Chapter 6
Raven hit the Bluetooth key on her steering column to call her dad.
She’d meant to call him before leaving for work, but she was running late.
Not that anyone was waiting for her, there were no activities at the community center this morning.
But her start time was nine, so that was when she needed to get there.
Lottie liked to keep a close eye on her, and there was every chance the bitter woman could be spying from Bloom or The Pancake Bar.
Yes, it sounded unhinged. But that was Lottie.
Her father answered on the third ring. “Hi, honey.”
“Hi, Dad. You sound tired. Is everything okay?”
“Your mother just had a bad night, that’s all.”
Her stomach rolled as she turned right. “What happened?”
“She woke up about two and was disoriented. She didn’t recognize me for a few minutes and was trying to get out of the apartment. I had to call a nurse, but before she got here, your mother saw a photo of us on the dresser. It brought her back.”
Unexpected tears gathered in Raven’s eyes. Because it would just keep getting worse until one day she wouldn’t recognize either of them. “I’m coming now.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No. You have work.”
“I don’t care—”
“I do. I know you need that job. I don’t want you doing anything to jeopardize it.”
She wrinkled her nose, hating that her father was right. She did need her job. “Fine. But I need you to call me if anything else happens like that or if you need my help with anything.”
“Of course, sweetie.”
“And how are you?” She turned left, the town green and gazebo coming into view.
“I’m good.”
She had no idea if that was true. Her father had always tried to shield her from pain. And what was happening with her mother had to be hurting him.
“You haven’t received any more packages or contact from Xander, have you?” She swallowed at the thought.
“No. Nothing.”
Good. That was good.
“I need to go, Rave. Your mother’s just getting out of the shower.”
“Okay. Say hi to her for me. And Dad…I love you.”
“I love you too, darling.”
She hung up, a long, exhausted breath hissing through her teeth.
That was not the way she wanted to start her day.
Especially after the mess that was Nathaniel at the bar last night.
But it was fine. She was willing herself a good day today.
She had an entire morning to settle into the office and do admin work. She’d put on some music and—
She gasped when she parked in front of the center.
The door was open. Not only that, cars lined the street around the building and people were inside.
What the hell?
Quickly, she climbed from her Subaru. A Subaru that was absolutely parked illegally, but Ward wouldn’t ticket her—that would just create work for him.
Three steps up and she stopped inside the hall.
What in the ever-living insanity was this? Were the women dancing…? No, not dancing. This was Zumba.
No one stopped or turned toward her, so she just stood there for a full twenty seconds, open-mouthed and wide-eyed. The lady at the front leading the group shouted instructions and the women followed.
Suddenly, Lottie stepped out of the office. Raven’s office.
“You.” Raven’s voice was barely a whisper.
Of course. Of course this was Lottie, because who else would break into a building, run an unapproved and unscheduled dance class, and just stroll out of an office that wasn’t hers like she owned the place?
Stepping outside and cooling down before approaching the old bat would be smart.
But Raven didn’t feel smart. She felt angry. Frustrated at everything and everyone. Xander. Nathaniel. Tim not answering her calls. And the terrible sicknesses that gripped her parents.
Without a second thought, she stormed across the hall.
Lottie’s brows shot up at the sight of Raven. “Oh. Hi. Only five minutes late today, I see.”
“What the hell is going on, Lottie?”
“Shh. A class is running.”
She was shushing Raven? “Yeah. The class. That’s what I’m saying what the hell to.”
Lottie grabbed her arm and tugged her into the office. “I need you to keep your voice down. It took me a lot of time to make this class happen. The teacher drove in from Bozeman.”
Holy Jesus. She was going to lose it. She was literally going to explode and take the woman down with her.
“That is not your job, Lottie. I am the manager of this community center. I organize the programs and activities. I also open the building. I should have changed the lock the second you admitted you had a key.”
“Changed the lock? You can’t—”
“I can. Because I am the manager. Not you.” Raven held out her hand. “Give it to me.”
“What?”
“Give me the key. Now.” Raven was mildly aware of the new silence in the other room. But she was far past the point of feeling any kind of capacity to pull back.
Lottie’s cheeks bloomed. “I will do no such thing.”
