Fancy Gap (13 page)
Natalie looked at Louisa and smiled. “Meredith likes you.”
“She’s a treasure. What a little storyteller she is. She must do well in school.”
“Oh, she loves her school. So tell me, how are you enjoying Fancy Gap?” Natalie asked.
“It’s an amazing place. Your dad has found his perfect slice of heaven. I imagined it to be nice when he first described it to me. His words didn’t do it justice. It takes my breath away morning, noon, and night.”
“It’s even beautiful when the fog settles in. Dad told me there was a bad accident on I-77 the other night. And two children were abducted at the motel on Highway 52. That’s just frightening.”
“I’m sure the local sheriff ’s department and the state police have their hands full,” Louisa offered.
“Dad tells me you were a senior director at the FBI in Washington,” Natalie said.
“Your dad is a funny guy. Yes, I was in charge of the criminal division before I retired. All of these gray hairs come from the stress of those days!”
“Louisa, you don’t show it a bit. You’re a beautiful woman.”
“You’re too generous, Natalie. It has all taken its toll. I gave my soul to the Bureau. I’m not so sure I would do that again. But I’m happy to say those days have ended. I’m on a journey to rediscover myself. I want to find out exactly who the new Louisa really is, and I think I’ve found a new guide to lead me through the chapters of personal rediscovery. I really like your dad, Natalie.”
“Well, I must say the ole fella looks happier than he has in years. There seems to be a fire lit in his soul that has been out for a long while.”
Louisa blushed as she looked at Natalie. She lowered her voice as she moved in a little closer to Natalie’s ear. “I really can’t believe I’m saying this, but, Natalie, I’m already falling in love with your dad.”
Natalie smiled as she slid her hand under the table and squeezed Louisa’s hand.
Louisa smiled back as her heart burst into delight she hadn’t known for most of her life.
They all enjoyed the meal as he expected they would. Meredith had so much to tell Louisa on the way back to the house. Quinn noticed a new light in Louisa’s eyes that he hadn’t seen before. He liked what he saw.
After they had settled in at the Chateau, it was time for Meredith to go to bed. She looked around the room. “Can Louisa read to me before I go to sleep?”
“I would love to if it’s OK with your mommy,” Louisa replied.
“Go for it, Louisa! She’s all yours!” said Natalie.
They soon disappeared into Meredith’s bedroom on the top floor of the Chateau.
“How about a nightcap, father?”
Quinn went to the wine bar, mixed a cosmopolitan for Natalie, and poured a generous portion of twenty-one-year-old Old Pultney single-malt scotch for himself.
They went outside and sat together on the double Cape Hatteras swing that hung from the upper deck. It was a perfect late-summer night. They were serenaded by thousands of crickets, which seemed to be in concert with the lightning bugs that lit up the valley below them.
“So, my dearest daughter, what do you think?”
“Dad, I do believe your wait has paid off. She’s wonderful. In addition to her beauty, she’s charming and listens so well. And she did let on at dinner that she kicked your ole butt running up Buffalo Mountain.”
“The woman cheated! I had her beat fair and square till she took a shortcut and got in front of me. Not fair!”
“Now that’s my kind of woman. Beat you at your own game and loved doing it. Oh, she has it going on.”
“I’m glad you like her. Looks like Louisa and Meredith are getting along famously.”
“Come on, Dad, Meredith has simply found another person to play with her and eventually spoil her rotten.”
They talked some more before Natalie kissed him on the cheek and went upstairs to bed. Quinn sipped on his scotch as he waited for Louisa to join him on the swing.
“Now that’s a talkative five-year-old! What a sweetie. I enjoyed that,” she said as she settled on the swing.
“I think the feeling was mutual. Can I get you a nightcap?”
“Yep, I’ll have what you’re having.”
She took a long, slow sip after he handed her the glass. “Those are two very special ladies you have there, Quinn.”
“I know. They’re a truly wonderful part of my life.”
“You’re one lucky man, Charlie Brown.”
“I do have to pass along a concern Natalie has…well, with you.”‘
“Oh, my, do, pray tell?”
“She wants to make sure you don’t cheat on any other runs or rides we take together. She understands that I have a fragile psyche, and I probably would cry if you did that again.”
