Chapter 14 Annie
You up there, Annie?”
The voice was Walt Proudy’s, and Annie dog-eared the page of her novel before rising from the bed and crossing to the open window. Jake’s father stood below in the driveway, one hand shielding his eyes from the late-morning sun.
“Hey, Walt,” she called down. “What do you need?”
“Jake and I are headed up the road. Tree went down on the boathouse last night. We’re gonna give Daniel a hand sawing it up. Jake’s on his way here and he wanted me to ask if you’d like to come along.”
Annie’s heart surged in her chest as she leaned out, gripping the sill with tight fingers. “Is he okay?”
“Daniel?”
Annie nodded—her throat tight.
“He’s all right. I’m sure he’s shaken up, though. You know how to work a chain saw?”
She nodded again. “Of course.”
“Well, come on down and we’ll put you to work.”
Annie’s fingers fumbled through the pile of clothes at the foot of the bed. What should she wear? Pants, of course, while using a chain saw, but which shirt? She lifted two from the pile, a forest-green V-neck that complemented her hair and eyes, and a white tee from a Beastie Boys concert.
This was ridiculous. She was a twenty-eight-year-old divorcée behaving like a nervous teenager, choosing an outfit in the hope of being noticed by a crush at school.
It had been five days since the moonlit boat ride on the lake, and Annie had been watching the phone ever since, telling herself she was only hoping he’d call with news of a cougar in the trap, but knowing deep down there was more to it than that.
Scolding herself sternly, Annie pulled the green shirt over her head and brushed her teeth. She jogged down the stairs and stepped outside just as Jake’s cruiser pulled into the driveway. Together, they slid into the back seat of Walt’s sedan, and Jake’s father drove them up to the boathouse.
Annie’s stomach was alive with butterflies as they rolled past the NO TRESPASSING signs, and when they pulled through the open gate, she caught sight of Daniel, carrying an armful of branches to a smoking steel drum down by the lakeshore.
As Walt angled the sedan around the clearing, the damage to the boathouse came into view.
The entire back corner was crushed beneath a felled cedar, and in almost comical unison, father and son whistled long and low in the car.
Walt parked the sedan and Jake jumped out first, leaving the door open behind him.
“Man alive,” he called as he jogged toward Daniel. “That coulda killed you, brother.”
Jake pulled Daniel into a tight embrace, but Daniel’s arms stayed stiff at his sides, his eyes fixed on the sedan as Annie climbed out.
Their eyes locked as she shut the door behind her, and there it was again, that strange pull between them that set her heart thudding in her chest. Daniel looked away first, murmuring something to Jake, and Annie rounded the car to help Walt unload the tools from the trunk.
Together they carried two chain saws, a set of hedge trimmers, and a handsaw over to where Daniel and Jake stood perched on the apex of the destroyed back wall, staring down at the tree.
Daniel glanced over his shoulder as she approached, and Annie offered him a timid smile, but he quickly turned away. Behind him was the toppled cedar, resting peacefully in the midst of the havoc it had wrought.
What must it have been like, hearing it fall in the pitch black of night? The deafening crash that undoubtedly shook the whole clearing.
“Is that your bed?” Jake pointed into the heart of the tree where a mattress was ensnared in the boughs, sheets torn and tangled in the spindly branches.
“Yep.” Daniel kicked at a splintered board near his foot. “I’m just lucky I was outside when it happened.”
“Luck’s one word for it.” Jake hopped down onto a bowed section of the wall and crouched to stare into the branches. “What on earth were you doing out there in the middle of the night?”
“Just happened to be awake.”
Jake turned to Daniel, arching an eyebrow.
“What?” Daniel asked.
“Oh, come on,” Jake scoffed. “You gotta admit there was at least a little divine intervention.”
Daniel heaved a frustrated sigh and shook his head, but behind Annie, Walt spoke up softly. “God works in mysterious ways, son.”
Annie bit back a smile. Jake taught the boys’ Sunday-school class at the church, and Walt was a deacon. Daniel was outnumbered here.
“Well”—Jake rubbed his palms together—“let’s get to work.”
For the better part of two hours, there was little talking as the chain saws buzzed, drowning out the chance for conversation.
The going was slow as they shaved off the outer branches and carried them to the burn barrel to be consumed by the fire, but they worked steadily, and after a while the bare cedar trunk emerged.
As morning passed into afternoon, Annie stayed keenly aware of Daniel—of his movements, his proximity to her, and the rhythm of his body as he worked, but not once did he glance in her direction, and when he spoke at all, it was only to Jake or Walt.
“Let’s take a breather, kids,” Walt suggested as they carried the last of the boughs to the heap beside the steel drum.
He took a seat on the pile of limbs and pulled a cigar from his shirt pocket.
As he smoked, with Jake chatting away beside him, Annie took a long drink from her water bottle, her eyes fixed on Daniel, who was leaning against the felled trunk with the chain saw at his feet.
As though he felt her gaze, he glanced up for an instant, then looked away. Perplexed, Annie frowned and set her water bottle back on the ground.
Maybe he was waiting for her to break the ice. Well, she could do that. Though she’d promised herself things would go no further that night on the lake, there was no reason why they couldn’t be friends. There was no reason for awkwardness between them.
