Landon Calling

by Amanda M. Lee

  “I promise I’ll be careful,” Bay said. “I also promise to be back in time for your demonstration. I’m excited to see you acting as an instructor.”

  I lowered my voice so only she could hear. “If you’re lucky, I’ll teach you a thing or two later.”

  “I heard that,” Winnie barked. “Don’t make me separate the two of you.”

  “Just ignore her,” Aunt Tillie said. “Go back to watching the cat. It’s kind of fun. I can practically see his whiskers twitching. It’s so much better than watching the random winker blink his way through life.” Aunt Tillie jerked her thumb in Chris’ direction.

  Chris scowled. “I’m starting to think you don’t like me, Ms. Winchester.”

  “That makes you a terrible investigator,” Aunt Tillie shot back. “I’ve been obvious about my dislike for you from the moment we met. Now … wink at your pancakes. They can’t get indigestion from being close to you.”

  TIM EMERY didn’t look surprised when he opened the door and found two law enforcement representatives on his doorstep. He ushered us inside, giving his new wife a reassuring smile before leading us into the living room.

  Julie Emery – she made a point of correcting me when I referred to her by her maiden name – offered to get us coffee and then disappeared from the room.

  “Do you know why we’re here?” Chief Terry asked, leaning back in one of the chairs organized around the coffee table and resting his hands on his knees.

  “I had a feeling you’d show up when Julie told me about Bay Winchester’s visit,” Tim replied. “I remember Bay from when I lived in Hemlock Cove. She wouldn’t have stopped by unless she had a reason. I’m guessing it’s true, about Donna I mean. Is she really missing?”

  “That’s what we’re trying to ascertain,” Chief Terry answered. “She hasn’t been seen in about four days. Her store remains closed. Her friends at the church haven’t seen her. Newspapers were piled up on the front porch when we stopped by yesterday.”

  “What about inside the house?” Tim pressed. “Did you go inside?”

  “We don’t have just cause to enter yet,” Chief Terry explained. “We might have to make an exception soon if Donna doesn’t show up.”

  “And you think I had something to do with her going missing.” Tim looked weary and beat down as he rubbed the back of his neck.

  “We’re not saying that, Tim,” Chief Terry countered. “We’re saying that Donna is missing and we need to ask a few questions. Do you have a problem with that?”

  “No. Ask away.”

  “Great.” Chief Terry shifted his tall frame in the chair. “When was the last time you saw Donna?”

  “Saw her? About six weeks ago,” Tim replied. “She’s been around since then, though.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, leaning forward. “Are you insinuating she’s been stopping by the house?”

  “I’m not insinuating it,” Tim replied. “I flat out know it was her. She doesn’t bother to hide her tracks when she does it. She’s been in the house. She’s moved things around. She’s … stolen items of clothing from Julie’s closet.”

  I shifted my eyes to Julie as she carried a tray laden with coffee mugs, sugar and creamer into the living room. “She stole your clothes?”

  “She took a jacket and a skirt,” Julie replied carefully. “She took two pairs of shoes.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “Because she wears them,” Julie answered, smoothing her skirt. “When the jacket went missing I thought I’d just misplaced it. You know how that goes. I drove myself crazy looking for it, but then I attended a church retreat in Traverse City two weeks later.

  “I wasn’t expecting Donna to be there,” she continued. “We moved to put a little distance between Donna and ourselves. She never went to the Traverse City retreat. She used to always go to the one in Gaylord. That’s why we decided to base ourselves close to the Traverse City church.

  “Anyway, I went to the retreat and there’s Donna,” she said. “She knew I’d be there. She marched right up to me – wearing my jacket – and pretended she had no idea what I was talking about when I accused her of breaking into our house.”

  “Did you file a police report?” I asked. “If she’s breaking into your home … I mean, that would be the first thing I’d do.”

  “We considered it, but I really don’t want to make things worse for Donna,” Tim answered. “She’s not a bad woman. When I married her I … it’s not that I didn’t love her, you understand. I loved her to the best of my ability. But there was no fire there. I thought that was normal.

