Lost Summer: A Gripping Romantic Suspense

by M T Stone

  “When are you getting a job?” Dylan’s mother asked as he rustled through the fridge looking for a little breakfast. The question itself didn’t bother him as much as the way she said it. The frequency of the question also bothered him, basically every time the two of them crossed paths.

  “I’m working on it, Mom,” he said, giving her his standard reply. “I applied for a couple of things online.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard that one before, and yet I’m still paying for that gym membership. Nobody is going to pay you for lifting weights. How’s Summer doing?” She suddenly changed the topic after getting in a couple of quick jabs, her usual passive-aggressive tactic.

  “I don’t know,” he told her, feeling a little out of the loop. “I sent her a text this morning, but she didn’t reply. She was still having some trouble breathing yesterday, so they put her on some really strong medicine. I hope she’s doing okay.” His voice trailed off as he grabbed a bottle of juice and tapped the fridge door closed with his elbow. “When are the girls coming home?”

  “They were supposed to come home last night, but I talked Mom into keeping them until Carson is out of here,” she replied, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t want him around them. He’s not a good influence.”

  “Yeah, that’s probably true. Where is he?”

  “I don’t know. He was already gone when I got up this morning.” She pulled the last two waffles from the box and threw them into the toaster. “If I give you a list and some money, can you pick up a few groceries for me?”

  “Yeah, I’ll do it on the way back from the hospital.” Dylan chugged the rest of the juice and headed toward the door, deciding to make his departure before she added anything else to his to-do list. “Just text me what you need. I have money.”

  On the way out the door, he shoved his hand into his pocket to make sure those two hundred-dollar bills were still there. He had been thinking about them during the night, in addition to thinking about the what he had done with Summer. He was still amazed by the fact that Summer had discovered her ‘inner naughtiness’. He smiled at the fact that he had been able to bring that out in her. He pulled out his phone and clicked Carson’s number, still thinking about Summer while waiting for him to answer.

  “What’s up, little guy?”

  “That’s still funny. Do you realize that anyone can make a higher offer for that property during the sixty-day redemption period?” There was silence on the other end of the line that caused Dylan’s lips to curl upward. He obviously had no idea how a tax lien sale worked.

  “No, that would only apply if it had just gone into default. Nobody bid on the property when they held the official tax sale after the old man died. The county has owned it for the past couple of years, so I bought it outright from them by paying the taxes and penalties,” he told him confidently. “Thanks for the heads-up though.”

  “No problem,” Dylan replied, the wheels still spinning in his head. “That lake is infected with something. I’d talk to someone at the hospital before you sell it to anyone, especially if they want to develop it.”

  “Don’t sweat it,” Carson replied with growing irritation in his voice. “In fact, you should just forget that I told you anything about the land. Okay?”

  “All right,” he replied, but by now, his gut was definitely telling him that something wasn’t right. How had Carson been able to orchestrate all of this in just the past couple of days? The assessor’s office hours were listed as being eight to five, Monday through Friday. I guess he could’ve gone there yesterday, he thought, realizing that it was already Tuesday. The days were beginning to blur together.

  He stopped at the intersection of Main and second, contemplating whether to turn left toward the hospital or take a right. A car soon pulled up behind him, forcing a decision. He turned right, drove two blocks, and pulled into the parking lot of the police station. He had a few questions for either Detective Thomas or Sergeant Reed, whichever one was available. He needed to figure out whether his growing suspicions were justified or just his imagination getting the best of him. Detective Thomas was standing just inside the door, so he defaulted to him.

  “Do you have a minute?” he asked, noticing the puzzled look on the detective’s face.

  “Sure.” The detective grinned, motioning for him to enter his office. “I didn’t think I’d see you back here any time soon.” He pointed to a chair next to his desk and closed the door before saying anything more. He then walked around to the other side of the desk, sat down in his chair, and slid it forward. “Before you say anything, I’ve got a dilemma,” Detective Thomas added, plopping his elbows onto the desk and folding his hands beneath his chin.

