Scene of the Crime: Return to Bachelor Moon (3 page)

Around noon Marlena had placed a platter of ham and cheese sandwiches, along with a big bowl of potato salad, on the table. She had stacked the plates and silverware, allowing the men to eat whenever they were ready rather than calling them to a sit-down meal.

All the rules had changed. From the moment she’d awakened and found the family gone, the neat and orderly world inside the bed-and-breakfast had been shattered.

Marlena was on the verge of shattering every time she thought of the missing people she loved. Daniella had been like a sister, and in the past two years, Sam had become like a favorite brother-in-law. Seven-year-old Macy was the icing on the cake in the family Marlena had temporarily claimed as her own.

Marlena had spent most of the afternoon either in her room or in the kitchen preparing dinner. She’d decided to serve the men a hearty meal of smothered pork chops, mashed potatoes and corn. The fruit salad would be perfect to finish off as dessert. She knew that Gabriel had spent the afternoon interviewing Marion Wells, Valerie King and Pamela Winters, but she suspected those women knew no more than she did about what had happened.

The back door creaked open and she jumped, nearly slicing her finger. She relaxed as she saw her brother step into the kitchen. Lately, most of the time she wanted to take him by the shoulders and shake some adult sense into him, but at the moment, the sight of him was a welcome one, and her heart filled with love.

“Hey, sis. How’s it going?”

“It’s going,” she replied.

He slumped into one of the chairs at the table. “This is all so weird.”

“Scary weird,” she agreed, and then couldn’t help herself. “I thought you were going to get a haircut last week.”

He raked a hand through his shaggy blond hair. “I didn’t get around to it yet, and don’t start nagging.”

She grinned ruefully. “I don’t have the heart or the energy at the moment to nag you. How about a glass of chocolate milk? You know chocolate milk solves everything.”

A hint of a smile curved his lips, and she knew he was thinking of all the bad times they’d gone through in the past. Chocolate milk had always been her panacea. “That sounds good,” he agreed.

She made the milk with chocolate syrup, stirred it until it was foamy and then set a glass for Cory and a glass for herself on the table.

“Thanks.” He took a drink and then looked at her. “I saw you walking with that detective this morning. Is he giving you a hard time?”

“Gabriel Blankenship. And, no, he isn’t giving me a hard time, but he’s doing his job. By the end of our walk this morning, my head was spinning from all the questions he’d asked.”

“Questions like what? Surely he doesn’t think you had anything to do with this.”

She took a sip from her glass. As always, the sight of Cory caused love to well up inside her. He had the face of a choirboy, open and earnest, with blue-green eyes that radiated a soulful innocence.

“I don’t know what exactly he thinks about me, but he asked me the questions I would expect under the circumstances. Did Sam and Daniella have any enemies? Had either of them been threatened recently? Had their moods changed in the past few days? Of course, my answer was no to all of them.”

“How did this happen? Do you think whoever took them will come back to take us?” His eyes simmered more blue than green.

“Oh, Cory, I don’t think so. I don’t think any of us are in danger.” But she wasn’t sure if she believed the reassuring words or not.

Without knowing who had taken the Connelly family and why, without knowing exactly what had happened in the kitchen the night they disappeared, there was no way to know if there was still danger lurking about or not.

“Are you eating with the others in the dining room tonight?” she asked. Cory often sat with the guests for dinner.

“Nah. John and I are heading into town for pizza.”

“It’s nice that you and John get along so well.” She finished her milk, placed the glass in the sink and then returned to slicing up the last of the fruit.

“He’s cool. He’s kind of like a father, always telling me how to do things and teaching me stuff. We caught two rattlesnakes today, cut off their heads and threw them into the woods.”

Marlena’s heart filled with sorrow for her brother, who had lost his mother and father far too soon. Although Marlena had done everything in her power to fill Cory’s needs and see to his care, she knew she hadn’t been a substitute for a masculine presence in his life.

“As far as I’m concerned, the only good snake is a dead snake,” she replied. “I’m glad you have John. Every boy needs a male role model in his life, but don’t forget our future game plan.”

“Yeah, yeah, I remember.” He finished his milk and stood. “I’d better get out of here. We have some work to do outside before we head into town for dinner.” He walked over to her and kissed her on the temple. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked in a surprising role reversal.

“I’m hanging in there,” she replied, a surge of pride fluttering in her heart as she realized the child she’d raised was showing all the signs of becoming a man.

