Sweet Dreams Boxed Set

by Brenda Novak

  A breeze stirred, rustling in the trees. As Luke got out of the car, he squinted into the sun shining on the lake. “Back door’s wide open.” He turned to Ellen. “Want to give Maggie a shout?”

  “Sure.” Ellen started up the steps. “Maggie—Maggie, we’re here. Luke and I are here.”

  No response. Ellen peered through the screen door. She could see Maggie’s suitcase on the floor, as if she’d just arrived.

  “She must be out front,” Ellen said, jumping back down the steps.

  She took a pounded-grass path that looked as if it wound around to the front of the cabin. She led the way, aware of Luke behind her. She had enough experience as a prosecutor and the daughter and niece of Texas Rangers to know the signs of a law enforcement officer on alert, and that, she thought, would be Luke Jackson.

  She glanced back at him. “You’d think she’d have heard us arrive.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe she did.”

  “And she’s waiting for us to come out front and find her?”

  “Why not? She could have her feet in the water.”

  “The ice practically just melted,” Ellen said.

  The cabin had a wide deck overlooking the lake. The simple furnishings were uncovered, but their weatherproof tarps remained stacked in a corner, as if the owners didn’t dare believe lake season was upon them. From what Ellen had seen in the news, it had been a rough winter in the northeast.

  Luke eased past her onto the front lawn, the grass thick and green and dotted with natural boulders and peeks of ledge. Not the most hospitable of land, Ellen thought. She could hear gentle waves lapping against the dock. Two kayaks—one bright yellow, the other bright orange—were turned over on the grass close to the water’s edge. Once she located Maggie and assured herself that her sister was all right, Ellen wouldn’t mind taking a spin out on the lake in one of the kayaks. She didn’t have proper clothes, but if she rolled up her pant legs and was careful paddling, she wouldn’t get too wet. Wet, yes. But not too wet. And if Luke went with her in the second kayak…

  She stopped herself right there. What was she thinking?

  Nothing, she told herself. I’m not thinking anything.

  Of course she was thinking something. It was the Luke Jackson effect.

  Once she checked on her sister, she would leave, as planned.

  She glanced around the small yard. Five freshly painted Adirondack chairs were arranged in a half-circle in front of a stone-and-brick outdoor fireplace, as if awaiting the first fire of the season. On the edge of the lawn to her left, backing up to more tall, thickly growing evergreens, was a shed. Its dark brown paint and deep orange shutters matched the cabin. The kayak gear would be stored here, no doubt. Ellen shuddered, an image flashing in her mind of snow-laden evergreens when she and Maggie were eighteen…

  “Ellen?”

  “Mind wandering.” She forced a smile. “It’s pretty here but it really is quiet. I thought we’d see Maggie by now.”

  “So did I.”

  Luke walked down the gentle hill to the dock. The sun was lower in the cloudless sky, light slowly leaking out of the afternoon. He glanced back at Ellen. “Call her.”

  Ellen had been about to do just that. She gave a yell. “Maggie!” She paused, waiting for a response. When there was none, she tried again. “Maggie, it’s me, Ellen. Luke’s with me. Where are you?”

  No response.

  “She could have gone for a walk,” Ellen said, noticing her heart was racing. Maggie. But she didn’t let her mind take off with wild possibilities. One thing at a time.

  Luke walked out onto the dock, his boots hardly making a sound on the hard surface. “Could she have gone canoeing alone or with a friend?” he asked, glancing back at Ellen.

  “I don’t know. What friend? For that matter, what canoe?”

  He gave a curt nod. “You’re right. Resist speculating.”

  “I wish we knew where that SOB Hugh Parker is. You haven’t heard back yet, have you?”

  “Not on his whereabouts. I have his photo.” He jumped back onto the lawn. “Let’s have a look inside the cabin.”

  “She can’t have gone far if she left the door wide open.”

  Luke said nothing. Ellen realized she’d made her comment because she wanted reassurance. She wanted him to tell her there was no reason to worry about her sister, but an open cabin door meant little without further evidence.

