Sandrift: A Lin Hanna Mystery (20 page)

“I will,” Matt
assured her, “at least I’ll try. I don’t plan to mention that possibility to
Sara in any case, not right now.
 
I
just wish we knew how she got to Nags Head Woods where you found her.
 
What was she doing after she left
Billy’s? How did she manage to drive herself if she were so hung over?”

“There are
still a lot of questions,” Lin admitted. “Let’s hope Ken Parker finds those
answers.”

***

A short while
later Lin arrived at the Holiday Inn Express.
 
She was feeling let down and frustrated
after her visit with Ken Parker.
 
She
knew he was just trying to do his job, but she felt there were huge gaps in
information left to fill in and she feared that he thought the important
information about Dorrie’s death had already been uncovered.
 
He seemed convinced that the only
possible issue was whether or not Billy Thornton might have drugged her
intentionally, or whether Dorrie had knowingly used drugs with him.
 
Either way, negligence or date rape was
the only possible charge there.
 

Lin still felt
that learning more about what Dorrie did on Friday would help clarify things,
but right now her own thoughts were confused.
 
She definitely needed some old fashioned
exercise, for a lot of reasons.

A half hour
later she had worked up a good sweat on the treadmill and was gently lifting
some
light
 
weights
.
 
She had neglected her prescribed
exercises for her repaired shoulder since her arrival here and didn’t want to
overdo things.
 
It’ll take me a
couple of weeks to get back in the swing of this, she thought.
 
Maybe Kate has some weights somewhere,
and I can exercise at home too.
 
She
did a few more reps then put the weights aside and went to the locker room to
change into her swimsuit.
 
Swimming
was her favorite exercise, and it was good for the shoulder too.

It was already
five o’clock so she tried again to call Neal.
 
She didn’t want him to worry about
her.
 
Fortunately, she reached him
this time.
 
“I’m on my way home in
the next five minutes,” he said. “What’re you up to?”

“I’m at the
pool, trying to get some exercise.
 
Why don’t you go by the house, grab your trunks, and join me here?”
 

“I’m sure that
would be fun, good for me too,” Neal replied, “but I think I’ll pass this
time.
 
I’ll start dinner, that is if
we have any food in the house,” he teased.

Lin gave him a
quick run down of the groceries she’d bought and promised she’d be home in an
hour.
 
She stuffed her phone in the
locker with her clothes and entered the pool area.
 
The heated pool was enclosed in a
greenhouse type of structure.
 
The
atmosphere was warm, almost tropical.
 
Lin eased herself down the pool steps, slowly submerging herself in the
warm water.
 
It felt so good.
 
She warmed up with a few water aerobics
exercises and then began to swim laps using slow regular strokes to achieve a
full range of movement in her shoulder.
 
After a half hour of swimming she decided it was time to leave.
 
She would wait until she got home to
shower.

In the locker
room, Lin dried herself off and put on the sweats she had brought.
 
She found her thoughts returning once
more to Dorrie and the unanswered questions about what she had done on Friday.
Good grief, she told herself when she thought about where she was.
 
Dorrie was staying right here.
 
She should’ve come back here when she
left Billy’s; she wasn’t planning to leave until Saturday.
 
The police found her stuff still here
when they checked.
 
Lin decided to
go by the lobby to see if anyone there might recall having seen Dorrie at all
on that Friday.
 
If anyone had seen
her, they might have noticed something about her condition.

There was no
hair dryer evident in the locker room, so Lin gave her curls another quick rub
with the towel and tried to arrange them in some semblance of order.
 
She stepped into the hallway and headed
for the lobby area.
 
She was happy
to see that the young man she had spoken with on her earlier visit was on
duty.
 
He would remember Dorrie
because he had helped her with her key on Wednesday night.
 
She waited quietly while he checked in a
customer.
 
When he’d finished she
approached the desk.

“Hello again,
Mr. Kerry,” Lin was grateful for the young man’s name tag as she certainly
hadn’t recalled his name, “I finally made it back to use your gym facilities.”
The young man seemed not to recall who she was. “You might not remember me,”
she extended her hand in greeting. “I’m Lin Hanna and we talked about the young
lady who died a couple of weeks ago, she was staying here…”

“Oh, yes, I
remember now,” Dave Kerry seemed embarrassed to have forgotten. “You were
asking about her and I told you about helping her with her key.”

“That’s right,”
Lin
affirmed his memory. “Actually, I was hoping you
might remember something more about her visit.
 
Do you recall, seeing her on that
Friday, she should’ve still been here.
 
I think she wasn’t planning to leave until Saturday.”

Dave Kerry had
a doubtful look on his face.
 
