Fogbound: A Lin Hanna Mystery (8 page)

“We’re going
back to Flagstaff tomorrow, and I have workmen lined up to do some repairs on
my house next week.
 
I think I
should be able to get away a week or so after that. I’m really missing you Lin,
we need some time together.”

“I miss you
too,” Lin felt a little choked up at that point. “I can hardly wait until you
come.
 
I’ll be counting the days.”

“Well, I should
have a specific date to give you by early next week after I see how the work is
going to go.
 
Meanwhile, I must
admit I’m glad this case has been settled so quickly.”

“Why?” Lin
questioned, “ Because you thought I might get involved in something here?”

Neal sheepishly
admitted that was at least partially true. “That’s not the only reason,” he
said, “but you must admit you’ve had your share of close calls with killers
recently.”

They finished
their conversation by turning to the topic of their possible wedding date and
plans they might need to make when Neal came.
 
When the conversation ended, Lin felt
much more relaxed and happy. “Neal is good medicine,” she told Sue when she
returned to the room with coffee and cookies for them both.
 
Sue gave her a sly grin. “I knew you
needed to talk to him.
 
Your earlier
mood left a lot to be desired.”

“Oh, really,
was it that obvious?” Lin teased.
 
Sue only rolled her eyes as they both laughed at the situation.

***

Thankfully, the
rest of the week was uneventful.
 
The weather was consistently good and visitor numbers
 
began to climb along with the
temperatures as the Memorial Day weekend approached.
 
Compared to what Lin was accustomed to
around Charlotte however, it was comfortably cool in the highlands.
 
Lin had traded days off so that she
could be free on Sunday for their move.
 

The move out on
Sunday morning was comparatively easy.
 
After all, they had no furnishings to transport and most of their stuff
was already on site in the garage.
 
Nevertheless, it was already growing dark on Sunday evening when they
put the last of their things into place at the house and decided they were
hungry.

“I feel like a
nice, gooey pizza,” Lin said, “The one we had earlier at Harris Teeter was
really good and they have that salad bar too.”

“That sounds
good,” Sue replied. “Besides I don’t feel like getting changed to go to a
restaurant.
 
Lets just run up there
and get pizza and salad to bring back here.”

They hopped
into the car and headed into town.
 
“By the way,” Lin asked, “did you do any car shopping the other
day?
 
We’ve been so busy I forgot to
ask about that.”

“Well, I really
didn’t do too much.
 
I got so
absorbed in doing research the time slipped away, but I did go by the Toyota
dealership.
 
They had a couple of
used 4-runners that appealed to me.
 
Sally told me about a good mechanic here locally; I thought I’d ask
about having him look them over.
 
You have to be careful with a ‘used’ four-wheeled drive vehicle, no
telling how they’ve been ‘used’.
 
I’ve already talked to the dealer about doing that and he agreed.
 
I think I’ll try tomorrow.
 
I’m still off work, but I think we’ve
pretty much got things at the house all fixed so I should have time.”

“I agree.
 
We really worked hard today and things
seem pretty much settled to me.
 
We
even have fresh linens on all the beds,” Lin smiled, “all we need now is a
house guest”

“I know, I
know,” Sue teased, “you can hardly wait for that fiancé of yours to show up,
but I’ll bet you even money he’s going to want to whisk you off to the nearest
fancy hotel room when he does come.”

Lin knew for
sure she was blushing now. “He did mention making reservations somewhere,” she
admitted, “but only for part of the time.
 
He’s planning to stay with us.”
 
She shifted the subject slightly. “Of course, I hope we can spend some
time at the lake—to make some plans for the wedding—check out some
possible places.
 
There’s a lot to
be done and I may need your advice when it comes to making some of these
decisions.”

“You know I’ll
help, if I can,” Sue was serious now. “I like to tease, but I’m very fond of
both you and Neal.
 
I consider you
good friends and I, for sure, want to be part of your wedding plans.
 
After all, I was there at the start of
this romance.”

“Indeed, you
were,” Lin smiled, recalling their times together in Arizona. “I still hope we
can have the wedding in September.
 
That may change though, depending on this work Neal might be
doing—when it starts that is.”

“If that does
turn out to be the case, I may well still be here,” Sue offered.
 
Frank doesn’t expect to return until
October or November at the earliest, and I may still be here writing at that
time, if all goes well.”

Lin couldn’t help
but notice Sue’s use of Dr. Leonard’s first name, but she made no comment.
 
Sue had had more contact with their
landlord than she had.
 
She’d made
most of the arrangements and had spoken with him alone on more than one
occasion.
 
Evidently, they were on a
first name basis now.
 

