River's Edge

by Terri Blackstock

  “I left some messages for Lisa yesterday, so Cade came to question me this morning about whether I’d talked with her. I hadn’t. She never called back.”

  Rani shook her head and leaned forward. “I have a bad feeling, Morgan. A real bad feeling.”

  That wasn’t what Morgan wanted to hear. “Why?”

  “Because she had a million things going on yesterday. Trust me, she wouldn’t have just bagged them. I spent the whole day trying to do spin control and cover for her, and that never happens. And the kicker is she missed her doctor’s appointment.”

  “At the fertility clinic.” Morgan wanted Rani to know that Lisa hadn’t kept that secret from her.

  “Yeah, she’s practically psycho about those things. Her body’s pumped so full of hormones that if Ben’s one minute late for one of those appointments, she just about goes ballistic. No way did she just decide to skip town and not go.”

  “Well, that’s the thing. Don’t you think those hormones just may have pushed her over the edge?”

  “Hey, she’s moody, but she’s not crazy. I meant she was psycho about the appointments, the fertility, the whole baby thing. It’s an obsession with her, you know? I didn’t mean that her hormones were really making her crazy. A little irritable maybe. A little moody. And come on, she missed half a million worth of commissions yesterday. No way that would happen.”

  “Was there any place she went where her car might have broken down or something?”

  “There’s no telling. Her car hasn’t turned up, so we don’t know.” She dug into her drawer and came up with a cigarette and lighter. “You don’t mind, do you?” she asked as she lit it. She took a drag and blew the smoke out in a stream, then tossed the lighter back into the drawer. “Lisa hates when I smoke in the office. I’ve been trying to quit, but it’s impossible with this stuff going on.”

  Morgan tried not to cough.

  “Anyway, if the cops know what they’re doing—and frankly, I’m not so sure—they’re interviewing everyone she was supposed to meet with yesterday.”

  Morgan ignored the comment about Cade’s police force. “They’ll find her. I know Cade real well. He’s very good at what he does.”

  “Let’s hope you’re right. But with one detective and a half-crippled chief, I’m skeptical. If Lisa’s all right, she would have called by now. If she could get to a phone, that is. If this blasted place could just get a cell phone signal—I’ve never heard of anything so primitive. It almost kept me from moving here. And it hurts with selling real estate, I can tell you. People prefer to go somewhere else if they can’t even make a call.”

  Morgan didn’t bother to mention that they always had Ma Bell. “Did she have a cell phone with her?”

  “Yes, and I’ve tried to call it a million times. She’s not answering. If she were off the island somewhere, she’d at least check her voicemail.” She brought the cigarette to her lips again. “I swear, I think he had something to do with it.”

  “What? Who?”

  “That Ben.” She blew the smoke toward the ceiling. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”

  Morgan just gaped at her. “Are you suggesting he would hurt Lisa?”

  Rani gave Morgan a conspiratorial look. “I’m not accusing him of anything, okay? I’m just saying, there’s been trouble in paradise for a long time.”

  Morgan didn’t know whether to be relieved or concerned. If it really had been a fight, then maybe Lisa was off nursing her anger. Maybe she’d be back.

  Rani tapped her cigarette on an ashtray shaped like a manicured hand. “Lisa comes in here a few weeks ago with tears in her eyes. She’d just collected the mail in her office, and you’ll never guess what she found.”

  Morgan couldn’t imagine. “What?”

  “A letter from a woman who claimed to be Ben’s lover.”

  Morgan’s mouth fell open. “You’re kidding.”

  “The woman told her that she’d been having an affair with Ben for months and that he’d been promising that he was going to leave Lisa.”

  “Who was it from?”

  “That’s just it.” Rani leaned on her desk, her gaze locking into Morgan’s. “There was no signature and no return address. The letter was postmarked Cape Refuge. No clue who sent it.”

  “Did Lisa confront Ben?”

  “Of course she did.” Rani stubbed out her cigarette. “That jerk just told her he had no idea where the letter had come from, that it was a bunch of lies. He told her that if she didn’t believe him, she could hire a detective to follow him around. She bought it.”

