Wayward Secrets, page 10
Behind me, Reed put a supportive hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t you worry. We’ll find them,” Willie promised. “You let me know what I can do.”
“I will.” My voice broke as I said, “Thanks, Willie.”
“We will find them,” Reed repeated after Willie had signed off.
I stood and turned toward him. “Rosalyn is also missing.”
“What?” he whispered, the color draining from his face.
“All I know is what Arden told me.”
I repeated everything I could remember from the moment I got the walkie-talkie call from Arden to walking through the station door. By the time I’d caught him up, my email pinged with a message from Willie. Reed pulled a chair over next to me, and I clicked the link.
We watched as squirrels and rabbits scurried among the headstones. I clicked a setting to play the recording at double speed, and right around 10:30, my Westie darted through the front gate.
“There they are,” Reed announced, pointing.
Adjusting the setting again, I switched it back to regular speed. I watched, barely blinking, as Tripp moved from one marker to the next, pausing presumably to pay respect to those he knew. Once he’d passed by all the gravesites, he went to the mausoleum and stepped inside. I fast-forwarded, returning to regular when Meeka stood in the crypt’s doorway and barked at someone off camera.
“Wish there was sound,” Reed commented. “Looks like someone’s coming.”
Tripp appeared on camera again, and a figure that looked like the man in the same dark hoodie from the other video approached him.
“Who is that?” I asked, leaning forward and squinting. “It looks like the same guy I saw on Pine Time’s security video.”
“Let me check something.” Reed zoomed in on the scene until the image of a fish became clear on the sweatshirt. “That’s Brady Higgins. His mom gave him that shirt for his birthday, and he never takes it off. It’s got a largemouth bass jumping at a fishing lure on it. Cool sweatshirt.” He glanced at me. “Very distinctive.”
We returned our attention to the monitor and watched Brady pull something from the pocket on the front of his hoodie and hand it to Tripp.
“What did he give him?” Reed asked as he backed up the recording and zoomed in again.
“It looks like an envelope.” Tripp took it from Brady and flipped it open. “Nope. A folded piece of paper.”
Tripp read whatever was on the paper, said something to Brady while shaking his hand, and then left the graveyard. Brady stood by an obelisk near the entrance, kicked at a stone, and then left after a minute.
“Looks like he was giving Tripp a head start,” Reed mused.
“What was on that paper? And where did Tripp go? And did he deliver something similar to Rosalyn?”
“We need to ask Brady those questions. I’ll find him and bring him in.”
“Speaking of bringing people in, what is that kid still doing here?” I pointed toward the cells.
“His name is Singer York, ironic because he barely speaks, let alone sings. Igor called and said his parents want him to stay here for the day and think about what he did.”
“Time out at the sheriff’s station? Interesting parenting technique. Is it having any effect?”
“He hasn’t budged from that position,” Reed said of the boy’s cross-legged pose. “Not sure what’s going on in his head. He told us how pulling the plastic strips releases the glycerin. After you left, I asked him if he made the cylinders, if he left them, and if there are any others. He hasn’t said another word.”
“We can’t worry about that right now. We need to search for—” I cut myself off. “I was going to say Tripp and Meeka, but it seems my sister, Jola, and Lily Grace are also missing. What is going on?”
We stared at each other, neither having an answer to that question.
“We need to make a plan,” I decided.
Reed cleared off the portable whiteboard in the corner by the evidence locker, pulled the cap off a blue dry erase marker, and asked the question I always asked. “What do we know?”
“Let’s get a timeline,” I dictated. “When was each person last seen?”
Reed drew a line across the top of the board. “Who’s first?”
I almost said Tripp, but that was emotion talking, not logic. Given the Brady connection, it was possible that if we found one, we’d find them all.
“Jola,” I replied. “Reeva says she saw her for an appointment at Unity yesterday morning. We can check with the staff there to find out when she left and if they know where she went.”
He wrote her name at the one-quarter mark on the left side of the timeline, leaving space for more should we need to add anyone before her.
I continued, “Tripp was last seen at 10:30 this morning with Brady Higgins. His truck wasn’t alongside the road near the Meditation Circle where I assume he would have parked.”
“So he drove somewhere after leaving the graveyard.”
“Or someone else moved it.” I steeled myself against another wave of emotions. This wasn’t the time for feelings. Sheriff Jayne mentally sat Regular Jayne in the corner and snapped at her to keep it together. “According to the timestamp on the security video at Pine Time, Arden left at 11:50. Brady showed up three minutes later and left again after only two minutes. Rosalyn was last seen pulling away from the house in her vehicle at 12:06 this afternoon.”
“Brady stayed for just enough time to drop off a note.” After adding Rosalyn’s name to the timeline, he wrote Lily Grace’s name beneath it. “We have nothing on her?”
“I have nothing. Effie and Cybil didn’t know anything either.”
“We can ask at Unity. Maybe Lily Grace stopped there to get Jola, and they went somewhere together?”
“That’s possible.” He took a green marker and along the right-hand side of the board wrote:
INTERVIEW LIST
Brady Higgins
Unity staff
“Who else?”