By this time
they’d arrived at the supermarket.
 
They ordered their pizza and filled a box with salad ingredients to
accompany it.
 
While they waited for
the pizza to bake, they had a cup of coffee at the Starbucks that was in the
store.
 
The pie was finished before
the coffee so they juggled their cups as they carried their meal to the car.

They’d just
walked in the door when the phone rang.
 
The caller was John Clark, Ellie’s father.
 
He asked to speak with Lin, so she took
the phone while Sue began to organize the food for their take-out dinner.

“I apologize
for not calling earlier in the weekend, Lin, “but Hillary and I just decided to
ask for your help this afternoon.
 
We got a call from the Watauga County Sheriff’s office on Friday.
 
They’ve scheduled a competency hearing
for that Hinson fellow who confessed to shooting Pete and Ellie for this
week—Thursday, I believe.
 
The
deputy in charge of the case wants to interview Ellie prior to that.
 
What all this means is that Ellie needs
to come back to Boone for a few days, and we don’t want her to be there
alone—or just staying with friends.
 
With her shoulder and…”

Lin spoke up
quickly, “John, we’d be more than happy for her to stay here with us, if that
would help.”
 
Lin wanted to ask if
she had talked any more about Stefan but wasn’t sure how to get to that
subject.

“That would be
wonderful,” John sounded relieved. “I have to go out of town on business and
Hillary has a lot of commitments as well—besides, she and Ellie seem to be
at odds right now and…”

“You don’t have
to explain, John; I understand,” Lin responded. “When will you be bringing her
up?”

“Tomorrow, if
that’s OK.” John sounded relieved. “That would give her a couple of days to
schedule an appointment with the deputy prior to the hearing.”

“I’m working
tomorrow and Sue will be out much of the day,” Lin replied, “but if you could
call before you arrive, someone will be here to let you in.”

Arrangements
were made and Lin spoke briefly with Ellie.
 
She wanted to ask her if she planned to
address her situation with her art professor but couldn’t find a way to work it
in.
 
Finally, she simply told Ellie
she was looking forward to seeing her and ended the conversation.

“I know you
have plans to check on those cars tomorrow.
 
I could call Rachel and change my
schedule to be available when Ellie arrives…” Lin didn’t want to intrude on
Sue’s plans to continue car shopping.

“Nonsense,” Sue
said. “They won’t be up here first thing in the morning anyway and, if need be,
I’ll just take Ellie with me.
 
Now
sit down and let’s eat before the pizza gets cold.”

The fine
weather they’d enjoyed during the weekend was long gone when they awoke the
next morning.
 
Lin was up early to
get ready for her workday. She’d started a project at the end of the previous
week organizing some educational materials that were needed for a teacher
workshop scheduled in July.
 
She
wanted to finish these up, hopefully today.

Sue was up
early also.
 
She was planning to
take Lin to work and then pick her up about four that afternoon.
 
In between she was meeting the mechanic
and together they would go over the cars she was interested in. They’d agreed
that, when John Clark called, Lin would let Sue know when to meet Ellie at the
house.

LIn was more
than happy to be heading out to the Parkway for the day—even though it was
a difficult, slow drive. The all too familiar fog cast an eerie quality over
the surroundings. Sue fairly crept along as they made their way carefully to
Linn Cove.

When she
arrived at the visitor center, Lin saw that Rachel was already at work in the
back office sorting through the files they’d left the week before.
 
Lin grabbed a cup of coffee and joined
her.
 
There were no visitors in the
center as yet and they would hear the bell ring if any came in.
 
With the fog, it wasn’t likely they’d
have many folks this early.

After some
discussion about the materials they’d need for the upcoming workshop, Lin took
over the sorting task; she was quite content to be busy and able to focus on
something besides their soon to arrive visitor.
 
She knew Ellie was coming for the Hinson
hearing, but she fully intended to talk with her about Stefan.
 
She strongly felt that Ellie needed to
address that situation also.

The weather
remained rather nasty, so the visitor count was definitely below average.
 
It was also a Monday, typically slower
than the weekends anyway.
 
Lin
didn’t leave the visitor center all day, but she did manage to stay quite busy.
 
When word had come that Ellie was
to arrive about noon, Lin had passed the information along to Sue so she could
be at the house to meet her.

***

Ellie was with
Sue when she arrived to pick Lin up.
 
Evidently, they’d spent much of the afternoon car shopping with the
mechanic, and they’d had a good time.
 
Ellie seemed to be in great spirits, chatting away about the merits of
the several cars she and Sue had looked at.