“Oh really? So you don’t mind me calling our town mayor and letting him know you took his key and kept it?
Because I know that’s how you got it and you broke the law.
I could call Ward too. Should we see what he thinks?
” Would the lazy sheriff care? She had no idea.
But if the fear in Lottie’s eyes was anything to go by, she didn’t like the threat.
Lottie’s gaze flickered behind Raven before meeting hers again. Then she pulled a single key from her pocket and pushed it into Raven’s hand. “Here.”
“Good. Stop undermining me. This is my job. And you need to let me do it.”
With a huff, Lottie stormed around her, and it was only when Raven turned that she noticed the group of women now stood by the door. They’d all heard their argument—including Maureen, the self-proclaimed town psychic.
Strangely, she didn’t care. They should hear. This was Raven’s life, and she was tired of Lottie and Nathaniel and Xander all trying to bully her into submission.
The center cleared out pretty quickly after that. It wasn’t until she was finally alone that the flickers of doubt started to slip in. Maybe she should have gone easier on Lottie. Maybe yelling at her in front of a bunch of locals wasn’t the best idea.
Dammit.
As the day progressed, the series of unfortunate events just piled on top of each other. One-by-one, people started withdrawing from activities. Sunday yoga. Friday night bingo. Even the new paint-and-sip class she had coming up soon.
When she went for a walk at lunch, she felt eyes on her. Two older women stared as she crossed the road. Another whispered to her husband outside of Bloom. Had word really gotten around about her argument with Lottie that quickly?
By the time she was done for the day, she was exhausted. Need-to-drop-into-bed, pull-the-sheets-over-her-head, sleep-for-a-decade kind of exhausted. And to make everything worse, she still hadn’t been able to get in touch with her PI.
Had something happened to him? Or had he just taken her money and blocked her?
Panic tried to settle inside her belly, but she forced it away. He would call her back. She’d paid him, and he ran a business. He was probably just knee-deep in finding incriminating information on her ex.
She pulled up to her apartment and tried to slip her key into the lock…only to find it didn’t fit.
What the hell?
She tried again. Same thing. Did she have the wrong door?
She glanced up at the number. Apartment three. No. Right apartment.
She tried for the third time. “Come on.”
When it still didn’t work, she pulled out her cell and called her landlord.
Dale answered immediately. “Raven. I’ve been waiting for your call.”
“There’s something wrong with my key. It’s—”
“I changed the locks.”
She froze. “What? You can’t do that. And you have to give me three days’ notice.”
“Too bad. Should have paid your rent on time. I have a new tenant moving in later this week.”
Panic crawled up her chest. She shook her head. “You said I had until the end of the day, Dale. That was our agreement.”
“Yeah, but then I talked to my sister.”
She frowned. “Your sister?”
“Lottie.”
Raven’s jaw dropped. No. The town couldn’t be that small, could it?
“She had quite the story to tell me about how you embarrassed her today,” he continued.
She rubbed her temple, a headache throbbing behind her eyes. “That was a private conversation—”
“Really? She said you yelled at her in front of all her friends.”
“No—”
“That you humiliated her.”
“Dale. Please. Where am I supposed to go?”
“That’s not my problem. You didn’t pay your rent on time, so I found someone else. I’ll be there tomorrow morning for you to grab your shit. We can talk about your security deposit. Then I never want to see you again.”
He hung up—and Raven stood there, jaw open, wondering what the heck she was supposed to do and where she was supposed to sleep.
Connor leaned back in the deck chair, the Montana air cooling his skin. He was back at Deep River Residence, cup of tea in hand, Herbert beside him.
He wasn’t a tea drinker. But the beverage options had been peppermint or chamomile…he’d gone peppermint.
Herbert sipped his own drink. “This is nice. I don’t usually get a visit from you or your team unless I’ve tried to hightail it out of here.”
Connor chuckled. The fact the old man could joke about his great escapes was good. It meant he was having an okay day, and Connor might get a bit more out of him. “I’ve actually got something I’d like to talk to you about.”
A resident passed them, but Herbert paid them no attention. He lifted his brows at Connor. “I don’t know what you could possibly need from an old man like me?”
