Hidden in the Everglades

Pain glazed his eyes. “Yeah, but what if the second person Gabe found the prints of followed her here and waited until she left again?”

“With all the police around here? Probably not.” At least she prayed he hadn’t. Kyra grabbed her damp tennis shoes and put them on.

Frowning, Michael yanked open the back door and strode through the entrance and continued toward the foyer. When he stepped outside onto the porch, he peered toward the Pattersons’ house. A red, beat-up truck was parked behind a police cruiser in the driveway. “Where’s Gabe? Harvey?”

The need to let him know he wasn’t alone inundated her. This was someone she’d grown up with, and she’d been at his house playing with his older sister. “It looks like Gabe has already started tracking Amy’s movements.”

Michael turned to the left in the direction Kyra indicated. Gabe ambled across the next-door neighbor’s yard, slightly behind a large man with a barrel chest and a bloodhound in the lead. “I’m not ready for this.” His voice caught on the last word as his fingers grasped the railing.

Kyra clasped his arm, wishing she’d been able to prevent Amy from running away this morning at the Pattersons’. But if Amy had stopped, the killer would have shot her in the back. “Remember I’m here for you. We’ll find her, and I’ll make sure she’s safe.”

He pried loose his grip from the railing and peered toward her. “I appreciate your help. I’ve never had something like this happen to me.”

She was all too familiar with a person agonizing over the disappearance of a loved one. “Most people thankfully don’t.”

“Flamingo Cay is a small town. Things like this don’t happen here. I know that Gabe has been the police chief for twenty-three years, but is he capable of handling these multiple murders?”

“I know for a fact he can. When I was thirteen, there had been a family murdered here not far outside of town. He wasn’t the police chief yet, but he’s the one who solved the case and brought the man in. A fine piece of detective work. He and Dad were friends. He used to come over, and I would overhear the details about the case. Of course, they didn’t know I was listening. But that’s when I started wanting to be a police officer.”

“That must have been right before we moved to Flamingo Cay.”

“Yeah, if I remember correctly you all moved in a couple of months after that case was solved.”

“Still, I’m glad you’re helping him with the case. Ginny told me about some of the murders you worked on in Dallas.”

The idea he and Ginny had talked about her warmed her face. Yes, she’d talked about Michael with Ginny, but she had also discussed Amy. A friend curious about a friend’s family.

He shoved away from the railing and descended the steps. “I wonder if he’s checked the swamp area behind the Pattersons’ place.”

“He probably will after he finds Amy’s trail. I didn’t see anything while I was in the swamp that would point to who the killer is, but then I was ducking bullets.”

Michael clamped his jaw tightly, his neck stiff. “You make it sound like it was no big deal.”

“It is a big deal, but I refuse to let it get to me or I’ll hesitate when I shouldn’t.” She descended the front steps. “You said Amy loves the swamp. Any particular place she liked to go?”

“She had a kayak she kept sometimes at the old pier at the end of the trail, but usually at the public dock off Main. She asked me about a few places, but I never heard about one area she spent all her time. She gave me some story that she needed to help preserve places like the Everglades and that she liked moving around.”

“Why don’t you think she meant it?”

“There was something in her tone. A certain look on her face. She kept her gaze averted. Just a feeling.” He headed across the yard toward Gabe and Harvey.

The police chief came to a halt at the curb in front of Michael’s house and removed a toothpick from his mouth. “We followed a trail across several neighbors’ yards until it reached the middle of Bay Shore Drive and suddenly ended like someone had picked her up in a car. I’ve called Nichols and Connors to check with friends and to begin a search of the town. What was she doing yesterday? Who was she with?”

“Amy loves spending time in the marshes.”

“So she spent most of yesterday in the swamp?” Gabe rolled the toothpick between his thumb and forefinger as he started toward the Pattersons’ house. “Alone?”

“She never mentioned anyone, but I think Laurie sometimes went with her.” Michael pointed toward the thick cluster of trees edging the undergrowth.

As they came closer to the border of the swamp, Harvey quickened his pace, following behind his bloodhound. They entered where the killer had when Kyra went after him, not on the well-worn path ten yards away.

