Pink-granite stones led down a hundred-foot cliff to rocks below, and Claire took them. When she reached the sea, the brisk, fresh air cleared her head. The gulls squawking overhead soothed her. The tightness in her chest was nearly gone, and she felt almost normal. She grimaced as she tossed a pebble into the gentle waves rolling to shore.
It had been a momentary weakness there in the lobby, nothing like her mother’s constant histrionics. Claire had just been working too hard, and thoughts of this merger’s importance had kept her tossing and turning until after midnight last night. It was nothing.
She leaned down and slipped off her heels, then sank her toes into the sand mixed with small stones. With her shoes dangling from one hand, she wandered down the long strip of rocky coastline. A feeling of contentment surrounded her, like she’d somehow found a piece of herself here. All her life the sea had seemed to fulfill some missing part of her, some innate need she couldn’t name.
A shout caught her attention, and she squinted in the strong afternoon sunlight toward a small inlet. A man and a woman seemed to be securing fishing line or rope on a metal ring attached to a small pier where a fishing boat was docked. They were both wet.
Did they need help? Claire started toward them, but she saw a form in the water and stopped. She first thought it was a dolphin, then she recognized the distinctive black-and-white markings.
She pressed her lips together and rushed to intercept them before they could board the boat again, her bare feet slapping the cool, damp wooden pier. “You there! What do you think you’re doing with this orca? You can’t keep it penned up.”
When the man turned to stare at her, her first impression was of impossibly dark eyes that seemed to look right into her soul. He would have been right at home on the cover of a pirate romance. He looked Italian with his thick dark hair and eyes and was probably close to thirty. His white shorts contrasted with his tanned, muscular legs. Water pooled at his bare feet.
His gaze swept over her, and she flushed when she realized how she must look in her slim-fitting blue sheath dress and bare feet. The wind had seriously destroyed her controlled updo.
She pushed an errant lock out of her eyes and scowled at him. “Orcas should never be penned up. This one probably has a matriline and a bigger pod out there missing it.”
He raised a black brow. “Not many people have ever even heard the word matriline. You some kind of orca activist, or do you just like to show off your education?”
“I volunteer with an orca rescue organization.” She tipped her chin up at his derisive tone. “Locking up these beautiful creatures is like imprisoning a baby. I suppose you thought to make a lot of money by selling it to an aquarium.”
He tugged on the zipper of his blue sweatshirt. “You don’t know me, lady. And this is none of your business.”
The woman with him stepped between them. She had the man’s dark good looks, but she wore a placating smile. “Hi, I’m Megan Rocco. And my brother, Luke, is not usually this hotheaded. We’re not harming the orca. He’s injured, and I’m not even sure we can save him. I think his mother must have died. He’s starving. We’re putting him here for his own good until we can contact an orca rescue organization.”
Claire went hot at her assumptions. What had gotten into her today? First experiencing a panic attack and then jumping to unwarranted conclusions. She gulped, then glanced past Megan to Luke as she tried to gather enough courage to apologize. She eyed him and his sister. His sweatshirt had a Coast Guard emblem. His sister’s bore a dive shop logo.
Claire looked down at her bare feet and bit her lip before staring back into those dark, dark eyes. “I think I owe you both an apology.”
“You think?” He lifted a brow, then turned toward the boat.
A small wave slapped the edge of the pier and dampened her feet. She edged closer to the center. “I’m sorry. Truly. I have a bit of a thing for dolphins and whales, always have. You’d be surprised how many people think there’s nothing wrong with captive orcas. They’re one of the few mammals who have an actual family unit like ours.”
He didn’t look at her. “You’re preaching to the choir, lady.”
“Can I make it up to you and help you with him? You won’t have to call anyone else. I know what to do.”
He finally looked her way and seemed to take her measure before he finally nodded. “I’m just going to fatten him up and then let him loose. But you can help before you go back to your froufrou coffee and high-powered dinners.”
Her face burned at his accurate assessment of her financial status. “Look, we got off to a bad start. I haven’t even introduced myself.” She held out her hand. “I’m Claire Dellamare.”
His gaze sharpened. “Harry Dellamare’s daughter?”
“You know my dad?”
He exchanged a glance with his sister. “I know of him. Never met him, though. I was a kid when he was here last. And when you were found.”
She rubbed her forehead where it pulsed with pain. “Found? What do you mean?”
“You know, back in ’90. After you’d been missing a year out there in the forest.” He swept his hand up at the thick forest marching along the top of the cliff. Then a look passed between Luke and his sister before he returned his attention to Claire. “Did you ever remember where you were that year? Did you happen to see a woman the night you wandered off?”
“Luke, enough,” Megan said.
The blood drained from Claire’s head, and her legs went weak.
“Claire, are you all right?”
She barely heard Megan’s anxious voice through the roaring in her ears. Something lingered on the edge of her memory, but she couldn’t grasp it. Her vision darkened, and she took a step back. She teetered on the edge of the pier.
“Look out!” Luke’s shadowy figure moved toward her.
She reached out for some kind of support but missed her footing. The rough wood cut the side of her foot as she went over the edge. The shock of the cold water cleared her head, and she shot to the surface sputtering. Something bumped into her side, and she saw the orca floating nearby as if to help her. She touched its pectoral flipper, then grabbed hold. There was a splash to her left, then Luke told her to be calm, that he was coming.
But the baby orca was squeaking and nudging her, helping her forget the visions of trees leering at her, of rocks bruising her feet. She ducked her head into the cold water and let it scoop the strands of hair away from her face even as she emptied her mind of the terrifying images.
