River's Edge (6 page)

T
he stage on the beach next to the South Beach Pier had been built for the rally, decorated with the American and Georgia state flags. It was wired to blast the debate for hundreds of yards. The crowd had already assembled when Jonathan pulled up in his car and found a parking place in the spot reserved for the candidates. Sam Sullivan was already there, working the crowd, wearing a light blue seersucker suit and a Panama hat that made him look like Rodney Dangerfield impersonating Harry Truman.

Art Russell—one of the City Council members—met Jonathan in the sand before he reached the crowd.

“Jonathan, are you really calling this off? We have vendors here selling food and drinks. A lot of people went to a lot of trouble. The square dancers are all here in full costume, ready to perform.”

“We have to call it off, Art. It’s not right to hold a political rally without all the candidates.”

“But Ben had the choice to show up.”

Jonathan kept walking. “No, he didn’t. His wife is missing. I’m not going to take advantage of it, and neither is Sam.”

Art looked back at the crowd. “You know he’s planning to take the stage himself.”

“Not if I can stop him.”

Jonathan didn’t bother to shake any hands as he walked through the crowd and right up onto the platform. Sarah Williford, the council member who was going to introduce them, was already sitting in her spot as if afraid that someone else might get it. The woman, looking as though she’d stepped out of a sixties commune, had dressed for the occasion in a flowing dress, which looked like it was made of cheesecloth, and a pair of flat sandals.

Jonathan didn’t bother to speak to her. He went straight to the microphone and tapped it. “Excuse me, could I have your attention, please? Everybody, could I have your attention?”

Sam Sullivan cried out, then made a beeline through the crowd. In his hurry, he almost stumbled up the stairs.

Jonathan ignored him and kept talking. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid we’re going to have to call off the debate. Ben Jackson won’t be able to make it. It seems that his wife, Lisa, has been missing since yesterday.” A wave of surprise whispered over the crowd. “We’ll reschedule the debate for two weeks from today, since it wouldn’t be right to do it without him at a time like this.”

By now, Sam was on the stage. He glared at Jonathan like he had hijacked the spotlight and grabbed the microphone out of his hand.

“We need your help and the help of anybody else on this island who’s so inclined,” Sam said. “Lisa—bless her heart—was last seen yesterday morning. If any of you have any information about any sightings of her yesterday at any time of the day, we would ask you to call the Cape Refuge police and report it. It’s not a time for politics. It’s a time for working together, to help a brother in need.”

Jonathan stood back gaping at the man. Did anyone really buy this sudden concern? He hoped the people saw through Sam’s self-sacrificing act.

Jonathan took the mike back. “I spoke to Cade before coming here, and he said we’re going to need a lot of volunteers to search the island. Since all of you are already assembled here, I’m going to open up a table over to the side here where people can sign up to help.”

“When did she go missing?” Ronald Myers shouted from the crowd.

“Sometime yesterday,” Jonathan said. “No one’s sure yet.”

“I saw her Wednesday,” Fran Lincoln said. “She was in line at the bank, and we struck up a conversation. She was in a real big hurry to get away.”

“Everybody’s in a hurry when they talk to you,” someone returned. Jonathan saw her ex-husband snickering at the back of the crowd.

“I’ll bet Ben campaigned her right outta her mind,” Bo Patterson suggested. “She’s prob’ly curled up in fetal position on some shrink’s couch.”

Half the crowd laughed, and the rest expressed indignation.

“I hope it’s something simple like that,” Jonathan said. “But she needs earnest prayer right now. In fact, I’d like to lead us in that.”

Most of the people bowed their heads, and a hush fell over the group. Jonathan made a petition for Lisa’s safety and Ben’s comfort. When he’d said
amen,
he looked over at Sam. His opponent—an avowed atheist—looked as if he might grab Jonathan by the throat and wrestle him to the ground.

“So, Sam, do you have something you’d like to add?”

Jonathan could have sworn smoke was coming out of the man’s ears. He wondered if he’d invoke the “separation of church and state,” but Sam was too shrewd for that. Too many of his constituents believed in God.

“Just that I’ll be helping at that table too. Maybe we can divide up and take groups out to search various areas.”

Jonathan smiled and looked down at his feet. Sam wasn’t going to give him the opportunity to show his leadership skills all alone. He figured it could only help.

He stepped off the stage and went to the table that had been set up to give out campaign flyers. He wasn’t sure where Cade would want them to start looking, but from the number of people assembling to get in line at the table, he knew that they would have a good start on searching for Lisa today.

