A Desperate Search

by Amanda Stevens

  As if on cue, the ringtone jangled. He didn’t bother glancing at the screen.

  “You can get that if you need to,” she said. “I’ll wait for you up at the house.”

  He pressed the decline button and slipped the phone in his pocket. “It’s not important.”

  She came down the rest of the steps. “I should have called first. I didn’t even think.”

  “No, it’s fine. I’m not busy. I was just sitting here watching Dr. Nance’s cabin.”

  The dock rocked gently as she stepped onto the platform and edged along the railing to peer across the darkened lake. “Have you seen anything?”

  “All clear so far.” He moved up beside her, glancing at her profile and thinking to himself that he shouldn’t be so happy to see her. He was restless enough tonight to want to act on his attraction, but cautious enough to know that a rebound hookup probably wasn’t such a great idea. Assuming, of course, she’d even be open to his company.

  The insistent chime of his ringtone was like a splash of cold water. He took out his phone, pressed the decline button once more and silenced his ringer.

  Nikki turned to glance up at him. “Someone’s persistent. Are you sure you don’t want to get that?”

  “I’m sure.” He leaned his forearms on the railing as he stared out over the water. Across the way, he could just make out the silhouette of the cabin. Moonlight glinted ghostlike from the windows. Something stirred inside Adam. Excitement? Anticipation? The thrill of the hunt? He’d gone too long without a case to solve. Too long without getting laid, too, he reckoned. He turned back to Nikki. “What brings you out here tonight? Have you considered my proposal?”

  “No,” she said bluntly. “I mean, yes, I’ve thought about it, but I haven’t had time to make a decision. Something else has happened that I think you should know about.”

  He straightened at the somber note in her voice. “What is it?”

  “I went to see Dessie Dupre a little while ago.” She told him about her visit to Dr. Nance’s house, the shock of finding a nude man on the diving board and the overheard conversations by the pool and in the study. Her brow creased as she relayed the evening’s events. “It was surreal. Dessie seemed so different. Younger and more vibrant. Womanly, I guess would be the word.”

  “You don’t have any idea what she and her companion were looking for in the study?” Adam asked.

  “Not a clue, although at first, I thought they might be searching for Dr. Nance’s journal since that’s why I was there. But in hindsight, I wonder if they were looking for a copy of his will. The man, Clete, seemed certain that Dessie would inherit the house and maybe a good deal of cash. He said in a few weeks, they would be sipping drinks on a secluded beach in the Caribbean. Of course, if they already know Dessie is inheriting the house and some money, I don’t know why they’d need to find his will.”

  “I take it you don’t know this Clete person?”

  “I’ve never seen him before. He’s a big guy, though. Tall with broad shoulders. Looks like he works out a lot. It occurred to me that he might be the person who attacked you last night. You said the assailant was strong, right? I didn’t get a good enough look to see if Clete had bruises, but I had the impression he was considerably younger than Dessie. She seemed...smitten.”

  Adam smiled at her word choice. “Smitten?”

  Nikki shrugged. “Besotted. Enamored. Whatever you want to call it, she was clearly under his spell.”

  “It shouldn’t be too hard to find out who he is,” Adam said. “I’ll do some digging. If we can connect him to that old panel truck, we’ll be in business.”

  “I wouldn’t count on that.” She raked back her hair, letting moonlight settle on her cheekbones. “He didn’t seem the type to drive a truck. I’m guessing he’s more the sports car type. Something flashy. Although I admit I’m basing that on a very brief, overheard conversation.”

  “Sometimes that’s all it takes. I wouldn’t discount your instincts.”

  She stared down into the water as the night sounds vibrated around them. The lake seemed almost mystical tonight. Adam studied her profile, wondering how he could have ever found her less attractive than his former fiancée. Stephanie was as hot and sultry as a summer day, but Nikki Dresden belonged in moonlight.

  She turned and caught him staring at her. Their gazes held for a moment before she glanced back out at the water.

  “Clete isn’t the only reason I drove out here tonight,” she said.

  Adam leaned against the rail and turned into her. “No?”

  She paused as if detecting something in his voice that unsettled her. “I found something in Dr. Nance’s study tonight. Maybe something more important than his journal. I only thought to look because of what you’d told me earlier about the note rolled up in the book spine. I remembered what you said about Dr. Nance’s use of the phrase ‘tilting at windmills’ during your last conversation and how he left that copy of Don Quixote in the cabin for you to find. It was a clue that only you would recognize. Earlier I found a clue that only I would recognize.”

  His scalp prickled a warning as he ran a hand through the clipped strands. “Go on.”

  “He left a copy of The Old Man and the Sea in a prominent position on one of his bookshelves. That story was important to both of us. I read it as a kid and we talked about it a lot. The last time I saw him, he invited me to go fishing with him in the Gulf. He said we might go out deep enough to catch a big blue. A marlin is the fish—”

  “I’m familiar with the Hemingway story,” Adam said. “Did you find anything inside the book?”

  “Yes. A rolled-up note in the spine just like the one you found. Only this one had 14 written on it.”

  “Do you have the note?”

