Chapter 21 Daniel
The second day of summer broke misty and mild, and Daniel stepped out onto the dock with a mug of strong black coffee in his hands.
Closing his eyes, he pulled in a deep breath of cool air scented with pine and lake water, then took a quick glance at his watch, and another at the empty road beyond the open gate.
Jake was late, and he was never late.
He’d called the night before and confirmed eight thirty on the nose, he’d be there, ready to fish. Something important must have come up.
Daniel loaded the tackle box and the rods into the skiff, where they’d be ready to go, then took a seat on the dock to work on a half-finished sketch of Annie while he waited.
At eight fifty, the police cruiser came bouncing into the clearing, headlights glowing through the fog, and Daniel rose to his feet. Jake pulled right up to the boathouse and climbed out, leaving the engine running as he shut the door hard behind him.
Daniel tensed. Something was wrong.
“You all right?” he called as Jake approached the dock.
“You know that girl Ben found dead on the ridge last month?”
Daniel nodded.
“Sheriff Smith’s boys finally found her boyfriend’s rig this morning, in the woods east of Warner Lake.
He didn’t leave the state like they thought.
He’s hiding out around here somewhere. Justin Grimes.
He’s a hunter, knows how to navigate in the wild, and could have headed south.
Tall guy, shaved head. You see anyone like that back in the woods? ”
Daniel shook his head. “No. But I’ve only been back there to check Annie’s traps off the south shore. No one’s come sniffing around here as far as I know.”
Jake nodded. “Well, keep your eyes open. They found some pretty incriminating stuff in the back of his Bronco. Zip ties, duct tape, a needle filled with something they’re sending to a lab. They’re thinking Hannah might just have been his first target when he snapped. There could be others.”
Jake’s face was paler than Daniel had ever seen it, his eyes darting around the misty clearing as though Justin Grimes might step out of the fog at any moment.
“Are you in charge of the search?”
“No.” Jake shook his head. “This is the big leagues. Given the stuff they found in his car, they’re calling in the state.
Maybe even the Feds if they can’t find him by the end of the week.
The lake’s right on the county line and his car was on their side of it, so headquarters will be up in Landers, but of course I told them I’d get the word out around here.
I hate to scare people, but folks gotta know. He could be anywhere.”
Daniel glanced over his shoulder. The mist was rising off the lake now, showing just the lower halves of the firs around it.
“Sorry about fishing, but I gotta get to the station and start making calls. Keep an eye out, will you?” Jake turned to leave.
“I will,” Daniel said to his back. “I guess I could tell people at the rodeo this afternoon if you need help spreading the word.”
Jake stopped and spun on his heel, staring. “You’re going to the rodeo?”
Daniel nodded, and Jake made a sound of disbelief.
“Brother, I’ve invited you to church potlucks, parades, and the New Year’s Eve party year in and year out, and not once have you showed. What’s up?”
Annie. Annie was what was up. She would be at the annual Ward Family Rodeo, the most anticipated event on the Lake Lumin social calendar, waiting for him with a blanket to share on the grass and two jars of his freshly brewed sun tea.
Daniel hesitated; his answer lodged in his throat.
Annie had told him that Jake was just a friend, nothing more, and he’d taken her at her word. He had no reason not to. But just because she only saw Jake as a buddy, it didn’t necessarily mean the feeling was mutual.
Still, staking a claim on the same blanket at the rodeo was as good as a bulletin announcement in a town this size.
It would be their first venture into town together as a couple, and Jake was bound to find out at some point.
Going public was another big step, but Daniel was ready to take it.
With Annie by his side, he might actually become a part of the community here, at last. But still, he didn’t have to tell Jake right this second.
Daniel shrugged, but couldn’t fight the smile tugging at his mouth.
Jake shook his head. “Seriously, man, what’s with you? You’re… giddy.”
The smile was breaking free, a losing battle, and Daniel shook his head at the dock.
“It’s nothing.”
A scoffing sound came from Jake’s throat. “I know that look, brother. It wouldn’t have to do with a certain someone who lives down the road, would it?”
Daniel looked up to meet Jake’s eyes. They were searching, but not affronted.
