Hidden Falls (33 page)

Finally Burt—or Bart—dropped his napkin on the table and zigzagged between diners. Liam stood up, wondering if a handshake was appropriate under the circumstances.

“It
is
you,” the man said, extending his hand.

Liam accepted the handshake, which felt anything but sinister. Wouldn’t someone who wrote a blackmail note be certain whom he was meeting?

“I know it’s been a few years since you set me up,” Bart—Liam was sure now—said. “I just wanted to tell you how well that fund you suggested for me has worked out. I didn’t believe you when you said it would yield as well as it has, but I’m glad to admit I was wrong.”

Liam eased out the air lodged in his throat. “I’m glad to help. Call me anytime you have questions.”

“I live out of the area now and I’m going home tomorrow, but I just might do that.”

Bart turned to go. Liam’s knees barely held his weight, finding security in the booth bench behind his legs just in time. His throat parched, and he dumped the juice in his mouth and downed it in one long gulp. It was past eight thirty now. Liam scanned the room one more time. No one stared back. Leaving his muffin untouched, he tossed a ten-dollar bill on the table and walked out into the sunlight.

Liam wasn’t ready to get in his car and drive back to Hidden Falls—not while his heart beat so fast. There were always errands to do in Birch Bend. He could check his UPS box, for starters. He had several around the county so clients and vendors in each area would feel they were dealing with a local consultant. The county was too thinly populated for Liam not to cover as much territory as he could, and he and Jessica were in Birch Bend often enough that checking the box was never an inconvenience. Liam walked the four blocks to the UPS store, flipped through the keys on his ring to find the right one, and withdrew a stack of envelopes.

What he needed were the responses to corporate mass mailings or paperwork from clients. Liam riffled through the contents of the box, prepared to toss junk mail before he even left the store. As he pulled one pale yellow envelope from the stack, Liam’s fingers trembled.

Mr. Ted Quinn,
it said.

Quinn had a UPS box, an alternate address. The three digits in the box number were an inverted arrangement of the same three in Liam’s number. Liam understood his own business reasons for the box he kept in Birch Bend, but why would a schoolteacher pay for a box? He flipped the envelope over and inspected the seal, which was firm and flat. Liam glanced up at the clerk busy behind the counter with a customer and three stacked boxes to ship.

He ought to give her the envelope. Liam knew that. He didn’t need to add another form of theft to the list of crimes he might be accused of.

But what if the contents of the yellow envelope contained a clue to Quinn’s whereabouts? Liam knew enough about direct mail to recognize this was not an impersonal advertisement. Neither was there a glassine pane to show an address on an invoice or a statement. This had the feel of a true letter. The name of the business, however, gave nothing away about its nature.

With one fingernail, Liam again tested for a loose edge at the end of the seal, but nothing gave. Short of taking it home to steam it open and reseal—a procedure Liam had no experience with—he couldn’t open the letter without ripping the envelope.

Liam propped the envelope up against a sample shipping carton and took his phone out of his pocket. With a swift click, he photographed the envelope, and with a second he zoomed in on the return address. Then he put on his congenial face, approached the clerk, and returned the mysterious envelope.

10:04 a.m.

“I know the health fair was my idea,” Lauren said, “and I still believe in it. I’m just not sure we can do it well without Quinn, and I would hate for it to be a sloppy catastrophe. So I wonder what you think is the best way to let people know it’s canceled.”

She raised her water bottle to her mouth and waited for what the pastor of Our Savior Community Church had to say. They sat at the round table in Lauren’s office at the church.

“I don’t think we should cancel.”

Lauren had expected Matt Kendrick to say that. Still, its reality stung.

“I made a little progress on Monday,” Lauren said. “But I lost all of yesterday looking after Nicole Sandquist and her broken ankle.”

This was Wednesday. The health fair was scheduled for Saturday. Lauren didn’t see how she could pull it off. Quinn had been the primary organizer, and Lauren didn’t even have his notes. Nicole needed help whether or not she admitted it, and Ethan could be leaving town at any minute. Lauren hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep since Quinn disappeared on Saturday evening.

