by Sara L Foust
Paul nodded.
“I’m so glad.”
“Me too.”
She almost didn’t hear the last two words, whispered though they were as he turned away.
Captain Brooks returned a moment later. “Plea bargain.”
“What!” Annalise’s heart thundered to life. “How? What? Who?”
“I don’t know, Annalise. Won’t tell me a thing.”
“What are the terms?”
“All they said was Buchanan entered a guilty plea and agreed to give information in exchange for not getting the death penalty.”
If they’d offered him something like that, when they had so much evidence against the man, Jimmy Vern must know some seriously important secrets. “But...but...” Annalise wasn’t sure what argument she wanted to utter, but she certainly wanted to protest.
ZACH GLANCED AT HIS watch again. Was Annalise in the courtroom yet? Being in the mountains with no cell service really stunk on a day like this. If he could just shoot her a quick text, he would feel so much better.
Their morning campfire lay several miles behind. The search and rescue dogs wandered several miles ahead. And he and the other searchers carefully scoured the area between. But with each forward step, the hope of finding Olivia Beck grew dimmer. There was no sign of foul play. No bear attack. No random cliff with a body at the bottom. There was no sign at all.
The sun-and-shadow mottled ground stretched before them like a treasure map none of them had the legend to. If the clumps of squishy moss could speak, they could tell which direction her footprints pointed. If the dry leaves were able, they could lead the way on the next breeze. If only the trees were markers, with branch hands that could point them in the right direction.
“I’ve got something!” The call came from someone just out of sight and to the north.
Zach froze in his tracks. What kind of something? Could this be an actual clue or just another empty lead? His heart skipped as he placed a large log to mark his spot and turned to join the others.
Kirk stooped over a piece of garbage. “Granola bar wrapper.”
“Did the husband say whether or not he thought Mrs. Beck had provisions with her?” Zach looked at each of the eight men and women in turn.
They shook their heads.
“Yeah, he didn’t mention that to us either.” Zach’s hopes extinguished.
Kirk slipped the wrapper into a clear evidence bag and tucked it into his backpack. “Everyone take a quick break. I’ll radio the dog handlers and see if they’ve gotten anything.”
He stepped a few feet away, and his radio crackled to life. “Anything, guys?”
“Negative,” the first team responded.
“Nothing over here either,” the second replied quickly.
Zach was starting to believe alien abductions might be an actual thing.
Chapter Six
Her blood still boiling, Annalise answered the unknown caller through her SUV’s Bluetooth. “Hello?”
“Annalise, it’s Zach.”
“Hey, where are you?”
“Ranger station at Cades Cove. We stopped the ground search for today. There is literally not one single trace of Mrs. Beck. Not by the mounted team, the dogs, or us on foot. Nothing. Kirk wants to know if you can go back to the Beck’s home and see if there is anything else you can uncover there.”
“Okay.” Her heart sank a little lower than it already was.
“How was court?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“That bad, huh?”
“It’s a long story.” She snickered. “Actually, it’s not.”
“What happened?”
“He—”
“Yeah, I’m coming!”
Annalise heard Kirk’s voice in the background and knew Zach’s attention had been pulled away.
“Sorry, Annalise. I’ve got to run. We are coordinating an aerial search. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
“Okay—”
The line went blank.
She turned around at the next stop light and aimed for the Beck home.
Mr. Beck’s truck waited in the driveway. Andi and Drew’s faces flitted into view through the lace-curtained front window when Annalise rang the doorbell. A few heavy footsteps later, the door swung open to reveal a tight-lipped Jonah.
“Mr. Beck, how are you today?” Ugh, that was a stupid question.
He tilted his head to the left.
“Sorry.” She cleared her throat. “I need to ask you a few more questions and maybe take another look at your wife’s things. Do you have a moment now?”
“It’s really not a great time.” Jonah glanced over his shoulder to where Drew waited in his soccer uniform.
“Would you mind if I just take a look around? I can lock up when I leave.”
“Um...I don’t know.”
She flashed her most winning smile. “It won’t take long, I promise.”
He toyed with the keys in his hand “Okay, yeah. If it’ll help, go ahead.” He opened the door to allow her to enter. “Come on, kids.”
“I don’t want to go without Mommy,” Drew whined as he walked out the door.
“I know, bud, but she will be home soon. She wouldn’t want you to miss your game.”
Annalise hoped she could help Jonah keep that particular promise. The odds were certainly stacked against them.
She slipped on some latex gloves and leafed through the stack of mail in the kitchen. A few magazines, four credit card offers, and the electric bill. Nothing significant there. Drew and Andi’s artwork decorated the fridge and the walls in the breakfast nook. She checked the drawers, the cabinets, and the pantry. Everything seemed to be in its place. Well organized and tidy, as Annalise would expect it to be in a school teacher’s home.
Why had Olivia walked into the forest? It made no sense.
In the hallway, Annalise stopped to scrutinize the wedding and baby photographs, drawn once again to Olivia’s eyes. There was something so hauntingly familiar about them. Where did she know them from? She pressed her eyes closed and tried to empty her thoughts. A face—a ghost from her past—materialized.
