Nikki listened, fascinated. “That doesn’t sound like something Dr. Nance would do. He was never the cloak-and-dagger type. Anyway, how could he know you’d go to his cabin, find the book and put two and two together with what he’d said on the phone?”
Adam’s focus never wavered. “Maybe he was banking on my abilities as a detective. Maybe someone else is, too.”
Nikki leaned in, eyes wide. “You think someone is trying to stop you from looking into Dr. Nance’s death?”
“Maybe someone is trying to stop you, too.”
She suppressed a shiver. “I wish you hadn’t said that.”
“It had to be said. If someone is watching your house, you need to be careful.”
“Why would someone consider me a threat? I’m not even the one who performed the autopsy.”
“You were close to Dr. Nance. Someone might assume he confided in you.”
Nikki fell silent as a million thoughts raced around in her head. Could she be a target? It seemed far-fetched, but wasn’t she the one who’d had doubts all along about cause of death? All signs pointed to drowning, but after that long in the water, it was impossible to determine whether or not he’d been held under.
The images in her head were chilling. “We have to tell the sheriff everything. He needs to know. It could affect the direction of the investigation.”
“I won’t keep him in the dark,” Adam said. “But I’m not backing off, either.”
“He’s not going to like a parallel investigation,” Nikki warned.
“I wouldn’t, either, in his shoes. But Dr. Nance left a note in that particular book for me to find. I think forty-seven means something other than his year of birth. I don’t yet know the significance, but I have to assume he left other clues. I may be the only one who can find them.” He paused, studying her features as if trying to assess her reaction. “As the county coroner, you’re entitled to investigate as you see fit in order to establish cause, manner and circumstances of death.”
Her gaze narrowed. “What are you getting at?”
“It would make my job easier if we worked together. Operating in an official capacity would open doors that I would otherwise have to kick in.”
Nikki was taken aback by the proposition. “Are you suggesting I hire you on as another investigator?”
“You can call me your assistant, if that would make the arrangement more palatable to county officials.”
“Whatever the title, that’s a pretty bold request, considering I know nothing about you.”
He removed a card from his pocket, jotted a name and number on the back and slid it across the table. “If you have any doubts about my credentials, call this man. He’s been my unit commander for the past three years. He’ll vouch for me.”
She picked up the card and glanced at the name. “If you’re that highly regarded by the police department, what are you doing down here?” She instantly regretted the question. “I’m sorry. That was stupid. You’re here because Dr. Nance asked you to come.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” he admitted. “The details aren’t important to this case. Just give the lieutenant a call and let me know what you decide. You and Dr. Nance were close. You must want to find out what happened out on that lake as much as I do.”
She slipped the card in her bag and nodded. “I’ll give it some thought.”
FOR THE REST of the day, Nikki ran errands and performed chores around the house, throwing herself into task after task so that she wouldn’t have time to dwell on Dr. Nance’s death, let alone the possibility that he’d been murdered. Or that she and Adam Thayer had somehow ended up in the killer’s crosshairs.
No matter how hard she tried, though, she couldn’t get their conversation out of her head. Teaming up with an outsider to investigate a beloved citizen’s death wouldn’t sit well with the local authorities. The last thing she wanted was to get on Tom Brannon’s bad side. However, Adam had made a valid point. If the note Dr. Nance left in the spine of Don Quixote was a clue to whatever he’d discovered before his death, then Adam might be the only person who could find the other pieces of the puzzle. He might be the only one who could put it all together.
There was a reason he’d been asked to come down here. Dr. Nance could have gone to Tom Brannon or to her with his concerns, but he’d turned to Adam Thayer instead. Nikki couldn’t dismiss her mentor’s final request any more than she could disregard her own instincts. An accidental drowning was hard for her to accept even though the autopsy had produced no evidence to the contrary. She intended to go over the results again to see if anything had been missed, and she would hound the lab until the toxicology screen was completed. If Dr. Nance had discovered something sinister that had cost him his life, she needed to keep digging until she exposed the truth, even if it meant putting her own life at risk. She owed him that much.
But the possibility of a physical confrontation with an unknown suspect wasn’t something she took lightly. As coroner, she’d been involved in any number of suspicious death investigations, but she’d never felt threatened, and her house had never been watched, so far as she knew. Dr. Nance’s death was different. It felt personal.
Nikki thought about the gold watch from his late wife that had been taken from his house years prior to his death. One thing seemingly had nothing to do with the other, but she wasn’t so sure anymore. After everything that had happened, it was getting harder to swallow as coincidence the discovery of that stolen timepiece in her secret hiding place. Maybe something nefarious really had been going on in Belle Pointe for years, but what? And where did Nikki and her missing journal fit into the mystery?
No one in town
