Last Chance Harbor (42 page)

“I walked over and took a peek earlier. It’s beginning to look like a real park now, a completely different use of the space instead of a vacant lot.”

Nick came in, overheard the last part. “Thanks to you.”

“I simply made a suggestion.”

“A good one,” Nick offered. “The town council had to stay after Ferguson to make sure he came through with the benches. But after several calls he finally delivered them Thursday. Murphy and I bolted them into the concrete yesterday.”

“See, you guys are the ones who make things happen around here.”

“Personally, I’ll be glad when Joe’s son, Tucker, moves here and takes over running the everyday hardware store operation so I don’t have to deal with the old man. I’ve never really liked Joe at all.”

“I don’t know anyone in town who does. When will that be?” Jordan asked. “What if Tucker is like his father?”

“August. I heard Joe and his wife are heading to Florida, retiring there. So I’m hoping to get off on the right foot with Tucker. It can’t be any worse with the son than it’s been with the father.”

Julianne took the cheese sticks out of the oven, refilled the platter. “Thanks for giving Ryder the loan. It means a lot to him.”

“I believe in this town. Ryder, Zach and Troy want a chance at making it grow. I think they deserve a shot at their dreams. Otherwise I never would’ve agreed to the loan. It’s a good investment for the bank. The boatbuilding idea has the potential to make money. Plus any time I can rent out one of those old storefronts, I’m going to jump on that.”

Ryder came in about that time, making the tiny kitchen seem crowded. “Come on, guys. You can’t keep hanging out in here. People are beginning to wonder where you went.” He took the platter out of Julianne’s hand. “Let me have the food. I’ll circulate. Guests are beginning to get curious about Layne and Brooke. Brent was about to bring everyone up to speed.”

By the time they got back to the living room, Brent was in the middle of what seemed like a Q&A. Like her party at Promise Cove, Julianne saw genuine interest on the faces of the guests. They all seemed truly vested in learning what had happened to the couple.

The town cop held court while the throng closed in around him.

“In my mind, there’s nothing more deadly than playing with someone’s emotions or their emotional state,” Brent said flatly. “In my line of work, I’ve seen it happen a hundred times.”

“But what happened to them?” Noreen prodded. “Where are they? If the couple supposedly ran off which was the scuttlebutt at the time, then why didn’t they resurface at some point after Eleanor died?”

“So what do you think, Brent? Are you any closer to knowing?” Joy Sullivan asked. “I’m one of the women who helped put together the Richmond wedding. I look back on those early years of Layne’s marriage to Eleanor and realize you could cut the tension with a knife. Those little kids weren’t stupid either. They knew what was going on?”

“What was going on?” Donna Oden wanted to know.

Another woman, Julianne didn’t recognize, added her two cents. “Brooke shouldn’t have been running around with a married man.”

That statement took the buzz in a whole other direction. Sniping at each other broke out as more people leapt to Layne’s defense.

Listening to people take sides, Julianne decided the entire situation had to be depressing for everyone involved.

Which is one reason after the crowd thinned out that Julianne sought out Troy. She found him on the patio. “I want you to know I wasn’t trying to discourage Bree from moving in with you.”

“I figured that out.”

“Good. Because I think you’re one of the sweetest people in this town. You see, I’ve moved pretty fast before when I was young. At seventeen I fell in love with a boy.”

“You?”

She nodded. “At first, my father didn’t like it very much. But when he eventually saw that I truly loved Danny, he did everything he could to make sure we were happy. It’s a good thing too because, as it turns out, we didn’t have that much time together. Danny was killed by a drunk driver. We never got married because I was going to school. We got busy with other things. The reason I’m telling you this is because sometimes as we get older, we forget what it’s like to be young. When I was talking to Bree it was one of those times.”

“But you
are
young.”

She laughed, touched his cheek. “Not like you are. The light I see in your eyes when you look at Bree reminds me there was a time I felt the same way about a boy. I forgot about that feeling, Troy.”

“What about Ryder?”

“That’s why I said what I did to Bree. Don’t rush things. I didn’t think I’d ever find anyone I felt this way about again. Turns out… I did.”

“Ah, I get it.”

“As long as you remember that sometimes love happens at seventeen, or twenty-one, or thirty and beyond. No one should let a number get in the way of a single minute of happiness. Don’t let life bog you down. If you feel that way about Bree, be sure you let her know it. It’s never a bad time to let her know it.”

“I have.”

She smiled. “Good. Then you don’t need me giving you any more sage wisdom about your love life.”

Back inside Julianne joined Ryder in picking up dirty plates as the two nudged Brent back into the discussion about Layne and Brooke.

“Obviously the town refuses to forget them.”

Ryder agreed. “Coming from the big city like I do, people go missing all the time. But here in Pelican Pointe it had to be an unusual occurrence. What bothers me is, after getting to know some of the players, I’d say the residents around town were freaked out about this disappearance more than the authorities were.”

Finishing his beer, Brent tossed the empty into the recycle bin. “I’m afraid you’re right. That’s why I’m determined to get to the bottom of it now.” He turned to look at Ryder. “El Cerrito PD picked up a Melinda Sykes four days ago for having a phony driver’s license.”

“Why didn’t you say something? El Cerrito? Where is that? Near San Francisco, right?”

