Missing: The Body of Evidence (14 page)

A brisk pace and Nancy caught up with
Kyle as he headed for the lake at the rear of the cabin. They linked arms and
trekked along a narrow path through the undergrowth. Neither of them spoke as
they laboured up the hillside, and Nancy dwelt on what the handyman had said.
At the top of the ridge, they sat on a rocky outcrop to gather their breath
from the arduous climb. The pine trees on the downward slope obscured any
vision of a lake. Nancy was beginning to doubt her grasp on reality; what with
the notion of the drawing and message in the refrigerator, the connection to
the janitor’s son and her dream-induced excursions to the cabin with him, all
rolling around in her mind.

‘Ready?’ Kyle asked and swung his backpack
straps over his shoulder and stood.

He held his fishing rod in one hand and
held out his other hand. She grasped his hand and he hauled her to her feet.

‘Ready as I’ll ever be.’

‘You don’t sound enthusiastic, is it the
fishing?’

‘No, it’s this damned headache of mine.
It’s started again.’

‘We can go back if you like, and rest in
the cabin.’

‘No, I’d just as soon rest at the lakeside.’
In part, what she said was true, but there was also a sense of foreboding.

They set off down a wide clearing through
the trees and turned a bend.

‘My God, it’s beautiful,’ she said.

There was a multi-coloured shale and pebble
crescent of a beach. The lake spread out before them with the appearance of a
mirror. It reflected the exact image of the towering pine covered mountains on
the opposite side of the lake, downwards and into the depths of the lake. As
their footsteps crunched over the shale, they arrived at the lakeside. Two
dragonflies skated across the surface close by in a never-ending haphazard
chase. It was beautiful, but it was also identical to what she had seen in her
dream. This was more than her brain could compute as a coincidence. The only
thing she could deduce was that the bang on her head was somehow playing tricks
on her mind.

‘I need to sit down.’

‘Sit on the boulder over there under the
shade of that pine tree. I have some collapsible seats in my backpack, although
they don’t have backs to them.’

Nancy hobbled over to the boulder and sat
down. Under normal circumstances she would have laughed at Kyle’s attempt to
assemble the seats as he struggled to work out how the metal rods fit together
to form the canvas seat. But she wasn’t in the mood, and began to feel
emotional at the confusion of the significance of the dreams. The big ‘C’ crept
into her thoughts to add to the turmoil in her mind.

‘Kyle, leave the seats. I need to talk.’
She slapped her hand on the bolder where she was sitting.’

‘What is it, do you feel ill?’

‘Sick in the head, more like.’ She couldn’t
hold back the tears. She made no sound, but the tears rolled down her cheeks.

‘What is it?’

He sat beside her and put his arm around
her shoulder.

‘I shouldn’t have agreed for us to move in
together until after the all clear from my tests.’

‘What do you mean all clear? What do you
think is wrong?’

‘You remember when I crashed into that
bough of a tree and ended up in the hospital with a concussion?’

‘Yeah, I could hardly forget.’

‘Well, ever since then my head’s been
messed up. I also keep having weird dreams of travelling to places like here.
It’s like when we came here, I felt like I had already been inside the cabin
and now the lake.’

‘You mean like déjà vu? Christ, Nancy, is
that it. Everyone has déjà vu at some time in their life. Hell, I wouldn’t
dismiss that we may have all lived before.’

As pleased as she was at his understanding,
she was worried the problem was something bigger than an unexplained
phenomenon.

‘What if I have a brain tumour?’

She was expecting him to take a step back
and give it some serious thought. His quick reply took her by surprise.

‘What if you have? Which I doubt. You’ll
need someone with you more than ever. All you’ve done is bang your head. Give
it time.’

‘All the same, I think we should wait. If
it is something serious, I won’t hold you to a promise for us to be together.’

‘Did you have a headache when you were
drinking last night?’

‘No.’

‘There you are then; it’s likely to be
stress, like I’ve said all along. The wine has acted like a sedative. Didn’t
the doctor give you anything?’

‘Yes, tablets.’

‘And have you taken anything today?’

‘No... But...’

‘No, but, nothing. You wait here, I’ll go
and get your tablets and let’s not have any more nonsense about us not moving
in together, whatever the results of the tests.’