“I thought there was a committee,” Matt said.

Lauren shifted her weight to one hip. “There is, officially.” But Quinn was running the show, and Lauren had been glad for his enthusiasm.

“Then we can start there.”

By
we
he meant
you.
Lauren knew Matt well enough to understand that.

“I’m not usually a quitter,” she said, “but the circumstances this week have been especially stressful.”

“I know.” Matt leaned on the table. “Quinn gone, finding his car wrecked, the burglary at your aunt’s shop. And now your friend Nicole.”

“Right. It adds up.”

“And I don’t want to be unsympathetic. But we made a promise to the community. Families are counting on us. Kids need their immunizations, and we’ve collected a pile of winter coats to give away. Any day now the temperatures will start dropping at night. A lot of our church members are looking forward to the event, as well. Why don’t we do what we can?”

Church attenders had been bringing in coats for two months, and backpacks and school supplies lined one wall of a classroom in the education wing of the church. Lauren might not be able to organize all the booths Quinn had in mind, but the fair could still cover some basics.

“All right.” Lauren took a deep breath and reached for her clipboard. “I’ll get started.”

Lauren took three battered yellow sheets of random notes off her clipboard and laid them on the table. What she needed was an organized list of action steps. She gripped a favorite purple gel pen and wrote in tidy straight letters. The list filled every line on the page. Lauren went back through and starred essential entries.

Taking her clipboard, with the random notes behind the numbered list, Lauren went down the hall to the classroom where coats and backpacks awaited. She would find someone to sort them. Zeke Plainfield and a couple of other kids from the youth group could handle the job. Maybe Eva Parker would like to help. Lauren separated a few of the tangled sleeves and decided she would have to give guidelines for which coats were suitable to give out and which ones the donors should have thrown away. She pushed aside a few more and pulled out a brown-and-green child’s coat that looked brand-new. The zipper worked smoothly and the hood was securely attached. If most of the coats were in this condition, the church volunteers could make a lot of children happy and warm.

Lauren suspected Quinn would have talked with merchants in the downtown businesses about the health fair. Taking her clipboard, she set out to make the rounds. All she had to do was ask business owners if Quinn had spoken to them about participating in the health fair. If they said no, she would move on. If they said yes, she would get the details of donations or volunteer time. Once she knew where everything stood, she would call the health fair committee members and distribute the tasks of following up and having everything ready by Friday night for the fair to begin on Saturday morning.

Later she would call the rental store out on the highway to see what Quinn had arranged for equipment. He would have extracted a steep discount if not outright donation. Then she would bike to the community center. When she saw Quinn last Saturday, he’d said something about exercise classes and recipe exchanges. A nurse in the congregation of Our Savior would probably know who was going to provide the immunizations and blood pressure screenings.

Who would run the book fair, the joke contest, and the cooking demonstrations were mysteries to Lauren at the moment, but Brooke Parker had called her, eager to do face painting. She even said her father was going to help. Lauren had a hard time imagining Jack Parker painting the faces of little children. She made a note on her clipboard to find someone to organize games for the children and another entry to find a couple of compassionate church members to be available to pray with people on Saturday. They could use the church prayer room for that.

The plan was coming together, but Friday was the day after tomorrow. On paper the fair looked good, but Lauren was going to need information, volunteers, and equipment. If only she had a month instead of three days. Lauren popped a piece of gum in her mouth, picked up her water bottle, and left the church building.

This would all be so much more fun with Quinn.

While she walked up toward Main Street, Lauren called Nicole’s cell phone and promised to swing by and fix her some lunch. Ninety minutes later, Lauren had worked her way back and forth through the downtown blocks. Finding people who had agreed to help turned out to be surprisingly easy, and Lauren regretted doubting Quinn’s preparation. The time-consuming part of the task was having the same conversation over and over.

Is it true you found Quinn’s car?

You’re the mayor’s niece. What’s she telling you about where Quinn is?

