by Clare Revell
He scrunched his nose. “I don’t like grapefruit.” He sipped his drink. “You were supposed to tell me about yourself over dinner. As we never got around to having that conversation, perhaps you could do so now.”
Lou eased back in her chair. “I have a much younger brother and sister from Mum’s second marriage. They live in the States with Mum and my stepfather.”
“And your leg?”
“A swimming accident.” She frowned at the drink in her hand. “It still gives me nightmares now. Especially this time of year.”
His hand brushed hers again, sending sparks flying along every nerve. “What happened?”
“It’s a long story. Jim, Staci, and I left on his boat to find their parents. They’d been caught up in a tsunami following the Philippines earthquake several years ago, and no one was searching for them. So we decided to conduct the search ourselves.” She broke off. “And the short story is a shark.”
Evan’s eyes widened and he paled. “A shark?”
“Yeah,” she said quietly. “Shark. We were miles from anywhere. Jim did his best, but by the time we were rescued, I was almost dead. My stepfather found us. Well, technically he kept finding us, and he wasn’t my stepfather then as he was only dating Mum at the time. Not that I knew that, and I wasn’t impressed when I found out either. Sorry, I digress. He rescued us, and the medical team on the air base he worked at saved my life. They couldn’t save my leg though.”
“Who’s Jim?”
“My best friend. The bloke I really liked that I told you about. He and Staci lived with us sometimes when their parents were on the mission field.”
Evan nodded. “Ah, right.”
“Anyway. He married Ailsa, whom we also picked up on our jaunt across the world. They now have one and a half kids.” She drained the drink and put the glass down on the table beside the laptop. “Even Staci is dating now. Her boyfriend’s in the army.”
“What about you?”
“Kids aren’t on the agenda. Nor are boyfriends. I’m too old now.”
He scoffed. “Thirty-two isn’t old.” He tilted his head. “I got your age from the Internet.”
“Remind me to delete my birthday from every social media page I have,” she muttered. “Besides, I’m married to my career. No time for boyfriends or kids or a life. It would have been nice. I always said my first son would be called Benson after my dad. Keep the family surname going somehow. But it won’t ever happen.”
“Never say never.” Evan nodded to the laptop. “May I see some of the photos of the lake?”
Lou opened the laptop. “Sure. It needs a few seconds to boot up again.” As the pictures loaded, she pointed things out. “Here’s the church, here’s the steeple…”
“Open the doors and here’s all the people,” Evan quipped. He did the accompanying movements with his hands. “Here’s the parson going upstairs and here’s the parson saying his prayers.”
Lou smiled, saying the last phrase with him, her hands mimicking his. “Haven’t heard that one in years. Do you know the knives and forks one?”
Evan shook his head. “Never heard that one.”
“This is mother’s knives and forks…” Lou showed him how that rhyme went then pointed back at the screen. “It must have been some fire,” she said, indicating the scorched stone above the waterline. “As you can see the damage is even more intense here and here.” She clicked through the photos. “The flames reached part way in to the interior of the church, which is remarkably well-preserved despite the water and fire. My guess is the flooding of the village extinguished the remaining fire.”
“Fascinating,” Evan managed. He was unable to hide the expression of wonder and something she couldn’t quite pin down. It could be shock or concern, but something definitely disturbed him about the photos. His eyes widened and his finger touched the screen. “What is that? It looks like…”
“That is a body.”
“Just sitting there?” Horror affected both his gaze and his voice, and he shifted uncomfortably on the chair.
She nodded. “I took some close ups.” She angled the screen to give him a better view.
Evan shuddered, seemingly unable to tear his gaze away despite his obvious need to do so. “How did he get there?”
“Like AJ said at dinner last night, his theory is he floated in from the graveyard, but my photos and preliminary examination of the graves show none have been disturbed. His placement there in the church is too precise. See here and here?” She pointed. “Remains of ropes. My guess is he was tied to the pew before the waters came.”
Evan blanched. “He was murdered?”
She nodded. “He could hardly have committed suicide, could he? And he wasn’t the only one. Some of the bodies show clear signs of head injuries that couldn’t have been caused by the fire or the flood. Either way, I want to bring the bodies to the surface tomorrow or the day after. Get a coroner to examine them.”
“It’s a little late for that. Any physical evidence of murder, aside from the obvious, would have been washed away years ago.” He cleared his throat. “Do you have photos of my great-grandparents’ house?”
She clicked a few more times. “Right here, along with the rest of the village.” She showed him some of the exterior shots and then closed the folder. “You don’t want to see the rest.”
“Yes, I do. I’d like to see the interior shots.”
“Trust me. You don’t. It’s only stones, piles of old furniture, plaques on walls, and so on. There really isn’t much left inside at all. The church gives you a false idea of what you’ll find anywhere else.”
Evan reached out to open the folder. “I insist.”
Lou grabbed his hand, desperate to stop him. The last thing he needed was to see a body there as well. “Evan, I—”
His gaze met hers, his eyes widening. Did he feel it, too?
That almost electrical charge that shot from her hand straight through her, tingling every nerve ending she had, plus a few she didn’t know about?
