by Jan Coffey
“Thanks, Mr. Sharpe,” Ramathorn said, pulling a card out of his shirt pocket. “Here’s the number for the barracks in Twin Mountain. If there’s anything you need, any problems, don’t hesitate to call. We generally have a car up in this area.”
“Thank you. We should be fine, but I appreciate you stopping by.”
“Just curious, but are you having any special speakers in to address the group? I love a good fire-and-brimstone sermon now and again.”
Joshua Sharpe stared at him for a moment, then smiled. “We have a number of fine ministers who will be leading us in prayer, though no one you’d know. Wednesdays will be our lecture nights. So, if you’d like to come by, we’d love to have you.”
As Ramathorn started to turn away, the trooper’s gaze fell on a group of cabins they hadn’t gone near. “What are those used for?”
The camp director looked at the buildings. “Those? Those are counselors’ cabins. The ministers who are running this particular group are living in them. Not much of interest there, I’d say.”
“Well, thanks again for your hospitality and the invite. Have a great day.”
As the two troopers walked back to the cars, Ramathorn felt the eyes of the entire camp on them. Waving to a group of kids, he nodded to his back-up troopers, and they all hopped into their cars. In a minute they were riding through the woods back to the main road.
“See anything?” he asked his partner.
“Nothing,” Farva said, reaching for the radio. “No sign of him yet.”
Chapter 12
Even though the sun was just getting high enough in the sky to make the day pleasant, Kelly still forced Jade into a sweatshirt. Then, the three of them took their breakfast trays and went outside.
Eating on the deck wouldn’t really do. She wanted to go somewhere else, away from prying eyes at the inn. Walking across the grass, Kelly led the way to a picnic table wedged between the edge of the woods and the beach. Sheltered from the wind, it was also cut off from the inn by a grove of trees. This had been a favorite place for her and Jade to come in the summer months, and Kelly kept a closed wooden bin with all types of sand toys for her daughter beside the picnic table.
Delighted to be out, Jade was far more interested in playing than eating. Still, Kelly managed to win another battle, getting her daughter eat a bowl of cereal before she ran off to play in the sand.
Ian sat next to her at the bench, both of them facing the lake. Jade played in the sand not far from them. Neither Ian nor Kelly was very interested in the food they’d brought out. A deep furrow creased his forehead. She didn’t think he was quite over the spat with Rob Stern. And she wasn’t over her talk with Janice, either.
“How much do you know about what’s going on over there?” he asked, motioning in the direction of the camp on the far side of the lake.
“I haven’t heard much about it this year, except that it’s already opened up for the season. You were with me when the van showed up last night, and those people wanted to get their things.”
“Have you been over there at all?”
“The first summer Jade and I moved back, I took the wrong turn off the main road and ended up at that camp,” Kelly replied. “There were about a hundred teenage boys staying there. But I don’t think the same group leases the camp every year. Why do you ask?”
“Cassy took Jade there yesterday.”
Worry knotted Kelly’s stomach. “How do you know?”
“She told me,” he said, looking at the child. “She also said that there were a lot of people there that she didn’t like.”
“What else did she say?” she asked, forcing herself to stay calm. “What did she and Cassy do there?”
Ian shook his head. “I don’t know. I think she was scared more than anything.”
“She doesn’t like strangers,” Kelly said, already knowing a phone call to the baby-sitter would be the first thing she’d be doing when they got back to the house.
“I’ve seen her shy away from the other guests.”
“Cassy should have told me about it. Now I’m not surprised why Jade was so tired last night.”
“There’s something else, too.” He took a swallow of his coffee. “I think some of your guests at the inn this weekend might be part of whatever is going on over there.”
“That’s happened before,” she said, looking at her daughter again. “Janice told me we’ve regularly had nervous parents stay with us whose kids were campers.”
“Did you know your guests that are here now are connected with the camp?”
“No, but I wouldn’t ask, anyway. I mean, people could have any number of reasons for staying here?” She bumped her cup against his. “Look at you…what would a hot shot cop from San Diego be doing all alone at Tranquility Inn?”
The threat of a smile softened his intense black eyes. “How do you know I’m a hot shot?”
“I don’t know.” She studied his face. The high intelligent forehead. The age lines around his dark eyes. The long lashes. The solid square jaw. The hard lips that she’d tasted so briefly last night. “Jade and I can both tell that you’re special. So, now you’ve got me curious. What are you doing here?”
Kelly was unprepared when his lips closed the few inches between them and sealed hers with a kiss. Unlike last night, her response was quick, her reaction passionate. It’d been too long since anyone touched her like this—it felt like forever since she felt wanted by a man. She poured all her loneliness into kissing him back.
Ian’s strong hand slipped around her, caressing her back. He drew her tighter against his side. He deepened the kiss until her mind emptied of everything but him. Her body molded softly to his.
She was burning inside and out when he finally ended the kiss. He continued to hold her close, looking into her eyes in a way that made her heart squeeze with a strange ache. There was something between them. Something more. She didn’t understand it. He didn’t say it. But it was there, just beneath the surface. They were connected in some way. She knew it.
