by Lyndsey Cole
“Aunt Hannah,” Olivia called, “guess what my favorite ice cream flavor is?”
Hannah slid onto a seat next to her six year old niece and put her finger on her chin. “Well, let me think about that difficult question. I don’t know how you can choose one flavor when all of them are so delicious.”
“That’s true, but one is my absoluteliest favorite.”
“For today, maybe,” Ruby added. “It seems to change with the day of the week with this one.” Ruby plunked a tiny cup of ice cream in front of her daughter.
“Hmmmm,” Hannah said as she looked at the ice cream from the corner of her eye. “I think you love strawberry.”
“Nope. It’s strawberry lemon.” Olivia offered a spoonful to Hannah. “Try it.”
Hannah opened her mouth and closed her eyes as her niece dropped a big chunk of the frozen treat onto Hannah’s tongue. “Mmmmmm. I agree with you, Olivia. This is the best.”
“Well, tomorrow I’ll give you a taste of the black raspberry chocolate chip. That’s another one of my favorites. Sometimes it’s the strawberry lemon and sometimes it’s the black raspberry chocolate chip.”
Hannah laughed as Olivia’s head bobbed back and forth between her different choices of ice cream. How lucky to be young and carefree. Hannah gave Olivia a quick hug and kiss before she followed her nose to the kitchen.
“About time you showed up,” Meg said with irritation dripping from her words. “Where’s your new employee, or can I say I told you so?”
“He hasn’t shown up but there’s more going on than what appears on the surface.”
“Oh?” Meg wiped her hands on her apron and placed two shrimp tacos on a plate. “Ruby. Shrimp taco order is ready.”
Ruby grabbed the plate and left to bring it to the customer outside.
“Fill me in,” Meg said as she leaned against the counter. “I can’t wait to hear the latest about Mr. Dwayne Dunn, the mystery man of Hooks Harbor.”
Meg’s mouth opened wider and wider with each revelation Hannah told her, starting with poor Patches being abandoned at the cottages last night and ending with the floppy hat floating in the water at the marina. Hannah glanced around the kitchen and lowered her voice. “Can you think of any reason Cal could be involved with Dwayne’s disappearance?”
Meg turned her head away from Hannah. “I don’t want to say anything. You have to ask Cal,” she said without enthusiasm.
Hannah couldn’t believe her ears. Cal, her best friend. Cal, the person she had hopes for creating a lasting relationship with. Cal, possibly connected to Dwayne’s disappearance?
“I have to get to the bottom of this,” she mumbled. She grabbed a bottle of cold lemonade from her drink cooler to bring to Cal with the hope that he would talk to her about her fears. The least she could do was listen to what he had to say before her imagination jumped to any crazy conclusions.
As she approached Cal working under the hot sun, her fears lessened. He was a hard worker, honest, loyal, and too kind to do anything underhanded, she tried to convince herself.
“I brought you a cold drink if you care to take a short break,” Hannah said, holding out her peace offering.
Cal slipped his hammer into his tool belt and moved into the shade of the wall he was working on. He twisted off the bottle cap and drank half the bottle in one long swallow. “Thanks. I—”
Hannah held up her hand. “No, let me go first. I need to apologize for jumping to the conclusion that you had something to do with Dwayne’s disappearance.”
“But I may have,” Cal answered. “Not intentionally, but yesterday I sort of suggested to him that he wasn’t wanted around here and to stop bothering you.”
Hannah’s body tensed. She gritted her teeth, afraid to say anything for fear of what might come out of her mouth that she couldn’t take back.
Cal continued. “I wanted to protect you from disappointment, Hannah.” He stared at her. “When he showed up at the marina last night, like I told you before, we did talk.”
Hannah braced herself for bad news.
“He told me he knew he could count on you. Just like he always counted on your Great Aunt Caroline, to protect his secrets.” Cal paused to look over Hanna’s head at the stunning ocean view. “I didn’t know what he was talking about and that’s when I told him to stay away from you. That you didn’t need to be involved in his drama.”
