Echoes of the Past (3 page)

“Kara, come here. I need your help.”

She responded to the command in his voice, turned, and ran
over to him, but her gaze drifted to the shoreline.

“I called nine-one-one like Isaac said. The dispatcher
promised someone would be here shortly. What happened?”

There was no point in hiding the truth from her. “Two of my
students have drowned.”

She gasped.

“Follow me.
Lissa
has fainted.
I’ll need your help undressing her and getting her into bed.”

Tears filled Kara’s eyes. “She and Aaron were going to get
married in the spring. Poor
thing,
and I think she’s
pregnant too.”

Tony’s head snapped up.
Son of a bitch.
That’s why she’s been so sick lately.

Mechanically, Jackson lifted
Lissa
up into his arms and walked toward the cottage she and Aaron shared. Tony
hurried ahead of him, and opened the door.

“Take her into the bedroom, Jackson, and then go out into
the kitchen, and wait for me. Do not leave this cabin. Kara, can you undress
her?”

“Sure thing, Professor.”

He left her to it and went out into the other room to wait
for her.

“Jackson, I need you to stay with
Lissa
.
Don’t leave her. The police are on their way, and I’ll send the paramedics in
to have a look at both of you as soon as I can.”

Kara re-entered the sitting area. Tony followed her out of
the cottage. He heard the approaching sirens.

“Go back to the office. There isn’t anything else you can
do.”

The girl nodded and retraced her steps to the resort’s
office. The police car pulled into the lot followed by the ambulance. He hurried
down to the beach. He needed to know what the hell had happened.

* * * *

Michelle sat at a table in her favorite
deli across from her best friend Tasha and read the text message on her phone.
Her boss, Colin Sanders, the province’s chief coroner, wanted to see her as
soon as possible. It looked as if the quiet weekend she’d planned had just gone
down the drain.

Damn! After three
months in the field, you’d think I could have a few days off? I know we’re
really busy right now, but…

“It’s from Colin. He wants to see me ASAP. He’s attached
photo-documents to this text.”

“Gees.
Can’t he leave you alone
long enough to eat? You just got back a couple of hours ago. Look at the
overtime you put in on that last case. I hate it when they send you those
gruesome pictures, especially when you meet me for lunch.” Tasha took a bite of
her sandwich. Despite her words, the veterinarian rarely let anything interfere
with her appetite. “We haven’t had a meal together in ages. I don’t bring my
work with me when we meet.”

Tasha jerked her head sending her long blonde ponytail
swaying back and forth across her back. Her blue eyes sparkled with mock
indignity. Work clothes did nothing to disguise her curvy, lush figure, a foil
for Michelle’s tall, slenderness. Her dad used to refer to them as salt and
pepper. He’d say they added spice to his life. Now alone in the world, she
wouldn’t know what to do without Tasha. She chuckled and shook her head.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. Next time, if you’d like to bring
snapshots of cute puppies or kittens, I promise to look at them and be suitably
awed.”

Tasha smiled and wagged a finger at her.

“And that’s all I’ll let you do. With your crazy hours and
work schedule, you couldn’t handle a pet. Of course, if you ever decided to
date and have a serious relationship…”

“I know.” She sighed. They’d had this discussion countless
times, and while Tasha’s nesting instinct seemed to have grown proportionately
of late, Michelle preferred the solitary life she’d chosen. Besides, she’d
found the perfect man. He just happened to be over two hundred years old and
dead.

“I haven’t got time to take care of a pet or a relationship.
It’s great having you to check the apartment while I’m gone. Lynn’s worth every
penny I pay her. I won’t come home to three inches of dust.”

Being single made her an ideal candidate for out-of-town
cases, especially those with more questions than answers. As Tasha pointed out,
she had nothing and no one to worry about. Even the goldfish she’d had a couple
of years before she’d taken this job had bit the dust—or rather been flushed.

“Colin wants me to come in today. It would be nice to have
some idea what he’s got on his mind. I’ll just take a quick peek. You know how
I hate surprises. It’ll only take a sec. Maybe it isn’t an assignment. Maybe he
just wants a second opinion on something. Go ahead and eat. I’m not going to
rush away on you, I promise.”

