“All I’m saying is if he wasn’t so freaking fast, I would’ve succeeded.”
“I like this place for you,” her mother said after some time. “Your spirit, that wildfire in you, it fits here.”
“And what about you?” she asked, watching the water’s ebb and flow.
“I think I’m gonna hang around a while, at least until you sell the place. Until then, I hear there’s a young girl in there who might need a mother’s attention.”
Doing less was obviously a skill set they both needed to work on, Lauren thought. So right now, she’d sit in peace with her mother. Then she would get back to preparing for her presentation at the council meeting.
After spending hours at the crash site, Santiago and Roan contacted next of kin for Eddy, then questioned Tommy Lewellen’s friends and family. There were no leads on where he was, but a lot of threats, a lot of anger, a lot of cursing.
Roan was able to compare the tire tracks at the sight with those left by Andy’s truck in the Archers’ yard. Though it wasn’t official, Roan’s nod was all the confirmation he needed to prioritize Andy as a lead suspect.
The Archers’ housekeeper hadn’t seen the mayor and Mrs. Veronica since they left for court this morning. She stated that Andy hadn’t been home for over a day and a half. She said there was some mystery woman he was serious about but he’d refused to tell his father and grandmother who the woman was. It was the cause of two arguments between father and son over the past week.
“What do you make of the reports of St. James being seen near the Lewellen garage and Eddy’s house?” Roan asked. “I know he’s your friend, but something’s strange about that man. He’s alwaysroaming. Big-time bestseller in Shrouded Lake with not a friend to show for it besides you…which is awful convenient, maybe calculated.”
“He and Lauren are developing a friendship.”
“Yeah and she winds up with a bloody deer head in her house. And you, you discover a body floating in your lake, the same one he happens to reside on. That’s the kind of creepy shit he writes about in his novels, you know that.”
Santiago sighed. Roan had had an unproductive interview with St. James earlier. He’d talk to Julian without whatever energy they had between the two of them.
Pulling up to the front of the station, he dropped Roan off and drove up the mountain.
St. James’s car wasn’t out front, but Santiago knocked on the door, then tried to call. He didn’t hear a phone ringing in the house. The call went to voicemail.
Instead of walking over to Lauren’s, who also didn’t pick up her goddamn phone, he drove over and knocked on the door. Neither she nor Mrs. Green were inside, no house could be quiet even when Lauren was in it by herself. Add her mother to the mix and that kind of energy would’ve been felt a hundred feet away. Checking his watch he saw it was nearly an hour before the meeting was scheduled to start. Knowing how efficient Lauren was, she probably gotten there an hour ago. Walking back to his car through the gathering mist, he felt a tingling in his palms and along his spine. Pausing at the hood of his cruiser, he turned and looked up at the second story window and saw the thin curtains flutter and shift. Unlike the times he saw her before, he could see her translucent form and features as well as the pink sundress she wore and pigtails on each side of her head. She pressed her palm to the window and left a small imprint. He bowed and held up his hand in greeting. “You are bright today, little spirit. Looks like the Greens are good for you.”
Getting in his car, he backed out and turned, heading down the drive feeling her gaze upon him until he was no longer visible from the window.
Had the Greens really strengthened Deborah Moor’s spirit?he wondered as he made a call to Roan.
“Hey,” he said when she answered. “I’m on my way to the meeting. You see Lauren and her mother?”
“I just pulled up but I don’t see her car. Seems like half the town is here. I have a feeling it’s about to be a shit show.”
“I’ll be there soon. Have Te Awa come over for added security.”
“Will do,” she said and hung up.
Santiago felt a wave of unease. He drove faster.
He was less than five minutes away when he got a call from Sonny. “Hey League, I’m at city hall but I got a call from security saying the alarm at Lauren’s has been going off for five minutes. There’s been no response from her.”
The force of Santiago’s heartbeat rattled his rib cage.
“Just stepped into the meeting hall,” Sonny said. “I’ll check to see if she’s inside and give you a call back.”
“Copy that.”
He hung up and slowed down just enough to make a quick U-turn.
Turning on his sirens, he sped back up the mountain.
Pulling his cruiser to a stop in front of the house, he got out and drew his gun. The front door was open. The entry floor was streaked with blood. Behind the door he saw that more blood was on the interior side of the door and doorknob, as if someone struggled to open it.
Refusing to believe it was Lauren, Santi tried to go under, submerge all feeling, but it didn’t work. His fear for Lauren and her mother threatened to overtake him; turn him into the raging person no one ever needed to see.
