Met Her Match

by Jude Deveraux

  Tears came, but Frank kept fighting.

  Behind them, Jamie had arrived and was filling a syringe, but Nate shook his head. Frank needed this release.

  Slowly, Frank began to weaken, his energy gone. His face was buried in Nate’s shoulder and tears had soaked the cloth. When Frank was near to collapsing, Nate nodded to Jamie.

  “I’m going to give you something to relax you,” Jamie said and gave Frank the shot. It took both of them to hold the older man when he started to fall. An ambulance pulled up, and the EMTs put Frank onto a stretcher.

  He held up his hand for them to stop, and Nate stood by his side. “Sorry for it all.” Frank’s voice was slurred. “But you found her.” With trembling hands, Frank removed his sheriff’s badge from his chest and held it out to Nate.

  “I can’t take that.”

  “You think those guys in their fancy jackets are going to let you hang around without any authority?”

  “Rowan will—” Nate glanced over his shoulder at his cousin. Already, Rowan had changed into the agent he was. No, he wouldn’t let a civilian hang around. Nate took the badge and, groggily, Frank smiled in satisfaction.

  At last, Frank let his body give in to the sedative and his eyes closed. “Now maybe the town bastards will leave our Terri alone.”

  Nate nodded at the “our.”

  “I’ll make sure they do. Rowan and I will make you proud.”

  Nodding, Frank gave a weak smile. “Poor Leslie. We all loved her so much. Who would do this to her?” They loaded Frank into the ambulance.

  “Yes. Who would do this to her?” Nate whispered as he walked back to Rowan and the other agents and the car. Who would murder the mother of a small child and—

  Nate cut off his thought because standing to one side of the growing crowd was little Della Kissel—and from the way her eyes were glittering, she was spreading her venom. He didn’t have to hear her to guess what she was saying. Probably something on the lines of “Leslie had an argument with her lover. She deserved what she got.”

  Nate could feel the badge on his chest as though it were a brand. At the moment it felt like it was glowing—and it weighed about a thousand pounds. While wearing the badge, he couldn’t do what he wanted to do, which was threaten the dreadful little woman so strongly that she shut up. Scare her to silence.

  Ah, he thought, if he was sheriff maybe he could lock her up.

  And be like Sheriff Chazen?

  He took a breath. Diplomat, he told himself. I am a diplomat and Della Kissel is an enemy warlord. He went forward.

  Chapter 20

  It was early evening before Nate could get away to go to Terri’s house. During the long day he’d frequently glanced toward the house to see if she was watching. But he never saw her or Thorndyke. Busy as he was, he wondered what the two of them were doing there. Alone.

  Nate had introduced himself to Frank’s three deputies, all of them young and eager to follow his lead. Nate wanted to tell them he knew nothing about investigating a murder, but he looked into their eyes and didn’t say that. It was clear they didn’t either.

  By six, everything had been cleared away from the old dock. Rowan had called his father and asked for help in getting an immediate forensics report. “I’m calling in every favor I can,” he told his dad. “But I need help.”

  Kit said he’d do all he could.

  Nate drove to Terri’s house, then sat in the car for a few minutes while he gave himself courage. The medical examiner had arrived and from his quick examination of the skeleton, he’d been able to tell of the horror Leslie Rayburn had gone through in her attempt to get out. As far as they could tell, she’d been handcuffed, her ankles tied together, probably gagged, then thrown into the trunk. Maybe she’d been held in there and her car parked on the dock while someone cut the pier’s big posts.

  Whatever happened, it had been long enough that Leslie’d had time to fight so hard that she’d broken both wrists and an ankle. All done while she had a deep gash on her head.

  “With a dent like that in her skull, she must have been bleeding a lot,” the ME said.

  Now in the car, Nate removed the badge from his shirt. Sheriff Chazen hadn’t even looked for Leslie. Hadn’t believed all the people who said she hadn’t run away.

