“Is something bothering you, Austin?” Nora asked gently.
He looked up at her, a genuine smile on his face. “Thanks, ma’am, but that’s my own problem. As for you guys, I can’t thank you enough. It’s just hitting me that if you hadn’t stopped by when you did I’d have been an icicle by tomorrow morning. Maybe sooner.”
“You speak of it so casually!” Nora said. “Like you don’t really care.”
Austin shrugged but didn’t say any more.
“Do you have friends or family near here?” Harvey asked. “Is there somewhere we can drop you off?”
“The nearest motel, if you would,” Austin replied. “You’ve already done so much.”
“Rubbish,” Nora said. “You need a good, hot meal. You’re coming over to our place. Isn’t that right, Harvey?”
Harvey nodded. “There’s an old, Chinese proverb that says, ‘If you save a life, you’re responsible for that life.’ You’re barely more than a kid, son. We can’t just dump you at a motel.”
“A kid?” A look of genuine delight came over Austin’s face. “I’m 24, sir.”
“24?” Harvey raised an eyebrow. “I thought you barely looked fifteen.”
“I suppose I’ve always been called baby-faced.” Austin smiled some more, his eyes twinkling. “That’s why I’ve been trying to grow this wretched mustache all summer, hoping it’d give me a more sophisticated look. Hasn’t worked so far.”
“In my experience, girls either like a full beard or a clean-shaven face,” Harvey said. “Anything in between is just sandpaper.”
“I’m permanently in-between, then.” Austin laughed.
“Ah, but 24 is a good age,” Harvey said. “My younger daughter’s the same age as you. She just started her own business last year. To me, it still feels like she’s a little kid, but I’ve been hearing good things about her business around town. Makes me proud.”
“Sounds like a solid person, sir,” Austin said.
“So, who is this woman you’ve come to find, Austin?” Nora asked. “If that’s not too personal.”
“She knew my mother once, a long time ago…” Austin bit his lip.
“Oh. A family friend?”
“Friend?” Austin snorted. “No. Not a friend. Not by a long shot.” His eyes glazed over again and his face settled back into its frown. Nora decided she’d hold off her questions until Austin was more comfortable. Whatever it was that he was thinking about clearly gave him no joy.
Once home, Nora bundled Austin off into a shower, giving him some spare clothes to get changed into. Downstairs, she started the oven and began to reheat some leftover lasagna she’d made the night before. Austin, however, was so worn out that he had only two bites before retiring to bed.
Harvey, who had changed out of his suit and into comfortable flannel pajamas, pondered his next move over a bite of lasagna.
“What about his car?” Harvey asked. “I was thinking of calling Sean and having it towed over to the garage.”
Since his retirement as sheriff of Milburn, Sean Dracon had spent some time travelling all over the country with his wife, Karen. After a few years of living out of their van, however, the couple had decided to move back home. Sean, hyperactive as always, had decided to start a small garage and towing company so that he wouldn’t be driven out of his mind with boredom in retirement.
“Good idea,” Nora said. “Let me do it now.”
Sean was a little sleepy when he picked up the phone but became instantly alert when Nora told him what had happened.
“Birdwhistle?” he confirmed. “Are you sure he said his name was Austin Birdwhistle?”
“That’s right. Is there a problem?” Nora asked.
There was silence on the phone. When Sean spoke again, his voice was different. Heavier. “I’ll bring the car over to your house. Is he there right now?”
“Sean, you’re frightening me,” Nora said. “What’s happening? Is he a danger to us?”
“Austin? Oh, no. Not at all. It’s just…it’s been so long since I heard that name. Can I come over, please? We need to talk.”
“I still don’t understand,” Nora said.
“You will soon, I promise. This isn’t something I can tell you over the phone.”
“What’s it about?” Nora asked.
“A woman,” Sean said. “But not the way you’re thinking...”
A chill went down Nora’s spine as she realized Sean had unconsciously echoed Austin’s words almost exactly. Whatever this story was, she knew she had to hear it.