“Then let me suggest that you carry a bunch of Kleenex in your pocket, cause you’re gonna need it all, big fella!” she retorted.
Quinn laughed as he turned her into his lap and gently kissed her on the nose. She looked into the nighttime sky and asked, “What row of three stars is that right above us? It’s beautiful!”
“I believe those are Vega, Deneb, and Altair. They’re prevalent in the late-summer sky over the southwestern Virginia mountains.”
“Well, well, Mister Smarty-Pants, what about that group just over there in the eastern sky?”
“OK, that would be Thomas Web. It’s also visible this time of year.”
“Give me a break. I don’t know anyone who knows the stars that well. I’m impressed.”
“As you should be, Miss Hawke. Just pick out a star and I’ll tell you what it is.”
“I don’t think so. How much money do you have to lose?”
“Now that’s more like it: a betting woman. I’ve got a hundred-dollar bill in my pocket that says I can.”
“Oh, easy money, big fella. Let’s see—how about those three bright ones behind us? There’s no way you know their names.”
Quinn got up from the swing and went just inside the door. He returned, holding his iPad. She looked at him with a quizzical look. He fired up the iPad, opened the Star Walk app, and pointed it at the stars. The screen lit up with brilliant colors, all of the stars in the sky appearing. A voice from the iPad identified the stars in question.
“Well, you no-good cheater! You didn’t say anything about using your freakin’ iPad!”
“Oh, so the pot is callin’ the kettle black and is suddenly concerned with all the rules. My, my, I suggest you start looking for my one hundred dollars.”
“In your dreams, McSpain. I just knew you weren’t that smart. After all, nobody knows the names of all the stars.”
“I beg your pardon. Mister iPad does.”
She reached over and squeezed his hand. “What I would really like to see is a falling star.”
He bit his lip when he responded, “Weren’t those the two words that described your career at the FBI?”
“You shit! Then you know that there’s something up there that describes you.”
“And what would that be?”
“The Big Dipper, you turkey!”
They laughed, and he took her hand and led her upstairs onto the upper deck. He rearranged two lounge chairs side by side and lowered the backs. They both instinctively lay back and looked at the brilliant night sky above.
“Do you think we’ll see one?” she asked.
“Bet you a hundred that we’ll see one in ten minutes.”
“I was born at night, but it wasn’t last night. And I’m sure as hell not easy money, star man.”
He intertwined his fingers with hers. Within two minutes, she jerked his arm upward and said, “Did you just see that one! I can’t believe it. I just saw my very first shooting star!”
They lay still for another few minutes.
“I don’t want this day to end,” she said.
Quinn stood up and pulled her to her feet. He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. “I think it’s time to go inside to see if we can get the cow to jump over the moon.”
She led the way.
Sheriff Pierce and his wife had just settled into their seats at Sunday morning church services. The pastor was about to begin when the sheriff ’s phone started to vibrate. He looked down and saw that Levi had called. He looked at his wife as he got up to go outside. She wasn’t surprised. After all, he was the sheriff.
He punched Levi’s number on his speed dial. Levi answered on the second ring.
“Sheriff, where are you?”
“Well, Levi, I’m at church. It is Sunday, you know. Where the heck are you, and why are you calling?”
“Sheriff, I’m heading over to the Devil’s Den. The dispatcher got a call just now from a couple of hikers who say that a body is tied to the iron grate at the entrance to the Den. It looks like a young boy…”
“Who else have you called, Levi?”
“Just you so far. I was fixin’ to call Jim Craig.”
“Go ahead and call him and then call every deputy you can get a hold of because we need to seal off that entire area. And tell Craig to get his CSI staff out there as well. This is not good, Levi.”
“I know. I’ll start making the calls and will see you out there,” Levi said and hung up.
Sherriff Pierce went back into church, sat down next to his wife, and whispered that he needed to leave because the body of the missing boy might have been located. She nodded with a look of horror in her eyes and told him she would get a ride home from her cousin.
As he got into his car, he heard sirens heading out of Hillsville. He turned on his dash and grill lights as he sped through Hillsville north on Highway 52. The roads were empty, as most folks were in church. He slowed as he passed the Gulf station in Fancy Gap and turned right onto Highway 608.