  “I can see that.” Dylan smiled, amused by his tormented facial expression. “What’s up?”

  “I don’t know, exactly. Either that girlfriend of yours is so sick that she’s delusional or there’s more to this Sullivan case than meets the eye.” He grabbed the hinge of his glasses, pulled them from his face, and rubbed both eyes with the back of his hand. “I hardly slept last night after re-evaluating the crime scene yesterday afternoon. I wasn’t able to corroborate anything that she told me. No money, no picture of her, no war medals, no jar of Vaseline.” He chuckled at the mention of the last item. “On top of that, the crime scene was perfect. No sign of anyone disturbing it. Is that why you have that smirk on your face?”

  “No!” Dylan blurted out, sitting up straight in his chair. “I’m just glad to hear that you think there is something strange too. I thought maybe I was going crazy.” He pulled the two hundred-dollar bills from his pocket and laid them on the desk. “I want you to compare these bills to the ones you got from Summer.”

  “Okay.” He grabbed the bills and gave Dylan a sly look while sliding his chair back away from the desk. “I’ll be right back.”

  Dylan turned toward the doorway so he could watch where he was going. He said something to Chief Sanders before the two of them disappeared into a room at the rear of the precinct. Sergeant Reed hung up his phone and went back to join them as well. He had been thinking all night about the fact that the bills his uncle had given him had sequential numbers, just like the ones that Summer had taken from Leo. He didn’t see how that could be a coincidence.

  After several more minutes, Detective Thomas emerged from the room alone. He had another one of those looks on his face as he re-entered his office. “Where did those bills come from?”

  “Carson gave them to me last night. I told him I needed some gas money.” Dylan turned back toward the detective as he sat back down. “Why?”

  “It’s just strange to have another pair of bills with sequential numbers, but they aren’t from the same stack as the others,” the detective said with a hint of disappointment in his voice. “We’re going to send them to the crime lab, though, so they can do a complete analysis.”

  “Okay,” Dylan replied, suddenly realizing that he was once again penniless. “I needed to buy some gas and groceries.”

  “Don’t worry, Chief Sanders is getting a couple of hundred bucks out of petty cash for you,” the detective reassured him. “By the way, according to the crime lab, those bills we got from Summer were drug-tainted.”

  “Really?”

  “Well, in reality, the majority of U.S. hundred-dollar bills are contaminated with cocaine. About ninety percent of them, believe it or not,” he said with a pause.

  “Ninety percent? That’s crazy,” Dylan replied, not knowing where the conversation was headed. “What does this have to do with anything?”

  “Probably nothing, but most bills have a relatively low concentration caused by cross-contamination from other drug-related bills,” the detective explained. “But these bills have a much higher level of contamination, indicating that they have been directly contaminated. Even after being in water for several minutes, there was a high level of residue.”

  “So, you think Leo was involved with drugs?”

  “That’s the other part I haven
’t figured out yet.” He pulled off his glasses again and tossed them onto the desk. “If we would’ve found the rest of the stack, we could’ve probably figured it out, but with only two bills, we just don’t know. He could’ve snorted cocaine through one of them and both bills became contaminated while they were in Summer’s pocket. In that case, he’s just a user.”

  “He didn’t look like your typical cocaine user,” Dylan scoffed. “You saw what he drove and how he dressed, right?”

  “There’s no typical user.” The detective took to his feet once again. “In fact, a kid like that who had been so severely abused is apt to use drugs as soon as he can afford them. I’ve seen it before.”

  Dylan thought back to the scars that Summer had alluded to and how she had been unable to even imagine the level of pain that his father had inflicted. He also had his own still for making whiskey, so maybe it wasn’t a big stretch for him to be involved in drugs. The shady white van would definitely fit the bill.