*****
Chapter 2
Birdwhistle
Sean shook the snow off his hat as he stepped into the house. His cheeks were red, and snowflakes stuck to the shoulders of his jacket.
“The boy’s car is parked out front,” Sean said. “Nothing wrong with it that a pair of jumper cables couldn’t fix. Where is he?”
“Upstairs, fast asleep,” Nora said.
“Good. Good.” Sean rolled up the sleeves of his plaid shirt and sat down on the big, purple sofa that dominated the living room. “I figure we should talk before…well…I don’t think I’m ready to see him just yet.”
“I’ll get you some coffee,” Nora said, heading to the kitchen. “A slice of pie too, maybe?”
“I’d never say no to that.” Sean rubbed his belly. “This weather has my stomach growling all the time. I don’t know why.”
Once they’d settled in and Sean had sung praises of Nora’s blueberry pie, he finally began to talk.
“It’s been almost 20 years since I heard that name,” he said. “I’m surprised you don’t remember it.”
“At first I thought I did but, for the life of me, I’m blank,” Nora said.
“I have no clue, either,” Harvey agreed.
“I know why,” Sean said. “This was around the time that you guys decided to take a month-long vacation to Europe with the kids. Remember that?”
“Of course, I do!” Nora laughed. “We were definitely crazy. Little Hazel was only six and Grace wasn’t much older! But they loved every minute of it.”
“We all really bonded on that trip.” Harvey smiled. “The kids still remember it as the best summer vacation they’ve ever had.”
“Yes, well, back in town, it wasn’t a very good summer,” Sean said. “A woman went missing.”
“Lori Birdwhistle!” Nora exclaimed. “Of course! I remember now. She used to be an elementary school teacher.”
“Lori Birdwhistle, right.” Harvey spoke at the same time as Nora and put a hand on his head. “Yes. I remember it. She went missing and there were rumors all over town that she’d been murdered.”
“But you were never able to prove it, were you?” Nora asked.
Sean shook his head. “No body, no case. We never found her.”
“But…that could also mean that she just ran away,” Harvey said. “There were some who said that’s what happened.”
“I don’t know what happened, and that has been one of my lasting regrets,” Sean admitted. “Personally, I don’t think she ran away. I think something - or someone - happened to her. I wish I could have gotten her justice. It still haunts me sometimes, when I think of where she might be.”
“So what happened, exactly?” Nora asked.
“Lori was a single mother,” Sean explained. “Her husband had died overseas, a military hero. She and her little one, Austin, they’d moved to Milburn hoping to start fresh.”
“Oh, poor Austin was only six then, wasn’t he?” Nora shook her head. “I remember he was the same age as Hazel.”
“That’s right. Lori was given a friendly welcome here in town. She started a job as a teacher and her colleagues thought she was a reliable woman. She was good with the kids and always punctual and tidy. She settled in, made friends and even started dating again, eventually. She and Austin had been in town for a year when…well…when she vanished.”
“I’m beginning to remember more and more,” Harvey said.
“She was with—”
“I’d like to tell it my way, if you don’t mind,” Sean said.
“Oh…sorry. Go on.”
“Alright. So, let’s draw a picture of what life was like for Lori before it all happened. As far as we know, she was perfect. She had a steady job, she volunteered for the animal shelter on weekends sometimes. She and Austin went to church every Sunday. She got on well with her neighbors, too, often taking over cookies or pies that she’d baked. From my investigations, it seems Lori didn’t drink much more than a glass of wine or two here and there, and she definitely didn’t do drugs.”
“A good mother and a solid citizen,” Harvey mused.
“Exactly,” Sean said. “She followed all the ‘rules’, so to say. What happened next…it shouldn’t have.”
“So what did happen?”
“June 28th. Friday,” Sean said. “That’s when it happened. Austin had been packed away for the weekend - Lori sent him to his aunt’s house, a few towns away. At 6pm, Lori went over to her neighbor ’s house with a plate of raisin cookies and asked for a favor. She was going to be away for the weekend and would Mrs. Mullally please water her plants.”