“That’s not your choice, Cal, to decide who I choose to befriend.”
“I know. I was wrong. There’s one more thing Dwayne said that I couldn’t get out of my head. That’s why I went fishing early this morning; to try to clear my thoughts.”
Hannah forced herself to keep breathing. In and out in a steady pace. She waited.
“Dwayne told me it was too late.”
“Too late for what?” Hannah asked.
“I think he meant it was too late to keep you out of his drama.” Cal finished the lemonade before adding, “I couldn’t imagine what he meant at the time, but if he’s really missing, he must have known something was going to happen to him and either he left town or…”
“Or what, Cal?”
“I don’t know and I don’t want to guess.”
“What about his hat floating in your boat slip?”
“That only proves that he was at the marina at some point.”
“What about the money in his backpack?”
Cal’s eyes narrowed. “What money?”
“When I got back last night, I found Patches sitting next to Dwayne’s backpack. It’s full of money. Lots of money, Cal. He must have known he was in some kind of trouble from what he told you, and since he left it at one of my picnic tables, he assumed I would be dragged into his mess. I don’t like this at all. We have to find him.”
Cal held Hannah’s arm so she couldn’t walk away. “Where’s the backpack now? Are you in danger? Will the person who’s after Dwayne come after you now?”
“Pam took the backpack to the police station.” She felt Cal’s hold on her arm relax. “But we have to find Patches. I think he’ll lead us to Dwayne.”
“You said Patches was sitting next to the backpack.”
“Right, and he stayed in my cottage last night but sometime this morning, with people coming and going, he snuck out.” She started to walk away but stopped and turned back toward Cal. “I have to look for Patches. Dwayne’s letter asked me to take care of him.”
“A letter? When did Dwayne give you a letter?”
“It was in the backpack with the money. Dwayne wrote,” she recited from memory, “if you are reading this, something has happened to me.” Are you going to help me search?”
Cal unbuckled his tool belt and threw it in the back of his truck. “I’m driving. I have an idea where to start.”
Hannah hesitated. “I’ll meet you in the parking lot after I tell Meg and Ruby what’s going on.”
As soon as they were on their way, Hannah said, “I get the feeling there’s still something about Dwayne you haven’t told me.”
Cal sucked in a deep breath. “He told me where he stays and that I should let you know if you ever asked. I never expected to have to share that information with you.”
“He had to know he was in some kind of danger,” Hannah said again, staring out the window as Cal drove, but not seeing anything they passed.
8
“Where are we going?” Hannah asked as Cal stomped on the gas pedal.
Gravel scattered behind his truck when they left Hannah’s parking lot. “It’ll take about twenty minutes. You probably don’t know the area. It’s sort of a secret spot I discovered when I was a kid.”
“Like a party spot?”
“It used to be, until the police raided it enough times and the kids moved on.” Cal turned off Ocean View Lane and onto a dirt road. “It’s an abandoned train tunnel—secluded, off the beaten path—perfect for someone like Dwayne to stay out of the limelight.”
Hannah grinned. “Did you spend a lot of your younger years han
ging out at this secluded spot? Maybe with a special someone?”
Cal slowed his truck to almost a crawl over the washboard ruts in the road. “Yeah, I did.” He stared straight ahead.
Hannah felt something change in Cal’s voice with his response. Did she hit a nerve? Was this special someone his first love?
Cal stopped on the side of the road. His head tipped down between his arms and rested on the steering wheel. “It’s hard for me to come back to this place. I’m doing it for you, Hannah, not Dwayne. He interfered in my life all those years ago.”
Hannah sat quietly, barely breathing. She looked at his pained profile, his drooping shoulders, and his trembling chin. She sensed the ache from these memories.
