Shattered Secrets

by Karen Harper

  “And ours too,” he said. “Gabe’s around here somewhere—everywhere, actually, he’s good at mingling—but I don’t think he’d mind if I got you off your feet for a while, after your bad experience Thursday night. How about the English pub while we get something to eat and drink—no booze for you. You, my girl, are on the wine wagon.”

  She forced a little smile. “All right. I was hoping to talk to my cousins, but it would be just like Bright Star to have hidden them from me. I’m still tired after what happened—being drugged, I mean,” she said, wondering if he knew she’d spent that night at Gabe’s house.

  The man was chewing on a toothpick, which he spit out into a trash can as they walked past the police station toward the pub. If Vic thought he was going to get something out of her, she was hoping to turn the tables on him.

  * * *

  “Of course I’ll be at the prayer vigil for Sandy at the church tomorrow night,” Gabe told Pastor Snell. “Deputy Miller and I will be glad to provide security too. And my prayer is we’ll have Sandy back by then. I’ve been meaning to ask you something, Pastor.”

  “Of course. If I can help with anything...”

  “Tess Lockwood only recalled recently that after she returned from her kidnap ordeal, her mother got her some sort of counseling through your church. Would you know who spent time with her?”

  “If I recall, it was Melanie Parkinson, not a child psychiatrist but she had a psychology background. Unfortunately she moved to Columbus a good time ago when her husband took a job there. I’m afraid I’ve lost contact with the Parkinsons, but I can inquire if others who knew her still have ties.”

  “I’d really appreciate that. And as soon as possible.”

  “I understand time is of the essence, if this ties at all to getting Sandy back—maybe the other girls—the way we were blessed to have Teresa returned. I’ll try to locate Melanie as soon as I can and get back to you.”

  When they parted, Gabe walked through the cars parked in the church lot and spotted Grace and Lee Lockwood. He had no intention of telling them what sort of harassment Tess had suffered lately, but he did want to ask them who might have had keys to her house. As he got closer, he saw they were loading sacks of produce into an SUV for someone who looked like an outsider. He waited a row of cars over until the SUV drove out and Grace and Lee walked back his way.

  “Hey,” Gabe said, greeting them. “How are things going at the Hear Ye tables today?”

  “Great,” Grace said with a tentative smile. She immediately looked toward Lee rather than saying more. She used to be quite a talker, he recalled.

  When Lee only nodded and started in about the beautiful autumn weather, Gabe directed the conversation where he wanted it to go. “Listen, I told Tess for safety’s sake when she sold the house she’d have to tell the buyers to get all the locks rekeyed. But for now, do either of you still have keys you could give her, or does anyone else have them? She’ll need some extras if she decides to use a Realtor so she can get back home to Michigan.”

  “Oh, dear,” Grace said. “If she’s having trouble selling, I hope she doesn’t leave early. I...I know she feels she hasn’t had enough time with us, the children, especially. We probably do have an extra key, just in case she needed me again to clean, or whatever. I know I lost one once, but we had another one made. Lee must still have his.”

  “I think I threw it away when we left. After all, you gave her your set of keys. As for someone else—don’t think so,” Lee said.

  Gabe sensed he wasn’t going to get any further than that with them. And he wasn’t sure he believed them. They were edging back toward the market, so he strolled along. He wondered if one of them had been asked to give a key to Monson. If so, they’d protect him at any price—maybe even before worrying about Tess’s safety.

  “I see Brice Monson’s here himself today,” Gabe said, still trying to sound conversational. “I never figured someone who chose the name Bright Star would be an early-morning person, unless he’s the Hollywood kind of star instead of the night one.”

  Grace giggled until Lee glared at her. “He’s someone who is available at any time if we have questions or need guidance. He prays and watches over us day or night,” Lee said.

  “But he takes his night walks alone when he prays for us all,” Grace put in, and this time Lee nodded.

