Rock Harbor Series - 01 - Without a Trace (12 page)

“Maybe it was an outsider, someone she met while climbing.”

“It’s a possibility,” Bree said softly. “I hope that’s the case.”

“You have someone in mind, I can see this.” Anu wore a troubled frown.

“We ran into Kade Matthews just before we found her body. He seemed on edge.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wished she could snatch them back.

“Kade is like a rock. I cannot believe this of him,” Anu said slowly. “He could have taken his sister to live with him in Yellowstone or on to his new post in California, but he honored his mother’s request to let Lauri graduate here. A man like that does not murder.”

Bree wished she could be so certain. “I’m supposed to meet him and Naomi at Donovan’s house after school to help out a bit. I’ll see if I can find out anything from him. I hope you’re right.”

“Read Psalm 112 when you can, my Bree. From the Scriptures we can learn discernment. We must pray and ask God to open our eyes to truth.”

Somehow when Anu spoke of God, Bree did not bristle the way she did when Naomi mentioned him. “You are my rock,” she said. “I couldn’t have made it through the last year without you.”

Anu leaned forward and touched Bree’s cheek. “This worries me,
kulta
. Always you fear to break away from me, to face life by yourself. I see the way you hold your tongue when you wish to say what you really think to Hilary. I see how you barricade yourself in your home and fear to make new friends. If you speak your mind, you won’t lose the love of your family and friends. But even if you do, loss is part of life.”

“But—” Bree started to protest, but Anu shook her head gently.

“You hold so tightly because you have lost so much, but day by
day I see the Bree who first came to us—the one who was not afraid to experience life—shrink into this small, driven mouse who lives only to search for a family who will never return to her. You must go on, Bree. You must let go of your fear of the future.” Anu leaned forward, her voice urgent.

“How?” Bree whispered. “Hilary—”

“You must tell Hilary it is over, that you will no longer cater to her demands. I have some money to invest. I want you to start a search-and-rescue training facility. You love dogs and helping others. Reach out and take charge of your future,
kulta
. Find a reason to go forward and no longer look back. You are young, Bree, too young to sit and mourn over a life that is gone.”

Something broke within her, and Bree put her hands over her face and wept. Vaguely aware of Anu kneeling beside her, she turned to her comforting arms and wept for the life that would never be. Yet when her cry was over, she felt different, less fragmented.

She pulled away from Anu and stared into her eyes. “You’re right,” she said. “I must let go and go on. A training facility!” A huge grin stretched across her face. “That’s a dream come true, Anu. Do you know how much I love you? You’re the mother I wish I’d had growing up.”

Anu, tears in her eyes, stood and touched Bree’s hair. “I could not love you more if you were a child born from my own body. Now this is enough emotion for one day. We have work to do. Come.”

Bree’s day rushed by. As she worked, her mind evaluated then rejected most of the suspects in Fay’s death. It was a puzzle too hard for her.

Just before three, she hung up her work smock, said good-bye to Anu, and drove to the Blue Bonnet.

“Ready for some cleaning?” Bree asked as Naomi climbed into Bree’s Jeep.

“Sure thing,” Naomi said, setting a bucket of cleansers and rags on the floor. “You look happy today.”

“It’s been a good day. Busy but good.” She paused then pushed on. “Anu wants me to give up the search, to start a training center for search-and-rescue dogs.”

The dazed expression on Naomi’s face made Bree laugh. “I’m thinking about it, but I don’t know if I can yet.”

“The day will have to come, Bree. I’m not trying to push you, but you have to face facts sooner or later.”

“You sound like Anu. Are the two of you conspiring?”

“She’s smarter than I am,” Naomi said with a light laugh. “But this is something even I can see. You’re still young. Someday you might want to remarry and have more children.”

Bree began to shake her head, but Naomi cut her off. “I know you’re not ready for tha t yet, but you have a future, Bree. All it takes is for you to recognize that fact and step out to meet it.”

Bree didn’t know what to say. “This must be the right house,” she said, relieved to hear that her voice was calm and steady. “Emily and Timmy are in the front yard. Looks like Kade and his sister are here too.” She swung the Jeep into the driveway behind Kade’s truck and killed the engine.

Naomi sighed but said no more. They got out and opened the door for the dogs. The children bounded toward them. Timmy was pale beneath the red blotches left by the insect bites. Emily’s hair looked as though it hadn’t been combed yet this morning. Poor motherless lambs. Bree had been right to come today. Kade and his sister followed the kids.

