Garry found the ravine and tried using the 3D function to look at the walls. “It won’t let me get in close enough to spot any caves,” he grumbled in frustration.
“Then we get to take a hike,” Wylie replied. “It’s a little after one. We’ve got maybe four hours until it starts getting too dark to see anything, so I suggest we move it.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Garry replied, smirking as he printed out the map he’d created. That rated him a light smack on the back of the head from Wylie, and a grin from Carl. He printed out a second copy when Wylie asked for one—“To give me a visual I can study at home, since I don’t know most of the women.” Garry handed it to him and then said, “I’ve got a pair of binoculars, which should help. Wylie, if you and Carl make us some sandwiches while I find them and call Len to let him know I’ll probably be late so he’ll have to open.”
Wylie and Carl put together thick sandwiches, Garry found the binoculars, and they piled into his car to drive to the north end of the ravine, eating as they went. After he parked at a pull-off, they walked to the ravine’s edge, looking at the river below them.
“We need to be down there, and I know an easy way to get to the bottom,” Carl said.
A few minutes later, Wylie muttered, “If this is easy, I’d hate to see hard,” even though he knew that in the grand scheme of things Carl had been correct—if they didn’t mind some slipping and sliding from one tree to the next as they made their way to the ravine’s floor. He and his grandfather had done the same thing during their forays to fish the river.
“My bet would be, if he is using a cave to stash the girls, or their bodies, it has to be fairly assessable from the top of the ravine,” Garry said. “Carrying dead weight would make climbing too far down a no-go, in my book.”
They moved slowly down the bank of the river, scanning the ravine walls for anything indicating there might be a cave. When one of them spotted something, Garry used the binoculars to get a better look. If it was a cave, they clambered up to check it out—getting to the other side of the river if necessary via one of the occasional narrow bridges that spanned it. They found a few caves in the next two hours. In each case, they turned out to be empty, and obviously had been for quite a while from the debris on the cave floor.
It was close to four, and because of its depth the ravine was already getting dark, when they hit pay dirt. Not that they liked what they found.
“Fuck,” Garry spat out when he was several feet into the deep cave.
Wylie knew instantly why he’d said that and asked, “Who, and dead or alive?”
“Nelly,” Garry replied so softly Wylie almost didn’t hear him. “Dead, damn it to hell!”
Wylie moved closer. She was nude, lying on her side, her legs bent and crossed at the ankles. He was no expert, but from what he was seeing he thought that she hadn’t been dead more than a day, if that. There was no bloating and it seemed as if there was still rigor mortis, which if he remembered correctly, normally didn’t start to disappear for at least twenty-four hours. “If Kingman had done his job,” he said angrily.
“I would suggest you don’t tell him that,” Carl remarked, taking out his phone as he exited the cave to stand on the wide ledge in front of it. Wylie heard him talking to the sheriff moments later, telling him that they had found Nelly’s body, and where.
Garry started to kneel down beside her, stopping when Wylie told him not to. “If there’s any evidence about who left her here, you don’t want to screw it up. In fact, we should join Carl and hope just coming in here didn’t mess up something.”
It took a good ten minutes before they heard cars approaching in the distance and soon the sound of leaves and twigs crunching underfoot. Carl hollered, “Down here.” Then Kingman and two men Wylie recognized as what the sheriff had called his forensics team appeared at the rim of the ravine and began their slow descent to the cave.
“You’re certain it’s Nelly?” Kingman asked as soon as he made it to the ledge.
“Yes,” Garry replied morosely.
“Her body should be unrecognizable after a week,” one of the forensic people commented.
“Take a look,” Wylie replied. “My guess is, she died very recently, like less than a day ago.”
“Based on your extensive knowledge as a cheap private eye,” Kingman said snidely before he and the others entered the cave.
“Can I push him over the edge?” Wylie muttered.
“Can, yes. But don’t,” Garry told him, putting an arm around his waist. “Damn it, why her? She was good people.”
