He grabbed the doorknob, drew in a deep breath and then opened it. A whoosh of relief escaped him as he saw exactly what he’d hoped to see: a refrigerator, several wells holding minnows, a screened-in box full of live crickets and no bodies.
He looked back at Marlena and shook his head. Even from this distance, he could see the relief that washed over her pretty face. He met her on a graveled path that led near the edge of the water.
“Does the pond have big fish?” he asked as they fell in step together.
“Some of the guests have pulled out real beauties,” she replied. “Mostly catfish and bass and the ever-present bottom-feeding carp.”
“Do you fish?”
“No way. This is as close as I ever get to the pond or any body of water bigger than a bathtub.” Her eyes darkened with a hint of fear. “I never learned how to swim.”
He absorbed this information as he did every minute detail about her and his surroundings. “What other buildings are on the property?” he asked, focusing back on the reason they were taking this walk.
“Just a big gardening shed, John’s place and the carriage house,” she replied.
“We’ll check out the gardening shed, and then I want you to let me into the carriage house. It was too late last night to search there by the time we processed the kitchen and interviewed you, your brother and John, but we need to check the place and make sure nothing is out of order there.”
“Okay,” she replied, her voice filled with anxiety.
They walked in silence for a few minutes, following the path that edged the side of the pond. “You think I’m guilty of something, don’t you?” she said, finally breaking the tense silence between them.
She was definitely guilty of stirring an unexpected, unwanted fire of desire inside him. He was aware that she was waiting for his answer. He shrugged. The truth was that, at this moment, he had no definitive answer for her as to whether he believed her guilty of having something to do with the Connellys’ disappearance or not.
* * *
A WEARY EXHAUSTION battled with the pound of a headache as Marlena cut up fruit to make a salad for the evening meal. After she and Gabriel had walked the grounds earlier that day, Gabriel had spent the rest of the morning on his laptop, while Jackson had worked at the bed-and-breakfast computer in the tiny office just off the common room. Andrew had gone into town to ask questions and make arrangements for Marion Wells, Valerie King and Pamela Winters to come to the house to be interviewed.
Around noon Marlena had placed a platter of ham and cheese sandwiches, along with a big bowl of potato salad, on the table. She had stacked the plates and silverware, allowing the men to eat whenever they were ready rather than calling them to a sit-down meal.
All the rules had changed. From the moment she’d awakened and found the family gone, the neat and orderly world inside the bed-and-breakfast had been shattered.
Marlena was on the verge of shattering every time she thought of the missing people she loved. Daniella had been like a sister, and in the past two years, Sam had become like a favorite brother-in-law. Seven-year-old Macy was the icing on the cake in the family Marlena had temporarily claimed as her own.
Marlena had spent most of the afternoon either in her room or in the kitchen preparing dinner. She’d decided to serve the men a hearty meal of smothered pork chops, mashed potatoes and corn. The fruit salad would be perfect to finish off as dessert. She knew that Gabriel had spent the afternoon interviewing Marion Wells, Valerie King and Pamela Winters, but she suspected those women knew no more than she did about what had happened.
The back door creaked open and she jumped, nearly slicing her finger. She relaxed as she saw her brother step into the kitchen. Lately, most of the time she wanted to take him by the shoulders and shake some adult sense into him, but at the moment, the sight of him was a welcome one, and her heart filled with love.
“Hey, sis. How’s it going?”
“It’s going,” she replied.
He slumped into one of the chairs at the table. “This is all so weird.”
“Scary weird,” she agreed, and then couldn’t help herself. “I thought you were going to get a haircut last week.”
He raked a hand through his shaggy blond hair. “I didn’t get around to it yet, and don’t start nagging.”
She grinned ruefully. “I don’t have the heart or the energy at the moment to nag you. How about a glass of chocolate milk? You know chocolate milk solves everything.”
A hint of a smile curved his lips, and she knew he was thinking of all the bad times they’d gone through in the past. Chocolate milk had always been her panacea. “That sounds good,” he agreed.
She made the milk with chocolate syrup, stirred it until it was foamy and then set a glass for Cory and a glass for herself on the table.
“Thanks.” He took a drink and then looked at her. “I saw you walking with that detective this morning. Is he giving you a hard time?”
“Gabriel Blankenship. And, no, he isn’t giving me a hard time, but he’s doing his job. By the end of our walk this morning, my head was spinning from all the questions he’d asked.”
“Questions like what? Surely he doesn’t think you had anything to do with this.”
She took a sip from her glass. As always, the sight of Cory caused love to well up inside her. He had the face of a choirboy, open and earnest, with blue-green eyes that radiated a soulful innocence.
“I don’t know what exactly he thinks about me, but he asked me the questions I would expect under the circumstances. Did Sam and Daniella have any enemies? Had either of them been threatened recently? Had their moods changed in the past few days? Of course, my answer was no to all of them.”
“How did this happen? Do you think whoever took them will come back to take us?” His eyes simmered more blue than green.
