Shadows on the Lake

by Leona Karr

  “Did the real Devanna rent the houseboat from your company or did Billie Mae?” McGrady asked.

  Neil forced himself to focus on the question. “Everything was handled by mail. The address on the correspondence was a suburb of Seattle. I know because I looked into the rental when I decided to show up at the houseboat, and introduce myself to Courtney.”

  “So no one in your office ever saw Devanna Davenport? I’ll call Seattle and have them do a background check on her.” McGrady looked thoughtful. “I wonder when the switch took place? After the aunt got here? Or before? Either way, Billie Mae could have arranged to get her out of the picture before Courtney arrived.”

  Neil’s stomach took a sickening plunge. “Killed her?”

  “Nothing else makes much sense, does it?” McGrady agreed sadly. “She couldn’t afford to have anyone around who knew she wasn’t the real Devanna Davenport.”

  Neil stared at the detective for a long moment as his mind whirled like a slot machine about to hit a jackpot. Then he leaned forward in his chair. “Harold Jensen. He knew the real Devanna.”

  “I’ll be damned,” McGrady swore. “That’s it!”

  “It was a lie that he never came back to the houseboat.”

  “Right. No wonder we never got to first base in his murder investigation. We were looking in the wrong places for a motive. Billie Mae had to eliminate him because he knew she was an impostor.”

  Now it all made sense to Neil.

  “Jensen shows up at the houseboat, expecting to see his old friend, and instead he gets shot and dumped in the lake.”

  McGrady nodded in agreement. “If that storm hadn’t washed his body up, we might never have known what happened to him.”

  “Courtney’s life was at risk from the first moment she arrived, wasn’t it?” A cold shiver rippled through him.

  “Looks that way, doesn’t it?”

  “At anytime, Courtney could have stumbled on the truth that this woman was not her aunt. She was innocently living with a murderer, and didn’t know it.”

  McGrady was silent as he rubbed his chin. Then his eyes lit up. “That’s it!”

  “What?”

  “The connection I’ve been looking for! This information puts a different light on that narrow escape you and Courtney had on the mountain.”

  “You mean it wasn’t Delaney and Woodword?” Neil had settled on them as the guilty ones.

  “We never came up with any proof against them,” McGrady admitted. “They landed in jail because of other illegal activities. I’m betting when we find Billie Mae Kessel, we’ll have the gun that shot out your tires—and the one that killed Jensen.”

  Neil rested his head in his hands and groaned. “How am I going to tell Courtney all of this?”

  “She’s a strong woman,” McGrady reminded him. “Look at the way she handled that near-death experience on the mountain.”

  “But this is different,” Neil protested. “Her baby is in the hands of a woman who’s killed before, and who tried to kill her.”

  “I’m betting Courtney has an inner strength that will see her through.”

  “I’ll have to tell her before she leaves the hospital in a day or two. She thinks Jamie is safely with my sister.” Neil’s mouth went dry. “She’ll be totally devastated.”

  “Well, we may get lucky and find the baby before she knows the truth,” McGrady said hopefully, but something in his tone warned Neil it wasn’t very likely.

  COURTNEY WAS SITTING UP in bed when Neil came to the hospital the next day. Her spirits instantly rose when she saw him. The doctor had just told her that she was going to be released, and she was feeling surprisingly fit.

  “You’re spoiling me,” she teased when he handed her a beautiful bouquet of flowers, his third in as many days.

  “You’re worth spoiling,” he assured her as he sat down on the edge of the bed. Leaning over, he kissed her gently on the lips and caressed her cheek lightly with his fingertips. “If there’s anything you need, want, just let me know.”

  Looking up at him, she suddenly became aware of how terrible he looked. Stress lines tightened the corners of his mouth. Dark shadows deepened the distressed look in his eyes. He looked like a man who hadn’t slept in days.

  “Don’t look so worried. I’m fine,” she assured him. “The doctor says I’ll be released tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?” he echoed.

