Love at First Light (Lost Harbor, Alaska Book 6)

by Jennifer Bernard

  “Not if you can’t tell me things, I’m not.”

  “Okay. I’m getting the message.” Maya smiled slightly. “You know, we could have just had a conversation about all this. Coming out here, reliving the Nancy Drew days, it’s a little extra, don’t you think?”

  Jessica burst out laughing. “You think? I lost my float plane and I don’t even mind.”

  Maya snorted. “I never trusted that thing. For real, though, I’m pretty impressed. For a head-in-the-clouds type, you really put it on the line out here.”

  Ethan’s comment floated through her mind. I believe in you.

  Just look at everything she’d gone through on this crazy-ass adventure. Sure, proving something to Maya was good, but she’d proved something to herself too. She could push out of her comfort zone. She could even thrive out there in the big wide world—or at least the wilderness part of it.

  Maybe it was time she started believing in herself.

  She jumped as Maya touched her on the shoulder. “I can’t officially approve of you and Ethan going rogue, but unofficially, I’m touched you wanted to take care of business for me.”

  Jessica flung her arms around Maya and they hugged each other tightly.

  “But there might be a problem.” Maya’s “police chief” voice brought Jessica back to reality as their hug came to an end.

  “Uh oh, what now?”

  “You might have a record after this. It’s going to look bad for a police chief to be friends with a criminal.”

  “I’d say I’m more criminal-adjacent. It’s a gray area.”

  Maya smirked at her. “Look at you, hanging out with criminals instead of soul mates. I guess you really did change things up.”

  If Maya was teasing her, everything was definitely back to normal.

  “Want to go finish solving your case now?” she asked her friend. “I’m pretty sure Ethan’s about to crack the whole thing wide open. He’s a really good investigator, you know.”

  “Something tells me that’s not all he’s good at. Got anything else you want to confess while we’re out of earshot?”

  Jessica gave a dreamy sigh. “All I can say is, Team Sex is a lot more fun than I ever imagined.”

  Maya burst out laughing.

  As they neared the lodge, a strange sensation crawled across the back of her neck. Not an insect, which was her first theory. She glanced behind her uneasily.

  “Do you get the feeling that someone’s watching us?” she asked Maya in a low voice.

  “Someone is,” Maya answered. “There’s a man in the woods about fifty yards in. I don’t spot a weapon, but he’s using a set of binoculars. Don’t react, and don’t look back again. I’m trying to draw him out, so make it seem like you don’t see him.”

  Jessica followed her instructions and tried her best to act normal. “I don’t see him. How did you even spot him?”

  Maya shrugged. “You know me, I never relax out here. No one should. If it ain’t mosquitos, it’s bears. Or bad guys with binoculars. Come on, let’s get inside.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Kelsey turned her back on Ethan and marched into the lodge. “I don’t care what you’re doing out here. You’re about to leave.”

  “I think you would care if you knew the real reason. I think you’re afraid.”

  He saw her shoulders tense, and knew he was right.

  “What’s scaring you? I know it’s not us. You know we’re not dangerous. Why did you arrest us?”

  “Because I found a weapon and I have to protect my guests. As I’ve said.”

  “And because we were asking questions.”

  They reached the suite where they’d stayed last night. She unlocked the door, then ushered him in. “Go ahead and grab your things.”

  He stepped through the door, brushing past her in the process. He grabbed the opportunity to deploy his brand-new secret weapon—his nose. Surreptitiously, he drew in a solid lungful of her scent. He didn’t know what he was after—just something different from a normal healthy woman in her thirties.

  Something acrid filled his nostrils. A spice of some kind. It took a moment to recognize it. Turmeric. Mixed with a menthol-ish scent. He’d tried turmeric once to bring down inflammation in his leg. Unless she was cooking curry, maybe she leaned on turmeric for the same reason.

  Did Kelsey have a medical condition?

