Grave Paths (A Maddie Graves Mystery Book 11)

by Lily Harper Hart

  “Nicky?” Maddie’s mind was still muddled. “I … where are we?”

  “We’re in bed, love,” Nick murmured. “You had a bad dream.”

  It was much more than a bad dream, Maddie thought. It was something else entirely. She immediately dismissed the thought. It was ridiculous, after all. She was simply being a drama queen.

  “I’m sorry I woke you.”

  “Don’t be sorry, Mad,” Nick admonished. “That’s what I’m here for.”

  Maddie sucked in a steadying breath. “I’m still sorry. I … don’t know what happened. It was just so real.”

  “Do you want to tell me about it?”

  Maddie considered lying, saying she didn’t remember. That hardly seemed like the right way to go since they were planning on starting a life together. “I don’t know. I was running in the woods. I knew someone was chasing me and yet … I couldn’t see who it was. Then I heard a scream – a woman’s scream – and ran in that direction. When I did, someone grabbed me. Then you woke me up.”

  “That sounds horrible.” Nick pressed a soft kiss to Maddie’s forehead. “You scared the crap out of me, Mad. It was like you were fighting someone in your sleep.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize for dreaming.” Nick did his best to refrain from snapping at her. He hated it when she apologized for things she couldn’t control. “Do you think you can go back to sleep?”

  Maddie nodded immediately.

  “Okay.” Nick continued stroking her hair. “Stay close to me, huh? I’ll be there in case you find yourself in the woods again. I’ll find a way to track you down in your dreams.”

  “You’re always there no matter what,” Maddie murmured, burying her face in his neck. “You’re in my heart.”

  “You’re in mine, too, love. You have no idea.”

  Nick slipped off relatively quickly. He intended to stay awake should Maddie have another nightmare, but he was already gone when Maddie focused her eyes on the wall and began to count sheep. She was still counting them when the sunshine started poking through the window.

  2

  Two

  Maddie did her best to be bright and chipper the next morning, but it was hard to hide the shadows under her eyes. Nick immediately keyed in to her mood and he followed her from the bathroom to the kitchen, intent on getting to the source of her malaise.

  “Did you sleep at all after the nightmare?”

  “Nicky, I’m fine.” Maddie bit off an annoyed groan and forced a smile. “It was just a dream.”

  Nick wasn’t so sure. Maddie was special – in more ways than one – and she had psychic abilities she didn’t often talk about. She could see and talk to ghosts, which had helped him solve a case or two, but she also had an inner sense that often directed her toward a specific problem. He worried that was the case here.

  “Tell me about the dream from the beginning,” Nick ordered, moving to the coffee pot. “It might help you to talk through it.”

  “It was just a dream.”

  “I know, but I still want you to tell me.”

  Maddie heaved out a sigh as she shuffled to the refrigerator to grab breakfast items. “Do you want eggs?”

  “Sure.”

  “Hash browns?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Sausage?”

  “You never have to ask that question.”

  This time Maddie’s smile was real as she locked gazes with him. “So … the full works?”

  “Yup.” Nick bobbed his head. “And, while I’m helping you cook the full works, you can tell me about the dream.”

  The last thing Maddie wanted was to focus on the dream, but she knew there was no way Nick would ease up unless she did. “There wasn’t anything special about the dream, Nicky.” Maddie collected eggs, a bag of pre-cut hash browns, and a container of fresh sausage links from the refrigerator. “I was already running when it started.”

  “And you couldn’t see who you were running from?”

  Maddie shook her head, her damp hair brushing against her shoulders. “I just knew that someone was following me.”

  “How?” Nick’s police training took over and he questioned her as if she witnessed a real event rather than getting lost in a nightmare. “How did you know someone was following you if you didn’t see anyone?”

  “I heard footsteps … and branches breaking … and I heard the leaves rustling on the ground.”

  “Do you know where you were?”

