Sandrift: A Lin Hanna Mystery (32 page)

Lin carefully
placed her butt on the shelf and slid back into it as if it were a bench
seat.
 
It creaked, but the chains
held.
 
She turned to one side and
reached for the window ledge.
 
It
was too narrow to grasp, but she was able to press one hand against the glass
to steady herself.
 
Slowly she
pushed herself back as far as she dared.
 
Now her butt was only half on the desk, the chain pressing sharply into
her back.
 
She thought she felt it
give a little, but still it held.
 
She managed to draw her knees up enough to get her heels on the
shelf.
  
She knew she had to
stand, and that might mean the end of her perch, but it was clearly her only
choice.
  
Bracing one hand
against the window and pushing against the wall with the other, she managed to
stand on tottery feet.
 
So far the
desk had held.
 

Lin couldn’t
see what she was doing; her face and body were pressed against the wall.
 
With fumbling fingers she managed to
release the lock on the window and slide it open.
 
Immediately she felt a rush of wind and
salt spray.
 
Actually it felt
good.
 
She was hot and sweaty from
her ordeal, but she quickly realized she would get cold once outside.
 
Was she going to land on a deck or hit
the water?
 
She couldn’t see from
her vantage point.

Here goes, she
thought.
 
I’ll soon have my
answer.
 
She shifted so that she
could grasp the window ledge with both hands and maneuvered her upper body so
that it was positioned as close to the opening as possible.
 
Gathering her remaining strength she
shoved off from the desk, realizing that it collapsed as she did so, the chains
pulling loose from the wall.
 
She
pressed hard against the ledge and shoved her shoulders through the
opening.
 
It was barely wide enough,
but she managed.
 
Now she could look
down and see that there was a narrow walkway below her.
 
If she didn’t flip out too far she could
land there, otherwise it was over the rail into the water.
 
This boat had to be moored to a dock
somewhere, but she was facing the sound.
 
If she managed to land on the walkway she could make her way to the
other side where the dock had to be; otherwise, if she hit the water, she’d
have to swim around and she wasn’t at all sure she had that much strength
left.
 
Once again she had to face
the obvious fact that her options were quite limited.

Lin realized
that she had to move soon.
 
The
narrow window ledge was cutting into her palms and her toes were cramping from
pressing against the cabin wall to maintain her balance.
 
Taking a deep breath she gritted her
teeth against the pain in her hands and pushed down hard hoisting herself
through the window far enough to roll forward.
 
Letting go of the ledge she dropped from
the window praying she’d land on the decking below.
 
She landed full force as if doing a
belly flop, but she’d made it to the narrow walkway.

***

Neal pulled his
hood tighter around his head and headed for the café.
 
Just as he’d thought, no one there
recalled seeing Lin the day before.
 
He was out of there in less than ten minutes, heading down the street
toward the Simon Gallery.
 
It was
almost one-thirty.
 
Lin had now been
missing for almost twenty-four hours.
 
Neal thought about all the things he’d read and heard about missing
persons.
 
If they weren’t found in
the first twenty-four hours…He felt as if he couldn’t breathe and his eyes
began to well.
 
I can’t give up, he
told himself.
 
I can’t quit
now.
 

He arrived at
the gallery before Tom did and decided to go on in to get out of the rain.
 
In spite of the weather, the gallery had
a decent number of customers.
 
Apparently holiday shoppers weren’t easily discouraged from their
task.
 
Neal shed his slicker in the
entryway to avoid dripping water all over the floor and placed it on a rack
with some others.

He looked
around for Mark Simon, but he didn’t see him.
 
A tired-looking gray haired lady was
helping some customers with pottery, and a younger woman was manning the
jewelry counter where a young couple was looking at rings.
 
Neal turned away; the sight reminded him
of shopping for Lin’s ring less than two weeks ago.
 
In fact, today was the one-week
anniversary of their engagement. He struggled to control his emotions.
 
He couldn’t break down now.
 
This was his last, best chance to get
more information. Hopefully, Lin had talked to one of these folks.
 
The older clerk was ringing up her sale
so Neal approached the counter and waited patiently for her to finish.
 
When her customers left, he stepped
forward.

“May I help
you,” the woman replied, “are you looking for something special?”

“Actually, I’m
looking for someone special,” Neal said. “I believe my fiancé was here
yesterday.” He pulled the photo from his pocket and placed it before her. “She
picked up a ring that had been sent out to be sized earlier in the week.” He
swallowed hard. “She didn’t come home last night and the Sheriff is trying to
find her.
 
I’d like to speak with
Mr. Simon, if he’s in, or perhaps you might’ve talked to her?”

“I do remember
her,” the clerk said. “I helped her when she dropped the ring off and talked to
her yesterday, as well.
 
