Page 56 of Donut Disaster
“What looks like fun, Lot?” Meg shouts my way.
Greer gives a quick wave. “Have a blast, Lottie. I’m off to the races!” And just like that, she streaks across the water in a silver blaze herself.
“Tomorrow night at Lainey’s,” I say as a thought comes to me, and I look to her other half. “Say, Hook? I bet you ran into a lot of men who had a propensity to exaggerate back in your days on Wall Street. What kind of a man does something like that?”
Hook winces. “A pathological liar. Why? You find one you want to date?”
The three of them break out into a fit of laughter.
Great. My love life is going to be the butt of every joke from here on out.
A crowd pushes between us, and I don’t mind one bit—in fact, I welcome it as I head back toward the area designated for Noah’s party. Bodies press up against me, and soon enough I float near the evergreen ridge that sits at an elevated advantage. I can see everything clearly from up here, and it’s surprisingly peaceful. There’s not a sign of anyone I know. I suspect Keelie and Bear are waiting for me to give them the thumbs-up to get Noah’s cake. I should find Noah and distract him soon. But I can’t see either Noah or Everett.
A familiar brunette and a copper-headed girl stand near the band, swaying their hips, lifting their hands over their head, and snapping their fingers. Cassie and Anika.
Well, there you go. They seem to be getting along just fine. At least on the surface. I still think they both had a strong motive to kill Morgan. I scan the crowd once again and spot Sandra the silver-haired nurse not too far away. She’s mingling with a group of women, laughing and having a good time. She deserves it. I can’t imagine having the pressure to take care of a loved one like that while working full-time on top of it all.
I still giggle at the thought of that night when she was so drunk she was mixing up Dr. Drake with her ex-husband. Drake Nylan. You have to admit it, has a nice ring to it.
Dr. Drake comes to mind. Hook says he’s probably a pathological liar, and here I thought all he wanted to do was get into a girl’s pants by way of the tall tales he was spinning.
I pull out my phone, and just as I’m about to text Noah and Everett, my thumb hits the internet and I end up typing in Dr. Drake Nylan instead.
“Shoot. I have Sandra and her name blunder on the brain.” I’m about to delete when a bevy of articles crop up and a thumbnail of a surgeon who looks suspiciously like him. Of course, it’s him. I quickly scan the list of articles and they’re all the same.
“This can’t be right,” I hiss. “Can it?”
I click into one article after the next, shaking my head in disbelief. If this is true—if Morgan knew…
I glance into the crowd and wonder if I’ve quite by accident stumbled upon a killer.
Chapter 18
Ihave to find Noah and Everett.
My fingers text spastically in our group chat and I hit send. I have to find them. I have to tell them what I know.
My feet carry me as fast as they can back down to the chaos at the base of the lake. The entire state has drained into this singular location as we celebrate the end of a sizzling hot season.
I run past the picnic tables I’ve reserved for Noah’s party, and it’s a ghost town here. Of course, it would be. The plan is to bring everyone here at exactly seven-thirty. There’s no way that I’ll allow anything to go wrong tonight. Poor Noah’s first surprise party took a turn for the worse. And that’s exactly why I’m not pursuing Dr. Drake or Dr. Nylan tonight. Whoever he is will have to wait. Noah and the rest of the Ashford Sheriff’s Department will have to tend to them. There is no way I’m getting in the way of another killer.
I spot Sandra Bristol not too far off, near the waterline just past the reach of the twinkle lights, and I head that way. The darkness is murky, but there are a bevy of boats on the lake and they look like a jagged constellation of manmade stars from this vantage point.
“Sandra!” I call out as I jog over as fast as my exhausted feet will allow. “Hey,” I pant out of breath, dropping my hands on my knees from the trek over. “I guess you can say I’m not used to running on the sand.”
We share a warm laugh.
“What are you doing out here?” I glance around and take in the peacefulness. We’re just enough removed from the crowd, from the noise, to make the celebration at the lake seem like a distant dream.
“It’s so calm and serene. I just had to catch my breath. I’ll have to get home soon to tend to my sister.” She touches the fanny pack at her waist as if she were about to pluck her keys right out of it. “I’ll miss the fireworks, but I’ll be able to hear them from my place.”
“That’s good enough, I guess. I think it’s commendable that you take such good care of your sister.” I bite down hard on my lip as an entire slew of questions beg to bubble out of me. And yet I know I should hand this over to Noah instead. “Can I ask you a question?” There. It was like lancing a wound. I had to get it out. My thirst for knowledge always seems to override my good senses. “That night at the hospital gala, you called Dr. Drake, Drake Nylan. Have you ever heard him refer to himself that way?” I know she made up some lame excuse about her ex, but she was drunk. She could have gotten the facts wrong. Maybe Dr. Drake slipped up himself?
The whites of her eyes shine like silver platters in the moonlight. “What brings this up?”
“I don’t know. I just have a feeling Dr. Drake isn’t telling the truth. One of his girlfriends relayed to me some pretty wild stories. To hear him say it, you’d think he’s been everywhere, done everything.” I decide to hold back on the internet info I just overloaded myself with.
She belts out a laugh, and I can smell the alcohol on her breath and it worries me. She shouldn’t be driving home if she’s reeking this bad. I’ll have to coax her into staying for Noah’s party—feed her a donut or twenty.