Bree hugged Timmy and Emily then put her hand out to greet Kade’s sister. “You must be Lauri,” she said as the teenage girl came toward her with an eager smile. Bree would have known she was the ranger’s sister even if she hadn’t been told. Lauri was the feminine version of Kade, right down to the confident way she walked.

His tail wagging, Samson came to Lauri and sniffed her hand. “Hi,” Lauri said.

Bree shook her hand. “I’m Bree Nicholls, and this is Naomi Heinonen.”

Lauri glanced at Naomi but quickly turned her attention back to Bree. “I read about you in the paper.” Lauri ran her fingers through Samson’s curly coat. “He’s beautiful. This is Samson, right? Can search dogs really follow a person’s scent through the air? How long does it take to train them? Do you think I could do it?” The last was said in a breathless rush with a sidelong glance at her brother.

Bree held up her hands. “Whoa. One question at a time.”

Lauri flushed. “Sorry. I’ve just been interested in search dogs forever.”

Charley nosed against her for his share of attention, and Lauri obliged. “You boys are heroes,” she crooned.

“Don’t encourage them,” Bree told her lightly.

“It’s so cool how you found these kids,” Lauri said. “I wish I could do something like that.”

“Do you have a dog?”

“No. Kade is afraid a dog will chase his precious wildlife,” Lauri said with a glance of resentment at her brother.

Bree smiled. “They can be trained not to chase animals.”

“I like your sweatshirt,” Kade said.

Bree glanced down. The sweatshirt said JUST TRY TO HIDE on the front and KITCHIGAMI K-9 SAR on the back. “Thanks.” She turned. “Let me get our stuff from the Jeep. Can you kids watch the dogs while we work inside?” she asked Emily.

Emily nodded vigorously. “Our backyard is fenced. We can play there. Daddy brought us home a Frisbee to play with. Do Samson and Charley like Frisbees?”

“They’ll chase you down and take it from you,” Naomi told her. She reached into the car for a beat-up disk and held it out to Timmy.
“Here, use their Frisbee. Your new one would get chewed up by their teeth.” Timmy grabbed it, and Samson rushed up to him and began to lick him on the face. The little boy giggled and threw his arms around the dog’s neck.

“Keep them in the yard,” Naomi called as Lauri, Emily, and Timmy led the dogs away. She turned and grabbed her bucket of cleaning supplies.

Bree watched them go then turned to smile at Kade. “Lauri seems to be a sweet girl.”

He returned her smile, but it seemed forced. “You haven’t seen her other side yet. Sometimes I think the Windigos came in the night and left this other girl in my sister’s place.”

Bree grimaced. “The Windigos wouldn’t dare try to consume a teenage girl! Even they would find her tasteless.”

Kade didn’t smile. His gaze followed Lauri. “I wish I knew what to do with her.”

Bree handed him the vacuum. “As another female, I can tell you there’s nothing you can do but love her and be patient. What is she—sixteen or so?”

Kade nodded. “Sixteen going on thirty.”

“It’s a hard age,” Naomi said.

“You’re telling me!” Kade hefted the vacuum and followed the two women across the front yard. “When will Donovan be home?”

“About five forty-five.” Bree pushed open the door and stepped inside. She blinked at the chaos. Clothes were strewn around the furniture and floor like gaily colored confetti. Her sneakers stuck to some substance on the entry linoleum. A tower of newspapers leaned precariously against the side of a recliner, and a toy train lay like a miniature wreck at the foot of the burgundy sofa. The carpet looked as if it hadn’t been vacuumed in weeks.

“Holy cow,” Kade whispered behind her. He set the vacuum on the floor. “Where do we start?”

“Do we even want to start?” Naomi asked.

“I’ve seen worse,” Bree said. She set her pail of cleaners on the floor. “Raccoons had been living in the lighthouse when Rob and I bought it. Believe me, we can do this.”

“Speak for yourself,” Kade muttered.

Bree sent him a challenging look. “You a quitter?”

His answering scowl reminded her of a little boy who had been dared to jump from the top of the monkey bars, and she had to remind herself he was a possible suspect in Fay’s murder.

“Just tell me what to do,” he snapped.

