by Nora Roberts
IT WASN'T HARD to walk into Joanie's. What did she have to lose? In any case, she'd learned in therapy how important it was to face and resolve problems, and to take responsibility.
Embarrassment was a small price to pay for mental health, Reece told herself. And accepting the embarrassment might get her job back.
Groveling wasn't out of the question.
Added to it, her daily horoscope had advised her to shoulder burdens. If she did so, she would find they didn't weigh as much as expected.
That was a good sign.
Still, she went in the back way, and ten minutes before opening. There was no point in spreading her embarrassment around to customers chowing down on steak and eggs if it wasn't absolutely necessary.
Joanie, feet planted in their practical shoes, was mixing up an enormous bowl of batter. The air smelled of coffee and warm biscuits.
'"You're late,"Joanie snapped. "Unless you got a note from Doc, don't think I won't dock you for it."
"But—"
"I don't want excuses, I want reliability—and I want onions, chili peppers and tomatoes propped for huevos rancheros. Stow your things and get to work."
"All right." More chastened than she would have been had Joanie showed her the door. Reece scooted into the office, left her purse and jacket. Back in the kitchen, she grabbed an apron. "I want to apologize for yesterday."
"Apologize while you work. I don't pay you to talk."
Reece set herself up at the work counter. "I'm sorry I was such a bitchy pain in the ass yesterday. I had no right to insult you, even though the addition of fresh herbs and either basic ingredients would improve the breadth of your menu."
Out of the corner of her eye. Reece saw Joanie's brows shoot up, and her lips twitch. "That covers it."
"All right."
"Wasn't any damn dill set you off."
"No. It was something handy to throw at you, metaphorically speaking."
"I had to deal with a dead body once."
"What? I'm sorry?"
"Rented one of my cabins to this fella from Atlanta, Georgia. Rented to him the year before, and the one before that. Used to come for two weeks in the summer with his family. That'd be, oh, ten years back. But this time, he came by himself. Seems the wife was divorcing him. Go on, get some sausage started. Lym'll be in first thing this morning, and he likes sausage with his eggs."
Obediently, Reece got the tub of loose sausage from the refrigerator and began to make patties.
"So, when this Georgia boy doesn't come back into town to turn in the cabin keys, I have to haul my ass out there. Anyway, I used to do the cleaning of the rental places myself back then. I went out there with my cleaning kit. His car's still there, so I banged on the door. Irritated, because he was supposed to be out by ten sharp. I had another tenant coming in that day at three. He doesn't answer, so…"
She paused to pick up her mug of coffee, took a drink. "In I go. I expect I'm going to find him sleeping off a toot in bed. Guy who worked the liquor store back in those days, name of Frank, told me how the good old boy from Georgia bought himself two fifths or Wild Turkey the one time he came into town.
"Instead I found what was left of him on the floor in front of the fire. I guess he drove from Georgia to Wyoming with a shotgun in his trunk for a reason. The reason being to blow his own head off."
"Oh my God."
"Did a good job of it. Blood and brains every damn where. Blew himself right out of the chair he'd been sitting in."
"That's horrible. It must've been horrible for you to find him."
"It wasn't a stroll on an island beach. After the cops did what cops do in such cases. I went back in. Had to clean the place, didn't I?"
"Yourself?"
"Damn right myself I scrubbed and I scrubbed, and I bitched and I cursed. Look what that son of a bitch did to my place. Bastard drove-thousands of miles to shoot his stupid head off in my place. I poured out buckets stained with blood and God knows and I threw out what had been a perfectly good rug that'd cost me fifty dollars. And I chewed the head off anybody who offered to help me. I skinned the hide of my William when he came out to try."
"I see," Reece replied. And she did.
"Had to be mad, didn't I? Had to rant and rage and slap at my boy for wanting to help me out. Because if I didn't, I'd never be able to stand it."
Joanie walked over to the sink, dumped out the coffee that had gone cold. "Don't rent that particular cabin to outsiders anymore. Just to locals who want to use it for a hunting or fishing trip or the like."
She poured herself more coffee. ''So I've got some understanding of what was in your gut yesterday. True enough you didn't know that, but you damn sure should know me better by this time."
"Joanie—"
"If you needed to take off after going down to Rick's office—if you needed to go off—it's stupid, and it's goddamn insulting for you to think I'd've given you any grief over it. Or I'd give you any about it now."
