by S A Monk
She reached into the drawer of her desk to retrieve her wallet. Nick motioned for her to put her money back. “I’m buying.”
“You sound just like Lance. He never thought I should pay, either.”
Since it was noon, the cafeteria downstairs was crowded with staff and hospital visitors, but after going through the food line, Nick and Hanna found a table in a corner that was quiet enough for them to hear one another speak. It was also next to one of the big glass windows that allowed a view of the bay in the distance, below the bluff the hospital was perched on.
“It looks like it’s turned into a beautiful day. I’m glad all the fog has blown out,” Hanna commented. “You should have a nice ride on the ferry.” She took a bite of the sandwich on her plate, then washed it down with a spoonful of soup, much hungrier than she’d first thought. “Who are you going to see in Seattle?” Hopefully, it wasn’t some female friend.
“A friend of mine in the FBI. Kurt Palmer. He’s an ex-Marine. We went to Annapolis together, then into Recon together. He got out after ten, and became an FBI agent. We’ve worked together on and off since then. He’s with the agency’s Seattle office right now, so I thought I’d get a little assistance from him.”
Hanna’s curiosity was spiked. “What kind of assistance?”
“Well, you know I told you when Christine and I went over to her house, we looked around pretty thoroughly. The only thing that seemed amiss to Christine was Dylan’s laptop. It wasn’t where he usually leaves it. So I turned it on and studied all of his hard drive files. His old and new cases were on his computer. Under current investigations, he had one labeled Illegal Drug Cases.”
“Really.”
“It had nothing in it.” Nick proceeded to finish his sandwich as he waited for Hanna to fill him in on what she knew.
“That’s odd. Port George is no Seattle, but we do have drug problems here. I see the end result too frequently lately in ER. Besides, I know Dylan made several illegal drug arrests within the last six months. Mostly, it was marijuana and amphetamines, sometimes crack or cocaine. But he also had a case or two that have involved heroin. I’ve seen a couple in ER, too. It’s not a drug we were seeing any of until recently. Dylan certainly should have had something in his files under current cases.”
“That’s pretty much what Christine said, so I checked the “Recent Places” on his computer. It showed that he had added to a file titled Drug Cases the day before he died. Of course, his computer hadn’t been used since then, except for one instance― two days after he died. The file was accessed and erased.”
Hanna paled. “What do you think that means?” She was afraid to speculate.
“For now, I’m going to assume that whoever broke into Christine and Dylan’s new house was looking for information Dylan had on any illegal drug cases he’d been investigating. I’m taking Dylan’s laptop to Kurt to see if he’ll dust it for fingerprints. Maybe he can even find some way to retrieve the erased file. Christine gave me all of Dylan’s backup drives. There might be something on one of them, too. Luckily, they were in a closet, not next to his computer, so the intruder didn’t know about them. I don’t want to comprise any evidence on the computer, so I’m going to let Kirk and his team go over it. Christine was okay with that, and I trust Kirk to be discreet.”
“That definitely sounds promising!” She smiled at him gratefully. “I’ve felt so frustrated for weeks. I haven’t been able to get anywhere. Now, with your help, I finally have some real hope we can find out the truth about Dylan’s death.”
Nick smiled at her, his silver gray eyes full of tenderness. Then he reached over and caught her hand between his. Neither of them said a thing. Hanna didn’t know what to say, the intimacy in his gaze was so intense. It left her addled, unsettled. It had been like this between them since he had come home. The way he looked at her, always watching her, the way he sought every excuse to touch her, and then the way he had kissed her at the park.
What was going on? He had always been sweet, considerate, and thoughtful, but this time something was different. Maybe it was just her silly imagination. She’d always been so crazy about him, so hopelessly in love with him. It seemed she’d fantasized a thousand times about him looking at her this way. Was she reading too much into things?
Her ego was much too fragile to trust what she thought she saw. She might have the IQ of a genius, but she was no genius when it came to men and her feelings for Nick. She was smart enough to know, though, that men like him didn’t fall in love with women like her— brainy, ordinary looking women, who wore thick-rimmed glasses and were too quiet, too shy to be sexy and enticing.
