“I will.”

  Devine left, got into his SUV, and drove back to the inn. And all along the way he was wondering why Earl Palmer had been offered up as the one to find Jenny’s body when he could not have possibly seen it. Whoever was behind this had not thought that one through. But then again, until Devine had come along, everyone had just accepted what the old man had said at face value.

  Maybe I am good at this. Or maybe no one else really wants to find out the truth.

  CHAPTER

  34

  HARPER AND FUSS WERE WAITING for him when he returned to the inn. The two cops didn’t look happy, and he felt sure he was about to find out why.

  Harper said, “Heard you went to see Earl Palmer today.”

  “News travels fast.”

  “Can I ask why?”

  “He was the one who found Jenny’s body. I had follow-up questions.”

  “Like what?” asked Fuss, giving him a look that Devine didn’t really care for.

  “Just the standard stuff.”

  “Learn anything new?” asked Harper, his hand resting on top of his baton.

  “I don’t know. I have to think about it.”

  “You were over at the funeral home earlier, too,” said Fuss.

  “Minutes ago and you already know. You guys need to apply to work for CIA.”

  “Cut the crap, Devine. What are you trying to get at?” demanded Harper.

  “Same as you, the truth. We all just have our own methods of getting there, apparently.”

  “You seem to doubt that Earl found the body,” said Fuss.

  “Well, if you mean do I think it odd that he looked down to see the body, only the guy can’t look down? Then yeah, I have some doubts. You should too.”

  Harper eyed Fuss and said, “What do you mean, he ‘can’t look down’?”

  The man seemed to be sincere, thought Devine, or else he was an excellent liar. “A couple of cervical spinal fusions that went bad. He has severely restricted range of motion. Thought Guillaume would have told you. You obviously saw her at the funeral home and she told you that we had met.”

  “You’re wrong. We didn’t talk to her,” said Fuss. “We saw both your cars in the parking lot when we passed by on our way here.”

  “Okay.”

  “Now what about Earl?” asked Harper.

  “I gave him a little test at the spot where he claimed to have seen Jenny’s body.” He filled them in on what he had done to discover the man’s inability to look downward.

  “Are you sure?” asked Harper.

  “Test him yourself,” suggested Devine. “And the guy has a hard time walking. No, he doesn’t really walk, he shuffles. So he was out in a monsoon shuffling miles, including through the mud, to the edge of that bluff?”

  “If what you’re suggesting is true, it opens up a can of worms,” said Harper.

  “It actually changes everything,” replied Devine.

  “What do you mean by that?” asked Harper.

  “If he didn’t look down and see her, how was she actually found? Did she really fall on the rocks after being shot, or was she killed elsewhere and moved there later?”

  “Hold on, hold on,” protested Fuss. “You’re getting way over your skis the way I see it.”

  “I don’t think so. It’s a fact that when Earl called 911 there was a body at the spot mentioned?”

  “Yes,” said Harper. “I told you that. The night dispatcher called me and I called Wendy. We went out there straightaway.”

  “And Earl was there?”

  “Sure was, right over at the edge. He pointed to where she was.”

  “Did he look down when he pointed?”

  “I don’t remember,” snapped Harper. “I had other things to think about.”

  “But if he didn’t find her, what was he really doing there?” asked Devine.

  “You’re the one saying that, not us.”

  “Then test him.”

  “We do that, it’s as good as saying we don’t believe him.”

  Devine retorted, “I thought our job was to find the facts, not worry about hurt feelings.”

  “We don’t need you to tell us how to do our job,” interjected Fuss heatedly. “In fact, you made our job harder by preventing us from searching Jenny’s room and car right away.”

  “I had nothing to do with that.”

  “It was still your people,” pointed out Fuss.

  “This is getting us nowhere,” said Devine. “Are you going to speak to Earl?”

  Harper hitched up his pants. “I’ll let you know. In the meantime, what can you tell us about those three people you killed? Your boys turn up anything?”

  “Not that they’ve shared with me.”

  “Well, as soon as you do hear anything, be sure to let us know.”

  “I’d appreciate the same,” replied Devine.

  They walked off without acknowledging this request.

  As soon as they left, Alex came riding up on her bicycle, stopping in front of him.

  “Can we talk?” she said.

  “Sure. About what?”

  “About… me. And Jenny.”

  CHAPTER

  35

  SHE CURLED AND UNCURLED HER fingers around the coffee cup at Maine Brew.

  Devine watched those long, lively fingers and judged them to be as artistic in design and function as the mind of the woman who owned them.

  “What about you and your sister?” said Devine in a gently prompting manner.

  Alex looked up at him, considerable pain in her expression. She fiddled with the colorful scarf tied around her neck. “I… I heard about what happened to you. That you almost died last night. That was why you came to my studio, wasn’t it?”

  “Who told you that?”

  “Wendy Fuss. She said that you killed three men who had kidnapped you.”

  He nodded slowly. “Yes. But we didn’t come here to talk about that, did we?” He took a sip of coffee and glanced out the window as a chilly rain started to fall. When she didn’t say anything he looked back at her. “I heard something about you.”