  “I didn’t see any landmarks or anything,” Maddie replied, dumping the hash browns into a frying pan as Nick handled the sausage. “I remember thinking that I was in the woods behind the house, though. I somehow knew that even though I shouldn’t have known it. That’s probably dream logic, though.”

  “This house?”

  Maddie and Nick shared the old Victorian Maddie’s mother, Olivia, left her only daughter upon her death. When Maddie first moved back to Blackstone Bay after a decade spent in Southeastern Michigan, Maddie was happy to be in her childhood home, the memories comforting her like an old blanket. Maude still lived there, of course, and Olivia’s ghost remained behind to wait for her mother to cross over. The house didn’t feel like a home again until Nick moved in, though. Now Maddie had everything she ever hoped for and she was bound and determined a dream wouldn’t derail that.

  “This house. Seriously, it was just a dream.”

  “I’m not saying it wasn’t,” Nick said, searching the drawer next to the stove for two spatulas. “I just want to know what frightened you so badly that you didn’t sleep the entire night.”

  “I slept,” Maddie protested.

  “Those suitcases under your eyes say different.” Nick cupped the back of Maddie’s head and tilted her face so he could stare into the fathomless depths of her eyes. “You should have woken me up.”

  “Why? So we could both be draggy and uncomfortable this morning?”

  “Hey … for better or for worse, right?”

  Maddie rolled her eyes, but it was mostly for form. “Right. I’m fine, though. It was just a very vivid dream.”

  “You said you heard a woman screaming,” Nick prodded. “How can you be sure it was a woman?”

  “Because most men don’t scream that way and it was a woman’s voice.”

  “Are you sure it wasn’t a child?”

  Maddie nodded. “It was definitely a woman.”

  “So … was she being hunted in the woods, too?” Nick was understandably curious about the dream. He wanted to figure out why Maddie had it before leaving for his shift.

  “I never saw her. I heard her scream and wanted to find her, but I sensed someone was in the woods. I never saw an actual body, mind you, but I sensed it. Then she screamed again and instinct took over. I ran into the trees and … then someone grabbed me. I never saw a face. I don’t know if it was a man or woman. I woke up to you.”

  “And that’s it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, that’s not much.” Nick tugged Maddie to him and offered her a sweet kiss. “Next time you need to wake me up when you can’t sleep, Mad. I’m sure I could’ve found a way to wear you out so you had no choice but to conk out eventually.”

  Maddie mustered a wry smile. “You have a one-track mind.”

  “I do,” Nick agreed, tapping the end of her nose. “You’re the track.”

  “Oh, geez. Are you two still at it?” Maude, wearing the same outfit she wore the night before, straggled into the kitchen and glared at her granddaughter and Nick. “You guys make me want to barf sometimes. You know that, right?”

  “It’s what we live for.” Nick offered Maude a cheerful grin as he took in the mascara smeared under her eyes and the wild steel-colored curls that flew in a multitude of different directions. “Hungover?”

  “I prefer to think of it as ‘recovering slowly,’” Maude replied, lifting her nose when she scented cooking food. “Is some of that for me?”

  “It can be,” Mad
die replied, adding more sausage links to the pan. “What did you do last night?”

  “I was a good girl,” Maude replied. “I didn’t even leave Betty’s house.”

  “Your bag seems to be missing the toilet paper and eggs you took last night,” Nick pointed out. “Is that story you just told going to hold up in court if I do some investigating?”

  Maude glared at him. “Why do you have to be such a pain so early in the morning?”

  “I guess it’s a gift,” Nick replied. “If I hear about Harriet Proctor’s house being egged in the middle of the night, you’re going to be in big trouble.”

  Instead of expressing fear, Maude blew out a sloppy raspberry. “Try and prove anything, big shot.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Nick grumbled. “This Blue Belles thing is going to turn into an issue, isn’t it? You guys have been cooped up all winter and now that the weather is finally breaking, you’re able to run wild. I can just tell it’s going to be a rough couple of weeks.”

