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Authors: Barbara Freethy

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BOOK: Garden of Secrets
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“Because I know where she’s been. Because I found my way out, but I didn’t try to take anyone else with me.”

“So you want to save her soul?”

“That
is
my business,” Andrew said, getting to his feet. “She’s at the Seagull Inn.”

“Let’s go.” On his way out, Joe asked one of his officers to run a background check on Mitch Harding.

They didn’t speak on the short drive to the inn. When Joe pulled into a parking spot down the street, he was surprised to see Charlotte’s car. Had she gone to the inn to see Pamela?

The hotel clerk gave them a nervous smile. She was a young woman, barely out of her twenties. “Can I help you?”

“We need Pamela Baines’s room number.” Joe flashed his badge in case she had any doubts.

“Two-twelve,” she said. “Is this about what happened earlier?”

“What happened earlier?”

“I saw Ms. Baines going upstairs with some
blood on her face. There was another woman with her, a blonde.”

Dammit!
Without another word, he bypassed the elevator and ran up the stairs.

“You think she was with Charlotte?” Andrew asked, right on his heels.

“Her car is right down the street.”

“I noticed that, too, but they hate each other. Why would they be together?”

Joe pushed open the stairwell door to the second floor and rapped sharply on two-twelve. The door wasn’t latched and swung right open. As he walked inside, fear began to take root. There was a bloody towel in the bathroom and more blood on the rug. But there was no one in sight.

“Maybe Charlotte took Pamela to the hospital,” Andrew said. “The clerk said she was injured.”

Joe took out his phone and called the ER. Pamela Baines had not been admitted, and no one had seen Dr. Adams. “Not there,” he said tersely, pacing around the room, looking for some clue. “When’s the last time you talked to Pamela?”

“Last night about six.”

“What were her plans?”

“She didn’t say. I didn’t ask.”

Joe’s next call was to the mayor, on the off chance that Pamela had gone there. Robert told him that he hadn’t seen Pamela since yesterday, and Theresa was sleeping.

“What’s next?” Andrew asked, concern in his eyes.

He
should
be concerned. He should have come forward a hell of a lot earlier. But now wasn’t the time for that conversation.

“We’ll go back to the station. I want to get some officers looking for the two of them.”

They stopped at the front desk on the way down. “Did you see anyone else come into the inn this morning who didn’t belong here?” he asked the desk clerk.

She shook her head. “We had another couple check in, but other than that, it’s been quiet.”

“Do you know if Ms. Baines has had any visitors since she arrived?”

“There was a guy here the other day who came down the elevator with her.”

“Could you identify him if you saw him again?”

“I don’t know. He had on a baseball hat and baggy clothes. I didn’t really see his face.”

“All right. Make sure that no one enters that room until one of my officers has gone through it.”

“Did something bad happen?”

“We’re not sure yet.”

As they walked down the street, Joe paused by Charlotte’s car. The doors were unlocked, and her cell phone was lying on the passenger seat. His stomach flipped over. “Why would she leave her phone?” he muttered. He picked it up and looked at the last call. It was from him. She hadn’t called or received a call from anyone since then, more than two hours ago now.

He turned to Andrew, who had paled considerably.

Andrew immediately shook his head as if trying to convince himself everything was all right. “She just forgot her phone. Charlotte does that sometimes. She’s always hard to get hold of.”

“She picks up when I call,” he said.

Andrew gave him an irritated look. “What now?”

“We find them.”

When they arrived at the station, Andrew took off to look for Charlotte. As much as Joe wanted to do that himself, he needed to get hold of Jason and get a search under way for Pamela and Mitch. He didn’t know if they were guilty of anything, but blood in the hotel room and Charlotte’s unreachability had him very concerned. He prayed that Charlotte was okay. She was a strong, brave woman, but something had happened suddenly. What?

Charlotte felt a throbbing pain in the back of her head. She wanted to move, but it hurt so much she was afraid to try. Voices made their way through the thick fog in her brain. A man and a woman—Pamela and the man who’d pointed a gun at her and ordered her to move. He’d hit her and knocked her out, she realized.

Where was she? There wasn’t any movement, so they weren’t in a car. She wanted to open her eyes, but instinct told her it would be better if she pretended to be unconscious.

