Читать книгу Missing Persons - Shirlee McCoy - Страница 11

“Who’s there?” To Lauren’s disgust, her voice wobbled on the last word.

“Me.” Dee knocked again. “Who were you expecting? Jack the Ripper?”

Lauren pulled the door open, stepping aside to let her sister in. “I don’t know, but I wasn’t expecting you. What are you doing back so early?”

“Early? I’m not seventeen anymore, sis. This is late.”

“Right. You came to check up on me.”

“Okay. So I came back to see what was going on. Sue me.”

“That would require a lawyer, and I’ve had about all I can take of lawyers for one evening.”

“I’d sympathize, but you did it to yourself, offering to meet Seth’s son tonight.”

“It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

“Did it?” Dee settled down into an overstuffed chair. “To me it seemed crazy.”

Lauren laughed and settled down on the sofa. “Why don’t you try being blunt next time?”

“I call it like I see it. So? Tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“What happened.”

“Nothing happened. I went to Seth’s house, met his son, looked at the list of Jake’s allergens, came back here.”

“Way to cut out all the details, sis.”

“Those are the details.”

“You and Seth didn’t say one word to each other on the ride from the inn to his house? Not one word from his house here? Come on, Laur, I know there’s more to the story than you’re telling.”

“Because you want there to be more. There isn’t though. Just boring conversation between two people who used to know each other.” Sure there’d been a hint of attraction still there, but that wasn’t something Dee needed to know, and it wasn’t something Lauren planned to share.

Or dwell on.

Seth was the last person she wanted to spend time thinking about.

“Too bad. I was hoping for some juicy tidbits to share with the girls.” She smirked and ran a hand over her hair. “Anyway, nosiness isn’t the only thing that brought me back here. Steff asked when we’d be ready to launch the Magnolia Falls: Where Are They Now Web site. I wanted to check with you on that before Jennifer and I gave her an answer.”

“Any time Jen is ready.” The owner of a nursery school in Magnolia Falls, Jen Pappas had always been great with computers, and Lauren had enlisted her help with designing the Web site.

“Monday? That’ll give you two days to clean out your e-mail in-box before you’re inundated with alumni news.”

“Inundated? I’m just hoping we’ll get back in touch with a few people we went to school with.” Several of those people hadn’t returned for their ten-year reunion. In itself, that wasn’t worrisome. The fact that a body had been found on campus was. Could it be one of the people she’d gone to school with? Shared laughter, tears and friendship with? Lauren prayed not.

“Be prepared anyway. Steff sent a letter out to alumni letting them know about the site.”

“I got it the other day. Of course, receiving notice about the Web site doesn’t mean participating in it. There will be plenty of people who won’t bother signing the guest book or filling out the information questionnaire.”

“True. We’ll see what happens Monday. Jennifer and I have got things set up so that guest book entries have to be approved before they’re seen on the site. That way we’ll have a chance to screen things before they’re out for public view. We decided that could be your job for now. When you get tired of doing it, one of the rest of us will take over.”

One of the rest of them included Dee, Steff, Cassie, Jennifer or Kate. Close friends in college, they’d made it a point to stay close in the years since. “I suppose you all voted on this while I was away from the table.”

“Yep. We figured you were on vacation and had more time than the rest of us.”

“You figured that since I left the fund-raiser early you could foist the job off on me.”

“That, too.”

Lauren laughed and tossed a throw pillow at her sister.

Dee caught it and stood, stretching her lean frame, the vivid blue of her dress striking against fair skin. Thirty-two and still single. With her looks and personality, Lauren had thought her sister would have married long ago.

Lauren had thought she would have married long ago, too.

Yet here they both were single and unattached.

And happy about it?

For her part, yes. She wasn’t so sure about her sister.

“What?” Dee brushed a hand across her mouth. “Do I have something on my face?”

“No, I was just thinking that you should have gone to the fund-raiser with some handsome Prince Charming. Not with me.”

“Please. As if there is such a thing.” She started toward the front door. “I’m going to head back to the house. Want to come up and watch a movie?”

“No, I think I’ll unpack and read for a while.”

“Suit yourself. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She stepped outside and Lauren followed, hovering in the doorway as Dee walked toward the house, the same fear that had shivered along her spine before Dee arrived lodging in her throat once again as she watched her sister move toward the darkness at the edge of the house.

“Are you going in the back door?”

Dee turned to face Lauren again. “No.”

“I’ll walk around front with you.”

“Why?”

Because she was worried about a murderer who might not even exist. “It’s dark.”

“Lauren, I come home after dark six nights out of seven.”

“I know, but…” But what? “Seth was saying—”

“I knew you discussed more than his son’s food allergies.”

“He was saying that the remains found beneath the sidewalk might belong to someone who had been murdered.”

“And? We’ve discussed that possibility a hundred times.”

“And he mentioned the fact that a murderer may be wandering around Magnolia Falls.”

Dee laughed. “You still haven’t outgrown your penchant for worry, have you? But there’s no need for it in this instance. First of all, we’re not in Magnolia Falls. Secondly, if there is a murderer lurking around somewhere, he’s had plenty of opportunity to kill again. Since the police haven’t found bodies spread across town, I think I’m safe.”

Lauren’s cheeks heated at her sister’s words.