My brain spun. “Oren might know about Lily Grace. Gabe. The crew at Sundry. Anyone Jola may have had an appointment with yesterday.”
He’d stopped writing. “So basically, everyone.”
I nodded, numb. “Basically.”
“We need help. Should I put out a village-wide call?”
“No,” I objected immediately. “We don’t know who might be involved with this.”
“Boss, we need help. There are a few hundred tourists wandering the village. A percentage of them will cause problems that need to be dealt with. How are we going to handle them and find our missing villagers?”
I rubbed my hands over my face. “You’re right. Who do we trust? Which of them do you trust with Rosalyn’s life?”
He paled for a second. “Rourke O’Connor. Gino Alexi.” At my confused expression, he added, “The pizza guy.”
“Of course. He and Tripp are friends. Not sure I’ve ever heard his last name.” Pizza Gino was responsible for Tripp’s pizza oven obsession.
“Any of my Carny Squad folks, but they’ve got their hands full up there.” He thought. “Elsa and Schmitty.”
“That’s a good start. The first step is to bring Brady in.”
“Agreed. I’ll go—”
The station phone rang, startling us both. I grabbed the extension on my desk. “Whispering Pines Sheriff Station.”
“Thank the Goddess. Jayne, this is Willow.”
My heart stuttered, and gooseflesh crawled over my body. “What’s going on, Willow? Why are you calling me on the landline instead of the walkie-talkie?”
One of the first things I’d done when I took over as sheriff was hand out units to some of the businesses to make it easier for folks to contact me if necessary.
“Because I’m not sure what’s going on,” she whispered into the phone, “and don’t want the rest of the village to hear.”
The gooseflesh intensified. “Tell me what you know.”
“I just called River looking for Briar.” Willow was a strong, independent woman. To hear her voice shaking, even the bit that it was, unnerved me. “He wanted to know how long ago she had left the shop. He thought she was on the way home and I needed to talk to her. Jayne, I’ve been waiting all afternoon. She never came in today.”
Oh God.
Keep it together, Jayne in my head urged.
“It’s good that you called me, Willow. Are you okay over there?”
“I can handle the shop, but I’m concerned about Briar. She walks all the way from their cottage. She enjoys the exercise.” Her words faded out. “You know how tired she can get. This might be too much for her. Helping with the twins and everything she does with their garden, I don’t know that she should be trying to help me as well.”
In my mind, I saw Briar swatting a hand at Willow and saying, “It’s only for a few weeks.”
“I understand your concern, Willow. I’ll check on this. Call me immediately if she shows up or you think of anything that might be helpful.”
“Briar too?” Reed asked, his arms dangling at his sides.
I dialed over to the Barlow cottage as Cybil appeared at my office door. Reed went to her while River answered on the first ring. He sounded panicked.
They’re counting on you. Remain calm.
“Hey, it’s Jayne. Willow just called me at the station.”
“I didn’t want to worry her any further,” he told me, “but Morgan hasn’t returned from her walk.”
I dropped into my desk chair as my knees buckled. “When did you expect her back?”
“Her walks are normally thirty to forty minutes but never more than an hour. She should have returned while you were here earlier. With the twins, it’s easy to lose track of time, and I didn’t realize how long she’d been gone.”
His voice rose in pitch the more he talked. River’s calm, cool demeanor was broken.
Even he needs you to be strong. You can do this.
Yes, but Tripp, Rosalyn, and Meeka were also missing. Why did I have to be strong when everyone else got to fall apart?
Because you have to. This is why you’re here.
Sheriff Jayne stepped forward and pushed her shoulders back. “So you’re still alone there?”
“I can handle—”
“You can’t handle newborn twins alone, River. You fell asleep talking to me and now you’re distracted by thoughts of Briar and Morgan.” I needed to get someone over there. Who could help him with babies? The names of village parents with small children zipped through my head. Josephine? No, she knew less than I did about babies.
Holly. She and River knew each other well from Pine Time. I overheard an exchange between them one day. She stopped by to tidy his room, and he insisted he could clean it on his own. She peeked inside and said, “You need to raise your standards if you consider that clean.” Then he chuckled and open the door wider.
“I’ll call Holly for you and ask her to go over. I’m sure she’ll do it.”
“I won’t object. I’m not ashamed to say that I feel quite helpless.” After a short pause, he added, “You’ll look for them?”
“We already are. Since I spoke with you earlier, Tripp, Meeka, Rosalyn, Jola, and Lily Grace have also been reported as missing.”
He inhaled sharply. “What do you need? How can I help?”
“I don’t know yet,” I admitted. “These disappearances have to be connected somehow. We’re starting there.”
“Please update me when you can. And whatever you need, Jayne, just ask.”
Reed and Cybil waited while I called Holly. I didn’t tell her why River needed help, but she agreed to go to the cottage immediately. I hung up the phone and looked up at my stunned-looking deputy and a very distraught Cybil.
“She can’t find Gabe.”
Chapter Fourteen
The Big Bad was no longer coming. The Big Bad was here.
