Chapter Twenty-Four
Renee dropped her ring of keys onto the top step of Lynette’s cabin. The rain made them slippery, and there were so many resort keys; the ring was cumbersome to hold while also trying to open a door.
“Is she in there?” Annie yelled from the grass in front of the cabin.
“Here,” Jackie said, pushing the ring back into Renee’s hands. “She’s not answering, but she might be asleep.”
“Or passed out,” Renee muttered. “What possessed her to drink like that again? I thought she was doing so well lately.” She felt Jackie push closer, as if trying to shelter from the downpour under the overhang of the cabin’s roof. She fumbled through the ring again, trying to find the correct key. “This would go quicker if you quit bumping into me.”
“Sorry. The rain is so cold. What if Lynette isn’t in her cabin, sleeping it off?”
Renee refused to even consider that. Frankly, there weren’t many other decent places Lynette could take shelter from the weather. New guests were already settled in the duplex that Donna and the other moms had left. She kept the lodge locked when no one was using it, which was the case at this ungodly hour, and they kept all the sheds and small outbuildings around the resort locked, too, for safety reasons.
But Jackie kept insisting that, as she’d closed the windows in their cabin when far-off thunder threatened to usher in a rain shower, she heard Lynette yell something.
She’d sent Kit to double-check the lodge while they looked in Lynette’s cabin, but something told her Lynette wasn’t over there.
As she fumbled for the correct key again, she couldn’t help but wonder how Matt, Robbie, and the other anglers were faring in their tents. Maybe it wasn’t even raining at the campground on the other side of the lake. For their sake, she hoped that was the case. Tenting in the rain wasn’t as cozy as holing up in a comfortable cabin.
Lynette has to be inside,she thought.
Between the noise of the storm and all the wine Lynette had put down at dinner, she must have passed out. While the run to Lynette’s cabin through the rain hadn’t been fun, it was probably a good idea to check up on her, even if Jackie was wrong about the shout she thought she’d heard. Tomorrow she’d talk to Lynette about her drinking. She had genuine concerns about her old pen pal.
She finally found the correct key again and shoved it in the lock, holding tighter this time. The door swung open and Jackie pushed past her, heading straight for the cabin’s single bedroom. The kitchen light glowed. No one was in the two outer rooms or the bathroom. Annie and Kit both ran inside and into the tiny kitchen, past Renee, as she dropped the keys into the pocket of the sweats she’d pulled on over her shorty pajamas.
“Is she here?” Kit asked. The rain had plastered her wet hair against her skull. “You were right, Renee—you locked the lodge up tight.”
“She’s not here,” Jackie said, rushing back out of the bedroom. “Her bed is messy, but I don’t know if she even made it today.”
Renee spied an empty gin bottle in the sink. She crossed over to it and held it up for the others to see. “I don’t like this. Could she have left the resort?”
Kit shook her head. “Not unless she took one of your vehicles. When I checked the lodge, I saw both Annie’s car and my Mustang in the lot.”
Thunder cracked above, rattling the windowpanes.
“Dean is going to kill me if it hails on my Mustang after he just put all that money into fixing it up,” Kit added. She hurried to the single front window and pulled up the shade. “It’s really coming down out there. Maybe Lynette got into the lodge some other way.”
“Maybe you forgot to lock one of the doors, and she let herself in, then locked it behind her. Lynette always locks doors. All those years of city life, I suppose,” Annie said, shaking rainwater from her hands.
Annie’s suggestion wasn’t impossible, but it was a stretch. Renee knew no one wanted to even consider that Lynette might be outside somewhere. Maybe she should call Matt. Since they were tenting, she was sure he was monitoring the weather. He’d know whether this storm was supposed to continue for much longer or if it would clear. Summer storms were usually short-lived in Minnesota.
“What if she was stupid enough to go for a walk in the woods in the dark?” Kit said. “Bears are nocturnal.”
Renee held up a hand. “Stop. I need to think. If Lynette did something to put herself in danger, we need to find her. Fast.”
“Call Matt,” Jackie said.
“I was just thinking that, too,” Renee admitted, pulling her phone out. “Let’s hope he has decent cell service at the campground.”
She stepped away from the others as their nervous chatter continued.
Matt picked up after she’d held her breath through two ring tones. “Hey, babe. Everything all right over at the resort? A couple of the guys talked about doing some night fishing, but I’m glad they decided against it. It’s really coming down out—”
“Matt,” she said, cutting him off. “We might have a situation over here.”
“What happened?” His tone shifted. She thought the background noise from his end of the call might have even quieted.
“It’s Lynette. We can’t find her.”
Jackie, Kit, and Annie came over and stood quietly beside her, though Annie’s toe was tapping like crazy.
“What do you mean, you can’t find her?”