“Ian?” she whispered.
His hand dropped from her face, and his gaze turned to Jade. She had both feet—shoes and socks and all—buried in the sand. Seemingly unaware of what had taken place behind her, the little girl was closing her eyes and tossing sand into the air, where it rained down onto her head.
“You’re going to get sand in your eyes, honey.”
“No, I won’t, Mommy.”
A hundred questions were battering at Kelly’s mind. There was so much that she wanted to know about him. She couldn’t bring herself to ask any of them. His past was a mystery to her, as hers was to him. And she understood better than anyone about keeping certain parts of the past buried.
He toyed with his food. Took a couple of bites. Kelly tried to clear her mind of him. They still sat hip to hip, their legs, their arms and shoulders touching. There was a high voltage sexual charge running between them, and she could feel its impact from the inside out.
Jade looked over her shoulder, and gave Kelly a happy smile. This helped her focus. She slid down the bench a few inches.
No matter what she was feeling now, Ian had arrived yesterday and would be gone out of their lives tomorrow or the day after. But the woman who had given Kelly a second chance at life was missing and perhaps in trouble. Before coming out, Kelly had called back Lauren’s niece. She’d shared her own frustration in not being able to find anything yet. She’d encouraged the niece to call the police, and anyone else she could think of. It would be better for all of them to be searching, even if it turned out to be that Lauren had somehow ended up at one of the other inns in the area.
“Can I ask you a police procedure question?” Kelly asked, pushing the plate away and wrapping her hand around the cold glass of juice she’d brought out with her.
“Go ahead.”
“I found myself in the middle of a strange situation this morning when I came downstairs. I had a call from a relative of one of our guests�
�well, a would-be guest that didn’t show up here and that we weren’t even expecting.”
“There seems to be a problem with unexpected guests.”
“That was why I was reading the riot act to my staff.” Kelly went on to explain to him everything that had been said in the phone call. She also told him of Janice and Dan’s refusal to admit they’d had anything to do with the situation.
“And this woman, Lauren Wells, is a friend of yours?”
“Yes…yes, she was definitely a friend to me.” Kelly nodded, working hard not to allow her emotions to overwhelm her. As far as she knew, Lauren was fine. She needed Ian’s help—at least suggestions about what to do next. “I haven’t seen her or heard from her for over twenty years, but I’m sure this has to be the same person. The Lauren I knew would be in her late seventies now, and she’s the only person by that name that I’ve ever known.”
“Was there a reason why anyone at the inn would not pass on any messages from the woman?”
Kelly shook her head. “None of them would even know who she is…or what connection she had with me.”
“What connection did she have with you?” he asked.
Kelly looked at her daughter on the sandy beach. Her past was not something that she explained to people. She was a cult suicide survivor. One of four. Other than the social workers who had placed her, and Frank and Rose Wilton who had become her adoptive parents, nobody else knew. Kelly had not even told the truth to Greg, her husband. As far as he knew, she was adopted through the system at a young age. The chapter of her life up to age twelve was closed, and she never intended to open it again.
“Old family friend,” Kelly said finally. “We lost touch over the years.”
“And the woman’s niece was certain that she didn’t know why Lauren was trying to contact you or why she was coming here?”
“If she knew anything, she wasn’t saying,” Kelly admitted, not entirely comfortable with that conversation, either.
“Do you have a number for Lauren Wells? A way to contact her?”
“Why?”
“Because maybe this whole thing is bogus. Who knows? Maybe this niece is not for real.”
“I have a hard time imagining anyone going through all this trouble. And what would they hope to gain by it? She sounded very upset,” Kelly argued. “Assuming there is a problem. What are the steps that should be taken? What should Lauren’s family do? What can I do?”
“They should call anyone and everyone who Lauren knows. Friends. Family. Everybody. It’s too early yet to file a missing person report. Without some indication of foul play, I doubt the state police will do anything about it. But a phone call wouldn’t hurt. At least they’ll keep an eye open for her. Also, her niece could make a call to whatever credit card company she uses and find out where and when she made the last charges to the card. The same goes with her ATM card. But again, unless the niece is a co-signer on the account, she might get a runaround.”
“Is there anything I could do from this end?”
“If, in fact, Lauren Wells did get off the bus at Independence, then she needed a way to get from point A to point B. Is there a taxi service or any sort of local transportation around here?”
“I don’t think so. I mean, who would need it?”
“Is there any snack shop at the bus stop in Independence?”
“There’s a little convenience store and a coffee shop kind of place.”
“Maybe they saw her get off.”
“I’ll call them both.”
“Also, her family can pressure the bus company to tell them if there were others who got off the bus at Independence. Getting names and addresses is a long shot, but it’s possible she befriended somebody on the bus who gave her a ride.”
Kelly rubbed an ache on her temple. “I probably wouldn’t be as nervous if she were twenty years old. Then I’d think maybe she just took off with some guy for a crazy weekend.”
“Maybe she’s gone off on a spiritual retreat for the weekend,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone. He looked at the lake. “Is that camp over there the only one of its kind around here?”