Cal continued with a quivering voice, his fingers tight around the steering wheel. “Dwayne told the parents of my girlfriend from back then that we were hanging out at the tunnel. Her parents were furious. Livid. I wasn’t good enough for her, they said, and they sent her away to live with an aunt, forbidding her to keep in touch with me. We did keep in touch, but when you’re young, well, she moved on.”
Hannah reached over the pile of tools that separated them in the front seat of his truck and gently touched his arm. “You’ve never forgiven him, have you?”
Cal shook his head. “I guess not. It all came crashing back when you told me that you hired him. Something I haven’t thought about in years.” Cal finally turned his head to look at Hannah. “All I could imagine was that he would interfere in my life again. That’s why I told him to stay away from you.”
Hannah heard the catch in his voice and her heart almost burst through her chest. His words revealed to her how much she must mean to him. It made her heart soar with happiness before it almost exploded with dread.
Did he care enough for her to want revenge?
Cal started driving again. Silence cloaked the cab of Cal’s truck. Hannah left her hand on his arm, hoping he understood that he was important in her life. She desperately wanted to slide closer and whisper that it was time to let go of those long ago memories, but a sound drifted in the open window. She cocked her head. “Do you hear that? It sounds like a dog howling. Do you think it could be Patches?” Excitement bubbled in her voice.
“You think he actually made his way back here?” Cal’s voice held disbelief.
“I saw how Patches looked at Dwayne. I think the dog would do anything for him. And once a beagle gets his nose on a scent, there’s not much that will stop him. Dwayne is that dog’s world.”
“We’ll find out soon enough. We’re almost to the end of the road and then we have a short walk to the tunnel.”
The howling got louder and louder as the truck moved farther along the narrowing road until it came to an abrupt stop at a turn-around.
“Do you want to wait here while I take a look first?” Cal asked.
“No.” Hannah already had her door open and one foot on the ground. The area was littered with beer cans and trash, evidence that kids hadn’t completely moved away from this party spot. “I’m coming with you.”
Cal bypassed the litter and led Hannah through the trees. Except for the howling dog, she saw no indication that they were headed toward anything but a meandering walk through dense forest. She followed close behind Cal as he held branches out of the way for her.
“Are you sure you know where you’re going?”
Hannah had a flashback to a memory when some kids she thought were her friends deserted her in the woods. The same panic of abandonment tried to conquer her but she pushed it away and focused on Cal’s determined walk.
“Like the back of my hand.” Cal kept moving confidently through the brush until it opened to a small clearing.
Patches sat howling in front of what looked like the remains of a tent. It was impossible to miss the scattered papers, clothes, cans of food, and pots and pans strewn everywhere. Patches sat in the middle of the mess.
Hannah’s hand covered her mouth in surprise that Dwayne could have called this place home. Patches obviously thought it was where he’d find his person.
“What happened here?” she asked Cal even though she knew he didn’t have an answer for her.
Hannah stood rooted in that spot. She stared in disbelief and tried to make sense of the scene in front of her. Dread and fear of what she looked at consumed her. She had to move before she was swallowed by her outrage.
She put one foot in front of the other to catch up to Cal who had already started to methodically search the area, walking in ever-widening circles. A smell of rotten food mixed with a mustiness drifted on the cool air from the tunnel and hit her nostrils. As they got closer to the entrance, Cal stopped and took several steps backward. He turned her around. But it was too late to shield her from what lay on the ground.
“Hannah, I found Dwayne. It doesn’t look good, call the police.”
What she feared all along was echoed in Cal’s words and Patches’s howling. “And an ambulance?” she asked with her last remaining hope.
“I’m sure they will send one but it doesn’t look like it will help Dwayne. Someone cut him up pretty badly.” Cal hung his head as he moved Hannah away from the awful scene.
As if Patches understood Cal’s words too, he was suddenly quiet.
With a shaky voice, Hannah made the call and gave their location. Without thinking why, she snapped photos with her phone as she slowly moved in an arc to get the whole scene. Her foot knocked against an empty bottle of wine. Maybe later, this would all mean something, she told herself. Once she had time to process it all.
