Hidden Falls

by Newport, Olivia

  Nicole took a deep breath, wishing she could find the place in her own brain where that smell was stored so she could inhale it again and peek up at Quinn’s reassuring face with his amber eyes and ruddy cheeks. Her father loved her, but it was Quinn who made her feel safe.

  Was he safe now?

  A store now heralded by a sign about natural organic foods had once been a sweets shop, an irony that made Nicole smile. The sweets shop had been there for decades and featured old-style display cases and dispensers that Nicole hadn’t seen anywhere since she left Hidden Falls. St. Louis had its share of business history, but perhaps she was no longer in the habit of seeking out quaint little shops. As a child, if she had a dollar of her own, Nicole went into that store and calculated carefully what she could get. As a teenager, when she had money from babysitting or working for Marvin Stanford at the Dispatch, Nicole enjoyed surprising her friends with small gifts of fancy handmade candies. Quinn had always been partial to cherries covered in dark chocolate. Nicole gave him a box of twelve every Christmas, and every year he offered the first piece to her and then took one himself. They grinned at each other as they synchronized the first bites.

  Did any place in town sell handmade chocolates now? Or did Quinn have to go to Birch Bend to search out his favorites?

  She watched the park across the street. It looked the same as it always had, with a clump of towering maples at the center and evergreen bushes around the edges. The bricked path circled the park with an outlet on Main Street and another on the next street south. The cast-iron benches required minimal maintenance and contributed to the sensation that the little park was a vestige of another era. Perhaps once it had been larger before businesses built up around its edges. Nicole’s mother used to let her run on the brick path as long as no one else was in the park. In the weeks after Nicole’s mother’s funeral, Quinn twice took eight-year-old Nicole to the park to run the small circle as many times as she needed to, sitting patiently on one of the benches where she could wave at him as she came around the curves.

  Had she ever said thank you for any of it?

  A pit of regret deepened in Nicole’s stomach. She took Quinn for granted as a child, and in the last ten years, she took him for granted as an adult. She’d never imagined Quinn wouldn’t be there if she reached out for him.

  Five days.

  Now it might be too late. She’d written enough missing persons stories to know the odds of a good outcome—the outcome loved ones yearned for—dropped with each day. Someone gone five days might never come home.

  Nicole banished the thought. He could be sitting in an airport in San Francisco, for all she knew, or in New York waiting for a flight to France. He could be anywhere.

  In the park, a little boy in a brown-and-green jacket ran the circles Nicole used to run. She doubted the day’s temperature required a winter jacket, but its bulk didn’t hold him back any more than it would have restrained Nicole when she needed to run. A young woman Nicole presumed to be his mother met him on each lap with a hand outstretched for him to slap as he passed.

  Nicole sat up and put a hand on the windowsill. Cooper Elliott was walking through the park. Probably he was simply using the park as a shortcut from the sheriff’s station up to Main Street. He seemed in no particular hurry. Considering that Quinn was missing and his car smashed, Sylvia’s store had been burgled, and Dani’s boat was sabotaged, it seemed to Nicole that anyone on the sheriff’s staff should look busier. Whatever their usual routine was, they should all have plenty to do this week. As the most senior of the handful of deputies working from a base in Hidden Falls, Cooper in particular should be swamped. So why did he look so unflustered?

  Nicole made a mental note to track down Cooper’s cell phone number. Lauren’s aunt would have it. Cooper had seemed like a nice man when he was at Lauren’s with Ethan and Sylvia for dinner on the day Nicole broke her ankle, but if his work ethic would benefit from a little pressure, Nicole would be happy to supply it. She wondered if he’d looked over his shoulder to see that his brother was not far behind him with a white bakery bag and hesitant steps. Cooper turned one direction on Main Street, and a few minutes later, Liam turned the opposite way.

