“What are these marks?” Nicole’s question broke into Ethan’s thoughts.
“What marks?”
“Look.” She placed a finger above a line. “Little pencil dots and dashes. You don’t think it could be Morse code, do you?”
Morse code? In cemetery records? Ethan took the book into his hands and carried it to better light. He turned a few pages. The pencil markings, faint and smudged, didn’t appear on every page, and slanted ascenders and descenders of inked handwriting nearly obscured the marks.
“Quinn borrows Dom’s pencil,” Nicole said.
Ethan looked up. The markings, whatever they were, came from Quinn’s hand. Ethan took his phone from his pocket and opened an Internet search bar to tap in MORSE CODE.
“We’re going to need some paper,” Nicole said.
Ethan selected one of the search results. Just as he turned to ask Old Dom if he had any paper they could use, a website for decoding Morse code popped open.
6:07 p.m
The first question that niggled at Dani all afternoon was how Eva Parker got out to the trail in the first place.
The second question was whose truck Eva saw and why it spurred her into running back down the trail.
Dani didn’t want to be the last person to see Eva Parker.
When she got back to town, Dani drove straight to the Parker house and climbed the front steps to ring the bell.
As soon as Gianna Parker opened the front door, Dani could see Gianna wasn’t pleased to see her. Since the two of them had never spoken five words to each other, Dani wasn’t clear just what objection Gianna had already formed. Dani wasn’t completely incapable of appropriate manners. She’d put on a dress for Quinn’s dinner, after all, and she pleased people enough that they called her back for small home repairs and computer work. This was one of those moments where Dani had to reach inside herself and pull out the manners she knew were there.
“Hello, Mrs. Parker. I’m Dani Roose.”
“What can I do for you?”
“I’m looking for Eva.”
“For what purpose, may I ask?”
Purpose? Dani smiled. “Friendship.”
“Aren’t you a bit old to be friends with a fifteen-year-old?”
Dani was now counting the remaining life of her smile in single-digit seconds. This was the mother who thought her daughter needed more friends. Apparently Gianna meant friends she could personally approve of.
“Is Eva here?” Dani’s primary objective was to be sure the girl had gotten home safely.
“My husband will be home any minute, and we’ll be sitting down to dinner.”
How was that an answer to a simple question?
“I only need a minute,” Dani said.
“Eva hasn’t been feeling well,” Gianna said. “I’d rather not disturb her.”
The answer was still indirect, but it seemed to indicate Eva was home. Dani looked past Gianna and saw the movement behind her.
“Hello, Eva,” Dani said over Gianna’s shoulder.
“It’s okay, Mom.” Eva came to the door.
Gianna scowled, an expression Dani suspected was well practiced and which Dani disregarded.
Eva slipped past her mother. “We’ll just wait for Dad and Brooke in the yard.”
With a sigh, Gianna surrendered and withdrew into the house. Eva pulled the door closed and led the way across the yard to a two-seater glider under a spreading oak tree. Dani followed.
Eva started a swinging motion. “What are you doing here?”
“You were a long way from home,” Dani said, “for someone who looks too young to drive.”
“I have my permit.”
“But you weren’t driving today.”
Eva swung a little harder. “No.”
“That trailhead is a good three miles from here.”
“I know.”
“Whose truck did you see?”
“You have a lot of questions.”
Two cars drove past the house. Dani waited for answers.
“I know this boy, Zeke. His uncle works at a bait shop at the lake,” Eva said. “Sometimes his uncle asks Zeke to bring him things he needs from town.”
“And sometimes you ride along with Zeke.”
“He doesn’t mind giving me a ride. I can walk for a few minutes while he makes his delivery. But he borrows his dad’s truck, so he can’t be late getting back. Please don’t tell my mother.”
They swayed with the glider. Dani had the information she’d come for. Eva was doing something behind her parents’ backs, but it wasn’t nearly as creepy as some of the alternatives that had passed through Dani’s mind after Eva ran off. She didn’t like to be in between people who ought to be talking to each other. Eva and Gianna would have to work this out.
“Why does your mother think you’re not feeling well?” Eva looked fine to Dani. No one could be certain what was going through another person’s mind, but Eva didn’t act sick.
“I get a lot of stomachaches. I had one today, but she made me stay at school.”
Going to school used to give Dani a stomachache, too. If she hadn’t been able to sign up for a class with Quinn every semester, she would have gone bonkers. At least for fifty-two minutes every day, she was in a room with someone who made an effort to understand her.
Dani buzzed her lips.
“What’s wrong?” Eva said.
“Look, kid … Eva … I don’t know why you chased after me today, but there are no easy answers to what you’re going through. You just have to be who you are, that’s all.”
“I don’t think I’ve figured out who that is yet.”
“You’re fifteen. You have time.” Dani gave the swing a fresh push. “This Zeke, does he give you a stomachache?”
“Not exactly.”
Dani waited.
“He tried to kiss me last week.”
“Tried?”
“I … ducked. I didn’t know what to do.”
“Then you’re not ready.”
“Melissa has a boyfriend. All the girls at our lunch table wish they did.”