  “Walks down by the creek?” Gabe asked, his mind spinning with possibilities of Monson taking walks at night. The Lockwood house was only about four miles down the road, fewer with cut-throughs across the fields.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Lee admitted. “No one goes but him, under the stars, communing with the Great Star whose name he bears. We’ve got to get back now, Sheriff. Good to see you. Come on over to our tables and buy something.”

  They scurried off. Gabe leaned against a tree, thinking that if Dane didn’t pan out, weirdo Brice “Bright Star” Monson deserved to be in a dead heat with Reese Owens for the next suspect. Tess said she’d heard a young girl scream at the compound, but where could Monson be stashing kidnap victims? Where could anyone be kept hidden in this tight-knit area, even if there were lots of hills and hollers and abandoned buildings? He’d been checking such places over the years, around and around, until he was dizzy with it all. He couldn’t even find that damn floating meth lab.

  Like a kid who’d been punished for something he didn’t do, he kicked the tree, then walked back into the crowd.

  * * *

  As Tess and Vic walked down the busy street toward the pub, she noticed a table she hadn’t seen before, maybe because she’d skirted around the mayor. Neither he nor his bench was there now, so had he spirited it and himself away? More likely, he’d hired a couple of guys to move it for him so he could hold court somewhere else in the market. Or maybe the buyers there were so thick she just hadn’t seen it. The table she was surprised she hadn’t noticed had piles of Halloween costumes, with others hanging from racks. The table also had decorations for sale under a sign that read Creekside Gifts.

  “Oh,” she said, “I’m surprised the Kentons came.”

  “They didn’t. Friends offered to take care of it for them. Mrs. Kenton’s not doing well, and the father, Win, is understandably mad as heck.”

  “I think that’s how my father must have reacted, and at my mother.”

  “Yeah. I think you’re right.”

  Tess noticed they’d also displayed baseball caps with bills that looked like tombstones. She suddenly imagined herself looking out a window, down at a small cemetery, the stones gray in the day or at dusk....

  She must have been looking out a high window, maybe from the attic in Dane’s house at the animal graves. And hadn’t she had some nightmare about seeing people in open graves, maybe ones crying like in the drawing she’d done? Could Dane have threatened her by saying he’d bury her out there if she didn’t behave, didn’t stop being a bad girl? Had he terrorized her so that she, amnesia drugs aside, couldn’t clearly recall much else?

  “Sometimes I think I do remember Dane’s house,” she told Vic as they passed the police station. “I hope Gabe gets that search warrant soon. But the thing is, since Dane seemed the obvious culprit before, I don’t want that to influence my memories. That can happen, you know. A child’s memories become warped to fit something not understood. The big, noisy reaping machine turns into a monster, for example. I read about displacement in a book from the library here.”

  He held the pub door for her and waited until they were seated to answer her. “So the cemetery of your buried—pardon the pun—memory would be of a cemetery much smaller than what Dane Thompson has now, since he’s really expanded over the years.”

  “Yes. Yes, exactly. I picture a smaller one.”

  “Then maybe we’re getting somewhere, the beginning of a breakthrough. But Gabe and I’d better find something in hi
s place like drugs that cause amnesia—or something like Rohypnol or Scopolamine, the so-called date rape drugs. I call them predator drugs, and that’s exactly what we’re dealing with in these abductions—a predator. Still, I don’t think an interrogation and especially a court case can turn on vague, traumatic memories buried this long.

  “But listen,” he went on, after they’d ordered Reuben sandwiches and soft drinks, “you haven’t phoned your father yet, have you?”

  “No, but Reese Owens told me to and gave me Dad’s phone number, which I didn’t have before. Their connection over the years strikes me as strange. So you’re thinking I should call him?”

  “Well, yeah, maybe with Gabe or me on the line in case he says something about Reese we can use.”

  “Or about himself? Vic, his phone number is burning not only a hole in my pocket but a hole in my heart.”

  “It’s hard to forgive someone for desertion on top of unfaithfulness.”