  “What’s the matter? Don’t you think that’s good news,” she chided when she saw a deepening of concern in his expression. “I can hardly wait to get back to spoiling my baby.”

  Taking a deep breath and summoning his courage, he told her the truth as quickly and kindly as he could about the woman she thought was Devanna Davenport.

  “We don’t know what happened to your real aunt. We only know that this woman, Billie Mae Kessel, took her place at some point before you got here.”

  She stared at him in total shock. “No.”

  “I’m afraid it’s true. All of it.”

  “It can’t be.” Even as she heard herself protesting, some part of her knew he spoke the horrible truth. All the clues to the deception had been there from the beginning, and she’d been blind to them.

  “And there’s more,” Neil warned. There was no way to soften the blow. He had to just come out and say it. “She disappeared the day you fell, and she took Jamie with her.”

  She stared at him blankly. “No, Jamie’s with Maribeth,” she corrected him.

  Neil slowly shook his head.

  “Yes he is! You said so.”

  “I know, but you have to understand,” he pleaded. “You weren’t in any condition to handle the truth. When I went back to the houseboat to get him, the place was empty.”

  “We have to find him!” She threw back the covers and started to get out of bed.

  “McGrady has the whole police force on alert.” Neil put firm hands on her shoulders and lowered her back onto the pillows. “They’ll find Jamie and bring him back.”

  “How can you be sure?” She covered her face with her hands and her shoulders shook with sobs.

  “The woman won’t hurt Jamie. She loves him. She’ll take care of him. You saw how good she was with him. She’ll keep him safe.”

  Unless the woman’s own safety is threatened. Then who knew what she’d do? Neil pushed away the thought.

  Tears spilled down her cheeks. What a blind fool she’d been. All that shopping had been in preparation for the kidnapping. Devanna had been getting ready to steal Jamie from right under Courtney’s nose.

  “McGrady is optimistic. It won’t be long before they track her down,” Neil assured her as he wiped away her tears. “They’ve put out an all-points bulletin. We’ll find her and get Jamie back, safe and sound. In the meantime, I’m taking you home with me.”

  Courtney had neither the energy nor inclination to argue. What did it matter? She’d just be marking time until she got her baby back. There would be time soon enough to try and put her life back together again.

  MARIBETH WAS AT NEIL’S HOUSE when they arrived the next morning. As she came hurrying out to the car, Neil saw tears in his sister’s eyes, and sent her a warning look. Courtney had been remarkably brave dealing with the devastating situation. McGrady had been right about her, Courtney possessed a lot of inner strength.

  “I’m so sorry,” Maribeth said, blinking rapidly as they walked toward his front door.

  “Thank you for the clothes,” Courtney said, indicating the new jeans, matching denim blouse, and sandals Maribeth had sent to the hospital with Neil, along with some personal toiletries, in a small overnight bag.

  Since the houseboat had been declared a crime scene, Courtney had been advised that she couldn’t remove any of her possessions until the authorities had finished with it.

  “It was a pleasure shopping for you,” Maribeth assured her. “I put a few other things in the guest closet and bathroom. If there’s anything I missed, just let me know.”

&nbs
p; Neil saw that Courtney was struggling to accept this kind of charity. Undoubtedly, under other circumstances she would have exerted her independence and refused help. He respected that wonderful pride of hers, but was determined to take care of her whether she liked it or not.

  “As I said, I made up the guest room for you,” Maribeth said, and sent Neil a defiant look.

  Neil got her message, but he’d never intended for Courtney to share his room or his bed. She needed her own space and he knew it. It was enough just to have her safely under the same roof.

  “Do you want to rest now? Have lunch a little later?” he asked.

  Courtney nodded. “If that’s okay?”

  “Anything you want is okay.”

  “You just tell us,” Maribeth insisted.

  Neil put his arm around Courtney’s waist, and she wondered if he were remembering that last time they were on these stairs. Was it a lifetime ago that her body was flushed with desire, the moment shattered by the ring of a doorbell? None of what had happened that day seemed real now. She was grateful for a protective detachment as they passed his room and walked down the hall to the guest suite.

