You know a forever house when you see it. It’s like part of your soul.
—HAMMER GIRL BLOG
A storm had rolled in overnight, and the overcast skies lowered Ellie’s mood even more than awakening to the knowledge her sister had been keeping secrets from her. Nothing would stop her search for Mac, though. She inhaled the scent of wet loam as she went to the front door of the House at Saltwater Point.
Jason’s truck was outside, and the door was already unlocked. She smelled the unmistakable odor of demolition, a mixture of old mold and dirt, when she stepped inside. “Hello?”
“In the kitchen.” Jason’s voice was nearly drowned out by the sounds of hammering.
She veered left and found him standing in the middle of splintered two-by-fours and broken plaster attached to lath. The kitchen was nearly totally demolished. The old cabinets were in a heap where a wall used to be. Clint Parker, a blond college student who worked for them part time, was with him.
The place already felt more open and airy. “You’ve gotten a lot done already.”
“Time is money. The longer it takes us to finish, the more our carrying costs will be.”
Her own dithering about Grayson came to mind. What would delaying a search for the truth accomplish? She thought he was closed-minded, but at least he had skills and resources. If she worked with him, they would likely find the truth sooner than if she dug in her heels and refused to work with him.
She put her hands on her hips and looked around. “You’re here early. I fed Mia, then came straight here.”
Jason wiped the perspiration from his forehead. His sun-streaked hair glistened with moisture too. “Who’s Mia?”
“My new cat.” She told him about finding the bedraggled kitten. “I gave her a bath before I left this morning. She wasn’t a fan.”
Jason chuckled. “You’re ever the rescuer.” He stooped and gathered an armload of debris. “Any news about Mac?”
“Do you care?” She pressed her lips together as she gathered debris and followed him out the door to the Dumpster.
He tossed his load. “Of course I care. She might hate me, but I don’t hate her. I see her faults, unlike you, but I didn’t wish her dead.”
She dropped her load into the green Dumpster. “We don’t know she’s dead!”
He raised a brow. “Ellie, I know it’s hard to live in limbo, but you have to face the fact we may never find her body. The fish—” He broke off and swallowed hard. “It’s hard to think about, but even the coroner is saying she’s likely dead. He took a look at the blood evidence.”
“Where did you hear that? The sheriff hasn’t said anything about it.”
“I talked to him myself. I ran into him at Harvey’s Pier and asked him for his opinion. He said it was possible she survived that kind of blood loss if she got immediate medical attention, but he didn’t think she’d lived through it.”
Her throat went tight, and she gulped. “That’s his opinion, not fact.”
“He’s basing it on his years of experience, Ellie. We have to accept what’s happened and move on.” He stomped off back to the house.
She stood by the Dumpster gathering her composure. Five days without her sister had been agony. How was she supposed to get through the rest of her life without Mac? Her sister was all the family she had left.
Grayson will get to the bottom of it all.
She was going to work with him. It was the only way she’d have closure. If she knew for sure what had truly happened to Mac, maybe she could accept it and grieve. If she’d been involved in something illegal that led to her death, Ellie had to know it.
She rubbed her dusty hands on her jeans and walked back inside. Today she would focus on her work.
Jason hammered out the last two-by-four in the wall. He saw her watching and stopped. “I’m sorry, Ellie. I know how much you loved her.”
She nodded, unable to get any words past the constriction in her throat. After reaching for a bottle of water from the cooler, she gulped down half of it and inhaled. “What would you think if I told you I wanted to keep this house?”
Surprise flickered in his brown eyes. “But you love your house.”
“I do, but this place is special, don’t you think? I keep imagining myself living here and seeing the water.”
“I’m okay with it. We won’t make a profit on it, but I don’t mind. You’ve worked hard, and you deserve it. Besides, your house probably holds a lot of memories. This will give you a fresh start.”
A fresh start wasn’t something she wanted. She longed to hear her sister’s voice and hug her. She wanted to spend evenings watching Hallmark movies and sipping cocoa with Mac.
She turned away before Jason could see the tears in her eyes. One day at a time. Just as she moved forward on the house day by day, she’d move forward without Mac. Somehow.
The Rainshadow Brewhouse was packed. The building looked like it had been a bar once back in the gold rush days, and the wide plank floors underfoot were a bit uneven. Tin ceilings soared to sixteen feet, and the polished wood bar top looked like it still had the original mirrors behind it. Big drum roasters squatted in the west window.
