“Lorna?”
“Yeah, she’s a psychic, right?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “She could maybe get something off the phone.”
It was a good thought, and she considered holding onto the phone until Lorna got back. Except she didn’t know when that might be. She’d told Lorna to call her when she was ready for a ride back. Hours had ticked by without hearing from her. On the way here, she tried calling her, only it went right to voice mail. Now, she took out her own phone and tried one more time. Again, it went to voice mail. As much as she wanted to wait for Lorna it seemed wrong. This was something important and Katie needed to know about it now, not later.
“She might be able to, but we can’t wait around to find out. We have to turn this over to the police. Sooner rather than later.”
Tears welled up in his eyes again. “I need her to come home.”
“Well, if you don’t talk to Katie, I mean Deputy Carlisle, you’re sure as hell not helping, and she won’t be coming home.” She was compelled to say the words, though they left a bitter taste in her mouth.
“Don’t say that. She’s coming home…she has to.”
His voice broke and something in her broke as well. She wondered if it would ever be fixed.
*
Thea was most likely going to be pissed that Lorna opted for the bus ride home. At the time it seemed like the right thing to do, and it turned out to be interesting, if nothing else. The elderly woman who sat next to her and talked nonstop until it was her time to disembark at Garland Street reminded her a bit of her grandmother. Lorna stayed on the bus and got off at the Five Mile Park & Ride lot. Again she opted not to call Thea and instead walked up the long ascending road from the Park & Ride to Thea’s house. The day was beautiful, the air warm and sweet. It cleared her head, and by the time she reached the top of the hill she felt more energized. Thea might very well be angry with her, but she was confident the decision was the right one.
She reached out for the front door just as her cell rang. Rather than going in, she stepped back down to the lawn and looked at the display. As she saw the name that popped up, her heart leapt.
“Hey,” she said, and smiled.
“Miss you,” Renee said in a breathy voice. “Do you intend to come back here soon?”
She closed her eyes and pictured Renee’s beautiful face. God, how she wanted to be there right now. “Soon, I hope.” As much as she longed to be with Renee, her commitment to being here was solid. She couldn’t walk away.
“Have you made any progress?”
The joy of hearing Renee’s sweet voice was overshadowed by the despair filling her at the thought of Alida out there somewhere alone and afraid. She wanted, no, needed, to bring her home. Alive or…
“No, still nothing.”
“You’re going to find her. I have faith in you.”
“I appreciate that, and I’m glad somebody does.”
Renee’s voice went quiet. “I’ve had faith in you since the minute I laid eyes on you, all sleepy-eyed and in your best sweats. You were pretty hot that morning, just in case I’ve never told you.”
Despite the heaviness in her heart, she smiled. “How is it that no matter how down I’m feeling, you bring me up?”
“You don’t really understand, do you?”
“Understand what?” She wasn’t stupid yet wasn’t following where Renee was going with this.
“Precisely.”
Sometimes they really did speak different languages. “You’re being cryptic again.”
Renee laughed lightly. “Maybe, but I don’t plan to explain it to you.”
“So you plan to leave me hanging?”
“No, I’m going to leave you thinking. Once again, I have faith that you’ll figure it out.”
“You drive me crazy, woman.”
“I know. Isn’t it fun?”
The smile spreading across her face spoke to the truth of Renee’s words. Fun was an understatement. Every day was an adventure filled with playful banter, encouragement, and love. It was fun and frightening all at the same time.
Lorna leaned against the doorframe and looked out into the distance. The neighborhood was lovely, the sky blue and clear, the traffic light. This was a wonderful place to live. Once not so long ago this city was her home and she’d been content. Now, she was a visitor, and surprisingly it didn’t bother her. Instead of feeling sad, she couldn’t wait to get back across the mountains to her house, to Clancy, to Renee.
Chapter Fifteen
The Watcher’s head came up and he studied the blue sky. Was it in the sun? Or perhaps in the clouds that floated above him in shapes that shifted and changed? What?
Whatever it was, unease settled like a massive ache in his bones. How he wished he were not anchored to this place. She needed him. Of that he was most certain. She was lost and trying to find that place between this world and the next, where the answers she searched lay nearly hidden. Her struggle reached him in a wave of frustration. If he were there, he could gently guide her to vision.
A bold breeze blew in from the ocean waters, making him shiver. The waves crashed against the rocks in a symphony of rhythmic chaos. It wasn’t the cold that rippled uneasily across his skin; it was something much darker. He’d felt it here in this place in the time before she came and banished the darkness that had lived in this place for so many years. The change here was dramatic, and for the first time in decades, light penetrated the gloom. Until today, and once again the darkness tried to intrude. It was faint, as if coming from a long way off, and indeed he believed it did.
