The Vanishing

by Jana DeLeon

  None of it is your concern.

  And that was the crux of it. Max was a temporary employee—bought and paid for. And as soon as he solved the case and Anna was out of danger, he’d be gone from her life so cleanly, it would be as if he never entered it.

  “I think we ought to look through Anna’s apartment again before we head out to the swamp,” Max said.

  “To look for the coins?”

  “The coins or any reference to them. I can’t help but think the coins might be the key to all of this.”

  “Is this one of those whims you referred to?”

  “Not really. I guess I figure if an injured woman briefly comes out of a coma and the coins are one of the only things she mentions, then it must be important.”

  She stared out the car window. Another variable was the last thing they needed. This situation was already full of them, and unless Anna woke up and filled in the gaps, Colette feared they were always going to be one step behind.

  She hoped that one step didn’t get Anna’s mother killed.

  Chapter Eight

  Max paced Colette’s apartment as she showered. It was pleasant, he decided, with its blend of blues and browns. Comfortable and not overly girly. Most of the women he’d dated had rooms filled with floral patterns with pink and yellow. His mother had an affinity for floral print and lace, and his childhood home had been riddled with it. Only his bedroom had attested to the fact that a male presence existed in the house. His mother had given him free rein in that one small space, but then, she’d also never set foot in it.

  He stepped to the window and glanced outside at the street below, unable to shake the feeling that someone was watching. An elderly couple walked hand in hand on the sidewalk across the street as a hot-dog vendor began his morning setup. People in business clothes rushed by, cell phones pressed to their ears. Nothing looked out of place.

  He looked down at the table in front of the window and picked up a picture frame. The photo was of Colette and Anna, both in their hospital uniforms and smiling for the camera. He placed the picture back on the table and glanced around at the other photos scattered around the room. They were all of Colette and other women, most of them either doctors or nurses.

  He frowned. Where were the pictures of her family? There were no aging grandparents or parents, no pictures with siblings all sharing a common facial feature, no pictures of a beloved pet.

  Perhaps Colette had even more in common with Anna than she’d let on. It seemed that both of them had erased their family from their past. He glanced into Colette’s bedroom at the closed bathroom door. She showed every sign of being a loving and caring person, risking her time, money and life for an employee. What had happened to her to cause her to block out her family?

  The bathroom door opened and Colette stepped out clad in her jeans and a T-shirt. Her eyes locked on his, and she hesitated ever so slightly before waving her hand toward the bathroom.

  “It’s all yours. Towels are in the linen closet behind the door.”

  Her voice sounded normal, but Max knew he hadn’t imagined her reaction to seeing him standing there staring at her. He made her nervous, but she was careful to keep it hidden behind that polished veneer she wore. Only occasionally did he see the veneer slip.

  Max grabbed the spare set of clothes Holt had brought for him and headed into her bedroom. Colette stood in front of the dresser, pulling her hair up into a ponytail. As he stepped past her, his arms jostled hers and she dropped a barrette. They both bent down to reach for it at the same time and his hand closed over hers, their shoulders touching, heads not even an inch apart.

  They rose slowly, still just inches apart, and Max suddenly realized why he made her nervous. He knew it was a really bad idea—the worst idea in the world, really—but he closed the small gap between them and lowered his lips to hers.

  Her eyes widened, but she didn’t move away. Instead, as their lips touched, she leaned into him, her body barely brushing against his. As her breasts pressed gently against his chest, he deepened the kiss, parting her lips and slipping his tongue inside. He placed one hand on her cheek, wishing she’d left her hair down and he could run his fingers through the wavy, dark mass of it.

  She placed a hand on his chest and he felt himself start to stiffen. The instant tightness of his jeans brought him back to reality and he broke off the kiss. She stared at him, clearly confused, as he took a step back.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done that. With everything that’s happened to you lately, it’s not fair. It won’t happen again.”

  She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could utter a word, he stepped past her and into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He turned the cold water on full blast, shed his clothes and stepped underneath the icy stream. The shock to his system would bring him back to reality, and right now he needed a double dose.

  What in the world were you thinking?

  He stuck his head under the freezing water. Scratch that question. He already knew the answer, and those kind of thoughts had no place in the middle of an investigation. Of all people, he knew that too well.

  Granted, he couldn’t help his attraction to her. She was a beautiful woman with the kind of curves you saw on the old-fashioned pinup girls. She was smart, motivated, courageous and had a huge heart for others. Colette was definitely the type of woman who was impossible to ignore.

  But he was going to find a way.

  * * *

  COLETTE STARED AT THE closed bathroom door and brushed one finger across her lips. They still tingled from their contact with Max, along with other body parts that hadn’t seen that kind of stimulation in a long time. All efforts to convince herself that she was attracted to him only because he was helping her had become permanently and utterly useless.

  The simple truth was that Max Duhon moved her in ways that no other man ever had. With a single kiss, he’d left her body begging for more.

  And then he left you hanging.