“It might. It’s been going on for a couple of weeks now.”
Jake’s brows rose in mild surprise. “Well, I’m happy for you.”
Daniel waited with his breath held for the other shoe to drop, but Jake looked genuinely pleased.
“Really?” he asked at last.
“Yeah.” Jake nodded. “I mean it. It’s high time you had a real relationship. This’ll be good for you; it’ll break you out of your shell. And, listen, I know there’s a few years of age difference between the two of you now, but that won’t matter as much later on. Truly, man, I’m happy for you.”
Though it went against his nature, Daniel hopped down from the dock and wrapped Jake in a hug.
“Thanks, brother,” he said into Jake’s shoulder.
“Of course.” Jake pulled back to look Daniel in the eyes. “I’ve always believed there’s someone special for all of us. A soulmate. Who knows, she might be yours.”
Daniel couldn’t help the cynicism that rose up to meet Jake’s claim. “I doubt fate has much to do with it. People lose their soulmates all the time.”
Jake stepped toward the car and opened the door. “Finding them in the first place is the miracle. After that, every day is a gift, not something we’re owed.”
Daniel followed him to the car, smiling. “You know, one of these days you might spout your Sunday-school philosophy to the wrong guy and earn yourself a punch to the mouth.”
Jake turned for a moment, lifting his arms at his sides, palms open to the sky. “Whom shall I fear, brother?”
Daniel shook his head, still smiling, and Jake climbed into the car and pulled backward, whipping the cruiser around in the clearing and roaring through the open gate.
Daniel spent the rest of the morning with his drawing pad on the dock.
As noon approached, the fog lifted in earnest and the firs appeared around the lake, richly green and bathed in sunlight.
A deer stepped out from the shadows on the western shore, and he watched as it approached the water, bending its graceful neck to drink.
“Hey!”
Daniel jerked his head to the right, startled. Jamie Boyd had materialized out of nowhere and was climbing onto the dock, her high ponytail swishing behind her.
“Hey.” Daniel frowned as she stepped past him, pulling her hair free and letting it fall to her waist. “What are you doing here?”
“Thought I’d go for a swim.”
Daniel’s frown deepened. “When’s the swim test, again?”
Jamie shimmied out of her shorts and let them fall around her ankles.
“Last week. I got the job at the pool, but it’s closed for the rodeo, and I kind of had to get out of the house. My dad decided to start drinking early today. It’s better to not be around when he does that.”
She didn’t look at him as she said it, but Daniel heard it in her voice, and he remembered all too well the desperate feeling of needing somewhere, anywhere, to hide.
“Okay. Don’t swim too far out.”
She pulled her shirt over her head, revealing a turquoise suit that perfectly matched her eyes. Daniel dropped his gaze back down to his drawing pad as she stepped to the edge of the dock and dove forward into the lake.
He should head inside.
He flipped the pad closed and stood, hesitating, remembering Jake’s warning from earlier. He couldn’t very well leave Jamie alone in the lake with a wanted killer wandering the woods. With a heavy sigh, he sat back down and crossed his legs at the ankles.
Sunshine was pouring freely from the sky now, and there was a steady wind from the south, the lake so bright with thousands of sunlit dimples that it hurt Daniel’s eyes as he watched Jamie slicing her way across the surface with strong, clean strokes.
Quickly, he opened his drawing pad again and flipped to a blank page. He sketched straight dark pines and the rough outline of the lake. Jamie was still swimming powerfully, and Daniel’s eyes flicked back and forth from the lake to the pad as he captured the scene.
Swiftly, he drew her, the curving outline of her body barely cloaked by the clean surface of the water, the strong, well-defined arm mid-stroke over her head, and the long fair hair sleek and smooth down her back.
His sketches of the mountain sold well enough in town, but he’d learned over the past few years that the highest prices were fetched by drawings with people in them.
Jake mid-shout, his eyes hooded by the brim of his baseball cap as he reeled in a fish.
Phil at the General Store, asleep behind the counter with his dark face lined in slumber, his chin resting on his hand.
