Missing Persons. Shirlee McCoy

bodies and murder had her imagination working overtime. Reading her daily Bible study would ground her. At least Lauren hoped it would. She opened the worn leather cover and tried to immerse herself in her reading, but the more she tried, the more conscious she became of the strange shape at the corner edge of the yard.

      “It’s nothing.” She spoke loudly, hoping the sound would chase away the warning that hummed along her nerves. Her voice broke through the mournful call of frogs and soft drone of insects, and the night creatures fell silent as if waiting for her to continue.

      She didn’t, but in the sudden stillness new sounds emerged, the crackle of dry leaves, the snap of a branch. Then silence so deep it felt as if the world were holding its breath, waiting for whatever lurked in the shadows to make its move.

      Lauren stood, clutching her Bible in her hand and backing toward the door. “Hello? Is someone there?”

      She didn’t expect an answer, and she didn’t get one, though she thought she heard the rasp of someone’s breath, felt the weight of someone’s gaze.

      One step at a time, she eased toward the door afraid to turn her back on the darkness and whatever hid there. It wasn’t until she was inside, the doors locked and lights blazing, that she realized just how silly she was being. Despite what Seth had said, there was nothing to be afraid of. She knew that, she’d just forgotten it for a minute.

      Still, she felt compelled to pull the drapes across the French doors and check the windows to make sure they were locked.

      She’d just stepped back into the living room when a firm knock sounded on the door. She jumped, her heart slamming against her ribs, her gaze flying to the mantel clock. Eleven o’clock seemed an odd time for a visitor. She grabbed the fireplace poker, striding toward the door with more confidence than she felt and praying that whomever was out there was someone she’d be happy to see.

      FOUR

      “Who’s there?” To Lauren’s disgust, her voice wobbled on the last word.

      “Me.” Dee knocked again. “Who were you expecting? Jack the Ripper?”

      Lauren pulled the door open, stepping aside to let her sister in. “I don’t know, but I wasn’t expecting you. What are you doing back so early?”

      “Early? I’m not seventeen anymore, sis. This is late.”

      “Right. You came to check up on me.”

      “Okay. So I came back to see what was going on. Sue me.”

      “That would require a lawyer, and I’ve had about all I can take of lawyers for one evening.”

      “I’d sympathize, but you did it to yourself, offering to meet Seth’s son tonight.”

      “It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

      “Did it?” Dee settled down into an overstuffed chair. “To me it seemed crazy.”

      Lauren laughed and settled down on the sofa. “Why don’t you try being blunt next time?”

      “I call it like I see it. So? Tell me.”

      “Tell you what?”

      “What happened.”

      “Nothing happened. I went to Seth’s house, met his son, looked at the list of Jake’s allergens, came back here.”

      “Way to cut out all the details, sis.”

      “Those are the details.”

      “You and Seth didn’t say one word to each other on the ride from the inn to his house? Not one word from his house here? Come on, Laur, I know there’s more to the story than you’re telling.”

      “Because you want there to be more. There isn’t though. Just boring conversation between two people who used to know each other.” Sure there’d been a hint of attraction still there, but that wasn’t something Dee needed to know, and it wasn’t something Lauren planned to share.

      Or dwell on.

      Seth was the last person she wanted to spend time thinking about.

      “Too bad. I was hoping for some juicy tidbits to share with the girls.” She smirked and ran a hand over her hair. “Anyway, nosiness isn’t the only thing that brought me back here. Steff asked when we’d be ready to launch the Magnolia Falls: Where Are They Now Web site. I wanted to check with you on that before Jennifer and I gave her an answer.”

      “Any time Jen is ready.” The owner of a nursery school in Magnolia Falls, Jen Pappas had always been great with computers, and Lauren had enlisted her help with designing the Web site.

      “Monday? That’ll give you two days to clean out your e-mail in-box before you’re inundated with alumni news.”

      “Inundated? I’m just hoping we’ll get back in touch with a few people we went to school with.” Several of those people hadn’t returned for their ten-year reunion. In itself, that wasn’t worrisome. The fact that a body had been found on campus was. Could it be one of the people she’d gone to school with? Shared laughter, tears and friendship with? Lauren prayed not.

      “Be prepared anyway. Steff sent a letter out to alumni letting them know about the site.”

      “I got it the other day. Of course, receiving notice about the Web site doesn’t mean participating in it. There will be plenty of people who won’t bother signing the guest book or filling out the information questionnaire.”

      “True. We’ll see what happens Monday. Jennifer and I have got things set up so that guest book entries have to be approved before they’re seen on the site. That way we’ll have a chance to screen things before they’re out for public view. We decided that could be your job for now. When you get tired of doing it, one of the rest of us will take over.”

      One of the rest of them included Dee, Steff, Cassie, Jennifer or Kate. Close friends in college, they’d made it a point to stay close in the years since. “I suppose you all voted on this while I was away from the table.”

      “Yep. We figured you were on vacation and had more time than the rest of us.”

      “You figured that since I left the fund-raiser early you could foist the job off on me.”

      “That, too.”

      Lauren laughed and tossed a throw pillow at her sister.

      Dee caught it and stood, stretching her lean frame, the vivid blue of her dress striking against fair skin. Thirty-two and still single. With her looks and personality, Lauren had thought her sister would have married long ago.

      Lauren had thought she would have married long ago, too.

      Yet here they both were single and unattached.

      And happy about it?

      For her part, yes. She wasn’t so sure about her sister.

      “What?” Dee brushed a hand across her mouth. “Do I have something on my face?”

      “No, I was just thinking that you should have gone to the fund-raiser with some handsome Prince Charming. Not with me.”

      “Please. As if there is such a thing.” She started toward the front door. “I’m going to head back to the house. Want to come up and watch a movie?”

      “No, I think I’ll unpack and read for a while.”

      “Suit yourself. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She stepped outside and Lauren followed, hovering in the doorway as Dee walked toward the house, the same fear that had shivered along her spine before Dee arrived lodging in her throat once again as she watched her sister move toward the darkness at the edge of the house.

      “Are you going in the back door?”

      Dee turned to face Lauren again. “No.”

      “I’ll