Shattered Secrets (Cold Creek #1)(30)
Tess could have fallen through the floor. Ann and Gabe—together—that way? She’d had no idea, but she could tell the three men did. Ann’s brothers might be triplets since they looked like clones of each other. She overheard a few teasing remarks about Ann and Gabe, including something about “the sheriff of Hot Creek.”
“I suppose,” Tess said, suddenly having trouble forming her thoughts. “Did the sheriff tell you about the graffiti we went to see? If you would tell him I’m here, I’d appreciate it.”
Ann nodded but narrowed her eyes. “These are my brothers, triple trouble. They work at the lumber mill just outside town, and they can’t get it through their wooden heads I’m totally tied up with this case right now and have to miss our weekly pub lunch. Just ignore them.”
Ann’s brothers resembled Paul Bunyan–type lumberjacks. They hardly seemed the type for the English pub, but then appearances were often deceiving.
Tess nodded, but she could hardly ignore what she’d just learned. Gabe and Ann were seeing each other. Yet he’d kissed her, held her. Some sort of magnetic force pulled them together. But—had that just been her imagination? Or had Gabe been cleverly coercing information from her?
Frowning, Ann punched a button and spoke into the phone. “Tess Lockwood’s here. Want me to send her back or have her wait? I figured. He’s coming out to get you,” Ann said even as Gabe appeared in the hall and gestured for her to come back. He met her partway and took her elbow.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I just wondered what you’d uncovered so far—if that might spark something in my molasses-thick thoughts. And Marian Bell’s friend Erika Petersen stopped by with a cash offer for my house—if I meet with Marian to help her find her daughter.”
“Clever move since I told Marian to steer clear of you. I didn’t take out a restraining order but threatened to. But I still can’t blame—”
“Me either. Blame her. I guess I’d move heaven and earth to get my girl back.”
Tess thought again of Lee and Gracie in that religious group. They wanted to help their kids, but as far as she was concerned, they were actually endangering them.
“I kind of got the idea just now that Ann considers you her very close friend,” Tess blurted out.
“We’ve dated, but I’m not as close to any next steps as she—and her band of brothers—like to think.”
“Oh,” she said, sounding stupid to herself. This was not only the wrong time and place for that talk, but truly none of her business. Except for that kiss.
“Want to see Victor Reingold after all this time?” Gabe asked. “We were just going over things, so maybe you can help—and if not, fine. Anything else new?”
“I’ll see him. Like I said before, though his hard work didn’t locate me, I’ve always been grateful to him, and Mom was too. But nothing else is new.”
She almost told Gabe about the screams at the Hear Ye compound. It was like lying to him not to, but she’d tell him later, if she was sure he and Agent Reingold wouldn’t go in there like gangbusters. Or maybe they’d tell her something so that she could explain her suspicions to them. Maybe it would be better if she went back in there without law enforcement.
Gabe walked her down the hall, past his deputy’s office and his own to the last room before the door that said Detention. It had a big lock and a grated window high on the door, so it must be the jail cell.
“Vic, you remember Tess Lockwood,” Gabe said as they entered a big conference room.
“Sure do, but not looking like that,” Vic said as he got up to come around the table.
It was what Tess could only call a war room. Kate had taken her to London for a week a few years ago, and they’d seen Winston Churchill’s World War II war rooms deep underground. This was similar to what they’d seen there—wall maps with lines of yarn stuck in with pins on bulletin boards, piles of papers, strewn photos. But here, two laptops sat on the table.
Agent Reingold walked closer, limping. Had he always limped?
“Hey, my favorite survivor,” he said, his voice gruff. The man had tears in his eyes. He held her at arm’s length with his hands on her shoulders and studied her. “You look great, Ter—Tess.”
“You too, Agent Reingold.”
“Hey, no little white lies now,” he said, making her feel guilty again as he pulled out a chair for her and Gabe sat beside her. Agent Reingold made his way back around the table. “We appreciate your trying with Gabe—to remember anything,” he added hastily. “And you can call me Vic, since we go way back, okay?”
“Okay, sure. I don’t mean to intrude, but I thought if I knew about Sandy Kenton’s clues—disappearance—it might make me remember something, if, that is, it’s not privileged information.”
“What is privileged, we’ll keep quiet,” Gabe said, “but we’ve scheduled a news conference in about half an hour in the town square. You might want to keep a low profile until the media scatter—if that even gets rid of them. Then we could walk down the alley if you want to see the storage room the girl disappeared from, but it’s a far cry from a cornfield.”
A far cry, echoed in Tess’s head. She heard again that girl’s screams from that Hear Ye building, even heard her own scream years ago before the monster came and darkness descended.