Evan drew her towards him, his lips almost crushing hers with a passion that apparently consumed them both. His firm body pressed against hers. His hands moved through her hair, down her arms, fuelling the fire that raged within her.
Her phone rang, jerking her out of the kiss. She moved back. “I have to take this.” Her chest rose and fell as she glanced at the screen. “Hi, Jim. Why aren’t you working?”
“Lunch break. We do get them you know. Are you OK? You sound out of breath. Have you been running?”
“I’m fine, and you know I don’t run anywhere unless I absolutely have to.” She wasn’t about to tell him she’d just been kissed senseless and breathless. She leaned back in the chair. “What’s up?”
“I’m really worried about you and this whole work situation.”
“Don’t be. This new case is rather intriguing. I have all my notes from Wales, and I’ll finish proofreading the paper tonight and have it on my publisher’s desk before midnight. That’s at least a week sooner than anyone else can. Though if what I’ve heard is accurate, it’ll be months before they piece things together again over there.”
Evan paced across the room, obviously trying not to listen to the conversation.
“Is that legal?” Jim asked, dragging her attention away from Evan.
She sighed. “At this point, I really don’t care. It’s my work. I’m not taking this lying down.”
“You need to tread carefully, Lou. Or you may end up getting fired.”
“Not if I quit first, which I intend to do as soon as possible. Varian crossed a line today and that is the last straw.” She paused. “No, that doesn’t make me a camel before you suggest it. And yes I know I have the hump with him. I have a couple of things in the proverbial pipeline. Changing the subject, have you heard from Mum recently?”
“No. Why?”
“You told me to call her, so I have been. She isn’t answering her phone, that’s all. I wanted to ask her somethi
ng, nothing important, mind, but it’s not like her to ignore messages.”
Jim’s chair squeaked in the background and he spoke to someone in the background, his tone muffled by what Lou assumed was a hand over the phone. “Sorry about that. Perils of being in command of the squadron. No matter where I hide with my lunch, they find me.”
Lou laughed. “So, don’t hide in your office.”
Jim chuckled. “That obvious, huh? I wouldn’t worry about your Mum. Jack’s probably taken her somewhere nice as it’s their wedding anniversary soon. Alisa and I are heading up there this weekend, to tell the honorary grandparents the baby news. It’s a shame you can’t join us.”
“Work,” she said quietly, secretly loving the fact that Jim loved her parents as much as he loved his own, treating them like the in-laws he didn’t have. “Never mind that Vegas is a long way from here and not doable in a weekend. I should let you get on. Give Mum and Dad my love when you see them.” She hung up and pocketed the phone. “Sorry. Where were we?”
Evan came over to her and lifted her to her feet. His finger ran over her lips. “Just about here.”
His second kiss was as mind blowing as the first. Lou found herself floating several feet off the ground, transported by the sensations he was producing in her.
Finally, he broke off and pressed his lips to her forehead.
“Wow,” she whispered.
Evan smiled. “Anyone would think you’d never been kissed before.”
“I haven’t.” Her cheeks burned. “Well, not until you kissed me a few seconds ago.”
His gaze held hers, his knuckles grazing her cheek. “Really?”
She nodded. “Never.” Her breath caught as his face lowered to hers, and he kissed her again. Part of her wanted to run; afraid of where this would lead, but the other part of her didn’t care.
A faint rumbling resonated in the air and the ground under her feet shifted. “What was that?”
“The earth moving,” he quipped, kissing her again.
A loud crack and an explosion rocked the building sending them both to the floor. Evan landed beside her. The ground shifted violently. Pictures tumbled from the walls, one narrowly missing them. Evan jerked her closer, rolling them both under the table, shielding her with his body.
The rumbling and shaking increased and the lights went out.
16
Lou held onto Evan for dear life as the ground shook and something heavy hit the table above them. “Is it an earthquake?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
The shaking stopped.
Evan glanced down at her. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine.” Lou pulled out her phone. “No signal.” She flipped up the torch app.
Evan checked his handset. “Nor here.” He also flipped on his torch before crawling out from under the table and standing. He helped Lou to her feet. He shone his phone light around the room and stepped over things on the floor as he headed to the sideboard. He picked up the landline phone and listened. “Got a line here.”
“How, if there’s no power?”
“Old-fashioned rotary phone. It gets its power from the line itself. I kept it for this very reason.” He dialled quickly.
Lou gingerly crossed over to the window and stared. An orange glow lit the horizon, plumes of thick, black smoke rising from it. Wherever the fire was, it was huge.
Evan replaced the receiver. “The power plant blew.”
“That explains the fire then.”
He nodded. “I’m afraid this will put paid to your report writing. I have a generator out the back. I’ll get it up and running in the morning.”
“The battery on my laptop is wonderful. Besides I’m almost done, just got half a page to spell check.” Lou was relieved to see the computer unharmed and working, still on the table and not tossed to the floor and broken. “But I’ll call it a night anyway.”
“Do you need a light to get upstairs?”
She gathered her things. “No, the torch on my phone will do. Thank you though.”
“OK.” He paused. “Lou?”