  “Yes, he was unfaithful to leave us like that.”

  “I’ll bet your mother partly blamed herself.”

  “For not watching me better that day. He accused her of that.”

  “He should have blamed himself for being gone so much for their marital troubles. Your dad must have thought your mother or Rod McCord wouldn’t find out about the affair between him and the sheriff’s wife.”

  Her stomach cartwheeled. And then all the missing pieces of things Gabe had said—and mostly hadn’t said—slammed into place for her. He’d come so close to telling her more than once but had always changed the subject. Her mother had begun to tell her once that there was another reason her dad had left besides Tess’s abduction. No doubt it was the elephant in the room her sisters knew about but never explained.

  Now Tess understood some things. That her mother had tried to protect her too much. That Vic had assumed she knew about the affair because he felt she should be treated like an adult and not some child to be coddled. But Gabe didn’t. He could not be trusted to tell her the truth she needed to know even if it hurt. It was almost as if he’d lied to her. She was going to tell him off and then go it alone. And if it came to it, she’d just sell the property long-distance.

  “Vic, I’m sorry to be rude, but I need to go find Gabe and talk to him right now. I’ll cancel my order on the way out.”

  “Tell him about the memory of looking out at Dane’s pet cemetery?”

  “Yes. Those little tombstone hats back at the gift shop table...”

  She was afraid she wasn’t making sense, that he would see the hurt and anger on her face, but maybe she looked like that all the time. Except now she’d been betrayed not by a stranger, not even by her long-gone father, but by Mom, Kate, Char and the man she’d stupidly imagined she loved.

  20

  Blinking back tears, Tess stormed out of the pub and headed for Gabe’s office. As she walked in, Ann looked up and frowned at her. “I wouldn’t advise that you bother him.”

  “So he’s here?” Tess demanded. “Alone?”

  “Yes, but I’ll just have you wait for him and let him know,” Ann said, and moved to pick up her desk phone.

  “I’m not waiting for him anymore,” Tess said.

  “Hey, just a minute!” Ann shouted as Tess strode back to Gabe’s office. The door was ajar. He was on the phone, arguing with someone.

  She pushed the door open just as he hung up. “That judge has dragged her feet too long,” he muttered as he looked up at her. “Did you see Grace and Lee and their—”

  Tess slammed the door in Ann’s face. “Don’t blame Vic for this, blame yourself!” she shouted.

  “For wh—”

  “Oh, it’s my fault, of course! For thinking you were treating me like an adult. Vic let slip about our parents’ love affair. Your bored, lonely mother, my angry, supersalesman father, right? Right? And you wouldn’t tell me, not little Tess, who still can’t think things through for herself. If I’m willing to face what happened to me when I was kidnapped, don’t you think I can handle a family hardship?”

  He put up his hands as if to hold her off, though she stayed on the other side of the desk. She was not getting near this man again, in any way.

  “I was honoring your family’s wishes,” he insisted. “Since they hadn’t told you, why should I? You’re delicate enough, and I needed to protect—”

  “Needed to use me to get what you wanted and needed! How can I trust you? Though I sometimes feel trapped in my past, I’m not a child, Sheriff McCord!”

  “That’s obvious to me in more ways than one. My eyes—my entire body—are fully aware you are not a child, Tess. I thought protecting you from something that would upset you was the best way to go. And I guess I should have clued in Vic that you didn’t know about our parents.”

  “No, you should have clued me in! Before you kissed me at the falls and at your house! Before you made me think you cared about me as more than just an eyewitness who could not remember one stupid thing! But now I’m starting to recall sounds and sights.”

  “Sights, like what?”

  “See, that’s all you care about! Like seeing a small graveyard out an attic or upper-level window.”

  “Dane.”

  “Probably. And I’m remembering what an idiot I was to think you cared about me.”