But it couldn’t be. Joanie Greene was dead.
ZACH WATCHED FROM THE open helicopter door as the trees rushed by below. Kirk sat opposite him, his neck craned to look out the right side. They’d cover an area of about 1,200 square miles before dinner tonight. A twenty-mile radius of nothing but dense, old-growth forest canopy practically impenetrable to the naked eye, on the hope that Mrs. Beck was intuitive enough to leave them a clue.
He strained his eyes against the horizon, hoping to catch a glimpse of a trail of smoke. Against the backdrop of wispy clouds, it would have been nearly impossible.
Was it supposed to rain soon? He’d been so consumed with the search he hadn’t even checked. And that was an oversight he wouldn’t normally have made.
What was wrong with his focus? He shook his head and pressed the com button. “See anything, Kirk?”
“Nope. Nothing.”
Hopefully, Annalise was having better luck. Or any luck at all.
IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE. Absolutely. Annalise stepped away from the photos in the hall, only to return. She covered up the lower half of Olivia Beck’s face. The eyes resembled Joanie, without a doubt. Did Joanie have a sister?
Annalise squeezed her eyes shut and pictured the faces of Joanie’s loved ones around her coffin. Mother and father, some aunts and uncles, church family. Her mind’s eye was a bit fuzzy after all these years, but no, there was no sister. She shook her head. It was a coincidence, a doppelganger. Had to be.
In the office, she opened drawers and slid books from shelves only to find receipts, tax forms, and dust. Photo albums stuffed with Andi and Drew’s lives filled the top tiers of the bookcase. Annalise thumbed through the first few. Births, birthday parties, Christmases, and other holidays pronounced a happy and well-adjusted family. Looks could be deceiving, but she just wasn’t picking up
on the vibe of secret-killer husband. Or desperate-to-get-out wife.
Annalise ran her fingertips over a photo of one of the children on their day of birth. Swaddled in a fuzzy-looking yellow blanket, rosy-faced, and tiny-sweet. Something deep inside ached. She always thought she didn’t want children, but what if, maybe just a little, she did?
Her divorce stole more than just the dreams she held for her marriage. It stole her future. She’d spent the last six months adjusting to living alone for the first time since college. To only having Millie to talk to in the gray hours of dawn. To the idea that she would never grow old with the person she planned on.
She hadn’t expected to feel grief over the lack of potential motherhood too. A wave of fear and sadness mingled with anger threatened to topple her. What was the rest of her lonely life going to be like?
Zach would remind her that she had her handsome, if always-hungry, best friend. And she would giggle and remember just how blessed she was to have him. But Zach was Zach. Would God ever bless her with a second love of her life? Or was divorce the penultimate sin, the kind from which she’d never recover enough to be in love again?
The doorbell sounding overhead startled her from her morose thoughts. She moved to inconspicuously peek through the curtain. Captain Brooks? What was he doing here?
She swung the door open and smiled. “Hi, Captain.”
His jaw opened but no words came out.
“Do you need something? Do you know the Becks?”
He cleared his throat. “Um, no. No, I just wanted to swing by and see if you needed any help.”
“Slow day in town?”
He chuckled. “Aren’t they all?”
Norris was a modern-day Mayberry. “Good point. I could definitely use some help. I’ve got nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada.”
“I’m happy to lend a hand.”
“Thanks. What are you doing out this way?”
“Nothing much.”
Halls wasn’t a super long drive from Norris, but it wasn’t exactly a swinging-by direction either. Strange. But the Captain’s business was none of hers. “I’ve looked through the kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. Was tackling the office now.”
“Lead the way.”
“I’ve done most of it already in here too. There is not one shred of evidence to suggest Mrs. Beck isn’t lost like we suspect. But I can’t help but feeling like I’m missing something.”
“Why don’t I finish up in here, and you can tackle the guest bedroom?” Captain Baker entered the office behind her.
“That would be great. Maybe a fresh set of eyes will be just what we need. Thanks.”
The practically empty guest bedroom proved as fruitless as the rest of the house. Annalise sighed. There was nothing here. No insights. No magic beans of revelation about Mrs. Beck’s location. She peeked back in the office. “Find anything?”
Captain Brooks spun. “Nope.”
The closet door to his right had not been cracked open when she left. But of course he had checked it. Why was she questioning something so insignificant?
Captain Brooks slid his hand into his pocket.
Was a slip of paper hiding in his palm? “Sir?”
“Yes, Annalise?”
What was that? She wanted to ask but bit her tongue. This was Captain Brooks she was talking about. Trustworthy. Honest to a fault. Her friend. “Where’s Paul today? I thought I might stop by and say hi to him.”
Captain Brooks released a heavy sigh. “At home. Of course, you’re welcome to drop by. Any time.”
“I’m finished here, if you are.”
“You were right. I don’t see anything to point you in a foul-play direction.”
Outside, she thanked him once more and watched as he drove away. She locked the front door and climbed into her SUV. The uneasy vibe she’d felt in the hallway staring at the photo of Mrs. Beck would not be smothered. Captain Brooks’s odd behavior didn’t help. Not one little bit. She needed to talk to Zach and bounce some ideas off him. Too bad he was in a helicopter somewhere over their search zone.
