A Desperate Search

by Amanda Stevens

  “That’s right.” He leaned in, locking gazes. “I might still have thought he was a little off his rocker if someone hadn’t shot at me last night as I was leaving his cabin.”

  Nikki’s mouth dropped open. “What?” She took another quick glance around the shop. “Did you see who it was? Tell me what happened.”

  “I never got a good look. It was too dark and he had a hoodie pulled over his face.”

  Nikki’s mind flashed back to the silhouette she’d glimpsed in her backyard during the storm. She’d managed to convince herself she’d seen nothing more than a tree. The lightning had played tricks on her vision. No one had been watching her house. But now—

  “What’s wrong?” Adam asked. “You look like you just saw a ghost.”

  She glanced up. “Not a ghost. I thought I saw someone in my backyard last night. He may or may not have been wearing a hoodie.”

  Adam’s voice sharpened. “When was this?”

  “During the storm, so it must have been after midnight. The thunder woke me up. I got up for a drink of water and went out to the back porch to watch the weather. The lightning was pretty keen at that point. It lit up the backyard. That’s when I saw someone standing just inside my gate.”

  “What did he look like? Can you describe him?”

  “Not really. I only caught a glance. I thought it was just my imagination. I’m still not certain I saw anything other than a tree or a bush.”

  “The guy at the cabin was big,” Adam said. “Tall and muscular but quick on his feet.”

  Her gaze flicked to his cuts and bruises. “Did he do that to you?”

  “Did he kick my ass, you mean? Yeah. Right after he tried to shoot me.”

  “Through all that, you never saw his face?”

  His gaze turned wry. “I was a little busy fighting for my life.”

  Nikki took a moment to visualize the fight. “Do you think he could be the same person we saw on the lake two nights ago?”

  “I wouldn’t discount it.”

  “I wonder what he was doing at Dr. Nance’s cabin.”

  “Maybe the same thing he was doing on the lake—looking for something,” Adam said. “Right now we need to figure out who he is and what he wants, because I think the same guy tried to run me down on my way here.”

  “Just now, you mean?” Nikki’s pulse quickened. This was all getting to be too real. Hard to rationalize one incident after another as coincidental. Assuming Adam Thayer was telling the truth, and she had no reason to doubt him. What if someone really had been in her backyard last night? What if Dr. Nance’s death hadn’t been an accident after all?

  But why would someone come after her? Or Adam Thayer, for that matter? What dark thing was going on in Belle Pointe?

  His gaze deepened as if he’d read her mind. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. But this is all pretty unnerving,” she said. “Someone shot at you and tried to run you down. Could this be related to the incident in Dallas?”

  “The incident?”

  Her gaze lifted to the scar across his scalp. “The shooting. Could someone have followed you here?”

  “I doubt it. Why would someone who tailed me to Belle Pointe end up in your backyard? No, I think this is all somehow tied to Dr. Nance’s drowning.”

  Nikki drew a breath and nodded. “I’m afraid it’s beginning to look that way. I don’t suppose you can identify the driver?”

  He took a sip of the cooling coffee and winced. “It happened too fast, and looking back, I think the windows must have been tinted. Whoever this guy is, he knows how to keep his face concealed. I can describe the vehicle, though. It was an old panel truck covered in primer. There wasn’t a plate. For a moment, I thought the driver was going to jump the curb and plow right into me. He swerved back into traffic at the last minute.”

  “Did anyone else see it happen?”

  “There were other cars on the road, but I was the only pedestrian at that intersection. I’ll check to see if any of the businesses in the immediate vicinity have security cams. That might be our best bet in tracking him down.”

  Nikki said slowly, “I saw that truck go by my house last night. Or one very much like it.”

  He glanced up. “Before or after you spotted someone in your backyard?”

  “After. I heard a vehicle start up down the street and I got up to look out the window. I remember thinking how odd it was to see a delivery truck at that time of night, much less in the middle of a storm.”

  “I have to say, this is getting stranger and stranger,” Adam muttered.

  Yeah, no kidding.

  “You don’t remember seeing a vehicle like that around town?” he asked.

  “Delivery trucks, sure, but not an old one covered in primer.” Nikki paused, her gaze once more roaming over the other customers. Most of them were absorbed in their coffee and phones. No one seemed to take notice of the couple seated by the window engaged in an intense conversation. But she kept her voice down anyway. “What were you doing at Dr. Nance’s cabin last night?”

  “I took my grandmother’s boat over to have a look around. The police were there earlier, but I wanted to check things out for myself.”

  “Because you thought you could find something they missed?”

  “I did find something.” Now it was Adam who glanced around. He seemed to take note of the customers and then studied the street. Nikki followed his gaze, almost expecting to see the panel truck parked at the curb or a tall, muscular man in a hoodie watching the shop. She detected nothing out of the ordinary, but her apprehension heightened as she turned back to Adam.

  “What did you find?”

  His gaze on her seemed even more intense. Relentlessly dark and unfathomable. “Remember earlier when I asked about the significance of the number forty-seven? You implied it meant something to Dr. Nance.”