By the time she placed dinner on the table, the house was empty except for herself and the three agents. She served them and then returned to the kitchen, where she ate her dinner at the table where Sam, Daniella and Macy had been interrupted in a nighttime snack.

Their absence was a physical pain in her heart, and she knew it would be there until she got some answers. Hopefully Gabriel and his men had come up with something during the day’s investigation.... A clue, a potential motive, something that would find the family alive and well.

After the men had eaten and she’d cleared their dishes and cleaned the kitchen, she retired to her private rooms, figuring the best thing she could do was stay out of the way of anything the FBI agents were doing to investigate.

It was after eight when a knock fell on her door. She got up from the rocking chair and opened the door to see Gabriel.

“May I come in?” he asked.

Surprised, she opened the door farther and motioned him to the sofa, then sank back in the old wooden rocking chair that squeaked faintly with every rock. “Did you find out anything today?” she asked, trying to ignore the pleasant woodsy scent that had followed him into the room.

“Several things, but nothing concrete to provide a trail to follow.” As usual, his handsome features appeared set in stone, and there was no warmth, no welcome at all in the depths of his eyes. “I stopped in to tell you that it isn’t necessary for you to cook for us. We aren’t paying guests here, so we aren’t your responsibility.”

“I really don’t mind, and besides, it keeps me busy. I’ll go crazy with nothing to do around here,” she protested.

He leaned against the sofa back, seeming to shrink the size of the piece of furniture—and the entire room—with his presence. “Pamela Winters is not a fan of yours.”

Marlena couldn’t help the short burst of laughter that escaped her at his understatement. “Pamela Winters hates my guts.”

“Why is that?”

Marlena rocked several times, the squeak of the chair the only noise in the room as she thought of the dark-haired woman who worked as the head housekeeper.

Marlena finally stopped her movement and focused on the man asking the questions. “I think Pamela thought she was going to become the manager once Daniella decided to give up some of the reins of the daily running of the place. Unfortunately, when I arrived here, penniless and with no place else to go, Daniella not only took me under her wing, but she instantly appointed me manager. I don’t blame Pamela for feeling betrayed, but somehow her anger has been pointed at me. We’re civil with each other, but she’s made it clear she doesn’t want to be my friend.”

“She thinks maybe you had something to do with the disappearances because you might be named a beneficiary in Sam’s and Daniella’s wills.”

Marlena gasped, and then laughed again. “That’s ridiculous.” Her laughter died, and she began to rock back and forth with a sense of both outrage and fear. “First of all, I refuse to believe that they’re dead, and I’ll repeat again, I had absolutely nothing to do with their disappearance. Second, they would have never made me a beneficiary. Daniella knew this was just a stopping place for me and Cory, that it was temporary until we gathered our resources to get on with our lives, and that we were planning on leaving soon.”

“Get on with your lives? What does that mean?”

She was aware of the piercing quality of his eyes and the simmer of some indefinable energy between them. “My goal was never to be a manager of a bed-and-breakfast. Cory and I are planning to eventually move to a bigger city where I can get a teaching degree, and he can get some sort of technical training. I want the house and the dog, the husband and the children. Daniella and Sam knew that this job was just temporary for me, that I had different dreams than staying here in Bachelor Moon. Are you married?”

“No, and have no intention of joining the ranks of the married set. I like living alone. I wouldn’t do marriage well, so there’s no point in trying it.” He stood suddenly. “I’ll let you get back to whatever you were doing before I came in.”

She got out of the rocking chair and followed him to the door. “Actually, I’m thinking of taking a little walk. I could use some fresh air.”

“Then I’ll just say good night.” Gabriel gave her a curt nod and left, heading back through the kitchen and dining room toward the stairs to his room.

Marlena left her room and stepped through the kitchen door that led outside. She breathed deeply of the humid, floral-scented air. Darkness had fallen, but a full moon shone overhead, easily lighting the path that led around the pond.

Her head ached with all the questions, the fears, the utter horror of the past twenty-four hours. What had happened to Sam and Daniella and Macy? It was as if an alien spaceship had shot down a beam that had instantly drawn them up and out of the house, leaving no identifying clues behind.

She couldn’t imagine who might want to hurt the Connellys. They were respected, warm and giving to both their guests and the community of Bachelor Moon. Daniella served on a half dozen charity committees, and Sam was the man people called on when they were in trouble or needed something done. Macy was everyone’s delight with her sassy attitude and sweet, loving heart.

