Hidden Falls (53 page)

“I told you, I want to help.”

“Okay, then.”

Eva lifted the lid and recoiled. “Eww. You didn’t tell me … yuck.”

“Haven’t you ever seen a fish before?” Dani slid both hands into the ice and lifted out a trout.

“Not with the … well, you know, this is the whole fish. I didn’t expect it to stare at me. It doesn’t look like that when my mom buys it.”

“I take it your dad never takes you fishing.”

“
My
dad?” Eva laughed. “He doesn’t even eat fish unless my mom makes him.”

Dani laid the fish on the small table at the side of the charcoal grill she had been heating for the last half hour and peeked at the coals. “The next one has no head.”

“Yeah, I think maybe you should get that yourself.” Eva grimaced and took another step away from the cooler. “Is this going to be some kind of step-by-step fish show?”

“Something like that.” Dani pulled the next fish out, minus the head and tail. The next one was filleted open, ready for the grill. Eva’s reaction confirmed Dani’s suspicion that some of the people stopping by for her demonstration of grilling fresh fish could use a reminder of where fish came from. Dani had caught these three specimens about four hours earlier in Whisper Lake, fishing from a borrowed rowboat. When she said
fresh fish,
she meant
fresh fish.

“I want to help,” Eva said, “but touching fish skin?”

Dani rolled her eyes. Did Eva think fish came from cosmic packaging plants that removed all potentially bothersome parts before making overnight delivery to supermarkets?

“Forget the hiking,” she said. “Next weekend you and I are going fishing.”

“Isn’t there something else I could do right now to be useful?” Eva scrunched up her face.

Dani pointed to two sacks. “Set out paper plates. Forks and napkins, too.”

“I can do that.”

Dani opened the grill and redistributed the graying coals. She was well aware that most of her observers today would go home to gas grills on their decks in the firm conviction that gas was no different than charcoal when it came to outdoor cooking. Dani didn’t buy it. A little patience and well-timed attention made an enormous difference.

Her presentation was scheduled to begin in a few minutes. She wouldn’t wait until she had a crowd. Whoever made the effort to arrive at the posted time, or to wander in during the middle, deserved to take the samples that would come off the grill.

A moment later, her cousin’s eyes smiled at her across the grill.

“Hey, Cooper.”

“What time shall I be back for lunch?”

“I’d say about eighteen and a half minutes.”

“Perfect. I expect to be hungry in nineteen.”

“You could eat in seven and be hungry again in nineteen.” Dani arranged her sprigs of rosemary and thyme.

“Enough with the banter.” Cooper folded his arms across his chest. “I’m worried about Liam.”

“Am I my cousin’s keeper?” Dani avoided Cooper’s eyes. “He’s
your
brother.”

“Has he talked to you?”

“Have we exchanged conversation?” Dani sliced two lemons. “Sure. We do that from time to time. You should try it.”

“Dani, I’m serious.” Cooper pointed across the lawn with a tilt of his head. “Liam looks awful.”

Dani didn’t have to look up to know that statement was true. “Jessica dumped him.”

“But she’s at the tent with him. She seems to be doing all the work.”

That didn’t surprise Dani. She cut a slit lengthwise through the belly of the whole fish and prepared to stuff it with herbs.

“I saw Liam a couple of times this week,” Dani said, “and things aren’t going well for him in general. But that’s as much as I’m going to say.”

If Cooper wanted to know what was going on in his brother’s life, he would have to ask. Dani didn’t like being in the middle of things, and Cooper knew that.

Eva brought back an empty sack. “What else should I do?”

“Come here,” Dani said. “You’re going to season a fish.”

“Ick.”

“Get over that. It’s just a little oil with sea salt and pepper.” Dani set out the fillet.

With Eva’s presence, Cooper stopped asking questions.

“I’ll be back in ten minutes and twenty-three seconds,” he said.

“I’m serving samples, not lunch,” Dani said.

Cooper should go talk to Liam. As fragile as he was, Dani suspected Liam would crack. He’d tell his brother everything, and Dani wouldn’t have to be in the middle of anything.

Eva held a bottle of olive oil. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Dani handed Eva a small brush. “Just put oil on the fish, skin side, too.”

