“Okay. Got it,” Lily said. “Don’t worry about Chloe. I’ll wear her out at the zoo today. She’s into the animals. Big-time.”
So true. Chloe loved their pets and the goats and horses at the riding academy, though lately her ardor for the llamas had cooled.
Ignoring the maternal pang of envy about Lily’s outing with the girls, she said, “I’ll keep you posted,” and then hung up and backedout of the parking space. It was her decision to keep working once Chloe had come into the world, and she didn’t regret it for the most part, but a little tiny voice in her head kept reminding her,You’re missing out on a unique time that is so precious and oh so fleeting.
“It’s a balancing act,” she said aloud and noticed a big, silver SUV parked at the edge of the lot.
So what?
There were dozens of similar vehicles in the city.
And yet … She felt a chill deep in her bones and thought about sticking around, seeing who was behind the wheel.
But she couldn’t. Not now. Not when Naomi Kittle might be found. She took a picture of the vehicle, including the license plate, then took off.
She drove out of the city limits and hit the gas, pushing the speed limit and rolling up the windows as the air-conditioning kicked in. Traffic waned, and the suburbs gave way to farmland. She was momentarily bottlenecked by a tractor chugging along under twenty miles an hour, but she was able to pass and keep moving.
Nikki had witnessed the river being dredged before, and once she’d watched as an escaped trailer stacked with hay was winched out of a pond. But this was different. This could be someone she knew; in fact, she had the cold, gnawing fear that the car being dragged from the river belonged to Naomi. Her insides tightened at the thought. If the car did turn out to be Naomi’s, then most likely she was still inside.
Seeing a body pulled from the river would be difficult. Recognizing the dead person as someone she knew, worse. A vision that might haunt her the rest of her days.
Especially since Nikki herself had nearly drowned.
And Sylvie Morrisette had died in the water that same day.
“God help me,” she whispered, taking a final turn and seeing the police cars and ambulance already parked near the river in a wide spot on the road that opened to a dusty track and a boat launch for small craft.
A tow truck was idling at the shoreline, its lights flashing, its cables already hooked to something beneath the water. Police and a fire crew swarmed along the bank, and a diver in a wet suit had pulled offhis mask and stood dripping on the sunbaked rocks near the water’s edge.
Nikki parked on the gravel shoulder and stepped outside, only to be stopped by a deputy in uniform and mirrored sunglasses, as she tried to walk closer to the river.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. This area is restricted.”
“It’s all right,” she started to argue to get a closer look, but stopped short when she saw, from the distance, the white Mercedes, covered in mud as it was being winched from the river. Her heart stuttered. The car was identical to the Mercedes she’d seen at the riding academy. All hope that it belonged to someone other than Naomi vanished. Her throat grew tight as she watched water cascade down the sides of the vehicle in a noisy rush. The windshield was smashed, the windows rolled down.
Escape routes, she thought, hoping Naomi had somehow survived.
She saw there was no body strapped behind the steering wheel, thank God, nor did it appear as if anyone had been dragged from the river, as the ambulance was still waiting.
Had Naomi somehow escaped a watery death?
She swallowed back a swell of nausea that climbed up her throat. “Dear God,” she whispered, imagining Naomi’s panic.
If she’d been in the vehicle.
Nikki wondered if she’d been alone.
Or had there been someone with her?
The passenger side window was rolled down.
As were the windows of the back seat and even the rear.
How had that happened?
Again, Nikki scanned the slow-moving river and its narrow, brushy banks. A dozen questions swept through her mind.
What had happened here? Where the hell was Naomi? If, indeed, she had been in the muddy vehicle. Could someone else have been driving? Could she have been the victim of a carjacking? If so—why hadn’t she called?