I need a favor, buddy. Its about Nathan.
Jack was instantly on alert. What about him?
Have you heard from him lately?
Something in Tommys voice prickled Jacks scalp. Why would you think Id hear from Nathan? You guys cut me loose a long time ago.
You sound bitter, Tommy said.
No, just careful.
Cant say as I blame you, considering the way you were treated. We were all just scared kids back then. Im not making excuses, but it was a rough time for everyone.
Sure sounded like he was making excuses. And the half-hearted apology was only now being extended because Tommy needed something from Jack. Just like Nathan did. He wasnt about to make it easy on either of them.
This is awkward as hell, Tommy muttered into the loaded silence. I cant imagine how strange it must be for you.
No, you cant.
Tommy drew in a sharp breath as if his anger had been goaded. Then he said in a strained voice, Look, man, I wouldnt even be bothering you except I think Nathan may be in some trouble. Serious trouble. And now that its all coming home to roost, hes looking for a way out.
What do you mean?
Tommy hesitated. I think he may be trying to set me up.
For what?
I havent figured that out yet.
Jack stared out into the night, dotted with streetlights spanning the misty cityscape, but his mind had already traveled deep into the piney woods of East Texas. What is it you expect me to do about it?
Nothing, buddy. Not a damn thing. Thats the whole point of this call. If Nathan tries to get in touch, Id appreciate a heads-up. Otherwise, go on about your business.
You still havent told me why you think hed try to get in touch with me.
Hes desperate. And he and your uncle were tight. Maybe he thinks you still have a score to settle and he can somehow use it to his advantage. A word of advice from an old friend. Any hint of joviality disappeared from Tommy Driscolls voice. Dont believe a word that comes out of his mouth. Nathan Bolt is a pathological liar. Always has been. Just like his old man.
What has he lied about? Jack asked carefully.
Tommy hesitated. Maybe it doesnt even matter anymore.
Maybe it does, Jack said. What did Nathan lie about?
Another pause. He wasnt home the night Anna was killed. He left before midnight and didnt come back until nearly sunrise.
Chapter Two
Jack sat on his uncles boat dock as a fine mist settled over the lake. All around him, the landscape was eerie and primal, a swampy labyrinth of channels and bayous that stretched all the way across the Louisiana border. The town of Pine Lake was less than a quarter of a mile away, but the woods blocked the lights. He could see nothing but the silhouette of trees and a glimpse now and then of the old lake bridge through the curtains of Spanish moss hanging from a dense forest of bald cypress.
Damn, it was dark out here.
Jack had forgotten what it was like to be that deep in the country, without the glow of skyscrapers to create a false daylight. As he stared out at the water, the night came alive. A loon trilled from the woods as a mosquito buzzed his ear. A female alligator grunted nearby, warning predators away from her nest. The nocturnal sounds stirred an uneasy excitement. You shouldnt have come back here, a voice in his head taunted. Youre asking for trouble.
Yeah, maybe he was.
He hadnt told anyone he was coming. Not Nathan, not Tommy. But the cabin had been spotless when he arrived, the cupboards and refrigerator well stocked. Even his uncles fishing boat had been scrubbed and gassed up. Jack wasnt too pleased by the preparations. Nathans overconfidence bugged him, but it wasnt misplaced. He was here, wasnt he?
All weekend long hed brooded about those two phone calls and then come Monday morning, hed headed upstairs to talk things over with his boss, Ezra Blackthorn. The taciturn head of the agency had listened carefully to Jacks story, but he hadnt offered much in the way of advice. Wading back into the muck of his past had been Jacks decision alone. As much as he dreaded what he might find, he couldnt ignore any chance, no matter how slim, of finally bringing Annas killer to justice. To resolve once and for all what had really happened on that long-ago Friday night.
But he had no delusions about easy answers. His investigation was likely to get messy. He didnt trust Nathan or Tommy to tell him the truth. Obviously, they were each working an angle. He could well imagine Tommy Driscoll getting involved in something shady. Even as a kid, Tommys innate charm and athletic prowess had fostered a sense of entitlement. Hed learned early on that he could talk his way out of anything and Jack doubted his attitude had changed now that he wore a badge.