  He thought about the sharp edge in her personality. Some people were like that naturally, of course. But for others, it was a reaction to chronic pain. He’d seen many examples during his time in hospitals.

  Alastair’s words came back to him. She had a good reason to give up her baby beyond being young. But they never said what. It was something beyond the usual family issues.

  Ethan had assumed it was a family reason or a religious one. Or even financial. But what if it was medical? He knew very well how a medical condition could force your life in new directions.

  What if…could it be?

  Still speculating, he moved deeper into the room. Her scent faded, replaced by jasmine and the memory of last night. Had it just been last night? It felt like a lifetime ago. Maybe time moved differently out here in Lost Souls Wilderness. One of those “strange things” people talked about happening here.

  He squatted down to put yesterday’s clothes in his backpack. “Why did you search our suite to begin with? Because we were asking questions?”

  “I don’t have to explain. It’s part of our policy, which you accepted when you stepped onto the property.”

  “Okay. I get it. You’re very strict and I have no argument with that. But we were two stranded hikers who wandered in out of the wilderness with hardly anything with us. Why would you think we’d be any kind of a threat? Why search our room?”

  She didn’t respond, but the answer clicked into place anyway. “Because we’d come in from wilderness. There’s something going on out there, and you know about it. That’s why you’re afraid.”

  She ran her tongue nervously along the seam of her lips. Behind her glasses, she blinked.

  “Whatever it is, we’re not part of it. And maybe we can help. I’m an investigator with a lot of experience—“

  She interrupted him with a brisk shake of her head. “You should go home and stay out of it. Whatever your experience is, it won’t help.”

  Bingo. So he’d called it right. There was something bigger going on. Whoever had sunk Jessica’s float plane hadn’t done it for kicks. It was part of something larger and more menacing.

  “We also have a police chief right outside.”

  “She should go back too. You should all forget you came here.” Her gaze drifted to the window that looked out on the back meadow. Maya and Jessica were now making their way toward the lodge, still deep in conversation.

  In the forest beyond, he caught a flash of something. He strode to the window and flattened himself to the wall next to it so he could peer out without being spotted.

  “Someone’s surveilling us.”

  Kelsey hung back by the doorway. “Get your things and let’s go. This isn’t your problem.”

  “How do you know? You don’t even know why we’re here, do you?”

  “You’re investigating them, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t even know who ‘them’ is. That’s not it. We’re here to find a woman. The one we mentioned earlier, before you put us in jail.”

  Her eyes went flinty behind her glasses. “Why?”

  From across the room, he held her gaze for a long moment. He didn’t see a downside anymore to telling her. She was warning him away, after all. Trying to protect them. He didn’t have to mention S.G. at all.

  “Okay, I’ll put my cards on the table, like I offered. This woman—or girl, at the time—had an appointment here at the Aurora Lodge with the Berensons. She was pregnant and was giving up her baby for adoption.”

  As he spoke, the color slowly faded from her face, even though she didn’t move a muscle. He kept going.
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br />   “But she broke the agreement and the Berensons left without the baby.”

  He watched her closely. She opened her mouth and shut it again. Swallowed hard. He waited patiently, more and more sure that he was onto something here.

  “Why…who…who sent you?”

  “I can’t tell you that unless you tell me something. I don’t know if I can trust you.”

  She stepped inside the room and closed the door behind her. In an urgent voice, she said, “Will you go away and stop asking questions if I do?”

  Adrenaline rushed through him. He was closing in. He knew it.

  And hell, Maya was taking over after this anyway. It’d be her job to ask questions from now on. “I swear.”

  She swallowed convulsively. “The agreement wasn’t broken.”

  It was a start. Baby steps. He kept his voice neutral so as not to scare her away. “What happened?”

  “They said they were the Berensons. They checked in under that name and they looked like the photo they’d sent.”

  “So someone else posed as the Berensons and took the baby?”