“Jonathan, a word with you, please.”

Jonathan looked at the man who had stepped to the front of the line. He looked familiar, but Jonathan wasn’t sure where he’d seen him before.

“Vince Barr, of the
Observer.”
The man reached across the table to shake his hand.

“Of course.” Jonathan remembered the sleazy reporter for the tabloid based in Savannah. He’d been amused at some of his recent headlines. One claimed that George Bush had been kidnapped and replaced by an alien—complete with pictures of the offending space ship in the sky. Usually mayoral debates in small towns weren’t up his alley.

“It’s about Lisa Jackson’s disappearance. I heard about it on the police scanner, and I’ve been trying to get information for our Tuesday issue. Have you spoken to Mr. Jackson?”

Jonathan wasn’t about to tell this man a thing. “I thought you guys just made stuff up. You don’t really do interviews, do you?”

He grinned. “Of course we do interviews. This is serious news.”

“Yeah, but it’s not national.”

“They didn’t think Laci Peterson’s disappearance was national either, but you never know. It’s always good to have a leg up on things just in case something comes of it. So did you talk to him?”

“Yes, I talked to him. He’s very upset.”

“Do you think he’d grant an interview?”

“I really couldn’t say.” Jonathan turned to the line of volunteers forming and passed a legal pad across the table. “If you’d all just sign in, I’ll try to get word to Cade that we’re ready to start looking where he tells us.”

“How well do you know Lisa and Ben Jackson?” the reporter cut in.

Jonathan shot him another look. “Well enough.”

“Were they happy? Had there been any trouble in their marriage?”

“I don’t know any of that. They seemed happy.”

“What kind of man is Ben Jackson?”

Jonathan didn’t like where Vince was going with this. “If you don’t mind, I’m busy. But you can sign up as a volunteer, if you want. The search itself will be a story. Maybe there’s even an alien or two involved.”

Vince chuckled again and started to back away. “Thanks anyway. I’m sure I’ll find someone who’ll give me information.”

B
en Jackson owned a fleet of shrimp trawlers and a shrimping warehouse on the Savannah dock, one of many operations in the industrialized area that serviced the marine commerce. Since adult white shrimp spawned near the shores in May, it was a busy time for his captains and crews.

Cade knew Ben oversaw the warehouse operations and the shipping of the shrimp to other states, but he wasn’t here today. Cade had driven here in hopes of talking to his employees, to feel them out about the possibility that Ben had a mistress.

Rani’s revelation about the letters had changed his thinking about the case. Sympathy for Ben had kept him from exploring the man’s possible guilt in his wife’s disappearance, but the letters forced his hand. If they had, indeed, been written by his mistress, then Ben could be hiding much more than infidelity. The letters provided motive for two different people to want Lisa out of the way. If there truly was another woman, Cade was determined to
find out who. The more he knew, the better equipped he’d be when he confronted Ben about the letters.

One of the rigs had just returned with its catch from a run up the South Carolina coast, so no one noticed right away when Cade came into the warehouse. The crews busied themselves with deheading, sorting, and packing the catch in ice. Though the place was clean and cool, the smell of shrimp filled his nostrils and attached itself to his hair and clothes. He looked around at the dockworkers on Ben’s payroll. They were mostly tough, rugged men with foul mouths—which pretty much ruled out the possibility that Ben had a mistress here.

Cade identified the supervisor in charge of the shift and headed toward him. The man looked as if he hadn’t showered in days. He wore an old charcoal gray T-shirt with big sweat rings under the armpits. Someone nudged him as Cade approached, and he met Cade halfway across the floor.

“Thought I might see the police here today. I’m J. B. Hutchins, Ben’s operations manager.”

Cade introduced himself. “Why did you expect the police?”

“What with Lisa missin’ and all. TV stations were here, snoopin’ around about Ben. Only fittin’ that the police would show up, askin’ questions.” He could see that the man was excited by the day’s events.

“What kind of questions did the press ask you today?”

“You know, stuff about their marriage and whatnot. Whether Lisa was depressed.”

“And what did you tell them?”

“I told them they were a solid couple. Happily married, far as I could see. I didn’t see Lisa all that much.”

“J.B., was there anybody else in their lives, somebody who might have threatened Lisa or…might have come between them at any point?”

“Come between them?” J.B.’s voice echoed over the warehouse. “You mean like an affair or somethin’? Heck, no. Lisa would never do that.”

His immediate assumption that Cade was talking about Lisa surprised him. “What about Ben?”

