Tidewater Inn (23 page)
Maybe so, but it was a better chance than any other Libby had. She ran inside to grab one of Nicole's shirts. Having another ally had given her new courage.
A
lec stood on the boardwalk with his hands in the pockets of his shorts and watched the freshening wind blow Libby's hair in tangles. As soon as they let the dog out of the SUV, he ran in circles, then back to Bree, who held the bags containing Nicole's shirt. Alec had heard of search dogs, but he'd never seen one in action.
“Where was she when she was taken?” Bree asked. She stood looking around the area.
“Right there.” Libby pointed out the camera and the spot where her friend had been standing.
They scanned the same sand dunes, the same rolling ocean that Alec had seen earlier in the week when he'd come here with Tom. The only new items were a crumpled cigarette pack, an empty potato chip bag, and a few Marlboro butts.
Bree knelt and opened the bag. Samson thrust his nose into the bag. “Search, Samson!”
The dog pulled his head from the bag and barked. He ran back and forth across the beach with his nose in the air. Alec's jaw dropped as he watched the dog work. Samson clearly seemed to know what he was doing. When the dog stiffened, so did Alec, though he didn't know what it meant.
“He's got a scent!” Bree ran after the dog.
Alec and Libby followed. Libby's expression was intent and hopeful, so he rushed ahead of her, just in case whatever Samson was smelling was something Alec didn't want her to find. Samson trailed the scent to the parking lot. He ran to a trash barrel and began to bark.
Alec's gut clenched, and he prayed they wouldn't find Nicole's body in it. “Stand back.” He motioned for the women to move back a few feet. Once he got the top off the garbage pail, he put on plastic gloves and began poking through it in spite of the stench. It was only about half full, so he relaxed, sure he wasn't going to find anything at all. The dog had probably gotten sidetracked by the food smells.
“That's hers!” Libby's arm shot past him and grabbed a pink straw hat. She shook off the debris. “I told you I saw it fall off her in the struggle.”
“You're sure?” Bree asked.
Libby nodded. “I bought it for her for her birthday. What's it doing in the trash?”
“You shouldn't have touched it.” Alec took it in his gloved hands. “Maybe the killers handled it.”
The animation on Libby's face ebbed. “It came off her head in the struggle. I don't think they touched it.”
“You said they took her right to the boat and offshore,” he pointed out. “You saw them throw her into the boat and move off? They didn't come back for the hat?”
“I saw them leave.” Her mouth drooped. “So this means nothing.”
“We know the dog can smell her,” he said. “Pretty amazing. I guess they could have come back and just thrown it away so nothing looked out of place on the beach. Anyone could have tossed it.”
Bree called the dog back to her and had him smell the sack again. “Search, Samson!”
Samson sniffed the air, then ran back to the beach. He barked and raced to a spot near the water, where he began to dig. Alec and the women ran to see what he'd found. Alec knelt to help Samson, but he woofed and nosed at a pair of sunglasses before Alec could dig his fingers into the sand.
Alec held them up. “Nicole's?”
Libby nodded. “I think so.”
The dog whined and pressed his nose against Bree's hand. She went through the process of letting him smell the bag again. He ran back and forth on the sand for ten minutes before going back to Bree's side. He whined, then laid at her feet.
“I think this is all he's got,” Bree said.
“It was worth a try.” Libby glanced at Alec. “Could you take us out tomorrow in the boat?”
“Sure. You think he can find something in the ocean?” Watching the dog work was interesting, but Alec didn't see how Samson could possibly find Nicole in that ocean.
Bree shrugged. “I won't lie and say it's likely. There's a lot of ocean out there and we really don't know where to even look. But Samson has done many other amazing searches successfully, so I want to try.”
He appreciated Bree's honesty. Alec nodded. “We'll take my boat out first thing in the morning.”
Libby was too restless to watch the movie playing in the living room. Bree was bathing the children and getting them to bed, so Libby slipped away from the group and went to the third floor again. Her interest in finding out how Nicole's purse had ended up there had resurfaced.
She flipped on the light, then stood in the main living area of the third floor and glanced around. The stairs creaked behind her and she whirled to see Brent stepping into the space.
“What are you doing up here?” he demanded.
“Looking around.” She decided against reminding him that she owned the property and could go anywhere she pleased. She'd written in her journal that she hadn't extended much grace after their last encounter.
He scowled at her. “These are Dad's private quarters.”
“I know.” She gestured to the table. “Nicole's bag is here. Do you have any idea how it got up here?”
“
She
was up here?”
“It appears so. Unless someone put her purse here.”
“Have you asked Delilah about it?”
She should have thought of that. “No. But you didn't answer my question. Did
you
know about it?”
His gaze was steady. “You really think I had something to do with her disappearance, don't you?”
She'd had enough of his evasiveness. “Why do you always answer a question with another one? Just answer me, yes or no. Did you see Nicole's purse up here?”
“No. This is the first I've been up here since Dad died. Your turn. You think I'm guilty of something bad, don't you?”
He looked so innocent, so hurt. Was any of it real? Libby wanted to believe him. He was her brother, after all. “I honestly don't know. I'd like to believe you did nothing to hurt her, but you have to admit your lies look bad.”