Renee rubbed at her forehead in frustration. “She was drinking. That was the first thing I noticed that seemed off about her. She doesn’t really drink much anymore, but yesterday and today seemed different, even though I think she was trying to hide the fact that she was drunk.”
“Okay . . .” he said, drawing out the word. “But this is supposed to be a vacation for all of you. It’s all right to blow off a little steam.”
“I know that,” she snapped back. She instantly regretted it, but Lynette’s disappearance had her nerves stretched thin. Her gut told her something was very wrong. “I’m sorry. I’m scared. I wouldn’t have called you if I wasn’t really worried. We ate at our house this evening, then we visited on the porch, but we’ve been together for a week and a half now. There’s still plenty to talk about between us—”
“Renee,” Matt said. “Get to the point, please.”
“We were all tired, so we turned in. Jackie and Kit watched Annie go to her cabin, but Lynette is staying in the Gray Cabin. She insisted she could get herself home safely. You know it isn’t far.”
“The Gray Cabin?” Kit whispered.
“That’s what we call the little cabin Lynette’s in,” Renee clarified, holding a hand over her phone for a second.
“But she didn’t get there?” Matt asked.
“Maybe not. We aren’t sure.” She turned on speaker mode and held the phone out for everyone to hear. “Jackie and Kit thought she had. But before Jackie went to bed, she went to close the windows in their cabin since it was threatening to rain. She also went out onto their screened-in porch to pull the sofa back from the screens a little so it wouldn’t get wet. That’s when she heard someone yell the word ‘yes.’ She thought it might have been Lynette. The rain came, and she was uneasy, so she ran to Lynette’s cabin. The lights were on, but the door was locked and Lynette wasn’t answering. Jackie came and got me. We’ve been looking ever since, but we can’t find her.”
She caught her breath.
“And you’re sure she didn’t just pass out on her bed?”
“No. I used my key to get into her cabin. Her bed is messy, but she isn’t in here.”
“Did you check the lodge?”
Jackie started shifting her weight back and forth. “What, does he think we’re idiots?” she whispered.
“No, I don’t think you are idiots,” Matt said. “I’m just trying to assess the situation.”
Annie shoved at Jackie’s arm.
“Guys, focus!” Kit scolded.
Renee switched the phone off speaker and put it to her ear again. “Matt, we’ll check everywhere we can think of again, but I’m terrified. What if she went for a walk in the woods? She was drunk, and she’s always liked to go for walks in the dark. She loves being out in the moonlight.”
“Is there any chance she went out on the lake?” an unfamiliar voice asked.
The very idea sent a blade of fear through Renee. “Who said that?”
“A friend of Owen’s,” Matt said. “You don’t know him. But Renee, is that possible?”
“The lake?” She hadn’t even considered that possibility.
Jackie shook her head. “She isn’t a strong swimmer. She wouldn’t be that dumb.”
“But she was pretty drunk,” Kit countered. “Look, guys, Lynette overheard some things that hit her pretty hard the other night. She asked me not to say anything, but I know it really hurt her.”
“Renee,” Matt said, pulling her attention back to her phone. “We can be there in twenty minutes. Fifteen if we hurry. I’m sure she’s all right, but she might have wandered off into the trees or something, and it would be best if we got her inside in this weather. It sounds like you could use some extra hands.”
“Don’t patronize me, Matt,” Renee said. It was easier to yell at him than to consider that Lynette might be in real danger.
“I’m not, hon, I swear. But I don’t want anyone to go down by the water alone. Stay paired up if you go outside. Recheck the buildings, too. We’ll be there as quick as we can.”
She nodded to her phone, then, feeling stupid, ended the call and shoved it back into her pocket. “The guys are coming to help us find her.”
“Good,” Jackie said.
Annie and Kit looked relieved to hear it, too.
Renee took a deep breath. She would let Matt take over the search once they arrived, but in the meantime, it was up to her to find Lynette while also avoiding spreading a sense of panic among her other guests. “Jackie, come with me, down to the water. I want to check the canoes. God forbid she was stupid enough to take one of them. Kit and Annie, I need you to go back to my house, wake up Julie, and make sure Lynette didn’t circle back and fall asleep on my porch or something. My daughter sleeps hard and will often miss phone calls. She can help you double-check the lodge, any outbuildings, that kind of thing. By then the guys should be back. Now go.”
A full twenty minutes later, Renee paced impatiently in front of the lodge, waiting for signs of Matt’s truck. When headlights finally shone through the trees, heading in her direction, she could have dropped to her knees with relief.
Her husband’s pickup came into view, followed by a second that she didn’t recognize.
At the sound of the trucks, the others joined her on the sidewalk, Julie now with them. No one cared that the rain continued to come down in sheets.
“Did you find her?” Matt asked the second he jumped from his truck.
Despite her panic over Lynette, an awful memory flashed into Renee’s brain from their first Halloween at Whispering Pines. When her world felt like it was crashing in around her then, Matt had come to the rescue.