She shook herself mentally and brought herself back to the real world. “What did Chief Douglas and Sheriff Thomas have to say yesterday about Lance? Are they looking for him? Have they at least posted him as a missing person?”
Nick rubbed his forehead and shook his head in disgust. “Dealing with those two was....”
“Challenging?” Hanna supplied, commiserating with him.
“Definitely. They haven’t done either of those things, unfortunately. They seem to think Lance either took off with some woman, or he got a call from Elaine and left to meet her somewhere.”
Hanna let out a breath of disgust. Lance would never have anything to do with his ex-wife! He’d married her his senior year in college and brought her home to Port George. No one had known she was a cocaine user when she’d gotten pregnant with Christopher. The infant had been born with significant seizures and subsequent developmental delays. And his loving mother, not wanting to bother with such a demanding baby, had walked out on her husband and son within six months of giving birth. She had never returned or even written. No one knew where she was. Or if she was even still living. Hanna didn’t know of any other women in Lance’s life, and he’d never take off on his son anyway. He was much too devoted a father; much too responsible for that kind of behavior.
“Why would Douglas and Thomas think that? Lance wasn’t seeing anyone, and he hasn’t talked to Elaine since she left him.”
“One of the temporary workers Lance hires occasionally from Job Service told Phillip that Elaine called Lance at work a couple of times recently. The guy said Lance was really upset afterward and talked about finding her.”
“Oh bullshit!” Hanna hardly ever swore, but she was thoroughly disgusted by what Nick told her. He smiled at her rare use of profanity. “Lance would have told me if Elaine had contacted him. We didn’t keep those kinds of secrets from one another. Who was this temporary hire anyway?”
Nick told her the name of the man, but it didn’t ring any bells for Hanna. Nick stared at her thoughtfully, his eyes narrowed, forehead wrinkled. “You were that close to Lance that you’d know for sure if Elaine had tried to call him?”
“Yes! Absolutely.”
Her answer was so emphatic, it deepened Nick’s frown. “I don’t think Chief Douglas and Sheriff Thomas want to concern themselves with Lance’s disappearance.”
“Why?” Hanna couldn’t understand that response now any more than she could when she’d first suspected it.
“I don’t know, but something about those two bothers me. Their willingness to settle for the easiest explanation possible in both cases is disturbing enough, but my gut tells me that it’s more than just incompetence and indifference that motivates them. I’m going to have Kurt run background checks on them.”
“But you know Phillip. You went to high school with him. You played football with him. And wasn’t his wife an old girlfriend?”
His mouth slid into a partial grin. “Hanna, your memory is too good. But men change in twenty years.”
“Well, Phillip Douglas didn’t change for the better. I still can’t stand him. He was an arrogant, obnoxious bully in high school, and he still is.”
“I remember how he used to pick on you,” Nick stated, frowning again. “I always enjoyed hitting him a little harder on the practice field for it. He’s not still bothering
you, is he?”
“No. He just treats me like I’m not worth his time.”
“He’s not worth yours. He can deal with me from now on.”
She’d always loved the way Nick had championed her. If it hadn’t been for him, she would have been so much more miserable in high school. His unwavering support had been one of the reasons she’d fallen in love with him.
She glanced at her watch and grimaced. “I hate to, but I better get going. What ferry are you taking?”
“The one o’clock. I’ll be back in time to pick you up from work. Would you hate it if I picked you up on my bike? I might not have time to go home and get the Jeep.”
She looked down at her skirt. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing I wore a full skirt. Can I ride home in this modestly?”
He looked down and scanned her legs. “Unfortunately, yes.”
She laughed and hit him playfully on the arm. Just as they were leaving, Ashley Davis came through the cafeteria door with Dr. Rick Penman.