  “I’ll catch up on some computer work while Maribeth gets you settled. If there’s anything you need—”

  “I’ll take care of it, brother, dear.” Maribeth gave him a playful shove. “Fix yourself a drink, and relax.” She shook her head after he left and turned to Courtney “These last few days have been pure hell for him. He’s been torn up with worry. I guess you know by now, he’s not taking your relationship lightly.”

  Courtney sighed. “I don’t think we have what you call a ‘relationship.’”

  “Then why is he so devastated by what has happened? Since your accident, he’s been behaving the same way he did when he was about to lose Wendy. His life collapsed then, and he shut down emotionally. I hate to see that happening again.”

  “I don’t know what I would do without his support,” Courtney admitted.

  Maribeth sat down beside her on the bed, and asked bluntly, “How deep are your feelings for my brother?”

  “I don’t know,” Courtney answered honestly. At the moment, she was using all of her emotional reserves to cope with the kidnapping of her child.

  Something in Courtney’s voice must have touched Maribeth because she apologized quickly. “I have no right to push you like this. That’s one of my weaknesses. Always trying to fix things that are none of my business. I’m sorry.”

  “No, I understand. Neil’s lucky to have a sister like you,” Courtney replied honestly. The present crisis had made her realize how barren her life was of people who really cared about her. If it wasn’t for Neil and his family, she’d be totally alone.

  “He might argue about how lucky he is,” Maribeth answered with a faint smile. “Now, that’s enough talk.”

  She opened the closet and showed Courtney several garments hanging there: a soft robe and matching pajamas, a summer print skirt, two blouses and a belted cotton sweater. “There are a few other things in the drawers that will tide you over until you feel like shopping.”

  Courtney felt a catch in her throat as she thanked her.

  “No big deal,” Maribeth said, with a dismissing wave of her hand. “Why don’t you stretch out and rest while I go downstairs and see what kind of lunch I can scare up in the bachelor’s kitchen?”

  Neil met Maribeth at the bottom of the stairs. “What do you think? Is she going to be all right?”

  “I don’t know what you mean by all right,” Maribeth answered. “If someone ran off with one of my kids, I don’t think I’d ever be ‘all right.’ One thing’s for sure, I’d move heaven and hell to get them back, and I think Courtney’s the same way. She’s a fighter.”

  “Yes, she is,” Neil agreed. He’d been amazed at her resilience in the face of such a heartbreak.

  “I sure wouldn’t want to be in that woman’s shoes when Courtney catches up with her. McGrady’s pretty confident about tracking her down, isn’t he?”

  “When he thought he was dealing with Courtney’s aunt, he was, but Billie Mae is an experienced criminal. She knows how to evade the law. It may take time—a lot of time.”

  “What will Courtney do in the meantime? Is she going to stay here?”

  “I hope so,” he replied, but he wasn’t at all sure Courtney would stay a minute longer than necessary. She’d been ready to leave Manitou while he was out of town, and if that was an indication of the depth of her feelings for him, she wouldn’t be comfortable living in the same house. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  Courtney came down about an hour later. Even though she was emotionally tired, she hadn’t been able to sleep, and she hated being alone.

  “Lunch is ready,” Maribeth said brightly when she entered the kitchen. “Neil set the table out on the terrace.”

  Courtney knew Neil and Maribeth were doing their best to handle an almost intolerable situation. They would never know how much their tender care strengthened her. They seemed to know when to remain silent and when to speak words of comfort.

  The three of them were just finishing lunch when they heard a car drive up in the driveway. Neil shot Maribeth a questioning look. Who could that be? Were some well-meaning family members going to intrude on Courtney’s privacy?

  “I’ll see who that is.” Neil rose quickly to his feet and made his way through the house to the front door, ready to turn away any good-intentioned visitors. He peeked through the pane of glass and saw McGrady’s unmarked van in the driveway.

