Fogbound: A Lin Hanna Mystery (27 page)

It was late
afternoon by the time Sue and Lin arrived back at home.
 
The fog and mist had steadily increased
during the afternoon.
 
It had
stopped raining hard, but it was almost impossible to be outside without becoming
soaked by the fine droplets that pervaded the atmosphere.

“I hope Luke
doesn’t decide not to come this evening; it’s awfully nasty out there,” Sue
said.

“I hope so
too,” Lin said. “I’m really interested in his designs for Neal’s desk.
 
He really seems to be a talented young
man.”

“If the things
we saw are representative of all his work,” Sue remarked, “then I feel sure the
desk will be beautiful and one of a kind.”
 
She moved about the kitchen collecting things to set the table for their
dinner.
 
They were both glad that
they’d put some chicken and mushrooms in the slow cooker that morning.
 
Now Sue added some white wine to the mix
while Lin prepared some rice and vegetables to round out their meal.
 
Soon they were sitting down to a
delicious coq au vin.

“It’s been a
long time since I’ve used a slow cooker,” Sue said, “I’d forgotten how easy it
is.
 
We’ll have to do this more
often.”

“I’d almost
stopped using mine altogether after the kids left home, Lin replied. “Then once
Neal came into my life, he reminded me of just how useful it is.
 
He’s a terrific cook, and he uses a slow
cooker often.
 
He got me back into
it.” She bit into a forkful of the tasty, tender chicken.

About that time
they heard someone at the door.
 
“Must be Luke,” Lin said, getting up to let him in.
 
She took his soggy jacket and hung it on
a chair in the entry hall. “Come on back to the kitchen.
 
We were just finishing up our
dinner.
 
Have you eaten yet?”

“Oh, I’m sorry
I interrupted you eating,” Luke seemed embarrassed, “I’ll wait in the other
room while you finish.
 
I was in
town and thought I’d come by while I was here—Grandpa will have dinner
ready when I get home, if he doesn’t forget that is.”

“Don’t chance
it,” Lin smiled at the young man, “Here, sit down.
 
We have plenty.”
 
She spooned a generous helping of
chicken and rice onto a plate then poured a glass of tea for the young man who
appeared to be hungry indeed.
 
He
attacked the food eagerly.

“Hey, this is
good,” he almost grinned, “Lot better than Grandpa’s cooking.”
 
Lin and Sue smiled as they watched him
enjoy his meal.
 
There was something
satisfying about feeding a young, hungry man.

“You make the
cooks feel appreciated,” Sue remarked, “I’m glad you came early.”

When they’d all
finished, Sue cleared away the dishes and leftovers, making room for Luke to
spread out his drawings.
 
Lin looked
over his shoulder as he explained the points of his design for a custom-made
desk.
 
It was beautiful, a long rectangular
top with a beautiful balance of shelves and drawers beneath.
 
Luke had a couple of possible variations
sketched out.
 
Lin could just
imagine how beautiful the finished product would be in cherry.

Luke finished
describing his work and then they discussed the price and the timetable for
completing the work.
 
Lin noticed
that Sue had finished clearing up from dinner and was making a fresh pot of
coffee.
 
She’d assembled a plate of
brownies and homemade cookies left from an earlier afternoon of baking.
 
Approaching the table she looked at the
beautiful drawings.
 
“These are
gorgeous Luke, you’re a true artist.
 
I’m sure your Grandfather, your whole family, must be very proud of you.
“

Thank-you,
ma’am, and thanks for the dinner too,” Luke spoke shyly but Lin noticed he
didn’t mention his grandfather or any other family member.
 
He began to fold up his drawings.

“I hope you’ll
stay for some coffee and cookies,” Lin urged. “We need help eating some of
these sweets.”

Luke smiled
sheepishly, but he sat down and reached for a brownie as soon as Sue put the
plate on the table.

After they’d
all had some sweets and enjoyed their first cup of coffee, Sue got up to fetch the
carafe and refill their cups. “You know Luke.
 
We know you are talented, but where did
you get your gift?
 
Tell us about
your family, if you don’t mind that is.”
 
She hoped the young man would feel comfortable, having enjoyed a good
dinner and concluding a nice business deal.

“Not much to
tell,” Luke replied, staring into his cup. “My Mom died when I was about ten,
my Pa had left before that—don’t really know where he went.
 
I heard later on he was dead too.
 
Grandpa raised me.
 
Grandma had already died by that
time.
 
Now Grandpa’s mind isn’t good
any more.
 
Sometimes he forgets
things, sometimes he wanders off and gets lost around his own place.
 
I try not to leave him much.
  
One of the neighbors is keeping an
eye on him now.
 
It’s hard for me to
get out and do my business sometimes.”

“Who taught you
how to work so beautifully with wood?”
 
Lin asked, “Does anyone in your family do work like that?”

“No ma’am, not
really.
 
I learned in school.
 
That was my favorite class at the high
school—woodshop.
 
I learned
there.”
 
Luke spoke about his work
with true love.
 
This was a young
man who truly had found his calling.

“Well, you’re
very talented,” Lin remarked, “I’m sure your business will grow.
 
Someday you’ll have a family of your
own, maybe you’ll have children to follow in your footsteps.”
 
Sue smiled, realizing that Lin was
trying to work the conversation around to more personal issues.

Lin’s tactic
seemed to work.
 
Luke sat quietly,
obviously deep in thought. “I don’t know about that,” Luke said softly, “ Oh, I
was in love once, was going to get married even—but she’s gone now,
forever.” There were tears forming in the young man’s eyes.

“What happened
Luke? I’d think any girl would be proud to marry a fine young man like you,”
Sue tried to move the conversation forward.