"You're absolutely right. I should've known better." She slid her gaze to where Joanie popped breakfast biscuits out of the oven. "I slapped at you and Brody the hardest, because you're the closest. The two people I trust most."
"That's some compliment."
"Did Lo come in, after I saw him at the mercantile?"
"He did. Linda-gail, open her up! But since I don't take orders from you, you'll get your check on payday like everyone else."
"I, ah, swiped at him, too, and at Mr. Drubber."
"Grown men ought to be able to handle a woman's temper from time to time."
A snort from Linda-gail had Joanie looking over her shoulder.
"Some men never grow up. They're spoiled little boys all their lives. Only way you'd've hurt Lo's feelings, Reece, is it you'd swiped at his balls. That's what runs the show for him."
"He may be an ass, Linda-gail,"Joanie said mildly,"but he's still mine."
Though she colored up a little, Linda-gail shrugged."Can't help how I feel about it. But if you're worried, Reece, he told me he could see you were awful upset. He didn't hold anything you said against you."
The door opened with a jingle. "Hey, Doc, hey, Mr. D." Linda-gail grabbed the coffeepot. "You're bright and early this morning."
Reece hunched her shoulders, but she got out the eggs and bacon she expected to be cooking up shortly.
"I don't reckon Mac'll hold anything against you, either." In a move that took Reece completely by surprise, Joanie gave her a couple of light pats on the back. "You want to use your break later, you can use my office, call my produce supplier. I'll give you a fifty-dollar budget—not a cent more—to order some of the damn fancy-pants herbs and such you're always whining for."
"I can do a lot with fifty." To start, Reece thought, and in her head she was pumping her fist in the air.
"Better damn right," Joanie muttered.
IN THE BOOTH, Doc cut into his short stack. Wasn't his day for pancakes, but it was hard to deny himself after Mac had asked for this little breakfast meeting. And if he had a second cup of real coffee instead of switching to decaf, it wasn't such a big deal in the larger scheme.
"Now, Mac, you know I can't discuss Reece's medical business. It's privileged."
"I'm not asking you to. I'm just asking what you think. I'm telling you, that girl's in trouble. You didn't see her yesterday." Mac gestured with his fork before scooping into his huevos rancheros. "I did."
"Heard enough about it."
"I wasn't sure she'd still be here." Mac angled his head so he could see back into the kitchen. "In fact, I figured she'd be long gone by now."
"I guess she has more reason to stay than go."
"I don't know. Doc." Concern deepened the creases in Mac's brow, tightened his voice. "The way she was storming around my place. Mad. sure, but she just didn't look well. I told you I was worried enough I went on down to check on her after I closed up. And her place was locked up tight as a vault, her car gone. Figured she'd lit out."
; He dug for more eggs. "Wanted to talk to you about it. You could've bowled me over when I saw her back there in the kitchen this morning. Some relieved by it, I guess. I hated thinking she was out driving off somewhere in the state she was in."
"People get in states, Mac." Doc waved a hand at Mac's stubborn frown. "Some more than others. Plain to see she had a rough time yesterday."
"That's the other thing." Mac glanced over to make sure Linda-gail wasn't on her way back to top off their coffee. Though the juke was silent—no music until ten o'clock was Joanie's hard-and-fast rule—there was enough buzz of conversation and clatter to cover his voice.
"First off, seems to me Rick should've known better than to have her come in alone to look at those pictures. Chrissake, Doc, most women couldn't have handled that sort of thing, much less one who's had the kind of time Reece has. He should've had you there."
"Well now, Mac, I don't know why Rick would've thought to call me. I'm a family doctor, not a psychiatrist."
"Should've had you there," Mac said, setting his jaw. "And second, from what she said in my place, she's saying it wasn't the woman she saw.
Now. Doc, it damn near has to be, doesn't it? This isn't New York City or whatnot. We don't get people murdered right and left in these parts"
"I don't know what you're getting at."
"I'm wondering if, in the circumstances of all this, she just doesn't want it to be the same woman. Maybe she's hanging on to it too hard."
Doc smiled thinly. "Who's playing shrink now?"
"Working behind the counter for a couple decades is as good as being a shrink. Not everybody believed that girl when she said she'd seen that woman attacked." Mac added with another wag of his fork. "I did. Just like I believe that same poor woman ended up dead in that marsh. Reece can't handle it, that's what I think."
"May be."
"Well, you're the doctor. Help her out."
"Don't you two look all serious and secretive." Linda-gail tipped coffee from the pot into their mugs. "Sitting here with your heads together."
