“You’re young. We all make mistakes,” Catherine replied. “Stop beating yourself up for it and just enjoy the time you have together, because it goes by so quickly.”
Her mother-in-law got a dreamy look in her eyes and said, “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of Jake’s father. We were married almost nineteen years when he died and it nearly killed me.
I kept thinking it was so unfair, that nineteen years wasn’t nearly long enough. I’d loved Justin Hawthorne ever since I could remember. Jake reminds me so much of him.”
Nikki shifted and Catherine glanced at her, looking startled, as if she’d forgotten Nikki was there.
She gave Nikki a melancholy smile. “Sorry, dear. I’m rambling.”
“I don’t mind.” Nikki patted her hand. “Sometimes it’s good to talk about things.”
“I guess I’m thinking about Justin a lot this morning. Today would’ve been our thirty-second anniversary if he’d lived.”
“I’m sorry,” Nikki said, and hugged her mother-in-law.
“It’s so hard to give up on a love like that. I know I’ll never feel like that again. Zeke and I have been married for ten years now, but it’s not the same. Zeke and I had always been friends and he was so persistent, but I think the main reason I agreed to marry him was that I hated to be alone. I know that sounds silly and petty—”
“No, it doesn’t,” Nikki interrupted. “It sounds human.”
They continued to talk as they searched the closet and the rest of the room. To Nikki’s disappointment, they found nothing.
Catherine frowned at her watch. “I bet you haven’t eaten any lunch, have you?”
When Nikki confessed that she hadn’t, Catherine went downstairs to make sandwiches. Frustrated, Nikki scanned the room, looking for anything they might have missed. Her gaze fell on the small notepad by the phone and she thought about a detective program she’d watched from her hospital bed.
Feeling a little silly, Nikki picked up the notepad and the stubby pencil beside it and started shading. To her amazement, letters began to appear on the pad.
Mountain Spring Motel
Rm. 212
Some of Nikki’s excitement at finding it dissipated when she realized what it probably meant.
“I’m so sorry, Jake,” she said softly, and went downstairs to join her mother-in-law.
The day seemed so long without Jake, even though Nikki truly enjoyed Catherine’s company.
They kept themselves busy by searching the house, but Nikki found herself continuously glancing at her watch, anxious for four o’clock to arrive. Even a visit from her father didn’t distract her long.
Catherine left at 3:50 p.m. to stop by the bank and Nikki paced in front of the window until she saw the white BMW turn into the drive. Feeling an almost childish excitement at Jake’s return, Nikki slung open the front door and hurled herself at Jake as soon as he stepped up onto the porch.
He grabbed her and took a step backward to regain his balance.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing.” Nikki grinned up at him. “I’m just happy to see you.”
Jake’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, well, in that case—”
Nikki giggled as he swept her in his arms and carried her to the den. Still holding her, he flopped down on the couch.
Nikki twisted around to sit in his lap with her knees on either side of him. Jake placed his hands on her hips and drew her closer. His thumbs stroked the inch of bare flesh between the waistband of her blue jeans and her white T-shirt.
“So you missed me?” he murmured.
“Uh huh.” Nikki leaned down to brush a feathery kiss across his lips. His mouth, warm and soft, parted slightly and Nikki deepened the kiss.
The shriek of the alarm startled Nikki and she would’ve tumbled onto the floor if Jake hadn’t caught her.
Jake laughed. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Forgot about that damn thing.”
He gently set her aside and got up to shut the door and punch in the code before it notified the police department.
“Where were we?” he asked, and Nikki climbed back into his lap. A long tendril of hair had escaped from her ponytail and he tucked it behind her ear. “So, how did your day go? How was therapy?”
Nikki made a face. “Physical therapy went great, but I hate having my memory tested. I feel like I’m on the verge of remembering something and it’s like a door slamming in my face. It’s so frustrating.”
“It’ll get better,” Jake promised as he traced his fingers across her cheekbone. “Where’s Mom, anyway?”
Nikki had to restrain a grin at the sudden wariness of his tone. He still acted like he expected her and his mother to tear into each other at any moment. She quickly averted her gaze.
“She left early. I…I slugged her, Jake. I couldn’t help it. She mouthed off to me and I lost it,” she said contritely. “I’m so sorry.”
Jake’s jaw dropped and Nikki did lose it then. He looked so serious, so horrified.
She snickered helplessly until his incredulous look turned to a scowl.
“Geez, Jake, were we that bad?” she asked.
“You have no idea.” He shook his head. “The two of you put me through hell.”
“I’m sorry for my part in that.” Nikki placed a hand on the back of his neck and smiled. “She’s wonderful, Jake. Today has been good for us.”
“Yeah? What did the two of you do today?”
Nikki’s smile vanished as she replied, “We looked for clues.”
“Oh.” Jake was quiet for a long moment, and then he asked, “Did you find anything?”
“Just this.” Nikki pulled the page from the notepad from her back pocket and handed it to Jake. His laugh surprised her.
“I must say, Nancy Drew, that I’m impressed.”
“I hated to give it to you.”