  Nate put the badge in his pocket, got out of the car and went to the house. The door was unlocked. Billy Thorndyke was sitting in the living room, reading. The house was quieter than Nate had ever heard it. Even the outdoor sounds were silenced. No boat motors, no one yelling. Not even the birds were singing.

  Nate didn’t have to be told that Terri was asleep. Jamie had sent a text saying that he’d spent over an hour talking to Terri and had given her some strong sedatives.

  Billy put his book down and got up. “I made some spaghetti. Want some?”

  Nate was too tired, too beaten up by the hideous day to do anything but nod, then he went down the hall to Terri’s room. She was asleep on top of the covers, still wearing her shorts, T-shirt and even her sandals. She was curled up, her knees nearly to her chin. She looked like a tall baby.

  As he watched, she gave a little hiccup and he knew she’d been crying. He couldn’t imagine what she’d been through at finding out her mother had been murdered.

  Nate removed her sandals, then her shorts, pulled the covers back and put her under them. She seemed to give a sigh of relief. He gave her a soft kiss on the lips, smoothed her hair back and left the room.

  Billy had put a huge bowl of spaghetti on the dining table and a plate of several pieces of warm garlic bread dripping butter. A tall glass of beer was by the plate.

  “I guess I’ll leave,” Billy said as he backed up.

  “Sit,” Nate said as he began to eat. “How was she today?”

  Billy sat at the table. “Quiet. Hardly said a word—except about you. ‘Nate will fix it.’ That’s what she kept saying.”

  Nate looked at Billy. He was young, tall and he had quite a bit of muscle on him. Some of it was genetics, but Nate knew the amount of time he had to have spent in a gym. Deltoids like his didn’t come from mowing the lawn. Nate well knew the energy that heavy workouts used. He pushed the plate of bread toward him.

  “Thanks,” Billy said, took a piece, then got up to get both of them another beer. “I hear you’re the new sheriff.”

  “It’s temporary.”

  “Frank wants to retire so maybe—” He stopped at the look Nate gave him. “Right. You want to hear about Terri. I guess you know that Dr. Jamie came by and they talked for a long time. He seems to know a lot about trauma.”

  Billy paused, waiting for Nate to say something, but he didn’t. “Terri seemed to be less restless after he left. Can you tell me what you’ve found out?”

  “I want to know what you did to Terri just before your whole family ran out of town in the middle of the night. As far as I can piece together, you did something really bad, then made her swear to tell no one.”

  Billy’s fair complexion showed the blood that rose in his face. “Good deductions. I think maybe you should keep that badge.”

  Nate’s look didn’t soften. He pushed his empty plate away, got up, picked up the beer bottle and motioned for them to go to the living room. He took the couch and Billy sat on the chair across from him. Nate waited in silence for the younger man to begin.

  “You know Kris Lennon who owns the Garden Day florist?” Billy said.

  “I’ve met her.”

  “When she was still Crystal Wilkins and in high school, I... I got her pregnant.” He looked at Nate but he said nothing. “I wish I could say that Terri and I had a fight and were broken up and that I was angry. Or that I...” Billy took a breath. “But there was nothing like that. I was happy and in love and seventeen years old. I was driving home from football practice, it was raining and Crystal was walking in the road. She was
drenched, and she was crying because her dad had thrown one of his fits and said she couldn’t go to some dance. I stopped the truck, she got inside and I pulled over to the side of the road to listen to her. When I hugged her, it was purely to comfort her, but...” He shrugged. “Six weeks later I had to tell Terri that Crystal was pregnant with my child. It was the worst moment of my life.”

  “And Terri’s.” Nate’s voice was hard, unforgiving.

  “I made it worse by getting her to swear that she’d never tell anyone what really happened.”

  “She’s kept that promise. She never even told Brody. You got that vow from her, then your whole family left town.”