Nathan was a little harder to figure out. He already had money and prestige. Why risk his standing in the community?
Jack really didnt care what either of them was up to. He did care that one or both had lied about their whereabouts on the night of Annas murder.
He watched the water with a pensive frown, unable to shake his disquiet. His mind had strayed to such a dark place that when he saw a light flicker on the old lake bridge, he half convinced himself he was being paranoid.
But no, there it was again. Not a flickering light as hed first thought, but the bobbing beam of a flashlight moving across the wooden deck. The bridge had been abandoned decades ago, but the rotting floorboards and creaking beams had never dissuaded the local daredevils. He watched for a moment, thinking back to his own misadventures on that bridge.
The light was no longer moving, he noted. The beam stayed stationary for so long that he had to conclude someone had set the flashlight down on the deck or perhaps wedged it between the braces. If he concentrated hard enough, he could almost conjure a form standing at the guardrail. He was tempted to start up his uncles boat and train the spotlight on the bridge, but even so powerful a beam would be swallowed by the misty darkness. Besides which, this was none of his business. He hadnt come to Pine Lake to get sidetracked
He heard a splash as something heavy hit the water. Then the flashlight beam swept down and over the lake, glimmering sporadically through the trees. Jack was far enough away that he couldnt be spotted, but he instinctively shrank back into the shadows.
For the longest time, the light moved slowly over the water. Then the glow vanished, only to reappear bobbing toward the end of the bridge. A few minutes later, Jack heard the sound of a car engine on the far side of the lake. Not a frantic rev but a stealthy purr as the car slowly drove away on the old dirt road.
He didnt know what to make of the splash or the light. People had been known to use the lake as a dumping site. If caught, the offense carried a stiff penalty, but back in Jacks day, the area around the bridge had rarely been patrolled. Which was undoubtedly the reason Annas killer had chosen to dump her body from the deck.
That splash...
What were the chances another body had been thrown from the bridge on the very night hed returned to Pine Lake? Slim to none, Jack decided, but he knew the sound would niggle at him all night. Might as well take the boat out and have a look.
* * *
A FEW MINUTES LATER, Jack maneuvered away from the dock and headed into the channel. It was even darker on the water. He didnt want to turn on his running lights, much less the spotlight in case someone lurked nearby. But it was dangerous to be on the lake blind. Dangerous for others, dangerous for him. If he strayed from the middle of the channel, he had to worry about cypress knees below the surface and those thick mats of aquatic vegetation that could entangle the boats propeller.
He turned on the spotlight, keeping the beam concentrated on the water ahead of him. As he neared the bridge, he shifted into neutral and drifted as he trained the light along the banks where ground mist thickened. Cypress trees rose from the shallows like bearded sentinels, obscuring both ends of the bridge. Beyond the lake was the pine forest and all along the waters edge, a creeping carpet of lily pads and lotus.
He made a pass underneath the first span of the bridge, once again searching along the banks and in the deeper water of the channel before returning through the second span. Clouds blocked the moon so thoroughly he had to rely solely on the spotlight. Even through the mist, he could pick out turtles and frogs and the red glowing eyes of an alligator, but he saw nothing unusual in the water.
If someone had thrown a body off the bridge, they would have more than likely weighted it. It could take days or even weeks to surface. He was wasting his time and he knew it. All hed heard was a distant splash. All hed seen was a bobbing flashlight. He had no reason to believe that anything untoward
She was there in the shallows, floating on her back among the lily pads.
Jack used the trolling motor to navigate through the strangling vegetation and then a paddle to hold the boat steady as he observed the body. He didnt attempt to drag her from the water. She was dead and had been the moment the bullet passed through the back of her skull and exited between her eyes. During his time as a cop, hed seen that jagged, X-shaped wound before, usually in drug-related executions. The facial damage was extensive, but the best Jack could tell, she was young, probably no more than early twenties, with long blond hair floating all around her.
He sat for a moment, awash in memories before he took out his phone and called Tommy Driscolls number.
The phone rang five times before Tommy finally answered. He sounded annoyed and winded. Driscoll.
