CHAPTER SEVEN
Reese paused the porch swing with her flip-flop as a third truck came rambling down the narrow lane. She’d first heard the engine of Noah Kendall’s F150 around six o’clock this morning through her bedroom screened window. A second vehicle had followed an hour or so later.
Now? It was going on eight o’clock in the morning as dust wafted in the driver’s wake of yet another individual who was joining Noah in whatever renovations he’d begun today.
She couldn’t hide her surprise as a red Dodge Ram pulled in behind her small Honda Fit on the far side of the house. No one had ever visited her here besides Rose Phifer. The older lady was African American and the wife of Tiny…who happened to be six feet and six inches tall. Together, they owned a few properties in and around Blyth Lake, along with Tiny’s Cavern.
Word from the gossip mill yesterday had it that Tiny and Rose had sold off the Cavern to Brynn Mercer. Of course, the topic had changed on a dime the moment Noah Kendall had walked through the diner’s door.
“May I help you?” Reese called out after she’d walked to the edge of the porch steps. It certainly wasn’t Rose who had come calling. “If you’re looking for Noah Kendall, he’s at the neighboring property.”
“Mornin’.” A man around her age, give or take a couple years, stepped out of his vehicle after shutting off his engine. He was tall, lean, and had a charming smile that could sweep most women off their feet. She wasn’t immune, but she wasn’t interested either. “I’m headed to Noah’s place after I take care of that leak in your kitchen faucet.”
“How did you know…” Reese let her voice trail off after she answered her own question. She’d mentioned a few things to Calvin last night during their conversation about Emma and Sophia regarding the house. The leak hadn’t warranted a call to Rose, but apparently, Calvin had mentioned it to the woman at some point last night after Reese had left him or sometime earlier this morning.
“You’ve been here a week, right?” The man walked to the bed of his truck and pulled down the tailgate. She was surprised the planks of wood and other material sticking out the back didn’t tumble to the ground. “You should know that word travels fast. Calvin spoke to Rose around five o’clock this morning on his way fishing. He mentioned it to her then, along with the fact that he’s not so sure you’ll be around much longer. Shame. It’s always good for business to have tourists other than what the lake draws. Keeps us family shop owners from selling off the homestead.”
There were so many things Reese wanted to address in his little speech, but all she could focus on was that Calvin Arlo thought she’d leave after speaking with him last night.
Where on earth did he get that idea?
Calvin had spent a good hour reminiscing about those days when the town would host a summer camp out at the lake with camping and all the other activities that went along with it to give the locals along with the folks from the surrounding areas a place for their kids to spend a week to enjoy themselves during the summer. The program had gone defunct around eight years ago when there weren’t enough sponsors to finance the amount of staff required to run the place. The cost for attending the camp had never been enough to pay the overhead. The businesses in town had provided the majority of the support for the camp from the very beginning.
To the best of his collections, Sophia had been outgoing and made friends with everyone, even going so far as to teach Emma how to swim. It was the reason the two of them had become friends. He didn’t recall anything unusual that summer.
She didn’t have any reason to believe he lied, so why would he think she would leave town? Maybe he figured she’d run out of questions to ask or leads to follow.
“Name’s Chad Schaeffer.”
Reese moved on autopilot and held out her arm, having already switched hands in order to maintain her hold on the coffee cup. Chad Schaeffer’s name was on her list.
“I’m sorry, my mind wandered there for a moment,” Reese replied sheepishly, stepping to the side to allow Chad a direct path to the screen door. “My name is Reese, though it sounds as if you already know quite a bit about me and why I’m here.”
“Other than you’re thirty-one years old, a teacher from Springfield, Illinois who was born in Heartland, Ohio, and renting out this cottage for the summer to find out if Emma’s disappearance is linked to your cousin’s disappearance eleven years ago?” The laugh lines around Chad’s eyes became even more visible as he shot her a look before entering the house. “Nope. Don’t know a darn thing.”
