“Perfect,” Garry said when Wylie finished. “Not only the paintings but…Okay, you might want to get rid of the sheets.” He gestured toward the bookshelves.
With a laugh, Wylie did, tossing them at the top of the stairs to the basement to be washed later.
“Now it’s perfect,” Garry stated emphatically.
“It is,” Wylie agreed. “Next is getting rid of the linoleum in the kitchen, but not for a while. I’m over redecorating and moving stuff around for the time being.”
“I can’t blame you for that.” Garry went into the kitchen to look out the window beside the back door. “You’ve got flowers, already?”
“Yep,” Wylie replied, joining him. “I went hiking yesterday afternoon and scrounged them from some of the larger patches in the woods.”
“I like.” Garry turned to look at him, smiling. “I like everything here…including the owner,” he said softly. When Wylie sucked in a startled breath, Garry stepped back. “Too soon, or you don’t care if I do?”
Swallowing hard, Wylie managed to reply, “Neither. I was surprised is all. No, not quite true, although I was. You’re echoing my feelings. Well, not about the house but the rest? I’ve had the same thoughts about you, but we’ve only known each other for less than two weeks.”
“Is there a time limit on being attracted to someone?”
“Of course not!”
“I didn’t think so. I’m not going to push for the simple reason I’m still feeling my way through this. We’ve got all the time in the world to decide if it could work, or if we want it to when it comes down to it.”
“I’m willing to find out,” Wylie said softly.
“Me, too.” For a second, Wylie thought Garry was going to hug him. Instead, he stepped away, saying, “I have to get moving.”
“Yep. You have employees wondering where the hell you are.”
Garry laughed. “My usual excuse, I know, and they will be if I don’t get my ass in gear.”
“I might stop by for dinner, or I might go shopping for something to feed you on Monday when you’re off. Not whatever kind of potatoes those are that you told me about, and probably not prime rib, but something.”
“It could be hotdogs with sauerkraut and I’d be happy.”
Wylie shook his head. “I think I can come up with a more interesting meal than that. Besides, I hate sauerkraut.”
Garry looked at him in horror. “You what? Wylie, this relationship is doomed.”
Wylie shrugged, well aware he was teasing. “It is what it is.”
“Okay, I can deal.” He gave Wylie’s shoulder a squeeze. “I’ll see you tonight—or not.”
Smirking, Wylie replied, “One or the other,” before Garry left via the back door.
Can we make this work? He smiled while he watched Garry go out the back gate, disappearing down the alley. For damned sure I’m going to give it my best shot.
* * * *
The moment he walked into The Parish Garage that evening, Wylie knew something was wrong. A group of men, several of whom he recognized from the search for Nelly, were gathered at the bar, their focus on Sheriff Kingman. Garry was among them, and when he saw Wylie he gestured for him to come over.
“Did they find Nelly?” Wylie asked him, hoping against hope they had—and alive.
The sheriff answered before Garry could. “No, and another woman is missing. One you know, Mr. Lewis. The second one, from what I understand, since you knew Nelly from here.”
Wylie could only think of two others. “Alicia Harte or her mother?” He prayed it wasn’t one of them.
“You know them, too?” Kingman did not look pleased at that idea.
“Yes. They live behind me. I met both of them when I was taking a walk a few days ago, and then Betty stopped by Thursday while I was working in the garden. Tell me it’s not one of them.”
“You also know a Miss Emma Noble, I believe.”
Wylie nodded. Then he understood what Kingman was implying. “You think I have something to do with her disappearance, and Nelly’s?” he asked, trying to keep his raising anger under control.
“You’ve been in town for over a week, Mr. Lewis. Since you arrived two young women have vanished.”
“You’re crazy!”
“Easy, Wylie,” Garry said, gripping his shoulder.
“He’s accusing me of…of abducting them and you want me to take it easy?”
“Not accusing you,” Kingman stated. “Not yet. I don’t have any proof, other than the fact you were the first one on the scene at Nelly’s house after she disappeared.”