  “Yes.” Every word came out in a halting way, as if her speaking muscles were rusty. She sounded like a different person than the acerbic woman who’d tossed them in jail. “They left right away. Then the next day the real Berensons came. Everyone was horrified when we realized what had happened. The other couple—“ She shivered as if the room had suddenly gone ice cold. “They sent the Berensons a ransom demand.”

  How could she possibly know all these details unless she was close to the situation? Her age was roughly right. Her behavior had been so strange since they’d started asking questions. It all pointed in one direction.

  Adrenaline surged through him, but he controlled himself and kept asking patient questions. “What was the demand?”

  “Money. They said they’d kill Stephanie if they didn’t give them the money.”

  “That was the baby’s name? Stephanie?”

  She continued as if he hadn’t even spoken. “They hadn’t even seen the baby yet. It wasn’t clear they’d pay the ransom.”

  “The mother couldn’t pay?”

  “Of course not! She…she was just a waitress here.”

  Maybe it wasn’t Kelsey. Maybe she was protecting someone else. How could he pin her down?

  “That must have been terrifying for the girl. If she didn’t even have the money to keep the baby, she wouldn’t have enough for a ransom—“

  “It wasn’t about money!” she cried. “She couldn’t—I wasn’t—“ She snapped her mouth shut.

  My God. It was her. This was S.G.’s mother. This woman—who’d been right across the bay the entire time.

  The satisfaction of solving the mystery flooded through him. God, he loved this job.

  Why had he thought for more than a second about quitting?

  He and Kelsey stared at each other for a long moment.

  “So you decided to give Stephanie up for adoption,” he said gently.

  Kelsey wiped her hands on her denim overshirt. The fight seemed to have gone out of her. “Yes, but Stephanie was the name the Berensons chose. I didn’t dare to name her. But when I sang to her I called her Maggie.”

  Finally S.G. would learn her real name. Maggie. Pretty name. It even suited S.G.

  “Maggie was short for Magpie,” she went on. “Magpies had always brought me good luck. Now I hate the sight of them and chase them away whenever they come near the lodge.”

  A shiver traveled down Ethan’s spine. S.G. had named herself after a bird. Was it possible that some part of her remembered that her mother had done the same?

  Impossible. And yet out here in this wild land, impossible was a moving target.

  “So the Berensons went somewhere to pay the ransom?”

  “Yes, that’s what they told me. They promised to let me know as soon as they had Maggie back. But I never heard anything, and they never got to where they were going. They were dead.”

  She leaned against the doorframe, looking spent. “Sorry. It’s been so long since I talked about any of this.”

  “Don’t apologize. Do you want to sit down?”

  “No.” She looked beyond him, out the window, and he remembered that they were under some kind of surveillance.

  “Who’s out there? Are they connected to what happened?”

  “I can’t talk about that. It’s not what you’re here for anyway. You said you’re looking for the woman who turned out to be me. So here I am. Why are you looking for me? Do you know something about Maggie?”

  Anxiety swam in her eyes.

  Before he could answer, he was interrupted by the sound of footsteps and pounding on the door. Kelsey stepped aside as Maya and Jessica burst through the door.

  “There’s someone out there watching us with binoculars,” Maya warned them.

  “We know.” Ethan edged around the perimeter of the room to the door. “Let’s get out of here so we can talk freely.”

  He shot Jessica a complicated look meant to communicate everything that had just happened. That was impossible, of course, so all he got in response was a frown and a shrug.

  “It’s her,” he mouthed silently, gesturing toward Kelsey.

  Jessica mouthed something back, but he couldn’t interpret it. He tried again, only to catch Maya frowning at them. Apparently their attempt at charades was more annoying than anything else.

  Kelsey led them all into the empty kitchen. A gigantic bowl of rising dough sat on the long worktable. The comforting aroma of flour and yeast filled the room.

  Jessica was still mouthing things at him but he didn’t want to make Kelsey uncomfortable by repeating her story for her. Kelsey seemed lost in her own thoughts and gave him no guidance about where to take things from here. Maya checked all the windows of the kitchen to make sure no one was watching them.

