Page 98 of It Happened on the Lake

T wenty years!

Twenty effin’ years!

Levi stepped on the gas.

Was he angry?

Oh yeah!

Was he frustrated?

For sure.

Did he blame Harper?

Yes and no. She could have, should have, come clean.

But mostly he blamed himself and Chase, of course. Even though it seemed his older brother—once his icon, later his nemesis—was truly dead.

At his own father’s hand.

Christ, what a mess! He ground his teeth together and passed a semi pulling two trailers, its huge tires tossing up gritty water that the wipers couldn’t swipe off the windshield fast enough.

His speedometer was showing he was going over eighty, the Fairlane flying down the interstate, but he risked the ticket. It was time to take his future into his own hands. Well past it. He wasn’t going to wait for Harper. Fuck that. She’d had twenty years to spill the truth and hadn’t.

So he would.

That thought gave him pause.

No doubt Dawn would freak out. The news about her paternity should come from her mother.

Well, it was too late for that.

Down the freeway he flew, passing cars and trucks, on the straight shot down the Willamette Valley.

He took the off ramp before two hours had passed and eased off the accelerator as he crossed the gray Willamette River into the town.

Winding his way through the city streets, he headed closer to the University of Oregon campus and located the little retro theater complete with ticket booth and a large marquee announcing the show times for Heathers .

From the looks of it, he had time before the next show, so he’d wait and in the meantime figure out how to approach Dawn and tell her he was her real father.

Anything he came up with sounded lame, but, as he drove, he hoped inspiration would hit and he’d come up with something brilliant, something that wouldn’t make him look like a nut case.

At least they’d met already. He now wasn’t a total stranger.

He would ask her to phone Harper to confirm that he was indeed her dad.

Then hopefully they could spend some time together while she got used to the idea. He wasn’t kidding himself. This wasn’t going to be easy. In fact, she’d probably out and out reject him.

But at least it was a first step. There was no way he’d ever gain back trips to Baskin-Robbins for a kid’s cone with sprinkles or her first bike ride.

He would never hear her first word or see her take her first wobbly steps.

She’d experienced her entire childhood without him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be there for her now or in the future.

He’d missed a lot, didn’t plan on missing any more.

If she accepted him.

“Pretty big ‘if,’” he told himself, remembering that Dawn said she lived just a few blocks from the theater. He cruised the area and noticed several apartment complexes clustered together. As he turned a corner, he spied her Acura parked on the street by a newer L-shaped building. “Bingo.”

Two blocks down, he parked the Fairlane under the nearly naked branches of a maple tree.

He left his car and jaywalked across the quiet street in the crisp autumn air.

The sidewalk and streets glistened with the recent shower, but for now the rain had abated.

He passed by the apartment buildings and a couple of alleys before reaching the area with a few bistros, shops, and the theater.

There, under street lamps, pedestrians bundled in jackets and coats, carrying umbrellas or lugging backpacks, hurried along the sidewalks.

At a deli located across the street from the theater, he bought a cup of coffee and a newspaper, then took a seat at a table near the window.

A few people were seated at the smattering of tables, a couple more at a long counter.

At a nearby table a couple of students, textbooks open in front of them, were sipping coffee and picked at a shared monster cookie.

A bell over the door tinkled as a young couple with a toddler entered, then picked up an order at the counter, where a chalkboard proudly announced the Soup of the Day and several sandwich specials.

From his table Levi had a view of the ticket booth across the street. He opened his newspaper and pretended interest in the columns of the Register-Guard while surreptitiously eyeing the activity at the theater.

The minutes dragged by.

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.