Page 2 of Cougar Point

She looks out over the bay. Storm clouds are gathering, promising a cloudburst. She and her mom wouldn’t be going for a walk along the shoreline today. She gathers the few things she’s brought out to the deck and notices resort staff busily taking down umbrellas and folding Adirondack chairs.

Roger Whiting is a small man, late fifties, thin, balding, and barely five feet tall. He stands on a raised wooden platform behind the counter. He knows everything that has anything to do with the resort, and a lot that doesn’t.

“Are you holding something for me, Roger?”

He hands Rebecca a piece of resort stationery with something printed in black ink. The handwriting resembles a child’s scrawling.

you promised dinky

Roger says, “One of the staff found it outside the door to your mother’s room.”

“It can’t be for me or my mom, Roger. Give me the key to her room.” She hands the note back and holds her hand out for the key.

“Is everything okay, ma’am?” Roger says, handing her the key.

“Fine, Roger. I’ll just go see what’s taking her so long.”

Roger calls after her. “I had a floorman knock on the door and she didn’t answer.”

“She might be in the restaurant.”

“My floorman checked the restaurant and the other places she frequents when she’s here. She’s usually having a late breakfast in Packer’s Lounge this time of day. I personally checked Packer’s and the spa. No one has seen her. Maybe she’s running an errand?”

Rebecca doesn’t think her mother would leave the resort without telling her. “I take it no one has actually gone inside her room?”

“I didn’t want to disturb her if she was, uh, indisposed.”

Rebecca doesn’t know what he means by that but feels her pulse tick in her temple and she rushes to the elevator.

TWO

SUNDAY

I’m just about to get out of my Explorer and go into Purdy Women’s Prison when my phone rings.

“Detective Carpenter?” Nan asks as if she doesn’t know who she just called. I bite my tongue.

“It’s me, Nan. Megan Carpenter. What’s up?”

I can almost see her snooty look. She doesn’t like smart-ass remarks. But then she doesn’t like anything except herself.

“Hold for Sheriff Gray, please.” She’s being very professional. I’m on edge knowing I’ll be face-to-face with my bitch of a mother in a few minutes. I take back the snarky remarks I just made about Nan.

“Megan.” Tony’s voice comes over the phone. “I’m glad I caught you. Are you working on a case? Do you have a minute?”

Sheriff Tony Gray can have all of my minutes. I owe him. He found me just surviving, using street smarts, and got me into the police academy, hired me, and soon I was a detective. My entire world changed from day-to-day survival to having a family. A police family.

But I’m about to do something I’d promised myself I’d never do. I’m going to visit my mother at Purdy Prison. Tony has no idea about this part of my life. Well, maybe he has a tinysuspicion because of a recent case where the killer had pictures of me from high school when I used the name Rylee, and had left the pictures to be found at a murder scene. Tony had found them and secreted them away until he could give them to me. He didn’t ask questions. He has trust in me and I would do anything for him. Except I don’t want to let him know where I am. Not that I couldn’t be going to a prison to interview someone about a case, but I’m not. So I tell a white lie.

“Yes, I am involved in something at the moment.”

“Oh. Okay,” Tony says, and I can hear his disappointment.

“But it can wait, Sheriff?”

“Great. This thing with Councilman Johns and his wife…Just a moment.”

I hear Nan asking him if he wants coffee.

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