Part 2 (1/2)
”Are you eating with the others in the dining room tonight?” she asked. Cory often sat with the guests for dinner.
”Nah. John and I are heading into town for pizza.”
”It's nice that you and John get along so well.” She finished her milk, placed the gla.s.s in the sink and then returned to slicing up the last of the fruit.
”He's cool. He's kind of like a father, always telling me how to do things and teaching me stuff. We caught two rattlesnakes today, cut off their heads and threw them into the woods.”
Marlena's heart filled with sorrow for her brother, who had lost his mother and father far too soon. Although Marlena had done everything in her power to fill Cory's needs and see to his care, she knew she hadn't been a subst.i.tute for a masculine presence in his life.
”As far as I'm concerned, the only good snake is a dead snake,” she replied. ”I'm glad you have John. Every boy needs a male role model in his life, but don't forget our future game plan.”
”Yeah, yeah, I remember.” He finished his milk and stood. ”I'd better get out of here. We have some work to do outside before we head into town for dinner.” He walked over to her and kissed her on the temple. ”You sure you're okay?” he asked in a surprising role reversal.
”I'm hanging in there,” she replied, a surge of pride fluttering in her heart as she realized the child she'd raised was showing all the signs of becoming a man.
By the time she placed dinner on the table, the house was empty except for herself and the three agents. She served them and then returned to the kitchen, where she ate her dinner at the table where Sam, Daniella and Macy had been interrupted in a nighttime snack.
Their absence was a physical pain in her heart, and she knew it would be there until she got some answers. Hopefully Gabriel and his men had come up with something during the day's investigation.... A clue, a potential motive, something that would find the family alive and well.
After the men had eaten and she'd cleared their dishes and cleaned the kitchen, she retired to her private rooms, figuring the best thing she could do was stay out of the way of anything the FBI agents were doing to investigate.
It was after eight when a knock fell on her door. She got up from the rocking chair and opened the door to see Gabriel.
”May I come in?” he asked.
Surprised, she opened the door farther and motioned him to the sofa, then sank back in the old wooden rocking chair that squeaked faintly with every rock. ”Did you find out anything today?” she asked, trying to ignore the pleasant woodsy scent that had followed him into the room.
”Several things, but nothing concrete to provide a trail to follow.” As usual, his handsome features appeared set in stone, and there was no warmth, no welcome at all in the depths of his eyes. ”I stopped in to tell you that it isn't necessary for you to cook for us. We aren't paying guests here, so we aren't your responsibility.”
”I really don't mind, and besides, it keeps me busy. I'll go crazy with nothing to do around here,” she protested.
He leaned against the sofa back, seeming to shrink the size of the piece of furniture-and the entire room-with his presence. ”Pamela Winters is not a fan of yours.”
Marlena couldn't help the short burst of laughter that escaped her at his understatement. ”Pamela Winters hates my guts.”
”Why is that?”
Marlena rocked several times, the squeak of the chair the only noise in the room as she thought of the dark-haired woman who worked as the head housekeeper.
Marlena finally stopped her movement and focused on the man asking the questions. ”I think Pamela thought she was going to become the manager once Daniella decided to give up some of the reins of the daily running of the place. Unfortunately, when I arrived here, penniless and with no place else to go, Daniella not only took me under her wing, but she instantly appointed me manager. I don't blame Pamela for feeling betrayed, but somehow her anger has been pointed at me. We're civil with each other, but she's made it clear she doesn't want to be my friend.”
”She thinks maybe you had something to do with the disappearances because you might be named a beneficiary in Sam's and Daniella's wills.”
Marlena gasped, and then laughed again. ”That's ridiculous.” Her laughter died, and she began to rock back and forth with a sense of both outrage and fear. ”First of all, I refuse to believe that they're dead, and I'll repeat again, I had absolutely nothing to do with their disappearance. Second, they would have never made me a beneficiary. Daniella knew this was just a stopping place for me and Cory, that it was temporary until we gathered our resources to get on with our lives, and that we were planning on leaving soon.”
”Get on with your lives? What does that mean?”
She was aware of the piercing quality of his eyes and the simmer of some indefinable energy between them. ”My goal was never to be a manager of a bed-and-breakfast. Cory and I are planning to eventually move to a bigger city where I can get a teaching degree, and he can get some sort of technical training. I want the house and the dog, the husband and the children. Daniella and Sam knew that this job was just temporary for me, that I had different dreams than staying here in Bachelor Moon. Are you married?”