“Who’s Melinda Sykes?” Julianne asked. But studying Ryder’s face, she got her answer. “Ah. Bethany.”

“I’m going up there.”

“It won’t do you any good,” Brent said. “They charged her with a misdemeanor because there was no loss of money involved and released her within twenty-four hours. She’s due in court next month for a hearing. If she doesn’t show, they’ll issue a warrant and pick her up then.”

But it was a frustrated Ryder who later took Julianne on a walk on the beach. Under the pearly glow of a half-moon, he linked his fingers with hers.

“Brent’s doing his best to pressure me into dropping this thing, forgetting about it. Don’t be mad at me but...”

“But you can’t drop it. I understand you have to see this play out. Why don’t we do this? Now that we know she’s living in the Bay Area, let’s do our homework and get a list of the military installations in the area. You already know she targets service personnel.”

“Seems like a reasonable place to start.”

“Good. Contact your private investigator.”

“I’ve tried that route.”

“I know. But this time give him the name and address she gave the cops when they picked her up with the phony driver’s license. Maybe that way the PI could make the rounds with her picture, do a little advance recon before we get there. If he does get lucky enough to find her, I’ll go with you when you confront her.”

“You’d do that?”

“I’m crazy like that. Now might be a good time to be honest with you. I’ve done something I’m afraid has the potential to make our police chief furious when he finds out.”

“You?” Ryder breathed in the night air and turned her into his arms, tilted her chin up. “What did you do, jaywalk across Main Street?”

Julianne ignored the dig. “I’ve been looking for Cooper Jennings, doing my research online about him. I’ve also been trying to look up the 1984 graduating class at UC Santa Barbara. But that’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Hopeless. The ring wasn’t engraved.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

“Because I think Cooper Jennings is the key to Layne and Brooke’s disappearance. He makes his living as a photographer, travels quite a bit, that’s why it’s been hard to pin him down.”

“But he was a child when this happened. What could a nine-year-old know about such things?”

She repeated the conversation she’d had with Scott. “I won’t know exactly what Cooper knows until I locate him and ask him myself. Let’s agree you want to find Bethany and I’m motivated to see what Cooper has to say. I tracked down his last known address. It’s in Sausalito.”

“Not Oregon?”

“And not Orinda either. So at some point, let’s agree to take a trip to the Bay Area together. There’s a huge salvage yard up there that sells stuff they’ve stripped out of schools. If anyone asks that’s why we’re going—to check out any material we can upcycle for the school.”

“When? When do we make the trip?”

“Whenever you can manage time off from the farm and the job site. I’ve got the summer so it won’t be a problem for me. If all you can get off is a Sunday then we’ll make it a day trip. But obviously I’m hoping we can spend a weekend up there and get some answers.”

They looked out across Smuggler’s Bay, listened to the waves hit the sand.

“How many people do you think have stood right in this same spot where we are tonight and thought about murder?”

“Solving one or contemplating one?”

“Hmm, good question. We wouldn’t be thinking about confronting Cooper Jennings if someone hadn’t done the contemplating and then followed through with it. That’s what we think happened, right?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Are you okay living in the house, spending a night there alone?”

Her heart felt like it wanted to drop out of her chest. But she hid it well. “Surprisingly, I don’t feel the house has any lingering bad vibes.”

She wanted to get to the root of why he’d asked the question. “Is that a nice, polite way of telling me you aren’t staying tonight?”

“Of course, I’m staying. I just don’t want people to start gossiping about the new principal because of me before she ever starts the job.”

She let out a huge sigh. “If I’m not allowed to go about living my life here then it isn’t the place I thought it was.”

D
edicating Phillips Park turned out to be an emotional day for the Harris family. Nick and Jordan showed up with their children in tow and tried to put on a happy face for the kids. But anyone with eyes could see they were both struggling with their memories of the man who’d brought them together.

Julianne and Ryder stood back admiring Troy’s work. At the entrance, the simple wooden sign with the words, Phillips Park, hung between two stone pillars, metal lanterns on top of each. It became evident soon enough there were a lot of new things to explore. Landon and Caleb had planted dogwood and elm, cypress and birch and put down beds filled with golden larkspur and white river daisies.

To entertain the toddlers, Cord and Keegan brought a petting zoo—a few rabbits, kittens and puppies from the veterinary clinic. It worked wonders to keep the younger ones happy. For the older kids Murphy orchestrated a treasure hunt with clues that ended in a series of prizes—toys, music CDs, costume jewelry, ball caps, stuffed animals—no one went home empty-handed to commemorate the day.

Babies napped in strollers. Adults sprawled on blankets to doze in the sun.

The long day culminated with the town’s first movie night—the feature-length film chosen,
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
With Ryder’s help, Julianne had spent the previous week getting the word out. The effort had paid off. Glancing around what was now Phillips Park, the movie idea had garnered the attention of adults, young and old, and kids alike. The place was packed.

Under a starry sky, people gathered to watch the orphan boy, once again, discover that he’s really a wizard. No matter how many times you watched it and knew the ending, the magical storyline resonated.

They brought blankets to sit on or their own lawn chairs, picnic baskets and takeout from the Diner. Murphy had donated the popcorn. Perry Altman the ability to pop it. And the local soft drink distributor out of San Sebastian had donated the use of a fountain to dispense soda. They used the side of the bank for their giant movie screen and a donated projector from Jill and Ross Campbell.