‘No, don’t go. You’re all the medicine I
need. The headache’s not that bad and I can wait for a few hours.’

She took a tissue from her pocket, dried
her eyes, and rested her head on his shoulder.

‘Forget the fishing. We’ll rest up a while
and head back.’ The strength of his arm around her reassured her as he squeezed
her tightly. ‘We haven’t had breakfast, and you can take your tablets. If the
headache goes, great, we can go for a walk. If not, we can rest up, there’s
plenty for us to be talking about, and if you’re stressed with that, there are
plenty of books and magazines in the cabin. The fishing isn’t important, but
you are.’

Nancy was tempted for the first time to
tell him she loved him, and knew she would have meant it. His consideration was
something of a new experience. She fought the compelling urge to tell him how
he made her feel; instead she reasoned it would only mess her up further if he
changed his mind over the weekend.

‘If you’re really sure you don’t mind, I
would rather go back to the cabin. You can stay here and fish if you like.’

‘No way, I’ll join you.’

Kyle packed away the tangle of the seat
rods, set off to the cabin and Nancy followed him along the trail. Almost at
the top of the ridge, Kyle dropped to a crouch and signalled for her to do the
same. He turned to her, put his finger to his lips and then beckoned her to
join him. It was hard to move stealthily, with the brittle dead foliage
underfoot. Nancy crouched beside him and he pointed towards a small clearing
through the trees.

A giant stag was standing guard over his
harem of deer as they foraged for food amongst the dry undergrowth. Nancy
shuffled her feet and crunched a twig under her foot. The stag snapped his head
to look straight at her, huffed through his nostrils and stamped a foot. His
herd stampeded in leaps, and bounded out of sight at the signal from his
stomping hoof, but he stood there defiant. His huge eyes looked straight
through her as if she had no soul. She was sure that if it could have spoken,
its expression and stance told them they had no right to be there in his
territory. The stag, apparently unconcerned at the intrusion, turned is neck
and looked away.

A cold blast of air hit the back of Nancy’s
neck at the sound of rustling leaves. The stag flicked its head back in their
direction, but gazed over and behind them along the trail. The stag reared and
bolted, disappearing into the woods. Kyle stood and moved out of sight over the
ridge. Nancy turned to see what could have alarmed the creature. Whatever it
was that had disturbed the stag, had an effect that silenced the critters and
birds. Her eyes strained to focus through the trees over her shoulder. For a
brief moment, a shimmering patch distorted the background of her vision, as it
flashed between two tree trunks ten yards away. Nancy blinked and rubbed her
eyes.
What the hell was that?

‘Kyle, wait for me.’

The descent down the hillside to the
cabin was a welcome relief from the drudgery of the climb up to the ridge from
the lake. The handyman was nowhere in sight, but his SUV was still parked
outside the cabin. Nancy changed her jeans for a pair of shorts, went to the
kitchen for a glass of water, and settled down on the sofa to inspect the
tablets the doctor had prescribed.

A sense of guilt embarrassed Nancy, at
having deprived Kyle of a morning of fishing at the lakeside. If it was eating
at him, he did a great job of not letting any disappointment show. Nancy opened
the tablet box and took out the instructions. From what she read, they were
strong psychotic drugs and she decided against taking them. She slipped the
paper back in the box and put the tablets back in her purse. Rummaging around
in her purse she located her over the counter headache pills. She took two from
the container, popped them in her mouth and swilled them down with the water.

‘That’s a good girl, what do you want for
breakfast?’

‘Waffles and syrup will do.’

‘Waffles it is.’

Kyle walked to the kitchen with a spring in
his step and whistling.

Nancy wandered out onto the veranda
carrying a sofa cushion and a book she had taken at random from the shelf. She
set the cushion down on the rocking chair and sat down. The overhang from the
veranda afforded some cover from the blazing sun. As she pushed with her feet,
the gentle rocking of the chair created a welcome coolness, augmented by
fanning herself with the book. The view down to the creek and the pine-covered
mountains was stunning and the air, free of pollution, tasted sweet as she took
a deep breath. Any thoughts about the stress at work and deliberation about the
professor’s death took second place to a feeling of being at peace with her
life.