”No, and have no intention of joining the ranks of the married set. I like living alone. I wouldn't do marriage well, so there's no point in trying it.” He stood suddenly. ”I'll let you get back to whatever you were doing before I came in.”
She got out of the rocking chair and followed him to the door. ”Actually, I'm thinking of taking a little walk. I could use some fresh air.”
”Then I'll just say good night.” Gabriel gave her a curt nod and left, heading back through the kitchen and dining room toward the stairs to his room.
Marlena left her room and stepped through the kitchen door that led outside. She breathed deeply of the humid, floral-scented air. Darkness had fallen, but a full moon shone overhead, easily lighting the path that led around the pond.
Her head ached with all the questions, the fears, the utter horror of the past twenty-four hours. What had happened to Sam and Daniella and Macy? It was as if an alien s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p had shot down a beam that had instantly drawn them up and out of the house, leaving no identifying clues behind.
She couldn't imagine who might want to hurt the Connellys. They were respected, warm and giving to both their guests and the community of Bachelor Moon. Daniella served on a half dozen charity committees, and Sam was the man people called on when they were in trouble or needed something done. Macy was everyone's delight with her sa.s.sy att.i.tude and sweet, loving heart.
As she neared the area where the walkway came closest to the pond, a chorus of bullfrogs sang a deep-throated tune and a faint splash indicated that the fish were jumping.
It was a beautiful night, and yet all was wrong with the world. Tears burned at her eyes as she thought of the people she loved, people who were missing without any apparent reason.
The path she followed stopped abruptly at the far end of the pond. A trail led off to John's little cabin but a sign indicated that guests weren't allowed on the narrow path.
She turned and started back the way she had come. Her thoughts s.h.i.+fted to the man in charge of the case: Gabriel Blankens.h.i.+p.
She was both drawn to and repelled by him at the same time. His intensity nearly stole her breath away. Something about him made her pulse pound a little harder, her heart race a little faster. She recognized it as some sort of strange attraction, but he was certainly the last man she'd want any kind of relations.h.i.+p with.
He was here to do a job, and when the job was done, he would be gone. He'd just told her that he wasn't the marrying type, and marriage was definitely on her wish list. She'd thought that was where she was headed with Gary Holzman when she'd lived in Chicago, but that dream had exploded and she'd wound up here with nothing but a beat-up car spewing fumes, a suitcase full of clothes and Cory.
She'd just about reached the part of the walkway that was closest to the pond's edge when the sound of rustling in the brush behind her stopped the bullfrog's song.
She had no chance to turn, no time to process that danger was coming before she was shoved from behind with enough force that she flew forward and was weightless for an instant-airborne-and then she plunged into the pond.
Headfirst she went down...down, with no idea how to get up.
Chapter Three.
Although it was relatively early, after the short night before, Gabriel had told both Jackson and Andrew to head to bed and get a good night's sleep, as he intended to do himself. He was certain the next day would be a long one, and he wanted them all to start out rested.
He stripped down to a pair of boxers and then opened the window, despite the air-conditioning that kept the room cool and pleasant. Since the age of seven, Gabriel had always kept his bedroom window open, never knowing when he might need to make a hasty escape from a raging drunken father.
Certainly more than once throughout his childhood, he'd used the window to flee the wrath of George Blankens.h.i.+p. Like Marlena's, Gabriel's mother had abandoned him and his father when Gabriel had been seven. She'd left him in the hands of a brutal man who'd either beaten him half to death for unclear reasons or ignored him until Gabriel was old enough to exit and never look back.
He'd lived on the streets, worked a hundred different jobs, and waffled between a life of crime and a life of investigating crimes. He'd finally managed to make his way through college with a criminal justice degree and a minor in psychology, and that's when the FBI had brought him in as a profiler.
He loved his job and he was good at it, but this particular case already had him frustrated by the lack of leads. The bank records had shown no red flags either in the personal or business finances. The email accounts showed no threats or unusual activity. So far he and his team hadn't spoken to anybody who didn't admire or like the family.
Granted, they were still in the beginning stages of the investigation, but he knew that, in many disappearances, within the first couple of hours, the taken were killed.
What he didn't know yet was who had been the intended target. Was it Sam, and his wife and stepdaughter were merely collateral damage? Was there something in Daniella's past that might have brought this on?
He turned off the light in his room and got beneath the lavender top sheet, his mind whirling a million miles an hour. There had to have been more than one person involved; otherwise how was it possible for a single individual to neutralize three people and get them out of their home? And Marlena had heard nothing, which meant either she was lying or whoever had come in and taken the three people had done so relatively silently. How was that possible with a seven-year-old little girl in the mix?