Annie swiped a sweaty lock of hair away from her eyes and made her way toward him, but as soon as Daniel saw her coming, he stood and walked toward the lake, leaving her standing alone in the rubble behind the boathouse.
Annie blinked after him, speechless.
So, she hadn’t been imagining it. He was avoiding her.
Jake walked up behind her, whistling, and came to a stop, leaning in close enough that their heads touched.
“I almost forgot,” he said in a low voice, “I’ve got an update.
Austin Smith called down from Landers. Apparently, a girl named Hannah Schroeder went missing up there.
She left last Friday with her boyfriend and they came down to hike the mountain over the weekend.
Her parents expected not to be able to contact her for a few days, but when she didn’t make it back by Wednesday, they reported it. ”
Annie nodded along, but her eyes were on Daniel as he crouched beside the lake and splashed his face with water. “Did Austin give you a description of her?”
“Yeah, and it fit our Jane Doe to a T. We should have dental records back soon anyhow, but her parents are coming down in the morning to see if they can identify her.”
Annie nodded. On one hand, it was sobering news, but on the other, at least it took some of the pressure off Jake’s shoulders. “I guess that’s good, right?”
“It is.” Jake nodded. “If her parents give a positive ID, then the investigation moves up to Landers for the time being. Her boyfriend lives up there and he’s the obvious place to start, but of course it’s bad news for her parents. I can’t even imagine what they must be feeling right now.”
Annie nodded. It was a terrible, unthinkable brand of grief, and her mind wouldn’t go there.
“I’m guessing you still want to keep it quiet for now?”
Jake shrugged. “I don’t see any reason the rest of the town has to know, unless the boyfriend’s ruled out and we have to start considering other suspects.”
Jake turned, his gaze settling on Daniel for a few moments, and Annie turned, too, watching as Daniel shook sparkling droplets of water from his hair. As he swiveled away from the lake, he caught her eye and glanced between her and Jake.
“We better get back to work,” she said, stooping low to gather an armful of the loose branches scattered across the ground.
She carried the limbs to the burn barrel and threw them in, watching as the hungry flames inside hissed around the damp boughs, sending up billowing plumes of smoke.
Behind her, Daniel had joined Jake, and they were discussing how to reframe the back corner of the boathouse and hang the drywall.
“Shouldn’t take more than a week or two, but let’s get the trunk sawed into rounds. You can chop them up later for firewood,” Jake said.
“All right, but let’s save a fifteen-foot section out of the middle. I’m gonna make a canoe.”
Jake laughed. “A canoe? Why?”
“Why not?”
Annie turned to find Jake giving Daniel a three-fingered salute. “You got it, Boy Scout.”
They all took turns with the chain saws, slicing the trunk into short sections that they rolled one at a time around the side of the boathouse.
It was grueling work as the sun climbed higher, and the back of Annie’s shirt was completely soaked through with sweat by the time she set down the chain saw to give her screaming forearms a break.
Again, as though pulled by some force, her attention was drawn to Daniel, and she found him frozen, staring at something across the clearing.
Annie followed his gaze, and her mouth dropped open.
A young woman was jogging through the open gate as if she owned the place, as if the NO TRESPASSING signs were welcome mats and it was the most natural thing in the world.
She wore a lime-green tank top and black shorts, and Annie blinked at her in astonishment. It was Jamie Boyd, from down the road.
Annie turned back to Daniel, confused. He was no longer looking at Jamie, but was rolling a section of the trunk toward the pile like it was the most urgent task in the world.
“Hey, neighbors,” Jamie called as she jogged past, waving at Walt and Jake, who gave her identical head bobs from where they sat taking another smoke break.
She ran straight toward Daniel, ponytail bouncing, and Annie wasn’t close enough to hear what was said, but Jamie rested her hand on his arm for a moment and leaned in close to whisper in his ear.
Daniel gave a quick nod and she bounded toward the lake, wriggling out of her shorts and shirt on the bank, revealing the orange one-piece swimsuit underneath.
Annie watched in mute disbelief as Jamie climbed up onto the dock and stepped to the edge, pulling her ponytail free from the scrunchie that held it and executing a perfect dive into the water, slicing the surface with barely a splash.
As her body arced in the air, the sun caught her loose hair for a split second, lighting it up like spun gold. Annie stared. It was the honey-blond hair of the passenger she’d seen riding in the Ranger.
It said so much, that ten-second interaction she’d just witnessed. Why else would Daniel let a woman have free rein of his land and lake? They must be together.
Jaw clenched, Annie turned back to the chain saw and yanked the motor to life.
Jamie was a stranger to her. And for that matter, Daniel was, too. The emotion in her chest was unwarranted, but she couldn’t deny what she felt.
Betrayal. Hot, nauseating betrayal.
She could kick herself for being so na?ve.
Here she was trying to catch Daniel’s eye all day when he was obviously with someone else.
Someone a few years younger and a whole lot prettier.
That strange pull she’d felt between them in the boat had been imaginary—a product of her lonely, aching heart, no doubt.
It was pathetic to admit it, but she had wanted to look into a man’s eyes and see desire there, and so, she had invented it. It was as simple as that.
“Well, well, well, Mr. Barela,” Jake joked as Daniel returned for another round of the cedar trunk. “You got something you want to share with the class?”
Annie drove the humming chain saw hard into the trunk, drowning out Daniel’s reply in the spitting of bark and dust.