Dee was right of course. Of the two, Lauren had always been the cautious one. The one prone to worry and wondering. Imagining worst-case scenarios. Monsters in closets. “Okay, so I’m worried, but maybe Seth is right. Maybe we all should be a little more cautious until the police find out what happened to the poor woman they found.”

“Look, if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll go in the back door.”

“It will.”

Dee rolled her eyes, but nodded. “Fine. You stand and watch until I get inside. Not that either of us will be much good if a murderer really is out here. What do either of us know about self-defense?”

Not much, but Lauren decided not to think about that as she watched Dee make her way across the yard and into the house. Thinking about it would only make her worry, and worry was something she had too much practice at.

As soon as the back door closed, Lauren shut and locked the carriage house door, barring it against the darkness on the other side. Silly, she knew. But necessary. She checked the windows, the French doors, pulled the curtains and shades. Surveyed the cozy living room and kitchen area. Everything closed up tight.

Perfect. Now she could do her Bible study, relax a little, maybe log on to her computer and start planning Jake’s meals. A nice cup of tea would be good. Maybe one of the scones she’d made that morning and brought with her on the trip.

Lauren grabbed both, then settled onto the love seat.

“Love is patient. Love is kind.”

First Corinthians Thirteen?

Today was definitely not a good day to be reading about love. Maybe she’d skip a day ahead in her Bible study. She tried to focus on the next chapter, but her mind spun back to a time when love had seemed not just possible, but very, very real.

“What’s wrong, Lola?” Seth cupped her face in his hands, his eyes the green of spring and of hope.

“You’re leaving for college in a week. I’m going to miss you.”

“I won’t be that far away.” He smiled, his fingers trailing from her jaw to her neck, amusement dancing in his eyes. “Just an hour’s drive.”

“Until I get my license and a car, it may as well be twenty hours away.”

“I’ll come home every weekend.”

“You say that now.” She and Seth had been going together for two years. He kept telling her that his leaving wouldn’t change that, but she didn’t believe him. There would be plenty of girls at the small college he’d chosen to attend. Plenty of girls who were probably more outgoing, more exciting than Lauren.

“And I mean it.” Amusement was replaced by fire, his eyes glowing with sincerity. “I love you, Lola. How could I ever stay away from you for more than a few days?”

His words melted the ice in her chest, and she threw her arms around his broad, firm shoulders. “I love you, too, Seth.”

Love.

Right.

Lauren shook her head, trying to dislodge the memories and the sadness that went with them. All these years after Seth had broken her heart and the memories still had the ability to choke her up. That said something about her, and Lauren was afraid it wasn’t anything flattering.

Dreams. Hopes. Love.

They were part of the past and she really, really needed to leave them there.

She stood and paced across the floor. Of all the people that could have won her chef services, it seemed almost inconceivable that Seth was the top bidder.

“A few hundred people at the fund-raiser, and it had to be my old boyfriend who decided to make the highest bid. I guess you’ve got a reason, Lord, but I sure can’t figure out what it might be.”

Something scraped against the window above the kitchen sink and Lauren jumped, turning toward the sound, all thoughts of Seth, the past and God’s plan fleeing.

The sound came again. This time more of a knock than a scrape, and Lauren was sure someone was outside, pressing against the glass.

Her heart slammed in her chest as she turned off the living room light and stepped into the kitchen. Pull up the shade, Lauren. Look outside, you’ll see that no one is there.

Or maybe she’d see that someone was there.

Maybe she should call Dee and have her look out the upstairs window. See if she could spot anyone lurking near the carriage house. Or maybe she should just pull back the shade and see for herself. After all, someone standing on the other side of the glass couldn’t hurt her.

She grabbed the phone, held it in a sweaty hand as she eased the shade back from the window and stared into…nothing. No face with slitted, evil eyes. No ski masked Peeping Tom. Just darkness. She leaned toward the glass, peering into the area behind the carriage house. Something had knocked against the glass. That hadn’t been her imagination. A light by the French doors illuminated the backyard, and Lauren turned it on, then searched the lit area.

If someone had been there he was long gone.

As she watched a breeze ruffled the trees that lined the property and the bushes that abutted the back of the carriage house scraped against the siding. There. The sound she’d heard. Explained. So why was her pulse still racing, and what had she heard bumping against the glass? A branch? A stick? Nothing? The silence seemed almost eerie, the dark shadows that edged the property sinister. But then, compared to the well-lit, busy street she lived on in Savannah, anything would seem silent and dark.

Lauren let the shade drop back into place, but left the outside light on. She was pretty sure nothing but her imagination was skulking in the darkness, but keeping the yard lit seemed like a good idea. So did focusing on something other than bodies hidden for ten years; murderers. Seth. The best way to get him out of her mind was to get him out of her life, and that meant fulfilling her obligation.

She pulled her laptop out of its case, moved her ginger tea and scone to the small kitchen table and booted up the computer. A few minutes later, she was scrolling through nut-free, gluten-free recipes. A day or two and she’d have the menu planned, then it would just be a matter of going to Seth’s house and cooking the meals. It was the same thing she’d done hundreds of times before with dozens of clients. This time felt different, but she’d ignore that and concentrate on doing what she did best—creating fun, exciting meals for a kid whose diet was limited by allergies. When she was done she’d move on to the next client and put Seth and his son behind her.

She hoped. Though something told her there was going to be more to this job than cooking food and more to her relationship with Seth and Jake than business. What that might be she didn’t know. She could only pray that the end result would be something positive.