“Nick! How nice to run into you again,” Ashley exclaimed with such enthusiasm Hanna wanted to groan. “I keep missing you when you pick up Dr. Wallace.” Oh, how fortuitous, Hanna thought snidely once again. “Doctor, isn’t your car working?”
“It’s limping along,” Hanna replied. “I better run. See you later, Nick. Have a good trip into Seattle.”
“Hanna! Wait up!”
Nick watched Doctor Penman leave Ashley’s side and hurry after Hanna, chasing her into the elevator.
Ashley was watching Nick just as closely. “Doctor Penman works in ER with Doctor Wallace. He’s a resident doctor. Rumor has it he’s got it bad for her.”
Nick turned to look down at the petite woman he’d dated once or twice in high school. “Got it bad?”
Ashley smiled up sweetly at him. “He has a crush on Hanna.”
“Isn’t he a little old for a crush?”
The ER nurse shrugged. “Well, Doctor Wallace is still single after all these years.” Nick turned to walk away with a snort of disgust. Ashley touched his forearm. “Where are you off to? I was just about to take my lunch break. Want to join me?”
He shook his head and smiled absently. “I just had lunch with Hanna. I’ve got to catch the one o’clock ferry to Seattle.”
“What’s in Seattle?”
“A friend.”
“Male or female?”
“The former,” he responded impatiently.
“I hear you’re home for a while. Why don’t we go out for a drink some evening after I get off work.” Nick began to shake his head negatively, so she quickly added, “Doctor Wallace can join us. We usually work the same shift.”
“We’ll see, Ashley.” Nick checked his watch. “I really need to get going if I’m going to catch that ferry. Have a nice lunch.”
The nurse lingered in the doorway to the cafeteria until he was no longer in sight. One of the other nurses she had gone to high school with walked up to her.
“Too bad you let that one get away, Ashley. He’s still as good looking as he was in high school. No, better, I think. Bet you wouldn’t have wanted to divorce him.”
“Bet I wouldn’t have, either,” she replied regretfully.
CHAPTER 7
“WE’RE GOING TO NEED A ZODIAC for diving. It’s more convenient than using your sailboat or one of Lance’s. I need some scuba gear and specialized equipment, too.”
Hanna was sitting next to Nick in Lance’s Jeep. He was taking her to work again, as he had every day this week. The soft top was up, much to her relief. Arriving at work windblown was inconvenient. So far, though, Nick had been very considerate about it.
She glanced over at him as she sipped the espresso they had just stopped to buy. “Where are you going to get a rubber boat? Lance’s was never found.”
“I’m going over to Whidbey Island. I can requisition the gear I need at the Naval Air Station there. I think I’ll take Lance’s speedboat over and tow the Zodiac back. They;re pretty good sized.” He turned to look at her. “I wish you had the day off so you could go with me.”
“That would be nice,” she said wistfully.
“You work too many hours.”
“Look who’s talking. What kind of hours do you keep, Colonel?”
“Not eight hour ones, for sure.” He shot her a glance. “It gets old, doesn’t it?”
“If you mean all work and no play, it sure does.”
She was angled in the seat so she could look at him as he drove. It was an indulgence she allowed herself every time he took her to and from work. She loved observing him. She’d had so little opportunity over the past twenty years. And he was so very easy on the eyes!
Today, he was wearing jeans and a navy blue pullover sweater, with another golf shirt beneath it. She could see by the collar, it was maroon. It was obvious he liked the style. She wondered what colors he didn’t have. Maybe she could get him a couple for a Christmas. She knew his size. She’d sent him a few sweaters as gifts over the years. In fact, the one he had on looked particularly familiar. She knew so much about him, and yet there was so much more she wanted to know. Much of his life was a mystery because of the covert nature of his missions. Writing letters to one another over the years had helped her to know about the man and his matured personality, but it wasn’t the same as actually being with one another. Watching his facial expressions and listening to the rich inflections of his deep voice were little treasures she thoroughly loved collecting and storing away in her heart each time he was home.
Nick caught her expression. “What produced that secret little smile?”
“None of your business.”
“You’ve never tell me what those particular little smiles of yours mean.”
