Apparently my request made sense—or people just didn’t want to argue about it. They scribbled their names and numbers on the paper. I kept looking around, trying to see if I could spot anyone who should’ve been there and wasn’t.
“What’s up?” Marissa asked when I got to her.
I didn’t tell her about the ring I’d found in the ballroom. She was new to Duck—it would require too much explanation. “I’m worried someone might have wandered off. Just trying to keep up with everyone.”
“Great! And we just got them calmed down with food.” She sighed. “Well, let me give you a hand. It will look more natural if we both do it.”
I had about fifty people on my list. Marissa was getting the names of the people in the lobby. I walked across the foyer toward the bar and looked back.
A shaft of moonlight came through the undamaged picture window and fell across the carpeted floor in the lobby, creating a haze of dust motes spinning through the air. The motes seemed to move together—as though creating an image.
I couldn’t make out what it was, and an instant later it was gone. I shook my head to clear it and went on to the bar. Maybe the storm had done something to me. I kept thinking that someone was watching me—even in the deserted ballroom. Maybe all those storm ions were fooling around with my normal energy.
I talked with the fifteen people eating in the bar area, got their names and numbers. Everyone asked when they could leave. I didn’t have an answer for them.
One of the younger men—I recognized him but couldn’t recall his name—was insistent about it. He put his information on the paper and demanded to know when he could leave. I gave him my stock answer. He got more upset than the rest of the guests.
“It’s stupid to keep us here,” he said. “We can find our own ways home. We’re not prisoners.”
I started to answer and dropped the clipboard. He handed it back to me when he caught it. Our hands held for a moment. I felt that same strange sensation I experienced whenever I looked into someone’s mind to help them find something they’d lost.
And I realized this man and I had something in common—we’d lost the same person—Sandi Foxx.
Chapter 5
“Someone’s missing from the group,” I told him, hoping the blunt admission would make him forthcoming with his information.
He was probably in his twenties, with a dark, full head of hair and a ruddy complexion. His brown eyes shifted away from mine, and his hands moved restlessly in and out of his pockets. “I don’t know what you mean. Who’s missing?”
“I think you know.” I studied his face. “You came here with Sandi Foxx, didn’t you? Where is she?”
“I don’t know. We got separated when they moved everybody in here.”
“You work with her?”
“Yeah. I’m her personal assistant.”
I didn’t have to be psychic to hear some guilt in his voice and the emphasis on “personal.” He was probably
“Is this her ring?” I asked him, showing him the ruby.
“Yes. Where did you find it?”
“Probably where she lost it.” I didn’t know what else to say to him. Obviously he was hiding something. Was it more than the two of them sneaking away together for this conference?
She was lost, at least in his mind. My gift for finding missing things worked only when the lost item was in the forefront of the “seeker’s” thoughts. I had to have physical contact with that person to get an image from them.
I looked at his name on the list. “Matthew Wright. You came with Sandi but now you can’t find her. Is that right?”
“That’s right. I thought she’d be in here with the rest of us, but I haven’t seen her. I tried to go back in the ballroom, but the doors were locked. I don’t know where she is.”
“She’s not in the ballroom. All I found there was her ring.” I looked up the stairs—no elevator without electricity. The generator produced only enough power for the lights and refrigeration. I realized we might have to search the inn for Sandi.
I wasn’t as concerned with upsetting people now that it appeared my instincts about someone being in trouble were right. I didn’t know if I should trust Matthew—but I wasn’t in a position to restrain him in any way.
I decided I’d keep him close at hand in case it became apparent that he’d hurt Sandi in some way. I hoped my vision about her looking up and seeing a gun was not part of why she was missing. But if something had happened to her, Matthew was an obvious suspect.
“Excuse me!” I raised my voice in each room where parts of the group were gathered. “I’m looking for Sandi Foxx—mayor of Manteo. Has anyone seen her?”
People looked around like they always do, as though the person in question might be standing right next to them and they hadn’t noticed. Heads shook and stories were offered of when they’d seen her last. Everyone agreed that they hadn’t seen her since we’d left the ballroom during the storm.
Matthew stood at my side and shifted the expensive watch on his wrist, wiggled his feet, bit his lip and cracked his knuckles. He seemed guilty of something. The more people talked about her, the more nervous he got. He was a wreck.
Once we’d all agreed that no one had seen her, I enlisted the aid of several people I knew I could trust. Marissa got the master keys for the rooms after I assured her that Kevin wouldn’t fire her for helping me. She helped me lay out a room-by-room map of where everyone was staying.
“This is Sandi’s room,” she said. “It’s on the third floor.”
“What about his room?” I pointed to Matthew.
“He’s staying down the hall from her.”
It seemed likely to me that Sandi somehow got away from the group to look for her ring when the rest of us left the ballroom. When I presented that theory to Matthew, he broke down. “We went upstairs for a while. She thought it was funny being up there—doing it—you know? While everyone else was downstairs scared of the storm.”
“Wasn’t she scared of the storm?” I asked him. “Weren’t
“I was terrified.” He glanced away, clearly scared now. “I didn’t want to go up there, but she insisted.”
And of course, he didn’t mind helping her out. He didn’t have to explain any more than that. She probably just didn’t come right back down after they were finished—and when she did come down, she went to find her ring.
I scrutinized Matthew with his wild hair and narrow face—what did Sandi see in him worth losing her job and her family? He was young, that was true. Maybe in his early to late twenties. Sandi was in her early forties. Maybe that was his charm.
He was lucky Sandi’s husband—a very large ex-marine from Charleston—wasn’t here to help look for her. I didn’t want to know how nervous Matthew would be in that case.
Nancy, Marissa and I walked up the dark stairs to the third floor—Matthew closely in tow where I could keep an eye on him. There were only small emergency lights to guide the way. We were kind of bunched together as we felt our way down the long hall.
I glanced out of the window on the third-floor landing. The dark, angry sea was detailed by moonlight as it slapped at the shore. Despite the bright moonlight, I wished it was morning. I wished someone besides me was leading this effort to look for Sandi too. But I was stuck with the night and the responsibility, at least for a while.
Matthew led us to Sandi’s room, but there was no answer when I knocked. Marissa unlocked the door—which said something to me about Sandi and Matthew’s relationship. He didn’t have a key.