  “Did she hire the detective?”

  “No. She convinced herself he was telling the truth. She figured he wouldn’t be working so hard at trying to have a baby with her if he planned to leave her. And besides that, he seemed to be available at a moment’s notice. Not like he was hiding anything.” She waved her hand in the air. “They were doing this temperature thing, checking her body for ovulation, all this stuff, and whenever she’d call him, he’d drop whatever he was doing and meet her—at home, at the doctor’s office, wherever she needed him. He also convinced her he’d never do such a stupid thing when he was trying to run for mayor. It would ruin his chances in a town like this.”

  “Well, that does sound reasonable,” Morgan said. “Ben is always worried about image. You’d think he wouldn’t be so stupid as to have an affair when so much was at stake.”

  “You would think.” She set her chin on her hand and let out a long sigh. “But I wasn’t believing it. I’ve seen this kind of thing before. People are stupid when they’re cheating. And then she got more letters.”

  Morgan frowned. “How many?”

  “Three or four more. And every time, he denied it, but I think Lisa was starting to get wise. The last one really concerned her, though, and I could see on her face that her faith in him was starting to falter. I tried to convince her to call his bluff and hire a detective just like he’d suggested, but I don’t think she ever did.”

  Morgan felt sick. Maybe the pain she’d seen on Lisa’s face so many times hadn’t just been mourning over her infertility. Maybe there was something much deeper.

  “Rani, have you told the police about this?”

  Rani lit another cigarette. “I’ve been going around and around about it. I didn’t know if I should, because it opens a whole new can of worms. And if Lisa hasn’t just run off, they might assume she has and stop looking.”

  “Cade wouldn’t do that. You have to tell them. This is relevant information.”

  “If Ben has any decency, he’ll tell them himself.”

  “Not if he’s hiding something.” Morgan thought back over Ben’s countenance this morning. Did he look like a guilty man, someone who’d been having an affair, cheating on his wife, lying to her all along? No. The truth was, he had been beside himself, panicked over the disappearance of his wife. It couldn’t have been an act.

  Or could it?

  “The thing is, even if he was having an affair,” Rani said, “I don’t think he would have killed her.”

  Morgan shivered. “Killed her?”

  “Well, yeah. I mean, to get her out of the way so he could be with his lover or whatever.”

  Morgan had considered that Lisa could be dead, but only as a fleeting thought. Now, the idea that Ben might have done it disturbed her more than she could explain. “Rani, you have to tell the police.”

  Rani stared at her for a long moment, turning the idea over in her mind. “I guess you’re right. I wonder if she kept those letters in her desk. They came here, after all. Maybe I can find them.” She slid her chair back and walked out, her perfume trailing in the air behind her, mingling with the smoke.

  Morgan followed her into Lisa’s office. The walls looked like polished marble, and the carpet was a deep wine color. Tiffany lamps accented the antique desk and the sitting area. Morgan could just imagine Lisa making deals in an office like this.

  Rani pulled out the drawers and searched th
rough them until she came to the bottom drawer and found a box of letters.

  “Bingo. Pay dirt.” She pulled the letters out, then tossed them onto the desk. “Take a look if you don’t believe me.”

  “Uh…no. I don’t feel comfortable doing that. Let’s just take them to Cade. Let him read them.”

  Rani shrugged. “Okay, maybe they do have some relevance. Let me get my purse.”

  When Rani had locked the office, Morgan looked at her. “Do you want me to follow you there and talk to Cade with you?” She felt foolish for asking. Rani was tough, assertive. She didn’t need anyone to hold her hand.

  But the woman surprised her. “Yeah, it might not hurt to have a little moral support, if you don’t mind.”

  Morgan followed the Roadster to the police station, thinking about those letters and praying that they didn’t mean something terrible had really happened to Lisa. Was Ben Jackson grieving over his wife’s disappearance—or his own guilt? Was he covering for a lover who might have taken matters into her own hands?

