Grave Risk Read online

  He blinked, the heavy expression in his eyes suddenly lifting. “That’s right.”

  “Sorry about your son.”

  He nodded. “Thank you. So am I.”

  “If you’re looking to stay a couple of weeks, Grace Brennan might sublet her apartment to you. She’s on tour this month.”

  He stepped across the hardwood floor to the counter and leaned against it, obviously to get a better look at the instigator of this conversation.

  “Grace Brennan’s on the road?” he asked.

  “That’s right. She’s got a song that’s a crossover hit, and she and Michael Gold are getting married.”

  Austin whistled softly. “When’s the wedding?”

  “During the festival on the twenty-fifth of this month. Karah Lee Fletcher’s getting married to Taylor Jackson, too.”

  Austin winked at her, his eyes suddenly teasing. “How about you? When do you get married?”

  Fawn scowled. Now he was flirting, not taking her seriously. “I just turned eighteen. Why would I be getting married so young?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t remember seeing you in Hideaway two years ago.”

  She decided not to tell him where she was and what she was doing two years ago. She wanted to ask why his own life had gone down the tubes so quickly. But Karah Lee and Blaze were always reminding her that those kinds of questions weren’t polite.

  “I came here one step ahead of some goon who wanted to kill me,” she said. “Karah Lee decided to keep me.”

  Austin Barlow’s expression didn’t change, which intrigued Fawn. Usually, that announcement led the listener to ask for the whole story.

  Fawn decided the winking and teasing were a cover. Austin had other things on his mind. “Why did you come back to Hideaway?” she asked.

  “You should know why. You’re the one who’s been eavesdropping.”

  “So you want to make amends? For your son’s actions? It’s not like you’re the guilty one.”

  Austin scowled.

  “Sorry,” Fawn said. “I guess a good father will always feel responsible for whatever his kid does.”

  The scowl faded as he studied her more closely.

  “Guess I wouldn’t know about that,” she muttered softly.

  Austin’s eyes narrowed at her words, then he shook his head. “Guess I wouldn’t, either. But maybe it’s time to make up for a lot of things,” he said, almost as if to himself.

  “Are you moving back to Hideaway?” she asked. Blaze wouldn’t be thrilled about that. Dane Gideon wouldn’t be happy, either, though he was too much of a gentleman ever to say anything.

  Austin glanced around the lobby, appraising. “I’m not sure where I’ll be moving yet. I need to talk to Cheyenne Allison, Dane Gideon, make a few—”

  “That’s Cheyenne Gideon.”

  The guy blinked, as if startled. “Of course. I knew that.”

  “I heard you had a thing for her,” Fawn said.

  He gave a disapproving frown. “For a newcomer, you sure know a lot about me.”

  “While you’re making apologies, are you going to apologize to Blaze Farmer?”

  He leveled a long, steady look at her. “Have you suddenly decided to become my conscience?”

  “I thought you said you’d come here to make amends. Seems to me you need to be making amends to Blaze for quite a few things.”

  Austin continued to study her thoughtfully. “Yes, it would seem that way, wouldn’t it?”

  His focused attention made her nervous.

  Jill sat wiping the massage cream from her face with the turban that had been wrapped around her head. She couldn’t stop staring at Edith’s still form, listening to the soft echo of sobs coming from another room.

  Sheena had run out when Cheyenne made the pronouncement, and Noelle had gone to comfort her and cancel clients for the remainder of the day. Apparently Sheena had loved Edith, too.

  A quick glance told Jill that Rex Fairfield was still here. She returned her attention to Edith as Karah Lee pulled a sheet over that death mask.

  Jill winced. She couldn’t do this. She needed to run away screaming, needed to shake her fist at God and ask what He thought He was doing. She needed to rail at Cheyenne for giving up so easily. These weren’t just impulses, they were compulsions that she had to control.

  The real Jill Cooper was a rational human being, a responsible RN, an adult.

  Oh, the awful terror that had been in Edith’s eyes…the horrible knowledge of something—but what? What had she been trying to say? Hallucinating, no doubt, but why?