"Man talk," Doc said with a wink.
"Sex, sports or horses?"
Doc only grinned and forked up more pancakes.
"How's Reece doing today?" Mac asked Linda-gail.
"Better than yesterday, I'd say." She glanced over her shoulder. "Either of you hear if the sheriff's got word on that woman's identity?"
"Haven't heard anything today, but it's early yet. Terrible thing," Doc added.
"Scary, too, thinking we might have somebody around here killing women. Moose Ponds's a good way from the Fist, but still."
"Women? ' Mac frowned.
"If it's not the one Reece saw, then it's two different women. And okay, sure, Moose Ponds is all the way up by Jenny Lake, but maybe the same person did both of them. Like a serial killer or something."
"Oh now, Linda-gail." Mac shook his head. "You're watching too much TV."
"They wouldn't make so many TV shows about killing it people didn't go around killing, would they? And you know what else?" She lowered her voice now. "It Reece hadn't been up on the trail, just at the right time, nobody'd know anything about that woman. Could be this killer's done it before. I can tell you, I'll be sticking close to home until they catch him."
"Now hell, that's another problem." Mac scratched at his head as Linda-gail walked away. "'Before you know it, people in the Fist'll be looking cross-eyed at each other, wondering it we got some psycho serial killer in our midst. Or some damn reporter'll write about it that way. and the tourists'll bypass us, and we'll lose the summer season. Some hothead will have one too many down at Clancy's and start a fight over it."
Doc frowned thoughtfully. "On that one, at least, you may have a point."
SINCE HE STILL had an hour before office hours, Doc went up to the sheriff's office before heading home. Denny sent him a sunny smile. "How you doing. Doc?"
"Can't complain. Your ma have any trouble with that ankle?"
"No. She's up and around just fine."
"You tell her I don't want her doing any jigs just yet. That was a nasty sprain. Your boss around?"
"Not yet. He's got till ten, unless something hits. Sheriff's been putting in a lot of late hours lately. Guess you heard about the body they found."
"I did. Any word on who she is?"
"Nothing's come in this morning yet. Sure is a hell of a thing. Son of a bitch must've kept her alive a couple weeks. God knows what he did to her all that time."
"That's assuming she's the same one Reece saw."
"Well, sure." Denny looked perplexed. "Who else could it be? Sheriff thinks it is."
"Mind if I take a look at the photos?"
"I dunno. Doc. The sheriff—"
"I've seen dead bodies in my time, Denny. Could be I'd recognize her. Maybe I treated her at some time or another. And it's my sketch Rick's using to determine she's one and the same."
"Yeah, I guess. Hank," he added as the dispatcher walked in.
"Anything brewing but bad coffee around here? Hiya, Doc."
"Hank. How're the knees?"
"Ah, not too bad."
"They'd be better if you took off twenty-five pounds. Not going to do that eating those doughnuts you've got in that sack."
"Man's got to keep his energy up in a job like this."
"Sugar high's not energy." Doc adjusted his glasses as Denny came out of Rick's office with the file.
Opening it, Doc pursed his lips in what looked like a combination of interest and pity. "Looks like man and nature were both unkind to this girl."
"Got the shit beat out of her, that's for sure. Was raped," Denny added with a grim nod toward the photos. "Sheriff didn't show Reece all the crime-scene pictures. Didn't want to upset her more than he had to. See there? How her wrists and ankles are all raw and bruised? Had her tied up."
"Yeah, I see."
"Hauled her away from the river. Truck, camper, RV, something. Kept her tied up and did what he wanted with her until he was finished. Dumped her in the marsh after. You recognize her, Doc?"
"No. I can't say I do. Sorry, Denny, wish I could be more help. I'd better go see to my patients. Hank, you go easy on those damn doughnuts."
"Aw, Doc."
HE DID SOME thinking on his walk home. About his conversation with Mac, about the photographs he'd studied. He thought about the town, and how long it had been his. How he liked to think he kept his finger on the pulse of it and his ear tuned to its heartbeat.
He let himself in the front door he hadn't locked in two decades. Instead of going back to his office, he walked to the living room phone. Willow would deal with any early patients or walk-ins, he thought.
He made his call, then popped a cherry Life Savers to take the coffee off his breath before he saw his first patient of the day.
A LITTLE after twelve, Brody was pacing around Doc's living room. Doc's instructions had been to come by at noon and make himself at home. Interrupting the middle of his day, Brody thought, when the book was not just moving but actually racing.