  “That’s why they pay you the big bucks,” Maude said. “You’re like a super cop or something. What you just said there, that was inspirational.”

  Maddie pressed her lips together to keep from laughing at Maude’s sarcastic response. Nick, however, wasn’t in the mood for games.

  “Just try to keep it from approaching World War III levels, okay?”

  “No promises.”

  Nick growled when his cell phone dinged and he frowned when he read the incoming text message.

  “Bad news?” Maddie had a feeling Nick was about to lose out on his big breakfast.

  “Unfortunately, yes,” Nick replied. “A mother and baby might have gone missing.”

  Maddie lifted her eyes. “Might have?”

  “It’s too soon to tell,” Nick explained. “The neighbor called it in. She might just be out of town visiting her family or something. The neighbor is Eloise Martin.”

  “Oh.” Maddie slid a sidelong look in Maude’s direction. Eloise was one of Harriet’s closest cohorts and she was known for being a bit dramatic. “Can you stay long enough to finish your breakfast?”

  “I have twenty minutes,” Nick said. “Let’s make them count.” He smacked a loud kiss against Maddie’s mouth, causing Maude to mime vomiting. “Don’t make me arrest you for annoying a police officer,” he warned.

  “The charges would never stick.”

  “Do you want to bet on that?”

  “Do you?” Maude stared him down. Much like Maddie, she knew all his weak spots … and Maude happened to be one of his weak spots no matter how much he sputtered to the contrary. “I have a feeling I will win.”

  Sadly, Nick didn’t doubt she was right.

  “WHAT DO WE HAVE?”

  Nick met his partner Dale Kreskin in front of a small ranch house on the town’s east side. The house was a recent sale – Nick knew because he saw a sign on the lawn for two months before it disappeared – but he had no idea who bought it.

  Kreskin pursed his lips as he regarded the younger officer. “You smell like sausage.”

  “That could be a very dangerous greeting if we were in a porn movie,” Nick pointed out, internally smirking when Kreskin scowled.

  “Do you have to be a gutter mouth?”

  “Sorry.” Nick held up his hands in a placating manner. “I had a long night. Maude accused me of talking with my penis before sneaking out to do something crazy … and this was after I spent the better part of the night making wedding plans with Maddie. Then Maude took off, wearing all black and carting toilet paper and eggs with her, and said something about starting war with the Blue Belles.”

  “Ah.” Kreskin nodded knowingly. “That probably explains the complaint we got from Harriet Proctor last night. She claims she was under siege. The dispatcher knew who he was dealing with so he told her to have another drink and go to bed. I sent one of the uniforms over there this morning.”

  “Maude swears she can’t be blamed.”

  “Well, if Maude said it … .” Kreskin left the sentence hanging as he drained the rest of his coffee. “So, Eloise Martin says that the woman who lives here – one Jennifer Cook – has been missing for three days.”

  “No offense to Eloise, but how can she be sure of that?”

  “She says she’s been watching the house because she saw a special Dateline episode featuring couples who look young and innocent – like the Cooks – who move into rural towns and set up meth labs.”

  “Oh, well, of course.” Nick rubbed his forehead. “Why not just ask the husband?”

  “We’re in the process of finding him,” Kreskin replied. “Apparently he travels three weeks out of every four. They have a young son, too. Eloise wasn’t sure on the name, but I figure we can find that out easy enough.”

  “How young?”

  “She gave birth a month ago.”

  Something about the story didn’t jibe in Nick’s mind. “So Jennifer Cook gave birth a month ago and her husband is leaving her with a new baby for long stretches of time?”

  “That was my first thought, too,” Kreskin admitted. “Maybe you and I are simply softer or something, but I can’t imagine leaving a woman to deal with that on her own. Of course, maybe they didn’t have a choice. We haven’t run their financials yet or anything. Maybe he couldn’t take time off work.”

  “Do we know what he does?”

