Читать книгу Storm Surge - Celia Ashley - Страница 12

“Stay where you are. I’ll check it out,” Stauffer ordered as he passed her, keys on a ring jangling from his belt loop. Paige ignored him. She’d never been one for listening. That behavioral trait had earned her a reputation as an intractable student in school despite her straight-A status. She pursued Dan doggedly up to the cottage and arrived on the walkway only a few seconds behind him.

An elongated shadow undulated across the lit squares of stone. “Wait here,” Dan commanded again, and vanished over the threshold.

Paige followed.

“Paige?”

She skidded to a halt. Liam stood in the room’s center. Beside her, Dan, who had been extending an arm to stop her, dropped his open palm to his denim-covered thigh with a slap.

“Do you know this man?”

Paige circled around Dan. “Liam, what are you doing here?”

Liam moved to the left, as if trying to keep both of them in his line of sight. His gaze kept straying to Stauffer. Dan glanced frequently at him, too. Something odd inhabited the exchange.

“Do you two know each other?” Paige asked.

Neither man spoke.

“Do you?”

The two men employed another silent exchange, as if gauging each other’s size and capabilities.

“No,” said Liam.

“I’ve seen him once or twice,” said Dan. “Don’t know him, though.”

“Oh, for crying out loud,” muttered Paige, swinging the door closed. “Liam, this is Dan Stauffer, an officer with the local PD. Dan, this is Liam Gray.”

Both men grunted in greeting. Paige sat down in the room’s only chair and pulled off her left shoe to shake out a pebble. Sand stuck to her jeans and hands like glitter from a grade school project.

“What happened to your head?” Liam asked. From the corner of her eye, Paige saw Dan touch his bruised forehead.

“She threw her flashlight at me.”

Liam laughed. To Paige’s surprise, Dan chuckled, too. Paige lifted her brows. “Well, ha-ha. But I need you both to tell me what you’re doing here. Which one of you is going first?”

Both men maintained a stoic silence.

“Okay, I’ll pick. Liam?”

Crossing the floor, he stopped at the small section of kitchen counter and leaned his hips against it. He folded his arms across his chest. “I came looking for the cat. Your door was open. Again.”

“I shut it,” Paige said, more to herself than to either of them. Still, they exchanged a look. “What?”

Liam shook his head.

“So,” Paige went on, “you found the door open and the lights on and walked in.”

“Lights were off. I turned them on when I realized you weren’t here. If Shadow was inside, he’s gone now.”

“Do you think Shadow nudged the door open?”

“Doubtful,” interrupted Dan. “Not if you closed the door properly.”

Paige shrugged. “Maybe I didn’t.”

Dan shook his head. “Then you should take better care. Is anything missing?”

“Missing? A cat’s not likely to—”

“You don’t know it was the damn cat,” Dan said.

Paige looked from Dan to Liam, whose expression had gone stony. “I don’t have much worth stealing,” Paige advised them both.

“Check your purse.”

From where she sat, Paige could see that her bag on the bedpost hadn’t been disturbed, but she rose to check it, slipping her foot back into her shoe. On her way across the floor, she gave a wrinkle in the area rug a shove with the toe of her sneaker. She felt something hard beneath. “What’s that?”

Without waiting for an answer she expected wouldn’t be forthcoming, Paige grabbed the rug’s edge and peeled it back. A curved iron handle stuck up at a slight angle from a recess in the floorboards where it normally rested, meaning it had been moved. She stepped back, searching each man’s face. “What is that? A trap door? Do you think someone might have—”

“I’ll check,” said Dan. “Paige, give me that flashlight of yours.”

Liam held his hand out for the flashlight at the same time, ignoring the fact Paige had extended it in Dan’s direction. “It’s only a crawlspace,” Liam said. “Every cottage along the beach has one. Still, it’s worth a look.”

“Why don’t you just let a cop do his job?” Dan demanded with a touch of sarcasm.

At the change to Liam’s demeanor, Paige dropped the instrument onto his palm instead of Stauffer’s and moved away. She didn’t care which man did the checking. It wasn’t out of the question that a rambunctious cat could have shifted the handle in a battle with the rug, but she needed an assurance that no one lurked beneath the cottage.

Paige pulled the rug back a little more. “It couldn’t be the man from the beach, could it? I can’t see him moving that quickly.”

Liam paused, the ring for the trapdoor gripped in his hand. “The one you said you saw earlier?”

“I saw him again, right before I ran up here.”

Liam looked at Dan. “Were you out there on the beach?”

“Yeah, and I didn’t see anyone. Anyone but Paige, that is.”

Sand ground between Paige’s fingers as she stretched them in agitation. “I followed him. Or tried to. He disappeared when I was climbing off the rocks.”

“I didn’t see anyone,” Dan repeated. “And that’s a stupid move, trailing some unknown guy alone in the dark like that.”

Paige remained silent. Liam shot her a fierce, unfathomable glare before yanking the trapdoor up, rusted hinges creaking. He shined the light down into the darkness. Paige stepped forward to peer into the hole from behind him.

Dan grabbed her arm. “Just do me a favor and stand over there.”

Mutely, she complied. From a man’s viewpoint, it made sense to have a woman out of harm’s way. But as the woman in question, one who’d always maintained her independence, free from reliance on any male in her life, the request grated. Still, she was grateful not to have to deal with a possible intruder alone.

“Do you see anything?” she called down to Liam, who had descended into a crouch at the bottom of the decrepit stairs.

Dan wagged his head. “I think we would know if he did.”

Hunkered over his heels, Liam shuffled forward. The light went with him, blocked from the crawlspace entrance by his shadow. A tremor shook the floorboards beneath Paige’s feet. Dan felt it, too, and ducked toward the entrance.