Tripp. My sister. My dog. I wanted to believe they’d all simply gone off somewhere together. Maybe they’d gone to get something for the B&B. Or were planning a surprise of some kind. Leaving Pine Time without telling me, or at least Arden, would be highly unusual, but I’d rather believe that than the alternative.
Morgan, Briar, Jola, Lily Grace, and now Gabe too? What was going on? The answer was too terrifying to think about.
But then I looked at Cybil standing in the doorway of my office with a scared little girl look on her face, and it almost did me in.
What if staying in Whispering Pines was your worst decision ever?
This is why you’re here, Jayne in my head repeated her words from earlier.
Outside, a gust of wind made the trees whisper the same.
This is why I brought you here, dearest.
That last voice was Gran’s.
Time for a pep talk. I turned my back on Reed and Cybil.
Everyone is looking to you, Jayne in my head began.
No, I thought at her. Time for me to give myself a pep talk.
I inhaled deeply and stiffened my spine. What did I know? I knew that if everyone was looking to me, it was because they trusted me to figure this out. I had proved to them time and again over the past year that I could handle any crisis. A few almost broke me. Ironically, Silence, the girl who lived, was the worst. But I handled it. And I could handle this.
Just like Cybil, there was a scared little girl inside me too. My little girl wanted to go home, crawl into bed, and not emerge until Tripp appeared there next to her and told her everything was okay again.
Then, two conversations I’d had over the past few weeks came back to me. One had been with River when we were talking about, among many things, the last item on my Samhain list. He said, “I’m confused as to why you feel you must complete this task on your own. That may have been true with the items on your list that affected only you, but this last one affects the entire village. Does it not?”
The second had been with Blind Willie. We were discussing finding a buyer for the village, and he ordered, “I don’t want you trying to take this on yourself. That’s not fair to the rest of us.”
It’s time, Jayne in my head whispered.
It was. This time I needed help. The stakes were too high.
I turned to face Cybil. “What do you know about Gabe?”
“After I stopped by Jola’s and then Unity looking for the girls, I went to his cottage.” She shook her head. “None of them were there. His neighbor across the street said his lights were on last night until around 11:30 as usual. That’s when he goes to bed. He didn’t see Gabe at all this morning.”
“I know it doesn’t seem like much, but you’ve established a timeline. That’s good. We know he was home last night.” As tears filled the old woman’s eyes and her panic slid toward terror, I wrapped my arms around her. The contact was like a pinprick on an overfilled water balloon. Her tears burst free, and she sobbed on my shoulder. “I understand how you’re feeling. Tripp, Rosalyn, and Meeka are missing too. I intend to find them all.”
When she pulled away from me, Reed held a box of tissues out to her. She plucked a few and held them to her eyes. Once she’d composed herself, she looked between us.
“You two are a solid team,” she praised and then paused on me. “We trust you, Jayne. I know we all gave you a hard time at first, but I think you understand why.”
I gave a single nod in response. They were testing me. This village had high standards. If you met them, you were in for life.
Then she locked eyes with Reed. “You have come very far, Martin. I know Karl didn’t give you enough credit, but when Jayne gave you a chance, you rose to the occasion. That says a lot about your character.” Her eyes darted back and forth between us again. “Bring them home.”
She turned and walked out, leaving my deputy and me standing there with a warm but brief infusion of confidence.
“You two going to listen to that lady or stand there like a couple of doofuses?”
We turned in unison toward the boy in the cell. I forgot he was still here.
He had risen from his cross-legged position and was now standing by the door of his cell. “Something weird is going on around here. I’m ready to go back to the circus now.”
“There’s always something weird going on here,” I replied. Then I asked Reed, “Do you suppose there’s any chance the fires and these disappearances aren’t related?”
“Nope. Folks started disappearing while we were up there investigating.”
“Right. The circus was a distraction. The point farthest from the main village.” I looked past him at our inmate. “Someone told this kid to leave those cylinders around the circus grounds. That same person probably told Brady to deliver those notes. Go find Brady and bring him in. Also, track down a couple of the villagers we added to our safe list.”
“And be quiet about it,” he concluded. “Don’t want to cause a panic.”
“Exactly.”
“What do you want me to have them do?”
Not knowing where else to start, I instructed, “Ask them to search for Tripp’s and Rosalyn’s vehicles. Tripp was last seen leaving the cemetery. Rosalyn left Pine Time in her car, but I have no idea which direction she went.”
“Looking for vehicles will be easier than searching for people.” He nodded. “That’s a good start. What about Oren and his drone?”
I considered that. “Not yet. A drone flying around will attract attention. We’ll call him tonight if necessary. Meanwhile, I’m going to try to get some information out of this kid. Since he wants to leave but his parents want him to stay here, maybe I can use that and get him to break his silence.”
“Good luck. He’s a stubborn one.”
“Did you try bribing him?”
“I did not.” He nodded approvingly, gave me a little salute, and left the building.
I pulled a chair over to the cell and set it out of arms’ reach should Singer try to grab for me. Not that I expected him to. Then I made a show out of making myself a cup of coffee and pulling some cookies out of a package. The kid had to be hungry. Boys were always hungry, and he’d been sitting in that holding cell for hours. He probably also needed to use the bathroom.
