Wednesday
DRIVING TO THE Ovens the next morning gave Landon an uneasy stomach. Even without deer on the road or an aggressive biker, an eerie sense of déjà vu had her on edge.
Bobby kept his speed low, the occasional bit of gravel kicking up at the Corvette’s undercarriage. Heavy rain in the night had left the road damp and puddled.
A larger rock thumped underneath, and she cringed. “I should have warned you about the road.”
“I forgot it wasn’t paved, but we’re fine.” He patted the top of the steering wheel. “One luxurious wash and wax coming up this afternoon.”
He navigated through the admission gate and parked at the edge of the lot. Walking toward the trailhead, they passed the stairs to the beach. Landon glanced down. No sign of Emmalee or anyone else panning for gold.
This felt like an exercise in futility. The investigating team had already scoured the path and surrounding woods for signs of the attacker. Still, they could have missed something. Or he could have returned the next day to erase any evidence and dropped a clue then.
On Monday, a few people had gathered before the EMTs rescued Ciara from the ledge. Had he doubled back to watch with them? Landon rubbed a sudden chill from her arms. Constable Zerkowsky had brought the onlookers into the restaurant for statements. It’d take a bold—or foolhardy—person to associate himself with the scene and risk being interviewed.
Forbidding in the morning light, the cliff loomed over the water. Or perhaps the attack tainted Landon’s view. She glimpsed movement on the rock face. “Look! That’s where Ciara fell. Someone’s there.”
“Don’t run until we reach the trail. If it’s her attacker, we don’t want to spook him.”
“Where’s security when you need them?” But they’d be patrolling, not hanging out here in the parking lot.
Approaching the final bend, Landon put on a burst of speed. The site was etched in her memory from Monday’s vigil. She planted her feet and peered over the rail. Below, a dark-haired figure in black clothing crept across the rock.
Beside her, Bobby had his phone trained downward, elbows steadied on the wooden railing.
The man worked his way over the surface, then stilled. One arm stretched, plucked at a rocky outcropping, then eased back. With a soft grunt, he tucked a flash of gold into his pocket.
He started for the top.
Landon touched Bobby’s arm. As one, they eased away, splitting up to cover both directions on the trail.
Shaun’s head crested the edge. His gaze hit Landon, whipped toward Bobby, then locked on Landon. He climbed onto the gravel path and stood braced against the weather-bleached railing. “We meet again.”
“What were you doing?”
His chin jutted. “What are you, some kind of amateur sleuth?”
Landon’s arms snapped into a tight fold across her ribs, and her posture stretched taller. Stiffened. She focused a glare to burn. “What I am is finding answers. Someone tried to kill my friend. Convince me it wasn’t you.”
At the edge of her vision, Bobby flashed a thumbs-up.
Shaun swore. “What is your problem? We covered this when she fell. Why would I hold her steady if I’d pushed her?”
“Maybe to rob her. Or maybe you went down to finish the job, but I got here too fast.”
“Oh, for—” Narrowing his almond-shaped eyes to mere slits, he shook his fists. If he were a cartoon, steam would be pouring from his ears.
“We did cover this before. I believed you. Until I saw your bike yesterday.” Landon jabbed a forefinger at him. “Monday, on the way here, Ciara stopped to avoid a deer. This maniac biker swerved around her, spitting gravel and rude gestures. How angry were you, Shaun? Angry enough to kill her?”
“So… what? I beat it to my campsite and lurked near the trail for a chance at revenge? That’s serious road rage.” Head shaking, he rocked onto his heels. “She’s a bad driver, but not the worst I saw—not even that day. People have no respect for bikes.”
“The deer jumped out in front of her. What was she supposed to do?”
“Pay more attention and anticipate a second deer. But, yeah, it was too big to hit. And maybe I was too close.” He shrugged, his scowl fading. “She left an apology on my bike. I had no idea she was the same girl as on the cliff.”
“I reported your bike.”
“They know where to find me.”
Dylan might not even follow up on it. He’d thought it was a thin suspicion. “If you’re so innocent, why were you down there again?”
“As it happens, I was doing another good deed.” A toss of his head shook the hair from his eyes. “My friends would never believe it. No surprise you don’t either.”
“What did you find? We saw you put it in your pocket.”
One hand eased toward his jacket. “Don’t freak out and think I’m going for a gun.”
On the other side of him, Bobby was still recording.