“I’ll cross my fingers. Your last case took a lot out of
you. You look like crap, by the way. You’re having those nightmares again aren’t
you—the ones where you fall into the water and drown or something? Don’t say
you aren’t, I can tell. You need a break, and I want you to meet Simon. You’ll
love him. He’s cute and…” Tasha laughed. “I like him, what can I say? I think he’s
the one, Michelle, I really do.”

She took another bite of her sandwich, and then motioned
toward Michelle with it. “Go ahead. If there’s anything interesting, can you
share?”

“Probably not, but we’ll see.”

Michelle opened the first attachment and frowned.

“Whoever took this isn’t much of a forensic photographer.”

“You’re such a perfectionist. You can be so picky at times.
God, the last thing I’d want to do is have you sit in on a necropsy,” Tasha
said. “You’d be criticizing my every move.”

“Not picky, thorough. There’s a difference. It’s like with
my quilting. I like to be precise. Anytime you want my advice, just ask, but
unless the pooch has drowned…” She huffed out a breath. “This picture asks more
questions than it answers. I hope the others are clearer. Since their heads are
in the water, they probably did drown, but why?”

“Me see?”

“Why not?
You can’t tell who it
is.” Michelle held the phone out.

“You know your thoroughness makes you one of the top
forensic investigators in the province. If Colin’s giving this to you, it’s
because he thinks there’s something to it. If anyone can figure out how those
guys got dead, it’s you.”

Tasha reached for the phone, peered at the picture, and then
handed the phone back to Michelle.

The snapshot showed two corpses, but you had to count feet
to be certain. From their size, Michelle assumed the bodies belonged to a man
and a woman, but they could easily be an adult and a child. The picture had
been taken from the side. Debris littered the shoreline beyond the cadavers,
probably the aftermath of a storm. She noticed a canoe lying on its side about
ten feet farther along.

Michelle shuddered. Canoes! She hated canoes. She stared
intently at the photograph and scowled. The stretch of land looked vaguely
familiar. Using the tips of her fingers, she enlarged the image. The smaller
victim had lost a left shoe—a laced one—not an easy thing to do.

“That just looks wrong.” Tasha motioned to the phone with
her sandwich. “You can’t even tell what it is—man, woman, child. You’re right.
It’s a lousy picture.”

Michelle shook her head.

“Not quite. I can’t tell if the top body is a woman or a
child, but judging from the size of the feet on the bottom one, it’s a man.”

She opened the next attachment, expecting to see another
shot of the bodies. Instead, she discovered a profile sheet with information
and a photograph. Examining the image, she picked up the same sense of déjà vu.
She held out the phone to Tasha who’d met everyone in her life. “Does this guy
look familiar to you?”

Tasha swallowed the mouthful of coffee she’d just taken and
reached for the phone once more.

“
Hubba-hubba
! No, I’ve definitely
never met this
hottie
. Who is he?”

“Ronald Davies, the mayor of the Municipality of Prince
Edward.” She read down a little farther and then returned to the image.
“Apparently he owns a winery.”

Clean shaven, his strong, chiseled features indicated his
Native American ancestry. His clothing and hair didn’t fit her memories of the
man, if you could call her fleeting sensation of recognition a memory. Her mother
would have said he was Hollywood handsome with almond-shaped deep brown, almost
black eyes. Michelle found him attractive, and the fact she did surprised her.
She liked men, but usually needed to make a personal connection before being
attracted to one, and she’d never been attracted to a Native American
before—too much emotional history for that. She wrinkled her forehead in
concentration.
Picton
sounded familiar although she
knew she’d never been there.
Winery…that’s
it!

“Didn’t we talk about going to a wine festival in Prince
Edward County this year?”

Tasha angled her head in thought.

“I think we did, but then you got called up north, and we
let it go. I don’t know if we’d be able to get tickets this close to the event.
I’m not sure how much time Simon can book off on short notice. Is that where
they died?”

