Page 60 of The Cottage on Plum Island
“I wasn’t fishing for you to set me up on a date, Harley,” Wallis drawled. “I was merely asking out of interest and concern that you’ve not had much of a love life since you’ve been burdened with Angela’s mental illness.”
“Excuse me?” Margaret’s chest puffed up, and her eyes narrowed as she turned her icy glare on Wallis. “That’sour daughteryou’re talking about.”
“I meant no disrespect.” Wallis held up his hands. “But Harley shouldn’t be the one burdened with having to take care of her like he has been doing.”
“You mean, unlike her husband, who divorced her the minute things got too much for him to handle?” Harley balled his fists at his side as the anger seeped through his system.
“As I explained,” Wallis said unapologetically, “Angela and I were already in the middle of getting a divorce before she had her last breakdown.” He raised his eyebrows as he added to divert the attention from him having cheated on Angela with her twin. “And need I remind you that the day the divorce came through, she attacked Clair and I.” He pulled his shirt sleeve up to show the jagged scar. “With a butcher’s knife.”
Harley noted some blood stains on the cuff of Wallis’s shirt. He’d noticed a few dots of blood on the man’s collar earlier but had put it down to careless shaving. Wallis wasn’t looking his perfectly groomed best at the moment and his face looked like a novice had shaved it.
“Not to mention poor Clair’s hand.” Wallis’s eyes darkened, and he shook his head. “I couldn’t believe Angela would come at us with a butcher knife.”
Harley knew it was no joke what Angela had done when she’d snapped after finding out that Clair and Wallis were getting engaged,but what did they expect? They knew Angela was battling with the death of their son. Two weeks after Daniel passed away, Angela came down with the flu and started to wonder if she’d been the one to pass the flu on to Daniel.
Even though Harley, her parents, and more than one doctor had told her it couldn’t have been her, the seeds of doubt had been sown in Angela’s mind, which was the final straw. Angela had withdrawn into her shell. Harley had been staying at Angela’s house while they waited for a place for her at the mental health clinic she’d been in and out of for the year after Daniel’s death. Harley had left Angela in the care of their housekeeper to run errands. While he was out, Wallis and Clair visited Angela to tell her about their engagement.
Harley had returned to flashing lights from police cars and an ambulance. His first thought was that Angela had tried to take her life again, only to find her in handcuffs. She had blood all over her clothes, hands and face. It had been Wallis’s blood. He’d gotten between Angela when she went for Clair with a butcher’s knife. The housekeeper had heard Angela screamingyou did this, and by the time she got into the kitchen, Wallis was bleeding. He was also holding a manic Angela, intent on harming Clair.
After that, Angela was never the same, and she pulled away from her family. While she’d speak to her mother and father on the phone,if you mentioned Clair or Wallis, Angela would have a manic attack. The only one Angela trusted was Harley, and even though he and Angela were no longer romantically involved, she’d been the mother of his child. They shared a parental bond and a deep connection forged from grief. Angela was as much a part of his family as his sister, niece, nephew, uncle, or cousin.
“Harley?” Margaret’s voice snapped him from his thoughts. “Are you okay?”
“Tired,” Harley confessed. “I didn’t sleep well last night. I’ve gotten used to my bed at Sam’s house.”
“Please try to get some sleep,” Randal advised as they walked Harley out, and a town car pulled up. “I’ve asked Duncan to take you to the hotel. He’s at your service while you’re in town.”
“Thank you,” Harley said, surprised when Margaret hugged him.
“No, thank you, Harley,” Margaret said in a rare emotional moment. “For everything you’ve done for Angie and today.”
“Of course.” Harley smiled. “And don’t worry, we’ll find them.”
Harley climbed into the car, and they were just pulling out of the driveway when his phone rang. Harley’s heart skipped a beat when he saw it was Jennifer. He’d wanted nothing more than to call her all day, but he didn’t know what to say. This wasn’t something to discuss over the phone, as he didn’t want Jennifer to get the wrong impressionof his relationship with Angela. Harley also wanted to apologize for letting her down in person, not over the phone, as that didn’t seem right.
“Hello,” Harley answered. “I know you’re angry and disappointed, and I let you down—“
“Harley—“ Jennifer’s voice sounded frantic. “Where are you?”
“I’m on my way to the hotel.” Concern rushed through him.
“Can you turn around and get to the warehouse district on the outskirts of town?” Jennifer asked.
“The warehouse district!” Harley’s brow knitted tighter together, and his heart thudded against his rib cage. “Where are you?”
“At the warehouse district,” Jennifer told him. “I’m at Tons and Tons of Storage.”
Harley’s eyes widened in disbelief. “What are you doing there?”
“I can’t explain, just get here,” Jennifer pleaded before the phone went dead.
Fear, like nothing he’d felt before, coursed through him. He leaned over to the front. “Duncan, please take me to the warehouse district as quickly as possible.”
Duncan nodded and turned the car around to head toward the other end of town. The drive seemed to take forever as scenarios played out in Harley’s mind. He’d tried calling Jennifer, but her phone wentto voicemail, and the text messages weren’t delivered. Which made Harley even more frantic with worry. Not only was Jennifer in that part of town, but she was there without communication. Either the phone had died, or it had been taken from her.
While he knew Jennifer kept a charger in her car, Harley clung to option A as he didn’t even want to contemplate option B. At last, the car pulled up outside Tons and Tons of Storage. It was a twenty-four-hour storage facility that rented out storage space, which Harley knew well as it was where he kept a storage space filled with Daniel’s things. That was why he had a keycard to get in and wondered if it was just a coincidence that Jennifer used the same storage facility. But Harley didn’t believe in coincidences, and a lousy feeling crept up his spine.
“Where to, sir?” Duncan glanced at Harley in the mirror as the gates slid open, and they drove in. “This is a large place to try to find someone.”
