice, clean lake with tons of trees and land. It really was perfect, and I was glad it was mine. “I’ll head home and change and meet you out there,” he said with a grin.
We finished our meal with a bit of small talk and parted ways. Mom rode with me and Dad followed in their car. We got back to the cabin and changed. I put on some tight leggings to wear wet-suit style, and a thermal long sleeve t-shirt, it was not a great look but we had to get wet. Dad had put on some waist-high waders he’d borrowed from a friend. Mom decided to stay in and prepare the food for later, and “keep Faith company.” Dad and I walked out to the trailer. He walked me through what the parts were called and how we’d load the boat onto it.
“Do you know how to back it up?” Dad asked.
“I backed it up to where it is now,” I told him, not including the fact that it took ten attempts to get it there.
Details, details.
I grabbed the keys out of my pocket and backed the Jeep up to the trailer. Dad had hooked it up just as a Black 1500 GMC pickup pulled into the driveway. Rex parked close to the house, near Dad’s car, and walked over. We said, “Hi,” and the boys shook hands again.
“Thanks again for your help,” Dad told him.
“Yes, thank you,” I added.
“All right, we’ll meet you at the dock,” Dad said, as he and Rex started walking towards it.
This meant that I had to back the trailer into the makeshift landing next to it, or yell to my Dad that I couldn’t do it. Now I have never been the kind of girl to say I can’t, and would do anything that proved my strength and independence as a woman, so what choice did I have?
After fifteen attempts, and ten long minutes later, Rex jumped up into the passenger’s seat. Dang it. I’d tried and tried, but no matter what I did the trailer never went the way I wanted it to go.
“Hello, speedy!” he said with a big grin. “How about if I walk you through this?”
I sighed. I narrowed my eyes at him and nodded solemnly, my only other choice was to keep making a fool of myself.
“Okay,” he said. “Pull forward enough to straighten it out.” I did, then looked over at him with a “what next” look. “Now instead of using your mirrors, which makes everything backwards, turn around and watch out the rear window. Move slowly and make your turns very slight. The trailer will way overreact to your steering moves. Watch the back of the trailer to determine if you need to make adjustments, and if you do, a tiny bit goes a long way.”
I put it into reverse, turned around, and started backing up. I zigzagged slightly but got it in, and straight in, in one try. I kept going until I saw my dad put his hand up to stop, then I looked over at Rex with a huge smile.
“Oh, my gosh I did it!” I said proudly, putting in it park.
“Nicely done! I knew you could,” he answered as he gave me a high five. We exited the Jeep and walked towards the towards the trailer. My dad was on the dock.
“Nice work, Sara! Now let’s see you put this boat on it,” Dad said and tossed the keys at me.
I caught them and argued, but lost. Rex stood on the trailer facing the water and Dad stayed on the dock. After he untied the pontoon, I backed it up and maneuvered it to the other side of the dock. I straightened out, and prayed to God to help me get this on my first attempt. I stood up so I could see the carpeted boards on the trailer better and slowly moved forward as straight as I could. Rex had his hand up giving me the “come here” motion. I drove slowly towards him. All I could hear was my dad saying, “Good, keep it straight” over and over. When I got it up onto the trailer I was straight, and a bit surprised. I let off the throttle.
“All the way, Sara,” Dad said.
“Come more,” Rex said, still moving his hand to come closer.
So I gave the throttle a little nudge and she sped fast, sliding all the way up the boards, and slamming into the stop bars. At that point the motor was on top of the water and making all kinds of noise.
“Kill it!” Dad yelled.
I was so busy being proud that I got it on in one try I’d forgotten to shut the engine off. I quickly turned the key back. Rex secured the pontoon on the trailer and Dad jump into the Jeep’s driver seat. Rex and I walked back over to the shed where Dad was backing up
the trailer. We spent the next fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to get the cover on, which proved to be pretty easy when all the snaps started matching up.
Mom came out the back door and stood with her arms crossed over her chest. “How’s it going?” she yelled.
“Good,” I yelled back. “Almost done.”
“Sara, your cell phone rang so I answered it. It was a girl named Tannya asking if she had the right number for Sara Martin.”
“Yeah, what did she want?” I asked, wondering how she got my number.