“We’ll find out,” Wylie replied adamantly, as much to convince himself it would happen as to reassure Garry. “The question is, where was she for the last few days? Did he keep her here, but alive, or was she hidden somewhere else and he brought her here after he killed her?”
“When I get my hands on the bastard,” Garry growled.
“You and me both,” Carl said. “Also, not to put too fine a point on it, but where’s he keeping Emma, if she’s still alive?”
“Hell, yeah.” Garry’s fists clenched. “We need to find her.”
“No, you don’t,” Kingman said, appearing at the entrance of the cave. “That’s my job.”
“You did such a good one in locating Nelly before she was killed,” Wylie said angrily.
Kingman punched a finger against Wylie’s chest. “One more word out of you and I’ll arrest you for obstructing a peace officer.” He glared at the three men. “What the hell were you doing here in the first place?”
“What do you think?” Garry replied. “Searching the area for any sign of the girls.”
“Whose suggestion was that, as if I didn’t know?” Kingman shot a dark look at Wylie.
“It was mine,” Carl put in before Garry or Wylie could answer. “I know the area so I figured why not. They were willing to keep me company.”
Kingman looked as if he didn’t believe him, but he didn’t argue, only reiterating that they were to “Keep their noses out of police business.” He pointed to the top of the ravine, telling them it was time for them to leave. “I’ll be in touch with you if I have further questions.”
Because they had parked on the opposite side of the ravine, they made their way down to the river instead, crossed a small bridge a few yards away, and found a narrow path leading to top. “If we’d know about this,” Wylie said, more than happy not to have to go up the way they had come down, earlier.
“If wishes were horses…” Garry said.
“The damned horse would have broken a leg,” Carl replied with a laugh before sobering. “Now what?”
“I need to go to the restaurant to let my people know we found Nelly,” Garry said. “Not something I’m looking forward to.”
“We’ll go with you for moral support,” Wylie said, giving him a tight hug while Carl nodded in agreement.
Chapter 10
After going back to Garry’s house so that Carl could get his car, they drove to the restaurant—Wylie riding with Garry.
It was obvious when they walked in that, so far, the news hadn’t gotten out about Nelly. Both the restaurant and the bar were busy with tourists and the townspeople who made it a habit to eat Sunday night dinner there.
“About time you showed up,” Len said with a grin when they got to the bar. Then he obviously took in the men’s somber expressions. “Someone found Nelly? Is she…?”
“She’s dead,” Garry replied and went on to tell him, and the people who slowly gathered around to listen, exactly what had happened.
“Do they know how she was killed?” one of the men asked when he finished.
“They, meaning Kingman, made us leave before they brought her out,” Garry replied. “Not that he’d have told us even if he already figured it out. We do know it probably happened sometime in the last day or so, whether it was there or somewhere else.”
“Then where the hell was she before…? Never mind, you don’t know. No one does except the ki
ller.”
“We need to do a house-to-house search,” another man said. “He could be keeping that artist lady in the same place.”
“She has a name,” Wylie replied tightly. “It’s Emma. Emma Noble.”
The man winced. “Sorry.”
Wylie nodded his acceptance of the apology.
By then, most of the staff that wasn’t busy with customers at the moment were listening as well. A couple of the women wiped away tears, while others looked fearfully at one another.
“Are we going to close?” one of them asked Garry.
“Honestly, that’s up to all of you. She was your friend, too, as well as a co-worker.”
Len spoke up, saying, “Tomorrow’s Monday. We’ll be closed anyway.”
“Good point,” Garry agreed. “I’m sure her parents will come to claim her body when the sheriff releases it. Perhaps, if they’re willing, we can have a small memorial service here.”
From what Wylie could see, that seemed to satisfy the staff—and the locals who were still there, as some of them had drifted away. Probably to pass the bad news on to friends and neighbors. Am I being cynical? Yeah, but it’s still the truth.