  Nicole watched the little boy take three laps before the mother grabbed her son’s wrist and guided him off the path. She immediately saw why. An old man shuffled on the bricks. His gait didn’t look particularly unsteady, but given his age and frail appearance, any mother would have been sensible to make sure her child was not the cause of harm.

  The old man raised his hat in the kind of greeting he must have learned as a young man. No one did that anymore. But the gesture revealed his face just long enough for Nicole to recognize him—the man from the cemetery on the western edge of Hidden Falls.

  Even when Nicole was a child and her mother died, he had seemed old to Nicole. He had guided the mourners to the gravesite, where the minister had said, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Now he was unquestionably at least eighty, maybe older.

  Tom. Was that his name? It didn’t sound quite right. Nicole fished deeper into her memory.

  Not Tom. Dom. “Old Dom,” people had called him.

  Short for Dominick. Nicole wasn’t sure if that was his first name or his last name, but it didn’t matter.

  She picked up the photo of Ethan’s lookalike and set it on the arm of the recliner. In her lap, she positioned her iPad and opened an Internet search.

  9:14 a.m.

  Liam could smell the drizzled blueberry scone, still warm in the bag and nestled next to the steaming cup of rich Ecuadorian coffee, both Jessica’s favorites.

  Yesterday had been the longest day of his life. In the middle of the night, Liam looked at his image in the bathroom mirror and thought he had aged five years in five days. How long could he endure by substituting coffee for sleep? The swelling dread of knowing someone else knew his secret tormented him. Even without near intravenous caffeine levels, his heart would be racing alongside his imagination.

  He had to talk to Jessica. He would grovel an apology to get her to listen, and then he would speak the words that seemed to be his only way out. His options were to give himself a heart attack waiting for the blackmailer’s next move or to risk a broken heart with this conversation with Jessica. He couldn’t stand the waiting, so he approached Jessica’s office with gifts to soften his unplanned appearance.

  Jessica worked in accounting for a small department store, Hidden Falls’s answer to Sears or JCPenney. Liam suspected that what kept them in business was old-fashioned credit based on relationship rather than credit scores, along with a population dominated by an aging generation less and less inclined to drive to Birch Bend for their first-choice item if they could find their second choice on Main Street between stops at the pharmacy and the bookstore. Jessica’s office was on the third floor with all the business workings of the store. Liam paced through the first-floor clothing and housewares sections to the stairwell tucked away at the rear of the store. The employees knew him. No one would question his presence passing the second floor on his way up. He turned left at the top of the stairs and entered the maze of offices. The building was historic, a hundred years old, and the offices hadn’t been converted to the impersonal cubicles of more modern buildings.

  At her open door, Liam knocked twice and held up the bakery bag.

  “Truce?”

  She looked up from her computer, but Liam couldn’t read her expression. Either her mind had not yet shifted from the preoccupation of her work or his visit was unwelcome even with a scone and coffee.

  “I’m sorry about the other night,” he said. “I should have been thrilled that you were ready to set a wedding date.”

  “But you aren’t,” she said.

  “Of course I am.” He would have married her years ago if she hadn’t wanted a lavish wedding they couldn’t afford. “I stuck my foot in my mouth at Vittorio’s. I was just stunned that we went from scraping for wedding money to having it. I love yo
u and want to marry you.”

  Liam’s words were true on both counts, but he doubted that the first truth would lead to the second.

  She waved him in. He closed the door behind him, wondering if the old walls between offices were as soundproof as they looked.

  “Will you forgive me?” he said.

  Her lips pouted. He kept going.

  “No matter how much I had on my mind, I should have taken you in my arms and kissed you and then announced to the whole restaurant that I was going to marry the love of my life.”

  “Now that’s more like it.” Jessica swiveled in her chair to face him.

  “You looked fantastic that night. You always do. I’m so lucky to have you in my life.” And letting go of you will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

  The door opened and a buyer for the women’s department stuck her head in. “My distributor says we didn’t pay them.”