Those had gone for a hundred and fifty each, though the sketch of Phil had been bought by his wife, Sheila, and Phil later grumbled to Daniel about it, muttering that the woman could watch him sleep any doggone time she wanted without paying a small fortune for it.
Sketches with movement in them did well, too, like the one of the bald eagle soaring low over the lake, casting a long, distorted shadow on the water.
This drawing would tick both of those boxes. Two hundred bucks at least, if he could get the basic sketch done here, then copy it onto a larger canvas later on.
Jamie slowed in the water and rolled over, floating on her back with the sun kissing the front of her body. She spun in a slow circle and kicked her feet, propelling herself toward the boathouse in a backstroke.
When she reached the dock, she righted herself and her head and shoulders popped above the boards, golden hair slick and gleaming in the sunlight.
“Can you give me a ride down to the rodeo? I told my friends I’d meet them there, and my parents aren’t going.
Please?” She ran a hand through her wet hair.
Daniel cleared his throat. For a split second, Annie’s face flashed through his mind—deep red-brown eyes filled with trust—and he swallowed hard.
In a small town, people had a knack for making something out of nothing.
The slightest rumor could explode into a scandal in the blink of an eye.
What if Jamie was seen in his truck and someone misinterpreted what they saw? What if word got back to Annie?
“I don’t know… you might want to call another ride. I’m not leaving yet. Not for another hour at least.”
“That’s perfect.” She climbed up onto the dock and wrung her hair out onto the boards. “I’ll jog home to shower and you can pick me up there, I’ll wait out front.”
Daniel sighed, weary. If anyone had ever learned how to say no to this girl, he’d sure like to know how it was done.
“Fine,” he said in resignation.
True to her word, Jamie was standing at the end of the Boyds’ driveway when Daniel drove down the hill an hour later, her hair still damp and her lips shining with pink gloss as she climbed in and buckled her seat belt.
“Thanks again. I swear this’ll be the last time I ask for a ride. I should have enough for a car by the end of the summer, I think.”
“It’s no problem,” he said as they pulled away.
Jamie flipped down the visor mirror and gazed at her reflection as she scrunched her hair with her fingers. “After I get a car, then I’ll have to really start saving. I’ve got big plans.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yep, I’m going to college someday. It’ll take a while to save enough, but when I do, I’ll get out of here and head to some great big university with old brick buildings.”
A smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “Old brick buildings?”
“Yeah. And new faces everywhere, and miles and miles of roads to run on.”
“What will you study?”
Jamie flipped the visor shut and propped her chin in her hand as she stared out the window.
“Art,” she said dreamily. “Dad says trying to be a professional artist is like trying to win the lottery, but I love painting more than anything in the world. I want to have my own studio someday, just a little loft with big windows in a city, where it smells like oil paint when you walk in.”
Daniel smiled, but said nothing, and on the way through town, Jamie was happy to keep up most of the conversation with her endless stream of chatter until they finally turned left on a private drive and pulled through the wide, ornate gate with the Ward family crest emblazoned at chest height.
The long driveway led to a paved lot atop a grassy hill that sloped gently down to the stables and the corral where the rodeo would take place.
The lot was full already, and a few dozen cars were parked on the grass shoulder of the drive.
People were swarming the hillside like bees around a hive, and Daniel could feel his blood pressure rising already, but he calmed himself with the reminder that somewhere in the crowd was Annie, waiting for him.
“Can you let me out here? I see my friends.”
Daniel slowed to a stop in the middle of the lot. Everywhere were families and couples and teenagers, all moving around them in a stream down toward the stables.
“Thank you so much.”
Jamie unbuckled her seat belt and—faster than Daniel could react to it—slid across the seat and closed the distance between them. He turned toward her in surprise at the precise moment that she leaned in, and the kiss that was meant for his cheek brushed his mouth instead.
Jamie laughed and was gone, through the door and lost in the crowd.
Daniel sat with his hands tight on the steering wheel as the flow of people parted around his truck.
Had anyone seen?
Desperately, his eyes jumped from face to face passing by. People were laughing, talking, distracted. And then, standing in the shadow between two cars, he caught a familiar pair of bright blue eyes peering at him from beneath a Mariners cap.
Jake.