  “What?” she said quickly.

  “That you were attacked when you were in high school. And that the person who attacked you got away.”

  “I… I…” She looked so distressed that he put his hand out and gripped hers firmly.

  “If you don’t want to talk about it, then don’t. It’s up to you. No worries. I shouldn’t have brought it up. I’m sorry. It was a stupid thing to do.”

  He let go of her hand, sat back, and waited.

  She took a sip of coffee and then set the cup down and plunged in. “The doctors said that in addition to having physical injuries, I… I suffered a traumatic shock. And that shock caused something called localized or situation-specific dissociative amnesia. Back then I had no idea what that meant, but I’ve come to learn that it means I can’t remember certain specific memories. In my case I can remember what I was doing before it happened, but nothing after that.”

  “So you don’t remember any details of the assault?”

  She shook her head. “I wouldn’t have even known that it happened at all except I woke up in a hospital with a skull fracture and… the police were there.” She touched her scalp in the middle of her head. “They had to shave my head right there to fix it. They also told me I had been—”

  “Yes, I know,” said Devine quickly. “Will you ever get the memories back?”

  “They don’t know. Apparently, most of the time they do come back, at least to some degree. But… it hasn’t happened with me, and it’s been over fifteen years now.”

  “Is there anything they can do to help you get them back?”

  “I’ve been to psychotherapy, but it didn’t help. They told me that your mind blocks out something if it’s too painful to… confront. And there’s something called creative therapy that I actually do every day and would have done regardless of whether this had happened to me or not.”

  “Your artwork, you mean?”

  She smiled, sadly, and nodded. “Yes. It’s my cocoon. My safe space. When I’m doing it, all is right with the world, at least my world.”

  “Who found you after you were attacked, do you know?”

  “If they told me, I don’t remember. I was… just in shock when they told me what had happened. And my head hurt so badly.”

  “So the police had nothing to go on? No one else saw anything?”

  “No.”

  “Where did the attack happen?”

  Alex shook her head. “I… I don’t remember.”

  “I am so very sorry that happened to you, Alex.”

  She looked down at the table and nodded, and then wiped at her eyes.

  “But you didn’t come here to tell me this, since I was the one who brought it up.”

  She looked at him. “I came here to tell you that Jenny did come by to see me when she was here.” She stopped and looked at him. “Aren’t you mad that I didn’t tell you before?”

  “No. I’ll just assume you had your reasons.”

  Her expression relaxed. “You keep surprising me, Travis. I think I have you figured out and you throw me a curve.”

  “Not to worry. I was thinking the very same thing about you.”

  She picked at one of her paint-covered fingers. “It was in the afternoon before she was killed.”

  “What did she want?”

  “She wanted to know if I had remembered anything from when I was attacked.”

  “And what did you tell her?”

  “The same thing I just told you. That I hadn’t.”

  “Why would she be bringing that up now, after all these years? Or did she regularly check in with you about it?”

  “No, she had never mentioned it before, aside from when she came home to help me right after it happened. She never left my side for a long while. And she would talk to me about it, trying to get me to recall what had happened. I think she might have tried too hard because it never worked. I remember she got angry with me sometimes about it.”

  “Why? Like you said, these things happen to people who have experienced what you did.”

  “Because Jenny would have been strong enough to overcome that, remember every detail, and nail the bastard. Or so she told me when I couldn’t do that.”

  “A tough older sister.”

  “An impossibly perfect older sister.” She hesitated. “But she did… care about me, Travis. I know she did. Through her actions, if not always through her words.”

  “But not so easy to love. Your earlier remark about Jenny is making more sense.”

  “I did love her, despite all that,” Alex said so quietly Devine almost didn’t hear her.

  “Is that when Bertie Palmer started to mentor you?”

  “Yes. Jenny had to go back to Washington for work. And Mom and Dad were… well, they had a lot going on.”

  “They must have been terribly upset about what happened to you.”

  “I don’t think they knew how to deal with it. Dad went around angry all the time. I believe he blamed himself for not protecting me. And Mom alternated between going into a shell and then coming out of it to smother me.” She looked out the window at the rain falling from a gray sky, but her expression brightened in spite of the gloomy weather.

  “Bertie was a godsend. A truly wonderful, giving person. She didn’t just teach me about art. I mean, I had a natural talent, but my fundamentals were all over the place, especially my line work. She taught me about life, too. About who I was, or could become.”

  “I heard you had been accepted at some great art schools. I know you have to present a portfolio of your work to be considered for admission.”

  “Bertie helped me do all that, Travis. She was the reason I had the courage to apply to those schools in the first place and have artwork worthy enough to show them. It was therapy for what I was going through. She urged me to get it out on the drawings, the canvas, whatever I was working on. And it helped, it really did.”

  “But then you didn’t go to any of the schools. Why?”

  Alex stared out at the rain, which was starting to fall harder. And, mirroring what the weather was doing, tears started to slide from her eyes and curlicue down her trembling cheeks.