Connor sipped his tea. Fuck, it was worse than he’d thought. He set it on the small table between them. “Can we talk about your daughter, Lila?”
The small smile slipped from Herbert’s mouth. “Lila. Don’t get to talk about her much. Think about her all the time though. What do you want to know?”
“I’d love to know about the circumstances of her disappearance.”
Herbert looked into the forest beyond the fence, but it was clear he wasn’t really seeing it. “She went missing on a Friday. She called me that morning. I remember because she was checking on me after Thursday night poker. She always checked on me. She was good like that.”
“But neither of you lived in Deep River, right?”
“No. We’re from Minnesota. I only moved here after she went missing. For so long, I thought I could find her. Or convince that damn sheriff to take her disappearance seriously. But neither of those things happened. Now I just go to that spot to feel close to her.”
“Why was she here?”
“She was a hiker. She told her friends she was here to hike the trails.”
“But you don’t think that was true?”
Herbert’s frown deepened. “She was also a journalist. I knew she wasn’t telling me something. I pushed and she revealed she was here for a story.”
“What kind of story?”
He was silent for a moment, his gaze on the trees again, unfocused. “I tried to call her that night. She didn’t answer. Immediately, I knew something was wrong. She always answered my calls.”
“Herbert—”
“I called the sheriff.” He laughed, but the sound held no humor. It was almost angry. “Rodney Ward. Couldn’t believe it when he wouldn’t even start a search. So I caught the first flight I could and searched myself. I didn’t know these woods, but I learned them.”
“Why do you think she was killed, Herbert?”
Now, the older man looked at him. And there was a pain there. A clarity that was often missing. “There is no way, absolutely none, that she would disappear on me. She was my baby.” His voice cracked. “And someone took her from me.”
“Herbert.” They both looked up as Briar walked toward them, a kind smile on the caregiver’s face. “It’s dinnertime.”
“Jilly make her famous pot roast?” Herbert asked.
“Of course. It’s Monday.”
The frown on Herbert’s face eased. “Let’s go.” He looked back at Connor. “It was nice to talk to someone about Lila. Maybe one day I can tell you about all the great things she did with her life.”
“I’d love that.”
Connor was slower to get up. The information from Herbert wasn’t much to go by. Ethan’s research had already told them she was a journalist, but now he wanted to know which story she was chasing here in Deep River. Was that what had gotten her killed? And did her father know more than he’d said?
With a sigh, Connor rose. He’d just stepped into the building when an elderly couple walked through the sitting area.
The woman’s eyes lit up. “Connor.”
“Hi, ma’am.”
“Call me Gene.” She turned to her husband. “Craig, this is Raven’s friend.”
The man’s bushy brows pulled together. “Raven’s friend?”
“New friend,” Connor corrected. “You must be Raven’s father.”
“Yes.” The man took a moment to size him up. “How do you know Raven?”
“We’ve run into each other around town a few times.”
“He’s search and rescue, dear.” Gene patted his arm.
Connor could see bits of Raven in both of them. She had her mother’s soft features and gentle expression, but her father’s eye shade—the bright blue.
“We should get to dinner,” Gene said, before looking back at him. “It was nice to see you again. If you run into Raven tonight, ask her to call us. We haven’t been able to get through this afternoon.”
He frowned as they walked away. Why hadn’t Raven answered calls from her parents? From what she’d told him last night at the bar, they were close and she worried about them. As he headed out, he hit her number. It rang, then it rang some more. By the fourth ring, he knew she wasn’t going to answer.
Was she in trouble?
Quickly, he typed out a text.
Connor: Hey. I ran into your parents at the residence. They said you aren’t answering their calls. Everything okay?
He wasn’t sure if she’d text back. They hadn’t known each other for long, and she didn’t owe him anything. But dammit, he needed to know that she was all right.
Three dots popped up. Then disappeared.
His finger twitched to hit her name and call her a second time. Then her response came through.
Raven: Hey, Connor. Yes, all is fine. Just a busy day. I’ll call them back tonight.
Connor: Are you sure?
Another pause between responses, this time longer.
Raven: Just ready to sleep off a long day.