Shattered Secrets (Cold Creek #1)(82)
“We need more than luck in all this,” Tess replied.
“You got that right.”
Tess thought Peggy Barfield—unlike Ann—had a great personality to work in a job that required both a friendly nature and firm control. Tess had only observed her answer a few emergency calls so far, but she’d handled them with ease. Now Tess tried to concentrate on Peggy’s explanation about what appeared on the computer monitor when a 911 call came in.
But her mind—and heart—kept clinging to Gabe. Could she ever be the kind of wife who could send him off toward possible danger, as she had done just now? If she owned a day care center or had children of her own, she could probably keep herself occupied when he was so busy and under such stress.
Despite trying to learn all of the emergency processes Peggy was teaching, the morning dragged. Tess was anxious for a call from Gabe. If the trip to Green Mountain didn’t turn up anything, it terrified her to think what no one had put into words yet. The two abducted girls could be in those two graves under plastic—if Bright Star didn’t have them dug up and moved when it got dark tonight.
When Peggy told her to take a break Tess decided to carry a cup of coffee down to Miss Etta and get that book on stress for Gabe.
“I’ll be right back,” she mouthed to Peggy, who had just taken a call about someone bitten by a raccoon. She was telling them they had to see Dr. Nelson about possible rabies shots.
Out she stepped with a covered paper cup of coffee into the windy but sunny October day.
*
To Gabe’s dismay and embarrassment after telling Vic he’d be able to find the cabin, they couldn’t locate a pull-off spot on the single-lane dirt road up Green Mountain. It really wasn’t much of a mountain, just another of the tall Appalachian foothills around here, but it did loom above the others nearby.
“Finally!” Gabe said as they spotted an area where brush had been cut back to allow access off the road. “Let’s try it.”
“No vehicle here right now, but I see ruts. Bingo!” Vic said when they got out. “Let’s go in armed and all dressed up for a shooting party to check out Mr. Mayor’s hidden cabin. Can’t imagine he didn’t tell his wife about it and fired Ruby Purtle because it’s a lovers’ nest. No way he’d be meeting his secret ladylove up here, not that guy.”
“But remember to expect the unexpected. If he or someone else does arrive, the sheriff’s vehicle’s a dead giveaway, but it’s not like there’s alternative parking. Okay, let’s go.”
They donned their Kevlar vests over their jackets, took their weapons and hiked in. A path was soon discernible, even through falling, blowing leaves. Reese Owens always did drag his feet, but had he dragged something or someone else through here? Gabe felt his heart rate speed up. His mouth went dry. Something had to break on this case, but he was already dreading what he was going to find.
*
An elderly couple Tess didn’t recognize, but who greeted her by name, were just leaving the library when she walked in. “See you at the search for Sandy,” they said to her, evidently assuming she’d be there. And, even if Gabe and Vic weren’t back on time, she planned on that.
Except for Miss Etta, the library was deserted, but then it was almost lunchtime and the volunteer searchers would be gathering soon. The librarian was busy shelving books.
“Miss Etta, I brought you some coffee—small thanks for the research you’ve done for Gabe and me.”
“Tess, did you come alone? I rather had the feeling that Agent Reingold was keeping an eye on you.”
“He’s out somewhere with Gabe right now. I’m learning to answer the dispatch phones in the sheriff’s office—just helping out for a while.”
Miss Etta used the disinfectant on her desk, then, smiling, took the coffee from Tess. “I must admit I’m a tea person, but this is very kind. Nothing like good sheriff’s office coffee when they are out trying to solve their big cases. I do think with Dane’s demise, your own case may be resolved by his death and Marva’s eventual admissions—you know what I mean.”
“That Dane was guilty and she helped him? That could be, since I recall a small graveyard out behind the house where I was held, and Marva’s house seemed familiar in several ways.”
“Did it? Including its location on Blackberry Road?” Miss Etta asked, sitting at her desk and rummaging in her lower drawer.
“Not that so much, but I recall the back stairs, the attic that looked out on old stacked white beehives that resemble a graveyard. Also, I remember certain sounds like the distant train and the muted roar of the falls. Those books you gave me spoke of a cascade of memories, once they start coming back. But—I’m in a hurry. Gabe mentioned he rushed out of here without the book on stress you offered him. Can I get it on my temporary card and read some of it to him? Oh, is it that one on your desk about occupational stress?”
“Oh. No, that’s one I was looking at, but I have a much better one in the bookmobile parked right out back. I was going to drop it off since the sheriff is so busy. Come on out with me, and I’ll get it for you. I’ll just put up my out-to-lunch sign and get a bite to eat after I give you that book,” she said as she walked to the front door and flipped the open sign. “Well, then, come along.”
Taking what looked like a brown bag with her lunch, she left her coffee on her desk and, as ever, walked briskly toward the back of the building. Would the old bookmobile be as much of a time machine as this place was? Tess knew one thing. It would be spick-and-span within and the books would be perfectly in their places.