Grayson saw an empty table for one in the back corner and carried his black coffee and breakfast sandwich through the throng to snag it. Even though he’d only gotten three hours of sleep last night, he felt surprisingly alert, though he wasn’t sure where to go next with the investigation.
College students with backpacks, mothers with toddlers, and businessmen talking animatedly on their phones while ordering their drinks held his attention for a few moments. He’d been born in this nice little town, which was still hard to wrap his mind around.
The enticing aroma of coffee and cinnamon sparked his appetite, and he took a bite of his sandwich as he looked around. Did any of them know him as a little boy? Some of the grandmotherly types would be old enough. Maybe he wouldn’t feel so adrift once Shauna and Zach got back later today. He’d thought about going over and introducing himself to his new nephew, but he wasn’t quite ready for that yet. At least not without Shauna there.
He had his breakfast and was about to leave when he heard a woman mention Mackenzie’s name. He glanced around as if looking for someone so he could get a glimpse of the two women and a man who sat sipping mochas and eating cinnamon rolls. One was a white-haired woman with a surprisingly unlined face dressed in khaki slacks and a red top. The other woman had red hair and was as round as a cue ball. She wore a shapeless dress splashed with gold flowers. The blond guy was much younger and probably a student.
He held his breath and leaned toward them.
The red-haired one waved her hands in the air. “If you ask me, I think Mackenzie’s boyfriend killed her. I ran into him right after she dumped him, and he was nearly incoherent. He kept yelling about making her pay and that no one dumps him. It gave me the willies.”
The young man spoke. “I heard he was out to sea when she went missing. It’s a good idea to look at him, though. Those military types are capable of any kind of violence.”
Red Hair nodded. “He has friends. Those military types stick together.”
White Hair took a sip of her drink. “I don’t know what to make of the accusation that she took that cocaine. It seems so out of character. But Trafford is another matter. He’s capable of just about anything, even murder.”
“I sure miss her at the university.”
A lightbulb went off in Grayson’s head. These women must be teachers who worked with Mackenzie. The legs on his metal chair scraped as he pushed back from the table and turned toward them. “Excuse me, could I ask you a few questions?”
White Hair fixed him with a stern look in her blue eyes. “Who are you?”
He dug for his badge. “Grayson Bradshaw with Coast Guard Investigative Services. I’m investigating some missing cocaine, and I couldn’t help but overhear you.”
A blush ran up both women’s necks. Red Hair glanced at White Hair. “We shouldn’t have been gossiping.”
He moved his chair over to their table. “You don’t think much of Dylan Trafford. May I ask why?”
Red Hair snorted. “He’s a sleazebag. Mac caught him out with another girl. He was all over her, and Mac followed them back to the girl’s place. He tried to turn it around like it was all Mac’s fault for being a prude. Piece of trash.” Her hazel eyes studied him. “I guess we should introduce ourselves too. I’m Darcy Farrow, and this is Penny Dreamer. We both worked with Mac at the university. Clint Parker here is a student majoring in political science. We all know Mac. She didn’t take your cocaine.”
“So everyone keeps telling me.” He smiled to soften his sarcastic tone. “How did Mac seem the past few weeks?”
Darcy glanced at Penny and shrugged. “Distracted, uneasy. We thought it was because she was hurt over Dylan’s behavior, but now I’m not so sure. She was looking up a lot of stuff online, and she’d close the tab whenever anyone got close.”
“You don’t know what she was investigating?”
Penny ran a perfectly manicured finger around the top of her cup. “I’ll admit I checked her history one day when she was out of the office.”
Darcy gasped. “Penny, you didn’t!”
Penny’s chin came up. “I was worried about her, okay? I thought maybe it was something I could help with.” She returned her attention to Grayson. Color ran up her neck again, and she looked down at her half-eaten breakfast. “There were pictures she’d saved of a Coast Guard pier.”
His gut clenched. “The hangar where the cocaine was stored?”
“I don’t know where it was stored.”
“But she did.”
Penny’s blue eyes narrowed. “How do you know that?”
He shouldn’t have blurted that out. “Anything else?”
“That’s it,” Penny said.
“Do you know where Mackenzie might have stashed something important? A locker, a safety deposit box, anything?”
Darcy frowned and shook her head. “The sheriff took away everything in her desk. Her computer too.”
So the sheriff’s department would see what she’d been researching. Would they be as uneasy as he was?