“It must be. I don’t think this is the dead guy though.
Something about his build doesn’t quite fit.”

“Well, if that’s where you have to go, let me know. Maybe
Simon and I can come down there and do a mini-tour with you. You can take
personal time off, right?”

Tasha took a mouthful of coffee and stared into space.
Michelle knew that look. She dreaded it and could almost see the wheels turning
in her friend’s head.

“You know, you’ve gotten too serious this last month. I know
something’s bothering you, and it must be really awful if you won’t tell me
about it. I’m your best friend, remember? We share everything. You need to see
Audra. I don’t know why you’re so against it. I’ve got to go to the ladies’
room. Be right back.” Tasha stood and walked away.

Michelle shook her head. A visit to a self-proclaimed, white
witch-seer wasn’t on her wish list. She had enough crazy in her life as it was.
She took a bite of her chicken wrap.
Normally, one of her
favorites, it tasted like sawdust today.
She sighed. Tasha knew her too
well, but this problem wasn’t something she could share with her—even her best
friend wouldn’t understand.

She finished the tasteless wrap and opened the last
attachment. The breath whooshed out of her. A surge of desire tore through her,
burning her from the inside out. Her heart pounded. Beads of perspiration
dotted her forehead and sweat trickled down her back.

It has to be the hair.
The man had shoulder-length, honey-brown hair and sparkling, aquamarine eyes.
His eyebrows were thick, his eyelashes long and full, and lips so
perfect,
she could almost feel them against hers. He had a
dimple in his left cheek and a scar on his chin. She dropped the phone in her
agitation. Tasha returned to the table and reached for the phone.

“What’s the matter?” She looked at the image on the small
screen. “Wow! Who is this god? Please tell me he’s not the dead guy.”

Chapter Two

With an unsteady hand, Michelle reached for the phone Tasha
held and stared at the image once more. Could he be the dead man? Possibly, but
her heart screamed, “Please, God, no.”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think so.”

“I have a suggestion.” Tasha perked up, and Michelle shrank
from what she knew would be a bad idea.

“I know you like to do everything on your own, but why not
get another opinion here? You think both these guys are hot, right? Why don’t
we take those pictures with us tonight and go see Audra? She can tell you if
one of them is dead, which I hope neither of them are, or if one of them is the
killer. You can eliminate one or both as suspects and get to the horizontal
mambo in no time. You’ll owe me big time when one of them rings your bells.”

“Don’t be crude. We’ve been through this before. I refuse to
go and see some crazy lady and ask her for information about my case—if the
woman can see into the future, and that’s a really big ‘if’ in my book, I doubt
images on a phone will give her any answers. You said I needed to have fun. Believe
me,
what you suggest doesn’t sound like fun to me.”

Tasha pouted, folded her arms across her chest, and stared
mulishly at Michelle.

“I don’t know what’s happening here, but I’ve never seen you
like this before. Besides, Audra treats phobias. You promised you’d do whatever
it took to overcome this
aquaphobia
of yours. That
meltdown you had when you got splashed in July terrified me. I thought you were
having a seizure. You need to know why you’re so scared. How are you going to
stay on the beach when we go south? People do splash, you know.” Tasha took a
mouthful of her coffee and made a face. She added more sugar to the cup.

“You’re exaggerating. He surprised me and the water was
cold.”

“Right.
Keep telling yourself that.
How can we go on our dream vacation to the Dominican Republic next spring if
you can’t go anywhere near the water? I don’t get it. Is it your job? Is that
why you’re so afraid? I wouldn’t be a number one fan of water either if I made
my living around those who died that way, but you’re beyond afraid. You’re
terrified.”

“Calm down, will you? Lower your voice. People are staring
at us.”

“Fine,” Tasha whispered. “I’ll lower my voice, but you
promised to do something about it, and you haven’t. If Sanders has his way,
you’ll probably leave tomorrow. Work is work even if those two gorgeous hunks
will be there. You’re my best friend. I miss you when you aren’t around, and an
email, phone call, or online
chat aren’t
the same
thing.”