“Oh, she didn’t
leave me,” a certain spark—maybe anger—seemed to drive away some of
the sadness. “Somebody killed her, killed her and our baby.
 
The cops tried to blame it on me, but it
wasn’t me; I’d never done anything to hurt Sara—I loved her too much.”

“Then who did
kill her?”
 
Sue asked boldly.

“The cops never
did arrest anybody for it.
 
Say they
don’t have enough evidence.
 
Somebody got away with murder, that’s what I say.”
 
Luke was breathing hard, caught between
anger and sorrow.

Sue knew now
was the time to ask the important question. “Who do you think did it Luke?
 
Do you know, or have a good idea?”

Luke didn’t say
anything for a moment.
 
He finally
took a deep breath and asked if he could have more coffee.
 
Lin moved to refill his cup.
 
He took a long drink and sat back in his
chair.
 

“I can’t prove
nothing, so it doesn’t do any good to accuse anyone, but in my heart I think
Grandpa did it—he killed Sara.
 
He didn’t want me to marry her, said she’d ruin my life.
 
I think he was afraid I’d leave home if
I got married.
 
I still think he’d
do almost anything he could to keep me there with him.”

Luke sat for a
few more minutes, sipping on his coffee.
 
It was clear he still had strong feelings about Sara and the discussion
had upset him.
 
Finally he rose to
leave, “I need to get going and I’m sorry I got off on all this.
 
I shouldn’t have talked about Sara
here.
 
I don’t usually talk about it
at all any more, don’t know what got into me.”
 
He shook his head.

“Don’t worry
Luke, please it’s OK.
 
We asked you
questions about your family and one thing just led to another.
  
We understand how you must feel
and we won’t say anything to your grandfather, if we see him again,” Sue tried
to reassure the young man.

“I know,” Luke
said, “I appreciate that.
 
Grandpa
doesn’t know what he’s doing most of the time, much less remember what happened
in the past.
 
It doesn’t really
matter any more, I guess.
 
Nothing
would bring my Sara back anyway.”

“I thank you
for your business,” Luke spoke to Lin. “I’ll do a good job for you, I
promise.
 
I’m glad to have a use for
that old cherry tree I got.
 
It
should be real pretty.”

“It will be
beautiful,” Lin smiled, “and your design will fit perfectly in my home.
 
I can’t wait to see it.”

“I should have
it roughed out in a couple of weeks if you want to come by and check on it,”
Luke was refocused on his work at this point.
 
“I just have to finish up that oak desk
you saw, then I’ll get started on this one.
 
Come by anytime.”

Sue boxed up
the leftover brownies and cookies and gave them to Luke to take home.
 
The young man thanked her and then was
off, disappearing into the thick fog just beyond their porch as he head toward
his truck.

Lin and Sue
were both in thoughtful moods after Luke left.
 
Neither said anything much as they
finished putting things up in the kitchen and clearing up from their coffee and
dessert.
 
Finally Sue spoke, “I was
a little surprised at how quickly Luke picked up the topic of Sara’s murder,
frankly I expected him to be reluctant to say anything.”

“I agree,” Lin
replied, “but I got the impression that he has very strong feelings on the
subject.
 
They lie just beneath the
surface and are ready to come out when he’s in a situation where he feels
comfortable talking.
 
What he said
really made me think.”

“Me too, and I
am definitely ready to talk more about that,” Sue continued. “Let’s go down to
the office.
 
I think it’s time to
pull together some of the information we’ve gathered in the last few days.”

“I agree,” Lin
was eager to do this. “Do you know what I was thinking when we left our meeting
with Jack Davis this afternoon?”

“Probably, the
same thing I’ve been thinking,” Sue smiled, “That there’s a common link that
keeps coming into the conversations we’ve been having—at least in some of
them.”

“And I can’t
forget who we encountered when we visited the place where Sandy Hill’s body was
found—Eustace Hinson,” Lin said.

“Also,” Sue
added, “some of the other crime scenes are pretty close to that one.
 
Something is definitely going on in
that
 
‘neck of the woods’.”

“It may all be
circumstantial,” Lin remarked, “we really haven’t uncovered any concrete
evidence.”

“That may be
true,” Sue added, “but even circumstantial evidence bears looking into—it
may lead in a productive direction.”

They had just
decided to head downstairs and work on organizing what they knew and didn’t
know when Lin’s cell phone rang.
 
It
was Mark Scott.

“Hello Mark, we
were just talking about you earlier today—hoping you’d be able to find
someone willing to look into some of these cases,” Lin said.

“ Well, that’s
why I’m calling.
 
I spoke today with
one of the agents in the FBI office down in Hickory.
 
He seemed doubtful that the agency would
want to assign anyone to look into these cases, specifically, because we really
don’t have much evidence to go on; however, he was very concerned about having
so many unsolved cases connected to the Parkway and by the fact that local law
enforcement seems to have made no real progress on any of the cases.
 
Long story short, he didn’t make any promises,
but he is coming up here with his family on vacation next week, and he did
agree to take the time to talk with us about what we do know.
 
After that, if he thinks it is
worthwhile, he’ll ask his supervisor about possibly investigating.
 
He’s agreed to meet us for breakfast on
Sunday morning.
 
That’s the best I
could do at this point.”

“Thanks Mark,
that’s good news.
 
At least he’s
willing to listen.
 
I guess it’s up
to us to convince him these deaths are worth a closer look.
 
We’ll look forward to meeting him,” Lin
replied.
 
She knew this might be
difficult but at least they would have a chance.
 
She thought of something else that might
help their case.

“We’ll do our
best to have all our information and our questions organized,” she continued,
“meanwhile, there’s something you might be able to do to help our case. “