Reese sighed and followed behind him, wondering what else Calvin had seen fit to share during his run-in with Rose this morning. Although from the sound of it, Chad might have known about her reason for being here long before today. After all, Calvin certainly had.
“It’s really not like that,” Reese hedged, trailing Chad as he made his way to the kitchen sink. It was apparent he’d been here many times before. “My cousin was Sophia Morton. She and Emma became friends at camp the same year Emma disappeared. Sophia supposedly ran away exactly a year later, but I never believed that. She wouldn’t have done that to her family…to me. I thought maybe…”
Chad set his red toolbox down on the faded tile, though he made no move to look at the faucet. There was sorrow and maybe a bit of regret written across his features.
“Okay,” Reese conceded, setting her cup down on the table as she took a seat in one of the four chairs. “Maybe it is like that, but I don’t want anyone to think I’m dredging up the past to hurt someone or accuse someone of a crime.”
“The Irwins no longer live in Blyth Lake, but we were all affected when Emma went missing. It was a bad time for the whole town.” Chad gestured toward the coffee maker, causing Reese to feel even worse. She certainly didn’t make the best hostess. He grabbed a mug out of the cupboard, not even having to guess as to where the glasses and cups were stored. “Did you know that I was the one who bought the keg and threw that last party at the old Yoder place the night Emma went missing? My dad had delivered some supplies to Pete Anderson earlier that week, so I knew the Anderson family wouldn’t be moved in there by that weekend. We weren’t going to do any damage or leave a mess, so we thought we could get away with having one more bash before the place was renovated and a family took possession of the property. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t play the what-if game. What if I hadn’t given her the booze?”
“You were also at the camp, weren’t you?” Reese inwardly cringed when her inquiry came out more like an accusation. This was not how she thought she’d spend her morning. “I’m sorry. That came out sounding wrong.”
“It’s okay. I figured I was pretty high up on your list of people to talk to anyway,” Chad said somewhat wryly, leaning back against the counter. He had work boots on with a pair of faded and ripped jeans. There was already a grease stain on the front of his t-shirt from an earlier call. He must start work at the crack of dawn. “I was at the camp, and I do remember Sophia. She taught Emma how to swim, which was quite a feat, as I remember it. Not even Emma’s sister could coax her into the water. Those two hung out for most of that week, but I don’t recall Sophia ever coming back to Blyth Lake at any point.”
That’s what Calvin Arlo had said, as well. Reese knew that to be true, but she hadn’t realized Sophia had grown so close to Emma.
“What do you think happened to Emma?” Reese asked quietly, pushing aside her empathy in her quest for answers. She needed answers.
“It really depends on the day, sometimes the time of year, and who I’m talking to at the moment.” Chad stared into his coffee as if the magic brew held the key to one of the town’s most tragic mysteries. He finally gave up his search and set his gaze on her. “You won’t find what you’re looking for here, Ms. Woodward. There are a lot of residents in Blyth Lake who would give just about anything to know what happened to Emma. Me included.”
Reese thought she knew what she’d hoped to gain from her vacation here, but now she wasn’t so sure she found what she wanted. Chad silently got to work, setting his untouched coffee down on the white laminate counter. The clinks and clanks of his tools from underneath the sink gave her time to think about what to say when he was done.
Should she apologize? It was more than apparent she’d dredged up memories Chad Schaeffer would soon rather forget, but he hadn’t been able to even with all the time that had passed. At the same time, she understood what everyone in town had undergone when Emma went missing. The same thing had occurred in Heartland, only with a different girl a year later.
How could it be that she was the only one seeing a connection here?
“Do you think Emma ran away?” Reese asked, unable to leave well enough alone. She stood from her chair at the kitchen table while Chad unfolded his large frame and lifted the lever of the faucet. The water flowed smoothly, but more importantly stopped when the lever was pushed down. “Was she upset with her parents, her sister, or maybe one of her friends?”