“Oh, Cory, I don’t think so. I don’t think any of us are in danger.” But she wasn’t sure if she believed the reassuring words or not.
Without knowing who had taken the Connelly family and why, without knowing exactly what had happened in the kitchen the night they disappeared, there was no way to know if there was still danger lurking about or not.
“Are you eating with the others in the dining room tonight?” she asked. Cory often sat with the guests for dinner.
“Nah. John and I are heading into town for pizza.”
“It’s nice that you and John get along so well.” She finished her milk, placed the glass in the sink and then returned to slicing up the last of the fruit.
“He’s cool. He’s kind of like a father, always telling me how to do things and teaching me stuff. We caught two rattlesnakes today, cut off their heads and threw them into the woods.”
Marlena’s heart filled with sorrow for her brother, who had lost his mother and father far too soon. Although Marlena had done everything in her power to fill Cory’s needs and see to his care, she knew she hadn’t been a substitute for a masculine presence in his life.
“As far as I’m concerned, the only good snake is a dead snake,” she replied. “I’m glad you have John. Every boy needs a male role model in his life, but don’t forget our future game plan.”
“Yeah, yeah, I remember.” He finished his milk and stood. “I’d better get out of here. We have some work to do outside before we head into town for dinner.” He walked over to her and kissed her on the temple. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked in a surprising role reversal.
“I’m hanging in there,” she replied, a surge of pride fluttering in her heart as she realized the child she’d raised was showing all the signs of becoming a man.
By the time she placed dinner on the table, the house was empty except for herself and the three agents. She served them and then returned to the kitchen, where she ate her dinner at the table where Sam,
Daniella and Macy had been interrupted in a nighttime snack.
Their absence was a physical pain in her heart, and she knew it would be there until she got some answers. Hopefully Gabriel and his men had come up with something during the day’s investigation.... A clue, a potential motive, something that would find the family alive and well.
After the men had eaten and she’d cleared their dishes and cleaned the kitchen, she retired to her private rooms, figuring the best thing she could do was stay out of the way of anything the FBI agents were doing to investigate.
It was after eight when a knock fell on her door. She got up from the rocking chair and opened the door to see Gabriel.
“May I come in?” he asked.
Surprised, she opened the door farther and motioned him to the sofa, then sank back in the old wooden rocking chair that squeaked faintly with every rock. “Did you find out anything today?” she asked, trying to ignore the pleasant woodsy scent that had followed him into the room.
“Several things, but nothing concrete to provide a trail to follow.” As usual, his handsome features appeared set in stone, and there was no warmth, no welcome at all in the depths of his eyes. “I stopped in to tell you that it isn’t necessary for you to cook for us. We aren’t paying guests here, so we aren’t your responsibility.”
“I really don’t mind, and besides, it keeps me busy. I’ll go crazy with nothing to do around here,” she protested.
He leaned against the sofa back, seeming to shrink the size of the piece of furniture—and the entire room—with his presence. “Pamela Winters is not a fan of yours.”
Marlena couldn’t help the short burst of laughter that escaped her at his understatement. “Pamela Winters hates my guts.”
“Why is that?”
Marlena rocked several times, the squeak of the chair the only noise in the room as she thought of the dark-haired woman who worked as the head housekeeper.
Marlena finally stopped her movement and focused on the man asking the questions. “I think Pamela thought she was going to become the manager once Daniella decided to give up some of the reins of the daily running of the place. Unfortunately, when I arrived here, penniless and with no place else to go, Daniella not only took me under her wing, but she instantly appointed me manager. I don’t blame Pamela for feeling betrayed, but somehow her anger has been pointed at me. We’re civil with each other, but she’s made it clear she doesn’t want to be my friend.”
“She thinks maybe you had something to do with the disappearances because you might be named a beneficiary in Sam’s and Daniella’s wills.”
Marlena gasped, and then laughed again. “That’s ridiculous.” Her laughter died, and she began to rock back and forth with a sense of both outrage and fear. “First of all, I refuse to believe that they’re dead, and I’ll repeat again, I had absolutely nothing to do with their disappearance. Second, they would have never made me a beneficiary. Daniella knew this was just a stopping place for me and Cory, that it was temporary until we gathered our resources to get on with our lives, and that we were planning on leaving soon.”
“Get on with your lives? What does that mean?”
She was aware of the piercing quality of his eyes and the simmer of some indefinable energy between them. “My goal was never to be a manager of a bed-and-breakfast. Cory and I are planning to eventually move to a bigger city where I can get a teaching degree, and he can get some sort of technical training. I want the house and the dog, the husband and the children. Daniella and Sam knew that this job was just temporary for me, that I had different dreams than staying here in Bachelor Moon. Are you married?”
“No, and have no intention of joining the ranks of the married set. I like living alone. I wouldn’t do marriage well, so there’s no point in trying it.” He stood suddenly. “I’ll let you get back to whatever you were doing before I came in.”
She got out of the rocking chair and followed him to the door. “Actually, I’m thinking of taking a little walk. I could use some fresh air.”