Shaun’s fingers emerged from his pocket, dangling a thin chain, the gold glinting in the sun. He extended it toward her. “Ciara’s bracelet, I assume? No wonder she was so unstrung about losing it.”
Landon stepped closer and pinched the delicate strand, struggling to decipher the letters stamped on the flat metal tag. The same European-sounding name Ciara mentioned yesterday. “Should that mean something to me?”
His lip curled. “Should mean a couple grand. Minimum.”
For this simple gold chain? “How do you know?”
“High-priced exes.” He reached for it. “I’ll get it cleaned up and see if it can be fixed.”
“So you can sell it?”
“So I can give it back. Your friend is in the hospital after being attacked. Don’t you think she could use a nice surprise?”
Landon couldn’t read those exotic brown eyes.
Inhaling a deep, salt-heavy breath, she relaxed her stance. Shaun wouldn’t have thrown Ciara over the cliff and then gone after her, even if he wanted her ridiculously expensive bracelet. And even if he’d been furious with her driving.
But hearing about the bracelet yesterday could have sent him here for his own benefit now that the rain had stopped. Nothing about his hard-edged behaviour encouraged her to trust him. Nothing except his resignation when he acknowledged her distrust. As if somehow being trusted mattered, at least here and now.
How often had she longed for the benefit of the doubt from people who misread her past and used it to judge her present?
“Bobby?”
“He makes a good point.”
Shaun huffed. Stood waiting, hand out.
Landon let the thin gold strand puddle into his palm. “I want to nail the creep who did this.”
His fingers closed around the chain. “Me too. When I climbed down there… she was so limp. Helpless as a kitten.”
Bobby had joined them, no longer recording. “Don’t let her hear you say that when she’s better. Thanks for saving her. And for understanding today.”
“Yeah. It’s good she has friends who’ll fight for her.” He tucked the bracelet into his leather flight jacket. “Give me a few days to find a good jeweller. In the meantime, don’t tell her.”
He crossed the path and strode among the trees toward the campsites.
“That went well.” Landon crossed her arms, watching him out of sight. “He’s the sort of guy who could mess with my head. Trigger-wise, I mean. But I’m so angry about Ciara—I guess that kicked in first. Instead of going submissive, I went…”
Bobby smirked. “Warrior angel is what came to my mind. Remind me never to cross you.” He pointed along the trail toward the sea caves. “I haven’t been out here for a while. Want to walk?”
“Second time here in a week? It’d be nice to be able to enjoy it.”
Side by side, they strolled along the pebbled path as the morning sun caught sparkles from raindrops still clinging to twigs and leaves. Landon trailed her fingertips over the supple needles of a young evergreen, and droplets shivered to the ground. Steps slowing, she inhaled the sharp clean scent of the foliage and underbrush.
She tried to roll the tension from her shoulders. “I wonder what the Good Samaritan would have said if the next person on the road accused him of the assault. I did it to Shaun twice.”
“I had the same doubts about the guy.”
“You stopped to think before blasting him.”
“So you fired at the wrong target. He wasn’t happy, but I’ll bet he understands.” Bobby picked up a fallen branch and tossed it into the undergrowth. “Too bad Ciara didn’t see you take him on. She’d love to know she has a friend fierce enough to stare down her enemies. Travers would be proud.”
Travers. The hero in the sci-fi novels Bobby wrote. She needed to read one so she could talk intelligently with her clever neighbour. And maybe so she could convince him he wasn’t second best to his imaginary friend. “What would Travers have done about the bracelet?”
“Kept it and had it fixed himself. He has more cash than we do. In case Shaun decided not to return it.”
“He’ll have to now. You have video evidence.”
“One would hope.”
On the fence rails ahead, yellow letters on a green sign read, “Tucker’s Tunnel, enter if you dare.” A narrow track angled downward.
Landon didn’t do small spaces. Especially in the dark. She and Bobby had almost died in a dank, pitch-black tunnel beneath the inn. Funny how surviving that and then choosing to walk in later to defy the fear gave her a reckless sense of power over this challenge today.
Bobby had praised her for being fierce. She’d need to be that and more to find whoever attacked Ciara. She pointed to the sign. “Let’s do this. We’ve seen worse.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. You’re not kidding.” Shaking his head, he gestured toward the way down. “After you.”