When they
arrived at the house, Ellie readily pitched in offering to help out in the
kitchen to the extent that she was able.
 
Lin was surprised to see how much she
could handle with only one good hand and arm.

The day had
been busy for everyone, and the weather hadn’t improved at all.
 
As it grew darker a heavy fog seemed to
descend upon the Leonard house.
 
You
could see no further than the front porch even with the outside lights on.
 
Sue went about turning on lamps to
brighten the scene inside.

Ellie went
upstairs to rest a bit while Sue began to make a batch of spaghetti sauce for
their dinner.
 
Lin offered to help
prepare a salad and poured the two of them generous glasses of wine to
accompany their efforts.

“What a day,”
Lin confessed, “I didn’t sign up to have a college student as a summer
houseguest, and I’m sure you didn’t either.”

“She’s really a
good kid,” Sue came to Ellie’s defense, “she’s just young and her parents are
concerned about her safety; you really can’t blame them.
 
I really enjoyed being with her today,
and I found out she knows a lot about cars too.”

Lin had almost
forgotten that Sue had spent most of the day car shopping. “How did all that
go, did you find something?”

“I think so,”
Sue replied.
 
“The mechanic wanted
to have a bit more time to check out the vehicle that was my first choice, and
the dealer agreed to let him take it to his shop this afternoon.
 
He should give me a report tomorrow, and
if it’s as good as it looks, I should have wheels by week’s end.”

“That’ll be
good,” Lin smiled. “So far the sharing thing has worked well, but we’ll both
have a lot more freedom with more transportation.”

“Indeed we
will,” Sue agreed.

“With the move
and Ellie’s coming here, I haven’t had a chance to ask you about your
research.
 
You were really getting
into it last week, so I assumed you’d found something of interest,” Lin was
happy to have at least a few minutes to catch up with things her friend had
been doing.

“I really have
found some interesting historical material and some information that’s more
recent related to unsolved crimes around here.
 
I was actually shocked to learn how many
unsolved murders have occurred on the Parkway—both in the past and in
recent years.
 
In fact, I’d say it’s
a lucky thing that man confessed to shooting Pete and Ellie,” Sue’s enthusiasm
was evident.

Lin heard Ellie
coming downstairs while apparently chatting with a friend on the phone.
 
She turned to Sue, “One day really soon,
we’ll have to make time to sit down and talk.
 
I’m really interested and would love to
hear about your findings thus far.” She rolled her eyes as Ellie came into the
kitchen.

***

Over dinner,
Lin reported on the work she’d been doing organizing educational materials for
the upcoming teacher workshop.
 

“I think we had
more fun,” Ellie commented, “I enjoyed car shopping with Sue.”
 
She was in a light-hearted mood. It
seemed that Ellie did know a surprising amount about cars.
 
She outlined for Sue all the things she
liked about the 4-runner they’d seen.
 

Next the
conversation turned to the research Sue was doing for her book, which led Ellie
to express her relief that someone had confessed to shooting her and Pete.

“My parents
talked to the deputy sheriff and they told me it was some old man.
 
He was out of his mind sorta had some
condition…”

“Dementia,” Sue
supplied the term. “He evidently felt threatened and confused.
 
It’s unfortunate.
 
He really wasn’t responsible for his
actions, but nevertheless, Peter died and you were hurt.”

Ellie nodded,
saddened by the loss of her friend.

Sue continued,
“Since we’re talking about what happened, Ellie, let me ask if you’ve managed
to recall more about the incident.
 
It’s been over a week now and you’re definitely on the mend.”

Ellie shook her
head, “Not really, sometimes I think I remember bits and pieces and,” she
lowered her head, “I’ve been having some bad dreams.
 
I dream that someone is chasing me and
then I wake up in a panic, but I still can’t recall any details at all.”

“Maybe it would
help if you talked to someone, maybe saw a counselor or something,” Sue
suggested.

Ellie nodded,
but then she said, “I don’t think I want to do that.
 
Not yet anyway.”

Lin took the
opportunity to tell Ellie something about her own experience in Arizona the
previous year. “I couldn’t remember much about what happened in my case
either,” Lin said, “especially not details.
 
But Sue was able to help me recall some
important things through a special relaxation technique she knows about.
 
Actually, it made me feel much better to
be able to clearly understand what happened.”

Ellie didn’t
say anything, but she seemed troubled.
 
Sue spoke up.
 
“I’d be happy
to help you try that Ellie, but only when you feel you’re really ready.
 
In Lin’s case, the police were still
trying to identify the person who hurt her.
 
Things are different for you, there’s
been an arrest, but if you want to try just let me know.
 
It might help get rid of your bad
dreams.”

