Page 140 of It Happened on the Lake

“I guess I should have.”

“No guessing about it,” Sievers said as Jake, calm again, sniffed at Levi’s shoes. “Find anything?”

“Gum wads. Lots.”

“Not mine. Those kids who had it before me. I cleaned out most of their crap, but the gum . . . that takes elbow grease.”

As Levi straightened and faced him, Sievers looked up at him through the foggy lenses of his glasses. “You know, your old man was a prick. I hate to speak ill of the dead, but I know he took a strap to you boys. No wonder the older one took him on. I saw it. Heard it.” He clucked his tongue as he glanced up at Levi. “Now go on, get out of the rain.” With that, he slammed the door of his van shut, locked it, and headed back the way he’d come.

Well, he blew that.

So much for being a stealthy private eye.

But he’d found something—even if it turned out to be nothing.

What about his mother’s note, though? Cynthia Hunt, if she’d been thinking straight, seemed to think that Chase had been killed by a team, or at least more than one person. But she was only seeking revenge on one? What did that mean?

Clearly she knew something.

And she thought Chase was dead. When had that changed? He remembered the days after his brother’s disappearance, how she’d clung to hope that he was alive. How she’d believed he would return. She’d spent hours putting up flyers and talking to reporters, trying to keep the interest in his case in the news. She encouraged her husband to make certain that Chase’s case didn’t go cold, though over time it had.

But still she’d been his champion.

Her ardor for the case had faded over time, but she’d clung to the belief that he would return, that he’d either been kidnapped or left on his own, but that someday she would see him again.

Until . . . until her husband had taken his boat out into the middle of the lake and fallen overboard and drowned.

Chapter 35

Rand noticed lights shining from the windows of the Hunts’ house next door as he pulled into his drive. A big, boxy car was parked in the Hunts’ driveway, a Ford Fairlane from the looks of it. It looked like Levi really was moving back. So they’d be neighbors again, and Rand wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He’d always gotten along with Levi. They’d known each other forever. But Chase had always thought Levi was a pain in the ass, not to be trusted.

Then again, Chase wasn’t exactly a paragon of virtue.

Inside the house, he tossed his keys on a side table and shed his jacket. His stomach rumbled, and he considered his options for dinner.

Frozen pizza?

Mac and cheese?

Leftover takeout from Alberto’s?

Rand’s choices for dinner weren’t exactly epicurean delights, but he didn’t much care. He opted for the pizza, pulled the box from the freezer, and let the “Pepperoni Supreme” thaw a bit as the oven heated.

Stepping outside, he felt the chill of February work its way into his bones as he gathered firewood and kindling from the pile of cordwood he’d stacked behind the garage. He glanced across the water, to the island, and wondered about Harper. As he had every day since she’d returned. Hell, he’d even taken the boat out and motored over there, compelled in some way.

“Idiot,” he muttered. Yeah, he’d had a crush on her as a teen, and even as he’d turned twenty, but that was long over. He turned away and headed back inside.

In the living room he stacked paper and kindling beneath a chunk of fir in the old fireplace and started a fire. The newsprint caught quickly, kindling starting to crackle just as the stove dinged, indicating temperature had been reached.

The fire started to give off a little heat. Rand cracked a beer and was just about to shove the pizza into the oven when he heard a knock on the door.

Snapping on the porch light, he saw Levi through a sidelight and opened the door. “You got a minute?” he asked without any kind of greeting or a smile. He was tense. Something on his mind.

“Sure. Come in. Thought you might be next door. I saw the lights.”

“I’m moving back.”

“I heard.”