  They mounted the steps to the deck. Ellen stood aside, knowing Luke would want to go in first. She attempted a smile at him as he stepped past her but knew it didn’t happen. Her heart was beating fast, and her head spun with possibilities. What if Maggie had hurt herself? What if she had fallen in the cold water?

  Stop. Just stop.

  As much as Ellen didn’t want to admit it, she recognized that being here—being back in the Adirondacks for the first time since she was eighteen—was affecting her, undoubtedly contributing to her sense of foreboding, even to her physical reaction. Racing heart, clammy palms, shallow breathing.

  Luke eyed her a moment. “You can wait out here if you want.”

  “I’m fine. Let’s do this.”

  He pulled open the screen door, then tested the main door. “It’s unlocked,” he said, pushing it open. “Maggie, it’s Luke and your sister.”

  Ellen followed him inside. Maggie wasn’t in the cozy main room. Her suitcase looked as if she’d plopped it on the floor, deciding to take a walk before she unpacked.

  Luke checked the two first-floor bedrooms and the bathroom.

  He shook his head as he returned to the main living area. “No sign of her.”

  “Luke…”

  He walked to a large window overlooking the quiet lake.

  Ellen stood next to him. “If Maggie went for a walk, she’ll be heading back soon. It’s getting dark, and I bet there are mosquitoes. She hates mosquitoes.”

  Luke gave a curt nod. “Let’s check outside, see if we can pick up any footprints.”

  “Luke, are you worried about her?”

  “Getting there.”

  ***

  They circled around the opposite side of the cabin to the driveway, then walked back out to the road, making sure to avoid trampling anything that could be of use in finding Maggie. Ellen stopped abruptly at the end of the driveway, grabbing Luke by the arm. “That’s fresh,” she said, pointing to a distinct footprint in a soft, wet spot on the edge of the road, leading away from the cabin.

  Luke nodded. “It looks like a woman’s print.”

  Ellen gulped in a breath. About three feet up the road was a second print. “Luke.”

  “I see it,” he said.

  “That wasn’t made by the same foot as this first one.”

  “Give another shout for your sister,” Luke said. “Keep any worry out of your voice.”

  “Maggie! Where are you?” Ellen added a frustrated laugh and kept her voice raised as she continued. “I’m ready for some New York style barbecue. What a gorgeous place.”

  Luke stayed quiet and still next to her, but there was no response to Ellen’s call to her sister. He shook his head. “Let’s go up the road a little ways. It’ll be dark in another hour. Ellen…” He paused. “If we don’t find her in the next five minutes or so—”

  “We’ll need to launch a formal search. I know.”

  He touched her elbow. “We have no evidence of foul play. Keep that in mind.”

  “I will. I am.”

  Chapter 6

  Luke batted a mosquito away from his head. He didn’t think it had bitten him. Hadn’t occurred to him to pack bug spray when he’d headed north. He and Ellen were about a quarter-mile past Maggie’s borrowed cabin. The road was narrower and rougher, with more embedded rocks and deeper ruts and pits. To their left, the land descended sharply to the lake, water visible here and there through tall trees. To their right were more dense woods. He figured there had to be a cabin or some kind of dwelling up ahead, or why bother with a road?

 
Cell phone service was marginal to nonexistent now, but Luke knew Ellen wouldn’t want to turn back and call a search party until the road ended or they could see where it did end—or, better yet, they found her sister. But he couldn’t wait much longer. He had to get a search party out here. Better to call one in too soon than too late.

  And he had to call Ellen and Maggie’s father. Jack Galway needed to know he had a daughter in trouble.

  Potentially.

  Hair-splitting as far as Luke was concerned at this point, but he reminded himself that eccentric Maggie Galway could be off chasing butterflies. Literally, even, although Luke didn’t know if upstate New York had butterflies this time of year. For that matter, he didn’t know if Texas did.

  He gave himself a mental shake. Butterflies? What the hell?

  The road angled up to the right, avoiding a cluster of large boulders above the water. “Ellen,” Luke said, stopping. “We haven’t seen any tracks since those first two by the cabin. Let’s turn back. We don’t want to waste time or daylight.”

