Midnight Exposure (Midnight #1)(22)

“She was in the diner today,” Nathan volunteered. No doubt Hugh already knew the girl had eaten here.

Hugh whipped out a pocket-sized notebook and clicked open his pen. “What time?”

Hugh probably knew that too.

“I’m not sure exactly. Toward the end of lunchtime.”

“Anything seem odd about her?” Hugh asked.

“Not really. City girl. Pretty. Looked out of place. Other than that, nothing.”

“You talk to her?”

“Sure. Introduced myself.” Nathan fiddled with a paper clip. “We talked for a few minutes. She expressed some interest in local artists. I offered to take her to see Mark’s ducks and Martha’s quilts in the morning, weather permitting of course.”

Hugh flattened his mouth and gave his head a curt shake. “While you were chatting her up, someone slashed two of her tires in your parking lot.”

“Really?” Indignation laced Nathan’s voice. “No one told me about that.”

Hugh looked down at his notebook. “The tow truck picked up the car around three.”

“Oh, I had some errands to run. Did you check inside the vehicle?”

Hugh’s nod was far too casual. “Nothing unusual in it.”

“This is a small town. Where could she have gone?” Nathan followed Hugh’s gaze as it shifted to the window. Outside, snowflakes danced in the glow of the rear parking lot light. A spare inch coated the asphalt.

“It’s damned cold out,” Hugh said. “She had hot chocolate with Reed Kimball at the bookstore. She bought a book and left the store at four forty-five. Hasn’t been seen since. We found a Styrofoam cup and her purchase in the hedge outside the inn.”

“Not good.”

“No. Definitely not. Doug and I did a drive around. No sign of her. With this storm gearing up for tomorrow, I want to dispense with the usual wait and start looking for this girl in a major way. I need volunteers. Appreciate it if you could handle organizing them. Doug’s already started making calls.”

“Sure thing.” Nathan rose. “I’ll see how many people I can scrape up. Maybe she fell or something. Hit her head. I can’t think of any other possibilities.”

“If she fell outside the inn, she’d still be outside the inn.” Hugh tugged on his cap and rose. “I don’t like this one bit, not after that body turned up last week.”

Nathan rose to his feet and splayed his palms on the desk. “Hugh, we talked about that. Do not go starting any rumors unless the medical examiner officially rules that death a homicide. Chances are that kid died of exposure.”

“Don’t you think it’s odd, having two strange events in such a short period of time?” Hugh cocked his head.

“No. Pure coincidence. There’s nothing unusual about someone getting lost and freezing to death. Happens every year.”

“But now we have a missing kid and a missing tourist.”

“Christ, Hugh. That kid disappeared over six weeks ago. You can’t possibly connect the two events. This town can’t afford bad publicity. This was the slowest hunting season on record. One more like that and this town’ll shrivel up and die.”

A rap on the door frame cut Nathan off before he could threaten Hugh with town council intervention. A uniformed Lieutenant Doug Lang stood in the hall, a black knit hat clenched in both hands.

“The Rotary Club is going to help.” Doug’s gaze passed over Hugh and settled on Nathan. “Do you want to use the diner as a base?”

“Good idea, Doug,” Nathan answered.

Doug flushed.

“I’ll get on the phone to the state and county boys, but I doubt we’ll get any help yet.” Hugh grunted and stepped into the hall. “We need to find her. Before we have another body on our hands.”

Doug’s eyes followed Hugh’s exit.

“So how many volunteers do we have in the Rotary?” Nathan pulled paper and a pencil from his desk drawer.

Doug pulled a small notebook from his pocket. “A dozen. We’re calling the volunteer firemen, too.”

“Good.”

Doug scratched his head with the tip of his finger. He glanced at the door and lowered his voice. “Just so you know, Hugh’s been talking to Reed Kimball about that dead kid.”

Nathan snapped the pencil in two. “Has he?”

“Yeah. Hugh isn’t telling you everything about this Jayne Sullivan. I think it’s a huge coincidence that one of the last people to see her alive was Reed Kimball, considering.”

“Considering what?” Other than that Hugh wanted Reed to take over as chief. Really, Hugh wanted anyone but Doug to take over as chief. Nathan couldn’t blame Hugh. Doug was an idiot, but his daddy owned the local bank. Nathan found the lieutenant easily manipulated and therefore useful on occasion.

Doug expression went smug and mean. “You didn’t know?”





CHAPTER NINE


Jayne raised her eyelids and immediately squeezed them shut again. Her head felt like a bowling ball mounted on a Popsicle stick, with her neck not nearly strong enough to support its bloated burden. Pain and nausea competed for top billing as she clawed her way out of a drugged stupor. A weak shiver coursed through her limbs.

Had she been at a party? Had someone slipped her something? Her memory was a deep dark hole. The fact that she couldn’t remember the previous night washed over her consciousness like an ice-cold shower.