He
seemed to be having trouble remembering. “Just a second,” he said, turning to
his computer screen and entering some information.
 
He scrolled through a couple of screens
before responding. “I was just checking my memory, looking at our records of
her stay.
 
She was here on Friday, I
remember seeing her now.
 
She came
by the desk and asked about extending her stay until Sunday, asked if her same
room would be available for Saturday night.
 
I reserved it for her right here,” he
indicated the screen, “but then the cops came by on Saturday afternoon and told
us she’d been found dead.
  
They searched her room and took her things.
 
Her parents came in the first of the
week after and paid the bill—just through Friday night though,” he
evidently wanted Lin to know they hadn’t been charged for the extra night.

“I’m sure you
handled it properly,” Lin smiled. “Do you remember how she was acting when you
spoke to her on Friday? Did she seem to feel well? Did she seem sick at all?”

Kerry seemed
puzzled by her question; he thought about it before responding, “I’m pretty
sure she was fine,” he said, “if I remember correctly, she told me she had met
an old friend and had gone out with him the night before.
 
Yeah, she said she was staying over
hoping she might be able to see him again during the weekend.
 
She was laughing and kidding around
about having a good time.
 
I’m
sorry, I should’ve mentioned this to you earlier, but I guess I’d forgotten
until you asked me about Friday just now.”

“That’s ok,”
Lin smiled,
 
“let me ask you again
about how she was acting, if you don’t mind.
 
Did she seem at all groggy, hung over
maybe?”

“No, I’ve seen
lots of guests here that were, from time to time, but she was just fine.
 
She spoke clearly and was talking about
feeling good and making plans for the day.”

“What sort of
plans, do you remember?” Lin pressed for more information.

“Sorry, I can’t
recall that she mentioned anything in particular, but she was energetic,
definitely not feeling bad at all.”

“Thanks a lot,
Mr. Kerry,” Lin turned to leave, “you’ve been a great help.”

Lin felt a
sense of renewed energy as she left the hotel and drove home.
 
If Dorrie was as clear headed as Dave
Kerry described then whatever drugs, other than the marijuana, that were in her
system when she died couldn’t have come from her encounter with Billy on
Thursday night.
 
She must’ve met
someone else on Friday.
 
Some how
she’d either acquired or been given the drugs that had left her so intoxicated
that she had the accident in the woods.
 
Now the question was where did she go on Friday and whom did she see?

 
Lin really wanted to share this new
information with Ken Parker, but she knew he would be upset that she’d been
asking questions again.
 
How could
she handle this?
 
She was still
thinking when she arrived back at Kate’s.
 
She’d just have to figure something out, and she was more determined
than ever to find out where Dorrie was on Friday.
 

It was well
after dark when Lin arrived.
 
All
the outside lights were on and the Christmas tree sparkled from the front
window.
 
The house looked ready for
the holidays, and she was glad she’d gotten some cleaning done earlier.
 
As she climbed the stairs toward the
main level a delicious aroma of tomatoes, basil, and oregano greeted her.
 
Neal stopped her at the kitchen door,
wrapping her in his arms and kissing her energetically.

“Homemade
spaghetti and meatballs with Caesar salad and garlic bread,” he murmured
romantically in her ear.
 
She
couldn’t help laughing as she pulled back to gaze into his gorgeous baby blue
eyes.

“And I suppose
you think you can win all kinds of favors with your great cooking?” she teased.

“I should
certainly hope so,” he replied expectantly, “but save that for later.
 
Right now you smell delightfully of
chlorine,” he shoved her away playfully, “you have just enough time for a
shower before all this is ready.”

“Yes, sir,” Lin
responded, “pecking him on the cheek as she headed upstairs.”

As she entered
the shower she heard the ringing of a telephone downstairs and Neal’s voice as
he greeted the caller.
 
She couldn’t
determine what he was saying but evidently the call was for him.
 
She let the steaming water cover her
from head to toe, rinsing away the chlorine as she shampooed her hair and
scrubbed herself all over with sweet smelling shower gel.
 
She was still excited about what she had
learned and was eager to share with Neal.
 
She was convinced that the key to understanding this whole story rested
with finding out exactly what Dorrie did on Friday, but who should she contact,
where should she begin?
 
She
realized that, in his current frame of mind, Ken Parker was not her best bet.

By the time she
appeared downstairs, dressed in clean jeans and a soft sweater, Neal had poured
each of them a glass of red wine and had filled a bowl with toasted
pecans.
 
“Everything’s ready except
for the pasta, and the bread will stay warm in the oven so we can relax and
enjoy this,” he took his wine and the nuts and headed for the porch.