“Because Garry wanted me to check on her since she didn’t come into work, or call. We told you that.”
“You did.” Kingman looked as if he didn’t quite believe him…or Garry.
“By the way, I wasn’t the first one there,” Wylie said. “Whoever took her was.”
“He has a point, sheriff,” one of the men put in. “I’m not saying Lewis here didn’t grab her, but if it wasn’t him…”
Kingman glared at the man. “I’m well aware of that. I still find it suspicious.”
“When I talked to Roger yesterday,” Wylie said, “He told me Emma had gone home because she was sick.”
“When he reported her missing this morning, he told me he had spoken with you. So you knew she was probably home alone.”
“I don’t know where she lives,” Wylie protested.
Ignoring his response, Kingman asked, “Can you account for your time on Friday, after you left their shop?”
“I ate lunch at Eric’s Café and then went home. Because Carl and his son had varnished the floor in the main room in the morning, I wasn’t supposed to walk on it until evening, at the earliest, so I decided to take a hike to kill the time.”
“Did anyone see you?”
“No.”
“What about when you got back home?”
“No. I did some planting in the garden and ate supper. Afterward, I went upstairs to my office. I was on my laptop until around nine when I went to bed.”
“Alone?”
“Yes, God damn it, alone. As you so pointedly said, I’m new in town. I’m barely getting to know people.”
“That doesn’t mean you didn’t find Nelly or Emma interesting enough that you came on to them. When they rejected you…”
Taking a deep breath, Wylie replied, “I’m gay, sheriff. There’s no way I would have done something like that.”
“Well, that let the cat out of the bag,” he heard Garry say under his breath. The looks some of the men standing there gave him said they more than a bit surprised, although other than a couple of them, they didn’t appear to be upset by his revelation.
“Guess he’s got you there,” Wylie heard someone say, sounding amused. He turned and saw that Carl had joined the group. “It might be a good idea, sheriff, if you stopped trying to take the easy way out and actually did some real investigating. If you don’t, my friend here,” he put his hand on Wylie’s shoulder, “might decide to do it himself. He’s a detective, too, in case you don’t know.”
“I do,” Kingman replied, his face flushing with anger. He stabbed a finger at Wylie. “I told you to keep your nose out of this and I meant it.”
“First you as much as accuse me of kidnapping Nelly and Emma, and now you’re afraid I might figure out who really took them? Make up your mind, sheriff.” With that said, Wylie strode out of the restaurant, slamming the door behind him. Then, taking a deep breath, trying to calm his roiling emotions, he sagged against the wall. He heard the door open and flinched, expecting to see Kingman standing there if he turned to look.
“Don’t let him get to you,” he heard Carl say.
“He’s right,” Garry agreed, sliding an arm around Wylie’s shoulders. “Take a few to settle down then come back inside.” He smiled when Wylie glanced at him in disbelief. “Dinner’s on me, and later we can put our heads together and figure out what’s going on, and why.”
&nbs
p; The way Garry had phrased his suggestion made Wylie smile. “A couple of double entendres there?”
“Not intentional,” Garry replied with a grin, at the same time that Carl snorted out a laugh. “But it did make you smile.”
“Yeah, it did. Okay, I’ll take you up on your offer, but if that bastard says one word to me…”
“You’ll ignore him,” Carl said. “You don’t want to be arrested for assaulting a peace officer.”
“Might be worth it,” Wylie muttered before he, Garry, and Carl went back into the restaurant.
The sheriff was nowhere in sight, and the group of men who had witnessed the confrontation had dispersed, much to Wylie’s relief. Carl headed to the bar, while Garry escorted Wylie to a table in the back corner of the restaurant where, he said, “You’ll have at least a little privacy.”
“Thanks, and don’t worry, I’m calm now, pretty much.”
“I know. Stick around until we close, okay?”