  “Jill?” A deep masculine voice broke into her thoughts.

  With a start, she looked up, then looked away quickly, refusing to meet Rex’s gaze. Not now. It was just too much. She didn’t want to deal with this—couldn’t deal with it. All she wanted to do was fall to her knees at Edith’s side and weep against her shoulder as she had done so often as a young teenager.

  “I’m so sorry,” Rex said. The gentle sympathy in his low baritone voice reawakened memories she couldn’t bear right now.

  She nodded. What was this man doing here? What kind of crazy, tilted nightmare was this?

  “The timing is awful,” Rex continued. “I would never have done this to you—”

  “You haven’t done a thing to me, Rex.” She forced herself, then, to meet his gaze. “I don’t know what you’re doing in Hideaway, but I doubt either of us is hung up on something that happened twenty-two years ago.”

  “Some things were left in limbo then,” he said. “We parted without enough explanations, which was unfortunate. I take the blame. Eventually, we’ll need to clear the air. I owe you an—”

  “I have other things to do right now, Rex.” Without waiting for a reply, she brushed past him and knelt to help Cheyenne pick up debris.

  “I need to go tell Bertie,” Cheyenne said.

  “No.” Jill couldn’t allow anyone else to do that. “That should be my job. I’ll need to contact Edith’s family. She has a niece who lives in Springfield, and others—”

  “You need some time to recover.” Cheyenne squeezed cellophane wrappers into a tight ball with more force than normal. “Bertie’s—”

  “Please, Chey. I need to do this.” Jill touched Cheyenne’s shoulder, then noticed what she should have seen earlier—the silent tears coursing down her director’s face.

  “How about you?” Jill asked. “Are you okay?”

  Cheyenne nodded.

  Jill realized this must be bringing back horrible memories for her. When Cheyenne was an ER doc in Columbia, her younger sister had been brought in via ambulance after an automobile accident. Cheyenne couldn’t resuscitate her, and in the end she’d had to call her own baby sister’s death.

  Jill couldn’t imagine how she would have felt had that happened to her with Noelle.

  “I’ll go with her, Cheyenne,” Noelle said from the open doorway.

  Jill continued to feel Rex’s attention on her, and she finally looked up at him. What she saw in his expression soothed her jumbled emotions.

  “I can do this,” Jill repeated, striding from the room. She continued out the front door of the spa, wishing she never had to return to this place.

  When would it all end? How many deaths would this tiny village have to endure?

  She was halfway across the street when she heard footsteps behind her.

  “You don’t need to keep vigil over me,” she said. “I’m fine.”

  “I loved her, too, you know,” came a gentle female voice.

  Jill softened. Noelle. At this moment she could barely focus on placing one foot in front of the other, but out of habit, she forced herself to gather her strength for her sister.

  Noelle rested a hand on Jill’s arm, her touch tentative, as if she half expected it to be shaken off.

  Lord, wake me up! This can’t be happening again, Jill prayed.

  “Edith was always there for us,” Noelle said as they stepped onto the grass across
the street from the town square. “Especially for you.”

  Jill nodded. In spite of the oppressive heat, it seemed as if a thick fog had covered the sun. She glanced up to find not a cloud in the blue sky. The sun shone brightly. It just didn’t seem to be reaching her.

  “She was my best friend,” Jill said at last.

  “I know.”

  Edith had taken the place of their mother when she was killed. Edith had played the role of the strong parent when the girls’ father had withdrawn into a world of grief and buried himself in work.

  “I went to her for guidance when I couldn’t control you,” Jill continued.

  “I’m sorry I made it so hard for you,” Noelle said.

  “I’m not saying it was your fault, I’m just saying Edith was my strength.”

  “I was old enough to know better.”

  “You were acting out because you were frightened. You needed your mother, and I wasn’t her. You needed a father, and he wasn’t able to cope.”

  “Stop making excuses for me. Besides, we’re talking about you for once.”