  She sighed as reality came crashing into her very brief fantasy. Clearly, Max was attracted to her, but for whatever reason, he was determined to keep his distance. Colette knew he’d view this momentary slip as weakness and probably work even harder to keep her from getting through the wall he’d erected around himself.

  Turning her attention back to her hair, she saw her flushed neck and face in the dresser mirror. It was just as well that Max had stopped things. When this was over, she’d have no cause to see him again. He’d be back in Vodoun working with Holt and Alex, and she’d be back in the E.R. working with Anna.

  She couldn’t afford to become any more invested than she already had.

  When her hair was in place, she went into the kitchen and popped a couple of croissants with ham slices into the microwave. It wasn’t the best breakfast, but she was hungry and figured Max was, too. Neither of them would want to stop to eat, but they could eat the croissants on the way to Anna’s apartment.

  She stiffened just a bit when she heard the bathroom door open, but focused on wrapping their breakfast in paper towels for easy transport. When Max stepped into the kitchen, she could feel the tension coming off of him, and he avoided looking directly at her.

  “I didn’t make coffee,” she said, trying to get things back to a comfortable business relationship, “but I have some canned sodas and I did a makeshift breakfast to take with us.” She lifted one of the croissants.

  He relaxed and nodded. “That’s good thinking. It shouldn’t take long to search Anna’s apartment. She didn’t have much and the place was small. But I want to spend as much daylight as possible in the swamp.”

  A tiny shiver passed through Colette’s body and she crossed her arms across her chest. The swamp was dark enough even in the daylight, but it wasn’t just the lack of light that bothered her. It was something else. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Something dark and unsettling.

  She shook her head. Those were fanciful thoughts for
a woman who was supposed to be grounded in reality.

  “You don’t have to go with me,” he said quietly.

  She stared at him. “I didn’t—”

  “There’s something…off…in the Mystere Parish swamps.”

  She felt a chill run down her back. If Max thought there was something to all the old tales and superstitions, maybe she shouldn’t be trying to dismiss them. “I’m just jittery,” she said, determined to keep her cool. “With everything that’s happened.”

  He took a step toward her and placed his hand on her arm. “Don’t ignore feelings of unease, especially in the swamp. That intuition may be what keeps you safe.”

  He dropped his hand and scooped up the other croissant from the kitchen counter, then he pulled a couple of sodas from the refrigerator.

  “You ready?”

  She nodded, afraid to speak. Her emotions were at war with her logical mind. All of this was so far-fetched, so much to absorb in a minimal amount of time. She grabbed her purse from the counter and followed Max out to his Jeep. She’d get her head straight on the way to Pirate’s Cove.

  Anna’s mother’s life may depend on it.

  It was a short and silent drive to Anna’s apartment. Colette stood silently as Max updated Anna’s apartment manager on the situation. The woman was suitably horrified with what had happened to her tenant and promised to keep an extra watch. But when she let them into Anna’s apartment, it took only a second to realize that the warning had come too late.

  Every drawer was open and dumped onto counters and the floor. The cabinets looked as if they’d spit their contents out. Not a single item remained on the shelves. The fabric of the couch had been slit open, spilling the stuffing.

  “Call the police,” Max told the shocked apartment manager.

  The woman nodded and hurried down the stairs.

  Cursing, Max scanned the mess. “I should have come here last night after the attack.”

  “I don’t understand,” Colette said. “Why do this now? Why didn’t he come here before, when Anna was missing?”

  “Maybe he didn’t know who she was or where she lived before last night. Her name would have been on her chart in the ICU, right? If by leaving Cache she put others in danger, she was probably using a fake name.”

  “Oh, no! I didn’t even think about that. I guess I assumed whoever attacked her knew her already. I never even considered that she might be using a false name.”

  Max clenched his teeth. “I should have thought of this. I should have been better prepared.”

  “You couldn’t have known—”

  “It’s my job to know. To anticipate. It’s my fault for not assessing the threat level better.”

  One look at Max’s jaw, set in a hard line, let Colette know it was useless to argue. She didn’t agree with him in the least. No one could have known what they were walking into, especially now that Colette realized exactly how little she really knew about Anna. But she understood that feeling of responsibility from a professional standpoint and knew that no matter what she said, Max would still blame himself.

  “Do you think they found what they were looking for?” she asked. “The coins, maybe?”

  “I don’t know. If they did, it took a while. They really tore the place up.”

  “If they found the coins, wouldn’t they leave Anna alone now?”

  He frowned and looked past over her shoulder and out the window. “I don’t think so. Anna said her mother was in danger. If all it took to protect her was giving him the coins, she would have done that in the first place. Instead, she made an almost deadly trip into the swamp.”

  Colette’s emotions shifted from hopeful to resigned. “Maybe she doesn’t have them anymore.”

  “Maybe.” He blew out a breath. “Whatever is going on with Anna is centered in Cache. We’ve got to find that village.”

