Kitabı oku: «Identical Stranger»

Chapter One

Sophie Sparrow sat very still, the sound of rain hitting the window the only noise in the room. As a young girl, she’d imagined what this moment would feel like. Boy, had she been wrong.

“What do you say?” Danny Privet asked as he knelt on bended knee by her side. A glittering diamond ring sparkled in his hand.

She gulped. When he’d asked to come by this Saturday morning, she’d assumed they would go out to brunch. She had not even imagined this. “Danny, I—”

“Go on, say yes,” Sophie’s mother prompted from her self-imposed semipermanent residence in a recliner located four feet to Sophie’s left.

Danny’s head swiveled to her mother and then back to Sophie. “If you’re worried about having to move to Seattle, don’t. I’ve secured a position here in Portland. My new job starts in two weeks.”

“You quit your job! But what’s the rush?” Sophie whispered as she tried to make an intimate moment out of a public one. Her long straight hair fell forward if she leaned her head just so, creating an impromptu curtain between her mother and herself where she could study Danny in privacy. Why had he chosen to propose now? What was going on?

For a second, his soft gray eyes held an unfamiliar edge. She’d always wondered how anyone as agreeable as he was could make it as an attorney, how he could defend a client in a court of law, but this new glimpse into his character suggested he possessed the passion a courtroom would require. “Why should we wait?” he responded. “I’ve known you were the right woman for me since the minute I saw you in that grocery store. Why not get married now?”

“Now?”

“Well, I know how important a wedding is to you ladies. Plan whatever you want, I’ll pay for it, just make sure we tie the knot by Wednesday because Thursday morning, we leave for Hawaii! I remember you mentioned wanting to go there. I’ve already bought the tickets and made all the arrangements. It’ll be a honeymoon you’ll never forget!”

Sophie would have gulped again if her throat wasn’t so dry. She felt like a contestant on a game show, different curtains lifting to reveal unexpected—and in this case, unwanted—surprises. “Oh, Danny, you shouldn’t have—”

“For once in your life,” her mother interrupted, “use your head. This boy wants to marry you.”

“I certainly do,” Danny said. “And, frankly, Sophie, I thought you’d jump at the chance.”

Sophie, just about speechless, finally mumbled, “We’ve only known each other a few weeks. I need more time.”

“To wait for a better offer?” her mother scoffed. “Show some spunk! This boy is a wonderful catch, especially for someone of your—well, think about how kind he’s been to me. What else do you need?”

I need to love him, Sophie whispered internally, and I don’t. I’ve been waiting twenty-six years to find someone to complete me, a second half that I’ve always known existed out there somewhere. Silly? Romantic? Probably, but there you go.

As usual, when faced with her mother’s iron will, Sophie voiced these arguments solely to herself, where they went to work burning a hole in her gut.

“Thank you for your compliments, Margaret,” Danny said softly, “but I can’t agree with your assessment of Sophie. To me she’s a star, the brightest in the heavens, an angel surrounded by a halo of gossamer fawn silk.”

Gossamer fawn silk... Did he mean her hair? The flattery sounded like lines lifted from a greeting card, but on the other hand, it was kind of nice to hear positive—if overly flowery—things about herself instead of negative. She smiled appreciation.

Danny apparently mistook her smile for acquiescence. Taking her hand, he slipped the ring on her finger. He got up off his knees and sat down on the sofa beside her, placing himself between Sophie and her mother. He squeezed her hand. The ring was too big and had slipped to the side; the pressure of his grip pinched the stone between her fingers.

“I knew you’d say yes,” he said with a smile bordering on a smirk. “I was so confident you’d see how perfect this is that I already bought you a wedding present. You know that house a block over that’s for sale? I bought it yesterday. You’ll be close enough to keep an eye on your mom.”

He’d purchased a ring, a honeymoon and a house before even popping the question and without asking for any input from her. She’d known him about a month. How had he been so sure she’d say yes?

“I’ve also taken the liberty of looking into hiring full-time live-in help,” he added, addressing Margaret. “I hope you don’t think it presumptuous of me but I see how you struggle. Would you mind having someone else living here with you?”

Sophie’s mother fanned her face with her hand. “I’m just a disabled old widow, Danny. I know you have your own mother to consider. You shouldn’t worry about me. But yes, it would be so nice to have someone to talk to who doesn’t prattle on about teaching babies how to read. I’ll tell you, a little of that goes a long way.”