“It’s okay.” He exhaled softly. “I already knew about the motel.”
Nikki looked at him sharply and he explained, “Matt called me at work this afternoon. He’d pulled that number and the number of a payphone in Whitwell from that morning.”
Jake reached around her to flip open his briefcase. He pulled a sheaf of paper from it and handed it to her. The pages were colored with different highlighters.
“This is our personal line and the other list is your cell. I recognized most of the numbers immediately: friends, family, and the office, and I called the ones I didn’t. Nothing or nobody that I suspect.” He cleared his throat. “Apparently, you were very careful, or you had another way of contacting him.”
They were silent for a moment, and then Nikki asked, “So, when are we going to the motel?”
“You want to go?”
“Yes, I want to find out who this guy is so we can get on with our lives.”
Jake looked at her for a long moment and sighed. “Well, how about right now?”
***
Jake regretted the trip already.
One of the side effects of Nikki’s head injury was that she was sometimes as sensitive to sunlight as a vampire. Her eyes reddened and streamed in the unrelenting brightness of the afternoon sun. Jake flipped her visor down and she rummaged through the console until she found a pair of sunglasses.
A light snow began to fall, dusting the mountaintops like powdered sugar. The fine, tiny flakes caught in the beams of the winter sunlight and sparkled like diamonds as they fell lazily to the ground. Nikki commented on the beauty of the frosty landscape, but Jake was struck by a feeling of uneasiness so profound that he had to fight the urge to turn the car around and head back home.
Suddenly, more than anything, he just wanted to get the hell out of here.
He saw no beauty in the bare, hulking trees. They were skeletons, reaching long, bony fingers to take what they wanted. A chill started in the nape of his neck and raced down his spine.
A goose walked over my grave.
The thought ran through Jake’s mind. It had been Mam01a Hawth
orne’s explanation for any inexplicable chill, a saying that had always struck Jake as funny. He might’ve laughed if he’d been anywhere else. Anywhere but here. He saw a sign that said US-56 and gripped the steering wheel a little tighter.
“Jake, what is it?” Nikki asked.
Jake wondered if his face had gone as white as the knuckles on his hand.
“This is the road,” he said as they started up the mountain. “This is the road you wrecked on.”
Jake’s heart began to pound a little faster as he realized how harrowing Nikki’s ride down this steep, winding mountain road must have been.
“I want to see where,” she said and he saw her shiver, too.
He reached to turn up the heater, even though it was warm inside the car. Even though he knew it couldn’t help a chill that started from within.
“Nikki, I—”
“Please?” she asked.
Jake drove until he saw where a wooden mile marker still lay splintered and pulled over to the shoulder of the road. He walked around, opened Nikki’s door and took her hand. They crossed the road together and stood by the ruined guardrail to stare down at the blackened spot below where someone had lost her life. Jake felt cold inside as he thought of how close he’d come to losing Nikki that day.
He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. It was several moments before he could bear to let her go.
“Where was I thrown out?” She stepped over the guardrail.
Jake frowned and stepped over behind her. “I don’t know. I know that you hit a rock, because they couldn’t believe that you hadn’t broken anything.” He walked around and finally spied a large rock several yards away. His heart lurched at the brownish stain on it and he wondered if it was Nikki’s blood. Nikki walked up beside him and tucked her arm in his. He felt her shudder.
Together, they made their way down the steep incline to the spot where the Dodge had burned.
Nikki lost her footing in the snow-slick leaves and started to slide. Jake grabbed the back of her coat and wouldn’t let go of her after that. They reached the charred spot and Nikki began to kick around in the ashes. There was still a considerable amount of rubble, even though they’d towed the truck. Jake stared up at the main highway and imagined again what it must’ve been like for her, how many times the truck must’ve flipped to get so far from the top.
Jake helped Nikki back up the incline. Although it was getting dark, Nikki wanted to talk to someone at the motel.
They stopped at a gas station to ask for directions and were told that the Mountain Spring was the only motel in the small county. In a matter of minutes, Jake pulled in front of the aging building. It loomed high in the southern sky, a relic from the Civil War. Jake studied the huge white columns with an architect’s appreciative eye.
They walked across an expanse of lush red carpet where a friendly looking young man greeted them in the foyer.
“Oh, hey!” He smiled at Nikki. “Nice to see you again.”
Nikki and Jake looked at each other. They never dared to hope that it might be this easy.
“You remember her?” Jake asked.
The young man’s smile never faltered, but he looked a little embarrassed as he said, “No offense, sir, but it’s hard to forget a beautiful lady like this.”
Nikki smiled. “We were hoping someone would remember,” she said. “I was involved in an automobile accident after I left here—”
“Oh, no!” the boy exclaimed, seeming to notice her bruised forehead for the first time.
“I don’t remember what I was doing here or who I was with. I hope you can help with part of that.”
Jake could tell the old Nikki charm was working its magic, but the boy’s smile faltered as he glanced back at Jake.
Casually, Jake lifted his palms. “It’s okay, man. I’m just chauffeuring her.”