“Emma was the most well-adjusted girl in Blyth Lake High.” Chad pulled out the rag that he had stuffed in his back pocket before wiping his hands on the somewhat clean material. “No one ever believed she ran away from home, nor did the sheriff ever push that story. There wasn’t a resident in Blyth Lake who didn’t join the searches, my brothers and I included. We systematically searched the entire town and the surrounding area. Nothing was ever found.”
Something else was bothering Reese that she wanted to clear up, or else she might go crazy out here in the country by herself.
“How did you know how old I was?”
Her question elicited a chuckle from Chad as he began to put away his tools.
“You rented a house from Rose and Tiny.” Chad didn’t have to explain further. Reese nodded in understanding as she recalled the rental form she had to fill out a couple months prior to arriving in town. “Rose uses Harlan Whitmore to do her background checks. Beth Ann Mason is Harlan’s secretary, and Beth Ann is dating Molly’s son, Jack Stuart.”
Reese was actually quite proud of herself that she followed Chad’s little gossipmonger corn maze. The only thing that had taken her by surprise was the name of Molly’s son.
Jack Stuart. The name was on her list, but she’d never made the connection to the waitress at the diner.
“I guess you’re right,” Reese conceded with a shrug and a half-smile. “It was pointless of me to try and come here asking questions without being completely upfront with everyone involved.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. You have every right to seek answers.” Chad appeared to truly empathize with her position. He closed the cabinet doors below her sink before picking up his metal toolbox. “You’re searching for closure because you lost a family member. Don’t ever apologize for doing what needs to be done.”
Chad lifted the mug of coffee he’d left on the counter and took a heavy draw. He gave her a smile of appreciation as he set the empty cup into the sink after rinsing it out.
“The faucet is good to go, though these old pipes have a way of becoming loose with just a knock or two. Feel free to call me. I’m on Rose’s speed dial—twenty-four seven.”
“I thought I saw your last name listed in the notes she left, though another first name was written down. Wesley, maybe? Regardless, I didn’t want to bother Rose for something so minor.”
“Wesley is my brother, but he’s moved on to bigger and better ventures.” Chad rolled his eyes good-naturedly, apparently thinking differently than his brother. “Speaking of which, I do hope you find some closure here. Emma’s family moved away from the area years ago, but there are still townsfolk here who know what you’ve been through and can relate. Talk to them. Find some peace. It’s what we all want.”
Reese came very close to giving Chad Schaeffer a hug for his advice, because it was very sound. This little excursion away from her everyday life wouldn’t bring Sophia back to her, just as it was doubtful she would find any answers as to what truly happened all those years ago.
“You mentioned you were headed next door?” Reese followed Chad out to the porch. He made his way down the wooden steps. He paused long enough to look at the one plank that she constantly avoided, though he didn’t break stride. “Are you the contractor?”
“Contractor?” Chad seemed surprised that she would think he would be the one renovating the house, but she wasn’t sure why. His truck read Schaeffer’s Contracting & Flooring. “Noah Kendall wouldn’t have anyone other than his brothers, sister, and him touch that place if it wasn’t for the state mandated inspections. I can get him some items on discount, so I’m heading over there to get measurements and fill out the permits.”
Chad loaded his toolbox in the bed of his truck and then lifted the gate until it was securely latched. He reached into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out his keys.
“I’ll be back in a day or two to fix that rotted board in your porch and to check over the rest of it. If you have anything else to add to the list, just give me a call.” Chad gave her a wink before he slid in behind the steering wheel. The engine came to life as he leaned an elbow out of the open window. “By the way, you might want to talk to Rose. She wasn’t listed as a counselor at camp the year Emma went missing, but she was there the whole time. In fact, she was the one who gave Sophia her assistant swim coach badge at the closing ceremonies. Maybe she has some insight on Emma and Sophia that will help you find what you are looking for.”