Tommy, its Jack King.
Jack? Its a little late, isnt it, buddy?
Not for this.
You heard from Nathan? he asked anxiously.
Im calling about something else.
A long silence. Where are you?
Sitting in my uncles boat on Pine Lake. Im about fifty yards south of the old bridge. Youd better get out here. Theres a body in the water.
He heard the sharp intake of Tommys breath. Do you know who it is?
Female Caucasian. Blonde, slim build from what I can tell. Shes young. Early twenties, Im guessing. Looks like someone shot her in the back of the head and then dumped her body off the bridge.
No need for an ambulance, I take it. Tommys voice seemed oddly hushed.
No, but youd better send for the coroner. Ill stay with her until you get here.
Jack?
Yeah?
What are you doing on Pine Lake?
I dont think that much matters right now, does it?
It might, Tommy said. Ill see you in a few minutes. Well talk then.
Jack dropped the phone back in his pocket, his gaze still on the body. He cut the spotlight. The garish brilliance somehow seemed offensive. As darkness slid over him, he had the uncanny feeling that he wasnt alone. He told himself it was just the situation. The similarities to Anna were bound to unnerve him. But he couldnt shake the notion that someone was near. Someone watched him.
Turning on the spotlight, he raked the powerful beam all along the banks and then into the shadowy corners of the bridge. He almost expected to see someone at the guardrail staring down at him. No one was there. He was alone on the water with the dead woman.
He made one more sweep, this time slanting the beam up in the trees. As he shifted the light, he caught a glimpse of something white through the cypress branches. A barn owl, he thought, or a snowy egret. But as he focused the light, he realized the shimmer of white wasnt in a tree, but at the very top of the bridge. For a moment he could have sworn someone was up in the rafters.
He shook his head and moved the light away. Crazy notion.
He sat in the gently rocking boat and let the night sounds settle over him. Then he angled the beam back to the truss. The white object was still up there.
Pushing off with the paddle he let the boat float back into the center of the channel before he started the motor. The outboard hummed throatily as he navigated toward the bridge. Backing off the throttle he aimed the light up through the Spanish moss. Whatever he expected to find was not what he saw. Never in a million years could he have imagined such a sight.
The floor of the bridge was a good fifteen feet above the water and from the deck, a series of braces and struts climbed another twenty feet to the iron beam that ran the length of the bridge.
On top of that narrow girder, a woman lay curled in the fetal position.
* * *
OLIVES EYES FLEW OPEN. She had been dreaming again about falling. Down, down, down into that misty abyss. The nightmare had been so real that she still had the smell of the swamp in her nostrils. She could even feel a breeze on her face.
She lay for a moment, breathing deeply as she tried to calm her racing heart.
What was that creaking sound? She couldnt place it. The ceiling fan, maybe?
Dont move, a male voice said nearby.
That brought her fully awake. She started to sit up, but a hand on her shoulder eased her back down and she realized another hand had clamped around her wrist. Panic exploded. Her instinct was to lash out at the intruder, to fight him off with every ounce of strength she could muster, but she was suddenly aware of her surroundings. That creak didnt come from any ceiling fan. She wasnt even in her bedroom. She was
Where am I? she gasped, as her whole world tilted.
Dont worry. Ive got you. The voice was deep and silky smooth. Olive found it at once soothing and terrifying.
Got me...where?
You know the old bridge over Pine Lake?
Yes, I know it... She trailed away as she tried to peer through the darkness. A light glimmered somewhere below her. She felt compelled to turn and stare into the beam, but the swaying sensation and the hand on her shoulder kept her immobile. Im on the bridge?
More or less, the voice said.
Terror surged as she pictured the gaping holes in the rotting floorboards and the unstable framework towering over her. The image dizzied her and she had to suppress the urge to flail her arms, searching for a handhold.
Now she understood the creaking and swaying.
You have to stay calm, okay? Im not going to let you fall, but you need to do exactly as I say.
Fall? She started to tremble.
Were going to get you down, but itll take some maneuvering.
Why cant I just stand up and walk off the bridge? she asked in a quivering voice.
Youre not exactly on the bridge. Youre on top of it.