A Desperate Search Page 17

  “That would be a pretty devious and sophisticated maneuver.”

  “Sounds about right.” Dessie’s gaze never wavered. “I’ve known Dr. Wingate for a long time. She’s nothing if not clever.”

  So Dessie also had a problem with Patience Wingate. Nikki was beginning to think she’d never known the real Dessie Dupre at all. She’d always thought of her as a modest and unassuming woman. Not a mouse by any means, but someone who led a quiet life and did her best to get along. Evidently, neither the real Dessie Dupre nor the real Dr. Nance matched the descriptions Nikki had carried with her all these years.

  People were complicated, even the quiet ones. Especially the quiet ones. Look at her.

  She leaned in. “Dessie, what do you know about Dr. Wingate that I don’t?”

  The woman spoke without hesitation, as if she were suddenly relieved that someone had allowed her to open the floodgates. “You know I’m not one to talk out of school, but it’s always been my job to look after Dr. Nance. I see no reason to stop now.”

  “Go on.”

  “He and Dr. Wingate had an affair. It ended badly.”

  “An affair?” Nikki wondered how she could still be surprised after all the afternoon’s revelations.

  Dessie nodded. “She had a family. When her husband found out about Dr. Nance, he left and took their kids with him. Things got ugly. The divorce and custody battle cost her a fortune. When her relationship with Dr. Nance didn’t work out, she blamed him for ruining her life. It got so bad that Dr. Nance offered to buy out her partnership. She refused to sell, partly out of spite, but mostly because she wouldn’t have had much of a practice without his referrals and everyone knew it. Eventually, they worked things out, but it took a long time.”

  Nikki shook her head. “How did I not hear about this? It must have caused a scandal, but I never heard a word.”

  “You were away at school at the time. You didn’t come home much those first few years. Despite the ugliness, they managed to keep things quiet. Only a few people knew.”

  “I can’t imagine keeping something like that quiet in a town like Belle Pointe.”

  “You’d be surprised at all the secrets.” Dessie paused to stare out the window as she gathered her thoughts. “If you’re looking for a reason for someone to take that watch, maybe you should talk to Dr. Wingate. In her eyes, Dr. Nance took everything from her. Maybe she decided to take the one thing that meant the most to him.”

  * * *

  “JUST TAKE IT EASY,” Adam called across the water as he slowly got to his feet.

  The man returned his stare through the riflescope. “Hands in the air! Nice and slow-like. Atta boy.”

  Arms lifted, Adam backed toward the opposite bank. The mud sucked at his shoes, limiting his mobility and, therefore, any desperate attempt at escape. He could draw his weapon, but where would that get him? Facedown in the swamp, most likely.

  He squinted into the sun. “I’m a cop. My name is Adam Thayer. I’m a homicide detective with the Dallas Police Department.”

  “You think I don’t already know that? Nobody enters this county without me knowing about it.”

  Adam kept his hands lifted while he surveyed his surroundings. “I don’t want any trouble.”

  “You should have thought about that earlier. I don’t think you appreciate the seriousness of your offense. Around here, we don’t care much for trespassers and snoops. As a matter of fact, we don’t care much for cops, either.”

  “Let me walk out of here and this ends now,” Adam said. “No one has to get hurt.”

  “I’ll decide when and how this ends,” the man said. “You better think long and hard about how you answer this question. What’s your business in Belle Pointe?”

  “I’ve been temporarily assigned to the Nance County coroner’s office. I’m down here investigating a suspicious death.”

  “The coroner’s office.” The man’s head lifted before he reseated the rifle against his shoulder. “You’re working for that Dresden woman?”

  “Do you know Dr. Dresden? Let me call her. She’ll vouch for my credentials.”

  “You’re not calling anyone and your association with Nikki Dresden is reason enough for me to shoot you on the spot. Maybe you’re one of them and maybe you’re not, but maybe it’s best not to take any chances.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I’m talking about devil-worshippers. Satanists. Call ’em what you want, but the Dresden woman was their ringleader back in the day. She was the one who called all the shots. Maybe she still does, for all anyone knows.”

  “Those old rumors were unfounded,” Adam said. “Surely you know that.”

  The man’s head lifted. “Unfounded by who? Not by me. Not by anyone else I know. Ask around and you’ll get an earful. Fifteen years ago, she and her little Goth friends killed a girl. Lured her to the Ruins, cut out her heart for one of their black rituals and then buried her body where it won’t ever be found.”

  Adam couldn’t tell if the guy was putting him on or not. No one in their right mind could still believe any of that stuff. But he had a sudden inkling of what Nikki must have had to put up with all these years.

  He countered the man’s assertion with a logical query. “If they buried her body where it’ll never be found, how do you know what they did to her?”

  “It’s called common sense. Everybody knows what they did.” He gestured with the barrel of the rifle. “Enough small talk. You told me why you came to Belle Pointe. Now tell me what you’re doing on my property.”

  “I’d like to ask you some questions.”

  “If you want to ask someone a question, you get him on the phone. You don’t go prowling around a man’s private domain unless you have a death wish. Or unless you’re just plain stupid. I’d be within my rights to put a bullet through your chest. Although I’ve always been partial to headshots.”