“We will close early tonight, though,” Garry said. “I don’t think anyone’s in the mood to handle more people.” He crossed the room to switch the neon sign outside of the door from ‘We’re open.’ to ‘Sorry, we’re closed’. Then he dimmed the lights in the bar before going into the restaurant to talk individually with the diners still sitting there. Half an hour later all the customers were gone, Wylie and Carl were sitting at the end of the bar nursing coffee, and the staff had finished closing chores.
Before his people left, Garry gathered them together. “I don’t want to frighten you,” he said, looking specifically at the waitresses, “but I want you to be very careful. Don’t go anywhere alone after dark, and it might be safer to be with someone even during the day. Ladies, if you live alone, lock your doors, and don’t let anyone in unless you know them very well.”
“I don’t care if it’s my father, or…or the sheriff,” one of the girls said. “We don’t know who killed Nelly and took Emma, so I’m not trusting any man.”
“Me, neither,” another one said, barely above a whisper.
“All right, those of you who live close to each other pair off and use one of your cars to go home.”
“Use your phones to stay in touch until both of you are safely inside,” Wylie added. “The same goes for the rest of you. Pick a buddy, so to speak, and make certain you’ve both made it home.”
“Jim, Tommy, and I can be escorts,” Len said.
“Umm, no,” the first woman said, getting nods of agreement from the others. “It’s not that we don’t trust you, but…”
Len smiled wryly. “Understood.”
As Garry had suggested, the women paired off before leaving, with the men watching while they went to their cars to make certain they at least got that far safely.
“I hate this,” Len said angrily. “Whoever this bastard is, he’s making every unattached woman in town afraid of their own shadows.”
“Which sucks,” Garry agreed as he locked up. “Let’s hope to hell Kingman found something that will lead him to whoever it is.”
“Okay, I’m going home,” Carl said. “I know the sonofabitch won’t go after my wife, but I’m still not taking any chances. I called her on the way over to tell her what happened and to lock the doors and not let anyone in but Owen.”
“Good,” Garry replied. “I’ll give you a call in the morning if I learn anything new.”
“You do that,” Carl said before walking to his car, closely followed by Garry and Wylie who had parked next to him.
When Garry pulled up in front of Wylie’s house a few minutes later, he said, “If you were a woman I’d ask if you wanted me to stay the night to protect you.”
Wylie managed a grin. “If I was, I’d bat my eyelashes and reply ‘If you would, kind sir’. But I’m not.”
“Thank goodness,” Garry replied fervently.
“If you’d like to come in for coffee…”
“I shouldn’t. We both need to get some sleep.”
Wylie’s shoulders slumped but he put a good face on it as he opened the car door. “True. I’ll see you…tomorrow?”
“I said I shouldn’t. That doesn’t mean I won’t.” Garry winked and turned the car off. “I need a bit of your sanity after the day we’ve been through.”
“I’m not sure me and sane belong in the same sentence right now.”
“Yes, they do, so coffee it is.”
Even though he’d invited him, Wylie wasn’t certain it was a good idea. They were physically close to exhaustion from all the climbing they’d done that afternoon, and emotionally drained. His doubt must have shown because, when Garry came around to car to join him, he slung one arm over Wylie’s shoulders.
“This isn’t going to be a seduction,” he said. “I…we need downtime away from everything that’s happened. Coffee, cookies—”
“Cookies?” Wylie snorted in disbelief.
“Sure. Doesn’t everyone serve cookies?”
“I suppose in an English cozy mystery,” Wylie replied as he unlocked the front door and turned on the overhead light when they were inside. “Not that I read them, but so I’ve heard.”
“Uh-huh. You make the coffee; I’ll check your bookshelves to see if you’re telling the truth.”
As Wylie went into the kitchen he said, “Some of those were Gramps’ and Grandma’s so…”
Garry laughed. “That’s you story and you’re sticking to it.”
