Rock Harbor Series - 01 - Without a Trace (35 page)

“What about Davy?”

Her lips trembled. “When the plane went down near my cabin, I rushed to see if I could help. The man was dead, but the little boy was still alive. He kept muttering, ‘Sam, Sam.’ So I just started calling him that.” She looked out the window again.

“He’s always called our dog Sam,” Bree murmured.

Rachel nodded. “Anyway, he was real bad off. Both legs were broken, and he had a concussion. I didn’t dare leave him, and besides, I’m a nurse. No one could take better care of him than me.” Tears trickled down both cheeks.

“What about the burns?” Bree wanted to know.

Rachel dropped her gaze. “He tried to start a fire when I wasn’t around.”

Horror moved in a freezing wave over Bree. “He could have been killed!”

“But he wasn’t,” Rachel said with a touch of defiance.

Bree thought there was more to the story than the woman was telling, but she’d find it all out later. At least they were minor burns. She would call the doctor right away. “Go on with the rest of the story,” she told Rachel.

Rachel nodded. “By the time he was well enough for me to take him into town, I couldn’t do it. I never had any kids of my own, you see. Sam—Davy, I mean—he and I took to one another right off.”

“Did he ever ask for me?” Bree asked. Jealousy scalded her with red-hot fury. Davy was
her
son. Though she should just be thankful this woman cared for him, she couldn’t help the burning resentment.

Rachel nodded again. “In the beginning. As time went on, he seemed content here.” She clutched her hands together in her lap. “You have to understand . . . I loved him so much.”

Rachel’s obvious sincerity softened Bree’s anger.

“When the man said people were looking for him, I knew I had to get away.”

“What man?” Bree asked.

“I don’t know his name, but he’s buying the old mine.” She nervously looked out the window again, as if searching for something. “He killed the bank manager’s wife, and I knew he’d kill me too. I saw him put her body in his trunk.”

So it was all true. But why had Palmer killed Rob? Could Rob have threatened to blow the whistle on his plans? Could that have been his motive? She had to find out the truth.

“He knew you had Davy?” That hurt too. Palmer had witnessed her grief all these months, and for the last few weeks, he’d known Davy was alive.

Rachel nodded. “He said if I didn’t tell what I saw, then he wouldn’t tell that I had Davy.”

Bree heard Samson’s welcoming bark and went to the door. Before she could open it, Mason burst in with Naomi on his tail. His gaze centered on Bree’s face, and he went to her and enveloped her in a huge hug.

“Kade called me on his way to get the snowmobiles. He said his cell phone must have been in a dead spot because he got a signal once he was on the road. Where’s Davy?” He spotted the little boy lying on the bed. Tears came to his eyes. “Wait until Hilary and Anu hear. I haven’t called them yet. I thought you’d want to surprise them.”

“I do,” she said, a smile curving her lips at the thought of their wonder. “But there’s more, Mason.” She quickly filled him in on what she suspected about Palmer.

Rachel stood and turned to the window. Bree watched her as she spoke to Mason. She was wringing her hands.

Mason seemed to absorb it all quietly. “We’ve got Rachel to testify that she saw him carrying Fay’s body, but we need proof he killed Rob.”

The distant whine of a snowmobile reached Bree’s ears. “Are they back already?” she said, glancing at her watch. “It’s too soon.”

“It’s him,” Rachel cried, clearly agitated. “He told me I had to take him to the plane today. I was hoping we’d be gone before he got back. You have to get away; he’ll kill you!”

Naomi and Mason stared at her, but Bree ran to Davy and scooped him up. He awoke and smiled sleepily at her. She popped him into his coat. “I’ve got an idea,” she said. She handed Davy to Naomi. “Go with Aunt Naomi, sweetheart. She’ll take you out to play with Samson and Charley.”

Davy frowned and reached for his mother. It hurt Bree not to be able to take him in her arms.

“What are you going to do?” Naomi asked.

The roar of the snowmobile grew louder. “Mason, grab our snowshoes from out front. And the dogs—get them in here.” Bree snatched up some of the discarded clothes by the door and hurried to the bed. She stuffed them under the blanket to make it look like Davy’s small body still lay there.

“Rachel, act like nothing is wrong. Take him to the plane. Mason and I will be hiding nearby. We’ll surprise him, see if we can get him to confess. Naomi, keep Davy out of harm’s way.”