What’s your theory about what really happened?

When is your aunt going to open her store again?

Lauren pitied the poor souls at the end of her circuit. Though she was fairly certain she hadn’t said anything unquestionably rude, she’d come close a few times. She understood their concern—and shared it. But Lauren didn’t have Quinn’s gift of patiently listening as if the person in front of her was saying something new when, in fact, everyone up and down the block scratched their heads and said the same thing. She had a long task list, and she hadn’t factored in how much everyone wanted to talk.

When she came to Sylvia’s shop and saw the lights on and activity inside, she couldn’t resist. The C
LOSED
sign hung in the window, but Lauren knew the rear door off the alley would be open.

Dani’s Jeep was parked in back next to Sylvia’s Ford, a vision of relief to Lauren that at least her aunt was getting the help she needed. As she passed through the office at the back of the store, Lauren looked around for a broom or a rag or something she could use to be helpful. The closet was empty of cleaning supplies, though, and Lauren walked on into the store.

“Hey, Dani.”

Dani attacked a pile of rubble with a broad push broom. “Hi, Lauren.”

“I’m glad to see you.” Lauren was heartened both by the physical evidence that Dani was all right after having her boat sabotaged and the progress made in the store since Lauren was there two days earlier.

“Can you pull that trash can closer for me, please?” Dani pointed.

“Of course.” Lauren set her clipboard down and dragged the can toward the heap of splintered wood and glass that Dani had contained against one wall. “I can’t tell you how relieved I was yesterday when Ethan said he’d seen you in the morning. I’m sorry about your boat.”

“I’ll find the guy who did it.”

As full as she was of questions, Lauren reasoned Dani would tell her story if and when she was ready. Frankly, at the moment, Lauren didn’t have space in her brain to store the details anyway.

Lauren looked up to see Sylvia and Lizzie Stanford dragging a large cardboard box from the front of the store. It clattered with broken contents, and the sound made Lauren shiver. Deep in the recesses of the box, a small bell tinkled with the constant shifting of porcelain shards scraping against each other. Lauren’s eyes automatically went to the spot in the store where the display rack that had been the bell’s home should have stood.

Fresh discouragement surged through her. Whoever had done this either had a warped sense of amusement or no conscience.

“We’re making progress,” Sylvia said. “I want to open by the weekend.”

Lauren wondered what Sylvia would have left to sell.

“It’s not so bad,” her aunt said.

“Not so bad?”

“It’s a lot to clean up, but we’re finding a surprising number of items in good shape. In fact, I’ve had a creative idea for the auction.”

“Oh, Aunt Sylvia, you shouldn’t be thinking about that under the circumstances.”

“I need some distraction.” Sylvia bent to pick up a book and inspected it front and back before flipping through the pages and setting it deliberately in a pile. “Lizzie, I think these we’ll keep. We can sell them 20 percent off.”

“I can do a table in the front window.” Lizzie picked up a stack of books and carried them forward. “I’m putting the keepers up by the counter for now.”

Sylvia trailed after Lizzie, picking up odds and ends and rapidly sorting them into various piles. Lauren followed. As she got farther from the trash bins at the back and into the shop, she saw that Sylvia, Lizzie, and Dani had established a system that looked more hopeful than she first thought.

“So what was your idea?” Lauren asked.

“With the books that are slightly damaged, we’ll make up mystery packs for the silent auction.” Sylvia thumped a stack of books and glanced at Lauren. “We have a lot of perfectly fine books that will bless the people who read them, but one little ding in the cover will make people pass them over in the store.”

Lauren blinked while she thought about it. “We could start the bidding low enough that people can’t resist the idea of getting a stack of books for that price, even if they can’t see them first.”

“Precisely. The money will go to a good cause, so people will be less particular than they’d be in the shop.”

“This could work. Let me write it down.” Lauren’s eyes flashed around the room. Panic welled. Where had she left her clipboard?

Dani walked past her and pointed a thumb over her shoulder. “In the back.”

“What?” Lauren spun around.