“Let’s see where Boomer takes us. Since it’s summer there’s a lot of water.” Gabe peered at Kyra’s tennis shoes. “You might want to wear something else.”

“I don’t have anything else. And as you can see, I’ve been in mud up to my ankles. Don’t worry about me.”

Harvey directed Boomer into the underbrush with Gabe trailing next, then Kyra and Michael. With nose to the ground, the bloodhound took off, charging through the vegetation in the same direction Kyra had gone only hours ago after the assailant.

They emerged from the undergrowth onto the path, and Michael fell in right behind her. “When I was a child, I use to come here like Amy. Loved the adventure. That’s why I really couldn’t say much to Amy about coming here alone. But I’ve been back for four months and have only gone into the swamp a few times.”

“Things change when we grow up. I can’t say I liked exploring the swamp when I was a child.”

One corner of his mouth tilted up. “And now all of a sudden you do?”

The rotting smell of vegetation coupled with the incessant noise of insects brought back childhood memories. “Maybe I should amend my earlier statement. Some things change. That isn’t one of them. I prefer pursuing an adventure somewhere else. At the moment somewhere air-conditioned.” Beads of perspiration rolled down Kyra’s face, blurring her vision for a second until she blinked to clear it.

Michael swiped a hand across his damp forehead. “I haven’t gotten used to the humidity yet either, and it’s been four months.”

When Boomer approached the short pier, the dog lumbered over the wooden planks, some broken and missing, going back and forth from one side to the other until he reached the end. The bloodhound stopped and sat, looking up at Harvey as if to say this was as far as he would go.

“Good boy.” Harvey scratched behind Boomer’s ears.

Michael went to the edge and leaned over. “Amy’s kayak isn’t here so she must have it at the town dock.”

“One- or two-man?” With her hand shielding her eyes, Kyra scanned the open waterway that stretched across a few hundred yards to more tangled vegetation, one mangrove island after another. Where did the killer go? Who was the second man? Why had the man killed Preston and Tyler?

“Two, like my kayak I keep there.”

“I’ll have Wilson check to see if her kayak is at the dock. Someone could have given her a ride there. If it’s gone, then we’ll need to search the swamp for Amy.” Gabe dropped the chewed-up toothpick into the top pocket of his shirt.

Harvey took off his beat-up straw hat and mopped his face with a handkerchief, then stuffed it back into his jeans. “I’ll have Boomer check around the pier and see if he can come up with anything else.” Harvey plopped his hat back on his head and indicated to Boomer to get up. “Then we’ll head back along the path.”

“So this was a waste of time.” What had Amy gotten caught up in? Michael went back over the past few days in his head, trying to remember anything she might have said to him to help them find her. He’d been gone a lot because his partner had been on vacation. Thankfully his partner had got back yesterday evening and could fill in for Michael this morning at the clinic. But that consolation didn’t give him the answers he needed.

“No, not totally. We know wherever Amy went she used a car most likely. Yeah, it would have been nice to have Boomer lead us to her.” Gabe waved his hand toward Harvey and his dog beginning their trip back to Pelican Lane. “I’m heading to the station. We need to expand our search of the town and see if Amy’s kayak is at the public pier.”

Michael stared at the canal gently flowing past the old pier. The water’s smooth surface—like a mirror—reflected the nearby trees in it. A breeze blew the scent of overripe, damp vegetation to his nostrils. Every shade of green from a light yellowish tint to a dark vibrant one met his inspection of the terrain.

Amy, where are you? Are you safe? In the past he would have prayed to the Lord, but for months he’d been silent. He pivoted to go back and nearly collided with Kyra behind him.

His hand shot out to steady her. Automatically he brought her closer, her feminine scent driving the aromas of the swamp into the background and totally centering his focus on the beautiful woman with her auburn hair pulled back from her face. That only emphasized her large eyes, a golden-brown like dark honey. “I’m sorry.”

She chuckled. “The last place I’d want to end up is in that water.” Her gaze shifted to a hole in the plank at the canal below. “I wasn’t like you and Amy. I didn’t go exploring much. Put me in the rough section of a town at night, and I’d feel more comfortable.”