Mr. Simon
isn’t in today, his wife is ill, but then he wasn’t here yesterday either,” her
voice reflected a sense of imposition from being left without enough help. “I’m
the one she talked to. She was here about two o’clock I’d say; I gave her
directions to Mr. Simon’s home.
 
He
had picked up the ring, but hadn’t had a chance to bring it in because of his
wife.
 
She’s not been doing well
lately.
 
He’s been out a lot,” she
complained, “and today we’re short another employee as well.
 
The guy who handles all of our shipping,
packing, and unpacking called in sick this morning.”

An almost
electric tingle ran up Neal’s spine.
 
He couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.
 
Mark Simon was lying about seeing Lin in
the store.
 
Without another word, he
raced for the door, grabbing his slicker as he went out.
 
He almost knocked Tom over when he
pushed the door open.

“Call Sheriff
Midgett right now, we’ve got a break here.” He almost shouted at Tom.
 
The older man began dialing immediately,
passing his phone to Mark when he made a connection.

 
“Get me Sheriff Midgett right away,” Neal
realized he was almost shouting into the phone and tried to calm himself.

“He’s not in
the office at the moment, may I have him call you when he comes in,” the desk
officer was at her professional best.

“This is Neal
Smith, it is imperative that I reach him right away.
 
It’s about the missing woman, Lin
Hanna.” Neal was insistent.
 
The
officer gave him Midgett’s cell phone number and told him he was still in town
checking on the search himself.

When Neal
finally reached the Sheriff, he told him what they’d learned. “Whatever, Mark Simon
told you isn’t true.
 
He wasn’t even
at work yesterday.
 
The clerk sent
Lin to his house to pick up her ring.
 
That was about two o’clock according to her.
 
Lin was at the coffee shop until almost
three so she must’ve gone to the house after she left there.
 
Regardless of the time, Simon never saw
her at his gallery.”

Pete Midgett
was silent for a few moments.
 
When
he finally spoke his tone was serious. “I’m heading back to my office right
now.
 
I’ll swing by and pick you
guys up.
 
Meet me down at the corner
where we found her car.
 
It’s marked
on your map.
 
I should be there in
less than five minutes.”

Neal tried to
remain calm as he and Tom walked back down the street, but it was hard.
 
It was almost two-thirty.
 
The twenty-four hour mark since Lin went
missing was almost here.
 
While he
realized that this was mostly symbolic, it had significance for him.
 
Even now, with more definitive
information, he was afraid.
 
Tom
seemed to sense his fear.
 
He put
his hand on Neal’s shoulder, “We’re finally making progress,” he said. “Don’t
give up now.
 
You need to stay
strong for Lin.
 
When we find her
she’ll need your support.”

His confident
tone had a positive effect on Neal.
 
He turned to Tom with a thankful smile. “I’m not going to give up.
 
Now that we have more information, I
think she’ll be found soon.”
 
He was
being truthful about not giving up, but deep inside he wasn’t sure what
condition she might be in when she was found.
 
It took a lot of effort to keep his
worst fears at bay.

The clock in
Pete Midgett’s office indicated it was just past three when they arrived and
settled into the comfortable chairs, glad for being inside and away from the continuing
rain and wind.
 
The circles under
the Sheriff’s eyes had grown darker, but he seemed surprisingly energetic given
the time he’d been on the job.
 
As
if to explain himself he said, “I had the chance to shower and change after
lunch.
 
At least I feel clean, if
not rested.”

Neal nodded in
agreement.
 
He was feeling pretty
grungy himself, and Tom looked very tired at this point.
 
“We covered the entire town, but the
only places we found she’d been were the coffee shop and the gallery.
 
Now it looks like she went to the Simon
home…Look Sheriff, she’s been missing twenty-four hours now, and I’m really
afraid something bad has happened to her.
 
We need to find her soon.”

The Sheriff
picked up the phone on his desk.
 
This time he got an outside line and dialed a number himself.
 
They could hear the line ringing, but no
one answered.

“No one answers
at the Simon residence, and you said he wasn’t at work today?” Midgett started
to put the phone back in its cradle but thought better of it.
 
Instead he rang the front desk. “Get
Judge Jenkins on the phone for me.
 
I know its Saturday, but tell him its important.”
 
He turned to Neal, “We need to pay a
visit to the Simon house, probably need to search the place.
 
If no one’s at home to ask for
permission, we have to have a warrant to do that.
 
It being Saturday that may take
awhile.
 
Why don’t you folks go
home, we can take care of
this.
 
You won’t be authorized to enter the
house anyway.
 
Might as well try to
get some rest.
 
I’ll call as soon as
we know…”

“Not on your
life,” Neal grabbed the edge of the desk. “Tom can go home, but I’m not going
anywhere until we find her, one way or the other.”
 
