Sandrift: A Lin Hanna Mystery (29 page)

Neal had heard
all this from Sgt. Parker, but he simply nodded his agreement with the
Sheriff’s assessment. “I can bring you up to date on what Lin knew about
Dorrie’s activities.
 
I think she
shared everything with me.”
 
He
proceeded to relate what Lin had learned in her inquiries and what they had
shared with Ken Parker.
 
He
explained that there had been an attempted break-in at Kate’s home on two
occasions, as well as a threatening phone call.
 
He concluded by explaining how Lin thought
Mike Clark had followed her, and how they were followed on their weekend
trip.
 
“ I believe Ken Parker thinks
that maybe Mike was hired by Billy Thornton.
 
Maybe he’s right because this activity
seems to have stopped.
 
Ken might’ve
talked to Mike, but he told us there really wasn’t enough evidence to bring any
charges.
 
Mike never actually
approached us or anything.”

Sheriff Midgett
was quiet.
 
He seemed to be mulling
over this information, trying to fit the pieces together. “ You say this Mike
Clark fellow works at the Simon Gallery?”

“That’s right,
but he lives on the beach and is a regular at Tim’s Bar and Grill.
 
That’s where he’d have had contact with
Billy.
 
At least that’s what Sgt.
Parker seemed to think.”

Midgett had
reached for his phone again contacting the officer at the desk, “Did you reach
Mark Simon?”

“Not yet,” was
the response. “I left a message and asked him to call back right away.”

“Well, when he
does, ask him if Mike Clark worked today and what time he got off.“

“That might not
be much help,” Midgett said, “but it can’t hurt to ask.
 
Frankly, we really don’t have much to go
on here.”

Neal felt a
growing sense of frustration.
 
“I
realize that, but I do appreciate your efforts and your understanding.
 
I’m sure everyone in my position thinks
this but I’m sure that Lin is in some kind of trouble.
 
I hope it’s just her car broken down
somewhere and her cell phone battery dead.
 
I know she would try to call if she could.
 
She’s not the type of person who’d go
off somewhere and not tell me.”

“I can vouch
for that also,” Tom Miller spoke up. “I haven’t known Lin long, but she’s been
a good neighbor for my friend Eloise James.
 
She’s very responsible.
 
Eloise told me how she’s been trying to
help this dead girl’s parents find closure.”

“Has she seemed
unhappy about anything recently,” Midgett probed.“You know, did you two have a
disagreement or anything?” His pointed question was directed to Neal.

“Not at all,”
Neal tried not to sound angry, but it was hard, “We’ve never been happier.
 
We’re planning to get married sometime
next year.
 
That ring she was
picking up was her engagement ring.”

Pete Midgett
looked as if he were about to speak, maybe to suggest Lin might not be as happy
as Neal thought, but he apparently thought better of it.
 
“Well, I think we’ve done all we can
here to this point.
 
I’ll continue
the search for her car and keep trying to reach Mark Simon.
 
One more thing I can do.
 
I’ll call Ken Parker and alert him
also.
 
Maybe she got back to the
beach before she had a problem.”

Neal and Tom
thanked the Sheriff for his efforts and had just gotten up to leave when the
phone on the desk rang.
 
It was the
officer on duty.
 
Midgett picked up
the phone and listened intently. “Thanks,” he said as he hung up.

“Well, we have
some information, but it’s not much to go on.
 
Mark Simon called back.
 
He said that Ms. Hanna did come into the
shop and picked up her ring.
 
He
thinks that was about three this afternoon.
 
He also reported that Mike Clark worked
all day, didn’t get off until five or maybe even a few minutes after.
 
They were busy with Christmas shoppers
all day.”

“Well, at least
we know Lin should’ve left town right after that.
 
She could’ve easily been back home
before four,” Neal said anxiously, “It’s almost eight now.
 
She’s been missing about four
hours.
 
She has to be somewhere, why
can’t we find her car?”

“If her car is
still in Dare Country we’ll find it,” Sheriff Midgett tried to be
reassuring.
 
“I know you’re worried
but you fellows should go back home, and let us keep looking.
 
I promise you’ll be notified as soon as
we locate her vehicle.
 
Hopefully,
she’ll be with it.”

Reluctantly,
Neal nodded and he and Tom prepared to leave, donning their gear against the
driving rainstorm outside.
 
Once
back in the car, Tom had a suggestion, “Let’s go the back way home and take the
old bridge from the other end of town.
 
I don’t know if Lin knew about that route, but it’s the only other way
to travel back to the Banks, by land anyway.
 
It won’t hurt to look there.
 
There’re a lot of back roads here on
Roanoke Island and even more on the mainland, but I doubt Lin is familiar with
most of those, and she’d have no real reason to travel them, I would
think.
 
Besides the Sheriff’s men
would know them best, and I feel sure they’ll be covering them with their
patrols.”

The two men headed
back to the Banks, driving slowly as they had before, making sure they didn’t
miss anything on the roadside. They saw no sign of Lin.
 
About eight-thirty they pulled into the
parking area under Kate’s house.
 
Tom insisted that Neal come with him to Eloise’s. “You need to eat
something, and you don’t need to wait here alone.
 
Sparky will be fine for another couple
of hours, and the Sheriff has your cell number.”

Eloise had kept
the soup warm as promised, and it was delicious, but Neal only picked at
his.
 
He kept going over all the
possibilities in his mind.
 
Where
could she be?
 
Increasingly, he felt
that something bad had to have happened, something more than car trouble.

In spite of
Eloise’s efforts to maintain a positive attitude, a strained silence pervaded
the otherwise cheerful kitchen.
 
No
one was very hungry, and there was really nothing that could be said to help
the situation.
 