“I don’t like this,” Naomi said, putting on her snowshoes. The dogs whimpered, sensing something was wrong.

“I don’t either,” Mason said. “But it’s the best shot we’ve got.” He and Bree put on their snowshoes as well.

The whine of the snowmobile stopped abruptly by the front door. “Go, go,” Bree hissed. She hurried to the back door and shooed Naomi through with Davy and the dogs, then she and Mason followed. She could only hope and pray Rachel would be able to carry off her part of the plan.

She sent Naomi, Davy, and the dogs off to the west while she and Mason headed east to the plane. “Let’s get inside,” she told Mason. He nodded, and they climbed inside and crouched down out of sight.

The minutes ticked by as the cold seeped into Bree’s bones. Then she heard voices approach.

“Down there,” Rachel said.

“At last.” Palmer’s voice was exultant.

Bree’s stomach flipped, and she clutched his screwdriver in her hand.

“I think you should let me confront him,” Mason whispered.

“You’re backup,” she whispered. “He’ll think he can overpower me. He won’t know you’re here, and he’ll reveal more to me.” Mason sighed, and she knew she’d won.

“Wait here,” Palmer told Rachel. “I need to retrieve something
from the plane, then I’ll be out of your life.” The
whoosh
of his snowshoes came closer.

Bree’s chest hurt with tension. Glancing at the screwdriver in her hand, she remembered the incident she’d been trying to think of. When she’d eaten dinner with the Chambers family, Lily had mentioned a tiff they’d had when Palmer couldn’t find a missing screwdriver. Evidently, he’d figured out where it was.

Bree rose from her hiding place and held up the screwdriver. “Looking for this, Palmer?”

He stopped in his tracks. Shock slackened his mouth, then his eyes went flat and hard as he recognized the screwdriver in her hand.

“You were our friend, Palmer. How could you kill Rob? Was it because he was going to stop you from getting your hands on that mine?”

“We were buddies,” Palmer said. “He should have been excited to be a part of it.”

“You never counted on his faith interfering, did you? He told you it was wrong, and you couldn’t let him tell Fay about the gold.”

“Looks like you’ve got it all figured out.”

“Enough to know you killed my husband. Why don’t you tell me the rest?”

Palmer gave her the smile she’d once found charming. “I wanted him as a partner for the new venture. We could have extracted the gold with new technology and made a fortune. He thought we should tell Fay and Steve about the gold and let them decide whether to sell with full disclosure. I couldn’t believe it! He wanted to turn down a chance to make millions. Millions! What kind of man would do that?”

“A righteous one,” Bree said. This sounded more like the Rob she knew.

Palmer made a face. “I knew he would blab everything when he got back.”

“My call didn’t help his distraction,” Bree murmured.

Palmer grinned. “I thought you’d tell everyone about that.”

For a minute what he said failed to register. Then her eyes widened, and she wanted to hit him. “
You
had someone call. There was no other woman, was there? Rob was never unfaithful,” she whispered.

“People would think he downed the plane out of guilt.”

Bree just managed to keep her shock in check. “Her real name is Lanna Martin, not March, isn’t it?”

“You figured that out too, huh? You’re smarter than I gave you credit for.”

Bree struggled to reconcile this cold stranger with the man who’d been such a good friend. “I met her,” she said. The familiarity of the woman’s voice hadn’t been her imagination. “You went to the lake to make sure Rob hadn’t told anyone about the gold.”

“I went to try one more time to convince him. I didn’t want to kill him, but the creditors were hounding me. I would have lost everything.”

“But he still wouldn’t listen, so you sabotaged the plane and made sure he wouldn’t spoil your plans. You didn’t care about killing Davy with him.” It was almost too much to take in. “And Fay found out about the gold anyway, so you had to kill her too. I would imagine you called her on her cell phone and had her meet you at the mine.”

Palmer shrugged. “Very good.”

“The assayer had told her about the gold, and she was going to cancel the sale. So you killed her and put her body at the foot of the cliff.” She moved from the plane cabin to the ground and approached him, even though Mason had warned her to keep her distance. She wanted to look in the eyes of the man who’d befriended her, the man she’d turned to when she grieved. Bree wanted to strike him, to put her hands around his neck and choke the life out of him. She stared at this man she’d known and loved as a brother.