He couldn’t bring himself to say “dead
or alive.”

“I’m going to
stay with you,” Tom insisted.
 
“You
shouldn’t be alone.
 
I would like to
go get my car though,” he turned to the Sheriff, “if someone’s heading over
that way.
 
It’s still at the
restaurant where I parked this morning.”

Pete Midgett
arranged for a patrol officer to drop Tom off at his car.
 
Neal rode with him, and now they had to
decide where they were going to wait until they heard from the Sheriff about
the search.
 
It was growing late in
the afternoon; soon it would be dark.
 
The rain was showing signs of ending; the showers seemed lighter and not
so frequent.
 
“The coffee shop will
be closing soon so that’s not a good choice,” Neal really didn’t know anywhere
else, “I guess we could always sit in the reception area at the Sheriff’s
office…”

“I know
somewhere more comfortable than that,” Tom offered.
 
He headed back downtown.
 
Parking was a bit harder to find.
 
It was Saturday, and even with bad
weather, folks wanted to get out.
 
Tom found a place a half block from the waterfront area.
 
“Why don’t we go to the Full Moon,” he
suggested. “Neal remembered the small café where he’d inquired about Lin
earlier and where the two of them had lunch shortly after his arrival.

“This is a
pretty nice little brewery,” Tom smiled, “and I, for one, could use a beer.”

Neal couldn’t
disagree, it had been an impossibly long and miserable day, and it was far from
over.
 
A beer certainly couldn’t
hurt.

***

Lin lay still
on the walkway for a few minutes, waiting to catch her breath.
 
It was still raining, and she quickly
became drenched.
 
The cold wind bit
into her and she began to shiver.
 
Wet to the skin with no coat or shoes she realized was a recipe for
hypothermia.
 
She had to get up and
get going.
 
She needed to figure out
where she was and how she was going to get back to town.

Gradually, she
got to her feet.
 
In spite of being
wet and cold, she realized that her only injuries were a couple of scrapes and
bruises.
 
She could only see water
from this side of the boat; she carefully made her way along the side toward
what she thought was the prow.
 
The
dark clouds made it hard to judge the time of day, but the sky seemed somewhat
lighter toward the west. It was probably late afternoon, whatever day it
was.
 
Probably Saturday, Lin
thought.
 
The rain and wind are
supposed to let up by sometime on Sunday, and they show no signs of that now.

When she
reached the prow she looked up and realized where she was.
 
Looming above her across Millicent’s
garden was the Simon home.
 
This was
their boat, and it was still moored at their dock.
 
There were no lights in the house and no
one was visible.
 
Afraid she might
be seen, she dropped back down and lay flat on the deck.
 
There were no lights on the pier; that
was good, but she determined that she shouldn’t stand up and definitely
shouldn’t try to cross the yard.
 

Carefully she
made her way to the dockside of the cabin cruiser.
 
She found a shadowy corner to sit in
while she surveyed the scene before her and planned the best way out.
 
She decided to make her way to the
marshy fringe that bordered the yard and try to make it to a wooded area just
beyond the house.
 
There she could
gain cover and try to reach the road.
 
Originally, her car had been parked out front, but it had probably been
moved by now, besides she had no keys.
 
All her belongings, except for the clothes she had on, were missing.

She crept from
her hiding place and crawled over to the gangplank. She’d be exposed as she
left the boat and made her way to the dock, but she still saw no evidence of
anyone on the side of the house facing her. She decided speed was her best
bet.
 
She stood up, ran across the
gangplank, and raced up the dock dropping quickly down into the marshy
fringe.
 
She hunkered down behind a
clump of marsh grass and took a moment to check her surroundings.
 
Seeing no one, she made her way to the
very edge of the lawn and decided to run for the shelter of a large live oak
tree at the edge of the woods that separated the Simon home from its nearest
neighbor.
 
She’d barely made it to
the shelter of the tree when the yard behind her blazed with light.
 
Someone had turned on the floodlights
that illuminated the yard and the back of the house.

Lin held her
breath, afraid to look, listening for the sound of someone coming—but
nothing happened.
 
Evidently, the
lights had been turned on simply because it was growing darker.
 
Perhaps they were on a timer and turned
on each evening as dusk approached.
 
Relieved, Lin allowed herself to slide down behind the trunk of the
great tree.
 
Leaning into the shadow
it provided, she took a moment to rest and collect her thoughts.
 
It was still raining, but the tree
provided some shelter from the wind.

She judged that
she couldn’t be more than a hundred yards from the street, but she didn’t want
to emerge into the open until she was well past the Simon house so she decided
to walk through the wooded area.
 