A shiver flowed from her, through his hands and up his arms, making him acutely aware that his teenage fantasy girl was standing before him. His attention latched on to her mouth, so close that his long-ago dreams of kissing Kyra overwhelmed him. Throwing him completely off guard. He stepped back, the heel of one foot coming down a couple of inches over the end of the pier.

He teetered a few seconds. She reached out to catch him before he went into the water. He managed to regain his balance and sidled away before he made a total fool of himself. He’d been serious about Sarah in Chicago. They had planned to marry until a man fell asleep at the wheel of his car and had hit them. Despite his injuries, Michael had tried to save Sarah, but all his medical knowledge hadn’t kept her from slipping away from him only minutes after he’d manage to get to her in the wrecked car. The pain in her eyes, the last shuddering breath she’d taken still tormented him.

“Good recovery.” Her beautiful mouth formed a heart-melting smile that touched a coldness he’d been encased in for over a year.

“Let’s leave before we both end up in the water.” He allowed her to go first toward the path that led through the grove of trees. “I remember when this pier was in good shape and used by a lot of the neighbors on Pelican Lane. But a couple of hurricanes have taken their toll on it. I think Amy is one of the few who still use it from time to time.”

“Has much else changed about the town?”

“Its population has grown to three thousand. Other than that, no.” But then he hadn’t really paid a lot of attention. He’d thrown himself into his new job, relieved that the pace was a bit slower than a Chicago hospital but enough that he didn’t dwell on his past. He’d needed that. Or so he thought. Maybe his emotional distancing had brought all this on. The pace might have been slower, but it hadn’t stopped him from working long hours rather than face his feelings head-on.

Harvey, Gabe and Boomer stood off the trail near the edge of it.

Kyra approached them. “What did the dog find?”

“Several cigarette butts.” Gabe took out an evidence bag, stooped and eased the filter ends into the small manila envelope. “May be nothing. May be important.”

Standing, he studied the ground around him a long moment, then ambled behind Boomer and Harvey. The bloodhound went to the side deck.

“That’s probably the way the assailant went into the house,” Kyra said while the trio made their way to Gabe’s patrol car.

“By the time DNA testing comes back on the cigarette butts, Amy could be dead.”

“It can take a while even with a rush on it, but it could help make a case against the guy when he is found.”

“That might be too late for my sister.” When Michael emerged from the undergrowth onto the road near the Pattersons’ house, he saw Gabe on his cell. Harvey was pulling away in his old pickup truck with Boomer in the back, looking at Michael.

“Officer Connors just called to tell me he’s checked all Amy’s usual haunts and found nothing. No one has seen her.”

“How about Laurie?” Kyra asked, looking down at her muddy tennis shoes for the second time that day.

“Connors said no one answered when he called her house about an hour ago. He even drove by and didn’t see Mrs. Carson’s white Chevy out front. Since she works evenings, he thought she might be there and was sleeping or something.”

“If anyone knows where Amy is it would be Laurie. Where one goes the other usually isn’t far behind.” Michael stuffed his hands into his front jean pockets, his shoulders slumping forward. He needed to do something. He couldn’t sit around and just wait. He’d never been good at doing that. He looked for solutions to problems and carried them out—or at least he had until he hit an emotional wall with Sarah’s death. “What can I do to help?”

“Gabe, maybe Michael and I could go to Laurie’s and see if she or her mother are home yet. That way you can use all your men for the search.”

“Fine. As I told you before, I can use any help I can get. Call if you find out anything.” Gabe opened his car door and climbed inside.

“I will.” The sun’s rays tinted Kyra’s cheeks a rosy color.

“You said something about expanding the search. Are you going to search the swamp?” Michael glimpsed a patrol car coming down the street.

“I haven’t heard back from Wilson yet. If Amy’s kayak is gone at the Main Street dock, yes. If not, we should concentrate on the town and the surrounding area. Since someone most likely picked her up in a car, that’s probably how she’s traveling.”

“Laurie has a car. Amy’s Camry is still in the garage.” He prayed it was Laurie who had come and picked Amy up. The alternative could mean his sister was dead like the two young men.

“If Laurie isn’t there, at least check with Mrs. Carson to see if her car is gone.” Gabe kneaded the cords of his neck. “Or look into the garage. If I remember correctly, there’s a window that allows you to see inside. But you didn’t hear that from me.”