“I think her enthusiasm is cute.” Danny chuckled as he squeezed Sophie’s hand again.

His condescending words struck her like poison darts. She pulled her hand free as retorts ransacked her stomach looking for real estate in which to sink new geysers.

And how could her mother not understand that the money Sophie made teaching her adorable first-graders was all that stood between this admittedly small house and a tent on the sidewalk?

“What would you like to talk about instead, Mom? Your sciatica? What a big disappointment I am?”

Was that her voice she just heard? Had her thoughts actually forced their way up her throat and out of her mouth? Her gaze darted from Danny’s face to her mother’s. Their stunned expressions made it crystal clear she had indeed given voice. Dumbfounded, she stared down at the gaudy ring on her finger.

Margaret didn’t miss a beat. “Danny, dear, if you haven’t changed your mind about marrying bridezilla over there, perhaps you and I should discuss the details.”

He leaned forward. “Don’t take her words personally, Margaret. She’s just excited. A wedding is the most important day of a woman’s life, right?”

Their voices faded to white noise. Sophie couldn’t feel her feet. In fact, numbness seemed to be spreading up her legs toward her heart.

She stood abruptly, catching both of their attention. Looking from one pair of startled eyes to the next, she mumbled, “I have to go.”

“Where?” her mother demanded.

“The school,” she said. Where else would she go?

“Since when is the school open on a Saturday? What’s gotten into you?”

“It’s a...PTA bake sale,” she muttered.

“I’ll drive you,” Danny said, starting to stand.

“No, thanks,” she called over her shoulder as she forced her legs to carry her into the kitchen, where she grabbed her coat and purse from the hook by the door and moved quickly outside. Oscar the cat scooted past her into the warmth of the house before she closed the door and ran through the pouring rain to the curb where she’d parked. For once the aging compact started without trouble and she drove down the street with no plan except escape.

After a couple of miles and ever-increasing traffic, she pulled to the curb, turned off the car but kept an iron-fisted grip on the wheel to still her shaking hands.

Her cell rang and Danny’s name flashed onto the screen. Damn if she wasn’t tempted to answer the call. As soon as it stopped ringing, she picked up the phone and turned off the power.

The panic that had fueled her this far now began escaping into the atmosphere like steam rising from hot bread. She attempted to review the pieces of what had just happened, who said what, all of that, but the words were muted now, details washed out, a blur. What remained was the one moment when she’d glimpsed her life through a different lens and hated what she saw.

Had she run from her mother’s negativity, Danny’s condescension or her own sudden fear?

A woman exiting a shop caught her attention. Tall and svelte, what really made Sophie look twice was her crown of platinum curls that seemed to announce to the world that this woman took no prisoners. The shop she had left was a hair salon.

“I want to trade places with her,” Sophie said aloud. She got out of the car and walked into the salon.

The hairdresser turned as Sophie entered.

“I need help,” Sophie said.

“Honey, all I can do is fix your hair,” the woman said with a half smile.

“That’s a start,” Sophie said. And in her heart she knew she could never go back to the way things had been.

* * *

JACKSON TRAVERS SAT across the table from the very pretty wife of his best friend, though right now she looked exhausted. It had taken him hours to drive here from his house in Northern California, and as of yet, he still had no idea why Sabrina had summoned him. What he did know was that there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for Buzz and, by extension, Buzz’s wife.

“It was really nice of you to come,” she said after the waitress delivered coffee. “I’m sorry the hotel is so crazy. As far as I know, this is the first February they’ve hosted a conference here. I had a reservation but I’m worried you’re going to have trouble—”

“Don’t worry about it. The front desk connected me with a little place a couple of miles down the road, so it’s okay. I have to admit I’m curious why you called,” he added. “You sounded spooked on the phone.”

As she pushed aside her dark hair, a series of fresh red scratches on her forehead caught his attention. Since he’d already noticed the abrasions on her palms when they shook hands and the stiff way she moved as she preceded him into the coffee shop next to the hotel, his curiosity ran rampant. “I’ve never called a private investigator before,” she said.

He flashed what he hoped was an encouraging smile. “Think of it more as calling a friend. I know we’ve only met a few times, but you’re Buzz’s wife and that makes you family.”