  “Yes. It was the year he was born. 1947.”

  “That’s it?”

  “As far as I know. Why?”

  He explained about the tilting-at-windmills phrase Dr. Nance had used during their last phone conversation, the copy of Don Quixote he’d found on the table next to the recliner and the rolled note that had been tucked up in the spine of the book.

  Nikki listened, fascinated. “That doesn’t sound like something Dr. Nance would do. He was never the cloak-and-dagger type. Anyway, how could he know you’d go to his cabin, find the book and put two and two together with what he’d said on the phone?”

  Adam’s focus never wavered. “Maybe he was banking on my abilities as a detective. Maybe someone else is, too.”

  Nikki leaned in, eyes wide. “You think someone is trying to stop you from looking into Dr. Nance’s death?”

  “Maybe someone is trying to stop you, too.”

  She suppressed a shiver. “I wish you hadn’t said that.”

  “It had to be said. If someone is watching your house, you need to be careful.”

  “Why would someone consider me a threat? I’m not even the one who performed the autopsy.”

  “You were close to Dr. Nance. Someone might assume he confided in you.”

  Nikki fell silent as a million thoughts raced around in her head. Could she be a target? It seemed far-fetched, but wasn’t she the one who’d had doubts all along about cause of death? All signs pointed to drowning, but after that long in the water, it was impossible to determine whether or not he’d been held under.

  The images in her head were chilling. “We have to tell the sheriff everything. He needs to know. It could affect the direction of the investigation.”

  “I won’t keep him in the dark,” Adam said. “But I’m not backing off, either.”

  “He’s not going to like a parallel investigation,” Nikki warned.

  “I wouldn’t, either, in his shoes. But
Dr. Nance left a note in that particular book for me to find. I think forty-seven means something other than his year of birth. I don’t yet know the significance, but I have to assume he left other clues. I may be the only one who can find them.” He paused, studying her features as if trying to assess her reaction. “As the county coroner, you’re entitled to investigate as you see fit in order to establish cause, manner and circumstances of death.”

  Her gaze narrowed. “What are you getting at?”

  “It would make my job easier if we worked together. Operating in an official capacity would open doors that I would otherwise have to kick in.”

  Nikki was taken aback by the proposition. “Are you suggesting I hire you on as another investigator?”

  “You can call me your assistant, if that would make the arrangement more palatable to county officials.”

  “Whatever the title, that’s a pretty bold request, considering I know nothing about you.”

  He removed a card from his pocket, jotted a name and number on the back and slid it across the table. “If you have any doubts about my credentials, call this man. He’s been my unit commander for the past three years. He’ll vouch for me.”

  She picked up the card and glanced at the name. “If you’re that highly regarded by the police department, what are you doing down here?” She instantly regretted the question. “I’m sorry. That was stupid. You’re here because Dr. Nance asked you to come.”

  “It’s a little more complicated than that,” he admitted. “The details aren’t important to this case. Just give the lieutenant a call and let me know what you decide. You and Dr. Nance were close. You must want to find out what happened out on that lake as much as I do.”

  She slipped the card in her bag and nodded. “I’ll give it some thought.”

  * * *

  FOR THE REST of the day, Nikki ran errands and performed chores around the house, throwing herself into task after task so that she wouldn’t have time to dwell on Dr. Nance’s death, let alone the possibility that he’d been murdered. Or that she and Adam Thayer had somehow ended up in the killer’s crosshairs.

  No matter how hard she tried, though, she couldn’t get their conversation out of her head. Teaming up with an outsider to investigate a beloved citizen’s death wouldn’t sit well with the local authorities. The last thing she wanted was to get on Tom Brannon’s bad side. However, Adam had made a valid point. If the note Dr. Nance left in the spine of Don Quixote was a clue to whatever he’d discovered before his death, then Adam might be the only person who could find the other pieces of the puzzle. He might be the only one who could put it all together.

  There was a reason he’d been asked to come down here. Dr. Nance could have gone to Tom Brannon or to her with his concerns, but he’d turned to Adam Thayer instead. Nikki couldn’t dismiss her mentor’s final request any more than she could disregard her own instincts. An accidental drowning was hard for her to accept even though the autopsy had produced no evidence to the contrary. She intended to go over the results again to see if anything had been missed, and she would hound the lab until the toxicology screen was completed. If Dr. Nance had discovered something sinister that had cost him his life, she needed to keep digging until she exposed the truth, even if it meant putting her own life at risk. She owed him that much.

  But the possibility of a physical confrontation with an unknown suspect wasn’t something she took lightly. As coroner, she’d been involved in any number of suspicious death investigations, but she’d never felt threatened, and her house had never been watched, so far as she knew. Dr. Nance’s death was different. It felt personal.

  Nikki thought about the gold watch from his late wife that had been taken from his house years prior to his death. One thing seemingly had nothing to do with the other, but she wasn’t so sure anymore. After everything that had happened, it was getting harder to swallow as coincidence the discovery of that stolen timepiece in her secret hiding place. Maybe something nefarious really had been going on in Belle Pointe for years, but what? And where did Nikki and her missing journal fit into the mystery?

