Town in a Wild Moose Chase (9 page)

“So you think it’s happening again?” Maggie asked.

Candy took a thoughtful sip of her second glass of white wine. She’d just told Maggie about her encounter with Judicious, and she needed a few moments to formulate an answer. Finally she let out a tense breath. “To be honest, yes. I’ve been trying hard all day not to overreact. I mean, that’s the smart thing to do, right? To try to keep a level head about all this? But after talking to Judicious, I have to agree with him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we should have heard something about Solomon by now, right? The police can’t seem to find him. Why not? Where is he?”

“Maybe he’s just lost,” Maggie said, trying to be helpful.

“Maybe. Or maybe he really is in trouble. Maybe, like Judicious said, someone’s after him. Maybe he’s hiding out in the woods, afraid for his life. Maybe he’s injured and needs our help.”

“And we’re sitting here drinking wine,” Maggie said, looking down at her glass.

“Exactly. The truth is, if Judicious thinks something’s up, it’s hard for me not to believe him. He’s essentially corroborating Solomon’s story. And you know what that means?”

“What?” Maggie asked.

“It means Solomon was right—there really was a body in the woods.”

That seemed to surprise them both, and they sat for a few moments in silence as the other guests in the inn’s lounge moved obliviously past them.

After walking over from Town Park, they’d settled into a corner booth and ordered glasses of an aromatic Chardonnay from Washington State. Ben had not yet arrived, but that had given the two of them a chance to talk about the day’s events.

“So,” Maggie said, trying hard not to sound too ominous, “what should we do about it?”

“I think,” Candy replied, “that we need to be proactive rather than reactive.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning we need to search the woods ourselves.”

Maggie’s eyes went wide. “You’re not thinking of doing it right now, are you?”

“No—much as I’d like to. But it’s too late in the day. By the time we got out there it’d be starting to get dark. We wouldn’t have enough time to conduct a thorough search. Tomorrow, maybe, depending on what happens.”

“We?”

“What?”

“You said,
By the time
we
got out there.…
”

“Oh yeah, I guess I did. Well, I don’t think I should go alone. That would be irresponsible, right, given what we might find? So I thought about you—”

“Me?”
Maggie squeaked, both excited and scared at the same time.

“—but I figured you’re probably working all day tomorrow, aren’t you?”

Maggie just as quickly deflated. “Oh yeah, that’s right, I am. Darn, I always seem to keep missing out, don’t I? Because it really would be fun, you know—tramping around the woods all day, freezing my toes off, looking for a crazy old hermit and a dead body, catching a cold, being bedridden for days or weeks, maybe dying of pneumonia. But, you know, good times.”

“That’s such a gracious way of putting it,” Candy said with an admiring smile.

“It is, isn’t it? It’s one of my skills, you know—being able to quickly summarize your little mysteries.”

“Obviously you missed your calling. So, anyway, I figure I need to take someone who’s the outdoorsy type, someone who’s got decent survival skills and knows how to find his way out of the woods if we get lost. That’s why I’m going to ask Ben to go with me.”

Now it was Maggie’s turn to give her friend a knowing smile. “You know, that’s not a bad idea. It’ll be nice for you and him to get out and do something—spend a little time together. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’ve been planning this.”

“Actually it’s a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing, but it seems like the most sensible approach. If we should happen to run into any trouble with Solomon, or whoever’s chasing him, or whatever it is that’s out there in the woods, at least I’ll have Ben there to get us out of a jam.”

“Think he’ll go for it?”

“I think so. He sounds just as worried about Solomon as I am.”

“Well, it’s a good plan… as long as he shows up.”

Candy checked her watch and glanced at the door. “Hmm, you’re right about that. I wonder what happened to him.”

A little earlier, when they’d found Ben in the park, he’d
been standing apart from the crowd, off to one side by himself, deep in thought. After Candy had told him where they were headed, he’d agreed to meet them, but so far he hadn’t shown up.

“He must have gotten distracted,” Candy said, reaching for her cell phone.