As she neared the area where the walkway came closest to the pond, a chorus of bullfrogs sang a deep-throated tune and a faint splash indicated that the fish were jumping.

It was a beautiful night, and yet all was wrong with the world. Tears burned at her eyes as she thought of the people she loved, people who were missing without any apparent reason.

The path she followed stopped abruptly at the far end of the pond. A trail led off to John’s little cabin but a sign indicated that guests weren’t allowed on the narrow path.

She turned and started back the way she had come. Her thoughts shifted to the man in charge of the case: Gabriel Blankenship.

She was both drawn to and repelled by him at the same time. His intensity nearly stole her breath away. Something about him made her pulse pound a little harder, her heart race a little faster. She recognized it as some sort of strange attraction, but he was certainly the last man she’d want any kind of relationship with.

He was here to do a job, and when the job was done, he would be gone. He’d just told her that he wasn’t the marrying type, and marriage was definitely on her wish list. She’d thought that was where she was headed with Gary Holzman when she’d lived in Chicago, but that dream had exploded and she’d wound up here with nothing but a beat-up car spewing fumes, a suitcase full of clothes and Cory.

She’d just about reached the part of the walkway that was closest to the pond’s edge when the sound of rustling in the brush behind her stopped the bullfrog’s song.

She had no chance to turn, no time to process that danger was coming before she was shoved from behind with enough force that she flew forward and was weightless for an instant—airborne—and then she plunged into the pond.

Headfirst she went down...down, with no idea how to get up.

Chapter Three

Although it was relatively early, after the short night before, Gabriel had told both Jackson and Andrew to head to bed and get a good night’s sleep, as he intended to do himself. He was certain the next day would be a long one, and he wanted them all to start out rested.

He stripped down to a pair of boxers and then opened the window, despite the air-conditioning that kept the room cool and pleasant. Since the age of seven, Gabriel had always kept his bedroom window open, never knowing when he might need to make a hasty escape from a raging drunken father.

Certainly more than once throughout his childhood, he’d used the window to flee the wrath of George Blankenship. Like Marlena’s, Gabriel’s mother had abandoned him and his father when Gabriel had been seven. She’d left him in the hands of a brutal man who’d either beaten him half to death for unclear reasons or ignored him until Gabriel was old enough to exit and never look back.

He’d lived on the streets, worked a hundred different jobs, and waffled between a life of crime and a life of investigating crimes. He’d finally managed to make his way through college with a criminal justice degree and a minor in psychology, and that’s when the FBI had brought him in as a profiler.

He loved his job and he was good at it, but this particular case already had him frustrated by the lack of leads. The bank records had shown no red flags either in the personal or business finances. The email accounts showed no threats or unusual activity. So far he and his team hadn’t spoken to anybody who didn’t admire or like the family.

Granted, they were still in the beginning stages of the investigation, but he knew that, in many disappearances, within the first couple of hours, the taken were killed.

What he didn’t know yet was who had been the intended target. Was it Sam, and his wife and stepdaughter were merely collateral damage? Was there something in Daniella’s past that might have brought this on?

He turned off the light in his room and got beneath the lavender top sheet, his mind whirling a million miles an hour. There had to have been more than one person involved; otherwise how was it possible for a single individual to neutralize three people and get them out of their home? And Marlena had heard nothing, which meant either she was lying or whoever had come in and taken the three people had done so relatively silently. How was that possible with a seven-year-old little girl in the mix?

The sound of a splash came from outside the window—a loud splash. Must be a fish the size of a minitorpedo, he thought. A thrashing noise followed, and then a faint cry.

Definitely a female cry. Marlena had told him she was going out to get some fresh air. Who had made that splash? Had it been a fish, or her?

Gabriel bolted up from the bed and flew out of his room. He stumbled down the stairs two at a time, his heart surging with adrenaline as he remembered she couldn’t swim.

As he flew through the lower level of the house and into the kitchen, he noted that Marlena’s door to her rooms was open, as was the back door.

He burst out into the hot night air and again heard a splashing and a frantic cry from the pond. By the time he reached a vantage point where he could see the water, the moon glittered down on the smooth surface.

He frowned. Had he only imagined the cries? Had he fallen asleep in bed and not realized it, dreaming that Marlena, who couldn’t swim, was somewhere in the pond?

As he stared at the water, it bubbled and rippled and then Marlena’s pale face broke the surface. Panic etched her features as she managed a single cry before sinking beneath the surface once again.