“I don’t even know who’s there this year. I have no clue if they’re adults or kids or teenagers.”
Ian looked at Jade again. She was now lying down and drawing patterns in the sand with her fingers.
“What Jade said makes me think there are some adults over there. And if we assume people were arriving yesterday, it’s possible that some of them might have been on the same bus as Lauren.” He motioned with his cup toward the fog at the end of the lake. “There might be someone right over there who saw her…or even better, you might find Lauren safe and sound.”
Kelly looked across the water. She’d met Joshua Sharpe a few times, but she had never tried to establish any kind of rapport with the owner or the summer camp personnel. Still, she let her neighbor store things at her place for safekeeping every winter. There was no reason why they shouldn’t try to help her. “I think I’ll take a drive over and see them. It wouldn’t hurt to ask a few questions.”
“If you want, I can go for you.”
She put her hand on top of his. “You’d really do that for me?”
“Absolutely,” he replied softly. “And it wouldn’t be only for you.”
~~~~
“Last time we were here, I kicked myself for not getting a few shots of Ash with the lake and fog as a backdrop.”
“No big loss,” Ian muttered to himself. He wasn’t happy that the four of them ended up riding over to the camp together, and he didn’t mind if the photographer knew it, either.
Kelly had suggested having Bill Maitland take Ian over, since the older man had already been to the camp a couple of times this weekend and had met some of the new people there. This was fine with Ian. He’d been looking for a chance to meet and talk to Bill, anyway.
As they were getting into Kelly’s four-wheel drive, Ash and Ken Burke had come striding across the parking area. Bill apparently knew about the extra people they were taking over, which turned out to be the reason they were taking Kelly’s car.
After quick introductions, Ash took the seat behind Bill, and Ian sat in front. He could tell that she was back into her ice-princess mode. But her outfit, and the way she’d touched his palm when they shook hands were clearly intended to send a different message. She was wearing a sleeveless, black lace bodysuit with a V-neck that plunged to her waist, and a sheer black wrap-around skirt that mostly trailed behind rather than covered her miles of legs. Ian worried about Bill having a heart attack before they got there.
“I love the look of this fog,” Ken continued, apparently unperturbed by Ian’s attitude. “Twenty years looking through a lens and I’ve never seen anything like it. This is certainly a chance I’m not going to pass up again.”
“So you’ve been doing this for a long time?” Ian asked. He figured the short, muscular guy’s age to be early forties—making him twenty-odd years older than Ash.
“Sure have. Always had an eye for beauty.”
“Or is it for the close-up?” Ian asked, turning in his seat and looking at Burke.
“So you’ve seen my work.”
“Not really. But seeing all those lenses, I’m guessing.”
“Well, for me that’s where the real beauty is. The closer you look, the more a subject’s beauty emerges,” Burke replied, meeting Ash’s gaze. “As a man, you must appreciate that.”
“As a cop, I have a little difficulty with that,” Ian commented. “In my business, the closer you look, the more a subject’s guilt emerges. But I will concede that one or two good close-ups of a crime scene are more effective in court than almost any testimony.”
“So I heard correctly. You’re a cop,” Ken said.
Ian pinned him with a direct look. “Heard correctly from who?”
The man’s face went blank. He clearly wasn’t certain if he’d admitted something he shouldn’t have.
“Shawn Hobart told me,
” Ash said, leaning forward and putting her arm up on the back of Bill’s seat. From his vantage point, Ian could have seen everything of interest all the way to her navel. “You ate dinner with him last night.”
“And you and Shawn are old friends?” he asked, raising an eyebrow but not looking down the path she wanted him to travel.
“We met for the first time this morning…when I went running,” she said, looking out the front window and moving her arm in a way that pulled the lacy fabric back. The dark edge of her nipple emerged.
Bill—trying to get a good look in the rearview mirror—missed driving around a pothole, and the car jerked, bouncing everyone in their seats. Ash, who was not wearing a seatbelt, almost landed on the floor.
“Sorry,” the old man grumbled, turning his attention back to the gravel road.
“Shawn Hobart didn’t strike me as an athletic sort of guy,” Ian pressed. “I can’t imagine how you got him to put in a mile or two in gray flannels and boat shoes.”
A deep blush darkened her cheeks. “No wonder you’re stressed out at your job. You can’t carry on a simple conversation without becoming offensive.”
With a huff, she sat back in her seat as Bill turned onto a dirt road.
Ian was on a roll, and he wasn’t going to give up now. He looked over at Bill. “So who are the people who’ve taken the camp this year?”
“It’s the owner of the camp himself, Josh Sharpe.”
“You know anything about him?”
“He’s a young fella,” Bill said, glancing at Ian. “Well, maybe a few years older than you. Family was from around here. From what I hear, he don’t work. Just lives on whatever was left to him by his parents.”
“A lot of money?”
“Don’t know, exactly.” Bill darted a glance in the mirror at the two in the back seat. “Old money, anyway. In fact, at one time the lake and everything around it was theirs, including the—”