“I brought some laundry baskets. Get them out of the Jeep and pile everything on the floor into them. We can sort the stuff by the rooms they go in. Then, Kade, you can dust and vacuum while I tackle the kitchen. Naomi, you take the baskets and start the laundry then try to find where the toys and other things go when you clean the bedrooms. I’d guess the bedsheets haven’t been changed in weeks, so let’s do that too.”

Kade nodded. “This is going to take all night.”

“It doesn’t have to be perfect. We won’t clean drawers or kitchen cupboards. You’ll be surprised at how fast it goes.” Naomi pulled yellow plastic gloves from her bucket.

Bree carried her supplies into the kitchen. Dishes covered every surface in the kitchen. Cheerios crunched underfoot, and ants congregated over a pile of sugar on the floor. How could Donovan allow the children to live like this?

Even as the condemnation crossed her mind, she gave a slight shake of her head. She well remembered the days and weeks she’d been sunk in despair herself. Dishes had piled in the sink, and she’d only washed them when the cupboards were empty of clean ones. It would have been an overwhelming job for a father. Two children, a business to run—no wonder Donovan hadn’t been able to face it all.

Ant spray first. Rummaging in the cabinet above the sink, she
pulled out a can of insecticide and sprayed the ants. Once they were dead, she cleaned them up and tossed the soiled paper towel in the trash. After loading the dishwasher, she washed the dishes that wouldn’t fit. By the time she’d mopped the floor, Bree’s spirits had lifted with the sheer joy of restoring calm to chaos. She tackled the bathrooms next, and the satisfaction she felt when that job was finished had nothing to do with pride in her job. And it all had taken only two hours.

She found Naomi folding clean clothes in the laundry room. “I got the bedrooms in some semblance of order,” she said. “There’s not a trace of Donovan’s ex-wife in the bedroom.”

Bree grinned at the triumph in her voice. “Don’t go thinking you’ll just move your stuff right in. You’ve got to convince him you’re not like other women first. Oh—and
marry
him, of course.”

“I’m working on it,” Naomi said.

“Oh?”

“I said I’m working on it. When I have something to report, you’ll be the first to know.”

Bree laughed. “I think I’ll order supper from the Suomi.”

“Anything to get out of cooking,” Naomi said.

Bree laughed again and went to find Kade while Naomi went upstairs for another load of laundry. She walked into the hall and found Kade holding a skateboard over his shoulder as he surveyed the closet—a jumble of boots, gloves, bent wire hangers, a skateboard with two wheels, and winter coats in disarray. Dust balls like billowing clouds stood guard over the strange assortment of items.

“What a mess,” Bree said.

A wire hanger caught on Kade’s jeans when he turned toward her, and he grimaced. “I figured I’d better do it, or you’d think you had to. After that bathroom, I thought you needed a break.”

Bree gave a mock shudder. “Little boys don’t have the best aim, do they?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Kade said, deadpan.

Bree laughed, the tension she felt around him easing. “What’s with the skateboard? You’re holding it like you want to bean someone.” She wasn’t entirely certain she was joking. Though she admired him for his fortitude today, she still regarded him with some suspicion. Everyone said it was impossible to suspect him, and she wanted to believe in his innocence, but the ugly picture of Fay’s dead body haunted her.

He glanced at the battered skateboard in his hand. “I think someone already used it for that. Too bad Fay didn’t have it with her.”

Bree’s merriment faded. “Sorry,” Kade said. “I guess we joke about things we don’t understand.”

“I always thought things like that didn’t happen in Rock Harbor,” Bree said. Chilled, she wrapped her arms around herself. “When Rob and I were deciding where we wanted to raise our family, that was the determining factor. We wanted Davy to have what we had—the safety to play along the sidewalk with his bike and the freedom to toss a Frisbee to Samson in the front yard without one of us standing guard. How sad something like this had to happen here.” She bit her lip at all she’d revealed. He had a way of getting past her suspicions.

Kade shrugged. “Maybe it’s not what it seems. The blood could be a deer or something.”

Was he trying to redirect her line of thinking? She shook her head. “Samson alerted on the blood. It’s Fay’s. He’s as good as any DNA test.”

“Maybe it was an accident, and the person didn’t want to admit what they’d done.” Kade knelt to reach the back of the closet.

Bree watched him a moment. He liked her now; did she want to run the risk of losing that by asking hard questions? Anu had said she needed to let go of that fear, that it was what kept her isolated. Be yourself, Anu had said. But Bree wasn’t sure who she was anymore. She took a deep breath.