“I didn't do anything to her. It was an innocent outing.”
Libby reminded herself how young he was. Maybe she was overreacting. “I know you weren't one of the men who took her. I saw them. But you could have hired the men.”
“I could have, but I didn't.”
She wanted to know this brother, but she couldn't seem to get through. “You're hard to read, Brent. I want to believe you.” She decided that Jesus would lay it all out there, so she gathered her courage. “What do you want, Brent? Do you even care that you have another sister? We're family, you know. We share our father's blood. I want us to learn to love each other.”
His eyes flickered when she mentioned love, but then he folded his arms over his chest. “I'm sure you're a very nice person, Libby, but I have one sister and that's enough. You don't belong here. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but you can't show up here and announce you're part of our family and expect it to be so. To us, you're just a stranger.”
Though she agreed with the gist of what he'd said, his cold gaze cut her. Her eyes filled, and she turned away so he wouldn't see. “I see. Thank you for being honest.” He was still standing there when she regained her composure, so she turned back toward him. “In Nicole's journal, she mentioned that someone whispered to her outside her door. Was that you?”
His jaw tightened. “You're determined to pin something on me, aren't you?”
“Who else would have access here? And it was a male. Be honest with me, Brent. I've learned enough about our father to know he valued honesty and integrity.”
His lips flattened. “Fine. I tried to scare her off. Satisfied? But I had nothing to do with her disappearance.”
“Why did you want to scare her off? She wasn't hurting you.”
His sigh was heavy. “Look, she told me she wanted you to keep the property and develop it yourself. I felt the honorable thing for you to do was to bow out. I still feel that way.”
“She wanted us to develop it? That's crazy. Where could we come up with enough money?” Maybe Nicole had been making a play to squeeze more money out of the buyer. Poe seemed determined to have the land.
She held Brent's gaze and found truth there. “I believe you.”
His eyes flickered. “Really? Or will those doubts surface again?”
She shook her head. “We've gotten off to a really bad start. Friends?” She reached out her hand.
Brent stared at her extended hand, then quickly touched his fingers to hers and withdrew. “Let's say acquaintances for now.”
It was a start.
The steps creaked behind them, then Delilah stepped into the room. She stopped short when she saw them. “I went to the storage shed to look for something and saw the light on up here. I thought someone had forgotten to turn it off. Is everything all right?”
Libby nodded. “I do have a question though.” She picked up Nicole's bag. “Do you know how this got here?”
Delilah's lids flickered. “I assume Nicole left it.”
“She was up here? Why?” Libby didn't like the thought that Nicole had been poking through her father's things. Maybe this was how Vanessa felt.
“She'd asked to explore the house. I didn't give her any keys and had no idea she would find her way up here, but I must have left the door unlocked when I cleaned the last time. I found her here and chased her out.”
“Did she say what she was doing?”
Delilah shook her head. “I think she just wanted to see what was here. She didn't seem to have an agenda, if that's what you mean.”
Nicole was as much of a history buff as she was. Libby could see her wanting to poke into every nook and cranny of the attic.
So the purse was a dead end. “I'd like to be alone for a while,” she said.
Brent and Delilah exchanged a glance. Brent shrugged. “You're the boss.” He went down the steps and Delilah followed.
Libby exhaled and sank onto the sofa. In this place she could sense her father. It would be the perfect spot to have her devotions every day too. His Bible was still on the table where she'd left it. She hadn't had a chance to go through it much. When she picked it up, she realized there was a folded paper, stiff with age, under it.
She unfolded it and discovered it was a map of the island. The old lighthouse site was marked on it. Holding it under the light, she saw someone had written the word
cellar
with an arrow on it near the house structure. Another X marked the wellhead. The place once had several outbuildings too. She was eager to see how much of it still stood. And whether it harbored any clues to Nicole's whereabouts.
T
he sun was barely up, and haze still hung over the waves. Sea spray stung Libby's cheeks and filled her nose with the salty scent of the ocean. She crouched behind the windshield of Alec's boat to avoid a large wave that threatened to wash over the bow. “The sea is strong today.”
Bree and Samson rode up front. The dog had his nose in the wind and wore an ecstatic smile. “It's gorgeous out here,” Bree called. “Not quite the same as Lake Superior where we live, but close enough. Where are we going?”
Alec pointed to the shore. “The lighthouse ruins. We'll land there. I'll drop anchor, and we'll have to wade to shore. It's got a sandy bottom though, so no danger of getting dunked.”
“I'm not afraid of the water,” Libby said. In fact, she couldn't think of anything she enjoyed more than being on the sea. Well, other than digging into the history of a gorgeous old house.
The spit of land was narrow, only about twenty feet across. Scrubby bushes and vegetation that had stood up to the salt clung to the sparse soil. The small peninsula widened at the base and joined the main part of the island, where heavier vegetation hid whatever ruins they'd come here to see. Libby scanned the area for a hint of the cover-up Nicole had been wearing. She wasn't sure if she was relieved or sad to see no sign that her friend had ever been here.