  Kreskin shook his head. “Phil Langstrom was their real estate agent. He’s on his way. I figure he can fill in a few of the gaps. In fact, there he is now.” Kreskin lifted his chin in the direction of the road, causing Nick to follow his gaze.

  Phil Langstrom was Blackstone Bay’s most successful real estate agent. That didn’t mean a lot because the town didn’t see a lot of turnover when it came to homes – it was something of a bedroom community and when people chose to live there they only let death drag them away – but Phil managed to do okay. He flashed a bright smile when he caught sight of the duo and hurried in their direction.

  “Any word?”

  “No,” Kreskin said. “We haven’t walked through the house, but we have peeked through the windows and we can’t see anything that looks out of place. We’ll know more when the locksmith gets here.”

  “That’s good, right?”

  “It’s better than finding everything tore up,” Nick answered. “That doesn’t mean we won’t find signs of trouble when we do get inside. We can’t see inside every room from here. What can you tell us about the Cooks?”

  “Oh, well, they were a normal couple,” Phil replied. “He was about ten years older than she if I remember right. Maybe twelve years, I guess. She was only twenty-four. That stood out to me on their paperwork because she looked even younger than that. The age difference was big but not huge.”

  “Do you know what he does for a living?”

  “Yeah, he sets up those big computer networks for companies,” Phil explained. “You know … everyone has their own email, but it’s all backed up in one place. Stuff like that.”

  “And he travels a lot?”

  “As far as I know, he travels more than he’s home,” Phil said. “Jennifer told me that Peter – that’s the husband’s name – was career driven and that the pregnancy took them both by surprise. He wanted to be settled so he didn’t have to travel as much by the time they had kids, but it didn’t really work out that way.”

  “I guess that makes sense.” Kreskin rubbed his chin. “What was their financial situation like?”

  Phil balked. “I’m not sure I should be talking out of turn. That is private information.”

  “We just want to get a feel for the marriage.” Kreskin kept his voice even. “If something happened here, then we have a missing mother and child. We’ll be working against the clock. It could already be too late.”

  Phil pressed the tip of his tongue to the back of his teeth. “Okay, but I feel a bit uncomfortable about this.”

  “I’ll log it on the record,” Nick offered.

 
Phil ignored the sarcasm. “They weren’t poor, but they were living pretty close to the edge. They almost didn’t pass the mortgage requirements, but they eked by. I don’t know specifics, like how much they have in savings or anything, but I don’t think they’re well-to-do people.”

  “So it’s probably not a kidnapping,” Kreskin mused. “What about the baby?”

  “I know she was pregnant with a son when we closed but have no idea what they named him,” Phil replied. “The sale had already closed by the time she gave birth. It’s not as if I saw them in social settings.”

  “According to Eloise, Jennifer never left the house,” Kreskin supplied. “Eloise was convinced she was cooking meth, of course, but a new baby is a lot of work. If Jennifer was alone for the bulk of that time … .”

  “It would make sense that she didn’t leave the house,” Nick finished. “My mother always said that, when a baby is fresh and new, the mother always sleeps whenever the baby does. With the weather being cold like it has, too, she probably didn’t want to risk taking him outside.”

  “That makes as much sense as anything else,” Kreskin said. “I think it’s weird that she hasn’t been seen in three days, but we need to run a background check on her. Maybe she has relatives near and she went there so they could help for a few days. Heck, maybe she has relatives far away and she was desperate enough to go to them.”

  “We also need to track down the husband,” Nick added. “He’s the one who can answer most of our questions – for good or bad – and we need to get a feeling for Jennifer’s mental state. Maybe she voluntarily left him because she didn’t want to raise the baby with a guy who worked all the time.”

  “That’s another possibility,” Kreskin agreed. “It seems right now that all we have are possibilities. We need evidence and information to move forward.”

  Nick pressed his lips together and raised his eyebrows. “So let’s start gathering evidence.”

  3

  Three