  The questions filled her with nauseating urgency. She only hoped Cade could answer them.

  CHAPTER 12

  The stage on the beach next to the South Beach Pier had been built for the rally, decorated with the American and Georgia state flags. It was wired to blast the debate for hundreds of yards. The crowd had already assembled when Jonathan pulled up in his car and found a parking place in the spot reserved for the candidates. Sam Sullivan was already there, working the crowd, wearing a light blue seersucker suit and a Panama hat that made him look like Rodney Dangerfield impersonating Harry Truman.

  Art Russell—one of the City Council members—met Jonathan in the sand before he reached the crowd.

  “Jonathan, are you really calling this off? We have vendors here selling food and drinks. A lot of people went to a lot of trouble. The square dancers are all here in full costume, ready to perform.”

  “We have to call it off, Art. It’s not right to hold a political rally without all the candidates.”

  “But Ben had the choice to show up.”

  Jonathan kept walking. “No, he didn’t. His wife is missing. I’m not going to take advantage of it, and neither is Sam.”

  Art looked back at the crowd. “You know he’s planning to take the stage himself.”

  “Not if I can stop him.”

  Jonathan didn’t bother to shake any hands as he walked through the crowd and right up onto the platform. Sarah Williford, the council member who was going to introduce them, was already sitting in her spot as if afraid that someone else might get it. The woman, looking as though she’d stepped out of a sixties commune, had dressed for the occasion in a flowing dress, which looked like it was made of cheesecloth, and a pair of flat sandals.

  Jonathan didn’t bother to speak to her. He went straight to the microphone and tapped it. “Excuse me, could I have your attention, please? Everybody, could I have your attention?”

  Sam Sullivan cried out, then made a beeline through the crowd. In his hurry, he almost stumbled up the stairs.

  Jonathan ignored him and kept talking. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid we’re going to have to call off the debate. Ben Jackson won’t be able to make it. It seems that his wife, Lisa, has been missing since yesterday.” A wave of surprise whispered over the crowd. “We’ll reschedule the debate for two weeks from today, since it wouldn’t be right to do it without him at a time like this.”

  By now, Sam was on the stage. He glared at Jonathan like he had hijacked the spotlight and grabbed the microphone out of his hand.

  “We need your help and the help of anybody else on this island who’s so inclined,” Sam said. “Lisa—bless her heart—was last seen yesterday morning. If any of you have any information about any sightings of her yesterday at any time of the day, we would ask you to call the Cape Refuge police and report it. It’s not a time for politics. It’s a time for working together, to help a brother in need.”

  Jonathan stood back gaping at the man. Did anyone really buy this sudden concern? He hoped the people saw through Sam’s self-sacrificing act.

  Jonathan took the mike back. “I spoke to Cade before coming here, and he said we’re going to need a lot of volunteers to search the island. Since all of you are already assembled here, I’m going to open up a table over to the side here where people can sign up to help.”

  “When did she go missing?” Ronald Myers shouted from the crowd.

  “Sometime yesterday,” Jonathan said. “No one’s sure yet.”

  “I saw her Wednesday,” Fran Lincoln said. “She was in line at the bank, and we struck up a conversation. She was in a real big hurry to get away.”

  “Everybody’s in a hurry when they talk to you,” someone returned. Jonathan saw her ex-husband snickering at the back of the crowd.

  “I’ll bet Ben campaigned her right outta her mind,” Bo Patterson suggested. “She’s prob’ly curled up in fetal position on some shrink’s couch.”

  Half the crowd laughed, and the rest expressed indignation.

  “I hope it’s something simple like that,” Jonathan said. “But she needs earnest prayer right now. In fact, I’d like to lead us in that.”

  Most of the people bowed their heads, and a hush fell over the group. Jonathan made a petition for Lisa’s safety and Ben’s comfort. When he’d said amen, he looked over at Sam. His opponent—an avowed atheist—looked as if he might grab Jonathan by the throat and wrestle him to the ground.

  “So, Sam, do you have something you’d like to add?”