Though grounded by the boundaries of this place, he was nonetheless tuned into her as if they were physically connected. Never before was his connection to another so deep and all-consuming. What tried to touch her touched him as well. What tried to hurt her hurt him. With each passing day the oneness he felt with her grew stronger, and that was why he now paced back and forth along the lonely beach, his big feet sinking into damp sand. Waves washed ashore erasing his footprints as if they were never there, as if he was never there.
Her search pulled at her soul, and something evil pushed back. That’s what he was feeling now, and that he was stuck here, unable to give her strength, made him want to curse. He did not for it was not his way, and there would be no point for no one would hear him.
Solitude. Isolation. Silence. All were part of his sentence. Every day he prayed for release and redemption. Every day he tried to redeem himself in the eyes of his God.
Every day he failed.
This day was no different. She needed him, and he was unable to do anything except let her down. Alone and searching, she had no one to guide her to the truth. Another of the tests blocking his way home and he refused to fail. It went beyond his desire for personal redemption. She was special. She deserved more from him than failure. If he held power at all in the moment, it was in the words etched into his soul from Psalm 37. His lips moved as he quietly repeated, “Though the wicked draw his sword and bend his bow to slaughter the honest and bring down the poor and needy, his sword will pierce his own heart…”
*
Lorna almost said good-bye, and then Renee said the three words guaranteed to melt her heart. “I miss you.” She was such a goner, and she could tell herself different all day long, but it wouldn’t change a thing.
“You have no idea how much I miss you and Clancy,” she admitted.
Renee’s laugh was light and cheerful. “I should be jealous because it’s very clear he misses you too. He keeps going to your room trying to find you.”
That made her smile. She could see the big dog trotting into her room and jumping up on her bed. One thing about a German shepherd, they don’t ask permission. He decided her bed was his shortly after he arrived with Renee. Funny how it didn’t bother her at all. She liked to see him stretched out on it.
“Anything new on your place?” A sick lump settled in the pit of her stomach. Sure, they both shared those all-important big three
words. They didn’t change things much. Lorna lived in the big house by the sea, and Renee lived and worked in Seattle.
Lorna had already proved she couldn’t sustain a relationship when she lived in the same house with a woman, so how in the hell would she make one work long-distance? The bitter answer to that question was she couldn’t.
“Well, now that you mention it, beautiful, as a matter of fact there is.”
A light note in Renee’s voice made the sick lump spread and grow. Here it comes…she hoped she didn’t throw up on Thea’s front porch. “Oh,” she said as lightly as she could, given the inevitable bad news about to come her way.
“The repairs are nearly done and the place looks fantastic. I can’t believe the beautiful work they’ve accomplished. As big a pain as it’s been dealing with the insurance company, I have to hand it to them. The contractor they pointed me to is a magic man. He’s turned a lump of coal into a diamond.”
“That’s great,” she said. That sucks, she thought.
“Oh, it’s better than great. I’m so amazed and happy.”
“When are you moving back?” She couldn’t believe she actually forced the words to pass her lips and managed not to sound like a pissy little kid.
There was a pause before Renee said, “About that…”
“Yeah?” Here it comes, the easy letdown. The let’s always be friends.
“I’ve had an offer to sell the whole building.”
She opened her mouth to try to say something gracious but then snapped it shut as the words hit her brain. What? Did she really hear that right? “Sell?”
“Yes, ma’am, and it’s an unbelievable offer. I knew I was in the right place at the right time when I bought the building after my divorce. But I didn’t know how right until a commercial real-estate agent approached me yesterday.” She spoke more quickly and excitedly.
“Are you thinking about selling?” That really didn’t make any sense. Whenever she talked about the store and the home she’d created from the shell of the building, her love for it was clear. Selling and walking away just didn’t ring true.
“Well.” Renee’s voice held a note of hesitation. “Kinda depends.”
“On?” She knew there was a catch.
“You, actually.”
That wasn’t quite what she expected to hear. What did she have to do with Renee’s business or the decision to sell it? Giving financial advice wasn’t her strong suit either. She was a damn good technical writer, and if she wanted advice on formatting a manual, well, then she’d come to the right person. Whether or not to sell a valuable asset? Not so much.
“I can’t tell you whether you should sell your building.”
Renee’s words slowed down and so, too, it sounded like, did her earlier enthusiasm. “I wouldn’t put you in that position, but here’s the deal. If I sell, I want to take some time to figure out what to do next. I mean, the shop has been my life for quite a while, and where I take my life if I accept the offer is a giant mystery. ”
Comprehension dawned and a flicker of hope began to bloom. Tears pricked at her eyes, and she pressed her fingers against her closed eyelids. The last thing she wanted to do was let her expectations get ahead of her. “You need a place to stay while thinking things through?”
“Why, yes, I would.”
“I have a place.” She said the words softly, hoping her voice didn’t echo her desperation.
“Why, yes, you do.” Lorna could hear the joy in Renee’s words.
For a long moment she just took in deep breaths, and then she summoned her strength. “I love you, Renee.”