Finally, Neal rose
to leave. “It’s almost ten and Sparky will need to go out, raining or not.
 
Thank you both, Eloise the soup was
delicious and Tom I really appreciate your going out with me in this awful
weather.”

Eloise was
close to tears, but she refused to give in to her emotions, trying to keep up a
brave front. “I’m going to fix some of this soup for you to take home.
 
You hardly touched yours, and you’ll be
hungry later.”
 
She moved to the stove
and began to dish the soup into a plastic container. “Tom, I think you should
stay in my guest room.
 
It’s too bad
out there for you to drive home.”

Tom started to
protest but seemed to realize that Eloise probably didn’t want to be alone; he
nodded in agreement and turned to Neal. “Please call if you get any news, no
matter how late it is.
 
We can go
out again when it gets light.
 
Even
with the rain it will be easier to search in the daytime,” he was trying hard
to be upbeat.

Neal thanked
Eloise for the soup and donned his rain gear for the trek back over to Kate’s.

Sparky greeted
him at the door, and Neal followed him out to the back yard.
 
The dog didn’t like the rain any more
than the people did, choosing to make quick work of this outing.
 
Even though the dog was drenched and
Neal couldn’t really get him completely dry, he didn’t leave him downstairs on
the porch.
 
Instead, he let him come
upstairs to the bedroom, spreading a dry towel on the rug beside the bed.
 
“I could use some company tonight,” he
told the dog who seemed to understand.

Neal couldn’t
bring himself to get into bed.
 
He
was bone tired but felt restless.
 
I
should be out there looking for her, he told himself. She has to be
somewhere.
 
He felt totally
helpless.
 
He kicked off his shoes
and stretched out on top of the king bed in his clothes.
 
Checking his cell phone for what seemed
like the millionth time, he realized that his battery was low; he plugged the
phone in and placed it on the nightstand near his head.
 
Quite sure he would be unable to sleep,
at least for now, he propped himself up on some pillows and flicked on the TV.
 
Turning to one of the late night talk
shows, he tried to focus, pushing his fears about Lin to the edge of his
consciousness.

What seemed
like only a few seconds later, he woke with a start.
 
His phone was ringing.
 
He grabbed for the instrument almost
knocking it to the floor.

“Neal Smith,”
he stammered.

“Mr. Smith…er,
I mean Dr. Smith, this is Pete Midgett calling. I have some news for you.
 
We’ve found Ms. Hanna’s car, but I’m
sorry to say she wasn’t with it.
 
The car was locked and empty—no purse or packages.”

“Where was it?”
Neal could hear his own voice shaking as he spoke.

“Parked in
downtown, actually right near the waterfront.
 
We should’ve located it earlier, but
we’re spread pretty thin with this storm, and my folks were concentrating on
the roads leading out of town, I guess.”

Neal looked at
the clock.
 
It was almost four
a.m.
 
He must’ve fallen asleep
pretty quickly.
 
He felt almost
ashamed thinking he’d been sleeping while Lin was still missing out there
somewhere.
 
“I’m coming in to town,”
he told the Sheriff.

“I’m
gonna
ask you to hold off on that, for a couple of hours
anyway,” the Sheriff drawled.
 
“We’ll tow the car to the county garage, have to get it unlocked and
then we’ll have our techs go over it for any evidence that might be
there.”
 
Midgett hesitated before he
continued, “ My guess is that ring she picked up at the gallery might’ve been
pretty valuable…”

Neal’s heart
sank as he realized what the Sheriff was saying.
 
Lin had just picked up a valuable piece
of jewelry; she could’ve been a victim of robbery, “Yes,” he managed to say,
“Yes, it was.”
 
He couldn’t bring
himself to say more, afraid of breaking down.

Pete Midgett
filled the silence. “Let’s say you’ll be in about six-thirty.
 
It’ll be light by then and we’ll start
looking for her here in town.”
 
He
didn’t add that they might be looking for her dead body.

***

A vicious wave
of nausea roiled Lin’s body as she fought her way toward consciousness.
 
I’m going to be sick, her only conscious
thought.
 
She flung herself sideways
dropping her head off the edge of the precipice she clung to, vomiting
violently.

When nothing
more would come up, she rolled her head back.
 
The precipice turned out to be the edge
of a bed, actually more of a narrow cot.
 
There was no pillow.
 
She was
lying on a rough wool blanket, her cheek felt like it had beard burn.
 
She struggled to get up and realized
that her feet and hands were bound.
 
She was lying on her side, her hands behind her back.
 
She struggled to sit up, but another
wave of nausea forced her down.
 
She
lay back and closed her eyes, waiting for it to pass.
 
The stench from her earlier episode
didn’t help.
 
She took deep breaths,
trying to clear her head.

Finally, the
nausea subsided.
 
She remained still
to keep the vertigo at bay but opened her eyes to look around.
 
It was dark, and she couldn’t really see
where she was.
 
All she knew was
that she was bound and lying on a narrow bed somewhere.
 
Then she became aware of another
sensation.
 
She was rocking back and
forth; rather, the bed was rocking.
 
That accounted for some of her dizziness.
 
More deep breaths, she heard distant
sounds of wind and rain.
 
Gradually
her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness.
 
She began to discern shapes.
 
Her thoughts were still fuzzy, and she still felt sick.
 
She knew if she tried to raise her head,
she’d throw up again.
 
Finally it
hit her; I’m on a boat.
 
The storm
is still going on, and I’m on a boat somewhere.
 
That’s why I’m rocking.

She tried to
further assess her situation.
 
She
was in a small cabin on a boat.
 
There was no sound of a motor, and there was no sensation of forward
movement.
 
The boat must be tied up
somewhere.
 
The wind and rough water
were making it rock.
 
Where was
she?
 
How did she get here? How long
had she been here?