“She didn’t say. She just asked, said thank you, and then hung up.”
“Okay,” I said.
I looked at Rex. He had an amused looked on his face, but he wasn’t looking back at me. My dad and Rex were taking their waders off so I said I’d be right back and ran in the house for a quick shower. I threw on jeans and a sweatshirt and a quick swipe of mascara. I walked into the kitchen, which smelled heavenly. Mom was busy getting stuff together for our barbeque. I walked past her and grabbed three cold beers out of the fridge. Outside Dad and Rex were sitting on the tailgate of Rex’s truck talking like old friends. I walked up and handed them each a beer.
Dad said, “Thanks, but I’ll take mine inside and check on your mother.”
Which I knew meant “I’ll be on the couch asleep if you need me.” Dad turned to Rex, shook his hand, and again thanked him for the help.
“It was no problem at all, sir. Anytime,” he said.
As Dad walked away, Rex took his beer and patted the tailgate. I hopped up next to him and let my feet dangle.
“Thanks for the beer,” he said.
“Thanks for the help,” I said. We clinked bottles and took drinks. “Is it too early for beer?”
“No, not when you’re at the end of your shift. After this I’m going to head home and go to bed.”
We sat there and talked for another twenty minutes or so. I asked him to stay for dinner but he declined.
“So how do you know Tannya?” he asked
“I really don’t. I just met her at the diner.”
He informed me that she was the town gossip and had a crazy ex-husband who liked to get into mischief.
“She’s a good person, but I wouldn’t tell her anything you don’t want everyone in town to know.”
“Duly noted.”
“Well, thanks for the beer,” Rex said as he jumped down from the tailgate.
He offered me a hand. I took it and jumped down too. “I’m around if you need me,” he said, and slipped me one of his business cards. He put my number in his phone too. When he turned to get into his truck I went into the house. Dad was on the couch watching TV with one eye open and Mom was in the kitchen.
Three hours later I was waving goodbye to my parents as they drove away. I settled on the couch for a bit with Faith and thought about Derek and his sister. I decided I should call and get an update.
“Hello,” Derek answered, sounding tired and mad.
“Hey. Wow, you sound …”
“Irritated? I am!”
“With work, or the investigation, or what?”
“Both … I’m sorry. I don’t mean to take it out on you, but I’m glad you called. I have a favor to ask you,” he said in policeman mode.
“Okay …”
“The investigation with Kelly’s case is going nowhere, and I’m trying really hard not to get into trouble with their jurisdiction, but they have a couple of rookies on the case, and I can’t stand here and twiddle my thumbs while my sister fights for her life and this guy gets off.”
“I know Derek. I’m sorry … how’s Kelly doing?”
“There’s no change. She’s still unresponsive and the tests aren’t telling them much. They really need her to wake up so they can do more tests. There’s brain activity but not much. They won’t give much information because they just don’t know anything yet. My mom and dad said they are staying as long as it takes. Kendall’s going to continue working her scheduled shifts at Applebees and will be at the hospital whenever she can. That way someone’s always there in case she wakes up.”
“I’m so sorry. Let me know if you want me to go down. I don’t really know her, but I’ll help in any way I can,” I told him.
“Great. There is something you can do,” he said, “but let me ask you this first. When Cory ran out of the apartment building did he see you?”
“No.”
“No, for sure? Or there’s a chance he may have?”
“No, for sure.” I said with confidence.
“Okay, then I think this may help. He has a Facebook page. There’s not a lot of activity on it, and it was just opened a couple weeks ago. I want you to be his friend,” Derek told me, “but I want you to do it under a new, made up alias. I want you to get a new yahoo email address and open a new account. Use a fake name, but put up a real picture of you. And make it look like you go to college at the University of Minnesota-Morris. Get some other friends first. Just friend everyone you can find that goes to that school, male and female … about twenty or so. Then go to his page and request a couple of his friends. After that, friend request him too. Then just play on it to make it look real. I’m hoping that he’ll be your friend and show an interest in you and you can get close to him,” he said with a questioning sound to his voice.
“So you want to use me for bait?” There was a beat of silence and then Derek’s tone changed.