  * * *

  THE MAN SAT IN A coffee shop down the street from Anna’s apartment building. He’d seen the woman from the hospital and the man enter earlier, and now a squad car was pulling up in front. Twice now he’d had Anna in his grasp, and twice she’d escaped death. More important, without telling him what he wanted to know.

  He worried that Anna had gotten a good look at him when she’d pulled up his mask during their struggle in the swamp, but if she had, either she didn’t recognize him or she was still unconscious and hadn’t been able to tell the police. Either way, the clock was ticking, and with more people getting involved, the risks were higher.

  He shook his head. All those years, a veritable fortune had lain somewhere in the swamp. If it hadn’t been for Anna, he would never have known about the lifetime of financial security waiting to be plucked.

  The nurse was a problem. It looked as if she had no intention of leaving the situation alone, and unless she did, the man would probably stay involved, as well. The police wouldn’t have the time, inclination or knowledge needed to find the village or track anything back to him, but if the woman and man kept looking, they might be able to do so.

  He took a sip of coffee and thought about all the dangers that could befall someone in the swamp. If the man and woman went back there, he would make sure they didn’t return.

  * * *

  IT TOOK THREE LONG HOURS for Max and Colette to provide their statements and fingerprints to the police, collect the boat Max rented and get on the highway to Pirate’s Cove. Colette was frustrated all over again by the bureaucracy of paperwork and apologies about staffing shortages. Once more, she found herself grateful that she’d saved more than spent and had the means to hire someone dedicated to the case.

  Alex and Holt were good people, and they’d been right in assigning Max to work with her. Despite his initial apprehension about Anna’s character, he’d launched himself one hundred percent into the job and had found her protégé on the first day. She couldn’t have asked more of him, but yet, here he was, still by her side, willing to ride it out until the end.

  He was an admirable man, which only made her wish she could get to know him better. Unfortunately, he seemed to guard his feelings as much as he did his pistol. When he’d kissed her, she’d thought for just a moment that he was finally going to let her take a peek inside. But then he’d broken it off and closed up even more than before.

  She sighed and stared down the empty highway that stretched in front of them.

  “Are you okay?” Max asked.

  She glanced over at him, just realizing her sigh had been loud enough to hear. “Yes. I’m frustrated and tired, but neither of those is going to keep me from pressing forward.”

  “You’re an accomplished woman. I wouldn’t expect any less.”

  She stared at him, a bit surprised at his words. “I guess so. I’ve never really thought about it.”

  “I don’t know why not. Alex says the job you do is one of the toughest and most demanding at the hospital.”

  She felt a blush creep up her neck. “That’s nice of her to say.”

  “She wasn’t being nice. You know Alex. If she didn’t mean it, she wouldn’t say it.”

  “Yes, that’s true enough.”

  “Is that what you always wanted to do—work in the emergency room?”

  “Heavens, no. I sorta fell into it.”

  Max looked over at her, one eyebrow raised. “How exactly does one ‘fall into’ being a trauma nurse?”

  “My first year out of school, I was working a night shift in the pediatric ward. There was a chemical fire at a warehouse nearby. It exploded and ten firefighters were injured in the blast. There was a huge thunderstorm going at the time and the on-call staff couldn’t get here as fast as usual, so they asked me to assist.”

  “And you did a terrific job.”

  “I guess. We were far too busy for anyone to stop and hand out compliments, but two days later, the hospital administrator called me in and offered me a lead position in the E.R., at double my current salary.”

  “Wow. I guess that was compliment en
ough. You’re cool under pressure, even with this investigation, and that’s far outside of your norm. They were smart to promote you.”

  Her cheeks burned as the blush crept up from her neck. “Thank you. If anyone would have told me during nursing school that this is what I’d be doing today, I would have laughed. I wasn’t always this capable. Being a nurse gave me confidence in myself that I’d always lacked.” She frowned. “It was doing the same thing for Anna.”

  Max placed his hand on hers and gave it a squeeze before releasing it. “And it will again. Soon, you’ll both be back to saving lives.”

  Colette nodded as she studied Max’s face. The words had been delivered almost with hesitation. It was very slight, but she had become very adept at picking up even the most obscure indication from people. Was Max more worried about the situation than he’d let on?

  Or had his words pricked a personal sore spot within herself? Lately, she’d been restless with her job, her satisfaction with her work diminished from what it used to be. She’d thought it was just a slump and it would go away, but over the months, it had festered, there in the back of her mind despite all attempts to push it back. Maybe when all this was over, she’d feel differently, and if she didn’t, then it was time to admit she was ready for a change.

  They rode in silence the remainder of the way to Pirate’s Cove, her mind racing with the events of the past twenty-four hours. The facts alone were a lot to absorb, but her emotions were the part she struggled with the most. This situation had brought to the surface issues she’d pushed back in her mind, not wanting to deal with them. Now it seemed they were all catapulted to the forefront.

  “Where will you launch the boat?” Colette asked as they pulled into Pirate’s Cove.

  “I figured I’d ask the gas-station owner, Danny. His boat launch was good enough for small craft, and he was helpful before.”