“Sure he did, honey. That’s exactly what happened.”

“I’ll text him and see where he is.”

“That’s a good idea. I’m sure he just got sidetracked.” Maggie placed her chin in the palm of her upturned hand and watched curiously as her friend flipped open her phone and began to key in a quick message. “So how are things going with you and Ben, anyway?” she asked after a few moments.

“Fine.”

“You guys been doing anything… interesting lately?”

Absently, Candy answered, “Not really. He’s been tied up with work a lot lately.”

“So I’ve noticed. What’s he working on that’s so important, if I may ask?”

“He hasn’t talked much about it.”

“Isn’t that strange? He’s talked about everything else with you, hasn’t he?”

Candy glanced up at her friend as she punched a few more buttons. “What are you getting at?”

“Well, since last summer he’s been hanging out with you a lot, telling you all these things about his life and his family. But he hasn’t said much about his work, has he?”

Candy finished keying in her message and pressed the send button. As she slipped the phone back into her pocket, she squinted over at Maggie. “So?”

“So I’m saying that this sort of thing has been happening a lot lately. For the past few weeks you’ve been telling me he’s been distracted a lot. How many times has he canceled on you this month?”

Candy had to think about that. “Now that you mention
it, there
have
been a couple of times—two or three, maybe.” She shrugged. “He’s a busy guy.”

“Yes, but doesn’t he seem busier than usual lately? When he comes in the dry cleaner’s, he barely talks to me. He seems like a different person.”

“He
is
a different person, after what happened last summer.”

“I know that, but something else has happened lately. I can sense it in him. He seems, well, more preoccupied than usual—if that’s possible. He mumbles a lot now—have you noticed that? And he walks with his head down a lot, like he’s looking for a lost fifty-dollar bill.”

Candy nodded but said nothing. She’d noticed lots of changes in Ben over the past eight months or so, and most had been positive. So when he’d become immersed in some new project, she hadn’t overreacted. She’d asked him about it a couple of weeks ago, and he’d told her vaguely what he was working on—something to do with the history of the town, he’d said. She hadn’t pressed him on it, and hadn’t thought much about it at the time, but she realized Maggie was right. Whatever he was working on, it was starting to occupy more and more of his time.

She was about to say something to Maggie when her cell phone buzzed. She fished it out of her pocket again.

Ben had texted her a message:
Got held up sorry will touch base soon.

“Well, shoot,” Candy said softly as she closed the phone and tucked it back in her pocket. “It’s happened again.”

“Ben?”

“He got held up.”

“There you go.”

“But I thought things were going so well,” Candy said, a little bewildered at this most recent development. “He’s been hanging around the farm so much for the past six months that I thought things were starting to get…”

She let her voice trail off but Maggie finished the sentence for her. “Serious?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s the right word. Though I’m still not sure if that’s what either of us wants.”

“Girl, you and him need to have a heart-to-heart talk very soon and figure out what you want to do.”

“I thought that’s what we were doing.”

“Maybe he had a different reason on his mind for getting cozy with you.”

“Like what?”

Maggie shrugged. “He’s a man. Who knows? Why don’t you ask him?”

“Maybe I should,” Candy said thoughtfully, trying hard again not to let herself jump to conclusions. But she couldn’t help wonder, in the back of her mind, if the events of eight months ago were somehow linked to the odd behavior she’d witnessed around town today.

It was near dark when they left the inn. They chatted as they walked to their cars, hunkered down in their winter coats against the chilling air. A brisk wind had kicked up, flicking ice crystals off the tops of snowbanks and tree limbs, whipping stinging white swirls at them. Candy angled her face downward and raised her scarf around her ears and the back of her neck as she waited on the sidewalk for Maggie to climb into her ten-year-old Subaru wagon. The car whirred to life, and Maggie waved and flashed a smile as she backed out of the parking space and started down Ocean Avenue.

Candy’s Jeep was only a few spaces away but she made no move toward it. With her hands stuck deep in the pockets of her coat, she turned slightly, her eyes following Maggie’s car as it rolled down the street, braking at the light, where several cars waited for it to turn green.