Hannah talked softly to Patches, not sure if he would respond or keep up his vigil. He looked at Hannah, then back toward the entrance to the tunnel and the spot where his devoted master lay. Finally, he walked to Hannah and waited with his sad eyes on her face. He looked at her to help him.
“Let’s go back to my truck. I suppose I’ll have to lead the police to this spot,” Cal said. His voice betrayed the lack of enthusiasm he felt for that task.
“What about this mess?” Hannah asked with a wave of her hand around the area. “It looks like someone trashed Dwayne’s tent and all of his stuff. Do you think they were looking for something?”
“Let the police sort that out. The less we contaminate the scene, the better for them to find any clues.” Cal took Hannah’s arm and guided her back through the trees. This time, they walked side by side instead of single file.
Hannah checked to be sure Patches followed. He trailed behind, his head down, his ears dragging.
Anger built inside Hannah, replacing her shock and disbelief of the situation.
Who did this? Why Dwayne? What could they have been after?
The backpack of money had much more significance now. She didn’t know how it fit into this tragedy yet, but somehow its meaning would be revealed.
Her hand reached to Patches’s head. “Dwayne entrusted you with me and I’ll do my best to honor that request, even if I never see a penny from his money.”
The sound of sirens could be heard in the distance by the time Hannah and Cal made it through the trees back to where his truck was parked. Hannah opened the passenger door and helped Patches jump inside.
“I don’t want you to get confused when all the vehicles arrive,” she told him. And she also didn’t want Patches to be part of the investigation. Deputy Pam Larson took Dwayne’s backpack from Hannah but she wouldn’t let Pam take Patches.
“Do you really think he understands what you tell him?” Cal asked Hannah.
“He understands the tone of my voice. He understands my body language. In Dwayne’s letter, he asked me to take care of Patches if anything happened to him, and that’s exactly what I plan to do.”
Cal dug in his jeans pocket and found a couple of dog bones. “I don’t think Nellie will mind if I give these treats to Patches instead, do you?”
Hannah couldn’t help but smile. “He’s getting to you, too, isn’t he? Those sad brown eyes are impossible to ignore.
Now, if only he could tell us what Dwayne was worried about. When you talked to Dwayne last night, did he tell you anything else?”
“Not really. Nothing that seemed important at the time, at least. He told me he was heading back to your place. That he left something valuable there. I was really surprised when you told me he never showed up this morning. But, then again, Dwayne has never been known for his reliability.” Cal handed Hannah a bag of trail mix and a bottle of water.
“Something valuable? He must have been talking about his backpack with all the money. Funny that he left it out in the open like he did. Anyone could have taken it.” She threw a handful of nuts, raisins, and chocolate chips in her mouth before washing it down with a slug of water. “How long do you think we’ll be stuck here?”
“No clue,” Cal answered as the first police car pulled in behind his truck.
Deputy Pam Larson climbed out of her cruiser with a scowl on her face. “Why is it that I always find Ms. Hannah Holiday in the middle of all the messes?”
Hannah remained silent, assuming Pam was only trying to get under her skin and not expecting an answer to an unanswerable question.
“You said you two found Dwayne Dunn?”
Hannah nodded.
Pam looked around. “All I see is a bunch of trash. Is this some kind of joke?”
Cal stepped forward. “Follow me. I’ll show you what we found.”
Deputy Pam Larson and the rest of the emergency crew followed Cal into the woods.
Hannah wished she had her own car so she could leave this depressing area, but even if she had the keys to Cal’s truck, she probably couldn’t maneuver around all the vehicles.
Instead, she climbed into the truck and put her head back. With her eyes closed, she stroked Patches’s soft fur as he lay next to her with his head in her lap.
She concentrated on nothing but breathing and counting down the minutes until Cal would be back.
She heard a blue jay warning the woods of an intruder.
A loud rapping on the truck door made her heart skip a couple of beats.
Patches barked.
Hannah’s eyes flew open.