J.B. let a laugh echo over the room. “No way. Ben ain’t the type to do that. He has a one-track mind. Like with this mayor’s race, it’s all he thinks about. He’s like that with his marriage. He’d never go with no other woman.”

“Was there anybody who might have been angry at Ben or Lisa? Angry customers? Disgruntled crewmen?”

“Not that I know of.”

“No threats? Nothing out of the ordinary?”

“Naw, none.” He stuck his hands into his back pockets. “What do you think? She got kidnapped or somethin’?”

Cade evaded. “We’re still investigating. Looking at every possibility.” He saw J.B. look toward the door, and Cade glanced behind him.

Blair stood at the doorway. He wondered how much she’d heard.

“Grand Central Station,” J.B. muttered. “People comin’ and goin’ all day today, askin’ all sorts of questions. I’ll be glad when she gets found.”

“Listen, if you think of anything, give me a call at the station, will you?”

“Sure, I will.” J.B. reached out to shake his hand and then headed back to the crew.

Cade limped over to Blair and grinned down at her. “What are you doing here?”

She grinned back. “Same thing you are. Snooping around. Digging up dirt.”

Cade grunted. “That’s what you think I’m doing?”

She didn’t answer that. “So what’s this about Ben having an affair?”

Cade’s grin crashed. “Where did you hear that?” He had explicitly instructed Morgan and Rani to keep that to themselves.

“You were asking like you thought maybe it was a possibility. You must know something.”

He wasn’t sure he believed that was how she knew, but he tried to rally. “You misunderstood, Blair. I only came here to see if anyone knew anything about Lisa.”

She turned her face up to him, that maddening determination sparkling in her eyes. “Come on, Cade. Ben’s your first suspect. That’s a no-brainer.”

“We don’t have any suspects yet, Blair. We don’t know that a crime has been committed.”

“Yeah, and that’s what they said when
you
were missing.”

She had a point. He dropped his voice to a near whisper. “That’s precisely why I’m not taking this lightly.”

Her eyes squinted, and he felt she could see right into him and read his every thought. “So who is she?”

“Who is who?”

“The other woman. You obviously think Ben was having an affair.”

He sighed. “Blair, your creative auditory skills amaze me. And that intuition of yours is sometimes wrong.”

“Sometimes. But not often.”

It was true. He knew it, but he wasn’t about to encourage her. “I’ve got work to do.” He started limping toward the crew.

“Have you found Lisa’s car yet?”

“No, it hasn’t turned up. Hopefully that’s because she’s driving it.” Sighing, he turned back around.

“Are people out looking for it?”

“Of course they are. In fact, Jonathan’s organizing a search party. We’re going to comb the island this afternoon. I have men from the Sheriff’s Department, the Highway Department, the State Police, and the Savannah and Tybee police departments on their way to help out.”

She pulled out her notebook. “One more question.”

He turned around and she stepped closer. She was a whole head shorter than he. He happened to know that her shoulder fit right under his. If he pulled her against him, she would hear his heart beating.

But her personality seemed to put her at eye level. “What question, Blair?”

Her eyes lost that eye-of-the-tiger glint, and her face softened. “You’re not overdoing it, are you? With the leg, I mean.”

He was glad she
couldn’t
hear his heart. “I’m chief of police. I’m doing what I have to do, injury notwithstanding.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

He looked toward the activity of Ben’s workers. A gentle smile pulled at his lips. “I’m fine, Blair. Thanks. How about your skedaddling on out of here so I can interview some people? A woman’s life could be at stake, and every delay could cost her.”

“Are you running me off?”

“Yes, I am.”

“All right, but I’m coming back when you leave. By the way, thanks for the lead.”

He might have known. “I didn’t give you a lead, Blair.”

“If I find out her name, do you want me to tell you?”

He groaned. “What if she’s just a figment of your imagination?”

“I’ll find that out too.”

He tried to get serious. “Blair, a man’s reputation is at stake, and he has enough problems right now.”

“Not to worry. I’m not out to ruin anybody. But I’m still going to dig. I think I’ll go talk to some of Lisa’s friends, see what they know.”

He knew Rani would be among them. Blair would know about the letters within the hour. “Guess I can’t stop you.”

“Got that right.”

Sighing, he started back toward the crew.

“Take care of your leg, okay? Don’t go tromping through the woods looking for her. There are plenty others who can do that.”

“I’ll call you later.” He wouldn’t let himself look back at her as he walked away. She clearly enjoyed driving him crazy.

And as aggravated as he was at her, he had to admit he enjoyed it a little, too.