Sandrift: A Lin Hanna Mystery (9 page)

Thanksgiving
Day dawned chilly but with clear blue skies and only a slight wind.
 
Lin slept later than usual, tired from
the previous day’s activities. When she awoke, she saw that it was after nine
and Neal was already up.
 
She
slipped into her robe and slippers and followed the enticing smell of coffee
and sizzling bacon down to the kitchen.
 
Neal met her at the door with a tall mug of steaming coffee and a quick
kiss.

“Good morning,
my sleepy-headed princess,” he grinned. “I’m glad to see you finally decided to
join the land of the living.” His somewhat somber mood of the previous evening
seemed to have lifted completely. “Make yourself comfortable on the porch.
 
Breakfast will be ready shortly.
 
The newspaper is on the table.”

Lin took the
paper and her coffee out to the porch opting for the glassed in room, as there
was still a nip in the air.
 
She
started to read but was soon distracted by
a Great
Blue Heron fishing along the shoreline near the dock.
 
A line of brown pelicans skimmed the
still waters of the sound.
 
There
were a few small sailboats out on the water but otherwise all was quiet.

A perfect day
for Thanksgiving and I have much to be thankful for Lin thought to herself.
 
She decided to call her kids hoping to
catch them before they departed for their holiday visits to in-laws.
 

“What’s going
on?” Neal asked as she came back into the house.

“Just grabbing
my phone,” Lin replied, “thought I’d wish the kids a happy Thanksgiving.”

“You have
fifteen minutes,” Neal replied,
 
“after
that your eggs may get cold.”

Lin retrieved
her cell phone from upstairs and returned to the porch to make her calls.
 
Fortunately, she reached both
families.
 
They chatted briefly,
each expressing how much they were looking forward to being together soon for
Christmas.

“ How’s Neal?”
Lucy asked her Mom.

“ Just fine, in
fact he is cooking breakfast as we speak,” Lin reported.

“ Tell him I’m
impressed,” Lucy laughed, “he sounds like a keeper, Mom.”

Lin felt
herself blushing, fortunately there was no one present, “We’ll have to wait and
see on that one,” she responded, “it’s a bit too soon for that, don’t you
think?”

“I’m not so
sure,”
Lucy
teased, “Ben and Brian both said they were
going to ask him if his intentions were honorable.”

“They’d best
not!” Lin retorted, “Tell them I said so,” she added laughing.

Just as she
ended the conversation, Neal appeared with their breakfast on a tray, “What’s
so funny?” he asked.

“Nothing,
really,” Lin responded. “It seems the guys, Ben and Brian, plan to ask you if
you have honorable intentions where I’m concerned.”

Neal grinned, “
Not if I can avoid it,” he teased. “I think you know what my intentions are.”
He gave her a wicked grin as he grabbed for the sash on her robe.

“Watch it,” Lin
slapped at his hands playfully, snatching the sash from his grip. “Besides, you
said yourself we shouldn’t let breakfast get cold.”

“Indeed, I
did,”
Neal
responded, pulling out her chair so she
could be seated, “We can discuss my intentions later.”

He had prepared
a huge breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs.
 
There were croissants and jam to go with
them.
 
They lingered over their
meal, enjoying the sights along the edge of the marsh.
 
The mood was relaxed.
 
Lin felt good that Neal seemed to have
put aside his concerns of the previous evening.
 

She really didn’t
have any qualms about inquiring as to Dorrie’s activities during her brief
visit.
 
Liz Frazier’s murder happened
so long ago it was hard to think anyone would connect her questions to that old
story.
 
Besides, it seemed that
there was general agreement that Dorrie was the killer. Now that case was
considered officially closed.
 
If
there was anyone around with possible connections to the case, they certainly
had nothing to fear from law enforcement nor from a few simple questions asked
on behalf of grieving parents who were simply trying to form a picture of their
dead daughter’s last days.

Lin was so lost
in her own thoughts that she didn’t realize Neal had gathered their dishes and
the remains of their breakfast and headed to the kitchen.
 
She joined him in making quick work of
the clean up.
 
Deciding to take
Sparky for a walk around the neighborhood, she went upstairs to change into
jeans and a light sweater.

Neal came in as
she finished dressing. “I’d hoped you might be interested in exploring my
intentions toward you further,” he gave her a wicked grin, “but, alas, I see
that you have other plans.”

Lin planted a
quick kiss on his cheek, “ We’ll have ample time for that later,” she replied
with a grin, “besides, Sparky needs a walk, and you said you wanted to get some
work done before we went to Eloise’s for dinner.”

“So I did,”
Neal admitted, “I need to finish an article I started before I left.
 
We’ve been so busy that I haven’t done
any work since I arrived.
 
You and
Sparky have your walk and I’ll bury myself in the office with my computer, but…”
he drew her into his arms, “I think we should have a serious conversation
soon—about my intentions, and yours.”

Lin realized
that Neal wasn’t really joking any more. “I suppose you’re right,” she admitted.
“We’ll have to talk seriously at some point soon, but right now I’m enjoying
having you here with me.
 
It’s what
I’m most thankful for this day,” Lin responded.

“There’s nowhere
else I’d rather be,” he replied, drawing her into a close embrace.
 

Lin grabbed her
fleece jacket.
 
“Sparky and I may be
gone for awhile,” she said, “Don’t worry, we won’t go too far afield.”

“Stay safe,”
Neal admonished, “I’ll be right here working when you return.”

Sparky was,
once again, waiting by the kitchen door eagerly his tail wagging rapidly.
 
Lin hooked his leash to his collar and
they were off.