Lin started to
let Sparky out but Neal intervened, “I let him out when I got home, so he’s
good to go until bedtime.”
 
He lit
the gas logs and settled himself on the sofa.
 
“I had a great day at the fort,” he
offered. “There are, at least, two sites that show great promise for
excavation.
 
The weather should hold
until next week, so we’ll probably start digging in earnest tomorrow,” he
reported.
 
He continued to chat
about transects and samples but it seemed to Lin that he had something else on
his mind.

“Who called
while I was in the shower?” from Neal’s expression she could tell she had hit
on what he was thinking about.
 
He
took a long sip of wine and set his glass on the side table before answering.

“ That call was
from my department chair at NAU,” he sighed, “it seems he’s going to be
traveling the week after Christmas so he is pressing me to decide what I’m
going to do right away.”

“And, have you
made up your mind?” Lin was direct.

“Not entirely,
I’m still thinking about my options.
 
One of the team members today seemed to think I could possibly find a
short-term position, maybe for a year, at Chapel Hill.
 
He knows someone going on sabbatical and
thinks they’ll try to find a replacement but,” he hesitated, “I have to think
about it.
 
I told Chris, he’s my
chair,
I’d
call him Monday at the latest.
 
Now, you tell me about your day.”

It was clear
that he didn’t want to talk any further about his decision just now, so Lin
launched into a full account of her afternoon—the information Ken Parker
had shared about how clean Dorrie’s car was, his reaction to their finding the
bee cage, and finally, what she had learned at the hotel about Dorrie.

“I don’t know
where to turn next,” she confessed.
 
“I’m pretty sure Ken Parker doesn’t want to talk to me again anytime
soon, but I really think this is important information and someone should
follow up.”

Neal was
thoughtful but he really had no suggestions. “Perhaps you just need to do as
Ken says, let him handle the investigation, and trust that he will find out all
of this on his own.”

Lin nodded in
agreement, but her heart wasn’t in it.
 
She still felt uncertain about all this.
 
Ken Parker seemed satisfied that Billy
Thornton was the only person who was guilty of any wrongdoing.
 
Lin wasn’t at all sure that was the
case.

“Time to boil
some pasta,” Neal headed for the kitchen. “Why don’t you set the table out here
and we’ll dine by moonlight,” he smiled.
 
The moon had indeed risen high enough to light the sky above the
reflective sound.
 
It wasn’t quite
full so the stars were brilliant.
 

“Great idea,”
Lin said, deciding there was no point in pressing the discussion of Dorrie’s activities
further at this point.

***

“That was a
great meal, you outdid yourself,” Lin said as they headed upstairs after taking
care of Sparky’s needs and setting the new alarm system.

“Just wait till
you see what I’ve in store for dessert,” Neal grinned as he grabbed the
half-finished bottle of wine. “Here, take our glasses.”

They sat in the
office area finishing the wine and snuggling on the sofa.
 
Lin felt so relaxed and peaceful, her
questions about the case receding into the background, at least for now.

“What would you
say to a weekend get away?
 
At least
overnight on Saturday?” Neal asked.

“What do you
have in mind?” Lin smiled.

“Well, I was
thinking—the weather’s supposed to be fine, actually a bit warmer than
average, and that might not be the case next week.
 
Your family will be here the weekend
after that, and Christmas will be upon us.
 
This might be our best chance to explore these islands before all that
happens.
 
I was thinking we might
head down to Ocracoke—take our time, explore along the way, spend the
night down there, and come back Sunday.”

“That sound’s
great, but what about Sparky, are we taking him along?” Lin smiled.

“I thought
about it, but I couldn’t find a pet friendly place to stay.
 
Some of the inns are closed for the
season, but Eloise said she’d be happy to take care of him.
 
It’s all arranged,” Neal confessed.
“I’ve already made reservations.
 
Of
course, I can cancel….”

“Not a chance,”
Lin responded, “it sound’s like a great idea.
 
I’d love it.”

Neal leaned
over and kissed her, “I do love you,” he gently stroked her hair. “I think it’s
time we had that serious conversation you promised we’d get around to
having.
 
I told you I’d let you
know.”

“And I promised
we’d have it,” Lin added. “This weekend will be a good time.”

“But now,” Neal
announced, “ getting up and pulling her toward him, “it’s time for that
dessert.”

***

I must have
been really
tired,
Lin thought when she realized she’d
overslept.
 
It was almost nine when
she awoke, and Neal had already left for the fort.
 
He
’d left a note on
the dresser indicating he expected today would
be a short one, and he
would most likely be back early in the afternoon.
 