She smiled. “Thanks.”

“So...”

“First of all, I don’t want Buzz alarmed,” she said quickly. “He has enough going on right now.”

“You’re referring to him being in Antarctica.”

“Yes. The whole scientific team is currently aboard a Russian ship visiting outer islands. I can reach him by radio but holding an in-depth conversation is really hard. He doesn’t need to worry about me.”

Jack studied her for a second. He’d had a feeling of destiny when she called, something not common to him, something he didn’t even believe in. He’d just had the sensation that her call was the catalyst of a crucial moment in his life and he’d rearranged his plans to travel here without a second’s hesitation. “I can’t promise you I won’t notify Buzz until I know what we’re talking about,” he told her at last. “Why don’t you just tell me what’s going on.”

She swallowed a sigh and fidgeted a bit before finally speaking. “It started a couple months ago when I was in the kitchen cooking lasagna. The neighbors across the backyard were having their porch painted. I was at the window draining pasta when I saw the painter taking photos of me with a big camera. By the time I set aside the strainer, his back was to me and then he left... I just had the strangest feeling he’d been doing more than taking pictures, the feeling of, well, invasion.”

“You were cooking?”

“Yes.”

A painful lump appeared in his throat as her words awakened painful memories. They had no place in the present and he did his best to ignore them. “Why do you use the word invasion?”

She shrugged one shoulder. “It felt...personal. Stupid, huh?”

“I don’t know,” he told her, the lump refusing to budge. “Did he paint the porch?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did he finish the job?”

She thought for a second. “I don’t know.”

For a second he just stared at her, forcing himself to let go of out-of-context parallels between Sabrina’s issues and his own past. She was sitting here, alive, proof that his imagination was getting the worst of him. “What happened next?” he finally said.

“A day or so later I came home from work to the feeling that someone had just left our house. No one was there, of course, but I swear, there was just some lingering essence, something that sent chills up my spine. It happened the next day, too. I searched the house but nothing was missing, nothing was even out of place. There was just...nothing.”

“Did you call the cops?”

“Of course not. What could they do?”

“Well, something made you uneasy,” Jack said, not only to reassure her but because he was a firm believer that reasonable people picked up on offbeat vibes they sometimes couldn’t even identify.

“I run into burning buildings for a living,” she said softly. “I’m not anxious to be tagged as the woman who gets rattled over nothing.”

“Buzz calls you unflappable,” he said.

She smiled fondly.

“Anything else?”

“Just that same watched feeling. It started to get under my skin. Last weekend when I walked out of the fire station it was stronger than ever. I looked around, but the only person I saw was sitting in a parked car. He immediately drove off but that afternoon I came home from work and found an origami fox folded out of a dollar bill sitting on the front porch.”

Again he stared at her because now the vibe had changed from creepy to sophomoric. No, he cautioned himself, her story is just diverging from the one written in your head. This is her story, not a trashy remake of yours. “Not inside the house?” he said aloud. “No note or anything?”

“Nothing.”

He folded his hands around his cup. “Tell me why we’re meeting here in Seaport and not back in Astoria where all of this happened.”

“I’m not sure you know this or not, but every February for years I’ve driven up and down the coast. There aren’t many tourists in the winter and the hiking trails are all but empty. Anyway, after Buzz and I got married, we took the trip together. I was dragging my feet about it this year because Buzz is gone, but after I found one of those origami foxes perched on my steering wheel I decided it was time to get away for a while, and since I’d already made all the reservations—well, I just went, a day early, too, which I thought would give me a chance to chill out.

“I drove down to the California border pretty much in a straight line, stayed a couple of nights in Brookings and then started my way back up the coast just like I always do. Everything was going okay until I was hiking a narrow trail down to the beach about fifty miles south of here. A falling boulder appeared out of nowhere. It hit my left side and knocked me to the ground. I had to scramble to keep from going over the edge. It was a long way down to the rocks and I could hear waves breaking.” She took a deep breath and continued. “Once I was back on the trail I heard something on the bluff above me.”

“Like what?” he asked as he realized the scratches on her face and hands were undoubtedly caused when she fought to keep from tumbling over the edge of the mountain.

“Like footsteps.”

“You’re thinking some purposely dislodged the rock?”