  “You damn near cleaned out our petty cash.” Chief Sanders laughed as he came through the door with a handful of bills. “I just thought we’d better send those bills in to the crime lab to be examined along with the others.”

  “Okay, thanks.” Dylan stood up and took the wad of cash from the chief. “Let me know if they find anything on those bills.” He stuffed the cash into his pants pocket and turned to head out of the office.

  “He’s right here,” he heard Sergeant Reed telling someone while waving him over. “Would you like to talk to him? Okay, I’ll tell him.”

  “What’s up?” Dylan stopped a few feet from his desk.

  “Your uncle called to see if I had talked to you,” he replied, sending a chill down Dylan’s spine. “He seemed a little surprised that you were here.”

  “Did you tell him that I turned over those bills?” he asked in horror.

  “I’m sure he’ll fill you in on our conversation.” Sergeant Reed smirked and slapped him on the shoulder. “He said he’d catch up with you back at the house.”

  The uneasy feeling that had been ruminating inside Dylan instantly multiplied several-fold. The last thing he wanted was a showdown with his uncle. He should’ve known better than to stop at the police department. Why hadn’t he called the detective and asked him to come up to the hospital? Fuck! Dylan wasn’t looking forward to going home anytime soon.

  Chapter 26

  Summer drifted into consciousness hearing her best friend’s voice. It had been several days since they had talked, so she was surprised to hear her. The stupid ventilator mask was covering her nose and mouth again. She hated trying to talk with it on, as it was nearly impossible. She kept her eyes closed, content to just listen for the moment.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Jana asked Olivia.

  “I think so, but the doctor said she’s going to have some scarring in her lungs. She might never regain her normal lung capacity.” Olivia choked up while explaining the situation. “But, it could’ve been so much worse.”

  “I can’t believe that creep did that to her,” Jana replied harshly. “I bet she’ll never talk to one of those homeless dudes again.”

  Olivia didn’t say anything following her statement. Summer knew that her mother had the same level of empathy that she did. She, too, would’ve smiled and said hello to the guy if she had been in the same situation. Just because someone looks like he is homeless, it doesn’t automatically make him dangerous. It’s usually just the opposite. Most of them simply appreciate being acknowledged by someone. Jana was right, though. It would be a long time before she would talk to anyone she didn’t know. Even though she had survived, the world seemed like a much darker and scarier place.

  “Can I take this off?” Summer asked, suddenly feeling claustrophobic. “I have to get this off. I can’t breathe.”

  “That’s helping you breathe, sweetie,” Olivia replied in a soothing voice, stroking the top of her head. “Just relax. I’ll call for a nurse.”

  “I need to get it off!” She wedged her fingers under the mask and broke the seal. “I can’t stand it any longer.” It had nothing to do with the actual air running through the mask. It was the mask itself . . . it reminded her of having her mouth taped shut. “It feels like it’s strangling me.”

  “Okay, okay.” Olivia grabbed the corners of the mask and gently lifted it from her face. “As long as you can breathe okay, we’ll leave it off for a while.” She set the mask off to the side and pressed the button to call a nurse. She immediately knew that it was a psychological issue and it was just one of many future situations that would make her feel uncomfortable. Fortunately, she had a couple of months to work with her before she started college.

  “Summer, can you hear me?” Jana asked, coming up next to the bed and looking down at her.

  “Yeah. I can see you too.” Summer giggled, causing Jana to sigh with relief.

  “I hope you’ll get out of here soon. This town really sucks balls without you.” She giggled, and realizing what she had just said, glanced over at Olivia. “I was really scared for you.”

  “I’m going to be fine once my lungs start working again,” Summer assured her. “Then we’ll go check out guys at the park.”

  “You’ll do what?” Dylan’s voice filled the room as he came through the door.

  “I’m pretty sure she was joking,” Olivia blurted out as all three of them were caught off-guard. “We were just talking about how she wouldn’t be talking to homeless guys in the near future.”