  She nodded, her face pale despite the exertion of their trek. “I can’t stand this, Luke. I keep thinking she’ll pop out from behind a boulder and say boo.”

  “I know. So do I.”

  “We used to play hide-and-seek as kids.” Ellen inhaled, straightening. “I can’t go there in my mind. It won’t help. What’s next?”

  “Back to the cabin and some calls.”

  “To the state and local police and my dad and uncle.”

  “If there’s anything they can do, your father and Sam will do it. You know that.”

  “If something’s happened and there’s a Texas connection, they’ll find it.”

  Luke hadn’t put it that way, but it was what he was thinking, too.

  Hugh Parker was a Texan. So was his brother in prison.

  Walking toward the cabin instead of away from it offered a different angle of the lake and the surrounding woods. Luke noticed that he and Ellen had left few footprints. Someone else coming this way could easily not have left any prints. Most of the few wet spots were on the edges of the road.

  Ellen climbed onto a five-foot granite boulder looming on the right edge of the road, bits of mica catching the last rays of sunlight. She stood and looked down through the trees toward the lake. Luke eased to the base of the boulder, spotting her in case emotion and distraction got the better of her. She was fit and sure in her movements, but her concern for her sister was palpable.

  She sat down, her knees at his chest as she dangled them off the side in front of him. “Ellen and I were held in a spot like this,” she said quietly. “Boulders, evergreens. It was winter, thought, so beautiful with the freshly fallen snow.” She seemed lost in thought for a moment, then waved a hand. “It was a long time ago.”

  “Being here is causing flashbacks for you,” Luke said.

  She nodded. “Yes. Probably for Maggie, too. I wonder if that’s why she came here—to force herself to confront what happened. She’s different from me. She needs to process events her own way. I don’t know if she ever had a chance to do that.” Ellen swallowed visibly. “It doesn’t matter right now. We just need to find her.”

  She started to jump off the boulder, but Luke caught her by the middle and lifted her to the ground.

  “Thanks,” she said with a weak smile.

  He knew better than to launch himself into the future, but if something terrible had happened to her twin sister—if Ellen lost her—he couldn’t imagine what she would do. Maggie and Ellen were the tightest sisters he’d ever known, in part because of their experience that winter in the Adirondacks as teenagers.

  He batted away another mosquito, this one buzzing around Ellen’s face.

  “Maggie won’t stay out here for long if mosquitoes are out.” Ellen took in a breath, looking less pale. “Maybe she’s back at the cabin by now.”

  Farther down the road, Luke heard a rustling and crunching in the woods to the left, then saw a movement in the underbrush and ground cover. He got in front of Ellen.

  Then came a small cry.

  “That’s Maggie,” Ellen said.

  Luke shot ahead of her as Maggie staggered onto the road. He reached her first and caught one arm around her waist as she started to sink. “Are you alone?” he asked.

  She managed a nod. “Yes.” She clutched his arm. “I’m okay. I’m just…” She seemed to summon the strength—emotional more than physical—to stand straight. “I got myself freaked out is all.”

  Ellen leaped to her sister’s opposite side. “Did you see Luke and me pass you a few minutes ago?”

  “Yes, I—I didn’t dare say anything in case he was following you. In case he had a gun on you.”

  Luke stood back. “Who?”

  “The man.”

  “What man, Maggie?” he asked.

  He saw she was trembling. “I saw him outside the cabin a few minutes after I got here. He was down by the dock. I panicked. I ran out the back door and hid.”

  Ellen glanced at Luke, her expression serious, no sign of panic. She shifted back to her sister. “Did you recognize this man?”

  “No.” Maggie shook her head as if to reassure herself she hadn’t recognized him. “He was at a distance, though.”

  “Did you speak with him?”

  “No, I told you. I ran.”

  “Did he say anything—give you a shout, call your name, anything at all?”

  She gulped in a breath. “He knew my name. He said it’s a nice name.”

  “I’d have freaked out, too,” Ellen muttered. “Did he tell you his name?”