  “Tess,” he said, slowly coming around the desk. “It’s the wrong time to say this, but I not only need you to help me solve this—your case—but I need you in other wa—”

  “No!” she shouted, moving out of his reach. “You need to find Sandy Kenton and Jill Stillwell, Amanda Bell too—so if I think of anything that will help, I’ll let you know. Probably through Vic or Deputy Miller. Don’t worry about me. I’ll stay locked in my house at night until I decide if I’m staying or going from your Cold Creek kingdom!” She yanked open his office door.

  Ann stood in the hall. She jumped back, knowing she’d been caught listening. Tess glared at her and walked out into the hall. No way was she going to run like a child.

  “Gabe,” Ann said. “Jace called, but I told him you were...occupied. He said Dane’s driven his van into the Lake Azure area, but he didn’t follow him farther since he’d be spotted. And a fax is coming in for you from Judge Wilson’s office.”

  “Thanks. Call Vic for me and get him back here pronto.”

  Tess slowed to hear what was happening. She knew Gabe probably wanted to chase her, but he wouldn’t with his precious search warrant waiting. She hesitated in the empty outer office, tempted for one moment to go back.

  “And tell Vic,” she heard Gabe call out to Ann, “as soon as Dane gets back on his property, we’re going in. I want to shake him up when we serve the warrant and start to take the place apart. Who knows what he’ll admit then?”

  Tess went outside. She was working on her own now. It was nearly noon, and the farmers’ market was winding down. Shoppers were leaving; a few tables were being carried by vendors to their cars.

  She went to her car and drove away, thoughts racing. Dane wasn’t home and Marva was still at her market booth. Gabe wouldn’t be on Dane’s property until the vet got back from Lake Azure.

  She was going to go there herself on foot, through the cornfield, to take a look at the pet cemetery. It just had to trigger memories. And from now on, she was going to dig up her past not for the sheriff, not for herself, but for those lost girls. And any risk was worth that.

  * * *

  Tess dumped the contents of her purse onto her kitchen table, then took her new house keys and phone out of the pile of items. She put the two items in the child’s backpack she’d brought from home, mostly because it reminded her of her students. She’d stenciled SUNSHINE AND SMILES on packs for each of her kids last year.

  For the first time, she analyzed the real reason she was so dedicated to her job
as a preschool teacher. She realized she’d been trying to recover from her lost, damaged childhood through her students. She needed to protect and comfort them. She desperately wanted to have her own day care center, to make the lives of children better, sweeter, safer.

  She went to use the bathroom, threw on her dark windbreaker, pulled a scarf over her head and knotted it. As she slung the little backpack over one shoulder, her phone rang. She dug it out and checked the caller ID. Gabe. She let it go to voice mail.

  She had to get this done quickly before Dane returned to his place or Gabe showed up.

  She locked the back door and ran across her yard and into the corn. No more room for fear. No more clinging to Gabe or calling Char for counseling or hoping Kate called her again. As she shoved her way through the tall stalks and bumped into the ears, she thought she might phone her father once she calmed down. But how could she ever forgive him for having an affair with Gabe’s mother, for daring to blame Mom for not keeping an eternal eye on his “terrific, terrible Teresa,” then deserting all of them?

  How many people in Cold Creek knew her father had been unfaithful with Mrs. McCord? She realized Miss Etta had alluded to it when Tess had first come back to town, but she hadn’t caught on. “Your father was interested in other things,” Miss Etta had said with a disapproving tone.

  Out of breath, Tess stopped several rows from Dane’s property. She was proud of herself for coming right through the field full of anger instead of fear. And she was just where she thought she would emerge, behind the pet cemetery with the east side of his large, old house in view. She stared up at the second floor and attic windows. Had she been held there for the eight months she was gone? Had she gazed out those small attic windows toward the then much smaller graveyard? She realized she would have seen her own house from those windows. Why couldn’t she recall gazing out toward home?

  She wanted to get closer to the house to see if it triggered any new memories. There were old buildings out behind Marva’s abandoned, derelict farmhouse. Could she have been kept there?