  Dylan walked right up to her bedside and placed his hand on her forehead. “She’ll be able to talk to anyone she wants, because from now on, she’ll have a bodyguard.”

  “Really? Who?” Jana chirped with excitement.

  “Me.” Dylan turned and gave her a grin. “Wherever she goes, I’ll be there to protect her.”

  “Well, we still need some girl time,” Jana scoffed. “Are you two getting married or something?”

  “No.” Summer giggled, replying on his behalf and closing her eyes momentarily. “He thinks I need protection, but I think I’ve proven that I can take care of myself. I did get away from the guy. I just need a few swimming lessons.”

  “And a little more muscle,” Dylan added with a laugh.

  “Okay, everyone, settle down,” Olivia chimed in, motioning with her hands for everyone to keep it down. “She needs to take it easy and focus on her breathing.”

  “I’m on my way to work anyway,” Jana told them. “I just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing.” She bent down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll stop by tomorrow and check on you again. Hopefully, you’ll be feeling better.”

  “Thanks, Jana. I miss you,” Summer replied with a sad smile. “I hope to be home for my birthday.”

  “That’s what we’ve been shooting for,” Olivia interjected. “We’ll have a little birthday party on Friday if she’s up for it.”

  “That sounds cool. We’ll both be eighteen!” Jana turned toward the door. “I’ve gotta get going. My boss hates it when I’m late.”

  “I’ll walk down with you,” Olivia told her. “I need to grab a sandwich and give Ryan a call. I haven’t eaten anything yet, and I’m starting to get lightheaded.”

  As the two women disappeared from view, Dylan walked over to the bed and took Summer’s hand in his. “So, you’re feeling better?”

  “I feel better than yesterday, so I think your treatment worked last night,” she replied with a smirk. “Although I’m still really tired and I can’t stand having that thing on my face any longer.” She nodded toward the ventilator mask. “How are you?”

  “Fine for now, but I might be dead later on,” Dylan joked.

  “Why?” Summer struggled to sit up in bed.

  “I was complaining to Carson last night that I didn’t have money for gas, so he gave me a couple of hundred-dollar bills.” He shook his head as if he was reluctant to admit what he had done. “I noticed that they had sequential serial numbers just like t
he ones you took from Leo, so I decided to take them over to the police station, just to see if they happened to be from the same stack or whatever.”

  “And?”

  “Carson called there right when I was leaving. Somehow, he knew I was there!” A disturbed look instantly crossed Dylan’s face.

  “Does he know you turned over the bills?” Summer’s eyes widened to match his.

  “I don’t know. I have a feeling that Sergeant Reed might have mentioned it.” Dylan pushed his fingers through his hair and blew out an anxiety-filled breath. “He’ll fucking kill me if he knows.”

  “Why would you do that?” Summer asked in a perplexed voice. “Do you think he did something wrong?”

  “I don’t know what to think.” He pulled up a chair and sat down next to her. “He already bought Leo’s land from the county,” he added.

  “What?” Summer turned onto her side to better focus on Dylan.

  “Yeah, he found out he could just pay the back taxes, so he got the whole thing for thirty-two hundred bucks. He said if things went well today, he could flip it for a huge profit. Doesn’t that seem like things are moving awfully fast?” Dylan asked, giving her a bewildered look.

  She could see that he was desperately trying to figure it all out. “Maybe someone told him that the county owned it,” she suggested. “Maybe Detective Thomas or Sergeant Reed told him about it.”

  “I guess I didn’t think of asking them about that. I didn’t want Carson to know I was snooping around behind his back.” Dylan rubbed his forehead, trying to ease the tension.

  “But he found out anyway,” she replied with a look of concern.

  “Yeah, I’ll end up in the hospital next to you,” Dylan joked, thinking back to his conversation with the detective. “You know, Detective Thomas told me that there was no money, picture of you, or war medals when they went back out there. He thought maybe you were so sick that you were delusional.”