  “You can’t shoot someone in broad daylight for trespassing and expect to get away with it,” Adam said. “You’d have a hard time proving deadly threat with me out here unarmed and you up there with a rifle.”

  “Since when does a cop walk around unarmed?”

  The man lowered the rifle. “Besides, I don’t have to shoot you. I can just sic the dogs on you. Right, boys?”

  One of the dogs got up and came to the edge of the embankment to growl a warning. Adam stood frozen with his hands in the air.

  “Or we could just leave you out here and let the gators and moccasins nibble on you.”

  “A cop disappears, people are going to come looking for him,” Adam said.

  “They can look all they want, but a body doesn’t last long in the swamp.” He cocked his head. “Ever been bit by a cottonmouth? My cousin was once. Damn thing crawled in his boat. He said the strike felt like someone had whacked him on the knee with a red-hot poker. Nearly lost his leg and he got to the doctor real quick. Imagine if you had to walk out of here. Probably wouldn’t make it to the highway. That’s what happens when you go poking your nose in places it doesn’t belong.”

  “Like Dr. Nance’s cabin? That was you the other night, wasn’t it?” Adam was getting tired of the man’s threats. Put up or shut up. “What were you doing snooping around someone else’s private property?”

  “You’re asking the wrong question, buddy. Maybe you should have stayed back in Dallas, where you belong.”

  Adam scouted the terrain from his periphery. No way he could make a run for it. He was still too far away from either bank. He tried to calculate the odds of drawing his weapon and getting off a shot before the man took him out with the rifle. Slim to none, he decided.

  “You let me walk out of here right now and that’s the end of it,” Adam said. “You haven’t broken any laws yet. At least none that will get you arrested. Even if I tell this story to the sheriff, he�
��ll likely pat you on the back for your restraint.”

  “Tell you what I’ll do.” The man hunkered down between the dogs. “I’ll give you a head start. You make it to the opposite bank by the time I count to twenty and I’ll give you another twenty count to get to the woods. After that, all bets are off.”

  “Or I could just shoot you,” Adam said.

  “Yeah, I figured you were packing. You go for that weapon, you best be quick. Otherwise, time to turn tail and run.” He lifted the rifle. “One Mississippi...two Mississippi...”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Late that afternoon, Nikki sat on her back steps, watching the sun sink below the treetops. Despite the deep quiet of her garden, she couldn’t relax. She knew too much now. Her visit to Dessie had opened a Pandora’s box, but rather than answering all those lingering questions, the revelations had only deepened her suspicions. Everyone had secrets, it seemed. She was no exception. She suspected Adam wasn’t, either.

  Where was he? She hadn’t heard from him all day. When she came home earlier from her visit with Dessie, she’d tried to reach him, but the call went straight to voice mail. She’d left a message, asking that he get in touch with her immediately. They needed to talk about the photographs she’d texted him earlier. She didn’t want to explain her discoveries over the phone. They needed to speak in person.

  An hour went by and then two. The sun slid beneath the horizon and the breeze picked up. She left another message and then considered driving out to the lake. Maybe he was just busy. Or maybe he had company. Maybe he’d packed his bags in the middle of the night and gone back to Dallas.

  And maybe you’re being ridiculous.

  But she couldn’t shake the notion that something was wrong. Uneasiness prickled her nape as she peered into the deepening shadows. Where are you?

  He’d said he would call today. Why hadn’t he?

  She picked up her phone and sent another text. Still no response.

  Rising from the steps, she started to go inside and grab her bag when she heard a car pull into her driveway. She ran down the steps and cut through the back gate just as Adam was climbing out of his SUV. Even in the fading light, she could see that his windshield was shattered and the hood crumpled down the middle as if someone had struck it with a baseball bat. She rushed forward, resisting the urge to fling herself in his arms.

  “What happened?” she said on a breath. “Were you in an accident? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Can’t say the same for my vehicle.”

  She took another survey of the damage. “How did that happen?”

  “A tire iron would be my guess.”

  She caught her breath. “When? Where?”

  “I got caught someplace I shouldn’t have been. When I finally made it back to my vehicle, the damage had been done.”

  “That’s cryptic.” Nikki took a moment to calm her racing pulse. “Did you file a police report?”

  “Not yet. I wanted to touch base with you first, make sure you’re okay.”

  “I’m fine,” she said anxiously. “But I knew something was wrong. I’ve left messages for you all afternoon. When you didn’t return my calls or texts, I worried that something had happened.”

  His expression gentled in the soft light. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. My phone got wet and my grandmother’s house no longer has a working landline.” He turned so that the light hit him just right, revealing a fresh scratch across his cheek.

  Nikki said in alarm, “Adam, what happened to your face?”

  He put a hand to his cheek. “It’s just a scratch. It looks worse than it is. I don’t even know when it happened. Probably scraped it against a tree branch when I ran from the dogs.”

  “What?”

  He gave her a look. “It’s been an eventful afternoon.”

