Scene of the Crime: Widow Creek

“I spoke to her Tuesday night on the phone, but I couldn’t get hold of her Wednesday or Thursday,” Lexie explained. “Finally yesterday evening I decided to drive out to her place. She’s not there and I don’t think she’s been there since Tuesday. Her dogs were left unattended and that’s not like her. Something has happened. Something is terribly wrong.”

“Whoa, let’s not jump to conclusions,” Wendall exclaimed, lines cutting into his tanned forehead. “She’s a grown woman. There’s no law that says she can’t take off for a couple of days without checking in with anyone.”

Lexie shook her head. “She wouldn’t do that, and even if she did she’d answer my phone calls. We talk to each other every day. This is unusual for her…for us. I want to file a missing persons report. She’s been missing more than forty-eight hours. I need you to investigate her disappearance.”

Wendall’s gaze flickered from Lexie to Nick. “What’s your role in all this?”

“I’m Lauren’s friend and I’m concerned, and I’m here to support Lexie,” Nick replied. His voice held a coolness that definitely chilled the air in the room.

“You aren’t stirring things up because of your own history?” Wendall asked with a lift of one of his blond eyebrows.

Lexie looked at Nick and saw the tightening of his jaw as his eyes went flat. “One thing has nothing to do with the other,” he replied tersely.

There was obviously some personal history between the two men, but Lexie didn’t care about that right now. All she cared about was finding her sister.

“Will you look into this?” she asked Wendall. “Start an official investigation?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Wendall replied. “Are you staying out at Lauren’s place?”

Lexie nodded. “I’ll be there until she’s found.” She gave him her cell phone number and then walked toward the door. There was nothing more to be done here. She wanted to get outside and walk the streets, talk to the people in town and see if anyone had seen or spoken to Lauren since Tuesday.

“I’ll keep in touch,” Chief Wendall said as she and Nick reached the door. “You know your sister always had a bunch of men hanging around her place. Maybe she took off with one of them and didn’t want you knowing about her personal affairs,” Wendall said.

Lexie stiffened and stared at him. At that moment she decided she didn’t like him very much. He made it sound like Lauren was some kind of a whore. “I’m sure you’re going to question whatever men were hanging out there to see what they know about my sister’s disappearance,” she replied.

She was surprised when Nick firmly took hold of her elbow, as if to offer support, as they left the office. What equally surprised her was how she responded to his touch—viscerally, like a not-completely-unpleasant punch in the stomach.

As they left the building he dropped his hand to his side and she drew a breath of relief. She didn’t want some crazy attraction to Nick complicating things. The last thing she wanted in her life was a man. She just wanted to find her sister alive and well, and then get back to her so-called life in Kansas City.

“I never saw a bunch of men hanging out at Lauren’s,” Nick said when they were back in her car. “And I drove by her place at least once a day going to and from town. But she mentioned to me that she was kind of seeing Bo Richards.”

“Bo Richards?” Lexie turned in her seat to look at Nick. “Who is he?”

“He’s a local rancher, a nice guy. He spends a lot of time in the mornings at the café. Maybe we can talk to him there,” Nick replied.

“And Lauren was seeing him romantically?” Lexie frowned. Her sister hadn’t mentioned anything to her about a romance in her life and they’d always talked about everything, including their love lives.

“They had just started dating. From what Lauren told me it wasn’t real serious yet. I think they’d met for lunch or dinner a couple of times.”

Lexie checked her watch and then looked down the street at the café. It was still early. Hopefully they’d find him there. “Then I want to talk to him.” She started the car, but before backing out she turned to look at Nick once again. “There’s some history between you and Wendall?”

Darkness filled his eyes and his jaw tightened once again. “Yeah, old history.”

“Want to tell me about it?” she asked.

“No.” The single word snapped out of him with a finality that brooked no further questions and made Lexie wonder what kind of secrets Nick Walker had in his life.

IN THE SHORT DISTANCE between the police station and the Cowboy Corral, painful memories cascaded through Nick’s head. His chest tightened with thoughts of the three days that he’d been unable to get in contact with Danielle. His body remembered intimately the alarm it had felt when he’d realized nobody had seen her during that time and the horror of ultimately finding her dead in that motel room.

His stomach clenched and a slight nausea rose up in him as the memories continued to play in his head. He’d known something was wrong—that something was terribly wrong.

It had taken him months to finally accept that she’d committed suicide, but before coming to that acceptance he’d gone around and around with Wendall.

The chief of police had dismissed Nick’s concerns and refused to begin any kind of investigation into Danielle’s disappearance despite Nick pressing for one. There was part of Nick that had never quite forgiven Gary Wendall for that.

He consciously shoved the memories aside as Lexie parked in front of the café. There was absolutely no reason to believe Lauren’s disappearance was in any way connected to Danielle’s tragic death, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that Lexie was destined for the same kind of heartbreak he’d suffered.

Still suffered.

He willed away all thoughts of Danielle as they got out of the car. Lexie appeared small and achingly vulnerable as she hesitated outside the door to wait for him to catch up with her.

A surge of unexpected protectiveness filled Nick’s chest. It was crazy, he scarcely knew Lexie except for what Lauren had told him about her. There was no reason for him to be emotionally vested in the drama going on in her life, and yet for some reason he was definitely involved.

He told himself it had nothing to do with the beauty of her long-lashed green eyes behind those ridiculously large glasses, nothing to do with the fact that she intrigued him more than a little bit. Rather he tried to convince himself his interest in all this had everything to do with finding a woman who had become a good friend.

The minute they stepped into the café, every head in the place turned to look at them. “I guess pink streaks in a person’s hair isn’t that common here,” Lexie muttered beneath her breath as she sidled closer to him.

“Don’t worry, the only ones who bite have no teeth,” he replied.

She looked up at him and smiled. It was the first real smile he’d seen from her and it nearly stole his breath away. Bright and beautiful, it transformed her features into something more than pretty, something warm and inviting.

“Come on, I’m hankering for some of Mabel’s fried potatoes and eggs.” He took her beneath her elbow and led her to a booth, surprised to realize she was shaking slightly.

Lauren had told him that her sister didn’t do well in crowds. He knew the effort she was putting forth was because of her love and concern for her sister. It only made him more determined to support her through whatever happened next.

She paused before sitting down and looked around at the other diners. “I thought we’d just ask some questions. I didn’t plan on actually having a meal.”

“Did you eat breakfast this morning?” he asked.

“I never eat breakfast,” she replied.

“And you’ve never had a missing sister before,” he said and pointed to the booth. “Besides, you’ll get more answers to questions if we finesse them out of people.”

She frowned as if she had no idea what he was talking about, but slid into the booth and picked up the menu. She stared at it only a minute and then tossed it aside. “I feel like I’m wasting time here. Breakfast isn’t important. Finding Lauren is all that matters.” Her voice held a wealth of frustration and impatience.

“You have to eat,” he replied, understanding the urgency that was racing through her. “And you have to trust me.” He looked up as the waitress appeared at their table. “Hey, Marge, how’s it going?” he asked the older woman who had been waitressing at the café since he’d been a little boy.

“Like it’s always gone. My feet hurt, my back is killing me and nobody tips worth a damn in this place.” She flashed him a grin that set the deep wrinkles in her face dancing.

“Has Bo been in today?” he asked.

“Bo? No, in fact, I haven’t seen him for a couple of days.” Her gaze slid to Lexie. “Why? Is there a problem?”

“No, no problem,” he replied hurriedly. “Marge, this is Lauren Forbes’s sister, Lexie.”

Marge nodded. “I can see the resemblance.”

“When was the last time you saw Lauren?” Lexie asked.