In one smooth movement, Palmer’s hand dipped into his jacket
and came out with a gun. “You wanted to find Rob. Now I’ll just have to send you where he is.” He cocked the hammer on the gun.

Bree stared into the barrel of the gun. She couldn’t let Davy be orphaned. Why hadn’t she listened to Mason’s warning? At all costs she had to stay out of Mason’s line of fire. He would know how to handle Palmer.

Mason popped up with a gun aimed at Palmer. “Throw down your gun,” he ordered.

Palmer didn’t even blink. His arm snaked out and pulled Bree against him. He pressed the gun against her head. “Drop it, Mason,” he ordered.

“You drop it,” Mason said.

Bree trembled, but it was more from anger than from fear. Palmer couldn’t be allowed to get away with it. “Don’t listen to him, Mason,” she said.

“You have no choice, Sheriff,” Palmer said. “Shoot me, and my gun goes off.”

For a long moment, Bree thought Mason would refuse to drop his gun, then a hiss of frustration came from his throat, and he tossed the gun to the ground, where it disappeared into the snow.

“Come along, Sheriff. It’s cold out here. I think we can conclude our business back at the cabin.” Holding Bree in front of him, he marched his prisoners back up the hill. They met Rachel at the top, too terrified to have considered running for help, Bree imagined.

If only Samson were here. If only she had a weapon. Palmer meant to kill them; she could see it in his darkened eyes, blank as a reptile’s.

Inside the cabin, he grabbed a rope hanging on a nail by the door and tossed it to Rachel. “Tie them up. Be quick about it.”

Rachel slowly took the rope and tied Mason to a chair, then tied Bree’s hands behind her back.

“Make it tight,” Palmer said.

Rachel cinched the rope. The rough hemp bit into Bree’s wrists, and she winced.

“Now tie her to the chair by the bed.” Palmer moved closer and watched as Rachel pushed Bree into the chair and looped the rope around the back.

Bree flexed her muscles, thankful she’d been working out and had muscles to flex. Maybe she could create enough slack to work her way free. She prayed for God to send help. Her mind raced for a way out. The gun pointed straight at her heart. If she could keep Palmer talking until Kade and Steve got back, maybe they could overpower him.

Her heart leaped when she heard a familiar sound at the door. Samson. His low growl told her he knew something was wrong. “How much does Lily know?” she asked, desperate to distract him.

“None of it. She would have talked to Fay. She’s way too honest. We always said we balanced each other out.” He laughed uproariously at his joke. He motioned with his gun toward Rachel. “Sit down.” When she obeyed, he lashed her to the rocker.

Bree had to keep him talking. “So why move Fay to the cliff? Mason would likely have assumed she fell and hit her head at the mine.”

“Authorities investigating her death might have found something. I couldn’t run the risk. She was already dressed for climbing, and I thought no one would be the wiser.”

This was like something out of
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
The Palmer she thought she knew would recoil at the thought of murder. Who was this man?

“Enough chatter. I’m afraid the time has come to say good-bye, and I have to admit it makes me sad. Lily will be devastated, and I so hate to make her unhappy.” His eyes held a sheen of moisture as though he really did regret what he had to do.

“What are you going to do with us?” Rachel asked in a small voice.

“I thought about locking you in the mine and caving it in, but your bodies would eventually be found. I should shoot you, but it
needs to look like an accident.” His gaze wandered to the stove. “A fire. There will be no evidence left to determine cause of death.”

“Our skeletons will be lashed to chairs,” Bree said desperately. “And you think that won’t look like foul play?” Think, think. What could she use as a weapon?

“I’ll have to take that chance,” Palmer said. “With a little luck, the rope will burn up too.”

How long had it been since Kade and Steve left, maybe an hour? They should be back by now.

Palmer approached the stove and picked up the packet of matches lying there. Samson was growling and whining even louder outside the door. Bree had one chance. She shrieked at the top of her lungs. “Samson, help!”

Palmer brought the gun around in alarm as seventy pounds of brown, black, and white fury crashed through the window. Glass shattered inward with a shower of shards. Snarling, Samson leaped onto Palmer and seized his hand in his jaws. Both man and dog crashed to the floor, Palmer kicking and shouting as Samson pinned him down with his teeth on his arm.

Wriggling her arms in the ropes, Bree felt the strands loosen.