by Delores Fossen, Rachel Lee, Carol Ericson, Tyler Anne Snell, Rita Herron
“No. I have to get spiffy for the press conferences,” he said. “Something about jeans and flannel not being appropriate.”
Remi looked him up and down openly. Declan tried not to do the same.
While he’d in no way expected to do what they had done the day and night his truck had broken down outside of town, the truth was they had. And they’d been good at it, too. Just as they’d both been clear about it being a one-time thing.
Two ships passing in the night.
Catching up, and dressing down, with a friend.
Remi had a promotion in wait, he had a county to protect.
She’d left town for one reason; he had stayed for many.
They’d been adults about parting ways. Coolheaded and relaxed.
That didn’t mean Declan hadn’t occasionally thought he smelled her perfume or snorted at a joke she’d told during their time together.
Remi had been fun to hang out with when they were kids, even when she was quiet. Adult Remi had been a change that he had still enjoyed, as the woman said exactly what was on her mind.
But now, standing opposite her, there was a hesitation that seemed to be moving across her expression. Declan realized he might have done it again. He’d focused on the case more than he had the present. Remi was in front of him, in Overlook, and there he was already trying to rope her into playing junior detective. Why was she here?
Still, it was hard to forget about the note in the wall. It clawed at his mind, despite the company.
“We don’t have to go if this can’t wait or can’t ride along with us?” he ventured.
“Location won’t change the conversation,” she said with a shrug. “But I am worried you don’t remember that I’m an accountant and not a detective.”
“I need a second opinion, is all.”
“And you picked me because you know I have a lot of those?”
She started to walk around him toward the truck. Declan opened the door for her before answering.
“I know you’re about the details,” he said. Then, moving to the driver’s side and sliding in, he gave her an even look. “And I’d like a civilian and non-Nash to help look for those details.”
Remi’s eyebrow rose again. Declan noted the freckles he’d remembered from her teenage years were still peppered around her eyes and across her cheeks.
“Where exactly are we going?”
Declan put the truck in Reverse. He didn’t answer until they were back on the main road that ran through the ranch, heading toward Winding Road.
“The Well Water Cabin.”
He could detect her confusion without her voicing it right away. She shifted, her hair moving across the seat’s fabric as she must have turned to look at him. He sighed and explained.
“I heard about a man in a bar who keeps talking about a note in the wall that law enforcement missed. Sounds like a weird riddle or bad nursery rhyme, I know, but I went there earlier and looked around anyways. Like I thought, it was empty. But there are so many coincidences that have popped up lately that I’m inclined to think it might be worth looking into.” He gave her a quick look and half shrug. “I also know how close I am to this case and how many times I’ve been over every single detail. I could be missing something I haven’t seen because I’ve seen it too much. You know?”
“Like having someone else proofread an email before you send it off because you’ve read it too many times already.”
Declan snorted.
“Exactly. There could be nothing there and I just can’t let go, which I know is a concern. Or, there could be something.” He gave her a sidelong glance as they slowed going through the main gate. “I need another set of eyes to proofread.”
Remi nodded and stared out the windshield. Her brows were knotted together in thought.
“And asking Caleb, the actual detective, would be worse than going by yourself,” she surmised. “Not to mention, he probably doesn’t want to go back there in the first place.”
“None of them do. Ma won’t even drive on the road that leads up to the place. Not that I blame any of them. They’ve had their fill for more than a lifetime.”
Out of his periphery he saw Remi nod again.
One thing he had valued in his friendship with her when they were younger was her ability to not enjoy the drama surrounding the triplets’ abduction. Some people thrived on it, still bringing the case up in casual conversation with throwaway theories about the man behind it. Ones they thought up on their lunch break and brought up like it was some party game. Declan’s father had entertained any and all of them, but Declan had had the benefit of seeing his father run himself into the ground and had changed tactics. He and Caleb had heard many theories and kept their expectations at zero.
Still, Declan knew his family wished people would stay quiet about it. He did, too. He and his siblings had spent middle and high school dealing with children and teens with no tact. He’d hoped that as they aged their need to reach into the past and stir up gossip would ebb away.
It hadn’t for a majority of Overlook residents.
Yet, Remi had never been one of those people. Whether they were kids or teens, she only spoke on the subject when he brought it up. Even then she stayed thoughtful, not at all interested in fanning the fire.
Now, sitting next to her, Declan was reminded of that thoughtful girl who had been his friend even though she’d adopted a new outgoing personality since college. A part of him wished he’d kept in touch when she left. The other part reminded him that she’d left to get away from Overlook and start a new, different life.
It was for the better.
“What do you mean coincidences?” Remi asked. “People talking about the case? Surely that can’t be out of the ordinary for around here.”
It was Declan’s turn to hesitate. The man in the suit. The man in the bar. The man with the scar on his hand. All of that information had been kept within the family and only between the detectives at the sheriff’s department and his chief deputy, Cussler. Everyone knew what it meant for any potential new information on the case to get out. What was already a long shot of an investigation would become impossible.
