Met Her Match Read online

  When they got to the car, Billy insisted that he drive. He’d trust Terri with his life in a boat but not in a car. “Just direct me and we’ll go to the cabin.”

  “It’s probably nothing,” she said as she got in the passenger seat. “A coincidence.”

  “I’m sure you’re right. So tell me about Mr. Owens.”

  “I don’t know much. He’s a handsome, middle-aged man. When he first arrived I was a kid but even I saw the way the women went after him. He wanted nothing to do with them. Dad and I used to laugh about it.”

  “Who does he socialize with?”

  “I have no idea. I don’t remember ever seeing him at any of the community get-togethers. One time Dad said if everyone was like Mr. Owens our lives would be a lot easier.”

  “But he came by your house yesterday?”

  “Yes, he did. He brought some pastries from the Summer Hill bakery. I didn’t spend any time with him because everyone wanted my attention.” She looked at Billy. “He could have stolen the bag with the bowl in it but so could have lots of people.”

  Billy was quiet for a while. “So this man usually comes only in August?”

  “Yes.” She looked at him. “But he’s here now. Because of rats that frightened his tenants away.”

  “Rats that appeared just when a car was found in a lake.”

  “And the newspapers blasted it all over the country.” Terri’s heart was beginning to pound.

  “And as antisocial as he is, he showed up at your house.”

  “And said nothing to anyone that I saw,” Terri said.

  For a second, their eyes locked, then Billy looked back at the road that encircled the lake. “Got somewhere we can park where we won’t be seen?”

  “Yes.” She pointed the way to an empty cabin and Billy pulled into the driveway.

  “Guess it would be pointless to—” He halted when Terri hopped out of the car. “To stay here,” he finished.

  Terri knew a back way to get to the Owens cabin. She climbed over a fence. Straddling it, she saw Billy hesitate. “Come on!”

  “I’m saying a prayer of forgiveness. I hope my fellow parishioners don’t see me.”

  Terri nodded toward the nearby cabin. “She’s a weekend widow. She’ll forgive you anything.”

  Billy scurried over the fence so quickly Terri laughed.

  “Stacy Hartman is available, you know.”

  “Not my type. She’s too perfect.” He smiled in a way that let her know he was thinking of their past.

  “Does that mean I’m not perfect?”

  Billy was out of breath. “You, dear Terri, are far and away from being perfect.”

  She snorted at that, then motioned for him to be quiet and follow her. They were near Mr. Owens’s cabin.

  Since her father and his partner had built many of the houses, she knew the floor plans. The biggest windows looked out to the water, but there were side windows. They’d be able to see in but probably not be seen.

  “Wait!” Billy said as they reached the cabin. He leaned against a wall. “Do you know what I had to do to get a position at St. Anne’s? Summer Hill is a coveted site. If anyone saw me now I’d be sent to some remote island.”

  “Where they dance in grass skirts? Stop complaining and let’s go. Say nothing.”

  With a roll of his eyes, he followed her around to the front of the cabin.

  They couldn’t see all of the big room, but they did see Nate. He was sitting in a chair, looking quite calm, as though he was on alert about something.

  Standing over him was a huge man with a pockmarked and scarred face. He had a flattened, distorted nose like a prizefighter.

  “I think his hands are tied,” Terri whispered. She tried the knob to the side door just enough to see that it was unlocked. “I’m going in.”

  Before Billy could stop her, she picked up a rock and threw it through the window.

  Inside the house, both men turned to the sound and in the seconds their attention was on the shattered glass, Terri ran through the door. She grabbed a metal ornament off a shelf by the door and drew back to throw it.

  But Nate leaped up from the chair and grabbed her wrist.

  In the next second, the side door opened and Rowan and two men in FBI jackets burst into the room, guns drawn and aimed at Terri.

  “It’s okay.” Nate took what was a bronze dog out of Terri’s hand and put it back on the shelf. Then he enveloped Terri in his arms. “Everything is all right.”

  She pushed away from him, anger running through her. “Don’t you patronize me, you ungrateful bastard. We’ve been searching for you. You disappeared and we saw you through the window and thought you were being held hostage. We—”

  “Is ‘we’ you and St. Billy?”

  “None other,” Billy said with a grin. “Hope no one minds but I need to sit down. This has been too much excitement for me. Oh! Hello. I didn’t see you there. I’m William Thorndyke, soon to be pastor of St. Anne’s. I think. After today I may be thrown out of the country.” He looked at Rowan and the two agents who were sheathing their weapons.

  Sitting in a chair was an older woman, slim and elegant. Her eyes were zeroed in on Terri.

  Terri jerked away from Nate’s grip. Anger was saving her from dissolving into a lump of embarrassment. “You could have called,” she said through her teeth. “But you’re here having a party.”

  “Party! I haven’t slept in—”

  Rowan cleared his throat loudly. “Terri, may I introduce you to your grandmother, Mrs. Carolyn Fornell?”

  It was all too much for Terri. Finding her mother’s body, dealing with the press, fending off questions, trying to stay strong while everyone she loved seemed to disappear—her father, Frank, Nate—it was more than she could handle.

  Her legs went first, then her head seemed to spin round and round. “Grandmother,” she whispered.

  Nate caught her before she went down.

  Chapter 24

  When Terri woke, she was in her own bed and it was early morning. It looked like she’d slept through the night.

  There was a dent in the pillow beside her. It seemed like Nate had slept there, but he was gone.

  She sat up in bed, blinking, rubbing her eyes and trying to remember what had happened in the last few days. What was real and what had she imagined? Her mother found in the trunk of a car. Murdered. She—

  The door opened and Nate came in carrying a tray of food. “Thought you’d be awake. Want some bacon and eggs? Or how about some casseroles? I put eight varieties on this one plate. Think you can handle them?”

  “I could eat a shark, teeth and all. I’ll eat while you talk.”

  He put the tray across her legs. “That silver bowl—” He halted. “You know what? I think I should let your grandmother tell you.”

  Terri paused with the fork halfway to her mouth. “I thought maybe I dreamed her.”

  Nate went to the door and opened it. She must have been waiting outside as Carolyn Fornell came in right away. Nate motioned her to a chair beside the bed.

  She and Terri looked at each other in wonder.

  “You look like my Leelee,” Carolyn whispered.

  Terri started to put the tray aside, but Carolyn stopped her.

  “Please, go ahead and eat. If you are as active as my daughter, then I’m sure you’re starving. She ate huge amounts but never gained an ounce.”

  “She burns it off,” Nate said. “She drives her boat like a maniac and never walks if she can run. She throws rope like a sailor and—”

  Both women were staring at him.

  “I, uh, I think I’ll leave you two alone.” He left and closed the door behind him.

  “Where do I begin?” Carolyn asked.

  Terri picked up her fork. “Why my mother felt she had to run away fro