“I don’t know...maybe.”

“Did you report the incident to authorities?”

She shook her head. “I climbed up to take a look myself. The spot was within easy walking distance of the parking lot. No one was around. The ground was muddy after this run of wet weather but it was also covered with pebbles—I couldn’t see any footprints. What could the police do?”

“Investigate,” he said gently. “Also, they’d be in the position to tell you if similar incidents had happened to other hikers due to weather or even vandals. They might have been able to help you understand if the falling rock was personal or accidental.”

“Okay, you make a point. But I keep thinking police will question friends and acquaintances and word will get back to Buzz. What’s he supposed to do from half a world away and what if the paper foxes are just some stupid prank? Anyway, I woke up ridiculously early this morning and ordered room service to be left in the hall while I took a shower.” She retrieved her purse from the floor beside her, grabbed something from its depths and showed it to Jack. “This was on the tray when I uncovered it.”

Resting on her deeply scratched palm he found an origami fox folded out of a dollar bill. “I called Housekeeping at once to see if they’d put it there,” she continued. “They hadn’t, of course. I put the tray back in the hall and called you. Then I left. Once it was light, I stopped for a long walk on the beach. Nothing happened and I almost called you back to cancel but I figured you were already on your way.

“So anyway, I drove to Seaport. I always stay at this hotel and I thought if you and I met here, you could help me figure things out. After I checked in I went up to my room to collapse but the maid wasn’t finished cleaning so I came back to the dining room for breakfast. While I was waiting for my order, a man walked into the restaurant, made eye contact with me and immediately took a seat at the bar. I swear he was staying at the same hotel I was at when the rock fell. His being here could be sheer coincidence, of course, except that I have a feeling I’ve also seen him in Astoria.”

“Did you talk to him?”

She shook her head.

“Could he be the painter from your neighbor’s porch?”

She thought for a moment. “No. This guy had light brown hair and a trimmed beard... The painter was taller, darker, bigger. And maybe older.”

“How about the guy you glimpsed in the parked car?”

She thought again. “Really hard to tell. By the time my backbone rebuilt itself this morning, the man had left the restaurant.” She rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath. “If this guy is following me and leaving little gifts, I want to know it before I get home and he invades my house again or drops another rock on my head.” She took another breath before adding, “Jack, I know it’s a lot to ask but do you think you could help me confront him?”

“Of course. And if it turns out he’s just a hapless traveler, I’ll drive back to Astoria with you and see what we can do there. First we have to find this guy.”

“And you won’t tell Buzz.”

“We’ll leave him out of it as long as we can. That’s all I can promise.” He didn’t add the same deal would exist concerning police involvement.

“Okay.”

“And I have to ask. Could anyone you know be behind all this?”

“What? No!”

“Someone you don’t know well, then, someone with whom you’re in a legal battle.”

“Legal battle?”

“Well, the origami is folded out of money, right? Why? Could it be because someone thinks you or Buzz owe them something?”

She shook her head. “Neither one of us is in any kind of argument with anyone, legal or not. Buzz’s friends are all scientists more concerned with sea ice extent than money and none of them live locally. My friends are firefighters. They’re family to me. I’m an only child. My parents are deceased. I’m alone in the world, really, except for Buzz.”

“And Buzz wasn’t having trouble with anyone before he left?”

“No. None of this makes any sense and that makes me think it’s all in my head.”

“The origami fox isn’t in your head,” he reminded her.

She rubbed her eyes. “No, it’s not.”

“Nor was the falling rock.”

She looked unsure about that but he wasn’t a big fan of coincidences. The boulder could easily have killed her—probably would have if she wasn’t in tip-top shape.

And that meant someone wanted her dead.

“I have an idea,” he told her. “Why don’t I take photos of the men in this hotel while you get some rest. You can look at the pictures later and we’ll go from there.”

She started to argue with him, but he stood firm. Her eyes were bloodshot and she kept rolling her shoulders as though yesterday’s fall had hurt her neck or back. “Please, Sabrina. Get some sleep. In the long run, it will make everything go faster. Trust me.”

She finally agreed and he insisted on escorting her to her hotel next door and upstairs. They exited the elevator and turned toward the long, beige hall as a man in coveralls carrying a toolbox entered the freight elevator a few steps away. Jack heard the whirring of the motor as it descended.