Ellie only
nodded, but she said nothing.
 
She
got up and began clearing the table.
 
It was going to be slow with only one good hand, but it was clear she
could manage just fine.
 
Lin rose to
help her, insisting that, since Sue had done the cooking, she and Ellie would
take care of the cleanup. “You get out of here,” she teased. “Go read a book or
work on your research—whatever.”

“If you’re
going to chase me out, I’ll head for the office downstairs but feel free to
join me later if you’d like,” Sue said.

Lin began
loading the dishwasher as Ellie cleared the table and put up the
leftovers.
 
Lin was hoping she might
get an opening to discuss the situation regarding Stefan.
 
She really felt that Ellie needed to
report his behavior to the university in any case, if not to the legal
authorities.
 
She wasn’t sure if
Hillary had followed through on her promise to talk to her daughter about all
this—John certainly hadn’t mentioned it when he called.
 

Lin hoped for
an opening to broach the subject with the girl, but there wasn’t an
opportunity.
 
Finally, when the
kitchen chores were finished, she suggested that they join Sue in the basement
for coffee and cookies.
 
She could smell
the enticing aroma of dark roast brewing that wafted up the stairs from the
office below. “You go on down, Ellie.
 
I’ll bring some cookies and a couple of extra mugs and join you two
shortly.”

Ellie made her
way down to the basement office and Lin arranged a tray with extra mugs and a
plate of oatmeal raisin cookies they’d purchased from the bakery at
Harris-Teeter.
 
Just as she left the
kitchen and headed for the basement stairs she heard a sound as if someone was on
the front porch.
 
She quickly turned
off the kitchen light and placed the loaded tray on a chair in the
hallway.
 
She crept quietly toward
the front door, trying to determine if someone was, indeed, there.

Just then the
doorbell rang.
 
Lin flipped on the
lights in the front hallway and approached the door directly.

“Can I help
you?” She spoke through the unopened door, “Who are you?”

“None of your
business,” a disembodied voice boomed.
 
Lin sneaked forward and tried to see the person from a window on the
side, but he was too close to the door. “I’m here to see Ellie, not you.
 
Send her out here, to the porch.”

By now Ellie
and Sue had come upstairs and stood behind Lin in the hallway.

“That’s
Stefan,” Ellie sounded truly afraid. “How did he know I was here?
 
I don’t want to see him at all.
 
Not now.
 
Not ever.”

“Ellie doesn’t
want to see you Stefan,” Lin spoke firmly. “I’m going to ask you to leave right
now and not come back here.
 
If you
can’t do that, we’ll have to report you to the authorities.”

“Ellie, this
isn’t over between us,” Stefan shouted,
 
“I don’t care what you say.
 
You’re mine and I’m not going to let you go—not for
anyone—not ever.
 
I’ll be back
and next time you’d better be ready.
 
You know I can hurt you and I will.” They heard him go down the steps
and walk away, but Lin couldn’t hear any sounds of a car starting up or driving
away.

“Maybe he
parked down on the road.
 
Sometimes
sounds are muffled by these fogs.” Sue could see what Lin feared.

Ellie had
collapsed on the bottom step.
 
She
was crying inconsolably.

Lin moved to
comfort the girl. “I think we need to have a serious talk about this guy Stefan
and your relationship with him.”
 
Ellie nodded as Lin led her to the sofa and helped her to sit down, but
she didn’t say anything. Lin observed that she was clearly shaken and afraid. Actually,
they all were.

“I, for one,
could use a good shot of sugar and caffeine after all that,” Sue said. “I think
I’ll bring my coffee pot up from downstairs, and I see you already have some
cookies ready.” She retrieved the tray and put it on the coffee table.

While Sue went
downstairs, Lin decided to go ahead and talk to Ellie about her situation with
Stefan.

 
“You said Stefan was different from your
other boyfriends.
 
How?” Lin was
afraid of what she might hear.

“He was older,
more experienced.
 
I was flattered
when he wanted me to pose for him.
 
He said I was beautiful,” Ellie stumbled over what came next, “…he said
he loved me, and we started having sex, you know. Stefan said I was a little
girl and had a lot to learn,” Ellie choked back more tears. “Sometimes it was
exciting and felt good, but sometimes he was…you know, rough.
 
Sometimes he hurt me.
 
That’s why I broke it off.
 
He was using me, he always asked me to
model for him at his home studio.
 
He drew pictures of me, and then he wanted to make love afterward.
 
At first I felt grown up.
 
I thought he loved me but later…” Ellie
collapsed into tears at this point and couldn’t talk any more.
 
Lin cradled the girl in her arms.