Kyra chuckled. “I never heard a word.”

Michael kept thinking about the swamp, the lure of the slow-moving water. “What if she didn’t use her kayak but someone else’s?”

“We’ll explore the swamp even if her kayak is at the dock, but that kind of search requires a lot of manpower and coordination. I couldn’t get it together before dark. If nothing turns up, we’ll start tomorrow morning. I’ll put the call in to the sheriff’s department about the possibility. Maybe they can spare a few people to help.”

“Fine,” Michael said between gritted teeth.

Gabe ambled over to Nichols, who had parked and was getting out of his car. The police chief spoke to his officer, then the young man got back in the cruiser and left. Gabe took his cell out and made a call.

Michael pulled out his car keys. “I’ll drive.”

“Maybe I should wash my shoes again or change.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll clean the car after this is all over with.” He pointed down at his boots. “I feel like the clock is ticking on this.”

“Fine, I understand.” Kyra slipped into his car as he did. “Is it just Laurie and her mother?”

“Yes, Laurie lives with only her mother. If Laurie is anything like Amy in the summer, she’s sleeping in. Usually Amy isn’t up until ten or eleven.” He started the Saturn’s engine. Before backing out, he twisted toward Kyra. “Should I call Laurie first? See if she’s there. It could be a wasted trip, like Officer Connors’s.”

“No. If she’s home, I’d like to see her reaction when she finds out about Amy going missing. I might be able to tell if she knows anything and isn’t saying.”

FOUR

“Let’s just hope we find Laurie at home and she can lead us to Amy.” Slowly over the course of the past few hours, the muscles in Kyra’s shoulders and neck had knotted until now pain streaked down her back. She didn’t have a good feeling about this but didn’t want to worry Michael any more than he already was. “Tell me about Amy. The last time I saw her she was a little girl. When my dad died and I came home for the funeral, she’d been at church camp.”

“I don’t think she has stepped foot in a church in the past year, which distressed Ginny to no end.”

“But not you?”

His hands about the steering wheel tightened, his knuckles white. “Let’s just say I have my own issues with the Lord.” He inhaled a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “In a few weeks she’ll start her senior year at Flamingo High School.”

“How are her grades this past year?”

“Good. Mostly Bs with a few As.”

“So, no problems at school?”

“Ginny told me there were a couple of girls harassing her at the beginning of her junior year, but by the time I’d arrived here in April, everything seemed to be taken care of.”

“How about her friends? Do you approve of them?”

“That’s been the main problem. Preston’s reputation isn’t—wasn’t good. He was wild, always partying. He graduated this year and has been picking up odds jobs this summer. He lived with his older brother—actually not far from where Laurie’s house is.”

“Has Preston lived here all his life?”

“No, he moved here from Miami at the beginning of the school year. I was trying to give Amy room to see what kind of person he was. I remember when Mom told Ginny she couldn’t date that guy in high school.”

So did Kyra. She’d helped Ginny sneak out of the house to go out with Danny. Ginny had been determined to date him in spite of what her mother had said. She was seventeen and should be able to pick her own boyfriends. “You knew about her seeing Danny?”

“Yeah. I saw her one night climbing back into the house.”

“And you didn’t say anything to your parents?”

“I’d grown out of my tattle-telling stage. I didn’t want Amy to sneak out against my wishes and look what has happened.” He turned onto Sunshine Avenue. “Preston’s is the third house on the left. Laurie lives several down from there.”

As they passed Preston’s home and the police cruiser parked out front, Kyra studied the plain, white place with a yard that was mostly dirt and dead plants. One eight-foot crepe myrtle with dark pink blooms draped all over it stood sentinel at the side by the driveway, the only color in an otherwise drab setting. A Harley Davidson motorcycle sat close to the sidewalk near the porch.

As Michael came to a stop at the end of the block, he closed his eyes for a few seconds, his hands opening and closing around the steering wheel. “The past few months haven’t been easy for me or Amy. Getting to know each other. Learning to live together. She hasn’t wanted to accept my authority as her guardian. I had no experience at parenting when I arrived. I feel I have even less now. Amy has blocked my attempts every step of the way.”

