Page 30 of Murder in The Summer House

“What does cleaning out the garage have to do with guests eating pizza?”

Kelly downed the last drops of her coffee before getting to her feet to rinse her cup. She turned from the sink and smiled over at Lucien and Brogan. “Do I know all this man’s buttons to push, or what?”

9

“Ilike Kelly and Beckett,” Lucien admitted after the couple had gone. “I hope we feel that same way about Birk and Jade.”

“Why wouldn’t we?” Brogan remarked absently, perusing through her inbox of emails.

“I hear Jade’s more laidback. Birk’s twice as serious as Beckett. That’s a scary thought. It sounds like opposites attract. I guess we’ll find out in a couple of hours.”

Brogan let out a triumphant hoot. “Look at this. I got a reply from Chief of Police Lando Bonner about Lyssa Mayfield’s case.”

“Already? That was fast.” Lucien moved over to stand behind Brogan and peered over her shoulder. “You asked him if Daniel was a suspect?”

“I thought it couldn’t hurt. Even though, unlike you, I had a good feeling about Daniel. But Bonner says that Lyssa disappeared in the company of a guy called Conor Claypool from Baker City, Oregon. Claypool drove the 1969 green Dodge Charger with a black hardtop. Claypool was twenty-four at the time and was part of a highway road crew working on 101. Chief Bonner says that he thinks Claypool met Lyssa at the grocery store where she worked. Witnesses verify that the two struck up a relationship. Customers often saw Claypool hanging around the grocery store waiting for her in the parking lot, usually when Lyssa worked checkout. It appears they hung out together whenever they could find the time.”

“Sounds like Lyssa and Conor were a couple. Why on earth didn’t she come clean with Daniel and break it off?”

“Who knows? The terrible things you do to people when you’re eighteen. Sneaking around makes love more exciting, I guess. The Chief goes on to say he hasn’t been able to find a single person who saw the couple after that spring night they went missing. There have been no sightings anywhere, no reports of either Lyssa or Conor anywhere in the US. No one has used their social security numbers for employment. Claypool’s family claims the last time they saw their son was when he left to work on the road construction crew the day after Christmas. They claim he called home once a week, usually on payday, but the calls suddenly stopped in April. The last time Conor called was three days before he went missing. That would be the right timeframe. Conor never returned to Oregon. Aw, that’s just so sad. Another example of people disappearing into thin air.”

“There has to be more to it than that,” Lucien determined.

“There’s always more to it than that. At least it lets Daniel off the hook in your eyes.”

“We should take a run up to Coyote Wells anyway.”

“Why? What can we do if the police chief can’t find them?”

“Look around the town, get the lay of the land.”

“And what? Hope to spot the Charger when no one else has been able to find it? I don’t know, Lucien. That sounds like Nancy Drew, scrambling to find a needle in a haystack.”

“Ha, ha. No need to throw my words back at me. After ten years of nothing, scrambling to find clues seems fitting. Besides, we’d get to meet Bonner in the flesh.”

“He’s already shared more than I thought he would. Maybe we should mention it to Beckett and Birk and see if they have any suggestions on how to proceed.”

“Sure, we could do that. But I might have a better idea. Let’s ask Daniel to give us his input about the town. He grew up there. He’d know better than anyone else where Lyssa and Conor could’ve headed that night.”

Brogan winced. “That seems cruel to me, like we’re rubbing it in his face. ‘Here, point us where you think your girlfriend took her lover, and we’ll break down each location for our search.’ Is it necessary to get in Daniel’s face about this? How about I send an email back to Chief Bonner asking him to name all the local lover’s lane options?”

Stella came over and pushed her nose into Lucien’s hand for attention. He obliged by scratching the greyhound behind the ears.

“See? Even Stella knows I’m right.”

He let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “Stella just wants outside. Don’t you girl?”

Lucien obliged by opening one of the French doors. For a time, he stood watching the dogs scamper toward the lemon orchard before turning to Brogan. “You know, I bet Daniel has gone over that night at least a hundred times in his head.”

“More like a thousand,” Brogan remarked.

“Do you remember Allison Bancroft?”

Brogan grunted and gave him a sour look. “From tenth grade? The girl who used to bully me and give me such a hard time after school? That Ally Bancroft? How could I forget Big Ally The Beast? And why would I want to talk about her now?”

“Allison knew we were friends. She hated you.”

“Yeah, well, the feeling was mutual.”

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