“Mrs. Mullally?” Nora jumped at this mention of her former land-lady and close friend. “You don’t mean to tell me Lori was Mrs. Mullally’s neighbor? I never realized!”
“Oh, yes,” Sean said. “And I’d say I trust Mrs. Mullally’s judgment of a person, wouldn’t you? Mrs. Mullally never had a single bad thing to say about Lori.”
“Well, she’s a kind woman,” Harvey pointed out. “She’s never had a single bad thing to say about anyone, really.”
“Still,” Sean said. “Mrs. Mullally agreed to water Lori’s plants, of course. She asked Lori what her plans for the weekend were, and Lori said she’d been invited to a lakefront cottage with some friends.”
“The cabin by the lake.” Harvey nodded. “I remember hearing a lot of speculation about it.”
“At 7pm Mrs. Mullally heard Lori driving off in her white Chrysler minivan,” Sean continued. “We found that minivan abandoned. It was parked at the edge of a forest. All of Lori’s belongings were still inside, including a rather expensive gold pendant. That rules out robbery, I’d think. We searched all over, but there was no trace of Lori. There never has been, since that day.”
Nora had a hand over her mouth. She shook her head, appalled. “What could have happened to her?”
“I wish I knew,” Sean said.
“These friends of hers,” Harvey said, “surely, they’re mixed up in it somehow?”
Sean’s smile turned into a grimace. “I’d hope not,” he said. “We know these people.”
“Who were they?” Nora asked.
“Well, Lori had been dating Johnny Teaks for a while,” Sean said. “You know JT, right?”
“Of course,” Harvey said. “I’ve done business with him several times. He owns Teaks Construction, along with his brother.”
“Right. They’re a good solid family. Johnny’s dad, Matthew, started the business and Johnny and his older brother, Tucker, have taken it forward,” Sean confirmed. “Johnny and Tucker are both married now, of course. But, back then, Johnny was single and Tucker had recently started dating his future wife, Irene. The plan was for Johnny, Tucker, Irene and Lori to have a fun weekend by the lake - along with their other friends, Anita and Mason.”
Nora stared at Sean. “Anita was at the cabin that weekend?”
Sean nodded.
“She never told me!” Nora said.
“Nobody wanted it broadcast, did they? What with the rumors around town,” Sean said. “By the time you and Harvey came back from Europe, the fuss had started to die down and Anita probably didn’t want to bring it up.”
“Maybe so…but…” Nora frowned. Anita was a good friend. Nora had first gotten to know her when they’d volunteered together. Nora and Anita had become close over the years and regularly met up for family dinners together. It wasn’t like her friend not to tell her about something like this.
“Wait…Anita and Mason.” Harvey frowned. “So Anita and Mason were dating at the time, but then Anita later married Johnny Teaks?”
Sean nodded. “Just a year after Lori disappeared, Anita and Johnny announced their engagement.”
“Mason wasn’t too happy about it, I remember,” Harvey said. “Drank a lot that night. And a bunch more nights, too.”
“True,” Sean said. “But people can bond in strange ways after a tragedy. I suppose Anita and Johnny did.”
Nora frowned.
“What did Anita and Mason say about Lori?” Harvey asked.
“Anita said they never saw her,” Sean said. “Lori was supposed to show up by 8pm on Friday, but she never did. The group wondered about it at first, but then everyone got so busy having fun, they forgot. It wasn’t until the next morning that they started thinking more about it and it wasn’t until evening that the Sheriff’s office was called in.”
“So that was it?” Nora asked. “You didn’t find a single trace of Lori afterwards?”
Sean shook his head. “Like I said, she just vanished off the face of the earth. We searched high and low, but never found her body. We didn’t even know if it was a murder case, really. It could be that she just had a breakdown and ran away.”
“Impossible!” Nora said. “She wouldn’t just have left her little boy like that!”
“Some around town say that she deliberately left him with his aunt that weekend, knowing that she’d run away later.” Sean shrugged. “It’s not impossible, is it? We’ll just never know.”
“But you don’t think she left him, do you?” Nora asked.
