Hidden Falls (41 page)

Nicole braced for a scolding about being out of the recliner and skipped mentioning that the door hadn’t been locked. “Don’t get comfortable. We have to go out.”

“Didn’t last night’s adventure satisfy your wanderlust?” Ethan dropped his keys in a pocket.

“Don’t put your keys away,” she said. “I want to go see that new attorney, Jack Parker.”

“Never heard of him.”

“He’s just over in the next block. He bought out Morris and Morris.” One phone call to Benita Booker had caught Nicole up on what the town knew about its newest attorney. “Just give me a minute to find what Lauren did with my running shoe.”

Ethan stepped into her path and caught the chair. “Can we slow down a little bit?”

“I’ve already lost two days.” Nicole tried to roll back, but Ethan gripped both sides of the chair’s seat, stooping to put his face level with hers. For a few seconds, she stared into his wide brown eyes and felt his exhaling breath on her neck. Neither of them spoke.

“I’m sure you have a good reason to see Mr. Parker,” Ethan said, “but let’s get on the same page.”

“Sorry.” She sucked in a filling breath and let it out with considerable control. “First of all, I’m really glad you’re here—in Hidden Falls, I mean. I thought maybe you’d left for Columbus.”

“I would have told you.” He released his hold on her chair and sat on the sofa, stumbling over her shoe in the process.

Nicole caught the shoe when he tossed it and bent over to put it on, avoiding Ethan’s eyes. “Second, I’ve been staring out that window feeling afraid I’ve missed my chance to tell Quinn how grateful I am and apologize for taking him for granted all these years.”

“He knows how you feel about him—how we both do.”

“I suppose,” Nicole said, “but that doesn’t excuse me from saying thank you. My parents brought me up better than that.”
And so did yours,
she wanted to add but didn’t.

“I want him to know,” Nicole said. “He gave so much love. I want him to know it wasn’t wasted.”

“Love is never wasted,” Ethan said.

Nicole looked at Ethan now, straining against the lump in her throat. Even after he walked away from her ten years ago, she never felt her love had been wasted.

She broke the gaze. “I still can’t get Quinn’s computer to power up properly.”

“I have good news on that.”

Ethan leaned back and laid an ankle on the opposite knee, as if he were planning to settle in. Nicole bit back on prodding him to get out the door and instead gave him the most expectant look she could muster.

“Dani’s coming this afternoon.”

Nicole’s stomach flipped. “You told someone we have the computer?”

“I didn’t think you’d want to take it back to Quinn’s after what we went through to get it.”

He was right about that. Other than laying hands on the computer and wondering if God answered technology prayers, Nicole didn’t know what she was going to do, but returning the computer without getting into it hadn’t entered her mind. It held too much potential—both for Quinn’s whereabouts and the mysterious photo—to abandon the effort.

“I thought maybe you would look at it again,” she said.

He turned both palms up and spread his fingers. “These are the hands of a brain surgeon, not a technology expert. I used up my last trick at two in the morning.”

So had Nicole. She’d hoped Ethan was just tired and would put his analytical skills to good use in the light of day. Nicole double-knotted her shoe. She couldn’t afford to trip over a loose lace right now. “What makes you think we can trust Dani?”

Ethan laughed. “Even in high school she would never rat anybody out. I don’t think much has changed. If she turned us in, she’d have to get involved—and that would cut into her fishing time.”

He was right again.

“Not turning us in is one thing,” Nicole said. “Actually helping is another.”

“Getting her here is the first step.”

Nicole nodded. She’d persuaded plenty of people to do what they said they wouldn’t. She would handle Dani Roose when the time came.

“In the meantime, let’s go see Jack Parker,” she said.

“I have a feeling this is against my better judgment.” Ethan stood up.

“You can torture me with ice all afternoon.”

“Is he expecting you?”

Nicole looked away. “Bring the photo, please. And my iPad.” Jack Parker would have no reason to know Ethan Jordan. She wanted the full effect of laying the photo on Jack’s desk while Ethan was sitting right in front of him.

“Do I at least get to know what your hunch is?”

Ethan never had been one for blind obedience.

“It’s the cemetery,” she said. “Your twin is standing in Hidden Falls Memorial Garden.”

“And Mr. Parker?”