  “Not with me. I put it back in the book and locked it in my desk drawer at home.”

  “Does that number mean anything to you?”

  She shook her head helplessly. “I’ve racked my brain. I went through all the birthdays and anniversaries that may have been important to Dr. Nance. Nothing. But earlier, Clete asked Dessie about a safe. She said she didn’t know of one in the study, but that got me to wondering if these numbers could be a combination. Or a password.”

  “That’s as good a guess as any at this point,” Adam said.

  She sighed. “It’s just a guess, though. For all we know, the numbers could be nothing more than a manifestation of Dr. Nance’s delusions. If his mental faculties were slipping, as some people seem to think, he could have imagined this ‘dark thing’ and then left cryptic clues that don’t actually mean anything to anyone but him. Under ordinary circumstances, I can’t imagine him behaving so mysteriously. If he thought something was wrong, he would have gone to the police.”

  “Unless he was worried that whatever he’d discovered might fall into the wrong hands before he had a chance to verify his findings. Anyway, he did go to the police. He called me.”

  Her gaze faltered. “I meant the local authorities.”

  “I know. And I understand what you’re saying about his mental state, but both things can be true. He could have uncovered something criminal even as he realized dementia was taking hold. Bottom line, I didn’t imagine the man at the cabin who shot at me. Nor did I dream up the driver who tried to run me down today. Something is definitely going on in Belle Pointe.”

  She drew a breath. “I know.”

  “And it seems as if Dr. Nance was counting on the two of us to figure it out.”

  He saw her shiver in the dark. “With what we have to go on so far, that’s a tall order.”

  “I’ve never backed away from a challenge. I get the sense that you haven’t, either.”

  “I can be stubborn,” she admitted. “Those numbers keep bugging me. Forty-seven and fourteen. Four-seven-one-four. Could be the last four digits of a phone number. Or maybe
even a Social Security number.”

  “Anything’s possible. Without additional information, trying to find meaning in those numbers is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Right now, we need to find that panel truck and figure out who this Clete guy is. Those could be solid leads.”

  She nodded. “Something else happened tonight. It’s probably not important, but I found it interesting just the same. Lila Wilkes showed up at Dr. Nance’s house while I was hiding underneath the desk in his study.”

  “Who’s Lila Wilkes?”

  “She’s a local woman,” Nikki said. “A lot of people around here think of her as their guardian angel. Or maybe ‘an angel of mercy’ would be a more apt description. She spends a good deal of her time tending to the sick, especially the ones who are housebound. She’s been a godsend to the elderly. Takes them shopping, ferries them to doctor’s appointments and whatnot. Wherever they need to go.”

  “Sounds like a regular Mother Teresa,” Adam remarked.

  “I don’t know that I’d go that far, but she certainly fills a need in our community. I think you’ve met her. Average height, slim build. Gray hair cut in a short bob. In her late fifties, I’d guess. When she dropped by to visit me yesterday, she mentioned that she’d run into you in town the other day. You seemed to have made an impression on her.”

  “I think I know who you mean. Asks a lot of questions. Likes to hear herself talk.”

  Nikki nodded. “That would be Lila. Until tonight, I’d always bought into the saintly image that everyone seems to have of her.”

  “What happened tonight?”

  “Dessie said she didn’t feel right letting Lila plan a service for Dr. Nance because he hadn’t thought too highly of her.”

  “Did Dessie say why he felt that way?”

  “No, but it really surprised me because Lila told me the other night that Dr. Nance is the one who persuaded her to come to Belle Pointe in the first place. Of course, that was a long time ago.”

  “How long?”

  “Decades. She’s been here for so long that people forget she wasn’t born here. I probably wouldn’t have given any of this a second thought if I hadn’t seen her skulking around outside Dr. Nance’s study.”

  That caught Adam’s interest. “What do you mean by skulking?”

  “Sneaking around on his porch, peering into his study. I’m one to talk, since I did the same thing myself. Still, there was something odd about her behavior. On my way home, I remembered something my grandmother once said about her. ‘Butter won’t melt in that woman’s mouth.’ My grandmother wasn’t a kind person, but she was more often than not a sound judge of character.”

  “What are you saying?” Adam asked. “You think this Lila Wilkes had something to do with Dr. Nance’s death?”

  “The notion seems utterly insane. I can’t think of a single motive she’d have. But at the very least, I find it curious that her image may not be as squeaky clean as I’ve always been led to believe.”

  “A lot of things about Dr. Nance’s death—about this whole town, for that matter—are curious,” Adam said.

  Nikki’s tone turned grim. “That’s putting it mildly. So, where do we go from here?”

  “Not much more we can do until morning. It’s a little late to go out looking for that truck. We could go back over to the cabin and search through the other books. Another note could give us some clarity. Are you up for that?”

  “Yes, of course. Whatever it takes.”

  “Give me a minute to lock up the house and grab some flashlights.” He paused. “Are you sure about this? Things got a little dicey the last time I was over there.”

  She straightened from the railing. “You don’t think the person who shot at you last night will come back tonight, do you?”

  “Not likely. But if he does, I’ll be prepared this time.” Adam was already climbing the steps when she called his name softly. He turned back. “Yeah?”