“Please, can you help me?” Nikki pleaded and the boy nearly melted in his shoes. Jake had to turn his head to keep from laughing.
“I think I was in room 212.” She subtly steered him toward the desk. “I found a note—”
“Yes, that’s right,” the boy confirmed. “You had a room that overlooked the garden, because you commented on the statue.”
“Did you see me with anyone?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Matter of fact, you were headed out the door then, right after you checked in. I didn’t see you or anyone after that. Not until you checked out Sunday morning.”
Jake frowned and turned to look at her quizzically, just as she asked, “When did I check in?”
He thumbed through the book for a moment. “Saturday morning.”
“What name did I sign in under?” she asked, and the boy grinned.
“Smith,” he joked. “Everyone checks in as Smith.” He ran his finger down the page and said, “There it is. You checked in under S. Parker.”
Nikki thanked the boy and they left.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Nikki said as she climbed back in the car. “Why would I check in on Saturday morning if I knew that you were going to be home on Saturday night?”
“It makes perfect sense.” Jake rubbed the bridge of his nose and said, “I was supposed to go out of town Saturday night and not come back until Thursday, but I canceled it after our big fight Saturday afternoon. You drove here to check in and then came back home, waiting for me to leave, but that never happened. I was at the office for a few hours that morning. You had time.”
“But why go so far?” she persisted. “Why not stay at home, if you were leaving, or go to a motel closer to home?”
“Nikki, honey, everyone in town knows you,” he said. “And maybe this guy, too. You were playing it safe. No nosy neighbors or town gossips to catch you.”
“I’m sorry, Jake,” she said.
He squeezed her hand. “It’s in the past. I just wish we’d learned more.”
“But we got a name. Do you know anyone named Parker?”
Jake gave her a patient smile. “Hon, the name Parker might has well been Smith. Even if you were away from home, do you think either of you would use your real name? The guy in there said you paid in cash and I have to believe Parker was an assumed name. Besides, you were afraid to tell me because it was someone I knew. The only Parker I know is old man Pete Parker who runs the furniture store in town. He’s seventy if he’s a day.”
Nikki looked a little defeated at that, and Jake leaned over to kiss her before he put the keys in the ignition.
“I’ll run it by Matt, just in case.”
Nikki rubbed her forehead and slipped her glasses back on. As she stared out the window, Jake could feel her disappointment.
“Hey.” He reached over to touch her knee. “How about I take you to your favorite restaurant for dinner?”
***
Nikki forced a smile and tried to project an enthusiasm she didn’t feel. “Sounds great!”
The headache that began when they stood on the side of the mountain had progressed to a full-fledged throb. She fished a bottle of pain reliever out of her purse and swallowed two of them dry.
Jake was wrong.
The name S. Parker meant something; she knew it did. If only she could open the stubborn door in her mind, maybe they would be safe.
Jake played tour guide again as he drove through town and Nikki tried to pay attention, but her mind kept drifting back to that hotel. Something was forcing itself at the edge of her thoughts, but she couldn’t connect.
Pulling into the parking lot of a weathered gray restaurant, Jake mistook the reason for her frown.
“Really, it’s not as bad as it looks. Patty’s is the best seafood place in the state. They just don’t spend a lot on appearance. You used to love the shrimp scampi here.”
Nikki tread carefully over the snow-slick pea gravel that lined the walkway. The cold wind slapped at her face and made her hands clench into tight fists in her pockets.
A blast of warm air greeted Nikki as Jake pulled o
pen the door for her. She inhaled the scent of fresh bread and garlic and felt slightly queasy.
As they waited for the waitress to show them to their table, Jake leaned to whisper in her ear.
“Be right back,” he said, and headed toward the men’s room.
“Hi. How many?” the smiling hostess asked.
“Two.”
“Smoking or non?”
“Non.”
“Right this way.”
Nikki followed the woman toward the back, glancing casually at the lighthouse paintings on the wall as they walked past. She was nearly on top of the couple in the back booth before she saw them. Nikki froze, and prayed the man wouldn’t look up. She needn’t have worried. He was too entranced by the young redhead playing with his tie.
For a moment, she couldn’t think, couldn’t move.
“Miss?” the hostess said and Nikki shook her head, the paralysis broken.
She had to get Jake out of here now.
Spinning on her heel, she hurried back toward the entrance. She intercepted Jake coming out of the bathroom.
“You know what? I think I want Chinese.”
“Since when do you like Chinese?” he asked as she practically shoved him out the door.
“Since now.”
She would eat anything to get him out of there before he saw his stepfather in another woman’s arms.
Chapter 9
By the time they got to the Chinese restaurant, Nikki was a nervous wreck. Jake kept giving her quizzical glances that she wouldn’t meet.
How could Zeke do that to Catherine?
Obviously sensing her anxiety, Jake suggested they get their order to go.
“There’s a place on the lake I want to show you.”
“I’d like that,” Nikki said, eager to put as much distance between them and Zeke as possible. Jake would’ve killed him.
The house on the lake was breathtaking.
Unforeseen Danger Page 12