What the Heart Knows: A Milford-Haven Novel - Book One (37 page)

“She doesn’t have good boundaries. Be nice if she could turn the damn machine off once in a blue moon.”

Now there’s heat in the man’s voice, color rising up his neck
. “Did you have an argument?”

“A disagreement,” Calvin admitted, “even though she didn’t pick up.” He paused. “But she did listen to a voice message. I overheard it. That call altered her mood.”

Del’s mind leaped forward. “So … Ms. Christian has some kind of voice messaging? We didn’t find an answering machine.”
Is the message still there? Does anyone else have access? Could they have erased it?

“Yes, yes, she’s a journalist, of course she has an answering machine. She never turns the blasted thing off. Drives me crazy.” Calvin’s voice dropped, choked off by the anxiety that seemed to rise by the minute.

Del edged forward in his chair. “Mr. Calvin, to your knowledge, did Ms. Christian erase that message?”

“Not while I was there.” Calvin composed himself, uncrossed his legs. “We both dressed in a hurry after that,” he
continued. “She seemed distracted, rushed. I had an early business meeting. We made another date—a makeup date, we called it… literally, in this case—for that very evening, before she was due to take her trip. That morning, we then left immediately. I opened her car door for her in the parking garage—and watched her drive away before doing the same myself.” He paused again. “I never saw, or heard from her again.”

“What was in the message you overheard?”

“It’s been a while now. I don’t recall the details. But it was a man’s voice saying something about a time frame having changed, and that she had to go to some house if she wanted the story.”

“Perhaps we should start there, sir.”

“I’m sorry, where, Deputy?”

“The last place you were with Ms. Christian. At her residence.”

Joseph leaned forward in his high-backed desk chair. “I… it’d be terribly odd being there without her….”

“Her permission? I think she’d want your help, don’t you?”

Calvin sighed. “I do. Yes.”

“In that case, could we make an appointment sometime this week to meet at her apartment? Seeing it again might spark a suppressed memory. You might notice something missing that we wouldn’t be aware of. Could prove helpful to our investigation.”
Best to get a commitment from him right now,
“What day would work for you?”

Calvin glanced toward the dark window again, as though he could read his calendar on the pane. After a moment he replied, “I think Monday would work, Deputy. But it’ll have to be after hours again because of my work schedule.”

“I’ll clear this with Detective Dexter, see if he can come with us, or meet us there.”

“Either way, Deputy. It’s also fine if it’s just you and me at Chris’s home.”

Del nodded. “All right. In any case, I’ll call you to confirm, Mr. Calvin. The department will appreciate your cooperation. That much I can tell you right now.”

Outside in the driveway, Del saw the rain had turned to a light drizzle that misted the grounds.

He glanced at the circular drive, its exits marked by illuminated end posts. Each lantern seemed to hover, framed by a ghostly rainbow, the particulates of moisture that still hung in the air acting as tiny prisms.
And that’s how a case gets solved… each clue acting like a lens
.

He inhaled again the eucalyptus aroma tinged with smoke from Calvin’s fireplace.
The missing woman probably stood right hear, inhaling this same fragrance, enjoying time here with Joseph Calvin
.

Calvin’s connection to her… the fact that he’s now revealed more than we knew. . . . It opens up a whole new avenue of inquiry, gives us something solid. Maybe we
can
find Christine Christian
.

Light shot through the kaleidoscope in her consciousness and made a new geometry of her soul. When had colors been so vivid… complexity of design so pure? Even as she yearned to touch it, flow through its matrix, lose herself to the rainbow of light and become its prism, something tugged at the edges of memory
.

Christine.
It seemed a nice name—a familiar one
. Pristine Christine …
a childhood song echoed but she regarded the taunt
as though from a great distance
.

Now an urgency began to press like a weight against her chest. A few moments ago—or was it a few weeks?—she’d wanted to breathe. Now that seemed irrelevant
.

But something else prodded insistently. Yes, there it was— the need to tell
.

She remembered now. The story—she had a story to tell, but she didn’t have all the details yet. She’d tried to write it. But first there was more research to be done
.

She’d been good—delayed her dinner date, gone to the house on the bluff to follow the lead, meet her source
.

The reporter’s instinct that still pulsed within her said danger was still coming closer, That story was the urgency pulling at her, dragging her back to the human circumstances, holding her in the dark. She had to get this story done in time
.

Deadline
.

The word carried with it the weight of the world
.

COLOPHON

This book is set in the Cambria font, released in 2004 by Microsoft, as a formal, solid font to be equally readable in print and on screens. It was designed by Jelle Bosma, Steve Matteson, and Robin Nicholas.

The name Cambria is the classical name for Wales, the Latin form of the Welsh name for Wales,
Cymru
. The etymology of
Cynru
is
combrog,
meaning “compatriot.”

The California town of Cambria is named for its resemblance to the southwestern coast of Wales, where the town of Milford Haven has existed since before ancient Roman times, and is mentioned in William Shakespeare’s
Cymbeline
.

The dingbat is the Heart Cockle Shell, drawn by artist Mary Helsaple, and rendered graphically by cover designer Kevin Meyer. The heart cockle, or cardium cardissa, lives in open, sandy intertidal zones in California, Alaska, Florida, Japan, and on other beaches throughout the world.

The word “cockles” refers to the interior chambers of the heart, and to a person’s innermost feelings.

LIGHTHOUSE

Each of the
MilfordHaven Novels
features a real lighthouse. The Piedras Blancas lighthouse has a most unusual profile: the superstructure that once housed its light has been removed, and its original Fresnel lens has been replaced by a flashing beacon.

The Piedras Blancas light still serves California’s Central Coast, shining outward twentyfive miles from its isolated perch at the end of a prominent peninsula a few miles north of San Simeon. It’s named for the white rocks located just offshore.

Completed in 1875, it rose onehundredfifteen feet and housed a firstorder Fresnel lens. Later that year a twostory Victorian dwelling was built, and in 1906 a fog signal and additional keeper’s dwelling were added.

The lighthouse was operated by the U.S. Lighthouse Service until 1939, when the U.S. Coast Guard assumed jurisdiction. In 1949 a storm damaged the lantern room. The Fresnel lens was removed and a rotating aerobeacon was placed on the tower, which is now 74 feet high.

The Coast Guard staffed the lighthouse until 1975, at which time the tower was automated and the station unmanned. In 2001 management was transferred to the Bureau of Land Management, whose team has already extensively reclaimed native plants and who have plans to restore the upper portion of the tower and replicate the original light. The original lens, slated for destruction, was saved by the Lion’s Club, the Coast Guard and the community of Cambria, where the lens is on display on Main Street.

Funds are being raised by local community groups to restore the lighthouse. Visit
www.ca.blm.gov/bakersfield
or call the Bakersfield office of the BLM 661-391-6000 for information or tours.

While the geographical and technical elements of this lighthouse are accurate in my series, the chronology has been compressed so as to present as much as possible of its rich history.

Secret of the Shells

Special Messages about a Woman and Her Self,
and about Discovering the Next Chapter . . . of Her Life

Shell 1: What Your Heart Knows

Do you often have intuitions? When they come, are they thoughts or feelings? Do you identify them by other terms such as
instinct, feeling,
or
premonition?

What do you do when you have an intuition? Do you dismiss it as “silly”? Do you evaluate them carefully to learn whether they’re fear-based or inspired?

There are many expressions that use the word “heart.” Examples are
hardhearted, put your heart into it, heart-to-heart talk,
and
heart in the right place
. What are others?