“I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.”
“Sure you did.”
“If that’s how I came across, I apologize. I’m not trying to step on any toes, but I do have a vested interest in this case. I’m here because Dr. Nance asked me to come.”
Nikki grudgingly accepted his apology with a brief nod. “Sheriff Brannon mentioned that Dr. Nance had called you recently.”
“We talked early last week. He told me something strange was going on in Belle Pointe. Something dark. That it probably had been for years.”
“It?”
“He wouldn’t elaborate. When I pressed him, he said he’d tell me everything when I got here. He mentioned something about files and notes. He said it was all there in black and white, but he wanted me to come down and help him make sense of it. And to make sure he wasn’t going crazy.”
Nikki’s voice sharpened. “He said that to you? He was that worried about his mental state?”
“Apparently.”
She said pensively, “This talk about something strange and dark going on in Belle Pointe... Would you say he sounded delusional?”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far. I can tell you this. He didn’t sound like the Dr. Nance I’d come to know.” His gaze narrowed, as if he were trying to recall the nuances of that phone call. “Are you aware of any medication he was taking?”
“I never knew him to take so much as an over-the-counter pain reliever,” Nikki said. “However, we’ll request his medical records before the autopsy. That’s procedure. But even with a full history at our disposal, cause of death remains indeterminate in more cases than most people realize.”
“One step at a time,” Adam said.
She nodded, shifting her gaze from the lake to his profile and then back to the water. Recognition still tugged and a memory flitted, lingering in the light for only a moment before skittering back to the fringes of her subconscious. Nikki suddenly had an almost overwhelming sense of fate and she didn’t know why.
Beside her, Adam stirred. “I should go and let you get back to your solitude.”
“No, wait. I need to ask you something first.”
He stared down at her for the longest moment before he nodded. Nikki couldn’t tell what color his eyes were, only that they were dark like hers, but with a golden shimmer. Or was that the moonlight playing tricks?
He leaned an elbow against the ledge and waited.
“This may sound like a very bad cliché,” she said tentatively. “But I have a feeling we’ve met before. You seem so familiar to me and yet I can’t place you at all. It’s been bugging me ever since I saw you at the lake earlier.”
“It took me a while to figure it out, too.”
Her breath caught. “Then we have met. When? Where?”
“Right here.”
“Here? At the Ruins, you mean?” Her heart thudded as her focus plunged momentarily to the loose floorboard at their feet. He couldn’t know. No one knew. She’d never told anyone about her secret hiding place. Never confessed to anyone what she’d done.
And yet...the way he stared down at her in the dark...the way his voice lowered knowingly...
She suppressed a shiver. “I’m sorry. I still don’t remember.”
“It was the summer that local girl went missing. Riley Cavanaugh.” His deep gaze took her in. “Surely you remember her.”
ADAM SEARCHED HER face in the moonlight. She didn’t react to the name, but he could sense her wariness. The tension in the room thickened oppressively.
Something crept into her voice that he couldn’t identify. “Of course I remember Riley. Everyone in town remembers Riley Cavanaugh. But I still can’t place you. Are you sure we met here?”
“We never actually met,” he said. “I saw you out here with your friends from time to time, but mostly you came alone. Your nose was usually buried in a book or else you were scribbling in a notebook. We spoke only once that I recall. You made it clear you didn’t like to be bothered, so I kept my distance.”
She shook her head helplessly.
Adam didn’t know whether to be amused or insulted that someone had blocked a memory of him so thoroughly. In Dallas, he had people come up to him on a regular basis to either thank or berate him for a previous interaction. To Nikki Dresden, he was a complete nonentity.
But she was still trying. He’d give her that.
“Who were your friends?” she asked. “Did you hang out with any of the local kids?”
“I didn’t socialize much that summer. I was sent down here to work.”
“Where did you work?” Before he could answer, she rushed to add, “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound as if I’m interrogating you. I just know it’ll drive me crazy until I can put a memory with your face.”
“It’s okay. It’ll come back to you eventually.” Or maybe it wouldn’t. And maybe that would be for the best. He’d probably stayed too long in her orbit as it was. The last thing he needed was an entanglement, no matter how superficial or fleeting. Stephanie’s betrayal was still too raw and he was in no hurry to go down that road again. Nikki Dresden fascinated him and that was never a good sign.
“I worked for my grandmother,” he said. “I’d just graduated high school and made the mistake of telling my folks I had no intention of going to college in the fall. So my dad sent me down here to repair some storm damage to my grandmother’s roof and dock. He figured a few weeks of working in the hot sun might persuade me to reevaluate my options.”
“Did it?”
“You could say that. By the end of the summer, I went back home determined to become a police detective.”
She glanced up at him. “That seems an odd transition.”
He didn’t know how long she expected him to keep talking, but she seemed in no hurry to end the conversation. So he settled in and returned her curious stare. “Like I said. That