  When she was satisfied, she turned to Kelsey and folded her arms across her chest. “Who’s out there, Kelsey? Why are they watching this place?”

  Kelsey’s head jerked up. “I really can’t talk about it. I won’t talk about it.” She turned on Ethan. “It’s time for you to talk now. I told you about the Berensons. I told you about my baby.”

  Jessica’s eyes went wide. “You’re the one?”

  Kelsey swung toward her. “Who are you people? How do you know about Maggie?”

  “Maggie?”

  “Hold on, hold on.” Maya’s voice of authority cut through the chaos. “Some of us need to catch up here. You had a baby, Kelsey?”

  “A long time ago. I was seventeen and I—couldn’t keep her. I gave her up for adoption to the Berensons, but we were tricked and another couple stole Maggie. Then I found them drowned.”

  Jessica gasped. “Just like—“

  Ethan clapped a hand over her mouth. What if she was about to blurt out S.G.’s name? Blurting wasn’t the best way to deliver the news to Kelsey that her child was still alive. She pulled his hand away from her mouth. “I was going to say, just like we heard. The couple drowned in the lake.”

  “Yes, but how did you know about that? I only found them because I was looking for Maggie. I never reported it. I was too scared. No one ever knew about it—except for whoever drowned them, of course.”

  “So that’s why you detained us.”

  She nodded. “I didn’t know what your involvement was.”

  Ethan and Jessica shared a glance. He could see that she now understood the situation. Learning that her baby was still alive might be overwhelming. Kelsey should probably be sitting down. With a strong drink in her hand.

  “Would you maybe like to sit down?” Jessica suggested.

  “No.” Fierce fire burned in Kelsey’s gaze. “You know something about Maggie, don’t you? She’s my daughter and you need to tell me, right now.”

  Maya came to the rescue. She stepped forward and placed a hand on Kelsey’s shoulder. In a calm, matter-of-fact voice, she delivered the news. “There’s a very good possibili
ty that your daughter is alive. She’s the one who asked us to find you. She asked me first, but these two stepped in for me.”

  That was a kind way to put it. Ethan appreciated that.

  “If your baby is the same girl as the one we know, she lives in Lost Harbor now,” Maya continued. “She’s known as S.G.”

  “Lost Harbor…” Kelsey clutched at her throat. “How long has she been there? Who does she live with? How is she?”

  A touch on his hand made him look down. Jessica was sneaking her hand into his as they both watched, spellbound. He squeezed her hand. This was it. What they’d been working towards. Sharing the moment with Jessica made it all the sweeter. Sharing everything with Jessica made it sweeter.

  Maya filled Kelsey in on the details of S.G.’s short but very unusual life. Kelsey kept gasping and dropping her head into her hands. “So she ran away? All on her own?”

  “She did. Gutsy kid. She’s very resourceful.” Maya paused, then asked a question of her own. “Call me crazy, but you didn’t seem surprised when I told you she was alive.”

  Ethan had thought the same thing, though he hadn’t known what to make of it.

  “No, I—“ Kelsey gripped the edge of the table so tightly her knuckles went white. “I was afraid she wasn’t anymore. I knew she had been alive. But—“ She transferred her death grip to her own throat, choking off her words. “No more. Don’t ask me anything more.”

  Ethan fielded a questioning glance from Maya. What’s going on? He couldn’t be sure. But he could certainly speculate.

  He turned to Kelsey. “You knew she was alive. Did they use her as leverage to get you to turn a blind eye to whatever they’re doing out there?”

  Bulls-eye. Kelsey went as white as the flour scattered on the table. She swayed slightly.

  Jessica stepped to her side and put her arms around her for support. Always the sweetheart, his Jessica.

  He banished the thought—his Jessica? Where had that come from?—and focused on Maya, who was pacing back and forth across the kitchen floor.

  She continued the thought process that Ethan had initiated. “You knew she was alive, but you didn’t know where she was.”