  Jonathan could have sworn smoke was coming out of the man’s ears. He wondered if he’d invoke the “separation of church and state,” but Sam was too shrewd for that. Too many of his constituents believed in God.

  “Just that I’ll be helping at that table too. Maybe we can divide up and take groups out to search various areas.”

  Jonathan smiled and looked down at his feet. Sam wasn’t going to give him the opportunity to show his leadership skills all alone. He figured it could only help.

  He stepped off the stage and went to the table that had been set up to give out campaign flyers. He wasn’t sure where Cade would want them to start looking, but from the number of people assembling to get in line at the table, he knew that they would have a good start on searching for Lisa today.

  “Jonathan, a word with you, please.”

  Jonathan looked at the man who had stepped to the front of the line. He looked familiar, but Jonathan wasn’t sure where he’d seen him before.

  “Vince Barr, of the Observer.” The man reached across the table to shake his hand.

  “Of course.” Jonathan remembered the sleazy reporter for the tabloid based in Savannah. He’d been amused at some of his recent headlines. One claimed that George Bush had been kidnapped and replaced by an alien—complete with pictures of the offending space ship in the sky. Usually mayoral debates in small towns weren’t up his alley.

  “It’s about Lisa Jackson’s disappearance. I heard about it on the police scanner, and I’ve been trying to get information for our Tuesday issue. Have you spoken to Mr. Jackson?”

  Jonathan wasn’t about to tell this man a thing. “I thought you guys just made stuff up. You don’t really do interviews, do you?”

  He grinned. “Of course we do interviews. This is serious news.”

  “Yeah, but it’s not national.”

  “They didn’t think Laci Peterson’s disappearance was national either, but you never know. It’s always good to have a leg up on things just in case something comes of it. So did you talk to him?”

  “Yes, I talked to him. He’s very upset.”

  “Do you think he’d grant an interview?”

  “I really couldn’t say.” Jonathan turned to the line of volunteers forming and passed a legal pad across the table. “If you’d all just sign in, I’ll try to get word to Cade that we’re ready to start looking where he tells us.”

  “How well do you know Lisa and Ben J
ackson?” the reporter cut in.

  Jonathan shot him another look. “Well enough.”

  “Were they happy? Had there been any trouble in their marriage?”

  “I don’t know any of that. They seemed happy.”

  “What kind of man is Ben Jackson?”

  Jonathan didn’t like where Vince was going with this. “If you don’t mind, I’m busy. But you can sign up as a volunteer, if you want. The search itself will be a story. Maybe there’s even an alien or two involved.”

  Vince chuckled again and started to back away. “Thanks anyway. I’m sure I’ll find someone who’ll give me information.”

  CHAPTER 13

  Ben Jackson owned a fleet of shrimp trawlers and a shrimping warehouse on the Savannah dock, one of many operations in the industrialized area that serviced the marine commerce. Since adult white shrimp spawned near the shores in May, it was a busy time for his captains and crews.

  Cade knew Ben oversaw the warehouse operations and the shipping of the shrimp to other states, but he wasn’t here today. Cade had driven here in hopes of talking to his employees, to feel them out about the possibility that Ben had a mistress.

  Rani’s revelation about the letters had changed his thinking about the case. Sympathy for Ben had kept him from exploring the man’s possible guilt in his wife’s disappearance, but the letters forced his hand. If they had, indeed, been written by his mistress, then Ben could be hiding much more than infidelity. The letters provided motive for two different people to want Lisa out of the way. If there truly was another woman, Cade was determined to find out who. The more he knew, the better equipped he’d be when he confronted Ben about the letters.

  One of the rigs had just returned with its catch from a run up the South Carolina coast, so no one noticed right away when Cade came into the warehouse. The crews busied themselves with deheading, sorting, and packing the catch in ice. Though the place was clean and cool, the smell of shrimp filled his nostrils and attached itself to his hair and clothes. He looked around at the dockworkers on Ben’s payroll. They were mostly tough, rugged men with foul mouths—which pretty much ruled out the possibility that Ben had a mistress here.