At the end of the narrow path, a short set of concrete steps descended into a rock passage. Ducking instinctively, Landon kept a hand on the metal railing. At the base, a wooden barricade rimmed a flat ledge in the cave-like opening. Black water sloshed beneath their feet. Filtered daylight from the sea entrance created a gloomy half-dusk.
Beyond the barricade, a narrow chasm cut to the left, deeper into the cliff. Bobby knocked his knuckles on the wood. “Saved by the fence.”
The heavy, damp air washed goose bumps across her bare arms. She rubbed them away, feet planted, exploring with her eyes. Overhead, green and rusty stains patched the mottled grey rock. In places on the walls, the layers of slate ran nearly vertical, bands of brown and grey. Stark and jagged.
Bobby toed a pebble toward the barricade. It skidded underneath and plopped into the water. “I can’t help thinking of Gord. Ciara’s attack kind of pushed his death aside.”
“For us. I wonder how Meaghan’s doing. She said she’d be in class again this week.”
“I know they weren’t close, but he was still her father. It has to be tough not knowing if they’ll catch the shooter.”
“Dylan said they found discarded clothing that may have been part of the killer’s disguise. They’re not releasing that information yet.”
Bobby traced a pale diagonal seam in the rock wall. “Seen enough? It’s cold down here.”
Climbing back to the main trail, they passed a clump of tiny purple asters growing in a pocket of the rock. The sun felt good after the shadows.
As they walked, a sound like thunder echoed from the further sea caves. Landon took in the blue expanse of ocean and distant land to her right, green scrub forest to her left.
“Talk about picture-perfect.” On Monday, she’d wanted a camera. Today, she’d rather saturate her senses in the here and now than store up a copy for later.
Bobby tapped the outline of his phone in his pocket. “Next cave. I’ll send Dad a photo. Show him what he’s missing in the high-rise jungle.”
“He grew up here, right?”
“Left and never looked back.”
That would have been Landon if Anna hadn’t needed her. Filling her nostrils with a slow, tangy breath, she trailed her fingers along the weathered fence rail. “I missed the ocean.”
“Me too. And the slower pace.” He scooped up a brown stone and passed it from hand to hand. A few steps later, he chucked it into the trees. “So… Dylan… just friends, or has he asked you out?”
She cut him a glance. “Friends! Where did you get that idea?”
“Sounded like you had inside information there, about the investigation. And he kept a close eye on you when he broke the news about Gord.”
“Because he sees the girl who survived being human trafficked. He thinks I’m even more fragile than I am.”
“That’s not usually what that look means.”
She caught him at the end of an eye roll. “Don’t be ridiculous. He knows what happened to me. No decent guy’s going to want me now.”
They’d reached a descent to another cave, the source of the hollow booms. Below, a viewing platform jutted into the sea. Bobby started down, pulling out his phone. “Here’s a good spot.”
Landon followed him to the waist-high metal railing. Chin up, she faced into the wind. “I’m single, and I’m okay with that.”
He lifted the phone, aimed, and clicked. “Single by choice is fine. But—” Angling toward her, he leaned a hand on the rail. “Don’t despise what the Lord has called clean.”
“I have a pretty healthy self-image, thanks.”
“Not if you’re writing yourself off like that.” His stubble-framed lips curved downward. “What they did to you was awful. But the past doesn’t have to define you for life. Remember the tunnel at the inn. We crawled out filthy. Rank. It took a long while to soak the dirt off. I don’t know about you, but I carried the tang in my nostrils for days. Maybe that was my imagination.”
Arms folded, she butted a hip against the concrete wall that held the railing. “I smelled it too.”
“Well, restoration’s like that, right? The hurt can linger in our hearts once the healing has come. God has you, Landon, and He’s making something beautiful.”
“I’m not saying He’s not holding me. That’s the whole reason I’m able to stand here having this insane conversation instead of throwing myself over the side like happened to Ciara.”
Misery swam in his eyes. “Jesus calls you clean. If He says it, then why wouldn’t the people who care about you be able to see it too?”
“My friends do. But come on. Not for a romantic relationship.”
Frowning now, he matched her folded-arm posture. “Someone who looks at you through your abuse doesn’t deserve you.”
As his mouth opened for more, she jerked her palm up like a wall, stiff-armed. Her vision narrowed. “When they took my innocence, they poisoned my future. There’s no Prince Charming for me.”