“Yeah,” he said slowly. “Kind of … is that okay?”
“Umm, how close are we talking?”
“I’m not sure. But no matter what, I’d never put you in danger. I’m just hoping he gets comfortable enough and talkative with you that he slips up and gives you his location. If you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to. It was just a thought. I’m running out of ideas and time is ticking. I really want to bring this guy in.”
“I know. I do too … I’ll do the Facebook account and let you know if anything happens. I can do it right now. I have nothing else going on.”
“Thank you, Sara. Just be really careful about what you put on there—fake date of birth, fake home town, and fake job. And if it gets uncomfortable, just let me know and we can end it as easily as hitting delete. Okay?”
“Okay.” I said. I wasn’t really bothered by the idea.
It would be easy enough, and if I could find his sister’s shooter it would be worth it.
“Did you get the dock and pontoon out okay?”
“Yup!” I said proudly.
“Really?” he sounded surprised, which offended me a tiny bit. “Just you and your dad?”
“Well, no. Rex helped.”
“Rex?”
“Yeah, he’s a Nisswa police officer. I’d met him once before and my dad asked him if he’d help.”
“Older guy?”
“Late twenties? I didn’t ask his age.”
“Oh, well that’s nice,” he said in a weird tone. “Well, I got work to do. Thanks for your help. I’ll call ya soon.”
I hung up with Derek and pulled out my laptop. An hour later I had an account, and eight new friends. All of them were from the University of Minnesota–Morris. My fake name was Katie Johnson. I said I was born and raised in Fargo, North Dakota, and was going to college as a freshman with a major in psychology. I didn’t friend request Cory yet, but I did look at his profile. He had an “everyone” security setting so I could see everything on his profile. His information wasn’t fully filled out, but he did have a picture up. He wasn’t a bad looking guy. I closed down my laptop and headed to bed.
In the morning I got up as soon as my alarm went off. I dressed in dark-blue jeans and a fitted brown, light-weight sweater. I threw on some matching jewelry and tan heels and headed to the kitchen. Monday … I think maybe I should change the schedule so I don’t have to be the one to open. Faith was on the counter when I shuffled in to start coffee.
“No, Faith. No cats on the counter,” I scolded, as I moved her to the floor.
She did figure-eights around my feet and purred. After I filled her bowl and changed her water, I grabbed a cold bagel and a “to-go” cup with half hot chocolate-half coffee and headed out the door. I jumped in my Jeep and drove to my store. I was scheduled until 3:00 p.m today, Ginger had asked for a later shift because her husband had fallen ill and she wanted to go with him to the doctor. They were both in their sixties, so I hoped it was nothing serious.
I spent the morning reorganizing the jewelry section. The previous owner’s daughter made all the jewelry by hand. When I bought the place I called her and offered to continue the agreement she’d had with them and she was thrilled. She was a thirty-something, stay-at-home mom who did it for extra income in her free time. The products were always new and fresh, and they sold like crazy. Once a month she’d ship a supply, and once a month I’d send her a check for half the retail price. It was a win-win for both of us.
It took a couple hours to take down, deep clean, and set all the jewelry displays back up, but it looked great when I was done. I didn’t have one customer the whole time. The slow season was starting. Lost and Found normally stayed open all year, but a few of the stores and restaurants on the strip closed for the winter. November was just beginning and I didn’t know yet what I was going to do for winter hours. The previous owners had closed the store on Wednesday’s and Sunday’s and shortened all the other days of the week. I guessed I’d play it by ear.
When I heard the bells on the door ring I looked up and saw Rex come through the door in full “Officer McHottie” uniform, sans hat. He smiled when he caught my eyes.
“Good morning,” he said.
“Hi,” I said feeling butterflies. I mentally told myself to knock it off. “What brings you in?”
“I need a gift for my sister,” he said.
“Really? What’s the occasion?” I asked not knowing if I should believe him.
“It’s her thirtieth birthday. My parents are throwing her a surprise party this weekend, so I thought I’d drop in and see if you had anything a girl might like,” he said with a grin.
“I think I can help you with that. Would this be an older sister or younger sister?” Yup, I snuck it in there.
Found and Destroyed: The Second Sarah Martin Mystery Page 7