  No one in town had been closer to Dr. Nance than Dessie Dupre. More than an employee, she’d been his friend and confidante and had kept his household running smoothly for three decades so that he’d been free to concentrate on his beloved hospital and clinic. As devastated as Nikki was by the loss of her mentor, she could only imagine what Dessie must be feeling.

  It was time to go see her. Nikki had been putting off the visit, knowing how many memories would be stirred once she set foot in that house. Like Dr. Nance, Dessie had taken Nikki under her wing, assigning her little odd jobs around the house to earn spending money while coaxing her out of her shell. The least Nikki could do was offer condolences in person and maybe in the process find out if Dessie knew the whereabouts of Dr. Nance’s journal. Dessie had always been very protective of his personal time and space. Maybe she’d feel more comfortable opening his study to a search by someone that she knew would treat his private domain with the utmost respect.

  Nikki waited until twilight when the air had cooled before walking the few blocks over to Dr. Nance’s neighborhood. She hoped any friends and neighbors who’d stopped by during the day would be gone by then.

  Turning up the tree-shaded street, she paused on the sidewalk to admire the rambling one-story ranch that he and his wife had built before her death. He’d lived in that house alone for over three decades. Dessie had occupied the garage apartment at the back of the property for most of those years.

  A light shone from the French doors in Dr. Nance’s study, as if Dessie had somehow intuited Nikki’s visit. Or maybe she’d just forgotten to turn off the light. The rest of the house was dark.

  Accustomed to letting herself in through the back gate, Nikki walked up the driveway and stepped through into the lush garden, lifting her gaze to Dessie’s apartment. All the lights were out there, too. Maybe she’d gone to stay with her sister for a few days. Understandable. The phone and doorbell would be ringing constantly since news of Dr. Nance’s death had traveled through town. In Dessie’s current state, she probably found it difficult to deal with all those sympathy calls and visits while coming to terms with her personal loss.

  Nikki had started to leave when the sound of music registered. She thought at first the jazzy notes were drifting over the tall brick wall that enclosed the backyard, but then she realized the soft beat came from the large patio at the rear of the house. She heard muted voices then and the sound of water splashing in the pool.

  She eased along the walkway until she could see around the corner of the house. Then she stopped short. A man she didn’t know bounced lightly at the end of the diving board. The pool and garden lights had been turned off, casting the backyard in deep gloom. From his silhouette, Nikki could tell he was a big man, tall and broad-shouldered. Athletic. His presence in Dr. Nance’s backyard was a shock. That he was stark naked was an even greater jolt.

  The board popped as he bounced higher and then dived. He swam underwater to the shallow end and then rose, flinging water from his hair as he walked unselfconsciously up the steps. He casually reached for a towel and wrapped it around his waist as Dessie emerged from the house. Nikki’s first instinct was to call out a warning, but then she saw that Dessie wore a swimsuit. A sheer sarong covered her hips and floated about her slender legs as she sauntered up to the man in the towel.

  Nikki froze, flabbergasted by the scene before her. She told herself to go back out the way she’d come in. Her presence was obviously an intrusion. But she stood rooted to the spot, unable to look away no matter how many ugly names she called herself.

  Dessie poured drinks from an icy pitcher and the two clinked glasses. Then the man bent to adjust the speaker volume, filling the night with that hypnotic beat.

  “Turn that down,” Dessie scolded. “What will the neighbors think if they hear music over her
e and Dr. Nance not even in the ground yet?”

  The man laughed softly, deeply. “That wall is nearly a foot thick, darlin’. No one will hear a thing. But even if they do, who cares? You don’t have to worry about the neighbors anymore. You don’t have to worry about what anyone thinks, least of all that crazy old man you had to clean up after.”

  “Don’t talk about him like that. Dr. Nance was always good to me.”

  “He took advantage of your generous nature. Paid you chicken feed for all that cooking and cleaning, and him sitting all that time on a fat ol’ bank account. But we don’t have to talk about him tonight or ever again. This place is yours now, babe, or soon will be. Your pool. Your backyard. You can do whatever you want.” He ambled up behind her and kissed the back of her neck, swaying against her to the beat of the music.

  Her head lolled against his shoulder as her hips moved with his. “You’re bad for me, Clete.”

  He untied the sarong and let it fall in a silky puddle at their feet. “How bad?”

  She sighed. “So bad I ache.”

  His towel came next as he pulled her against him. “Let’s get in the water.”

  “No, Clete, don’t!” she protested as he tugged her toward the pool. “I just had my hair done. People will be stopping by after church tomorrow and I need to look my best. Like it or not, I still have obligations.”

  “What about your obligation to me?” he murmured as he enticed her toward the steps.

  “I shouldn’t...”

  “Oh, you should, darlin’. You really, really should...”

  Nikki backed away then, tripping in her haste to get away and then pausing for a moment to make sure she hadn’t been detected. The music covered her retreat. She used the seductive cry of the jazz horns to flee through the garden gate. Closing the latch with a faint click, she slipped down the driveway to pause yet again on the sidewalk to stare back at the house.