“We shouldn’t have brought her with us,” Pamela said.

“We didn’t have a choice. She knows too much.”

“What are you going to do?” There was fear in Pamela’s voice.

“Make it look like an accident.”

Charlotte’s heart began to pound. She told herself to breathe, to stay calm. She had to think—not act impulsively for once in her life.

“You can’t kill her. This isn’t what I agreed to,” Pamela complained. “Stealing the jewelry is one thing. Murder is another.”

“Shit happens,” he said coldly. “This is your fault. I told you to come back to L.A. But you had to hang around, catch up with the old boyfriend, make nice with your sister and pretend you care about her.”

“I do care about her. I didn’t want Theresa to get hurt. I just wanted some of what she had. The rest was an accident.”

“I’m sure the cops will believe you.”

“Mitch, this is wrong. This is going too far.”

Mitch?
There had been a Mitch in their class. Mitch Harding. Was it the same guy? He had looked a little familiar—what on earth had happened to him? And to Pamela, too? She’d never imagined that Pamela was capable of robbing her own sister or being involved with a kidnapping, maybe murder.

She didn’t want to think about that. Maybe Pamela could get through to Mitch.

“There is no ‘too far,’ ” Mitch said with deadly intent. “And there’s no other way out.”

“People saw Charlotte with me. The clerk in the inn, probably some other people. It’s going to point to me. And a lot of people in this town know we don’t get along.”

“Better you than me.”

“We have to find another way out,” Pamela said desperately. “We’ll go to Andrew—he’ll help us. As long as we don’t kill Charlotte, we can get out. We can give the jewelry back. My sister won’t press charges. And Andrew will get Charlotte to keep quiet.”

“You’re dreaming, babe. Your sister isn’t going to forgive you for almost killing her. And Andrew doesn’t give a shit about you. He never did.”

“I thought
you
did,” Pamela said. “I thought you loved me, Mitch. Now you want me to go down for murder?”

“No one is going down. We’ll make it look like an accident. She got lost and fell off a cliff.”

“That won’t work.”

“We won’t stick around long enough to find out. This is just to buy us some time. When we’re in Mexico with our money, life will be sweet. Just think about that.”

There was a pause, and then Pamela said, “Where are you going?”

“I’ll be back in a few minutes. I need to get some stuff out of the car.”

Charlotte heard a door open, and a cold damp
wind hit her face. She could smell salt air—they were close to the beach. Then the door slammed shut.

If she was going to do anything, she needed to do it while Mitch was gone. Fighting the pain in her head, she opened her eyes. She was lying on a hard wooden floor, her hands tied behind her back. They were in a cabin. One of the summer rentals, judging by the sparse decor and cheap furniture. As she tried to lift her aching head, Pamela came into view.

“Help me,” she said, her voice thick.

Pamela stared at her in shock. “There’s nothing I can do, Charlotte. I was hoping you wouldn’t wake up, wouldn’t know what was about to happen to you. Maybe I should knock you out again. At least then you won’t suffer.”

Charlotte rolled onto her knees, sending waves of pain through her head, but she fought past them. “You can help me get away.”

“He’ll find you,” Pamela said dully, as if she’d lost her will to fight.

“Not if the police find him first. Untie my hands.”

“It’s duct tape.”

She looked wildly around the room. There were two doors, one off the living room, another off the small kitchen. An upstairs loft and a bathroom were the only other rooms. “Which way did he go?”

“Out the front to the car.”

She stumbled to her feet. “Come with me.”

Pamela stared at her in shock. “Why?”

“Because neither one of us wants to die.”

“I’ll go to prison.”

“But you won’t be dead. Please help me.” She moved toward the back door. She stared at the doorknob in dismay. Such a simple thing but such a huge barrier to her escape.

Then Pamela pulled out a knife, grabbed her arms, and sliced through the duct tape. They exchanged a quick look as Charlotte opened the door.

As they left the cabin, thunder shook the earth, lightning lit up the sky, and rain poured down on them. The storm had arrived. It was black as night, and the area surrounding the cabin was thickly wooded.

“Where are we?” Charlotte asked as they ran for the trees.

“Near Bonfire Beach.”