He raced to a place where he could dive from the short wooden dock into the pond. He hit the water, grateful that it was as warm as a bath, and swam quickly to the place where he had seen Marlena go down.

Diving underwater and opening his eyes, he realized the murky water made it impossible for him to see anything. So he used his hands and legs to search for her, hoping he wasn’t already too late.

How long had she been in the water? He surfaced, drew a deep breath and then went under a second time, his heart pounding frantically.

He swam all around the area where he’d last seen her, his arms outstretched before him. Where was she? Had she already succumbed to the water?

Sharp relief soared through him as he managed to snag an arm. The relief was short-lived as she grabbed hold and frantically wrapped around him like a leech, sinking them both deeper into the water.

Her arms clung around his neck, and in her panic he knew that, if he didn’t break her hold on him in some way, they would both drown.

He fought with her, fought for both of their lives and finally managed to wrangle her around the neck and pull her up. They broke the surface of the water, gasping for air, and she immediately tried to crawl onto him to escape a watery grave.

“Marlena.” He spewed her name along with a mouthful of water. “You need to calm down. I’ve got you. Just relax and let me get us to shore.”

Still she clung to him, attempting to climb his body with hers as her eyes glowed the iridescent green of a wild animal in the moonlight.

“Marlena!” He managed to dog paddle and grab her by the shoulders, thankful that he was a strong swimmer and a much bigger man.

“Relax, I’ve got you.” He spoke the words slowly and breathed a sigh of relief as he managed to roll her over onto her back. With his arm under her chin, he kept her face well above the water and moved her toward the shore.

Once there, they collapsed side by side on their backs in the dewy grass, drawing in deep gasps of air. By the time he caught his breath, he realized she was crying and shivering, obviously chilled despite the warmth of the night air that surrounded them.

He got to his feet and pulled her up. “Come on. Let’s get you inside and dry.”

She continued to weep and shiver as he slung an arm around her shoulder and led her inside. He walked her through the back door to her private quarters and into her bathroom. Spying a stack of towels neatly folded in an open cabinet, he grabbed one for himself and then turned to where she stood as if shell-shocked.

“Marlena, get out of those wet clothes, and then we’ll talk,” he said. He grabbed a second towel and forced it into her hands and tried not to notice that the wet blouse clung to her like a second skin, emphasizing her breasts and taut nipples.

He turned and left the bathroom, grateful that his boxers were navy and not white. He dried off, wrapped the towel around his waist and sat on the edge of the sofa, waiting for her to emerge from the bathroom.

He needed to find out how a woman who told him she couldn’t swim, who obviously had a healthy respect for the water, had wound up in it, nearly drowning.

Had she somehow slipped and fallen into the water? Misstepped in the darkness and wound up sliding down into the pond? There was no question in his mind that if his window hadn’t been open, if he hadn’t heard the splash and her faint cry, she would have drowned.

After several long minutes, she came out of the bathroom clad in a long pink robe and using a towel to work the last of the dampness from her hair.

Gabriel was shocked by his visceral reaction to her. She looked stunning, and he was grateful for the heavy drape of the towel over his lap, for his body had reacted automatically to the sight of her.

Thank goodness the drama hadn’t drawn anyone else’s attention. If one of his partners were to walk in right now, the situation definitely looked compromising, as if he and Marlena had taken a tumble into her bed and then showered off afterward.

She walked to the rocking chair and sank down. Dropping the towel she’d used on her hair onto the floor next to her, she looked at Gabriel. Her eyes began to fill with tears. “I would have died if you hadn’t been there. You all would have found me floating in the pond in the morning.”

The tears that had shimmered and threatened on her long eyelashes fulfilled their promise, and she hid her face in her hands as she rocked back and forth and cried in earnest.

Obviously it had been a traumatic experience for her, Gabriel thought and wondered if he should just leave her alone to deal with the aftermath.

She looked like a woman who needed to be held, who needed to be assured that everything was okay, but he remained firmly seated on the sofa, unwilling to be that man for her.

He told himself it was simple curiosity and nothing else that kept him here in her room after the drama was over. He wanted to know how she’d wound up in the pond.

Finally her tears ebbed, and with a final swipe of her cheeks, she dropped her hands to her lap. “How did you know? How did you know I was in the pond and needed help?”

“I had my bedroom window cracked open and heard a splash and then a faint cry.”