  He quickly opened the door, his heart racing. Had the detective come in person to give them good news? Neil tried to read McGrady’s expression as he mounted the front steps. No hint of a smile on the detective’s weathered face, and his slow, ambling walk was the same. Neil’s hopes fell.

  McGrady’s nod of greeting was apologetic. “Glad to find you home. The hospital said Courtney is staying with you. I need to have her look at something.”

  “She’s on the terrace with my sister.”

  “Where’s your VCR?”

  Neil motioned toward the den. “Why don’t you go on in. Have a seat. I’ll go get her.”

  When he told Courtney that McGrady was there, she had the same reaction as he had. Her face flushed and her eyes lost their dead look.

  “He wants you to look at something.”

  “What?” Her face paled.

  “A video, I think,” he answered quickly.

  “What kind of video?” his sister asked in her usual forthright manner.

  “I don’t know, but it must be important.” Neil took Courtney’s hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Let’s go find out.”

  McGrady was standing in front of Neil’s entertainment center when they came in. As Courtney walked over to him, he responded to her hopeful, pleading look with a shake of his head. He didn’t have to say anything. Courtney knew her baby was still missing.

  “Please sit down. There’s been a new development that we need to track. When the investigators were going through the houseboat they found some blue paper bands in the suspect’s sleeping cabin. Billie Mae Kessel has a record of bank robberies, and these blue bands are the kind Capital Bank uses to bundle their paper currency.”

  “She robbed the bank?” Neil asked in utter surprise.

  “It looks that way. I’ve brought the bank’s video to show you, Courtney. Maybe there’s some betraying mannerism or detail that you will recognize.” He softened his tone. “Do you feel up to it?”

  “I’ll do anything I can to help.”

  She tried to settle her queasy stomach as they loaded the VCR and ran the tape. She didn’t know what she expected to see, but the whiskered man in the cowboy hat brought no recognition at all.

  Courtney was about to shake her head when her gaze focused on the gloved hand holding the gun. Some of the stitching on the back was different from the rest, and in a clear flashback, Courtney remembered her “aunt” mending a leather
glove like that. Because this domestic act had been so contrary to her usual behavior it had made an impression on Courtney.

  “The glove.”

  “What about it?” McGrady quickly put the tape on a still frame.

  “It had a rip in it, and she used a black thread to mend the tear, instead of brown.”

  “Good girl,” McGrady said, pleased. “We’ll get an enlargement of the glove to verify it.”

  It was then that Neil remembered there had been something familiar about the robber’s physical stature when he’d watched the news the night of the robbery. If he’d honored his intuition, he might have connected it with the same feeling “Devanna” gave him.

  “Will this help find this woman?” Maribeth asked McGrady.

  “Bank robbery is a federal offense, and that means more law enforcement agencies will be involved in the case,” McGrady explained. “But there’s a downside to this discovery,” he warned.

  Courtney stiffened. How could the situation be made any worse than before? “What do you mean?”

  “Billie isn’t hurting for money. Her take in that robbery was considerable. She’s well padded. No telling how long she can hole up somewhere.”

  “But there’s a good chance she’ll be spending a lot of that money to cover her tracks,” Neil argued. “And someone will notice.”

  “If they do, you can bet we’ll be on it,” he promised. He stood up and walked over to where Courtney was sitting on the couch. “I have six little ones of my own. You can be damn sure I’ll be on this the same way I would be if it were one of my own.” He patted her hand. “I’ll be going now. Thank you for your help.”

  Neil walked with him to the door. “What have you found out about Courtney’s real aunt?”

  “Not much,” McGrady admitted. “Devanna Davenport was a real recluse. From everything we’ve learned, she didn’t go out much, and, apparently, didn’t have any close friends in Seattle. How and when Billie hooked up with her we aren’t quite sure.

  “A service station near her home where she bought gas gave us our only lead. The attendant said he remembered filling the gray van with gas about a month ago because it was there waiting for him when he opened up the station. There were two women in the van. One he identified as Billie, the other was probably the real Devanna.”