“He told one of my officers that he was walking along the lake when he spotted the body.”
It was hard to read Tom’s expression behind his mirrored sunglasses, but something in his voice troubled Nikki. “You don’t believe him?”
“I’ve no reason not to.”
“Then why that tone?”
Tom’s mouth tightened. “We’ve had our share of trouble in Nance County. Drug trafficking, disappearances, murder. I guess I’m just naturally wary of strangers who happen upon dead bodies. But then, he’s not really a stranger.”
“He isn’t?” Nikki tried to catch a glimpse of the man from the corner of her eye. She saw him rise from his perch on the log and rotate his arms as if to loosen kinked muscles. Then he moved up to the perimeter, leaning a shoulder against the nearest tree trunk as he slipped his hands in his pockets, all the while never taking his eyes off the corpse. Unlike some of the officers, he didn’t seem affected by the smell or the condition of the deceased. On first glance, his body language appeared almost apathetic, but there was tension in his neck and shoulders and something darker than curiosity in the gleam of his eyes.
He was close enough now that Nikki felt the need to lower her voice to a near whisper. “Who is he? How do you know him?”
“I only know of him,” Tom said. “His name is Adam Thayer. He just moved into his grandmother’s old house on the other side of the bridge.”
She stared at him in surprise. “He’s Betsy Thayer’s grandson?” Was that how she knew him? Had she caught a glimpse of him at one time or another when he’d come to see his grandmother? “I thought the family put her home on the market after she died.”
“I doubt they got any bites,” Tom said. “Prime location for a fishing retreat, but the place needs a lot of work. The fact that it was used to hide a kidnapping victim probably didn’t add to the appeal. Come to think of it, maybe it’s a good thing Thayer will be living there for a while. Empty houses tend to attract criminal activity.”
“Not just houses.”
“No, not just houses.”
They turned as one, lifting their heads to the top of the embankment, where an old smokestack rose out of the pine trees. The towering cylinder was all that could be seen from their vantage of the tumbledown structure known as the Ruins, a former psychiatric hospital.
Nikki’s observation had touched a nerve for both of them. Fifteen years ago, three teenagers had entered the Ruins on the night of a blood moon. One of the girls was Tom’s younger sister, Ellie. It was presumed that a former mental patient known as Preacher had taken the other two girls when Tom had found Ellie the next morning facedown at the edge of the lake. He’d managed to resuscitate her, but Tom, his sister and the whole town of Belle Pointe had never been the same since that night. One of the two missing girls had turned up days later wandering down the side of a country road. The other girl had disappeared without a trace. So had Preacher.
Despite the dark history, Nikki didn’t share the town’s fear of the Ruins. She’d always found beauty and solace in the place, but her penchant for hanging out there when she was younger had only added fuel to the whispers of dark cults and satanic rituals after the girls had gone missing.
Tom tore his gaze from the smokestack. “Thayer’s only been down here a few days, but already there’s buzz about him in town. I’m surprised you haven’t heard about him before now.”
“I don’t get out much.” Nikki kept her tone neutral as she side-eyed Adam Thayer, a tall, lean man in cargo shorts, wet sneakers and a plain gray T-shirt. His hair was clipped so short that when he bent to swat a mosquito on his ankle, Nikki noticed what appeared to be a scar that ran from his forehead back into his scalp. “What’s his real story?” she asked.
“Homicide detective,” Tom said. “Dallas PD. Wounded in the line of duty, according to my sister. An arrest somehow turned into an ambush and shoot-out.”
“That explains the scar.” It was all Nikki could do to keep her gaze averted, not so much out of curiosity, but from the stranger’s magnetic stare. “How does Ellie know him?”
“She went over to the Thayer house one morning to feed the peacocks and found him sitting on the front porch, drinking coffee. Evidently, he’d moved in during the night. She was wary at first, but it seems they’ve hit it off.”
Nikki lifted a brow at his tone. “You don’t approve?”
Clearly, he didn’t approve.
They were still speaking in lowered voices across the body. Tom rose and moved down to the water. He motioned with a jerk of his head for Nikki to join him. She peeled off her gloves and followed him.
“Just between you and me, I plan to keep an eye on him,” Tom said.
“Because of your sister?”
He hesitated. “Let’s just say I don’t trust anyone who feels the need to slip into town under the cover of darkness. Something odd about the way he moved in. Something odd about that shooting, too. I’ve got a few friends up that way. The Dallas PD kept a tight lid on the investigation. I’m not accusing him of anything, but it’s a little strange that he’d relocate to a place like Belle Pointe.”
Now it was Tom who’d touched a nerve. Considering that Nikki had once found herself on the wrong end of his father’s unfounded suspicions, she was inclined to give Adam Thayer the benefit of the doubt. She liked Tom. He was a good man and as intuitive a law enforcement officer as she’d ever worked with, but her voice cooled just the same. “Maybe he came here to recuperate.”
“And just happened upon the body