Flicking on the kitchen light, Wylie crossed to the counter holding the coffeemaker, put in a new filter and ground coffee, and turned it on. He was about to return to the main room when something caught his eye, causing him to frown and mutter, “What the hell.”
“What’s wrong?” Garry asked from the archway.
“I know I checked to be certain the back door was locked before I left. Now…” He pointed to the door, which was open a fraction of an inch. “Someone was in here and didn’t make certain they closed it when they left. It sticks, so you have to pull it hard for the latch to click in.”
“Okay. Obviously the first thing to do is check to see if there’s anything missing,” Garry replied.
“Yeah. Not that I’ve got much worth stealing. Wait here, I’ll be right back.” Wylie took the stairs to the second floor two at a time, going directly to his office. His laptop was still sitting on the desk. As far as he could tell after checking, nothing had been disturbed in the desk drawers. The same held true for the dresser drawers in the bedroom. So I guess whoever it was doesn’t need new underwear. He smiled briefly at that idea.
“Anything?” Garry asked when Wylie came downstairs again.
“Nothing’s been touched up there. The TV’s still here, so are all the knickknacks I rescued from the shed. Not that they’re worth stealing in the first place.”
“Okay. Is there something here that wasn’t before you left this morning?”
Wylie got what he was implying. “Like something that could connect me to Nelly’s murder and Emma’s disappearance? If there is, it’s not going to be lying around in plain sight. On the other hand…” He remembered wondering at one point if whoever had abducted the two women had kept them prisoners in their basement. “I need to check the basement and the garage.”
“Yes, and the attic,” Garry said, picking up on why Wylie had said that.
“I’d have a hard time hauling anything up there, especially an unconscious woman,” Wylie replied. “Access is a drop-down ladder.”
“Check it, anyway. I’ll look in the basement.”
They split up, Wylie getting a flashlight he’d stored in the pantry before going to upstairs hallway. The trapdoor to the attic was in the bedroom closet. Moving his clothes, he pulled the chain to open it, which lowered the ladder at the same time, and released a storm of dust. Brushing i
t off as best he could, he climbed up enough to peer into the attic, once he’d turned on the flashlight. As if the falling dust hadn’t been enough to prove it, it was apparent no one had been up there in several years because the floor and the few boxes stashed right next to the opening were covered with a thick layer of undisturbed dust.
Climbing down, he closed the trapdoor, grabbed a clean shirt, shaking off some dust, and went into the bathroom to change after washing his hands and combing the dust out of his hair. He got back to the kitchen at the same time Garry did.
“Anything?” Garry asked.
“No signs anyone’s been in the attic. You?”
“Hard to tell. Nothing says they did anything in the garage, but did you store some boxes under the workbench in the basement? I don’t remember seeing them when we took the dresser down.”
“That’s because there weren’t any then, and no, I haven’t put any under there, either. The ones I took down there are empty and I stacked them in a corner, out of the way.”
“Well, there were some under the workbench now, but only at the front edge of the space. If I was of a suspicious bent, I’d wonder if maybe one or both of the girls had been hidden behind them for a while.”
“Which our fine sheriff is,” Wylie replied sourly. “If he decides to do a house-to-house search like one of the men suggested tonight, I’d be in deep shit.”
“Exactly. By the way, I moved them so you’re safe for now, but it’s pretty obvious someone’s trying to frame you.”
“We sort of figured that already. The new guy in town as the patsy, I think you said.”
“Yep.” Garry nodded toward the coffeemaker. “Are we going to drink that or let it turn to sludge?”
“Message received,” Wylie replied with a flash of a grin. Getting two cups, he poured the coffee and at Garry’s suggestion they went into the main room to drink it. Settling on the sofa, Wylie picked up the remote to turn on the TV.
“Find something stupid,” Garry said. “A comedy that won’t tax our brain cells.”
New Man in Town Page 10