  “And I thought I had news. If your phone was ruined, you didn’t see the photographs I texted you.” She took his chin in her fingers and turned his face to the light to inspect the fresh damage. “Let’s go inside. I’ll put something on it.”

  He pulled back slightly. “It’ll keep. What photographs?”

  “I’ll tell you inside. No sense courting infection.”

  “Nikki—”

  “First things first,” she insisted. “We’ll take care of that scratch and then get you something to eat. Are you hungry? We could order takeout.”

  “Maybe later. I had a quick bite when I went back to the house to shower and change. I didn’t want to come over here smelling like the swamp.”

  “You have had an afternoon.”

  “Sounds like we both have. I don’t need anything to eat, but I could sure use a drink. Something stronger than tea if you have it.”

  “I’ll see what I can find. Adam?” She started for the house, then paused and said over her shoulder, “Trouble really does seem to follow you, doesn’t it?”

  “I guess you could argue that I sometimes go out looking for it.” He turned to scan the street. “Dark things are happening in this town, Nikki. Dr. Nance was right about that. He really was on to something. I think whatever he found out may have something to do with Dr. Wingate and the man who owns a salvage yard ten miles outside of town.”

  “Eddie Bowman?” Her eyes widened. “Did he do that to your car? You were running from his dogs?”

  “Apparently he doesn’t take kindly to trespassers.”

  “You shouldn’t have gone out there alone,” she scolded. “Why did you go out there in the first place? And why didn’t you tell me what you had in mind? I would have warned you about Bowman.”

  “No time. I followed Dr. Wingate out there.”

  “You what?” Nikki’s agitation accelerated. “Why were you tailing Dr. Wingate?”

  “I told you last night I had a hunch she was hiding something. Somehow this Eddie Bowman is involved.”

  “Eddie Bowman is a thug. From what I hear, he deals a lot more than used car parts out of that junkyard.”

  “Drugs?”

  “Drugs, guns, you name it.”

  Adam nodded thoughtfully. “That would explain some things.”

  “I’m serious, Adam. You need to be careful with that guy. Everyone in town knows he’s bad news.”

  “I’ve dealt with plenty of guys like Eddie Bowman in my time.”

  Twilight had deepened, but Nikki could still see the gleam in his eyes and the curve of his lips as he stared down at her. Without warning, he reached over and tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear. “I appreciate your concern, though.”

  Nikki closed her eyes at his touch. Something was happening here. She could live in denial all she wanted, but the quivers in her stomach and the pounding of her pulse didn’t lie. “Come inside,” she said on a shiver. “I’ll tell you about those photographs.”

  * * *

  ADAM SAT ON the edge of the bathtub while Nikki swabbed the scratch. Minutes earlier, she’d dug a bottle of whiskey out of a kitchen cabinet and poured him a generous shot. He’d downed the contents in one swallow, leaving the empty glass on the counter as he followed her into the bathroom. He hadn’t had a drink in months and the eighty-proof alcohol packed a punch. He savored the slow burn at the back of his throat and the warmth in the pit of his stomach.

  He enjoyed Nikki’s nearness, too, especially when she leaned into him. He smelled roses, but he couldn’t tell if the scent came from her skin or her hair or from the bushes that cascaded over her back fence. Her touch was soft and deft. She finished with the antiseptic and turned to put everything away.

  She talked while she worked, giving him a detailed debriefing of her visit with Dessie Dupre. When she came to the part about the marriage license and will, he whistled softly. “Clete Darnell doesn’t fool around, does he? He takes over the practice in May, persuades Dr. Nance to update his will and then moves in on
Dessie, marries her and rewrites her will all in the space of what—three months?”

  “If that.” Nikki washed her hands at the sink and reached for a towel. “I’ve been thinking about the conversation I overheard in the study last night. They were obviously looking for something. What if Dr. Nance never updated his will? What if Clete Darnell drew up a new will leaving everything to Dessie and then forged Dr. Nance’s signature? Taking over the previous attorney’s practice gave him the opportunity to destroy the original will, but he’d need to make certain there weren’t any copies lying around in case someone decided to contest Dessie’s inheritance.”

  “You’ve known Dessie for a long time. You think she’s capable of that kind of deception, let alone murder?”

  Nikki frowned. “I don’t want to. I desperately want to believe she’s the person I’ve always thought her to be. But the Dessie I knew wouldn’t have been conned by someone like Clete Darnell. The kind and conscientious woman who always took such good care of Dr. Nance wouldn’t be planning a trip to the Caribbean just days after his body was found floating in the lake. I’m beginning to think that no one in this town is who they claim to be.”

  “We all have a dark side,” Adam said. “The evil twin that rides on our shoulder and whispers bad things in our ear.”

  “That’s a pleasant thought.” She hung up the towel and turned to the bathroom door. “Come on. Let’s go sit outside now that it’s cooled off. I could use some fresh air.”

  “Be right there. Just give me a minute to grab the whiskey.”

  He got down another glass from the cabinet and carried everything outside.

  “It’s cooler tonight,” he said. “Nice change from the sweltering heat.”

  Nikki drew up her knees and wrapped her arms around her legs. “I don’t know why but the end of summer always makes me nostalgic.”

  “For what?”