“Thank God you heard me.” She shivered as if, despite her long robe, there was a core of icy coldness inside her that prevented her from getting warm. “I don’t think I could have made it another minute if you hadn’t appeared when you did.”

“What happened? How did you wind up in the pond?” Gabriel asked, and was suddenly aware of his own bare chest and legs as her gaze swept the length of him, and then quickly moved up to meet and hold his stare.

“I was walking on the path, trying to clear my head. I reached the end and was on my way back when somebody came out of the brush and pushed me hard enough to throw me into the pond.” She shivered, more violently this time, as if the full implication of what had just happened to her had been suddenly realized.

Gabriel sat up straighter on the sofa, a thrum of adrenaline rushing through him. “Somebody pushed you? Are you sure it wasn’t some sort of animal or something? Did you see who did it?”

“Do I think a crazed raccoon or a big bear suddenly rushed out and pushed me?” She shook her head, as if his question was ridiculous. “It was definitely an animal of the human kind. I felt his hands on my back, and, no, I have no idea who it was. It all happened so fast.”

Her eyes darkened and enlarged. “Somebody tried to kill me, Gabriel. Somebody shoved me off the path and into the water and knew that I would drown.”

Gabriel’s heart sank. Was she right? Had this been a potential murder attempt, or had it been some sort of weird mistake? Was this somehow tied to the mysterious disappearance of the Connelly family, or was it something completely unrelated?

Time would hopefully answer all those questions. He withheld a deep sigh as he knew this merely complicated what was already a complicated enough situation.

* * *

W
ATER
,
WATER
EVERYWHERE
and not a breath to take. Marlena shot up in bed, gasping for the air she hadn’t been able to draw in the nightmare she’d just suffered.

A glance at her bedside clock let her know she’d overslept by half an hour, having forgotten to set her alarm the night before.

Gabriel had stayed in her room until she’d finally calmed down. He’d asked several questions about her brush with a watery death, trying to jog her mind into remembering any sound, any scent she might have sensed from the person who had pushed her off the walkway. But she remembered nothing—only the shock and horror of hitting the water and sinking.

What she did remember this morning was how utterly hot Gabriel had looked wrapped in a towel. His broad chest had been sprinkled with just enough black hair to be interesting, and his taut abs had been more than amazing to look at.

But what was really important here was that somebody had tried to kill her last night...or had he?

There was no question that something had bumped or pushed her into the pond, but had it simply been a figment of her imagination or some sort of mistake, and whoever was responsible had run away, afraid of what he’d accidentally done?

Maybe it had been one of the drifters who occasionally showed up at the bed-and-breakfast looking for a free handout of money or food. Or maybe a local fisherman who had planned to secretly fish in the private pond and had been startled by her presence.

She finally got out of bed, and after a quick shower, refused to dwell on the horror of the night before. In the light of day, she decided that it was probably just some weird circumstance, and she’d been the victim of a sort of hit-and-run accident.

She couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to intentionally harm her, but she also didn’t plan on taking any more nightly walks alone.

When she left her rooms, she smelled fresh coffee. She entered the dining room to find Andrew seated at the table, a cup of coffee and a plate of leftover biscuits from the morning before in front of him.

“Hope you don’t mind that I helped myself,” he said.

“Not at all,” she replied as she poured herself a cup of coffee and joined him at the table. “Sorry I overslept.”

“Not a problem,” he replied easily.

She and Andrew had only been talking for a few minutes when Gabriel and Jackson joined them. “Can I get you something to eat?” she asked, half rising from her chair.

Gabriel motioned her down. “Sit and enjoy your coffee. We’re heading into town this morning to have a talk with Sheriff Thompson. When I spoke to him yesterday on the phone, I told him I wanted to get the lay of the land here before contacting him face-to-face.”

“Jim’s a decent man, and maybe he knows something I don’t know about Sam and Daniella,” she replied.

“Maybe, although he hasn’t shared anything useful with us yet. I got the feeling when I spoke to him yesterday that he’s still hoping this is a voluntary disappearance and not a crime,” Gabriel said.

Marlena shook her head. “There’s no way Sam and Daniella would let the people who love them worry about them for this length of time.” A new rivulet of fear swept through her for her friends. The only way they wouldn’t contact anyone was if they couldn’t.

“We have their cell phones in our possession and will be checking any calls that come in, and also looking at those they received before they went missing. Are you going to be okay today with us gone?” Gabriel asked as the other two agents headed for the front door.