Luke grasped her arm. “Need some help to shore?”
She shook her head. “I’m okay.”
“I’d say. You’re a dolphin yourself.”
He grinned as she released the calf and struck off toward the pier with a butterfly stroke. She wasn’t eager to get out of the water, but she had to talk to her father. No wonder he’d been upset when she arrived.
She’d been here before. Lost. And her parents had never told her.
Why hadn’t her parents ever talked about it? 1990. She’d been five when she was found. If she’d been missing a year, that meant she was four when she got lost. And she had no memory of any of it. How was that possible?
Though Luke had draped her with a dry jacket smelling of the sea, Claire shivered in the cool breeze blowing off the water. A gull hopped closer, tipping its head to one side and surveying her with curiosity. The questions hammered in her head, and she knew how Alice felt when she fell into the rabbit hole. Everything was different now, and she didn’t know how to process this sudden shift in reality.
Only Father could tell her.
She rose from her seat on the pier. “I have to get back to the hotel. Thanks for everything.”
Megan wore a worried expression. “You sure you’re okay to go back by yourself? You’re still awfully pale.”
“I’m fine.” Claire needed to hear from her father what had happened in this place. The orca wiggled a fin in the water. “You mind if I come down and check on the orca tomorrow?”
“Come anytime you like.” Luke glanced at his sister who gave a slight shake of her head.
Claire saw the questions in his eyes, but she wasn’t ready to deal with his curiosity. “Did you see the way the orca wanted to help me?”
He nodded. “They’re smart. I’m sure he sensed your distress.” His well-shaped lips flattened, and he took a deep breath. “You seemed shocked by what I told you. You don’t remember anything about being here when you were a kid?”
Megan’s eyes flashed. “Luke, let her be.”
“She’s fine now. Do you? Remember anything, I mean?”
She thought about not answering at all, but his expression held intense need, not curiosity. “As far as I knew, this was my first visit here. I-I even flipped out a little in the hotel because it felt eerily familiar.” She swallowed down a choking lump. “Believe me, I intend to ask a lot of questions.”
The glint in his eyes went out. “So you don’t remember a woman the night you went missing?”
Megan put her hand on his arm. “Enough, Luke.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Just asking.”
“It’s okay. No, I don’t remember a woman. I don’t remember anything. Well, other than dark trees. I kind of remember that.” She handed him back his jacket. “I’d better go now. Thanks for your help. I’ll stop back tomorrow.” She gave a slight wave and set off along the beach toward the hotel.
The sun was low in the sky to the west, and the fading light sent shadows looming along the path. If she didn’t pick up her speed, she wouldn’t make it back to the hotel before dark. But the knowledge didn’t cause her to quicken her pace.
What was she even going to say to her father—how did she start that conversation? She’d been lied to her entire life. Keeping something like this from her felt like a betrayal of the worst kind. Her purse felt heavy on her arm, and she wished she hadn’t brought it. She’d been gone two hours, and her father was probably worried.
She reached a point where Sunset Cove began to curve back toward the hotel. A crab skittered across the sand by her feet, then darted into a hole when it saw her. Wrinkling her nose at the stench and flies, she waded through a pile of crunchy kelp deposited by the tide and dried by the sun. A gull cried above her, and she looked up the rock face ten feet to her right.
Two figures struggled at the edge of the cliff, ninety feet in the air. The woman wore a pencil skirt and sleeveless blouse that nearly matched the darkening sky. Her silhouette obstructed Claire’s view of who struggled with her. Shading her eyes with her hand, Claire watched the woman’s slim figure as she tried to prevent the man from pushing her closer to the edge.
“Hey, you! Leave her alone!” Claire looked around for some way to ascend the cliff, but the sheer expanse of jagged pink granite looming above her offered no way to climb it without gear.
She peered up again, this time seeing the form of a man behind the woman. He wore a jacket over tan hunting pants. She got an impression of dark hair and a straight nose, but she was too far to make out his features. Neither of them seemed to notice her, and she gasped when he shoved the woman even closer to the edge.
“I’m calling the police!” She clawed her cell phone out of her purse and dialed 911. Before the dispatcher picked up, a shriek mingled with the wail of the loons, and Claire whirled to see the young woman plummeting to the ground. She hit the sand with a solid thump, then didn’t move.
“No, no!” Claire ran toward the woman who was spreadeagled facedown. She knelt beside her and touched her wrist. No pulse. What should she do? She knew CPR. Get help on the way first, though. She put the phone back to her ear. “Are you there?”
“You need assistance, ma’am?” The dispatcher had a gravelly male voice.
“There’s been a murder. Some man just threw a woman over the cliff. I saw the whole thing.” She choked out the words.
The woman had landed on her stomach, but her head was turned to one side, and now that she was closer, Claire recognized her as the front desk clerk. “It’s Jenny Bennett.”
“I’ll call the sheriff, and we’ll get someone there right away. What’s your location?”
“Down the steps from Hotel Tourmaline and about a quarter mile to the north along the beach.”
“It’s going to take awhile for the sheriff to get out there. Be patient.”
Claire ended the call and rolled Jenny onto her back. She knelt and began CPR. It felt hopeless, but she had to try. The back of her neck prickled, but she didn’t dare stop CPR to look around. Lord, help me.
She leaned forward to administer two breaths, but an explosion of movement from the shrubs in the maritime forest made her heart leap into her throat. Before she could turn to see what was coming at her, a hard blow struck the back of her head. As darkness claimed her, she saw the face of her attacker.
It was the hunter from her nightmares. Only this time there was no fox attached to his belt.