“Sure. I’ve got nothing better to do.” Wylie smiled ruefully. “At least there will be witnesses that I couldn’t have gone out and abducted some other woman, if that happens.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t,” Garry replied, shaking his head. “Two is two too many.”
“No shit.”
Garry left when a waitress appeared to give Wylie a menu. After ordering, he scanned the room, wondering if the kidnapper was one of the people calmly eating dinner. Prevailing opinions to the contrary, it could be someone who lives here. I get that no one wants to believe it, and if Nelly was the only missing woman I might agree that it was a random tourist or hiker. But not now.
* * * *
A couple of hours later, Wylie was sitting with Garry and Carl in the dimly lit bar as they waited for Garry’s employees to finish their closing chores. He didn’t question why Carl had stuck around, but Carl told him anyway.
“I’ve lived here forever. I hate what’s going on. When Garry said you and he were going to try to figure out why, I decided to put in my two cents’ worth.”
“I’m sure it’s worth a hell of a lot more than that,” Wylie told him.
Carl smiled and shrugged before saying, “You’re the detective. What’s your take on who took the girls?”
“I was thinking about that while I ate dinner. Given the timing, it has to be someone who lives around here. Kingman was right about one thing, it started after I moved into Gramps’ house. I’m not sure that’s anything other than coincidence, but I’m not writing it off, either. When it was only Nelly who went missing, I could see the possibility of a tourist or hiker being responsible. But it’s been…Garry, do you have paper and a pencil?”
“Yep.” He went behind the bar to get them, asking, “Do you want me to take notes?”
“Please, starting with a rough timeline,” Wylie replied. “As far as we know, Nelly was possibly taken sometime Monday night, according to Kingman’s crime scene people. With the restaurant closed on Monday, no one was aware she was missing until Tuesday evening when you sent me out to check on her, Garry.”
“Got it. We did the search on Wednesday and came up with nothing.”
“Yes. Friday morning when I went to Noble Art, Roger told me Emma had gone home because she was sick. Today, he reported that she was missing. I’m presuming, since they’re cousins, they don’t live together.”
“They don’t,” Carl replied. “He has one of the apartments on Market, above the shops. She’s renting a small house on the western edge of town. She told me once she chose it because the area was quiet, with no noisy, or was it nosy—” he shrugged, “—neighbors, and had a room that she could turn into a studio.”
“I see where you’re going with this,” Garry said. “What tourist would stick around for three or four days to kidnap a second woman? The same goes for some camper or hiker.”
“Exactly,” Wylie agreed.
Carl nodded. “Makes sense to me. The problem is, I can’t think of anyone living here who would go off the deep end like this. And if someone has, why now?”
“Possibly…” Wylie drummed his fingers on the bar. “Okay, it’s something they fantasized about but never had the nerve to try. They were afraid somebody would figure out it was them because it’s a close-knit community. Then I arrive.”
“Giving them the perfect patsy,” Garry said angrily.
“Yep. Even more so because I’ve been spending most of my time working on the house, so I don’t have much of an alibi for the times Nelly and Emma were probably taken.”
“You’ve got me,” Carl pointed out.
Wylie shook his head. “Not really, because you kicked me out of the house while you were painting and working on the floor.”
“From what you told Kingman, you have no alibi for when Emma might have been abducted because you were off hiking,” Garry said. “What if our perp knew that somehow and decided it would be the perfect time to take her?”
“I wasn’t aware of being watched,” Wylie replied.
“They could have been driving by when you set out and saw you enter the woods, or it’s someone who lives in the neighborhood.”
“Not a pleasant thought.”
“I know,” Garry said, “but if we’re on the right track…”
Carl nodded. “As much as I hate the idea, I suspect we are. The problem is, how the hell do we find out who the bastard is that’s doing this?”
“And stop them before they strike again,” Wylie said tightly.
“And find the girls before he kills them,” Carl added. “If he hasn’t already.”
The three men went silent at that point as they considered Carl’s words.