At least Eva had a lunch table crowd. Dani was glad for that much on her behalf.
“So do they know about Zeke?”
Eva shook her head. “I hear how they talk. They would tell me stuff I should be doing with a boy, and I don’t want to do it.”
“Then don’t.”
“Why is everybody in such a hurry?” Eva’s voice cracked. “I want to go to college. I want to live on my own. I want to find a job I love. I want to do lots of things before I worry about having a boyfriend.”
Dani was starting to wish she’d left after she was sure Eva was safe.
“I just thought you would understand that,” Eva said.
“Well, I wasn’t cut out for college, and some people would say I don’t pay enough attention to my work.” Dani reached out and caught a leaf on its way down from the oak tree.
“But they still call you when they need something,” Eva said. “I bet you didn’t know that you fixed Melissa’s laptop after her dad was sure it was toast.”
Dani fixed a lot of laptops. Every time she did it, she promised herself she would never be so attached to something outside herself that she panicked if it stopped working. But Eva wasn’t really talking about deficient technology.
“You don’t have to be like everybody else to find your place,” Dani said. “You make the place where you want to live your life. Then if you’re happy there, you protect it.”
“What about love?” Eva whispered.
“Love comes in all shapes and sizes,” Dani said. Quinn. Liam and Cooper. Sylvia. Dani’s married sister and her new baby. Her parents. “Don’t pass it up thinking it has to look like Zeke and drive a red truck.”
Eva giggled, breaking the tension of the moment.
“Could we go hiking together sometime?” Eva asked. “I promise not to talk.”
Dani nodded. “Okay, kid, I’ll think about it.”
A BMW that could no longer be called new turned into the driveway
“There’s my dad and my sister, Brooke.” Eva hopped off the glider. “They’ve been to their first puppy training class.”
The back door of the vehicle opened, and a girl younger than Eva got out with her fist firmly wrapped around one end of a leash. A puppy romped out of the car and tugged on the leash.
Eva knelt in the grass, and the puppy strained toward her. Brooke gradually let the dog move toward the goal until Eva put her face straight down into the dog’s neck.
“Thank you,” Eva said when she looked up.
Dani shrugged and got off the glider.
Gianna appeared in the yard, and Jack walked over to kiss her cheek.
“How did it go?” Gianna asked.
Jack tilted his head toward the puppy. “The trainer said it wasn’t bad for a first session.”
“I have to have treats in my pocket all the time now,” Brooke said. “I have to reward her when she does the right thing.”
“Hello, Dani.” Jack looked puzzled and for good reason. A few hours ago, Dani would have been just as bewildered at the thought of finding herself in Jack Parker’s front yard.
“Dani’s going to take me hiking,” Eva said. “I hope that’s okay.”
Jack glanced at Gianna. “Sure. I guess.”
“Dinner’s ready.” Gianna turned toward the house. “I want to hear how you came out on your search through the old files.”
Dani paced to her Jeep, parked on the street. Jack wouldn’t find in his old files what she had already dug up.
7:02 p.m.
Sunset lowered darkness like a blind around Liam’s apartment building.
He hardly noticed the difference between the shadows and the brilliance of midday, though. Liam kept his drapes closed and his door bolted now. For the last twenty-four hours, he’d alternated between not sleeping in the bedroom and not sleeping in the living room. The more he thought about it, the more he was persuaded he might as well have shot himself in the foot yesterday when he went to see Jessica. Now she could report his words to anyone she chose.
His brother.
His boss.
The mayor.
The sheriff.
Free of context and body language between the two of them, his words would sound like an effort to cover up a crime. Technically, he supposed, they were. If Jessica had miraculously agreed to produce the needed funds, he would have figured out some way to put them back, to trace the trail backward and turn back time to before any of this started. Going forward he would have been vigilant about every transaction made on his accounts and hoped—prayed—that once they were married and Jessica didn’t have the wedding to obsess about, she would be happy with the life they shared.
There was no going forward now.
For the last week, Liam slept only when exhaustion overwhelmed fear and his body gave out. Then he would start to dream and wake with a jolt to realize it was all still true, and the cycle would begin again. The master of being cool, reassuring, and confident to close the deal was defeated. Belief that every circumstance contained an answer fled. Liam was past staring at his computer screen or printouts of the various reports. Inhaling the fragrance of Jessica’s blueberry scone yesterday was the closest he’d come to eating in two days. Now he sat on the couch chewing his thumbnails, uncertain how many hours he’d been in that same position. What did it matter? Without Jessica, his future was a formless void.
The only question now was how long it would take for someone to knock on his door with a search warrant.
And whether he would be there.
Liam put his head back and closed his eyes. The digits of the account numbers he’d stolen on the night of Quinn’s banquet burned against his eyelids, memorized. He doubted he would ever forget them. If he had used them, perhaps he wouldn’t have derailed his future with Jessica. Maybe he could have fixed this mess. But he hadn’t used them, and now there was no point in even trying.
The rap on the apartment door that woke him could have been a dream. His eyes popped open, but he didn’t move, instead listening for whether the sound would recur.