  “I keep thinking about how it might have happened. The drowning, I mean. If someone took him out in the boat, pushed him in and held him under...” She trailed off. “I can’t get that image out of my head.”

  “We’ll find out what happened,” Adam said. “I gave my word to Dr. Nance and now I’m giving it to you. We’re in this together, okay?”

  * * *

  NIKKI WATCHED THE lake with a brooding frown. A mild breeze blew off the shimmering water, cooling the sultry air as it stirred the honeysuckle that grew at the top of the embankment. It was a beautiful summer evening, but her head was filled with violent images. She didn’t want to picture Dr. Nance’s last moments, but how could she help it? Had his killer somehow lured him out in the boat? Had he tried to fight off his assailant, or had the attack caught him by surprise?

  Maybe his death had been nothing more than a tragic accident. There was no concrete evidence to the contrary. But even after the autopsy, too many questions lingered. Why had he abandoned his trip to Houston? Why had he asked Adam Thayer, a Dallas police detective, to come down and help make sense of what he’d found? What had he found?

  Nikki dealt with death day in and day out, but no one close to her had ever been murdered. Who would want to kill a small-town doctor who’d devoted his life to helping the people in his community?

  Money seemed the most likely motive, but Nikki couldn’t bear to contemplate such a cold-blooded act. That Dessie Dupre might somehow be involved was even harder to accept. The woman had always seemed devoted to Dr. Nance, and in return, he’d given her a comfortable home and a steady income for most of her life. But the promise of easy money could change a person. So could the influence of another. Who was this Clete person, and how and when had he come into Dessie’s life? Had the planning of Dr. Nance’s death taken months or had it been a spur-of-the-moment scheme?

  As tempting as it was to pile the blame on a stranger, Nikki reminded herself of the presumption of innocence. Other than his size, there was no reason to suspect Clete was the man who had shot at Adam at the cabin last night or tried to run him down earlier in town. There were a lot of strong guys in the area. As for Dessie...she was a good, kind and gentle person. Nikki refused to believe otherwise, no matter what she’d witnessed earlier.

  She’d been so caught up in an endless spiral of suspicion and denial that it took her a moment to realize a light had come on inside the cabin. Her heart thudded as she straightened. She couldn’t see anyone moving about, but that light hadn’t come on by itself.

  She heard Adam on the steps behind her. “Someone’s over there,” she said when he came up beside her.

  He peered across the moonlit lake. “Did you see anyone on the water?”

  “No. I would have heard a boat unless they were using oars. I didn’t see headlights, either, although the trees are so thick, I could have missed them.” She turned anxiously. “Should we call the police?”

  “Whoever is over there could be long gone by the time a squad car gets out here. I say we stick to our plan and go check things out for ourselves.”

  Apprehension skittered along her backbone. “What did you mean when you said you’d be prepared this time? Are you armed?”

  “Yes.”

  She hesitated, then nodded. “I guess that’s a good thing. Should I drive the boat or would you rather I keep lookout?”

  The question seemed to surprise him. “I have to say, you’re a little more gung ho about this than I would have expected.”

  She laughed awkwardly. “I’m not gung ho. I’m pretty nervous, if you want to know the truth, but we have to do whatever is necessary to find out what happened to Dr. Nance.”

  He hesitated. “I doubt we’ll run into trouble, but just in case, keep your head down. Don’t let adrenaline make you do something foolish.”

  Nikki climbed down into the boat, taking the center bench while Adam cast off and took the t
iller. The small rig put-putted away from the dock. On any other night, Nikki might have enjoyed the leisurely trip across the lake, but now she sat hunched forward as if she could somehow will more horsepower into the motor. The moon was up and full. Anyone looking out a window or from the top of the embankment could easily spot them. The term “sitting ducks” came to mind. She glanced around uneasily.

  Once they were far enough out, she could trace the outline of the bridge where she’d first seen Adam all those years ago and, farther down the lake, what she imagined to be the looming silhouette of the smokestack and the crumbling roofline of the Ruins. She remembered seeing him there, as well, could even recall a word or two of their brief conversation. He’d tried to draw her out, but she’d been suspicious of his interest and protective of her privacy. She hadn’t wanted to take the chance that he might see right through her.

  The images of him were so vivid to her now, highlighted by the lingering horror of that terrible summer, she wondered why she hadn’t recognized him straightaway. Everyone who had lived through Riley Cavanaugh’s disappearance, even if in a peripheral way, would always be connected by that tragedy.

  “You okay?”

  His voice sounded hushed in the darkness. She glanced over her shoulder. “I’m fine. Oddly enough, I was thinking about Riley.”

  “What about her?”

  “I was thinking how you can meet someone you think is a stranger, but then you find out that the shared experience of her disappearance connects you.”

  “That’s pretty deep.”

  Too deep for their current situation, she supposed. Keep your eye on the prize, Nikki. That phrase made her think of Clete. Who was he and what the hell had he done with the Dessie she’d known for most of her life?

  “We’re almost there,” Adam said. “I’ll cut the engine as soon as we get a little closer.”