  “Then I met Julie and realized that wasn’t normal,” he continued. “I know it’s probably hard to believe, but I didn’t set out to hurt Donna. I really fought my feelings for Julie for a very long time. I know there’s a lot of gossip in Hemlock Cove surrounding this situation, but hurting Donna was the last thing I wanted to do.

  “Still, at a certain point I realized that I was hurting everyone by not ending my marriage to Donna,” he said. “I thought I was doing her a kindness. I thought she could find someone better suited for her. She refused to let go, though. It’s been … difficult.”

  “I wanted to call the police,” Julie volunteered, tucking a strand of her walnut-colored hair behind her ear. “We have a small child. We just found out we’re going to have another baby in six months. Tim doesn’t want to hurt her, but … .”

  “I’m guessing you’re fine with hurting her.” I didn’t mean for the words to sound as harsh as they did, but when Julie’s eyes flashed I got the feeling I’d hit a sore spot. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that like it sounded.”

  “I think you did mean it,” Julie argued. “I think you believe I’m in the wrong.”

  “I try not to judge people,” I countered. “I think that everyone ended up hurt. It sounds as if Donna is mentally unbalanced, though. You should’ve reported her antics to the police.”

  “Would they have believed me?” Tim challenged. “After I told my story, would they have taken Donna’s side? You can sit there and say they would’ve done their duty, but I feel tremendous guilt where Donna is concerned.

  “I keep hoping she’ll eventually move on from this,” he continued. “I hope she’ll find some happiness, some peace. I need her to be all right, because if she isn’t … well, it’s too much to bear. She needs to find someone to be happy with.”

  “And if she marries someone else you’re off the hook for alimony,” I pointed out. “The thing is, from what I’ve heard, Donna still believes you’re married in the eyes of the church, and she’ll never remarry.”

  “No, she’ll just bleed us dry,” Julie grumbled.

  I narrowed my eyes as I studied her a moment. She was definitely bitter. But if Donna was breaking into the house and stealing clothing she had a right to be bitter. If she was making it up in an attempt to further hurt Donna that was a different story entirely.

  “If she doesn’t remarry then I’ll pay her forever,” Tim said. “I knew that was a possibility when I filed for divorce. I wouldn’t kill Donna over money. I’m not that type of man.”

  “Well, there is another possibility,” Chief Terry said. “Donna could’ve been despondent and killed herself. Perhaps she did, and her body is in the house. Or maybe she did it somewhere else entirely.”

  Tim balked. “Donna would never kill herself. That’s not the way she works.”

  “Well something is going on,” Chief Terry said. “Either she took off alone and didn’t tell anybody or something happened to her. I don’t see any other options. Either way, we’ll be in touch.”

  Eight

  “What do you think?”

  I waited until we were in Chief Terry’s cruiser to ask my question, keeping my eyes on the window and Julie Emery’s slim frame as she watched us through the filmy curtains.

  “I think there’s a lot of bad blood in this triangle,” Chief Terry replied. “I’m honestly not sure what to think about it
. Tim seemed sincere. And I believe he’s suffering a great amount of guilt.”

  “His wife seems extremely bitter. I wouldn’t doubt it for a second if she went after Donna,” I said. “The wife definitely has a problem with the alimony payments ̶ and Donna’s mere existence.”

  “I would have a problem with someone breaking into my house and stealing clothing, too.” Chief Terry rubbed his cheek as he fired up the cruiser’s engine. “Do you think that story is true?”

  “Bay said that Donna fought the divorce for as long as she could. That means the kid was born outside of marriage, which is definitely frowned upon in a lot of church circles. If these guys are as religious as Bay makes them out to be … .”

  “Oh, that little group is extremely religious,” Chief Terry said. “When the town rebranded itself a few years back, it was that church that put up a fight. They said we were promoting paganism and Satanism.