“Has old things in his office. Very old.” She didn’t make an appointment because experience told her that catching people off guard gave her the advantage in establishing the path of the conversation. Surprising people was a well-cultivated investigative habit.

“I had to park down the street.” Ethan stood up.

“I’ll wait on the bench outside the barbershop.”

They spent far more time getting Nicole in and out of Ethan’s car than they did driving around a couple of street corners to find the brick building of stately office suites. Nicole had never been in this building. An elevator followed by wide halls with gray marble floors guided them to the second-floor suite that bore the sign J
OHN
H. P
ARKER,
A
TTORNEY AT
L
AW.
Ethan held the door, and Nicole took careful steps with her crutches.

In the outer office, the sleek modern desk looked out of place with the high ceilings and crown molding. It had a phone, a stapler, and a tape dispenser but no computer. The credenza behind it supported only a vase with silk flowers. In one corner were a gray leather loveseat on one wall and two chairs upholstered in a blue-and-gray plaid on the adjoining wall, with a square coffee table pulling the pieces together. The furniture was in near pristine condition. Certainly Jack Parker had redone the decor. And certainly he worked alone.

Ethan gestured that Nicole should sit down, and she didn’t object. Resisting the habit of putting weight on her injured foot made for tedious progress, and she was tired. The door to the inner office stood open.

“Hello?” Nicole called out.

After a brief shuffle, Jack Parker appeared, wearing a starched blue dress shirt and a tie with a sophisticated classic stripe over navy trousers. Nicole was sure a matching suit jacket was arranged on a hanger on the back of his office door. His hairline was impeccably trimmed and not a wave was out of place.

“Miss Sandquist,” Jack said. “I didn’t expect to see you up and around.”

“Thanks for taking me to the urgent care the other day.” The smile with which he greeted them, however, seemed a tad too wide to Nicole. She felt like fresh meat.

Jack offered a hand to Ethan. “I’m Jack Parker.”

Ethan shook the attorney’s hand. “I’m Ethan Jordan.”

Jack tilted his head. “I met a Richard Jordan yesterday. Any relation?”

Nicole knew Ethan wouldn’t answer that question, and he didn’t.

“Is this a good time?” Ethan asked without sitting down. “We can make an appointment to come back later.”

If Ethan were in reach, Nicole would have kicked him. They would
not
come back with an appointment.

“I realize we may be interrupting your day.” Nicole gestured to her crutches. “But as you can see, I’ve gone to considerable effort to come see you, so I would appreciate your time.”

“Of course.” Jack waved an arm toward his private office.

Nicole glared at Ethan as she hobbled past him. Jack hadn’t spared expense in his furnishings. Even the side chairs for his guests were plush and soft.

Once she was seated, Nicole put out a hand for the folder Ethan held. “I understand your practice inherited some files that go back quite a ways.”

Jack nodded. “Morris and Morris were in business for fifty years, I believe, but I suspect there was another practice here before them.”

That’s what Nicole wanted to hear. The further back the files went, the better.

“My inquiry is straightforward,” Nicole said. “If I provide you with a few names, would you be able to tell me if the old files contain any documents reflecting legal transactions involving the names?”

Nicole felt Ethan’s eyes on her but didn’t turn her head.

“I might,” Jack said, “though many legal matters are confidential, if not technically then certainly out of deference to clients.”

“I’m quite certain the individuals I have in mind are deceased.” Nicole changed her strategy on impulse. She wouldn’t show Jack the photo of the man who looked like Ethan. Her instinct was not to stir up more curiosity in Jack than necessary for what she needed to know. Right now, she only needed to know if Jack had documents related to the graves around the towering tombstone.

“Well, if the individuals are deceased and there are no heirs, then in some instances the files may be available.”

There could be heirs, Nicole conceded. She could be sitting right next to an heir.

Rather than pulling out the photo, she flipped open her iPad. “I made a list of names of people buried in a particular section of the local cemetery. These are the individuals concerned.”