  “They wanted to protect me and our name. And they wanted the baby. But Mrs. Wilkins was encouraging her daughter to get an abortion. She never said so, but I think she was afraid of her husband. Rodney Wilkins was—”

  “Yeah, I know. Banged up in an accident. Not mentally stable and he drank a lot.”

  “More than that. He tended toward violence, but Kris and her mother hid it. Mrs. Wilkins was afraid that when her husband found out that I had...had impregnated his daughter he might...”

  “Come after you with a gun?”

  “Yes. My parents made a deal with Crystal and her mother. They would adopt my...my child and in return, they’d—”

  “Give Kris money.”

  “Yes.” Billy was sitting in the chair, slumped down, his hands in his pockets.

  “Your family couldn’t stay in town because they couldn’t raise the child and keep your reputation as the Saint of Summer Hill.”

  “More or less,” Billy said. “The truth was that back then I was so upset about losing Terri that I couldn’t think about anything else. When my parents said we had to leave town, I begged Terri to go with us. Pleaded.”

  “So I heard,” Nate said in disgust. “You made a real spectacle of yourself with all your theatrics. What people saw was their beloved yo-yo boy begging the daughter of the town’s infamous adulterer. And she was saying no. To them, you were the innocent one and she was the monster.”

  “I wasn’t aware of any of that. I thought only of myself, not of the two girls whose lives I was ruining.”

  “Where’s your child?”

  Billy looked away for a moment. “My daughter was stillborn at seven months, two weeks and three days.”

  “But your parents gave Kris the money anyway?”

  “Yes. At my insistence.”

  “And she and her mother returned to Summer Hill and bought a florist’s shop.”

  “Eventually, yes. First, she went to college. I think she wanted to prove to everyone that she was more than just the town drunk’s daughter. And also, there was gossip about why they’d left so abruptly after Rodney’s death.”

  “His death sure came at a convenient time, didn’t it?”

  “No one ever asked about that. It was a taboo subject. After his death, they were free. Kris and her mother flew to Oregon. My parents met their plane and took them to the apartment they’d rented. They were given the best of care.”

  “And Kris got to see a different way of life.”

  “She did. She and my mother bonded a bit. She’d always wanted a daughter.”

  “Meanwhile, Terri was back here in Summer Hill being whispered about.”

  “I am ashamed that I didn’t know that. My parents and Mrs. Wilkins were saying that Kris and I should get married and raise the baby together. I was sick about it all.” Billy stopped talking and looked out at the water. “I didn’t know any of it,” he whispered. “Not then and certainly not afterward.”

  Nate had had enough experience with people to know when someone was honestly remorseful. To tell this guy what he should have done would serve no real purpose. Sometimes, forgiveness was the best solution.

  Nate knew that Billy had been raised in Summer Hill, so he must know people. “I got Della Kissel to help on the case.”

  It took Billy a moment to understand Nate’s words—and his tone. Nate wasn’t going to keep on about what had happened. He was going to move forward, not stagnate in the past. “That’s not possible. My guess is that Della is telling people that the way Leslie was found is proof that she was running away with someone.”

  “That’s just what she was saying,” Nate said, “but I made her an honorary deputy and sent her to find out who was in cabin twenty-six when Leslie disappeared.”

  “Let me guess. Della said Leslie was having an affair with whoever was in that cabin.”

  “Exactly. Whatever was going on, I’d like to talk to the man.”

  “You think he might have...done that to Leslie?”

  “It’s the only lead we have.”

  “One thing I know about Della Kissel is that she would do anything for Brody,” Billy said. “When Terri and I were kids, she used to spy on us. One time we found her hiding in a closet in the boathouse. Another time, she was under a table. She said she was looking for her compact. Terri and I learned to search everywhere.”

  “And you started going to the Island.”

  “She told you about that?” Billy was smiling in memory.

  Nate didn’t reply.

  “What’s this about you and Stacy Hartman?”

  “A broken engagement,” Nate said quickly. “Tell me what you know about what happened in high school with those football boys.”