  “Of course we did,” Jessica said. “I’ll send you the info on the electronic transfer.”

  “ASAP, please. They’re holding up my next order.”

  The buyer ducked out.

  “Just give me a minute.” Jessica swiveled back to her computer and clicked around before hitting SEND with a flourish.

  Liam opened the bakery bag and laid the scone before her, followed by the coffee.

  “None for you?” Jessica took a bite.

  “I just wanted to see you smile.” One last time.

  She tilted her head and obliged him. Her phone rang, and she reached for it.

  “It should be here later this afternoon…. Yes, I’ll bring it right to you…. Let me know if you have more questions.”

  Liam got up and closed the door again.

  Jessica hung up the phone. “Good move, bringing a scone to apologize.” She stood up, came around the desk, and leaned into him, pressing him up against the wall behind the door to kiss him hard.

  His hands circled her waist. Jessica had a habit of wearing slinky clothes, not immodest but silky enough to slide over her skin with the slightest touch or movement. As her mouth made a fresh attack on his lips, his hands slid up. He could feel the heat of her skin under his fingers and deepened the kiss. A moan escaped her lips just as a knock on the door startled them both. They jumped apart.

  “Come in.” Jessica moved away from the door.

  Liam recognized a clerk from the men’s department.

  “Here’s the envelope for the group gift for Mr. Swift. Just pass it on when you’re finished.”

  Jessica took the envelope and tossed it on her desk. “Now where were we?”

  Liam took hold of her hands and held them. “Maybe this isn’t the best place for a private conversation. Is there somewhere we can go?”

  “Sounds serious.”

  “It is.”

  “I can meet you tonight.”

  Liam’s resolve might shatter if he waited that long. “If you can get away, I’d like to talk now.”

  She pressed her lips together in thought. “There’s an empty office near the receiving dock. No one would bother us there.”

  He took her hand, and they rode a freight elevator down to the dock. Two small trucks were backed up against the receiving platform. Jessica led Liam past the unloaders and into a windowless room.

  She flipped on the lights. “What’s on your mind?”

  Liam’s heart crashed against his ribs. “I didn’t listen to everything you wanted to say the other night about your promotion and the extra money.”

  She shrugged. “I told you. I have more responsibility, and they gave me a pay raise. I’ve been putting all the extra money aside for the wedding.”

  “It must have been quite a raise.”

  Her jaw stiffened. “Don’t you trust me?”

  If he did, he wouldn’t be sweating through this conversation. “If we’re going to be married, I think we should be transparent with our finances, don’t you?”

  “I’m used to my independence. I’ve always supported myself.”

  “I know. But we’ve talked so much about what the wedding would cost and how we would pay for it.”

  “I would think you’d be happy I came up with a solution.”

  “Of course I am. My business hasn’t been great lately. I’m sorry I haven’t been contributing more to the joint account.”

  “It’ll get better. We still have a few months before the wedding.”

  Liam leaned one shoulder against a wall. “I should tell you what’s really happening.”

  Her eyes met his.

  “I’m pretty sure I’ve been hacked,” he said. “Someone has been messing with my accounts.”

  “Are you missing money?”

  She asked the question without missing a beat. Shouldn’t she have been surprised? Sympathetic? Liam hadn’t thought his gut could burn any hotter than the last five days, but now it did. Truth was a searing sword.

  He and Jessica had been a couple for six years. Though he changed his passwords frequently because the corporate system would lock him out if he didn’t, Liam had his own backup system for remembering them. Jessica wouldn’t have had to hack his passwords but only into the site where he stored them. Decoding one password would get her into his entire list. Bank accounts, social media, online retailers. He supposed a husband and wife ought to know each other well enough to think as the other would in a crisis, but he had thought this ability would be based on trust, not used for distrust.

  “What do you think I should do?” he asked tentatively. “Go to the police? Find a way to borrow the money and replace it?”