“Garry,” Len the bartender said, coming over to where they were seated. “I didn’t want to break in, but I’m the last one here so you’ll have to lock up after me.”
“Hell, I didn’t even see everyone leave,” Garry muttered as he got up.
“Don’t worry. I checked before they did to be sure everything’s in order. Not that I had to. They’re a good crew.”
“They are,” Garry replied with a brief smile. He let the man out, locked the door, and returned his seat at the bar. “We should probably get out of here, too.”
“Do we want to continue this at my place?” Wylie asked. “Or call it a night? I’m sure the sheriff will set up a search party for tomorrow morning.”
“He’s not going to,” Garry told him. “From what he said before he left, he and his deputies will do whatever searching is necessary. ‘So no clues get messed up like they probably did last time’ to quote him.”
Wylie shook his head. “He wouldn’t know a clue if it bit him on the ass.”
“Now, now, don’t malign our much beloved sheriff,” Carl replied with a grin.
“Beloved by who?”
“His image in the mirror?” Garry said as he got up. “Tomorrow’s Sunday. If you both want, we can have breakfast at my house while we hash this out some more.”
“But I have to go to church,” Carl said as they left the restaurant.
“Carl, the last time you saw the inside of a church was the day you got married,” Garry said.
“Nope. It was the day we christened Owen. For some reason my wife insisted I had to be there.”
They laughed before separating to go to their cars parked in the restaurant’s lot. As soon as Carl was out of earshot, Garry told Wylie, “I’ll see you soon.”
“Meaning you’re stopping by on your way home?”
“Nope. After I’ve let Ziggy out, because he’ll never speak to me again if I don’t.”
“Can’t have that, and it’ll give me time to make coffee.”
As soon as he got home, Wylie tossed his jacket on the sofa and hurried into the kitchen to start the coffeemaker. Then he began to pace while he waited for it to finish.
He hated the idea that someone was trying to frame him for the women’s disappearances. More than that, he hated the fact that they’d been abducted to begin with—and
that their bodies could be buried in unmarked graves somewhere. In the woods? In a basement here in town? In a back yard? I can see Kingman wanting to dig mine up if he finds out I’ve been planting a garden. He’d be dead certain Nelly and Emma are under the tomato plants.
The doorbell rang, putting an end to his worried thoughts for the moment. “That was quick,” he said after letting Garry in.
“I left him to his own devices in the back yard.” Garry sniffed the air then made a beeline to the kitchen to pour himself, and Wylie, coffee. Once he’d taken a deep drink, he sighed happily. “I needed this.”
“You had plenty available at the restaurant,” Wylie pointed out.
“I wasn’t in the mood for it, then. Too much crap going on.” He settled at the kitchen table, looked up at Wylie, and said, “Are you just going to stand there, scowling?”
“Maybe?” Wylie took the other chair before asking, “Why are you here?”
Garry grinned. “Because I invited myself over. Not really. I didn’t think you needed to be alone quite yet.”
“I’m fine,” Wylie replied. “Honest.”
“I doubt it. Not after what Kingman put you through, and then all the talking we did afterward.”
“So you’re going to entertain me with songs and jokes,” Wylie replied sourly, even though he knew Garry had a point. He was tense, hating the fact Kingman had gotten to him.
“I’m not much of a singer, but if you insist.”
Wylie finally smiled. “Then I think I’ll pass.” He hesitated before putting his hand over Garry’s, saying, “Thanks for the concern.”
“It’s not concern. Okay, it is, but there’s more to it. I meant it when I said I think of you as more than a good friend. If there’s any way that I can help, I will.”
“Just being here is helping. My mind was going in circles trying to figure out how to prove to Kingman I’m not the person responsible for Nelly and Emma disappearing. Where the hell are they, Garry?”
“I wish I knew, but—” he pointed a finger at Wylie, “—we are not going to talk about it tonight.”
“Yeah, but…”
Garry jumped to his feet. “Come on. We’re going to get Ziggy and go for a walk.”
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