Candy let her gaze drift over toward Town Park, which had quieted down substantially, though a few couples and
families lingered, illuminated by the lights strung from trees as they examined the mountains of melded ice that had risen in their midst, and pointed out the beginnings of the ice carvings.

As Candy shifted back around, raising her left arm so she could check the time, her gaze shifted as well, raking casually along Ocean Avenue.

Officer Jody McCroy stood halfway down the street in the halo of a streetlight, watching her discreetly, notebook in hand.

Candy felt her stomach tighten, though she did her best to hide her surprise. She didn’t want him to know she’d seen him. And she didn’t want to look too guilty.

Though what she might be guilty of, she had absolutely no idea.

She made a show of glancing down at her watch, but she wasn’t focusing on the time.

Her mind was racing.
Why is he following me around? And what is he writing down in that notebook of his?

A wave of irritation rippled through her, and for a moment she thought of walking up to the officer and confronting him about his apparent obsession with her. But she lost her resolve when her cell phone buzzed again, breaking into her thoughts.

It was another text from Ben.

Apologies I can’t make it tonite see you tomorrow luv b

Candy read the message twice before she sighed, flipped her phone closed, and slipped it back into her pocket. “My love life sucks,” she said to no one in particular.

But, she knew, it just proved that Maggie was right about Ben. He was devoting more and more time to this mysterious project of his, but what could it be? He’d become so open with her over the past six months or so, talking about his life and loves and family and travels, and even occasionally his dreams. Now he was closing up again.

What had happened?

After she thought about it, she realized there might be a way to find out.

As surreptitiously as possible, she glanced back down the street in the direction of Officer McCroy. But he’d retreated to the shelter of the inn, where he hovered by the door, talking to one of the inn’s security people. He was angled away from her, intent on the conversation.

Candy turned to look behind her, and saw she was standing near the door to the second-floor offices of the
Cape Crier
.

Moving quickly, she fished her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the glass door, which led to a wooden staircase. Scooting inside before Officer McCroy spotted her, she relocked the door and hurried up the stairs. A dim wall light at the top pushed back the oncoming shadows. She checked the door to the newspaper’s offices and, finding it locked, used a second key to open it. Inside, she disarmed the motion-detector security system and again made sure the door was locked behind her, before she paused to catch her breath and survey her surroundings.

The place was empty.

She checked her watch again. It was still early—just after six. But the offices were all dark.

She slipped her keys back into her pocket and considered turning on the hallway lights, but decided against it, opting for a more surreptitious approach. She wasn’t doing anything illegal, but with Officer McCroy wandering around outside, keeping a wary eye on her, she felt it best to remain discreet.

She still had her tote bag with her, so she felt around inside for a flashlight. When she flicked it on, she kept it aimed low so no one could see it from outside.

She walked about halfway along the hall to where two doors opened on her right. One led to a small office used for storage. The space also held a couple of desks used by volunteers and interns when they worked at the newspaper.

The second door opened into Ben’s office.

The room was dark except for the red, green, and amber glows of indicator lights on computer equipment, power strips, the printer, a charger, a digital clock, and the phone. Ben’s beat-up brown leather chair was pushed under the desk. The flat computer screen glowed with a dim gray light. In hurrying out of the office at the end of the day, he sometimes forgot to turn off his computer, though Candy suspected he sometimes left it on overnight on purpose so in the morning all his open files, applications, and browser tabs would be right where he’d left them the night before, and he’d already be logged on to the production server. That way he could start right in, his ideas as fresh as the day. He often kept unfinished articles, notes, and layouts open on his desktop, though minimized into the dock at the bottom of the screen. Candy thought she might find a few clues there. Or she could check his e-mails or the computer files open on the desktop to see if anything interesting jumped out at her. She could also check the hard-copy files in the lower right drawer of his desk or in the old metal two-door filing cabinet pushed into one corner, with stacks of research books piled on top, many of them spewing numerous colored bookmarks and sticky tabs.