  Jill’s steps slowed as she stared out across the surface of Table Rock Lake. As much as she wanted to reassure Noelle that she would be fine, Jill knew Noelle wouldn’t believe her. And it might be a lie. In times of extreme stress, like now, an OCD crisis was always a possibility.

  Her steps slowed further as they drew near the bed and breakfast that Edith Potts and Bertie Meyer had purchased and turned into a profitable business. “Oh, Noelle, what’s Bertie going to do now? She still hasn’t recovered from Red’s death. Now Edith.”

  Her sister’s trembling hand grasped hers. That tremor reminded Jill that Noelle, too, had just witnessed another horrible death. It brought back their past with such clarity—and they hadn’t had time to recover from all the darkness.

  Edith had been a constant in their lives for so many years.

  “It isn’t your fault,” Noelle said quietly. “You can’t take responsibility for this.” She paused, then, still more quietly, added, “Especially not for this.”

  “That isn’t what I’m doing, I’m just—” Jill frowned, then stopped and looked at her sister, studying the beautiful lines of Noelle’s face. Especially not for this. “What do you mean?”

  Noelle didn’t meet her gaze, and Jill felt a tingling of alertness.

  Since childhood, Noelle had been gifted with a special intuition that had frightened Jill. Now that they understood it better and realized that this intuition was pure and of God, a simple spiritual gift, it didn’t frighten her as badly as it once had. Still, Jill had learned to take it seriously when Noelle experienced this special knowledge. It wasn’t a conjuring. Noelle would never have sought this gift for herself, and she continued to avoid addressing it whenever possible. For her to make that remark now meant something, Jill knew.

  “Are you telling me there could be something else going on—”

  “Do you have any idea what Rex Fairfield is doing here?” Noelle asked abruptly.

  “I don’t want to talk about him right now. We need to—”

  “I can’t go there yet.” Noelle tugged her hand away, and Jill realized she had been holding on too tightly—something she had often done to Noelle. “I’m the reason you broke up with him, aren’t I?” Noelle asked.

  “What makes you think I’m the one who broke it off?”

  “Whoever did it, I’m the reason,” Noelle said. “I overheard the two of you fighting because you insisted on coming home every weekend. And I know you did that because I kept getting into trouble. If not for me, maybe—”

  “I thought you said it wasn’t about you this time,” Jill snapped. “The reason Rex and I didn’t get married is because it wasn’t meant to be, so stop wallowing in guilt.”

  “I’m not,” Noelle snapped back. “I’m just telling it like it is.”

  Jill stopped and turned to Noelle then, softening her voice. “Honey, if not for you, I might have no sanity left. Because I knew I had to be responsible for you, I was willing to seek help for my compulsions.”

  Noelle held her gaze for a moment, then nodded. Something cleared in her expression. She looked down at her hands. “Thanks. Glad I could be of service.”

  Jill relaxed slightly at the gentle teasing. “Now, are you going to tell me what you know about Edith’s death?”

  “Not yet. I’m sorry, but you understand how it is. I just believe all is not as it seems. We need to be watchful.”

  Jill didn’t press for more, badly as she wanted to. What was not as it seemed? And who could be hiding something?

  Chapter Five

  Rex designated a biohazard receptacle and a sharps container as he collected used needles and tubing from the massage-room floor around Edith’s still body. He had to make do with what he had here at the spa and would place all the items in a proper receptacle later when they returned to the clinic.

  The rest of the makeshift code team had dispersed to other rooms in the spa to make arrangements for Edith’s funeral. The place was quiet, filled with the aura of shock and grief with which he had become familiar as an internist.

  The feeling of loss after a code wasn’t something he missed about his former life. He did miss other things, however. He’d loved the interaction with patients and their families and the chance to have a meaningful impact on a patient’s quality of life. Internal medicine had given him opportunities for that. Still, if he had it to do over again—which he might, someday—he would have gone into family practice.