Sean frowned. “I believe she was murdered,” he said. “I’ve just never been able to prove it. But, if that is the case, the bad guys got away with this one. To my lasting regret.”
“And mine,” a voice said from the doorway.
They swung around to see Austin, tears flowing down his face and fists clenched. “All my life, my aunt told me that my mother abandoned me,” he said. “It was only two days ago that I learned the truth about what happened.”
“Austin…” Sean stood up, awkwardly. “The last time I saw you, you were just…a little boy.”
“I remember you. The big strong sheriff,” Austin said. “I was so scared. I wanted to see my mom, and you promised me I would soon. Only I didn’t. I never saw her again.”
“I’m sorry.” Sean hung his head. “I failed you.”
“Mom told me it was just a weekend at my Aunt’s. Aunt Evie was my father’s sister,” Austin said. “Aunt Evie was a good woman, but she always believed that my mom deliberately abandoned me. At the time, Aunt Evie lived close by, just an hour’s drive from Milburn. But after my mom vanished and Aunt Evie adopted me, we moved out to California to start over. She hoped I’d forget and adjust to a new life but…I never did. My grades tanked, I got into fights constantly. My entire life was a train wreck after Mom vanished the way she did.”
“You poor boy,” Nora murmured.
“A lot of it was my own fault,” Austin admitted. “Aunt Evie tried her hardest to protect me but I guess the damage was done. My entire life changed in the blink of an eye, and it was too much to deal with.”
There was a hush around the room as Austin pulled out a chair and sat down. Locks of hair obscured his eyes as his head sank down onto the table. His eyes were that of an animal in a trap - aware that it’s hurt, but unable to understand why.
Sean patted him on the shoulder and cleared his throat. “Earlier you said that you only found something out two days ago. And it made you drive all the way from California to Wyoming? Is that right?” Sean asked.
Austin nodded.
“What was it?”
Austin hesitated, as if looking for a way to explain it. “Aunt Evie never talked about my mother with me,” Austin said. “She only told me that my mother had had a breakdown and run away. That’s what I believed all my life. It just didn�
�t make sense to me, though. I remembered my mom. I remembered how much she loved me. So how could she just leave and never even write to me? Was it my fault? Had I been bad? At first I tried my hardest to behave nicely, hoping she’d come back that way. I tried to be the best little boy I could. But it didn’t work. It never worked. Mom just stayed gone. So my grief slowly turned into anger. The world didn’t make sense, and I thought anger was the solution.”
Nora had to resist the urge to go put her arms around Austin. He looked so young, so helpless. His face was ravaged with pain as he talked about the mother he loved, who’d vanished without a trace.
Taking a deep breath, Austin continued, “A week ago, my Aunt Evie died of cancer. God rest her soul. As I was going through her things after the funeral, I found an old box full of my mom’s things…” Austin reached into his jacket and brought out a tattered old book. “Including this diary.” He looked at Sean. “I suppose you’ve seen this before, seeing as how you were sheriff.”
Sean nodded. “We have a copy of it in the case files. It’s one of the reasons I never believed she ran away.”
Austin nodded. “I read it, too. It was heartbreaking. Mom was so… good. All she writes about in her diary is how much she loves me and her new life. There’s no way she would have run away. No way. Of course, there’s still always that tiny sliver of doubt, isn’t there? Maybe a diary doesn’t really tell a lot about a life. Maybe Mom was secretly depressed or something.” Austin bit his lip. “But then something happened that convinced me she’d been murdered after all. The smell of lemons.”
“Lemons?” Sean looked puzzled.
Austin nodded. “I was six back when mom vanished. But, you see, I was a voracious reader. Just the week before she disappeared, I’d read a story called The Five Find-Outers. In it, a bunch of child detectives use lemon juice to write each other secret notes.”
“Of course!” Sean exclaimed. “It’s the oldest trick in the book. Fill an ink pen with lemon juice and it works like ‘invisible ink’. Later, apply a gentle heat and the words will become visible.”
The Milburn Big Box Set Page 141