Chapter Seven
“Zach, I’m glad you called.” Annalise curled her feet under her.
Millicent lifted her head from the couch next to Annalise as if to say, “I’m sleeping here, Mom. Do you have to move so much?”
Annalise patted the sweet beagle’s soft head and smiled. “Find anything?”
“Not a thing.”
The disappointment in his voice carried easily through the phone and matched up with hers.
“You?”
“No.”
“What is it?”
“What is what?” Zach always could read her mind. Disturbingly so sometimes.
“Don’t give me that, Annalise. You’re not telling me something.”
She sighed. “Captain Brooks stopped by the Beck’s home today. He was acting weird.”
Zach laughed. “Captain Brooks? Weird how?”
“I know, I know. Most dependable, rock-solid man I know. I’m tired and worried we won’t figure this one out in time.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“I swear I saw him hide something in his pocket. And I can’t figure out why he was at the house in the first place. How did he even know I was there?”
“This is Captain Milton Brooks we’re talking about. If he was there, you can bet he had a good reason. And if he hid something, he needed to.”
He was right. “I’m tired.”
“Want me to come keep you company?”
Annalise scratched Millie’s belly. “Nah. I think I’m going to turn in early tonight. Do you know what the plan is for tomorrow?”
“We are going to widen the search grid and try the dogs again at a different location farther north.”
“Why north?”
“The advance team ran into a fairly steep mountain chain deep in the woods. The hope is that if Mrs. Beck made it that far she would turn toward the north.”
“Or the south.”
“That’s the thing. No way to know for sure.”
“Right.” She twiddled a lock of hair between her fingers and sighed again, deeper. “I don’t like this feeling of helplessness.”
“No, I suspect you don’t.”
Something in his tone needled her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You like to be in control. It freaks you out when you aren’t.”
“Look, Zach, you’re my best friend. But you don’t know everything about me.” He was wrong. She wasn’t controlling. She liked to be in control. There was a difference.
“Fine. I surrender.”
She could picture him with his hands in the air, palms out, grinning that annoying “I told you so” grin. “Good night, Zach.”
“I’ll pick you up at eight.”
“I’ll be ready for another long day.” Of dead ends and a woman with the magic powers to disappear into thin air.
ANNALISE AWOKE THINKING of Joanie Greene. Before her coffee had finished brewing, she had her laptop open Googling the newspaper clippings from Officer Greene’s murder in late 2011.
The obituary boasted a head shot of Joanie in full uniform. Annalise held the photo of Mrs. Beck next to her computer. The resemblance was uncanny.
The same week that Senator Marcum’s henchmen burned Annalise and Dave’s house in Memphis, Joanie had died in a car accident across town. Suspicious circumstances with no proof. But Annalise had no doubt Senator Marcum had her killed.
In the courtroom, staring into the man’s pompous face, he’d given Annalise a look similar to the one Buchanan gave her yesterday, instantly boiling her blood and forever convincing her of his guilt on more crimes than just the ones he’d been charged with.
Joanie had helped Annalise uncover the evidence that had led to Marcum’s arrest. It was no coincidence that she was dead. None whatsoever.
Tears clouded Annalise’s eyes. The fire was meant to take her out of the picture too. Senator Marcum’s loose ends rarely survived.<
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Old feelings of inadequacy and frustration bubbled to the surface. For two years after her friend’s death, Annalise had pursued every lead, thin as they all were, until she had no other choice but to surrender to failure. It wasn’t long after that she’d requested her transfer to a quieter town.
There hadn’t been much back then she could control either. And she hated it. With a passion. Being out of control terrified her. It was too close to spiraling, to crashing and burning and losing her marbles and failing at life.
She snorted. Kind of like the last six months. Ugh.
She’d snapped at Zach. He hadn’t said she was controlling. He’d said exactly what she knew already. That spiraling out of control freaked her out. It wasn’t so much that she needed to control others, but she needed to control herself...and everything that happened...she rolled her eyes and sighed. It was the same thing, wasn’t it? She’d have to apologize to him in the morning.
And maybe go see Buchanan. She had questions for the dirtbag.
ZACH KNOCKED ON THE door a second time, then swung it open and peeked in. “Annalise?”
“In here!”
He strode through the entry hallway and into the open, high-ceilinged living room. He loved this cabin. If he’d found it first, Annalise might be visiting him. With its heavy pine beams and tall, stone fireplace, it was everything he’d ever pictured wanting. He handed her a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin. “You okay?”
“Hmm? Yeah.” She closed her laptop and smiled. “Just reminiscing.”
Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes “About what, exactly?” Dave?
“Remember my partner, Joanie Greene?”
He nodded. Annalise had been devastated when Joanie died.
“Olivia Beck reminds me of her.”
“Let me see.”
Annalise opened the laptop once more and held up the photo of Mrs. Beck.
“Wow. That’s crazy. Are you sure they aren’t sisters?”
“Joanie never mentioned a sister, and there wasn’t one at the funeral. Do you think maybe she had an estranged sister or cousin or something? Maybe that explains it?”