The cooler contained several other fish that Dani caught the last time she was on the lake with Quinn. More accurately, Quinn had caught them, but he insisted Dani take them home to her freezer. That was when the idea of this grilling demonstration arose. If anyone was interested in stuffing a fish, rather than only watching Dani do it, she could accommodate them.

Eva gingerly brushed oil on the fleshy side of the fillet. Dani waited for the moment when Eva would need to turn it over. She could have prodded Eva to stuff the whole trout with a fish eye staring up at her, but Dani was not completely without pity.

“Use the spatula,” Dani said.

Eva rummaged in the bag of supplies and came up with the utensil. Dani checked the coals again. They were very close to ready. Four people had found seats around two rectangular folding tables.

Sylvia approached.

“How’s the shop?” Dani asked.

“I just came from there. Business is brisk.”

“That’s good.”

“Lizzie has everything in hand for the moment.” Sylvia examined the rosemary sprigs spilling out of the trout Dani was preparing.

Dani glanced over at Cooper helping a small child sit on a bicycle.

“Has Liam talked to you?” Dani asked.

“Not since that day he came into the store with the photo.”

Dani moved away from where Eva was still oiling the fish. The girl didn’t need to hear this. “I know Jack wanted to help. Has he come up with anything on that address?”

“Not that he’s told me.” Sylvia shielded her eyes to look around the lawn.

Dani puffed her cheeks to keep from sighing. Sylvia didn’t know Liam had asked Dani to track down the Santorelli address. Neither did Jack. But with Eva Parker standing five feet away, Dani held her tongue. Why had Liam bothered her about the address if he was going to keep the results of her search to himself? Surely Sylvia wasn’t really depending on Jack Parker to solve that particular mystery.

Hidden Falls pulsed with mystery these days. Where did Quinn go? Even Dani, who at first figured he just needed some space, wondered where he was now. What was in St. Louis? Who was Santorelli?

Dani wished she had resisted Liam’s urging to find out what kind of business the Santorelli name represented. She also wished she had resisted Nicole’s urging to look at Quinn’s bank account.

She was going to cook some fish and perhaps persuade a few people to try it at home. Then Dani could say she’d kept her promise to Quinn to work at the fair. After that, she would focus on replacing her destroyed boat and finding the guy who wrecked it. Maybe she could scrape up enough money to buy one that didn’t need a lot of work. It would be nice to have a boat to take Quinn out in once he got back.

“I’m going to check on things at the auction,” Sylvia said. “Then I think I need to talk to some people.”

Yep, you do,
Dani thought as Sylvia turned and walked toward the auction tables.

“I really do want to learn to do this. How do you know when the coals are ready?” Eva lifted the grill’s lid, the brush in her hand still drenched in oil.

“Be careful—” Dani’s words were too late.

Oil dripped onto the hot coals and flame blasted up. In her fright, Eva’s fingers opened. Simultaneously she let go of the lid and the brush. One tumbled to the ground and the other fell straight into the grill. People gathered for the demonstration now jumped from their seats and backed away. Dani yanked Eva away from the rising fire.

“I’m so stupid!” Eva wailed.

Dani had no time to comfort Eva—and she wouldn’t have known how. Flare-ups happened during grilling when fat naturally dripped, but Dani wondered just how much oil Eva had been putting on that fillet. She scrambled to grab the bouncing grill lid and circled to the back of the grill to replace the lid and smother the flames. In the commotion, the fillet had been dumped in the dirt.

“It’s all right,” Dani said to onlookers. “We just may be a couple of minutes late getting started.”

Eva had fled the scene of her failure. Dani watched her run across the lawn, dodging and weaving through the crowd. Where was she likely to go?

It didn’t matter. Dani couldn’t chase her now. She’d have to find her later.

Dani had amassed extra spectators because of the burst of flames. She might as well take advantage of the attention. The cooler contained several more trout. Now the demonstration would include the added feature of how to fillet a fish. Then it would pick up with Dani’s plan to grill both a whole fish and a fillet. Samples would be slightly delayed but still delicious. Fifteen minutes from now no one would remember the unplanned diversion. They would be too busy salivating over bites of perfectly grilled fish.