He added that he had started the laundry
thinking they might need clean clothes for their trip the next day.

Lin smiled at
his domesticity.
 
Maybe Lucy was
right about Neal being a “keeper.”
 
He certainly was an excellent cook and really seemed to enjoy doing
that.
 
She went downstairs to let
Sparky out, although Neal had probably done that also.
 
He’d left a fresh pot of coffee and a
package of English muffins on the counter.
 
She popped a muffin in the toaster and went downstairs to put the wet
clothes in the dryer.

Settling
herself on the porch with her breakfast, she picked up her cell phone and
punched Neal’s number, realizing he might have turned his phone off if he were
in the field.
 
She was pleased when
he answered.

“Thought you
might be working and have your phone off, thanks for the coffee and for
starting the laundry,” she said.

“You were
sleeping so soundly this morning; I decided to sneak out and let you catch up
on your rest.
 
I knew I’d dirtied a
lot of clothes this week myself, so I figured we needed to wash before we left
tomorrow.
 
You caught me just before
we left the shed.
 
I’ll be out of
touch for the next two or three hours, but we plan to finish up early today,”
Neal replied.

“That’s great,
I think I might try to finish up my Christmas shopping, but I won’t be late
either,” Lin realized she still had a few items on her list. “I’ll see you
later.”

By the time she
finished her breakfast the dryer was buzzing, so she gathered the clothes and
took them upstairs to fold.
 
As she
put the folded clothes in the dresser, she noticed that Neal had left his good
watch and pocketknife along with some other stuff.
 
I guess he didn’t want to risk losing
these things; she smiled as she recalled he’d fallen into the water earlier.

As she
straightened the items on the dresser, she noticed a small stack of business
cards in the pile.
 
She flipped
through them.
 
Most of them were
from members of the archeology team Neal was working with, but three were from
shops in Manteo, all of them galleries of some sort—art, antiques,
jewelry
.
 
He must
have picked these up when he was shopping, she thought.
 

The cards
triggered her memory, bringing her thoughts back to Dorrie Johnson and what she
had planned to do on Friday. Dorrie had mentioned going into Manteo when she
talked to Connie, maybe to jog her memory about the man Liz had been seeing at
the time of her death.
 
Dave Kerry
hadn’t said that she mentioned any plans, but he had told Lin that Dorrie
seemed well, not sick or hung over, when he last saw her.

Lin finished
putting the clean clothes away and hurried to get a shower.
 
She had a bit of shopping to do herself
and maybe after Wal-Mart she’d visit some galleries.
 

The day was
beautiful, in stark contrast to the rain and clouds earlier in the week.
 
It was cool but sunny and the remainder
of the weekend was supposed to be just as nice.
 
Lin was looking forward to the coming
trip down to Ocracoke.
 
Neal was
right; they might not have such good weather later—better take advantage
of it.

Only one thing
troubled Lin when she thought about the coming weekend.
 
She wasn’t at all certain she was ready
for a serious conversation with Neal about their relationship.
 
She knew she couldn’t keep putting it
off.
 
Neal had to decide about his
job, and she wanted that to be his own decision.
 
It was important that he feel free to do
what was best for him and for his career.
 
She knew that Neal loved her and she loved him; she would continue to
love him no matter what he decided to do.
 
Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized that Neal was probably
going to propose, and she wasn’t yet sure what her answer would be.

Lin thought
about how comfortable it felt to be with Neal.
 
She enjoyed having a man in her life again,
but she also valued her independence.
 
Before she met Neal she’d been planning to spend her retirement years
traveling, volunteering in parks, seeing new places, and having new
experiences.
 
She’d pictured herself
free from the responsibilities of family and job.
 
She didn’t want to lose that
opportunity, no matter what she decided about her relationship with Neal.

The parking lot
at the Wal-Mart super store in Manteo was full of shoppers.
 
 
Lin rather dreaded fighting the crowded
maze of aisle displays she knew lay ahead.
 
I should’ve finished all this up earlier; she complained to herself as
she entered the store.

She tried to
make quick work of rounding up stocking stuffers she wanted for her kids and
grandkids.
 
She found some small
tools she thought Neal would find useful and added those to her stash of small
gifts.
 
She added colorful paper
clips and a small stapler to Neal’s stocking gifts.
 
It had always been the custom in her
family for even the adults to fill stockings for each other, generally with
small inexpensive items that were useful or fun.

Before leaving
the store, she went to the food section and purchased a few baking
supplies.
 
She would definitely have
to start on Christmas goodies next week.
 
Finally, she was ready to leave the crowd and head to the calmer streets
of downtown Manteo.