Renee’s laughter was light, tinkling silver bells. “I was really hoping that’s what you’d say. Then it’s okay with you if I take the offer and stay with you a bit longer?”
“More than okay. You can stay as long as you want.” With all her heart she wanted to say, forever.
“I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.”
That made two of them. As happy as she was about this turn of events, she was equally interested in the real-world stuff. She might not be the financial guru, but the business end of things intrigued her. “I’m curious. How much were you offered for the building, if you don’t mind me asking? You won’t hurt my feelings if you tell me it’s none of my business.”
Renee didn’t even hesitate. “Oh, baby, you’re not going to believe this. I had to see it in writing before I would.”
“And?” Now she was even more curious.
“A cool million.”
*
Katie turned off her digital recorder and put it to the side, along with her note pad. For a moment she sat at the interview table and stared at her hands. She wanted to say she wasn’t surprised, but honestly she was, a little. Same old song and dance she’d heard a hundred times in domestic situations, except for a little twist in this one. Usually only one spouse was having an affair. The fact both of them were, or had been if she could believe Grant, made it unique. Talk about two messed-up people.
It also put a different spin on the investigation. From day one Grant was a person of interest, which was nothing out of the ordinary. The spouse was typically number one on the list, for good reason. More often than not, they were the responsible party. Like anything, though, there were always exceptions, and Grant could very likely be one of them. She sure wasn’t ruling it out, just as she wasn’t ruling him out as the one responsible for Alida’s MIA status.
Even so, Grant was different from the typical cheating spouse. He’d come across from the very beginning as straight up, and he wasn’t faking his distress at his wife’s disappearance. Through the years she’d seen enough forced emotion to detect the difference in a heartbeat. While it didn’t get him off the hook, it lent weight to his words. He was still on her suspect list because sometimes that very real emotion created fatal violence.
What made this one different was she hadn’t expected to find out the victim was also playing the field. That knowledge widened her field of suspects by a lot. The problem was, the husband professed to have no clue as to the identity of his wife’s lover. He only knew there was one.
“What do you think?” Thea asked her after Grant left with another deputy, who escorted him out.
She looked at Thea, who’d showed up at her office for the second visit today, only this time with Grant in tow rather than Lorna. When Grant finished explaining how he discovered the cell phone, he looked completely defeated and asked to leave, while Thea asked to stay behind for a few minutes. That was just fine with Katie.
She blew out a breath and met Thea’s eyes. “This phone could help a great deal or not at all. Obviously the secret phone meant Alida and her friend were being careful. Once we have a chance to go through the phone, we’ll know exactly how careful. Thea, you really didn’t know about this?”
Darkness flowed over Thea’s lovely face and she felt a little bad for putting it there, but really, how does a person not know her twin sister is keeping a giant secret? She figured all twins were too close for secrets, even if that was painting the twin relationship with a brush a little too broad.
“No, I really didn’t. I can’t believe she kept this from me. It’s like I didn’t know her at all.”
Judging by the sorrow that seemed to physically press down on Thea’s shoulders, apparently this set of twins might not have been that close. “It happens,” Katie said gently.
“Not to me and Alida. We’ve always been open and honest with each other.” Thea’s words were bitter.
“Don’t beat yourself up over it.” Katie put a hand on Thea’s arm. “We all have our secrets, and just because you two are twins, human nature is still the same. Some secrets are little. Some are big. But we all have them. What’s important is what we do with this one now that it’s out in the open.”
Tears welled in Thea’s eyes. “That’s the problem. What do we do with it?”
Good question. “We start digging deeper, beginning with this phone.”
Part of her thought that might not have been a bad plan. Then the cop part of her dismissed the idea just as fast. It was amazing what their lab could do with electronic equipment these days, and the sooner they got started on the phone, the better.
As if he was standing outside listening to them—and that wasn’t out of the realm of possibility—Vince opened the door and stepped inside. “What do you have, Carlisle?”
She resisted the urge to tell him she’d handled it and opted for being professional instead. Technically he was her boss, so good politics told her to play nice, especially with a civilian in the room. Daddy had taught her how to deal with the politics, even if it did gall her more often than not. She handed him the phone, which she’d placed in an evidence bag as soon as she got it out of Grant’s hands, then explained how and where it was discovered.
Vince was nodding and turning the bag over in his hands. “This is good. I’ll take it and have it checked.”
It was her case and the phone had been brought to her. It was all she could do to keep the resentment out of her voice. She hated when one of the guys tried to step into a case she was lead on. “I can—”
“I got it, Carlisle. You finish up here.”
He almost made it out with the phone, and then vindication was hers. She managed to keep the smile off her face when Brandon sauntered into the room looking, well, looking like typical Brandon in tight jeans, a bright-orange shirt, and Chuck Taylor tennis shoes. Funny thing was, he actually made it all look good. He was a strange one, but he was a cute strange one.
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