  “I didn’t give him a chance. He implied he’s friends with the cabin’s owners. I didn’t want to take any chances. I’d been thinking about…” Maggie licked her lips, steadier. “You know.”

  “Eight years ago,” Ellen said.

  “We didn’t see this man at the cabin,” Luke said. “Do you think he has a place on the lake?”

  Maggie looked down the road toward the cabin. “I have no idea,” she said in a half whisper.

  Luke noticed she released her grip on him but was still trembling, if less so. “Was there anything particular about him that set you off?” he asked.

  “Not about him,” she said in a near mumble. “About me.”

  “We can talk more at the cabin,” Ellen said. “My mosquito radar is going off. I’m sensing a cloud of mosquitoes making its way toward us.”

  “I don’t know if mosquitoes congregate in clouds like that, not that they have to.” Maggie shuddered. “I had one buzzing around my head the whole time I was in hiding, but I didn’t dare move to brush it away. I don’t know if it bit me.” She stood still, continuing to stare down the road. “I was so excited about being here. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? I can’t believe I let myself get freaked out by a man who was probably out for an afternoon walk and being neighborly.”

  “He didn’t try to follow you?” Ellen asked.

  “I don’t think so. I’m not sure he heard me leave. He could think I went on a walk. He might have no idea he scared me.”

  They started down the road, Luke on one side of Maggie and Ellen on the other. He asked Maggie to describe the man she’d seen. “I’m not that good with descriptions, that sort of thing,” she said. “I’d guess he was in his thirties. Medium in height and build, meaning his size didn’t stand out to me—he wasn’t noticeably thin, overweight, tall or short. He wasn’t clean-shaven but he didn’t have a full beard. A few days’ growth, maybe?”

  “What was he wearing?” Luke asked.

  “Baseball cap, jeans, safari-type jacket—tan. Running shoes.”

  For someone who thought she wasn’t good with descriptions, she’d provided a lot of details. “Did you see what kind of baseball cap?” Luke asked.

  “It was black. That’s all I remember. I wouldn’t know if it had a sports team logo.”

  When they arrived at the cabin, Luke produced Hugh Parker’s photo on his phone and showed it
to Maggie. “Do you recognize this man?” he asked.

  She took the phone and stared at the image a few seconds, then nodded, her face noticeably paler. “That’s the strange man I told you about the other day, but I don’t think—” She stopped, took in a breath. “I can’t say for sure he was or wasn’t the man at the dock just now. I’m not that great with faces, and he was at a distance.” She handed the phone back to Luke. “Who is he?”

  “His name’s Hugh Parker,” Ellen said. “He and I have a history. Supposedly he’s staying with a friend in the area.”

  “Well, he was in Austin two days ago.” Maggie grimaced. “What did he do?”

  “He blames me because his brother is in prison. We couldn’t bring charges against Hugh. We didn’t have the evidence.” Ellen gave Maggie a wry smile. “He’s not grateful.”

  “I wasn’t crazy to run, then,” Maggie said half to herself. “Even if the man I saw isn’t this Hugh Parker. The gift of fear, they call it. Sometimes in your gut you know when you’re not safe. I thought it was because of my post-trauma issues.”

  “It could be both,” Luke said.

  Maggie looked lighter, happier. “Well, you know what the good news in all this is?”

  Ellen frowned. “What, Maggie?”

  “Neither of you has to call Dad and Uncle Sam to tell them a search party is out looking for me.”

  ***

  Maggie splashed lukewarm water on her face in the cabin’s only bathroom. She was embarrassed by the fuss she’d made, but at least she’d identified Hugh Parker as the strange man who’d approached her in Austin. Ellen and Luke seemed relieved she was all right and content to spend the night at the cabin with her. They were heating up minestrone soup the owners had left in the refrigerator for her retreat. It smelled like good soup. That was something, wasn’t it? Good soup, a picturesque setting, a charming cabin—it wasn’t so awful she’d sneaked up here and run for no good reason, was it?

  Could the man at the dock have been Hugh Parker?