  Jessica stepped back from him. “If you’re hinting at borrowing from me after I’ve sacrificed for our wedding—”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You don’t have to. I know how you think.”

  And I know how you think.

  “Maybe I could find the money,” Liam said. “You could help me trace back the financial transfers. You understand these systems. We could get it back.”

  “I can’t get involved, Liam.”

  “If we’re going to be married, we’ll be in this together.”

  “I love you, Liam, but I’m not going to tamper with bank accounts for you.”

  No. Only for yourself. “And I love you. We could fix this and never have to talk about it again.”

  “Talk about what, Liam?”

  He saw no question in her eyes as he moved toward her. “We don’t have to have a fancy wedding.”

  “We don’t have to have any wedding at all.”

  “Jess, come on. Let’s figure this out together.” He stroked her shoulder.

  “I don’t like your tone.” She pulled the ring off her left hand and pushed it into his palm. “I’ve been thinking since the other night, too. I don’t believe in you anymore, Liam, and you don’t know me at all.”

  More hurtful than her words was the truth that he did know her. He closed his fist around the ring.

  “Good-bye, Liam.” Jessica yanked open the door and left.

  Liam opened his hand and studied the ring. The fluorescent lights were starkly bright in the empty room. He stared at the setting Jessica had been so particular about.

  Something was not right. What had she done with the money? And the diamond?

  9:56 a.m.

  Nicole rolled across the living room to answer the knock on the door. Ethan stood there in jeans and a sweatshirt.

  “I thought you were never going to get here.” Nicole shoved herself away from the door.

  “Good morning.” Ethan closed the door.

  Nicole braced for a scolding about being out of the recliner and skipped mentioning that the door hadn’t been locked. “Don’t get comfortable. We have to go out.”

  “Didn’t last night’s adventure satisfy your wanderlust?” Ethan dropped his keys in a pocket.

  “Don’t put your keys away,” she said. “I want to go see that new attorney, Jack Parker.”

  “Never heard of him.”


  “He’s just over in the next block. He bought out Morris and Morris.” One phone call to Benita Booker had caught Nicole up on what the town knew about its newest attorney. “Just give me a minute to find what Lauren did with my running shoe.”

  Ethan stepped into her path and caught the chair. “Can we slow down a little bit?”

  “I’ve already lost two days.” Nicole tried to roll back, but Ethan gripped both sides of the chair’s seat, stooping to put his face level with hers. For a few seconds, she stared into his wide brown eyes and felt his exhaling breath on her neck. Neither of them spoke.

  “I’m sure you have a good reason to see Mr. Parker,” Ethan said, “but let’s get on the same page.”

  “Sorry.” She sucked in a filling breath and let it out with considerable control. “First of all, I’m really glad you’re here—in Hidden Falls, I mean. I thought maybe you’d left for Columbus.”

  “I would have told you.” He released his hold on her chair and sat on the sofa, stumbling over her shoe in the process.

  Nicole caught the shoe when he tossed it and bent over to put it on, avoiding Ethan’s eyes. “Second, I’ve been staring out that window feeling afraid I’ve missed my chance to tell Quinn how grateful I am and apologize for taking him for granted all these years.”

  “He knows how you feel about him—how we both do.”

  “I suppose,” Nicole said, “but that doesn’t excuse me from saying thank you. My parents brought me up better than that.” And so did yours, she wanted to add but didn’t.

  “I want him to know,” Nicole said. “He gave so much love. I want him to know it wasn’t wasted.”

  “Love is never wasted,” Ethan said.

  Nicole looked at Ethan now, straining against the lump in her throat. Even after he walked away from her ten years ago, she never felt her love had been wasted.

  She broke the gaze. “I still can’t get Quinn’s computer to power up properly.”

  “I have good news on that.”

  Ethan leaned back and laid an ankle on the opposite knee, as if he were planning to settle in. Nicole bit back on prodding him to get out the door and instead gave him the most expectant look she could muster.