  “Now, a lot of the people in Hemlock Cove are church-going folk,” he continued. “Most of them didn’t see a problem with pretending to be witches and warlocks in an attempt to make sure the town survived.”

  “I don’t see a problem with it regardless,” I supplied. “Still, a messy divorce is one of the top reasons for murder. I can’t rule out the husband, but I definitely get a strange vibe when talking to the wife.”

  “Yeah, and we have no idea if it’s because she’s paranoid about Donna breaking into the house or if she’s antsy because she did something to Donna and we ended up on her front porch,” Chief Terry said. “It’s a mess.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  Chief Terry shrugged. “There’s nothing I can do at the moment. We still don’t have probable cause to enter Donna’s house. I might be able to talk a judge into giving me a warrant, but I don’t see that happening until tomorrow at the earliest. It’s far more likely I’ll have to wait a full seven days.”

  “Well, either way, I have a demonstration to run back at the inn,” I said. “I have to show off my interrogation techniques. Bay suggested I use Twila, but I figure that’s a surefire way to give myself a migraine.”

  Chief Terry choked out a mangled laugh. “It could be worse. You could question Aunt Tillie.”

  “That’s what I said!”

  “Great minds think alike.” Chief Terry navigated his cruiser to the main highway. “For now we’re stuck. You should focus on the conference. I’ll focus on the case. If I get anywhere, you’ll be the first to know.”

  THE MAJORITY of the conference attendees were lounging around the library and foyer when I returned. I greeted a few of the familiar faces with nods as I wound my way through the main floor of the inn. I found the dining room empty, which was a surprise, and headed toward the kitchen door. That’s where Chris stopped me.

  “I thought that area was off limits to guests.” He tried to play off the comment as teasing.

  “I’m not a guest. I’m family.”

  “So it seems.” Instead of giving me free passage into the kitchen, Chris purposely crossed his arms and lounged in the doorframe. “You’re very domestic here. You realize that, don’t you?”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  “I think it is for men in our line of work,” Chris said. “How do you expect to claw your way to the top when you’ve got a woman holding you back? Now, don’t get me wrong, she’s a fine specimen of a woman. But do you think you can get everything you want if she’s weighing you down?”

  “Bay is everything I want,” I shot back, tugging on my limited patience. Now was not the time for a scene. “I don’t need to climb to the top of the FBI heap, because I’m perfectly happy here. I like my job. I love Bay more.”

  “How … sweet.”

  “I’d think you’d be happy about that.” I decided to switch tactics. “You fancy yourself the top agent in the office, after all. Doesn’t it help you if I’m not on top of my game?”

  “You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Maybe I like the competition.”

  “Do you know what your problem is, Chris? The competition is in your head. I’m not in competition with you.” I pushed him away from the door and strolled through, pulling up short when I caught Bay scurrying around the counter. She made a big show of pretending to lean against it – as if she’d been there the whole time instead of eavesdropping on my conversation with Chris – and flashed a wide smile. “What are you doing?”

  “Waiting for you,” Bay replied innocently, shifting her eyes to her mother. “Isn’t that right?”

  “She was eavesdropping,” Winnie volunteered. “She doesn’t like that Chris guy, and whatever he said to you gave her heartburn.”

  “No one likes Chris,” I said, strolling closer to Bay. “You were eavesdropping, huh? Somehow I figured that out before your mother told me. You’re not very subtle.”

  “I wasn’t eavesdropping,” Bay protested. “I simply heard voices on the other side of the door and decided that it would’ve been rude to interrupt.”

  “Uh-huh.” I ran my fingers through her hair, smoothing it. “You know that I don’t believe what he said, don’t you?”

  “I’m not sure what he said.” Bay averted her eyes. She’s ridiculously cute when she’s avoiding serious questions. It drives me crazy.

  “I have everything I want, Bay. If I wasn’t happy, I wouldn’t be here.”