  And as Devine watched this, it was like he had forgotten how to breathe. He reached out and gripped her hand once more, not only to reassure her, but to also do so for himself.

  “Would you think it unbelievable if I told you I didn’t know why?” she said in a hushed voice.

  “No, I wouldn’t. But there is a big world out there to explore. And capture in your art.”

  She shifted her gaze to him. “I know,” she said in a low voice. But Devine knew the woman had no faith or belief in her own response. At this point, they were just words, expected ones, what she thought he wanted to hear.

  He withdrew his hand. “So you stayed in the old homestead, where you grew up?”

  “It was a happy time for us. Mostly. At least I remember it that way.” She glanced at him. “Did you have a happy place?”

  He nodded. “It was called the United States Army.”

  “So why aren’t you still in uniform?”

  “Because life came at me fast and I didn’t duck in time. So now, here I am.”

  “Here we both are,” she amended. “I… I better go.”

  When she rose he said, “Whether those memories come back or not, Alex, they won’t define you if you don’t let them.”

  “I used to think that.”

  “You still can.”

  “I used to think that, too, Travis.”

  He watched her walk off because he could think of nothing to make her stay.

  But he did have one thought.

  If I find whoever took Alex’s life from her I will make them pay.

  CHAPTER

  36

  THE NEXT MORNING, AFTER HIS workout and partaking of the inn’s continental breakfast, Devine drove to the police station, where he found Harper and Fuss in the chief’s small office. He eyed the pictures on the wall of tough-looking men in uniform.

  Harper noted this and said, “Former chiefs of police here. Way back we had six full-time officers, if can you believe it. But then our population fell off a cliff.”

  “It’s going back up, according to Dak Silkwell.”

  “It is,” conceded Harper. “The ‘remoters,’ he calls them. They are coming here in droves. I don’t know if it will last, but we’ll take it. Only good thing to come out of COVID, for us.”

  “Any news on Jenny’s phone or laptop?”

  “We don’t know that she had a laptop with her,” said Fuss.

  Devine pulled out his phone and showed a picture he’d taken. “Dust pattern on her desk at the inn. What else could that be?”

  “When did you notice that?” asked Harper.

  “When we searched the place.”

  “And you’re just now telling us?” he barked.

  “I thought you had noted it.”

  This seemed to make Harper even madder, and he was clearly struggling to keep his temper in check. “How about your folks? Have they traced any of that electronically?”

  Devine shook his head. “No, but I got another question.”

  “Okay,” said Harper, seeming to brace himself.

  “Where was Alex Silkwell attacked all those years ago?”

  Harper looked at Fuss, who was now looking at the scuffed wooden floor.

  “I was a sergeant back then,” said Harper. “Like Wendy is now. But we had other officers, like I said.”

  “Okay. Were you one of the responders? And who called it in? I understand that Alex didn’t. She woke up in the hospital.”

  “Why are you asking about that?” said Fuss, now looking at him.

  “Because Jenny asked Alex if she had remembered anything about the attack.”

  “What?” bellowed Harper. “You mean this time? Who told you that?”

  “Alex did.”

  “She never told us,” retorted Harper.

  “Well, she told me and I’m telling you. So I’d like to know where Alex was found, since it now seems Jenny came up here to look into what happened to her sister.”

  “Why, after all this time?” said Fuss.

  “I don’t know, but I’d like to find out. So the place?”

  “Before my time,” said Fuss quickly.

  Devine shifted his focus to Harper, who would not meet his eye. “Chief?”

  “It was… actually, it was right around where Jenny’s body was found, as a matter of fact. But in the open field before you get to the trees and through the trail there to the bluff by the water.”

  Devine’s expression slowly hardened. “And you never put two and two together?”

  “No, I didn’t. Hell, I hadn’t even thought about what happened to Alex in years. Your question just now made me think about it.”

  “Come on, you really think they’re connected?” interjected Fuss. “What about the military round found out there? And the person who took a shot at you? And the ones who kidnapped you? They were all foreign folks. They weren’t around when that happened to Alex.”

  “I don’t know what to make of all that, yet,” conceded Devine. “But the location being the same for Alex and Jenny? It might mean something. We have to follow it up.”

  “You can, if you want,” said Harper. “I have better things to do with my time.”

  “Okay. Did you confirm that the round fired at me was a NATO round? I’m asking because even though I found the casing, this case is so screwy when it comes to ballistics I want to make sure the casing matches the round fired.”

  “We confirmed it, yes. Told the other feds, Saxon and Mann.”

  “Did you check Dak’s alibi for the time Jenny was killed?”

  Harper exclaimed, “Why in the world would Dak want to kill his own sister?”

  “Oldest motivation of all—money.”

  “What money?”

  “Dak told me some developers want to buy Jocelyn Point. It would be worth millions. Now that Jenny’s gone, the value of Dak’s share went way up.”

  Harper eyed Devine. “Okay, we’ll check it out. Thanks for the info.”