She pivoted on her heel. “Yeah?”
“What report are you going to publish?”
She hesitated. So he had been listening, but what harm could it do if he knew? “Something I’ve been working on for a while.”
“Wales?” Evan frowned.
“Yes, Wales. I am not taking being thrown off my dig lying down. I put too many years into this discovery to have someone else take all the credit. Plus, the worm has finally turned. This has happened at the end of every single dig I’ve worked on for the past six years or so. Well, no more.”
“I can’t say I blame you for feeling that way.”
She wanted to do nothing more but stand here and kiss him again. And again. But she knew that would only be inviting trouble. “I’ll see you in the morning. Good night.”
Lou left the room quickly, and headed for the stairs. She made her way upstairs to find AJ standing outside her bedroom door. “Can I help you?”
“Are you all right? That was some shaker.”
“I’m fine. The local power plant blew. Evan says he’ll have a generator running for power here in the morning.”
AJ nodded. “Dr. F., I’m sorry. I screwed up, I know that. I should never have said what I did. But you need me out there.”
“No, I don’t.”
He didn’t move. “Yeah, you do. You can’t dive and drop sonar buoys on your own. Not in the amount of daylight we’ll have tomorrow.” He lowered his voice. “Besides, I wouldn’t trust anyone from around here to help. Mr. Close gives me the creeps and his bodyguard, security bloke, whatever you want to call him, even more so. I found him outside your room when I came up. He might have been trying to get in or coming out.”
“And he might not have been.” Lou sighed. She didn’t want a debate on this, but AJ did have a point about not being able to do this alone. “OK, but I want to be on site at eight.”
“Sounds good. We’ll leave at half seven and grab something to eat on the way.”
“Might be an idea. Well. Good night.” She let herself into her room and lit the lamp with the matches next to it. She settled on the bed and finished proof reading the paper. With the battery on the laptop down to its last twenty per cent, she was satisfied, and amazed, that she could find a Wi-Fi signal. She e-mailed the document to the publisher along with a copy to herself. She also e-mailed it to Jim for safekeeping.
Next she changed every single password she had on line, making sure each one was different this time.
More rumbling came from outside and the room shook. Nowhere near as much as before, but she gripped the bedside table anyway. As the shaking died away, she let out a deep breath.
Footsteps ran down the corridor outside her room. A scream echoed from somewhere. Lou grabbed the lamp and carried it to the door. Maybe someone was hurt. She opened the door and headed down the hallway. She rounded a corner to find Evan standing there with a powerful torch in his hand.
“Everything’s fine,” he reassured her.
“Someone screamed. I thought…”
“It was most likely Mrs Jefferson thinking the suit of armour on the landing was a ghost again. In candlelight, things are never what they appear. I’ve arranged breakfast at seven for you. AJ said you wanted to get an early start.”
She nodded, going with the abrupt change of subject. She ought to be used to the strange noises around this village after dark. “Thank you. Good night, again.”
~*~
“Good night.” Evan stood and watched her head back to her room. He only moved when her door shut. He glanced down the hallway and walked swiftly to the end where Ira stood before what he now hoped was a locked door. “Well?”
“Everything is secure.”
“It should have been secure in the first place. How did Lilly get out?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
Evan huffed. “Well, see it stays secure
from now on. I’m beginning to think that Varian is right, and we should burn everything before people find out the truth. Was it just the power plant?” He took the offered tablet and headed down the back stairs, Ira beside him.
“No, sir. There were several explosions at the dam as well.”
“What?” Evan stopped walking and studied the tablet.
“All timed to go off at the same time as the one at the power plant.”
“That can’t be a coincidence.” Evan sighed. Was it all happening over again? “I need to get down there.”
Ira shook his head. “Probably safer not to go over there tonight. The dam engineers are checking the integrity of the walls.”
“OK. I’ll call Varian, find out what he’s playing at.”
“You think he was behind this?”
“I’d bet the house on it. He was behind the assault on Dr. Fitzgerald. In fact, perhaps we should let the authorities know who let Bart Manchester out of Tanmoor. An anonymous call to the local police station should suffice.”
Ira tilted his head. “Very good, sir. I’ll see one is made.”
“Thank you. Good night.” Evan made his way to the library and closed the door. He picked up the phone and dialled. Again, he was thankful for the fact he’d kept the old-fashioned phones and had recently installed additional lines.
Varian answered after two rings. “Sparrow speaking.”
“It’s Evan.”
“A little late for a social call, isn’t it?”
“What in the blazes are you playing at?” Evan struggled not to yell down the phone.
“Right now it’s poker at the club. Why?”
“You know full well what I mean.”
Varian coughed. “No. I’m afraid I don’t.”
“There was a series of explosions at the dam and reservoir. The power station also blew.”
“You have a generator, don’t you?”
“That isn’t the point. Any explosion close to the dam is asking for trouble. Are you trying to destroy it?”
“Are you accusing me of something here? Because if you are, you need to think twice about it.”
Evan scowled at the wall and changed the subject. “I overheard Lou on the phone earlier. She said something about publishing a report in the next day or two.”