It was growing
warmer as midday approached, but there was still a nip in the air.
 
Lin was glad she’d added her fleece over
her sweater.
 
It was a beautiful day
to be outside.
 
She led Sparky
through several streets in the neighborhood.
 
Some houses appeared to be crowded with
guests with several cars parked in driveways and on the street; others seemed
deserted, their occupants having gone elsewhere for the holiday. Lin knew from
what Kate had told her that this was mostly a year-round neighborhood with just
a few of the homes used only as vacation destinations.

 
Soon they had reached the gate at the
entrance to the development, and Lin decided to head down the road toward the
main highway. She knew that it led past the Wright Memorial.
 
It was probably a mile and a half
distance, but Sparky was still energetic and she welcomed the opportunity to
simply relax and clear her mind.

The exercise
and clear air gave Lin renewed energy.
 
Exercise was one thing she’d been neglecting recently.
 
She could tell that her shoulder was not
as flexible as it should be, as it had been before she came to the coast.
 
She promised herself that the first of
next week she would locate some sort of gym facility where she could continue
some of the exercises she’d been doing earlier in the fall.
 
Sparky saw to it that she had enough
walking, but that was no substitute for what her newly healed shoulder needed.

As she walked,
Lin mapped out a strategy for trying to learn more about Dorrie’s
activities.
 
She had learned from
Matt Johnson that Dorrie had stayed at the Holiday Inn up in Southern Shores,
several miles north.
 
She might
start there.
 
Dorrie’s room would’ve
been emptied and cleaned, of course, but she might have talked to someone or
someone might have seen her with another person.
 
It was a place to start, anyway. Lin
also thought she might try to talk to Ken Parker, the local Kill Devil Hills
cop, again.
 
He’d seemed quite
understanding when she met him earlier.
 
Perhaps he could supply some answers regarding the medical report on
Dorrie’s remains.
 
Maybe he knew
what inquiries might have been made already.
 
She realized that the Sheriff’s office
was taking the lead here, but Dorrie’s body had been found here in the local
police jurisdiction, and they might have an interest.
 
Pete Midgett had also mentioned that Liz
spent a lot of time at a local bar and grill belonging to someone named
Tim.
 
He spoke as if it were still a
going concern.
 
He’d also mentioned
something about a pawnshop here near the beach.
 
The owner was named Billy Thornton, she
recalled.
 
It seemed reasonable to
assume that Dorrie had been acquainted with these people also.
 
She might have talked to them.
 
Maybe she could locate someone from
Liz’s family.
 
That was another
possibility.

By the time she
reached the Wright Memorial, Lin was beginning to formulate a good list of
places to visit and questions to ask.
 
 
She took a short cut entering
the monument grounds from the side street near the hill that was crowned by the
tall memorial.
 
It rose above the
surrounding landscape like a beacon.
 
The park was open and there were a few visitors wandering the
grounds.
 
Lin didn’t want to leave
Sparky tied up so she opted not to go to the visitor center; she would save
that for another day.
 
Instead, she
reined in Sparky’s leash a bit and they walked the paths surrounding the hill
and the restored buildings that recreated the camp the Wright brothers lived in
during the times they worked here.
 
The distances of their early flights were marked for visitors to
see.
 
It was amazing to consider
that the vast world of modern aviation had a simple, but significant, beginning
on the sandy hills of the Outer Banks.

Lin noticed
that Sparky had slowed his pace a bit; perhaps he was ready to go home.
 
They still had at least a two-mile walk
back to the house.
 
Lin was glad she
had thought to bring Sparky’s portable water dish.
 
She located a fountain near the entrance
to the visitor center where she filled the dish and gave her thirsty friend a
drink.
 
Then they headed back, this
time at a slower pace.

It was almost
one when they arrived home.
 
Lin
gave Sparky a treat and some more water.
 
She noticed that he immediately flopped on his dog bed in the
kitchen.
 
Guess
,
he got enough exercise today Lin thought—a good thing since they were
heading next door for the holiday meal later.
 
She could hear Neal’s voice drifting
down from above.
 
Apparently, he was
on the phone.
 
When she went
upstairs Lin could hear that he seemed to be talking to someone from the university,
but she couldn’t really determine what
they
were
talking about.

She went into
the bedroom and began shedding her clothes.
 
She didn’t really think she wanted any
lunch, having had a big breakfast and knowing that Eloise would have something
special going for Thanksgiving dinner later.
 
Lin selected a pair of casual slacks and
a lightweight sweater to wear and then got in the shower.
 
She took her time, enjoying the warmth
of the water on her back and her shoulder.
 
She lifted and rotated her arm, duplicating some of the exercises she
knew she needed to do more of.

When she
finished her bath she donned her robe and went back into the bedroom.
 
Neal had finished his conversation and
was sitting in the easy chair by the glass door that led to the balcony
overlooking the sound.
 
He had a
fresh cup of coffee in hand.

“I found the
coffee pot in the office and made some, can I get you a mug?” he asked.

“By all means,”
Lin replied as she reached for her clothes, “Let me put something on here and
we can sit on the balcony; it has warmed up nicely.”

Neal went back
to the office, returning with a huge mug of steaming coffee for Lin and a small
plate of the croissants leftover from their breakfast.

“I didn’t think
you’d want lunch,” he said, “but maybe a snack would be good.”

Smiling at his
thoughtfulness.
 
Lin opened the door
for him and they went outside to enjoy their view of salt marsh and sound as
they drank their coffee.

“Who called
while I was out?” Lin asked.
 
She
wasn’t shy about satisfying her curiosity, and the office door had been opened
so he knew she had overheard at least part of the conversation.