She quickly realized how difficult this was going to be with no
shoes.
 
The forest floor was covered
with sticks, rocks, and all manner of prickly things.

 
My feet are going to be in rough shape
when I get out of here she told herself, but she trudged on, seeking better
footing when it was available.
 
It
was slow going, but she had to continue.
 
Lin realized that her feet were bleeding, as were the scrapes on the
palms of her hands.
 
Small price to
pay for your life, she told herself.
 
Fortunately, she didn’t seem to have any more serious injuries.

 
Eventually she saw another house and
yard ahead. She saw no signs of life at the house, but the grassy lawn would,
at least, give her feet a break.
 
Her pace quickened as she crossed this yard and the next one.
 
She was now well away from the Simon
house, and she could see someone moving about through the windows at this
place.

Her original plan
had been to return to the road, once past the Simon house, and walk back toward
the village center, but Lin now realized she didn’t have the strength to walk
all the way back.
 
She was wet to
the skin and shivering from the cold, plus her feet were killing her.
 
She made her way to the back door of
this dwelling.
 
A wreath of native
holly graced the door reminding Lin that this was the holiday season; in spite
of all, she was going to be around to enjoy it.
 
I’ll probably scare these folks to death
she thought; I must look a fright. She knocked on the door.

A pleasant
young woman with a baby on her hip came to the door.
  
She appeared shocked when she saw
Lin standing there dripping wet with
bare
, bleeding
feet.
 

“Dave,” she
called over her shoulder, “Come here, someone needs help.” She motioned for Lin
to come in and directed her to a kitchen chair. “What happened? Who are you?”

“My name is Lin
Hanna and I need for you to call the Sheriff’s office right away.”
 
Realizing that she could finally feel safe,
Lin burst into tears.

***

Neal wasn’t
hungry, but Tom insisted that they needed to eat something so they chose
appetizers to accompany the rich dark brew that was the house specialty.

“You know,”
Tom
said, “ I have a gut feeling that we’re going to find
Lin soon; I’m not sure why I feel that way but I just do.”

Neal thought
Tom was just trying to keep his spirits up, but he wanted him to be right. “I
just hope when we find her she’s not…” the ringing of his cell phone
interrupted him. It was Pete Midgett.

“I’ve got good
news, we’ve found her.
 
We just got
a call from a homeowner who lives about a half-mile down from the Simon
house.
 
She just walked up on their
back porch.”

A wave of
relief swept through Neal, “How is she?”

“Sounds like
she’s basically in pretty good shape—mostly some scrapes and bruises—but
the lady said she’d obviously been through an ordeal.
 
She’s upset and hasn’t said much.
 
I just got my warrant for the Simon
place so I’m heading over there now.”
 
The Sheriff gave Neal directions to the neighborhood and the address
where Lin was waiting. “I’ll meet you there before I go down to the Simon
house.”

Tom had already
gotten up to pay their bill as soon as he realized that the Sheriff was the
caller.
 
Together they hurried to
his car and were on their way.

It was easy for
them to spot the right house as soon as they turned onto the street; the
Sheriff’s car was already parked out front.
 
Neal was out of the car before Tom could
cut the engine, racing up to the front door.

A young man
greeted him, “ Come in, I’m Dave Bryan.
 
She’s in our kitchen with my wife, Susan; let me show you the way.”

Neal hurried to
the kitchen, fully expecting Lin to be waiting expectantly to greet him.
 
Instead he saw her sitting hunched up
quietly at the kitchen table, an afghan wrapped around her shoulders.
 
She looked up, saw Neal and Tom enter,
and began to cry again.

“She’s not
talked much since she arrived here,” Dave said.
 
“She was very cold and wet so Susan got
her the wrap and some slippers; she was barefooted when she arrived. Her feet
are pretty well scratched up, looks like she walked through the woods to get
here.”

Neal knelt down
beside Lin’s chair and put his arms around her. “You’re OK now.
 
It’s going to be OK.
 
You’re safe.”

Lin managed a
smile through her tears and attempted to stand.
 
Neal helped her up and drew her close to
him, rocking her gently.

Pete Midgett
seemed to realize that Lin was in no condition to answer a lot of questions,
but he needed some guidance to execute his search warrant.
 
“Ms. Hanna, we can talk about all of
this in more detail later, but I need to know where you’ve been since yesterday,
and the names of those involved in all this, if you know them.”

Lin nodded and
returned to her chair.
 
This time
she was sitting up straight and there were no tears. “I’ve been in a boat
that’s tied up at the pier behind the Simon house.
 
I was taped up, but I managed to get
free.
 
I climbed out a window; then
I came here, through the woods.
 
The
only person I saw on the boat was Mike Clark.
 
He
said
…” she
couldn’t go on.