All he wanted from her was answers, and to that end, once the meal was over and he knew he’d given her enough time to clean up the kitchen, he went in search of her to accompany him for a walk around the grounds.
It had been too late last night to fully view the surrounding area, and it was possible that some clue or bit of evidence might be found outside.
If the family were being held alive someplace on the property, then before dusk fell, Gabriel would find them. If the family was dead and their bodies were still on the property, then they’d be found as well, before the end of the night.
It was just after eight-thirty when he and Marlena left by the front door, the heat and humidity already like a slap in the face as they walked outside.
“I thought it was humid in Baton Rouge, but this makes Baton Rouge feel positively arid,” he said as they stepped off the porch.
“That’s why July and August are our slowest months of the year. We only had two couples booked for the next few weeks, and I emailed them this morning to cancel their visit.”
“Hopefully we can tie things up here before the next couple of weeks,” Gabriel replied. He pointed toward a shed near a dock that extended out over the pond. “What’s that?”
“It’s a bait shack. You don’t think...” Her voice trailed off as if her thought was too horrible to say out loud.
“I need to check it out,” he said grimly.
“I’ll wait here.” Her voice trembled as he left her side and walked onto the planks at the front of the dock. The bait shop was an oversize shed, and the door was closed.
From outside the wooden structure, he could hear the faint hum of something electric, probably a refrigerator and tanks to hold live bait. He pulled from his pocket a thin latex glove and then reached out for the doorknob, his heart taking on an unsteady rhythm.
Were Sam and Daniella and little seven-year-old Macy dead, their bodies shoved inside this small building? Although Gabriel had worked difficult cases in the past, it never got any easier to work a case where a small child was involved.
He grabbed the doorknob, drew in a deep breath and then opened it. A whoosh of relief escaped him as he saw exactly what he’d hoped to see: a refrigerator, several wells holding minnows, a screened-in box full of live crickets and no bodies.
He looked back at Marlena and shook his head. Even from this distance, he could see the relief that washed over her pretty face. He met her on a graveled path that led near the edge of the water.
“Does the pond have big fish?” he asked as they fell in step together.
“Some of the guests have pulled out real beauties,” she replied. “Mostly catfish and bass and the ever-present bottom-feeding carp.”
“Do you fish?”
“No way. This is as close as I ever get to the pond or any body of water bigger than a bathtub.” Her eyes darkened with a hint of fear. “I never learned how to swim.”
He absorbed this information as he did every minute detail about her and his surroundings. “What other buildings are on the property?” he asked, focusing back on the reason they were taking this walk.
“Just a big gardening shed, John’s place and the carriage house,” she replied.
“We’ll check out the gardening shed, and then I want you to let me into the carriage house. It was too late last night to search there by the time we processed the kitchen and interviewed you, your brother and John, but we need to check the place and make sure nothing is out of order there.”
“Okay,” she replied, her voice filled with anxiety.
They walked in silence for a few minutes, following the path that edged the side of the pond. “You think I’m guilty of something, don’t you?” she said, finally breaking the tense silence between them.
She was definitely guilty of stirring an unexpected, unwanted fire of desire inside him. He was aware that she was waiting for his answer. He shrugged. The truth was that, at this moment, he had no definitive answer for her as to whether he believed her guilty of having something to do with the Connellys’ disappearance or not.
* * *
A WEARY EXHAUSTION battled with the pound of a headache as Marlena cut up fruit to make a salad for the evening meal. After she and Gabriel had walked the grounds earlier that day, Gabriel had spent the rest of the morning on his laptop, while Jackson had worked at the bed-and-breakfast computer in the tiny office just off the common room. Andrew had gone into town to ask questions and make arrangements for Marion Wells, Valerie King and Pamela Winters to come to the house to be interviewed.
Around noon Marlena had placed a platter of ham and cheese sandwiches, along with a big bowl of potato salad, on the table. She had stacked the plates and silverware, allowing the men to eat whenever they were ready rather than calling them to a sit-down meal.
All the rules had changed. From the moment she’d awakened and found the family gone, the neat and orderly world inside the bed-and-breakfast had been shattered.
Marlena was on the verge of shattering every time she thought of the missing people she loved. Daniella had been like a sister, and in the past two years, Sam had become like a favorite brother-in-law. Seven-year-old Macy was the icing on the cake in the family Marlena had temporarily claimed as her own.
Marlena had spent most of the afternoon either in her room or in the kitchen preparing dinner. She’d decided to serve the men a hearty meal of smothered pork chops, mashed potatoes and corn. The fruit salad would be perfect to finish off as dessert. She knew that Gabriel had spent the afternoon interviewing Marion Wells, Valerie King and Pamela Winters, but she suspected those women knew no more than she did about what had happened.
The back door creaked open and she jumped, nearly slicing her finger. She relaxed as she saw her brother step into the kitchen. Lately, most of the time she wanted to take him by the shoulders and shake some adult sense into him, but at the moment, the sight of him was a welcome one, and her heart filled with love.
“Hey, sis. How’s it going?”
“It’s going,” she replied.
He slumped into one of the chairs at the table. “This is all so weird.”
“Scary weird,” she agreed, and then couldn’t help herself. “I thought you were going to get a haircut last week.”
He raked a hand through his shaggy blond hair. “I didn’t get around to it yet, and don’t start nagging.”
She grinned ruefully. “I don’t have the heart or the energy at the moment to nag you. How about a glass of chocolate milk? You know chocolate milk solves everything.”
A hint of a smile curved his lips, and she knew he was thinking of all the bad times they’d gone through in the past. Chocolate milk had always been her panacea. “That sounds good,” he agreed.
She made the milk with chocolate syrup, stirred it until it was foamy and then set a glass for Cory and a glass for herself on the table.
“Thanks.” He took a drink and then looked at her. “I saw you walking with that detective this morning. Is he giving you a hard time?”
“Gabriel Blankenship. And, no, he isn’t giving me a hard time, but he’s doing his job. By the end of our walk this morning, my head was spinning from all the questions he’d asked.”
“Questions like what? Surely he doesn’t think you had anything to do with this.”
She took a sip from her glass. As always, the sight of Cory caused love to well up inside her. He had the face of a choirboy, open and earnest,