Of course they were, she thought ironically. She’d run through these woods the night she’d seen Andrew and Pamela hook up. Ending up here seemed only fitting.

Then a man’s voice rang through the air; Mitch was coming after them. Charlotte ran faster, praying for escape, or at least somewhere to hide.

“I can’t find Charlotte,” Andrew said as he reentered Joe’s office. “I’ve been everywhere. No one at her house has seen her. She hasn’t been in touch with Kara or Lauren. She hasn’t been at the hospital. The only one who saw her today is the clerk at the inn.”

“Then we have to assume that she’s with Pamela, and probably Mitch.” Joe’s stomach turned over. While Andrew had been searching for Charlotte, he’d dug up a lot of information on Mitch Harding, and it was seriously bad. “I’ve got everyone out looking for them, but you know them the best. Where would they take her?”

“L.A.?”

“Too far. Too risky. If they’ve got Charlotte, they’ll want to do something about her right away.”

Andrew stared at him in shock. “How can you speak so calmly about it? I thought you cared about her. I thought she was important to you.”

“She is very important to me, but I have to be calm. Thinking like a cop is the only way we’re going to get her back safely.” He forced his fear away; emotion would get in the way. “You need to think logically, too. You said you lived with Mitch and Pamela, so you know how they think.”

Andrew ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I don’t know.”

“Is there anyone else in Angel’s Bay who would help them hide out somewhere?”

“Pamela doesn’t have any family aside from Theresa. No friends that I’m aware of, and Mitch’s parents left a decade ago.”

“But they both grew up here. They know this town. They know where to hide. And so do you.”

“There were a few places we always went in high school. Some of them are gone now or boarded up like the Ramsay House.” Andrew paused, then a
light came into his eyes, “The summer cabins. There are three of them out by Bonfire Beach. They’re usually deserted in the winter.”

“Charlotte mentioned that beach.”

“The cabins are in the woods. I can show you where they are.”

“I’m sure someone in the department can tell me.”

“You just said they’re all out looking for Charlotte. I’m your best bet, Chief. And I want to find Charlotte as much as you do.”

As much as Joe hated to admit it, Andrew was right. And there was no time to waste arguing.

Charlotte was soaked and lost and terrified that every crash behind them was Mitch getting closer. Pamela was starting to tire, her breath coming hard. She stumbled and fell, and Charlotte stopped to help her up.

“I can’t run anymore,” she gasped.

“You have to. We’re not far enough away. We have to get back to town, or at least somewhere more public than this.”

“I’ll be arrested.”

“I don’t know what’s up ahead for you, but I know who’s behind us. And he’s not going to thank you for helping me escape.”

“He’ll probably kill me, too. Maybe that’s the way it should be. I told Andrew yesterday that I was too far gone to be saved, but he wanted to try. After
everything, he still had some hope that he could put me on the right path.”

“Andrew knew you stole the jewelry?” she asked in shock. “I can’t believe he didn’t go to the police, that he would protect you.”

“He didn’t know for sure.” Pamela paused. “I didn’t think there was a line I wouldn’t cross, but when Mitch told me he was going to kill you, I suddenly found one. I don’t like you, but I don’t want you dead.”

“Likewise. We have to keep going,” she said, looking behind Pamela, wishing there was more light to see through the trees.

“I’m just going to slow you down. Save yourself. And if you do, tell Andrew he can thank me sometime for getting his girl back to him.”

“I’m not his girl, Pamela. Not anymore. Now get off your ass and start running, because I’m not going without you.” She grabbed Pamela’s hand and yanked her to her feet, dragging her along through the woods.

After a while, Pamela began to lag again, and she finally collapsed on the ground.

“My side is cramping. I can’t go any farther.”

A thunderous blast echoed through the woods, and Charlotte jumped back as the trees next to her exploded from a lightning strike. A branch hit her hard on the shoulder, knocking her to the ground, and it took her a minute to wrestle free of the branches. She looked over at Pamela, who was almost
buried beneath the large branches of the tree. She moved as close as she could get. “Are you all right?”

“I can’t get my foot out,” Pamela said, struggling to free herself.

Charlotte grabbed the branches, trying to move them.

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Garden Of Secrets
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