“Liam, are you in there? Don’t mess with me.”
Liam let his breath out. He got up, stumbled to the door, and took off both locks before falling back onto the couch.
The knob turned, and Dani entered. “What’s up with you? I had to knock three times.”
Liam glanced at the clock and saw that he had been asleep for twenty minutes.
“Sorry. I dozed off.” Liam got up and moved away from her stare. “I was just about to make coffee. Want some?”
“No offense, but I think you should back off the caffeine,” she said. “You look even worse than you did two days ago.”
“I just need to shower and shave.”
“I’ll say.” Dani waved a hand in front of her face.
Simultaneously, Liam was relieved to see his cousin and wished she would go away.
“I have some information for you.” Dani dumped herself into the recliner. The way she moved reminded Liam of Cooper, who did the same thing every time he came over.
Liam rubbed one eye. “I’m sorry. Information?”
“Dude, you need to wake up. Or sleep. Or something.”
Or something, he thought. He bypassed the coffeepot and instead went to the sink to splash cold water on his face.
“That address you gave me,” Dani said. “It’s a private investigator’s off-the-record address.”
“I don’t understand.” Liam guzzled cold water straight from the faucet.
“And you say I’m socially inappropriate.” Dani swung her legs around and they hit the floor with a carpeted thud. “It’s a Doing Business As of a Doing Business As of a private detective outfit with three investigators.”
“Speak English, please.”
“It’s a subgroup of a subgroup of the real company. Somebody is trying to separate what people see from what the company really is.”
“Sounds clandestine.” And it sounded like someone Liam could really use. Too bad the firm was three states away.
“Quinn’s looking for something. Or somebody.”
“I’m glad to hear you use the present tense.” Liam took a glass from the cupboard and stuck it under the ice dispenser before filling it with water.
“Why wouldn’t I? He’s away, that’s all.”
“Okay, let’s not go there.” Liam willed his eyes to stay open. “So what’s he looking for?”
“You didn’t ask me to find that out.”
“Danielle Elaine.” Why did she have to be that way?
“Liam Maurice.”
“You must have a theory.”
She shrugged. “An adoption? Maybe he has a child he just found out about, or maybe he was adopted himself and just discovered it.”
Equally unlikely possibilities, Liam thought. But maybe with some sleep, they would make sense.
“You can’t think of anything else people look for?”
“Relatives of some sort. Money they left in an old bank account. Some kind of inheritance.”
“Quinn doesn’t have any relatives, and he has plenty of money.” Liam didn’t know exactly how much, but Quinn had at least two accounts he wanted to roll over into a new investment. “And why use a UPS box in Birch Bend?”
“There’s this modern concept known as right to privacy. Lately people in this town act like there’s a ban on the idea.”
Sometimes Liam felt the childhood urge to punch Dani for being so aggravating. But she was younger and a girl, so when he tried that strategy as a boy he was always the one to get into trouble—no matter how much of a smart aleck Dani was.
“So you’ll tell Sylvia, then?” Dani stood up with her hands in the pockets of her orange North Face vest.
“I guess so.” Sylvia was the one Liam first went to with the information. She was entitled to the results of Dani’s search.
“And
Cooper.”
“Not Cooper. He’d come up with a statute that says my photographs were illegal.” Besides, learning that Quinn might be looking for somebody didn’t point to where he was right now.
“Nicole Sandquist, then,” Dani said. “She’ll know what to do with it. She’s staying with Lauren Nock in town.”
“Maybe. I’ll think about it and decide in the morning.”
Dani wandered across the apartment and sat on a stool at the breakfast bar. Too late, Liam saw what she reached for.
“Jessica’s engagement ring?” Dani held the ring up to the light between thumb and forefinger.
Liam set his glass down slightly too hard and scratched his head vigorously with both hands.
“She broke up with you, didn’t she?”
“Yes.” That much was certainly true. The reasons were another matter. “Do you know a jeweler in Birch Bend I can trust?”
“More intrigue.”
Liam took the moment for a long drink of cold water. He didn’t dare go to the only jeweler in Hidden Falls and suffer the embarrassment of everyone in town knowing this piece of truth.
Dani peered at the ring.
Liam lurched across the breakfast bar and snatched the ring from her hand. “Fine. She scammed me. I think she took out the diamond before she returned the ring. That’s how much a sucker she thinks I am. Is that what you want to hear?” It wasn’t the stone that gave it away, because honestly he couldn’t tell the difference between a diamond and cubic zirconia, but the setting now had a slight scratch that Jessica wouldn’t have tolerated if she’d planned to wear the ring. She hadn’t gone to the Hidden Falls jeweler, either. He wouldn’t have made that scratch.
Dani swiveled the stool back and forth. “Liam, as annoying as you are, you’re the closest thing I have to a brother. No, I don’t want to hear that Jessica scammed you. But only a jeweler can tell you for sure.”
“I’m sorry I snapped at you. It’s been a rough few days.” He finished his water. “Are you willing to do me another favor?”
Hidden Falls Page 39