Declan had dropped his guard for one night with Remi, it was true, but they weren’t in that room anymore. They weren’t in her car, heading home before heading in opposite directions.
What he knew held a weight that he didn’t want to put on her even though Declan was taking her back to the scene.
She didn’t have to know everything to be helpful, and he decided then and there that he could keep some things from her without being a grade A jackass.
“A few cases have had a similarity that could be connected,” he went with. “Again, it might just be someone doing it on purpose to throw us off or pull our legs, but I can’t let it go just yet unless I know for sure.”
“So, we need to find a note in the wall or nothing at all.”
“That’s the goal.”
Remi smiled. Declan knew because he heard it clearly in her voice. He was surprised at how much he was reminded again of the girl he’d known. Even when she had been quiet, he’d always been able to tell when she was smiling without looking at her.
“Well, I’m sure not about to say no to the sheriff, now am I?”
* * *
THE ROAD THAT led to the Well Water Cabin looked like many roads to older houses in Overlook. Dirt mixed with gravel, tree-lined, worn by weather, age and use. Narrow, too. If you met another vehicle you just had to pray you had the good luck that at least one of the two wasn’t a truck and that there was enough room to crunch onto the nearly nonexistent shoulder so the other could pass by.
Isolated but not without purpose.
Yet, the road that led to Well Water was different.
It felt almost forgotten. Or maybe lost. Not because of its location an
d beautiful scenery, nestled within one of the thickest parts of the forest that stretched across Overlook, but because people had tried to lose it.
There was an eeriness that crept into every visitor’s bones when driving up to the cabin. Whether they admitted it out loud or not. Remi was sure of that just as the odd feeling moved across her like she’d walked into a cold spot during the summer heat.
While she’d had every intention of telling the man about her pregnancy as soon as she could, he’d said just about the only thing that had made her wait. Or, really, if she was being honest it was the way he’d looked when he talked about going to the cabin. His eyes had somehow softened and remained hard at the same time. Like someone trying their damnedest to appear the picture of strength while trying to hide the vulnerability tearing at them.
It was such an intriguing and surprising juxtaposition that Remi had decided to tell Declan after they had examined the cabin. Maybe the news would cheer him up.
Maybe it wouldn’t.
Either way Remi didn’t believe there was a note in the cabin, hidden in the wall or not.
Someone would have found it by now.
At least she thought so.
“How did you get in?” she asked as he followed the last curve before the cabin. “Did the Fairhopes give the department a copy of the key?”
The Fairhopes had owned Well Water for years before the abduction. They had lived in Chicago and used the cabin as a vacation home when it struck their fancy. Remi had heard through the grapevine that, after being interviewed and investigated extensively, the family hadn’t been back to Overlook. Remi realized she didn’t know if anyone else had rented the place from them.
Declan’s voice went hard.
“I own it.”
Remi’s hair slapped her cheeks, she turned her head so fast.
“You own it?”
Declan’s jaw was set. He nodded.
“Dad bought it from the Fairhopes. When he passed, it passed on to me.”
“That gives me some mixed feelings, I’ll be honest.”
“You’re not the only one.”
You’d never guess such a cute, quaint cabin could breed such heartache, confusion and fear.
Well Water came into view like the beautiful terror it was.
Remi had never been inside but, like most of Overlook, had found her way to the outside to look.
A true log cabin exterior with a storybook chimney and wraparound porch. The green on the window trim and front door had aged well over the years, but the front gardens had not. They were equally overgrown and barren.
Declan parked next to the mailbox. Remi watched as he pulled a key out of the middle console. The hardness in his voice had transferred to his body.
She had no doubt he was becoming the sheriff.
There was no banter-heavy lead-up to going inside. No flourish or outpouring of emotion. Declan got out, Remi followed. He unlocked the front door, she moved past him. He hung back by the door, she started to explore. It was a silent dance between them. One that completely consumed her.
As long as they were in the cabin, all thoughts of being pregnant with Declan’s child, moving to Colorado and how insanely different her life was about to become quieted.
Then it was just the two of them in an empty cabin.
Chapter Four
Well Water wasn’t a spacious place by any means. The layout was simple. The front door opened into a narrow hallway that went back to the kitchen but opened up to the living space on the right and two small bedrooms and one bathroom on the left. The stairs to the basement were pushed against the only stretch of wall between the living room and the doorway to the kitchen. Down there, however, things took a turn for the creepy. That was where the Nash triplets had been locked up. A basement apartment was how it had been described in the news. A bedroom, kitchenette and bathroom.
A door that had once had four sets of locks on the outside.
Remi didn’t want to go down there yet. Instead, she walked through every room upstairs with fresh attention.
