The crape myrtle tree in her front yard was about to bloom beside the oyster-shell driveway, and Olivia must have replenished the pine mulch recently because the crisp aroma of it lingered in the air.
Two figures sat on Olivia’s tiny porch in a swing. Olivia Davis waved as Jane and Parker neared. Olivia had taken Jane under her wing as soon as Jane started working at the police station. Olivia had sat at the dispatcher desk for over twenty-five years—ever since her police officer husband had been killed in the line of duty—and her dark-blue eyes missed nothing. The shapely legs under her white shorts seemed thinner, and she was pale.
Megan, her fourteen-year-old daughter, was a carbon copy of her mother, though her curly brown hair was longer and often in a ponytail.
Megan patted her knee to call Parker to her. “Mom just said she was hoping you might stop by tonight.”
Jane dropped onto an antique metal chair beside the swing. “I wanted to see what the doctor had to say today. Did you ask him to run the Lyme tests?”
“I asked, but I didn’t get very far,” Olivia said. “He seemed offended that I even considered he might have made a wrong diagnosis. I actually walked out. I kind of burned my bridges today, I think.”
Jane winced. “Good grief, Olivia, I didn’t want you to put all your eggs in the Lyme basket. What will you do?”
This felt like her fault. Olivia had recently been diagnosed with ALS, but Jane had urged her to get a second opinion and to check for Lyme disease as well. Jane believed in taking charge of everything, including health, and never settling for the easy answer.
“I still have that Lyme-literate doctor’s name you gave me. I left a message for her asking for an appointment.” Olivia studied Jane’s face. “Rough day? What’s going on?”
“Do I look that haggard?” Jane managed a chuckle and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Stressed might be a better word, but it comes with the territory.”
“You know Ruby McDonald, don’t you?”
“Sure.” Olivia nodded.
Megan looked up at the mention of the school principal’s name. “She wasn’t in most of the day.”
Her mother lifted a brow. “And how do you know that, young lady? Did you get in trouble today?”
“Sheesh, Mom, no. I’m on the student council, and our after-school meeting was canceled.” Parker nudged Megan’s hand, and she went back to petting him. “I heard her son is missing.”
Jane shook her head. “Small-town life. It’s harder to keep a secret here than to fight off a gator.”
“He works on the oil platform,” Olivia said. “Was he the one the Coast Guard was searching for today?”
“He was.” Jane told them about the terrorist threat and what Reid had learned as well.
A smile brightened Olivia’s wan face, framed by her curly brown hair in its familiar bob. “You had dinner with Reid? That’s the real reason for the shadow in your eyes, isn’t it? How’d that go?”
“I don’t think my nonexistent love life is more important than a missing man!”
“Oh, lighten up, Jane. You need to forgive the guy and see what the future holds.”
Megan’s smile was wide. “And Will is so cute!”
Had Jane ever been that perky and naive? She was much too cautious with her heart to be as receptive to romance as Megan.
She lifted a brow in Megan’s direction. “You’ve been hanging out with him?”
“I wish. I’ve seen him around, though.” She held up her phone. “We’re friends on Snapchat, but I don’t think he’s even smiled at me in real life.”
Jane was still trying to navigate the unfamiliar road of motherhood and wasn’t sure how much she should be prying into Will’s private life, but she couldn’t hold back her curiosity. “Is he interested in someone else?”
“Baseball practice is his only steady date. I swear, he’s totally obsessed with breaking the strikeout record for the school. And pitching speed. I know all about his pitching speed.”
Jane knew that much. Will talked about baseball constantly, and he practiced pitching every day. “If you’re not friends, how do you know that?”
“He always posts his times with pictures on Snapchat.” Megan looked at her phone and her face paled. She tapped on it, then shuddered and put it down.
Her mother reached over and grabbed the phone. “Is it Tyler again?” She frowned. “You need to block him, Megan.”
“I was afraid it would make things worse if he thought I was dissing him.”
Jane furrowed her brow. “What’s going on with Tyler? I thought you guys broke up two months ago.”
Megan’s hand stilled on Parker’s head. “He’s the one who broke up with me, but he got hit in the head with a baseball in practice two weeks ago. It affected his short-term memory for now, and he thinks we’re still going out. He calls and stops by all the time. Every time I think he gets it, he forgets and the pattern begins all over again. It’s starting to give me the creeps.”
“Poor kid. Have you tried talking to his dad?”
Tyler Price’s mother had died last year of a brain aneurysm, and every time Jane saw him now he seemed sad and lost. His dad was high up with the oil company that managed the platform, and Jane hadn’t remembered it until Tyler’s name was mentioned. He might be a good resource to talk to about Keith.
Megan stared down at her hands. “I didn’t want to get him in trouble. He’s been through so much.”
“Want me to have a talk with him?”
Megan shook her head. “I don’t think it would do any good. He just forgets.”
Jane made a note to talk to Steve about her missing man. Just maybe Tyler would come up, too, and she could make sure Megan wasn’t in any danger.
Four
That bull alligator sounded too close for comfort.
Behind the house Reid sat on the pier that stretched like a finger into the Bon Secour River. Will, his legs dangling over the side, sat beside him in the cacophony of frogs trying to outdo one another. Sunset gilded the tops of the pecan trees and shimmered on the surface of the river.
Will tossed a rock into the sluggish river. “Mom seemed okay with you at dinner.”
Reid snorted. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice she didn’t so much as lean back against the seat. She was wound up as tightly as your arm before a pitch. She couldn’t wait to gulp down her food and get out of there.”
“The two of you were discussing a case like old times.”
The hope in his son’s voice hurt. Reid held no illusions of ever seeing forgiveness in Jane’s eyes. He didn’t deserve it either. And it was a real shame, because that kiss they’d shared still kept him awake at night, and he’d give anything for another taste of her lips.
Reid held his son’s gaze. “You haven’t heard anything from Lauren, have you?”
Will straightened. “You heard from her?”
“No, just making sure she hasn’t been bothering you.”
“I haven’t seen her since that day on the street.”