“Then I’ll just say good night.” Gabriel gave her a curt nod and left, heading back through the kitchen and dining room toward the stairs to his room.
Marlena left her room and stepped through the kitchen door that led outside. She breathed deeply of the humid, floral-scented air. Darkness had fallen, but a full moon shone overhead, easily lighting the path that led around the pond.
Her head ached with all the questions, the fears, the utter horror of the past twenty-four hours. What had happened to Sam and Daniella and Macy? It was as if an alien spaceship had shot down a beam that had instantly drawn them up and out of the house, leaving no identifying clues behind.
She couldn’t imagine who might want to hurt the Connellys. They were respected, warm and giving to both their guests and the community of Bachelor Moon. Daniella served on a half dozen charity committees, and Sam was the man people called on when they were in trouble or needed something done. Macy was everyone’s delight with her sassy attitude and sweet, loving heart.
As she neared the area where the walkway came closest to the pond, a chorus of bullfrogs sang a deep-throated tune and a faint splash indicated that the fish were jumping.
It was a beautiful night, and yet all was wrong with the world. Tears burned at her eyes as she thought of the people she loved, people who were missing without any apparent reason.
The path she followed stopped abruptly at the far end of the pond. A trail led off to John’s little cabin but a sign indicated that guests weren’t allowed on the narrow path.
She turned and started back the way she had come. Her thoughts shifted to the man in charge of the case: Gabriel Blankenship.
She was both drawn to and repelled by him at the same time. His intensity nearly stole her breath away. Something about him made her pulse pound a little harder, her heart race a little faster. She recognized it as some sort of strange attraction, but he was certainly the last man she’d want any kind of relationship with.
He was here to do a job, and when the job was done, he would be gone. He’d just told her that he wasn’t the marrying type, and marriage was definitely on her wish list. She’d thought that was where she was headed with Gary Holzman when she’d lived in Chicago, but that dream had exploded and she’d wound up here with nothing but a beat-up car spewing fumes, a suitcase full of clothes and Cory.
She’d just about reached the part of the walkway that was closest to the pond’s edge when the sound of rustling in the brush behind her stopped the bullfrog’s song.
She had no chance to turn, no time to process that danger was coming before she was shoved from behind with enough force that she flew forward and was weightless for an instant—airborne—and then she plunged into the pond.
Headfirst she went down...down, with no idea how to get up.
Chapter Three
Although it was relatively early, after the short night before, Gabriel had told both Jackson and Andrew to head to bed and get a good night’s sleep, as he intended to do himself. He was certain the next day would be a long one, and he wanted them all to start out rested.
He stripped down to a pair of boxers and then opened the window, despite the air-conditioning that kept the room cool and pleasant. Since the age of seven, Gabriel had always kept his bedroom window open, never knowing when he might need to make a hasty escape from a raging drunken father.
Certainly more than once throughout his childhood, he’d used the window to flee the wrath of George Blankenship. Like Marlena’s, Gabriel’s mother had abandoned him and his father when Gabriel had been seven. She’d left him in the hands of a brutal man who’d either beaten him half to death for unclear reasons or ignored him until Gabriel was old enough to exit and never look back.
He’d lived on the streets, worked a hundred different jobs, and waffled between a life of cri
me and a life of investigating crimes. He’d finally managed to make his way through college with a criminal justice degree and a minor in psychology, and that’s when the FBI had brought him in as a profiler.
He loved his job and he was good at it, but this particular case already had him frustrated by the lack of leads. The bank records had shown no red flags either in the personal or business finances. The email accounts showed no threats or unusual activity. So far he and his team hadn’t spoken to anybody who didn’t admire or like the family.
Granted, they were still in the beginning stages of the investigation, but he knew that, in many disappearances, within the first couple of hours, the taken were killed.
What he didn’t know yet was who had been the intended target. Was it Sam, and his wife and stepdaughter were merely collateral damage? Was there something in Daniella’s past that might have brought this on?
He turned off the light in his room and got beneath the lavender top sheet, his mind whirling a million miles an hour. There had to have been more than one person involved; otherwise how was it possible for a single individual to neutralize three people and get them out of their home? And Marlena had heard nothing, which meant either she was lying or whoever had come in and taken the three people had done so relatively silently. How was that possible with a seven-year-old little girl in the mix?
The sound of a splash came from outside the window—a loud splash. Must be a fish the size of a minitorpedo, he thought. A thrashing noise followed, and then a faint cry.
Definitely a female cry. Marlena had told him she was going out to get some fresh air. Who had made that splash? Had it been a fish, or her?
Gabriel bolted up from the bed and flew out of his room. He stumbled down the stairs two at a time, his heart surging with adrenaline as he remembered she couldn’t swim.
As he flew through the lower level of the house and into the kitchen, he noted that Marlena’s door to her rooms was open, as was the back door.
He burst out into the hot night air and again heard a splashing and a frantic cry from the pond. By the time he reached a vantage point where he could see the water, the moon glittered down on the smooth surface.
Scene of the Crime: Return to Bachelor Moon Page 3