  “Oh, is that what he was saying?” Winnie’s eyes flashed. “He’s a putz, Bay. Don’t listen to him. I could’ve told you Landon was happy. It’s written all over his face whenever he looks at you.”

  Bay flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and pleasure. “I know he’s happy.”

  “Good.” I poked her side. “We talked to the husband and new wife, by the way. The husband seemed genuinely surprised and is riddled with guilt. The new wife is another story.”

  Bay arched an eyebrow. “Meaning?”

  “Meaning that she claimed Donna was breaking into their house and stealing her clothes.” I launched into the tale, and when I was done Bay made a horrified face. “On one hand I think it’s reasonable for the new wife to be bitter. On the other, they never filed a police report. I find that suspect.”

  “I’m sorry, but if one of your old girlfriends suddenly showed up and started appearing at various places in my clothes, I’d do more than report her to the police,” Bay said, grabbing a cookie from the plate on the counter and breaking it in half. She handed half to me, but she didn’t release it when I reached for it. “I’d curse the crap out of both of you, just for the record.”

  I smirked as I took the cookie. “There are no old girlfriends that I was close enough with to warrant that kind of attention,” I said, tweaking her nose. “I’d help you curse this imaginary individual if it became an issue. Seriously, though, you would call the police, right? It’s not normal to keep that to yourself.”

  “I don’t know.” Bay shrugged. “From Tim’s perspective, I can see why he didn’t call the police. He already looks like a jerk in the eyes of almost everyone he’s ever met. I’m sure his family took his side, but the rest of the town? Yeah, they took Donna’s side.”

  “Is that because she’s a business owner?”

  “And she was the wronged party,” Bay replied. “I understand about the chemistry thing. I felt it the minute I met you. But I wasn’t married to someone else at the time. Tim did Donna wrong.”

  “How long is he supposed to pay for it?”

  “That’s the question, isn’t it?” Bay held her hands palms up. “I have sympathy for everyone concerned to some extent, but the fact of the matter is that Donna is missing. Something happened, and we need to figure out what it is.”

  “Well, for what it’s worth, Tim didn’t seem to believe Donna was the type to kill herself,” I offered. “After listening to the stories, I have to concur. My best guess is that if she really got that desperate she would’ve taken out the new wife before ending her own life. I’ve never met the woman, so that’s just a hunch.”
>
  “Donna isn’t a murderer.” Bay was forceful. “She may not be perfectly clean in all of this, but I’m sure about that.”

  “For now, Chief Terry is going to see if he can get a warrant to enter the house. Until then, we’re kind of stuck.” I finished off the rest of my half of the cookie. “I have a demonstration to give on interrogation techniques. I don’t suppose you want to be my test subject?”

  Bay’s cheeks colored as Aunt Tillie appeared at the bottom of the stairwell and used her hip to edge Bay from the counter.

  “Oh, yes, that sounds fascinating,” Aunt Tillie drawled. “You can draw the truth out of her with kisses and those little touches you keep dropping on her when you think no one is looking.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “Touches?”

  “You’re touch happy,” Aunt Tillie shot back. “You can’t keep your hands off her. I’m pretty sure it’s because you’re perverted.”

  “Well, thank you for that,” I said dryly, rolling my eyes. “I think I can ask Bay questions – and get her to provide the right answers – without kisses.”

  “She’ll roll over and give you whatever you want,” Aunt Tillie argued. “You need someone stronger, someone immune to your charm. You need … me!”

  My heart dropped at the gleam in her eye. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I’ve heard several people suggest it to you,” Aunt Tillie countered. “I was against it at first – you know how I feel about helping ‘The Man’ – but now I think it will be a good exercise for those new agents and cops. It will show them that not everyone can be coerced into a confession.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose in an effort to fight off an imminent headache. “You want me to use you as my interrogation subject? That sounds nothing like you.”

  Aunt Tillie slapped my arm with enough force to jolt me. “It sounds exactly like me. I love a fun afternoon of games and messing with ‘The Man.’ I think you’re worried you can’t break me.”