First of all, she was surprised that the cabin was fully furnished. She’d expected to walk into an empty, stale space. Instead, it looked very much like a vacation home, albeit from the eighties. Some furniture was covered with drop cloths, other pieces had a thin layer of dust. Again, she never would have picked this place to be the site of a town-wide legend whose story continued to terrorize.
Remi was careful as she picked her way through each room until eventually she made it back to the hallway.
Declan looked like a statue leaning against the wall opposite the bedroom and bathroom doors. Cast in stone, the man was rigid. Jaw set sharp and intimidating, shoulders broad and unrivaled, muscles a testament to his discipline and focus, and bright green eyes narrowed and seeing only the past. Remi felt a tug at her heartstrings for him. The greatest upset in her family life throughout her existence was her parents’ divorce and, honestly, it had been a blessing for everyone. She hadn’t had to deal with fear and then death like he had.
And she certainly hadn’t taken those experiences and been elected into a job that dealt in both on more than one occasion.
“If there’s something here, I’m not seeing it,” she said with sympathy. He nodded and tried to smile. It fell short, but Remi wasn’t going to fault him for it.
“It’s okay. I guess I didn’t expect there to be something.”
Remi glanced at the stairs across from him.
“So do we go down there next?”
Declan sighed. He took off his Stetson and thumped it against his thigh.
“This place has gotten a lot of attention but downstairs is another story altogether. I’m confident that not even a speck of dirt has gone undocumented from that apartment.” His attempt at a smile dissolved completely. It looked so odd in comparison to the faded but still bright blue paint that covered the hallway’s walls. The rest of the rooms were painted in similar, bright shades. Remi had somewhat expected wallpaper given the date of the cabin, but all the other rooms had a texture to them like they’d been sponged instead.
She guessed the Fairhopes hadn’t liked the effort since the hall didn’t have the same effect. It looked like they’d simply painted over wallpaper. Remi could see the seam right above the wooden chair rail that ran around the hall.
“We can go,” Declan continued. “You’ve already done enough by just coming out here.”
He pushed away from the wall, but Remi didn’t move. She felt her eyebrows furrow in together as she continued to stare at the wall.
“What is it?” Declan asked. He turned around after Remi pointed.
“That seam that’s been painted over.”
“You mean the wallpaper? Yeah, they painted over it.”
Remi shook her head, finger still poised in midair, and looked around the small hallway.
“Where are the other seams?” she asked. “If you paint over wallpaper you’re going to see more than one, or bubbles from the paint over the paper. Something over the chair rail or at the corners. Not just one seam. No one is that good at painting over wallpaper, especially not in the eighties or nineties.”
Declan touched the seam beneath the paint.
“Unless it’s not a seam from wallpaper.”
Green eyes met hers. Remi saw the excitement. The potential. The possibility that they were close to something new. She felt it, too.
What she didn’t expect was what happened next.
Declan touched the wall next to the seam and then reared his arm back and punched that same spot. Remi gasped as his fist went right through the drywall.
“Declan!”
“I’m okay,” he said. Then he did it again, beneath the hole he’d just made. It expanded the open space. Remi was prepared to grab his arm to keep him from doing it again when he slowly put hi
s hand into the hole and pulled more of the drywall out. It came off with ease. He tossed the blue-painted chunks to the left of her. There was no trace of wallpaper on any of the pieces.
Then he kicked the wall, opening a new hole.
Remi took a step back.
It was oddly intriguing to watch the man pull, punch and kick away an entire panel of drywall with such ease. And in a blazer and slacks, no less.
Soon there was a Declan-sized hole in the wall. Remi moved closer again as the sheriff stepped just enough inside of the hole to peer straight at the spot where the seam was. Without looking anywhere else, he pulled two things from two separate pockets of his blazer.
One was a pair of plastic gloves, which he put on with lightning speed and precision. The other was a pocketknife.
He opened it, wordlessly.
Then he slid the blade beneath the seam like an expert surgeon.
Remi held her breath.
The chill from outside had found its way into the cabin. Goose bumps moved across her skin.
A long, agonizing minute crept by.
When it was over Declan had cut out what had made the seam.
“My God,” he breathed out after holding it up. He met Remi’s gaze with a look of total bewilderment. “Huds, it’s a piece of paper.”
* * *
THE PAPER WAS small but thick. One side was covered in paint, but the blue hadn’t bled all the way through. The ink that was scrawled across the other side, the one that had been against the original cream-colored wall, was still legible.
In fact, it was nearly pristine.
“What does it say?”
Remi followed him into the kitchen, careful to keep her distance as he gently laid the paper down on one of the counters. The power was off, but the natural light kept the first floor bright. Still, Declan set the paper beneath the window that ran across the kitchen wall, not wanting to miss a thing.
“It’s a name.” The handwriting was tight, neat. Declan didn’t recognize it, though he did the name. “Justin Redman.”
“Who? Is that all it says?” Remi went from a careful distance to right up against his side. She smelled like the beach. Sunscreen and sunshine. It might have knocked him off his game had they been in a different setting.