“Where’s your luggage?” he asked after Sabrina had opened her door and he’d preceded her into her room.

“Still in my car.”

He checked the locked door to the balcony, the bathroom and the closet. “What are you driving?”

“Buzz’s old SUV. Why?”

“If you’ll give me your keys I’ll run down and get your things for you,” he told her.

“All I want to do is climb under those blankets and sleep. I’ll get everything later.”

“Okay, but don’t forget to slide the dead bolt after me,” he added and fervently hoped that when this was all said and done, Buzz would understand why Jack didn’t immediately get ahold of him no matter where he was.

Before he settled into a good chair in the lobby, he bought a cup of coffee at a kiosk he suspected had been created to service the dozens of human resource conference attendees milling around the hotel. As far as dropping everything to drive here, that hadn’t been all that hard. He was in the middle of two cases but he got a buddy to cover one and the other could simmer a couple of days. The only other thing he’d had to do was cancel a date he hadn’t been real interested in going on anyway.

Phone on camera mode, he clandestinely began taking pictures of every adult male he saw, customer or employee, bearded or clean shaven, tagged with a conference badge or not. Some of them seemed highly unlikely when compared with the brief description Sabrina had given—no facial hair, too heavy or tall or short—but all those things could be altered by a clever con man.

He’d just returned from his second run to the coffee kiosk when his roving gaze took in Sabrina moving away from the check-in desk. He set the coffee aside and walked over in time to catch her halfway to the door. “There you are. Ready to look at the pictures I took while you snoozed away the afternoon?” She had changed clothes, put on a coat and acquired a smattering of raindrops in her hair and on her shoulders. She’d been outside? She must have gone out to her car to retrieve her luggage. How had he missed her leaving the hotel, coming back inside to change and then apparently leaving again?

“I beg your pardon?” she said.

He finally looked past the raindrops. “I stand corrected,” he said. “You skipped the nap and went to a salon instead. I hear that can be just as fortifying.”

Her hand flew up to touch the lilac strands running through her glossy dark hair. “What I did with my afternoon is none of your business,” she said with a defiant tilt of her chin and then ruined the effect by shrinking back. “I’m sorry. That was rude.” She raised her hand as if to pat her hair and dropped it. “Does it look as bad as I think?”

He rushed to assure her. “It looks just like it did before, right, except for the purple streak?”

His words were met by another alarmed expression. “It’s two shades darker and ten inches shorter.” Her brow furled. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I’ve been in such a fog today. I’m having the hardest time placing how we know each other. Who are you?”

“Who am I? Are you sleepwalking?” She didn’t smile at his attempt at humor. “Okay,” he said in a more serious tone. “How about letting me in on the joke.”

“Danny has something to do with this, doesn’t he?” she said as she glanced around the lobby. “He’s not here, is he? Please, tell me he’s not here.”

“How could he be here?” He shook his head to clear it. Was it even remotely possible that Buzz’s wife had a split personality? Had recent stress caused some kind of abnormal blip in her psyche? He touched her shoulder. “Are you sure you’re okay? Did you change your mind and call Buzz, I mean Danny, after all?”

She held up one hand. “Wait a second. Why would I call him when all I want is a little space to think? And for that matter, why did you call Danny Buzz?”

“He earned the nickname two decades ago when he knocked a beehive out of a tree and got stung thirteen times, which is why he always carries epinephrine with him—just a second, he never told you about the bees?”

“No. This happened when he was growing up outside Seattle?”

He felt like scratching his head. “Buzz grew up across the street from my house in Napa, California.”

“He told me he grew up in Seattle,” she said.

“Why would he do that?”

“How should I know? He said his stepfather piloted a ferry on Puget Sound and his mom was—is—a housekeeper. He and his younger half brother—wait a second, why did Danny send you here instead of coming himself?”

Something weird was going on. He lowered his voice as they’d begun to draw attention. “You called me, remember? You asked me to meet you here. You’ve been feeling threatened and you asked for help figuring things out. You went up to take a nap—”

“I can’t even get a room here.”

He studied her face for some sign she was messing with him, dissecting her delicate features, aware as he did so that she flinched under the scrutiny, obviously uncomfortable and ready to run. She tried to rake her hair over her face but it was too short.