For all the beauty of the view, her
thoughts were firmly on planning what lay ahead. Ironically, the title of the
book she was using as a fan, she noticed, was
Patter of Tiny Feet
, a
love story. She wondered if maybe subliminal forces were at work, as her usual
reads were police-procedure crime thrillers.

Moving in together, she surprisingly
accepted, was not as big of a commitment as she imagined it to be, other than
the upheaval of working in a different department. At the same time, Logan was
not an easy boss to work for, so it could work out for the better for her, she
thought. It was what lay beyond that worried her if things worked out, but it
also excited her. The thoughts of buying a home together with a back yard and,
she dared to hope, a pool, was all the motivation she needed to make her want
it to work; that, and a need to end her self-isolated meaningless existence.

She stopped fanning with the book and looked
at the cover. The depiction on the cover brought her to reality. Two men in the
background of the cover where looking angrily at each other, while the woman in
the foreground was holding her pregnant stomach. Alarm bells started to hit
home. She was not sure that she would be ready for a family, or that she was in
that stage of her career where she could walk away from it, as some Hollywood
film stars did, and then set up an animal sanctuary or suchlike.

‘Waffles, syrup and a strong coffee.’ He
set it down on the table at the side of her chair. ‘I was thinking maybe the
headache is a lack of caffeine in your system.’

‘Could be.’

He took hold of the corner of the book she
was holding. His face flamed.

‘What do you think about starting a family?’
He shuffled his feet and looked down. ‘In the future I mean.’

Nancy laughed. ‘I wouldn’t rule it out, but
it’s the last thing on my mind at the moment,’ she lied. ‘Plenty of time to
consider that, I’m only thirty-six. I’m more concerned about if you should move
in with me, or the other way around.’

‘What do want to do?’

‘I’d rather you move in with me and just
bring your clothes for now. Unless you want to take all your things to your
mom’s and I can re-decorate your apartment?’

‘On second thoughts, yeah, okay, we’ll do
that. I’ll move in with you.’

Kyle walked into the cabin and Nancy ate
breakfast. Kyle returned with his coffee and sat next to her on the veranda.

‘How’s the headache?’

‘Fine, it’s gone. Must be a combination of
the pills and the coffee.’

Nancy opened her book and started to read.
Halfway down the first chapter, Kyle drumming his fingers on the chair arm
distracted her.

‘Why don’t you go fishing? I’ll be fine
resting here. Come back at lunchtime. I’ll have a packed meal ready and we can
go walking.’

‘You sure?’

‘Sure, I’m sure. Off you go. Just don’t
bring anything back for eating. Put anything you catch back in the lake.’

The beam that spread across his face made
him look as though a teacher had just given him a free pass on a detention. It
didn’t take long for him to scramble inside and return with his backpack and
fishing rod.

‘Are you...?’

‘Just go and relax, the book’s getting
good, I’ll be fine. It’s not like we’re joined at the hip.’

Kyle took her hand, gave it a gentle
squeeze, and brushed her cheek with a kiss, before disappearing around the back
of the cabin. Nancy shook her head and smiled. ‘Men, so easy to please.’

Three chapters into the book and she was
sure she knew how it would end. She set the book down, walked over to the
parking area and stood at the edge of the hillside. The heat from the sun on
the hillside caused the brush to shimmer. Nancy thought it was more like
something she would experience in the Nevada Desert than in a lush landscape.

Movement caught her eye. Something seemed
to be traversing in a semi-circle from left to right below her. Her eyes
squinted as she tried to concentrate, using her hand as a shade. The air was
still, so she discounted a breeze causing the brush to move. She thought it
could be maybe a black bear or a mountain lion. She knew black bears were
normally shy critters, but if the campers fed them, they could lose their fear
of humans and cause problems. Cat, or bear, or whatever it was, Nancy decided
the safest place was back in the cabin. She turned to walk across the parking
area, noticed the door open on the handyman’s SUV and called out.

‘Dave, you there?’

There was no response as she scanned the
area, and closed the car door. She ambled toward the cabin and was about to
climb the steps to veranda, when paralysis momentarily struck her body at the
sound crunching gravel, as if something was bounding from behind toward her.