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  Dane chuckled, then started the car and drove away from the marina. “It shouldn’t take us long to get there. The policeman I spoke to told me to take you to Thomas Hospital, on Murphy Avenue.”

  She nodded. “I suppose you know where that is.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been to Fairhope and Daphne and Spanish Fort before. I even have a general idea of where the hospital is.” What he didn’t say was that the last time he’d visited this area, he’d been with Lorna on one of her antique-hunting expeditions in Fairhope.

  “I haven’t had stitches since I was a kid and fell out of a tree in the backyard.” Annie curled up on the seat, the darkness surrounding her like a comforting blanket. “They took ten stitches in the back of my head. Boy, was my father upset.”

  “You can’t blame him for being worried about you. Head injuries can be serious.”

  “He wasn’t upset about my injury. He was angry with me for being such a tomboy.” She’d been a disappointment to her father for as long as she could remember. He had wanted a daughter as genteel and dignified as his perfect wife. Unfortunately, Annie had inherited very little of her mother’s sweet, docile nature and a great deal of her grandmother Harden’s stubborn, independent, adventurous characteristics. According to family members, Grandmother Harden, the Italian war bride who had died in childbirth at the age of twenty-four, had been a fiery, temperamental, headstrong woman who hadn’t fit into her husband’s genteel Southern family. “My father told me that if I acted more like a little lady the accident never would have happened.”

  Dane glanced at Annie and caught a glimpse of some long-ago pain as it flashed across her face. “So, tell me, this guy tonight, did he try to steal your purse or was he trying to rape you or—”

  “Neither.”

  “Did you know him?” Dane wondered if the attacker might have been a boyfriend or an ex-husband.

  “No, I didn’t know him. I didn’t even get a good look at his face. It was dark and he came out of nowhere. It happened so quickly that all I remember is he wasn’t very tall. Not nearly as tall as you. And he was wiry.”

  “Did he say anything?”

  “Not a word.”

  “So you don’t have a clue as to why this guy tried to kill you?”

  “I didn’t say that.” She shifted uneasily in the seat. The pain in her side was getting progressively worse and the wound hadn’t stopped oozing blood. “I have a good idea why he came after me. I just don’t know who he was or who sent him.”

  “Why don’t you start at the beginning? Maybe your explanation will make more sense that way.”

  “What difference does it make to you? You can drop me at the hospital and be on your way. There’s no need for you to become involved in any of this.”

  Dane knew she was right. Any sensible man would do just that—drop her at the emergency room and leave her and her problems to the police. “You mentioned earlier that you’d already been to the police today and they hadn’t been of any help to you. Want to explain that to me?”

  Annie huffed loudly, letting out a long, exaggerated breath. “The investigator in you just has to know, doesn’t he?”

  She glanced at the big man, who didn’t take his eyes off the road. Why was it that she instinctively trusted this man—this stranger? For all she knew, he might be lying to her about his credentials, might even be involved in Halley’s disappearance. Okay, enough of that, she told herself. That kind of thinking is paranoid.

  “To make a long story short, a friend of mine, a staff reporter on my magazine, came down here to the Grand Hotel for a Society of Professional Journalists workshop a couple of days ago. She called me the evening after she arrived and told me that she had some information on the story of a lifetime, something I wasn’t going to believe. It seems she had received a package in the mail right before she’d left home, but she just stuck it in her suitcase and didn’t open it until the next day.”

  “Your magazine? Does that mean you’re a reporter or—”

  “It means I’m the Publisher and the Editor-in-Chief. Today’s Alabama is my brainchild.”

  “So what does your magazine and your reporter’s story have to do with your being attacked tonight?” Dane asked.

  “I’m not sure, but my guess is that Halley had come across something really big. Believe me, she isn’t the type to exaggerate.”

  “So, what was the big story?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean you—”

  “If you’ll stop playing Twenty Questions, I’ll explain!” Annie took another deep breath. “When Halley called me, the phone line went dead before she could give me any details. I called her back, but there was no answer. I called the hotel and had them check her room. She wasn’t there, but she hadn’t checked out. She’s been missing for two days. She just disappeared.”

  “You contacted the local authorities about her disappearance, didn’t you? That’s what you meant about talking to the police earlier today.”

  “There was no sign of foul play in her room and it seems that several hotel guests saw a woman fitting Halley’s description leave the hotel with a man that afternoon. They claim the two were laughing and acting very chummy, so the police think she just took off that night with some guy for a wild fling. Can you believe it?”

  “But you don’t think she’d do something like that.”

  “Halley Robinson would never go off with some man. She’s practically engaged to a great guy back home. If he hadn’t been in Pittsburgh on a business trip, I’m sure Clay would have come with me to look for her. I haven’t told him or her parents that Halley is missing.”

  “Maybe the guy who attacked you had nothing to do with your friend’s disappearance,” Dane said.

  “Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know. I’m going strictly on instinct. I believe Halley uncovered something terrible, something that put her life in danger.”

  “You think your friend has been murdered?”

  Annie clenched her teeth tightly. Dane Carmichael had just put her greatest fear into words. Yes, she was afraid that Halley was dead and that whatever “story of a lifetime” her friend had unearthed had not only cost her her own life, but had put Annie’s life in danger, as well.

  “If that’s true, if Halley is dead, then it’s all my fault,” Annie said.

  “Why is it your fault?” he asked.

  “Because I’m the one who encouraged her to follow her dream and become a reporter instead of playing it safe and settling into the life her parents chose for her. I’m the one who took her under my wing and advised her to be her own woman—to break free from tradition.”

  Dane didn’t respond. Annie couldn’t even hear him breathing. She glanced over at him and noticed how tightly he gripped the steering wheel. What was wrong with him? He looked as if he was in pain. A mental agony brought on by unhappy memories, Annie surmised. She knew only too well how memories could wreak havoc on a person’s present contentment.

  Revising his earlier opinion, Dane decided that coming to Point Clear had been a major mistake. Ever since he’d docked at the marina this afternoon, he hadn’t been able to get Lorna off his mind. And now, Annie’s comment about her encouraging her friend to break free from tradition made him wonder if Lorna had wanted to break free? Had she longed for a different life, far removed from the one her father had chosen for her? Had she regretted marrying him instead of pursuing some personal dream buried deep in her heart? He didn’t know. Had never asked her. Had never questioned the idyllic life he had thought they shared. And now it was too late. He would never know.

  Dane drove up to Thomas Hospital’s ER, parked the car and carried Annie inside. A boyish-looking policeman met them as they entered. Dane wondered how long the guy had been out of the academy. Six months? A year at the most, would be his guess.

  “I’m Kyle Yarborough,” the young officer said. “Is this the victim?”

  “Ms. Annie Harden,” Dane told him. “She’s got a nasty