“They’re my secret.”
“One of these days I’ll pry it out of you.”
“Nope.”
“Oh yeah. I’ve always been intrigued by them. You’ve done that since you were little, you know.”
“Really?” He’d noticed. How wonderfully surprising! “So, what did you find out in Seattle yesterday?”
“Nothing yet. It’ll take a week or so to go over Dylan’s laptop and check his backup drives. They also agreed to do the background checks on the police chief and the sheriff. Kurt put Lance on the Missing Person List, too. Having his name and picture out there might help bring in some leads. Maybe someone has seen him.”
“Oh, I hope so.” She pushed her glasses up further onto her nose impatiently. It seemed they were always slipping down. “Did you go by the boat shop yet?”
“Yeah.” He took a sip from his Styrofoam coffee cup.
“How are they faring without Lance?” She watched his Adam’s apple move along the tanned column of his throat as he swallowed his coffee. To her, even that part of him was sexy. So very masculine!
“Not bad. The boat repairs are getting done, but no one wants to do any salvage work without Lance. They wanted me to complete a job he started.”
“Are you going to?”
“If I have time. Finding Lance comes first, though.”
“Well, I can help you if you decide to do it. I’ve gone down on a few salvage dives with Lance. I’ve always loved diving, and salvage work can be a lot of fun.”
“It sounds like you do quite a bit with my little brother.” Nick gave her a measured sideways look.
Hanna was oblivious to his frown. She shrugged. “I guess so.” Lance was her friend. They tended to spend a lot of time together. Nick knew that. If she’d been looking at his expression at that moment, though, she might have wondered about it.
“Mom’s keeping the books and doing all the billing,” he added after a moment.
Angled toward him as far as her seatbelt would allow, Hanna lifted her eyes from her coffee cup to look at him again. “Have you ever thought about coming home and helping Lance run the shop? He did rename it, adding an “s” in the hope you might run it with him someday.” It was a question worth testing the waters o
n.
“It’s crossed my mind. I could never build and repair boats like Lance, but I’d probably like the salvage diving well enough.”
His response wasn’t exactly brimming with enthusiasm. Growing up, Nick had enjoyed helping his stepfather, but he’d never had a strong inclination to go into the family business.
“Not quite as much as the Marine Corps, though, huh?”
He shot her a quick inquiring look, then one of his crooked half-grins. “Probably not, but you never know.”
But Hanna did know. She knew Nick well enough to know he’d probably die a Marine. That grim thought left her quiet and withdrawn the rest of the way to the hospital.
When they pulled into the parking lot and drove into a spot near the ER doors, she started to open her door to get out. Nick stopped her with a hand on her forearm.
“Hanna, wait…. ”
She didn’t turn to look at him so he caught her jaw gently and turned her head toward him. “Are you upset with me for something? You stopped talking to me three miles back.”
Unnerved by his touch, she shook her head and lied. “No. I was just thinking.”
“About what?” One long finger moved upwards, along the edge of her jaw. It stopped just under her earlobe, then began to trace slow tiny circles over the side of her neck, just under her hairline, sending little shivers along her spine. His gray eyes were focused intently on her.
“Work,” she lied, unraveling inside. “What I’ve got to do today.”
“You work such long hours, we haven’t gotten to spend much time together,” he said, moving his thumb over the indentation below her lower lip so that the span between fingertip and thumb rested along her jaw. “I was hoping we could spend more time together.”
His gaze was a sexy mixture of heat and boyish disgruntlement. The soft caress of his fingertip and thumb was driving her crazy, making her pulse race. “I’ll be off next week,” she replied in a softly disturbed voice.
Involuntarily, her eyes fell to his mouth. He had a great mouth. His lower lip was full and oh so inviting. More than anything, she wanted to feel those lips on hers again. She hadn’t been able to get her mind off the kiss he had given her so unexpectedly in the park. Each night she had gone to bed this past week, she had lain awake recalling every detail of how exquisite his big hard body had felt pressed to hers.