It had been years since he had been hiking at Devil’s Den with his grandson. He remembered how steep the trail was that snaked down through the woods to the cave. It was at least a ten-minute hike, and he wasn’t exactly dressed for a hike in his Sunday best.
Two of his deputies were already in the parking lot when he arrived. He turned to see Levi already in the parking lot. One of the deputies approached his car.
“Sheriff, the hikers who found the body are sitting over there on the bench.”
Levi joined the sheriff as he turned and walked toward the young man and woman sitting side by side.
“I’m Sheriff Pierce. Can you tell us what happened here this morning?”
“Well, sheriff, we both live in Galax, and we left the house early this morning to get this hike in before if got too hot outside. Ours was the only car in the parking lot when we arrived. We noticed the turkey buzzards circling above when we got here but just didn’t think anything bout that. We took our time hiking down as it is just so beautiful with the flowers and all. Once we got to the cave entrance, we both saw the boy’s body at the same time. Scared us real good! We tried to call nine-one-one right away, but our phones didn’t work down there so we ran back up the trail to the parking lot.”
“What time was that?” Levi asked.
“ We were at the cave at eight-thirty. I know cause I saw the time on my phone when it wouldn’t work.”
“Was anyone else on the trail at all this morning?” Levi asked.
“No, sir, there wasn’t anyone at all.”
“Did you notice anything at all that might have seemed unusual?” the sheriff asked
“No, sir, we’ve been asking ourselves that, but no, nothing on the trail at all.”
“Sit here a bit longer, please. A deputy will get all your contact information, and the crime scene folks will need to talk to you.”
“Oh, sheriff, there is one terrible thing we noticed.”
“What was that, son?” the sheriff asked.
“ We could see—well, this is awful—his penis was missing.”
“Oh, shit!” Levi exclaimed.
The sheriff and Levi looked at each other in horror and disgust. They thanked the hikers and turned to see Jim Craig arrive in the parking lot. He jumped out of his unmarked cruiser and ran over to them. He was also attired in his Sunday best. Only Levi had on jeans and a polo shirt since church never figured into his Sunday schedule.
“What have we got, sheriff ?” Craig asked as he approached.
“What we got is bad shit, Jimbo,” Levi shot back. “Couple of hikers found the boy dead as a doornail, tied up to the iron grate at the entrance to the goddamned cave down there. And they said the boy got his pecker chopped off.”
“What is this place?” Craig asked.
“It’s the Devil’s Den, and the Devil himself has come home to roost, that son of a bitch!” Levi seethed.
“When will the crime scene folks be here, Jim?” the sheriff asked.
“Well, sheriff, most of them were in church. I think it’ll be a bit before they get here. I told them to hurry.”
“OK, let’s wait here until they arrive. I don’t want a darned thing screwed up from this parking lot all the way down the trail to the cave. I just hope and pray that the sick son of a bitch screwed up and made a mistake along the way,” Sheriff Pierce said, looking off into the woods with a look of utter frustration on his face.
“You going to call the parents, sheriff ?” Craig asked.
“Not right now, Jim. While I’m almost one hundred percent positive that this is the boy we’re looking for, we’d better be danged sure before any calls are made.”
Both Levi and Craig nodded in agreement.
“Got any news from Surry County on Wilton whatever-his-name-is? Somebody must know where that freak is,” the sheriff asked.
“Sheriff, we have his description out there, as well as information on his car and where he might be going. His mother seems to think he may be headed to Beckley, West Virginia. She claims he knows some nasty characters there who are pedophiles. We’ve alerted the authorities in Beckley. No hits yet.”
“Levi, what about our one-armed Carroll County freak. Isn’t he supposed to be friends with this Wilton?” the sheriff asked.
“We had someone on his house for two days. Not a damned thing. He pokes his head out every now and then, but no one’s come by.”
Levi could tell the sheriff was agitated. He was anxious and the crime scene team hadn’t arrived yet.
“Oh, shit” Levi said as a car approached the parking lot entrance. It was Scott Cohen from the Carroll County News. The deputy posted there had stopped him from entering the lot. The sheriff waved to the deputy to let Cohen pass. Cohen drove over to the sheriff’s car and parked.