Page 242 of It Happened on the Lake

He kept watching.

Finally a blond girl stepped into the booth, and people started buying tickets for the next show just as the doors opened and a crowd began streaming from the building.

He drained his coffee just as he caught a glimpse of Dawn in the same outfit she’d been wearing earlier. She was in the company of another, shorter girl with a big smile and wildly permed brown hair. They walked together, and Levi ditched his paper in a nearby trash can as he left the diner to follow at a discreet distance.

He was used to tailing a suspect and blending into the crowd, but never had he thought he would be using his private eye skills on his own daughter. Especially since he hadn’t even known he had a kid.

He didn’t want her to catch a glimpse of him so he hung back, and when the other girl peeled off at a side street, he quickened his pace. He’d formed a plan while sitting in the diner and decided he would wait until he was certain Dawn was home. Once she was inside, he’d phone her apartment. He’d already gotten the number from Directory Assistance at the phone company, but he wanted to assure himself that she would be able to answer. Leaving a message wasn’t an option. Not for what he was going to say.

So he followed her as the crowd thinned, people leaving the main street to climb into cars or veer off to cross streets. By the time they’d left the business area, the sidewalk was nearly deserted.

He followed behind an older man walking a lumbering Basset Hound until the man and dog turned at the next corner.

Levi hung back a little farther, still keeping Dawn in sight as she walked swiftly along the tree-lined street, about fifty yards ahead of him.

How would he tell her that he was her biological father, that neither Joel Prescott nor Chase, his brother, had sired her? Would she believe him or think him a nut job? If he—

Something was wrong!

He knew it in an instant.

The second Dawn passed a darkened storefront, a man who had been loitering in the alcove stepped out to join her.

It didn’t look right.

Maybe a friend?

A boyfriend?

He didn’t think so.

Even though they seemed to be having a conversation. At first Dawn had seemed startled, but then she was talking to the guy. Whoever he was. But it didn’t look right.

Levi quickened his pace, intent on closing the gap between them.

Too late.

As they reached the alley, the man struck. He grabbed Dawn around the shoulders with one hand while placing the other over her nose and mouth. She couldn’t so much as scream. But she fought. As the attacker dragged her into the alley, she kicked and thrashed, then disappeared into the darkness.

Chapter 62

What the hell?

What was this freak doing?

Frantic, Dawn twisted wildly, trying to break her assailant’s grip.

He’d come out of nowhere, some dude offering her weed.

When she told him no thanks, he said he knew her mother and mentioned Harper’s name. She’d been surprised, turned to him to ask him how he knew her mom, and he’d jumped her. Shoved a sickening-smelling cloth over her mouth and nose and dragged her, fighting for all she was worth, into this dark alley with a tall building on one side, a fence on the other.

The sweet, sickly odor on the cloth was making her dizzy.

God, he was drugging her. Her mind was getting thick, the world fuzzy.

She held her breath, but it was too late. Whatever he’d soaked the cloth in was starting to work. She swung her purse at him, but it went flying, lipstick, pens, and wallet spilling out. She tried to kick and hit, but he was able to avoid her blows and she was dizzy, her blows not landing.

But she couldn’t give up.