The look of the sky suggested Dani might not have the opportunity for a second demonstration. If she were out on a hiking trail under a darkening sky like this one, she would be planning how to take cover.

12:39 p.m.

Nicole lost her grip on two pages of notes and they fluttered away in the wake of two children, with painted faces and balloons, running perilously close to her propped-up boot cast.

“Hey!”

They didn’t hear her above their own squeals.

Ethan was busy looking in another set of facial openings. Nicole leaned over for the crutches tucked against the side of her chair. She had enjoyed the morning’s sunshine but now wondered if she would have been better off spending the day in Lauren’s apartment. The cast and crutches made mobility difficult, so she had only been up and about a few times, and no matter how many times she set down her pile of notes, determined to enjoy the day, she picked them up again. The mystery filled the crevices of her mind, leaving room only for frustration that she was missing something obvious. She hadn’t been much help at the fair. Maybe she’d even been in the way.

The breeze gusted, threatening to take Nicole’s pages farther from her reach. She swung toward the nearest sheet and stabbed it with a crutch to hold it still while she went through the laborious steps of balancing to keep weight off her injured foot as she bent to pick it up. In the meantime, the second page skidded across the grass.

“I got it.” Lauren swooped down to rescue the second page.

“Thank you.” Nicole straightened up, relieved to lean on two crutches again.

“What’s all this?” Lauren scanned the paper she held.

“I wish I knew.” Nicole took the page from Lauren and nested it against the other, arranging her armpits on the crutches while she examined her own scribbles and arrows and question marks. In the last hour she’d made little progress in deciphering the relationships between the bits of information she’d collected.

“Mind if I pull up a chair?” Lauren filched a rented chair from a nearby assortment and set it beside Nicole’s. “I’ve been on my feet all morning, running every which way.”

Lauren’s efforts had paid off, Nicole thought. The fair had come together even without Quinn. Once they’d found Quinn’s planning notes, Lauren went into high gear with the details. If any of the planned activities were absent, no one would know. For nearly four hours now, the lawn was host to a steady stream of visitors.

“We’re almost there,” Lauren said. “In another couple of hours, we can declare the first community health fair a rousing success.”

“Quinn will be proud when he hears how you stepped in and pulled it off.”
St. Louis,
Nicole reminded herself. Quinn had been in St. Louis. He bought gas and dinner. He was all right. Or at least he had been a few days ago.

“Benita Booker is a lifesaver.” Lauren’s eyes scanned the grounds constantly, sweeping one direction and then arcing back again. “And Ethan saved the day after the pediatrician on Quinn’s list left us hanging.”

“I didn’t think Ethan liked kids, but he’s doing all right.” Nicole had checked the time on her phone only a few minutes ago. It wouldn’t be long now before Ethan left. Already he’d checked out of the motel on the other side of the lake and stowed the few personal belongings he traveled with in his Lexus for the drive back to Columbus.

“I’m sure he’ll stay in touch,” Lauren said softly. “It won’t be like before.”

“We haven’t made any promises.” Nicole fiddled to reunite the rescued pages with the rest of her collection of notes.

“Without you he would have found a reason to leave before now.”

“He took pity after I broke my ankle. That’s all.”

“Well, that’s not what I think.”

What did it matter? In a few hours, Ethan would be on his way to Columbus, and Nicole would have to figure out how to get home to St. Louis. She could take all her notes and photos with her. Maybe she’d get somebody to take her back out to the cemetery to look at Old Dom’s ledgers one more time first, but St. Louis might still be the best place to track Quinn’s recent movements. Nicole knew people there, and with the right provocation they would help her.

And then there was the matter of her job. It would be a lot easier to get to the bottom of whatever happened at the newspaper if she went home.

Nicole would miss Ethan. She was fooling herself if she thought otherwise. It had been easy to slip into the understanding they shared of each other’s lives. It had even been easy to slip into his embrace, into his kiss.

But it was all because of Quinn. They came to Hidden Falls to see Quinn. They stayed because Quinn disappeared. But they couldn’t remain in romantic nostalgia indefinitely. Ethan had to save his job, and Nicole had to find out whether she had one to save.

Lauren’s phone rang, and beside Nicole she dug into her pants pocket to pull it out.