“You okay down there?”

Liam appeared in the open square. “Sorry, bumped the joists. I want to check something farther back. If I yell—”

“I’ll be right there,” Paige said at the same time Dan spoke similar words. Blushing, Paige retreated to the chair and sat. Stupid thing for her to say. She folded her hands between her thighs. Dan lowered himself to his knees next to the trapdoor.

“Is he talking down there?” Paige asked.

Dan waved a hand. “Shhh. To himself.”

She heard Liam say something else, louder this time. Dan shoved his upper body into the opening. Paige tensed. Two seconds later, he was back out and rising. Liam appeared a moment later. He climbed up, brushing cobwebs from his hair, and then flipped the door shut. The crash of wood on wood echoed through the room. He pushed the handle down into the depression. The two men pulled the rug back into place.

“Clear?” asked Dan.

Liam nodded in a manner that made Paige sit up.

“What was down there?”

“Spiders,” said Liam. “Some discarded furniture. A few nests.”

“Nests?” Paige echoed. “What kind of nests?”

“The kind that might be the reason Shadow keeps coming over.”

Paige pictured a dank and dirty subterranean space filled with cavorting mice. Better than rats. And far better than a bearded man in a coat and a knit cap—because that was where her mind had traveled, despite the absurdity. “Thank you both,” she said, “for checking.”

Liam tossed the flashlight to her. Paige snatched it from the air above her head.

“I’ll be heading home, then. You’re safe.” He shot a look at Dan. “I assume.”

Paige stood. “I—”

“It’s all right. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Dan followed him outside after telling her he’d be right back. Paige frowned at the closed door, listening to their indistinct voices on the opposite side, Liam’s gravel tones raised. Since she had no interest in an abrupt conversation between two strangers intent on pissing on each other’s shoes, Paige went to the bathroom to rinse the sand from her hands. A few minutes later, Dan returned.

“Paige?”

She stepped out, towel in hand. “I’m assuming you have something to tell me? You came looking for me, after all.”

“Yeah. You need to be more careful with your doors.”

“It was shut—”

“I know it was. When I came around to knock before I saw you on the beach, the lights were all on but the door was closed.”

Paige frowned. “What are you saying? That Liam is lying?”

“He said the door was open and the lights were off, didn’t he?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean he lied.” Paige thought a moment. “It could mean that after you were at the door and before Liam came over, someone else came and went.” A light chill fingered its way along her nape.

“That, too,” Dan agreed.

“Why would someone come in here?” Paige heard the shrill intensity in her voice and knocked it back a notch. “I mean, does it look like a place where someone might be stashing big bucks?”

“Nothing’s missing, right? Check your purse, now, will you?”

Paige hurried to the bed. She yanked her bag from the headboard. Her wallet was still inside, along with the cash and all her cards. Her keys rattled, glinting in the light from the bedside lamp when she tipped the purse’s contents for a better look. “Everything’s here.”

Dan shook his head. “Then I don’t know the answer. Use that lock, though, when I leave, okay? Lock it whenever you go out, even if it’s only to the water.”

“What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know what to think. Except that Gray guy is probably full of—”

“No,” said Paige. “He’s not.”

“Okay.” Dan started for the door.

“Wait, you did have something to tell me. And not about keeping my door locked.” Paige started after him and paused. “Isn’t that why you came? Did you find out what happened with my father’s boat?”

“Oh. Yeah,” said Dan, turning around. “Got anything to drink? Water? I’m a little dry after that run up from the beach.”

Paige yanked a bottle from the refrigerator and twisted off the cap. She handed the water to him, lobbing the cap into the sink. “Go on.”

He drank half the bottle down before answering. “Yes, your father’s sailboat went down in an unexpected storm. I’m digging into the details. Your father wasn’t alone when the ship sunk. He had crew members. All in all, there may be some things you don’t want to know.”

“Like what?”

“Drowning can be pretty gruesome.”

“Is there something to mark his passing? Like the stone cross on the headland? His name’s not inscribed on the one here in Alcina Cove. I checked.”

“I told you, Paige, I don’t know much yet.” Impatience roughened his tone. “It wouldn’t be, though, if he wasn’t living here anymore.”

Paige lowered her lids, studying him from behind her lashes. “You’re not telling me everything. There’s more you know already.”

Dan finished off the water and lowered the empty bottle to his hip. He exhaled through his nose. “One of the older guys at the station remembered something…about your dad. Remembered going out to your house.” He jerked his head toward Paige’s old home next door. “Responding to a call about a domestic dispute. Not the first time. Things were…not pretty. Your mom refused to press charges, though, and the responding officers left.”

Paige stumbled over to the chair and lowered herself onto the hard wooden seat. Crap.

“And nothing else? Nothing about any other kind of trouble?”

Dan frowned, tilting his head. “What are you asking?”

Paige shrugged. “Bea Hunt implied my father was involved with people she referred to as ‘objectionable,’ so I just wondered.”

“I see.”

“Plus my mom…she said some things before she died. I only want answers, you know?”

“Sometime in the next couple of days, I’ll go down to the archived reports and see what I can find. If you want me to,” he added, taking a shuffling step toward the door.

Compressing her lips between her teeth, Paige gave a quick nod.

“You all right?”

She nodded again.

“I’m going to go. Lock the door behind me.”

Forcing herself to her feet, Paige followed him and threw the deadbolt once he’d stepped outside. Eyeing the rumpled rug, she went over to the bed and yanked the heavy iron frame a few inches at a time until she’d centered a leg over the trapdoor. She threw herself belly first on the mattress, ignoring the sand spattering from her jeans across the coverlet. Dropping her head onto her folded arms, she began to cry.