  “Hector and Ryan? Hector is—”

  Nate lifted his hand. “I know about him. But I’ve not heard anything about the kid Ryan.”

  “That’s because they moved away the next year. I have no idea what happened to him.” Billy was looking at Nate. “You have something in mind, don’t you?”

  “I don’t like that Terri is blamed for things she didn’t do and I’m trying to figure out a way to stop it.” He glared at Billy. “If the lies and innuendos are to stop, you’re going to have to tell the whole town the truth about what you did.”

  “I will. Without hesitation. Kris is another matter. She came back here to show the town she was respectable. She won’t like telling why she and her mom fled.”

  “I really don’t care about her reputation,” Nate said. “Terri’s had enough blame put on her.”

  Billy smiled. At first it was just a bit, then he broke into a real grin. “‘Nate will fix it.’ It looks like Terri was right. Whatever you need from me, I’ll do it.”

  “Thanks,” Nate said.

  Chapter 21

  When Terri woke, she knew something was wrong, but she didn’t know what. Nate was in bed with her—or was she dreaming that?

  She turned slightly to see his whiskery cheek. Light was barely coming in between the drawn curtains. She could feel the warmth of his body all down the length of hers, and she moved her leg so it was near the center of him.

  He moved in his sleep, his arm tightening on her as though he thought she might run away.

  At that thought, her memory came back to her. She remembered the skeleton in the car trunk. Remembered the handcuffs.

  Her mother had been murdered! She didn’t run away with another man. She’d been handcuffed and put into the trunk of her own car, then driven to the dock and...

  Nate’s other arm encircled her and he drew her close.

  “You...?” she whispered. “She...? How did...?” Terri didn’t know where to begin.

  Nate stroked her hair out of her eyes. “What do you want to know?”

  She was glad he wasn’t going to patronize her with a sugarcoated version of the truth. “All of it. What happened and what you’re planning.”

  “Sure?”

  “Yes.” Her back was to his front and she thought that when she was in his arms she could handle anything. Quietly, with great patience, he told her what they’d been able to piece together. Someone had handcuffed and tied Leslie Rayburn, put her in the
trunk of her own car and driven it through a storm onto the old dock.

  “Then he cut the posts to the dock away,” Terri said. “I guess he wanted to make sure it wasn’t used anymore and risk discovery.”

  “That’s our guess too, and it worked since no one saw the car in all these years.”

  “Until you.” Terri kissed the back of his hand. “You found it.” Turning over to face him, she kissed him on the mouth. Oh, how good it felt to be able to touch him! On their last night together, a year’s separation had seemed so practical. She would stay at the lake and Nate would be... She didn’t know where he would go, but she did know they had to wait to give the town time to calm down. But now she wanted to feel him close to her. As close as possible.

  Nate pulled back to look at her. “You’re sure you want to do this?”

  “Yes.” She moved her leg between his. “Did you take off my clothes?”

  “Some of them. Thorndyke—”

  She gave a little chuckle as he kissed her neck. “I think Billy is afraid of you.”

  “He should be. He—”

  “Wait!” Terri pushed on his shoulders. “What about the note? Who wrote it?”

  “Someone who knew Leslie’s handwriting and could imitate it.”

  His hands were running down her body. She still had on some clothes and Nate was deftly removing them.

  Terri wanted to ask more questions, but at the moment she could think of nothing but his hands and his lips on her skin.

  Besides, something Dr. Jamie had said yesterday was coming to her. “There is always a good side,” he’d said. “You just have to find it.” He’d made her realize that the cloud that had hung over her since she could remember—that her mother had abandoned her and her father—was no longer there. Her mother had wanted them. She didn’t discard them and run away with someone else. She wasn’t—as Terri feared—now living somewhere else with another family. She wasn’t helping another daughter buy a new dress. She wasn’t taking her other children to swimming lessons. Wasn’t laughing with them and never thinking about the two people she’d left behind.