Ethan turned toward her in his chair. “How did you—”

Nicole cut him off with one shake of her head and kept her eyes on Jack. There was time later to explain to Ethan that Hidden Falls Memorial Garden was an old enough cemetery to be of interest to some historians and genealogists, and she’d found an online map of numbered graves and a corresponding list of names of people buried. Once she’d found the name that started with
K-R-A
—Kravicz, it turned out—it was easy enough to match grave numbers with names within a thirty-yard radius. Based on the perspective in the photo, Nicole was fairly certain the distance was closer to twenty yards, but she couldn’t discern directions from the photograph.

Jack looked at her list. “This could take some time.”

Possibly. Without seeing the condition of the old filing system for herself, Nicole couldn’t dispute Jack’s observation. Glancing at the names on file folders wasn’t exactly strenuous work, even without an alphabetized system. He would know fairly quickly whether he had anything related to the names. Going through individual files looking for relevant documents—a will, for instance—would be more intensive.

“I’m happy to leave a retainer for your time,” she said.

He named a modest figure that would cover a few hours of work and gave her a standard agreement to sign about payment beyond the retainer. Nicole pulled a credit card out of her back pocket.

2:44 p.m.

Dani didn’t bother taking her Jeep to Lauren’s apartment. It was easier to park at home and walk the few blocks. The park across the street tempted her to find a sunny patch of grass and sit with a book.

Quinn had told her five days ago that his computer was on the fritz again, so the news hadn’t surprised her. The main reason she agreed to Ethan’s request to look at the computer was because sooner or later she would end up doing it. She might as well do it while Quinn wasn’t hovering over her shoulder trying to understand everything she did. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the smarts to learn. Dani just didn’t have the patience to teach him—or anyone. There were classes at the community college in Birch Bend, but the most motivated people would figure it out the way she did. Just start doing it. If you’re good at it and manage to solve a practical problem, keep doing it. If you’re not good at it, then find something else to do. Dani had learned to fix most anything around a house by the same reasoned approach of testing a theory and learning from the experience, whether in failure or triumph.

Dani had never been up to the apartments above the shops on Main Street. On the street level, shops with varying signage and entry styles broke up the monotony of red brick. On the second story in this block, four sets of windows were evenly spaced across the front. Quinn once told Dani that almost certainly the original shop owners had lived above their enterprises because they rarely had time off, and of course the Main Street structures were built before the advent of automobiles. Only the wealthiest Hidden Falls families operated businesses in town but lived on outlying acreage. Where Quinn came up with that tidbit, Dani didn’t know, but it was the sort of thing a history teacher would tuck away in his brain. Maybe he read it in the files of the Hidden Falls Historical Society.

Or maybe he made it up to see how many legs he could pull.

Dani ignored the elevator and took the stairs up to the apartments and found the one marked D. She only knocked once and the door opened. Dani looked down at Nicole sitting in a chair with a boot cast on one foot.

“Thank you for coming.” Nicole rolled away from the door.

“What happened to you?” Dani stepped into the apartment.

“Clumsy.”

Dani scanned the apartment, which was a cozy mixture of historical ambiance and modern convenience, from the original fireplace to the mismatched built-in cabinets to the unskilfully cut baseboards. The house Dani rented was a 1950s prefab down the block from the one her parents had occupied before they finally admitted that, though they had grown up in Hidden Falls, they detested small-town life. Her landlord gave her a steep break on the rent in exchange for handling all the upkeep for the three houses he owned and rented out.

“The computer is over here,” Nicole said.

Dani could see it just fine. She didn’t need a guided tour.

“Ethan said he explained to you what we’re trying to do.” Nicole used her good foot to steer from the door to the table. “The first question is whether or not you can get it running. I sure hope so.”

“Sometimes I think Quinn holds it together with chewing gum.” Dani pulled out a chair, sat in front of the computer, and pressed the power button. Ethan and Nicole flanked her. “Um, can I have some room to work, please?”

Ethan rolled Nicole around to the other side of the table, where he sat down directly across from Dani. She would have preferred they go wait in the other room but supposed it would be rude to say so. Necessity had developed in her some tolerance of hovering customers desperate either not to lose data or not to have to shell out for a new computer—or both. Quinn’s laptop whirred and then shut off, just as she had expected it would. In response, Dani simultaneously pressed an arrangement of several keys, a strategy that worked often enough that she defaulted to it when she was troubleshooting PCs. If the computer stayed on, she could run diagnostics and narrow down where the glitch was happening.