Chapter 30 #2
No big deal, she told herself, but she noticed the instructor she’d seen with Shana the week before waiting and pacing impatiently by the main door, now wide open, the view of the surrounding fields and lane visible.
Tan, lean, and obviously irritated, she alternately stared down at the entrance to the academy and looked down at her cell’s screen, finally stuffing the phone into the back pocket of her jeans.
“Waiting for someone?” Nikki asked.
“What?” She seemed startled out of her own thoughts. “Well, yeah, I guess.” Lips pursed, she shaded her eyes with a hand and squinted into the lowering sun hanging just above the horizon.
“No one called and canceled?”
“Right.”
“Maybe they’re just caught in traffic or something.”
“Maybe. But she’s never late. Never. If something happened, you’d think she could call or shoot me a text.
” Hands on her slim hips, she scowled. “I’ve got a life, too, you know.
I gave up a babysitting gig, a really good one, for this lesson!
” She started to turn away, but Nikki caught her by the elbow.
“Hey!” She glared pointedly at Nikki’s hand.
“Sorry.” Nikki let go, just as the girl yanked her arm back. “I’m waiting for Shana’s mom,” she lied. “Usually she drops Shana off, right?” Nikki was just guessing. There could be other riders needing instruction at the same time, but she gambled.
“Yeah.” The girl backed up a step to allow Ophelia, leading Daisy, to pass by on her way to the stable area, the mare’s steel-shod hoofs ringing against the asphalt, her flaxen tail swishing against flies.
Nikki pressed, “And Naomi—I mean, her mom—waits for Shana?”
“Well … sometimes she waits, but usually she, you know, doesn’t stick around.”
“Where does she go?”
“God, how would I know?” she asked a little suspiciously. “You’re her friend.”
“Does she meet someone?” Nikki pressed.
The instructor hesitated. “Sometimes, yeah.” She glanced through the open door to the lane, and Nikki followed her gaze. A black pickup was rolling up the tree-lined drive, the same black Ram crew cab Nikki had seen the week before. “Huh. I guess Knox didn’t get the memo, either.”
“Knox?” Nikki repeated, remembering the name. Kyle had mentioned that Knox Quinlan was part of the group that met at the Stag and Boar.
“Yeah. He’s the guy she meets here,” the blonde said, then turned her narrowed gaze on Nikki. “Why are you asking all of these questions?”
Before Nikki could come up with a plausible lie, the door to the office burst open, and Miss Stacy bustled down the steps. She shot an irritated look Nikki’s way and said, “Brittany, I need to talk to you.”
“About what the eff happened to my lesson?”
Miss Stacy bristled slightly. “There’s been a slight mix-up,” she admitted, obviously flustered.
She angled a shoulder between Nikki and Brittany, and tried to keep their conversation more private by lowering her voice.
“Apparently, Mrs. Kittle called after hours yesterday and canceled. We, um, didn’t get the message until just now. ”
“Well, great,” Brittany said, throwing up her hands as if it were the end of the world. “I turned down another job for this!”
“I’m sorry, but Mrs. Kittle left the message on the office answering machine, and we didn’t get it until now. Annabelle usually deals with any messages that come in on the machine, but she’s not here and so, well, no one noticed.”
“Awesome.” Brittany didn’t bother to hide her sarcasm. “Just frickin’ awesome.”
“If you can stay another half hour,” Miss Stacy suggested, “we have a new student that you could teach.” She offered Brittany a plastic smile. “See, all is not lost.”
Brittany glowered for a second, then finally muttered, “Fine,” and stormed up the steps to the office. Miss Stacy sent a quick, disapproving glance at Chloe, who was still happily plying the goats with straw. Then she turned to follow Brittany into the office.
“Drama at the horse barns,” Nikki muttered. For a fleeting second, she considered complaining about the rude woman. She, or at least Lily, was a paying customer and—
Her phone buzzed in her pocket.
Retrieving it, she saw Pierce’s name and face appear. “About time,” she declared, then clicked on. “I was beginning to think you were ghosting me!”
“Just busy.”
“Yeah? I’ve been calling and texting all day.”
“I know.” He was serious. Dead serious. “This is the first chance I’ve had to call.”
So something was up. “Has there been a break in the case?” she asked. Damn it, why hadn’t she paid more attention to the news cycle on her phone?
“No. It’s something else,” he said and despite the heat settling in the building, she felt a chill run down her spine.
“Okay. I’m listening.”
“It’s Naomi Kittle. She’s missing.”
“What do you mean, ‘missing’?”
“Just that,” he said, and her gaze moved from Chloe and the small goat, through the door to the black crew cab parked in the lot. Knox Quinlan, in low-slung battered jeans, an open-collar shirt, and scuffed cowboy boots, stood near his big rig, his gaze fastened on the empty lane.
“After Jamison called this morning,” Pierce said, “and I went over to his house, he told me she didn’t come home last night.”
Nikki watched as Knox paced and squinted down the road, while Pierce explained Jamison’s story about how Naomi had dropped off her daughters with her sister in Charleston and then never returned.
The police in both South Carolina and Georgia were looking for her or her car, and so far nothing.
No friends knew where she was, and she hadn’t ended up in a hospital ER.
Jamison was currently picking up his daughters from Naomi’s sister.
“Has anyone talked to Quinlan?” Nikki asked, watching as the tall man was now talking on his phone. But the conversation was short. Maybe just leaving a message?
“No. Why?”
In obvious frustration, Quinlan jammed the phone into a worn back pocket and kicked at a stone on the asphalt to send it flying.
“I’m here at the riding academy picking up Phee, and Quinlan is, too, and it looks like he’s waiting for someone who isn’t showing. I’m guessing it’s Naomi Kittle.”
“What?” If possible, Pierce’s voice became tenser.
“I guess they meet here,” she said and, from the corner of her eye saw Phee, lugging her bag and helmet, walking from the stable area toward the main entrance.
Nikki waved to her niece and said into the phone, “I saw them talking the other day and, like I said, he’s here now, and it looks like he’s waiting for her. Is that a big deal?”
“I don’t know,” Pierce admitted. “Maybe. Remember I told you once that Jamison came back to Savannah and swept Naomi off her feet? That she was engaged to someone else?”
“Right.”
“That guy was Knox Quinlan.”
“Oh.”
“And he’s got a record,” he added grimly.