  A general practice didn’t pay nearly as well as internal medicine. With the diminishing returns from health insurance, the number of uninsured patients and the high cost of professional liability insurance, many of his colleagues complained that they would soon have to pay their patients for the privilege of treating them.

  Cheyenne Gideon and Karah Lee Fletcher didn’t seem to have that attitude, however.

  When everything was collected from the floor, Rex sank onto the stool beside Edith’s body. She looked almost alive. If he didn’t know better, he would expect to see her chest rising and falling. There was something about her…“I’m sorry I didn’t get to talk to you again,” he murmured softly. “Go with God.”

  Footsteps echoed from the hallway, and Cheyenne stepped through the open threshold, mascara smudged around her dark eyes.

  “Rex, I’m sorry you were dragged into this, but thank you so much for your willingness to help.” There was a catch in her voice.

  “Thank you for including me. It’s been a while since I last did a code.”

  “Someone from the funeral home will be here soon.” She reached for an empty syringe and placed it in the receptacle. “You don’t have to wait.”

  “I’d like to, if you don’t mind.”

  With a nod, she sank into a chair, her dark eyes shimmering with more tears.

  “You must have cared a great deal about her,” he said.

  “Everyone did. Jill and Edith were especially close, and I hate to think what she’ll be going through in the next few days.”

  “She’ll blame herself,” Rex said.

  Cheyenne nodded, her eyes narrowing fractionally as she gazed at him. “Yes.” There was a hesitation in the word. It wasn’t quite a question, but he could almost hear her thoughts. Then her gaze returned to Edith.

  “When I was practicing medicine,” he said, “I made it a habit to ensure that the deceased patient was never left alone before being collected by the hearse or taken to the hospital morgue.” It hadn’t always been possible, of course, but he’d tried.

  She nodded. “You were in internal medicine? I guess that means you did intubations.”

  “Quite a few.”

  “When I was a med student, I heard horror stories about ER docs and internists who left their intubated patients alone after a failed code in a room, where the tube was moved by a careless staff member.”

  “Which set the doctor up for a malpractice lawsuit when he couldn’
t prove he had the tube in correctly,” Rex said. “I heard the same stories.”

  “You didn’t do this intubation.” Cheyenne gestured to Edith. “Obviously, you’re not staying to protect your liability.”

  He shook his head. “Somehow, it just doesn’t seem right to leave her lying here alone on the cold, hard floor. It’s always been a hang-up of mine.”

  “A tender heart? I bet you got teased about that in med school.”

  “Not so much in med school as when I was a resident.” He hadn’t minded the teasing. His little eccentricity had actually been the first thing that had drawn Jill to him. It had taken weeks to realize why she’d been so understanding about his quirks—because she had some pretty interesting quirks of her own.

  Karah Lee joined them in the room and sank onto the recliner. “Sheena’s not handling this well.”

  “Is she going to be okay?” Rex asked.

  Karah Lee nodded. “She’s on the telephone with her mother now. You know Jill’s got to be in agony. I’m just glad Noelle went with her.”

  “I need to talk to Bertie, myself,” Cheyenne said.

  “You’ll get your chance,” Karah Lee said. “And don’t worry, Bertie can handle this. She’s a trouper.”

  “Blaze and I were the ones who found her husband dead,” Cheyenne said. “Red was the sweetest old man, deaf as a flowerpot, as Bertie liked to say. After his death, Edith was always there for Bertie, even willing to risk her savings to go into business with her at the bed and breakfast.”

  “She was a wise and kind lady,” Rex said.

  Karah Lee’s eyes narrowed. “You knew her?”

  He looked down and studied the elderly, waxen face. There seemed to be just a hint of pink still in her cheeks. If he didn’t know better, he’d have thought she was wearing makeup, but anything on her skin would have been removed with all that green stuff.

  “You did know Edith?” Cheyenne asked.

  “I met her years ago. I take it this was not completely unexpected? Heart failure?”

  Cheyenne hesitated, watching him with those dark eyes, obviously trying to decipher the implication of his having known Edith. “She’s been struggling with chronic heart failure for the past year.”