“That can be typical. Challenging authority isn’t uncommon. According to Ginny, you did your fair share as a teenager. I seem to remember you going with some friends to Tampa against your mother’s wishes.”

“Yeah, I was grounded for a month when she found out.” Climbing from his car, he peered at her over the top of the gray Saturn. “It’s disconcerting to have someone know all about my childhood pranks.”

“Just wanting to get you to remember how it was.” Although Michael had his share of childhood antics, he’d become a doctor who’d changed his plans to help Ginny when she was given an opportunity to fulfill a lifetime dream of serving as a missionary overseas for two years. So far she liked what she’d seen of Ginny’s kid brother.

“So when I find Amy, I won’t ground her for the rest of her life?”

Kyra laughed. “Something like that.”

When Michael reached the porch, he rang the doorbell while Kyra assessed the surroundings. Laurie’s house needed a coat of blue paint, but otherwise the place was kept up, the lawn mowed and the weeds pulled. Several minutes passed, and Michael pressed the bell again.

A white Chevy parked in the driveway made Kyra suspicious. The hairs on her nape prickled. She swiveled her attention toward the front picture window and glimpsed a curtain fall back into place.

“I guess no one’s home.” Michael swung around and frowned at the white car. “That’s Cherie Carson’s car,” he said in a low voice. “So where is she? At a neighbor’s?”

Kyra opened the screen and banged on the door. “Someone is home.”

Thirty seconds later, a petite woman with medium-length brown hair peeked out from a crack of no more than a couple of inches and said, “Yes?”

“Mrs. Carson, we’re here to talk to your daughter. Is she home?” The overpowering scent of roses assailed Kyra’s nostrils.

The lady’s mouth pinched together, her eyebrows slashing downward. “Who are you?”

Before Kyra could show the woman her identification, Michael stepped forward, his shoulder brushing up against Kyra’s. “Hi, Cherie. It’s important that we have a word with Laurie. Amy is missing.”

Cherie Carson’s eyes grew round. “Laurie isn’t here.”

“Where is she?” Kyra asked after a few seconds’ silence.

The woman clutched the edge of the door, still only open a few inches. “She’s at her aunt’s in Tampa and won’t be back until the weekend.”

“We need to talk to her.” Michael grasped Kyra’s hand and held it. His tension conveyed his tone.

“I can call Laurie later and let her know. But I don’t know when I’ll be able to get hold of her. My sister and her were going to do some shopping today. I’ll have her call you, Michael.” Cherie started to close the door.

He reached out to stop her from doing it. “Please. This is important. I think Amy is in trouble, and if Laurie knows anything—”

“I’m so sorry to hear about Amy, but Laurie has been gone. Knowing your sister, she’ll show up soon with some wild story. Goodness me, she certainly has dragged Laurie into enough escapades. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a splitting headache and was lying down.” The woman’s grip on the door tightened so much her fingertips reddened.

Michael took a half step forward. “Laurie may know where she would have gone.”

Pain blinked in and out of the woman’s expression. “Check with her other friends. Laurie doesn’t know.” She moved back quickly and slammed the door shut, the lock clicking into place.

Michael squeezed Kyra’s hand, transmitting his tension, before releasing his hold. “She’s never been very friendly but this is …” His words grounded to a halt.

“It doesn’t look like we’ll get anywhere. Maybe Gabe can.”

He let the screen bang closed. His glare drilled into the wire mesh.

Kyra descended the porch stairs. “Is she that way with everyone?”

Michael pivoted and accompanied her toward the car. “Amy assured me after my first run-in with the woman she was that way with all men and not to take it personally. It seems her husband left her a few years back. Didn’t come home from work but called her the next day to tell her it was over.”

What was it with married couples? First her mother walked out on her dad when she was ten. Her father had been devastated. She had been too, but she’d spent the next year consoling her dad. He was never the same after her mother left. “Something like that happened to my older sister who lives in Boston now. Except thankfully she didn’t have any children to worry about.” And that was why she wouldn’t marry. She had seen too many broken marriages to want one for herself. Her job was her life and that was the way she wanted it.

After Michael settled in the front seat and started his car, he pulled away from the curb. “Why didn’t you ever marry?”