She spun toward the water so he wouldn’t see her tears. Her childhood longing for a fairy-tale romance had shattered into dust too small to see—but still sharp enough to cut deep. An impossible dream, now a wraith, hopeless but refusing to fully disappear.
“It’s been nine years. You wouldn’t believe how long it took with therapy, counselling, and prayer to start unlocking my emotions. To learn how to cry again.” And then to stop crying.
“So if someone was interested, you’d shut it down and walk away? Not even give the guy a chance?”
She focused on the light glinting on the choppy waves. Standing shoulder to shoulder with Bobby, it’d be easy to lean in. Share his strength. Friends did that. But in this, she stood alone.
“Sorry for the info dump.” It wasn’t the first time he’d been exposed to the mess she tried to save for the professionals. “You’re a good friend, Bobby Hawke. Most of my friends in Toronto are women. It’s good to have met a couple of safe guys here.”
After a minute, he coughed. “Define safe.”
“Dylan’s a police officer protecting someone vulnerable. You’re in a relationship, which means you’re not available. Safe.” Swivelling on her toes on the concrete platform, she punched his arm. “I always wanted a brother. Now I have two. Sort of.”
The expression in his eyes was unreadable before he turned back to the sea. His shoulders hunched. “I’m not. In a relationship.”
“Oh.”
His white-knuckle hold tightened on the curved iron rail.
Brilliant response. Oh. “When?”
So much better. She glared at the blue ripples below them. He needed support, and she’d been loading her problems on him. Again.
“Labour Day weekend. When Gramp and I went home.”
“I’m sorry.” Two words this time, but at least intelligent.
“Thanks.”
“You okay?”
“It’s best for both of us.”
Of course he’d be brave about it. “Do you want to check out this cave, or should we walk?”
“Let’s walk.”
They climbed to the main trail and turned right. Away from the parking lot, along an empty path with lots of space to spread out. The track led past more caves before curving away from the water. Light gravel crunched underfoot as they strode in among the trees, arms swinging, pace brisk. As if to leave the awkwardness behind.
Landon finally found some words. “I never met Jessie, and I’m sure she has lots of good qualities. But she didn’t sound like she ever understood you. One of these days, the right girl will come along who’ll value you for who you are and not want to change you.”
She picked up her pace. How insensitive could she be, to spew a sob story of broken dreams to a guy who’d just been dumped? He hadn’t said anything, but the signs had been there since he returned from Ontario. He’d been on edge, and she’d never asked why. What kind of a friend did that?
Almost running, she hurtled into a clearing. An empty campsite carpeted with short grass and ringed with trees. Beside a wooden picnic table stood a doe, liquid brown eyes staring. Ears perked but tail down.
Landon stopped and stuck out her arm to warn Bobby. They stood still, watching the deer watching them. After a long moment, the doe lowered her head to munch on something in the grass.
“Apples,” whispered Bobby. “See, they’re all over the ground.”
Small and green, they’d be a feast for woodland creatures.
He gestured to the side, toward the trees. “Let’s cut through there and leave her in peace.”
The low undergrowth cushioned their steps as they threaded between slender grey trunks, aiming for another open area ahead. Instead of rejoining the path, they found a clearing with rough-hewn benches and a podium at one end.
A forest chapel, furnished in grey, weathered wood. A half-dozen benches lined the space before a simple pulpit. Landon walked to the front and stopped. Arms outstretched in worship, inhaling the evergreen incense, she lifted her face to the sun.
When she turned, Bobby had dropped to the rearmost bench, elbows on thighs, head in hands.
She strolled the perimeter, picking up the occasional early fallen leaf and rolling the stem in her fingertips before freeing it to fall again. Here in this timeless place, heaven felt near. When her steps led around to Bobby’s bench, he lay on his back, knees bent, facing the sky.
He scrambled upright. Lines still etched his features, but the pinch had left his mouth. “Sorry if I kept you waiting. God and I needed a little chat. This seemed like the perfect place.”
“I could stay here all day. Except I told Anna I’d cook tonight. And I have homework. And I need to check in with Ciara.” She gazed around the chapel, trying to absorb its stillness. “This place is a gift. I want to come here again.”
A tiny smile flickered. “Me too.”
The smile spread into a full-on grin, and Bobby was back. Complete with what Landon thought of as his supervillain chin stroke. “Meanwhile, we have a mystery to solve. Justice for Ciara.”