Could he do it again?
She shook her head, praying her legs would keep her upright. “Matt, the new canoe is gone.”
Instead of falling into panic mode like she’d done, Matt gave a small shake of his head and caught her up in his arms for a brief hug. “Don’t worry. We’ll find her. She couldn’t have gotten far,” he whispered in her ear.
When he stepped back, a man Renee didn’t recognize was standing beside him. “Any chance someone screwed up and didn’t tie it down? Could it have blown into the water? Floated away?”
The implication that she wasn’t competent to maintain things at her own resort rankled her already frazzled nerves. “I never go to bed without ensuring we’ve properly secured everything,” she said through clenched teeth. “And you are?”
Annie stepped up to her side, squinting at the mystery man. “Are you Owen’s fishing buddy?”
The man smirked. “Amongst other things.”
Renee wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean, but the man appeared unsettled.
“I know you,” Annie said, stepping closer to the man. “But you’ve changed.”
Matt looked between Owen’s friend and Annie. “Someone want to clue us in, here?”
Renee shifted to see the rest of Matt’s group standing farther back. Though she hadn’t seen Owen since their senior prom, she recognized him. Henry was there, too, standing near Robbie.
Jackie and Kit stepped forward, too. Only Julie stayed back.
When Jackie got a better look at the stranger, she tilted her head, then walked toward Owen. “Care to explain why you brought him here?”
Owen took one reflexive step back. “Hey there, Jackie. I didn’t intentionally bring him here. We’re just a bunch of guys on a fishing trip, here to help you look for Lynette.”
The mention of their missing friend’s name was like a slap, reminding Renee of the real crisis at hand. She really didn’t care who the guy was; she just wanted to find Lynette.
She turned back to Matt. “Lynette must have taken the canoe out.”
He didn’t look convinced. “Why would she do that in this weather?”
“The storm didn’t roll in until after everyone was back in their cabins. Or should have been back, at least. Something was up with her. She wasn’t acting like herself, and she drank too much. Maybe she was feeling trapped here, without a car.”
“So she stole a canoe and went out by herself on a dark night?” the mystery man said. “Sounds like something Lynette would do.”
And then Renee knew, too. “Wait . . . Storm?”
The guy snorted. “Name’s Taran.”
“Come on, Gage,” Owen said. “Enough already. I don’t know why you asked me not to be up front with everyone, but all that matters now is that we find Lynette. If she really went out on the water, she could be in real trouble.”
The man dropped his head for just a moment, then turned to face Renee again, hand extended. “Hey there, Renee. It’s been a long time. You’ve got a good kid here. Robbie put us onto some nice fishing holes today, and your husband is a great host. But why don’t we hold off on any more catching up until after we find that old friend of yours? We all know how accident-prone she is.”
Matt raised a hand. “I’m not sure what the hell you all are talking about, but it’ll have to wait. If you’ve checked all the potential places she could be right here on the resort, I think we’re left with the options of woods or lake. Since we took both of the resort’s speedboats fishing and left them back at the campsite, we might have to start with the older canoe to go out and do a quick first pass. I can call someone to get over here with a faster boat, but that’ll take a little time. Julie, you stay here in the lodge, just in case she comes back. Renee, do your other guests know what is happening? Is there any way Lynette might be in one of their cabins?”
“No. She doesn’t know anyone else out here. The other guests don’t know she’s missing, and I was hoping to keep it that way.”
Matt considered this, then sighed. “I’m afraid it’ll be much more effective if you can yell her name while you search for her. You can deal with any freaked-out guests later, I suppose. Maybe Lynette fell and hurt herself. She might yell out if she hears you.”
“She has a weak ankle,” Kit offered.
Renee closed her eyes. She hoped and prayed Lynette was just inside the edge of the woods, sitting down and waiting to be rescued.
“I need one person to come with me in the canoe,” Matt was saying. “Preferably someone strong enough to help paddle, as we’ll want to move fast. Everyone else, except Julie, should form a search party and head into the woods. Robbie, you probably know those areas best. You can lead them. Stay together. We don’t need to lose anyone else tonight.”
The man Renee had known as Storm said, “I’m going with you, Matt.”
Matt looked skeptical. “You sure? It’s dangerous on the water in the dark. I know the rain seems to have moved off, but there’s no telling what other surprises the weather has in store for us. The forecast promises storms for most of the night, and you don’t even know Lynette. Or maybe you do?”
He nodded. “I actually knew Lynette back when we were kids. Come on. That woman is a magnet for trouble.”
Matt nodded, then turned to his stepson. “Robbie, there are a bunch of life jackets from earlier today in the box of my truck. Grab me two, would you?”
“Better make that three,” Storm said. “If Lynette was dumb enough to go out in the canoe, she probably didn’t bother with a life jacket, either.”