Page 121 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

“I don’t know about you,”

Mary Lou Rhodes said, turning toward the crowd gathering on the church steps.

“but the weather is only going to get worse, the night darker, and all of us colder as we continue to stand here and debate this dilemma. We need to do something.”

Gracie Hart Price bit her lip and looked straight at Mary Lou.

“You are exactly right. We can stand here jabbering or we can put a posse together and go out looking for those two.”

“A posse? Do they even do that anymore?”

“You know what I mean, Lucki.”

Gracie shivered against the wind and tossed Lucki Stevenson a quick glance.

“We have to help. It’s what both would do. Right? You know that as well as any of us, seeing as how your marriage proposal from Dr. Sam Kirk was pretty much orchestrated by the entire town a few months ago…”

“And by Sam, too, of course! We are a town that sticks together.”

Lucki nodded and then clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Goodness. Do you think Nora and Rock are together?”

“Well wouldn’t that be romantic?”

Sydney Hart elbowed her way into the crowd, brushing snow off her shoulders.

“Goodness, it’s a mess out here. So glad the wind has died down some.”

“Romantic?”

Lucki echoed.

Sydney looked at the small throng of women.

“Sure. I mean, in a snowbound, romance novel kind of way, of course.”

“Romantic? Hells bells!”

Gracie glared at her cousin.

“I know romantic—it’s my business—and this isn’t it. This is not good, Sydney.”

Sydney crossed her arms.

“Well sorry! I was just thinking that perhaps…”

Mary Lou interjected.

“Look. I get it. We’ve all said that we wished Reverend Peters would find a wife. He’s such a great guy. Does he even know Nora? She doesn’t go to our church.”

“But he reads a lot so maybe he met her at the bookstore.”

“Sure. The Reverend knows a lot of people in town. It’s possible.”

“Wouldn’t it be kind of neat if they did get together on this snowy and mysterious Christmas Eve?”

“Mysterious?”

“Well, sort of.”

“Oh, I don’t know, Mary Lou…”

Gracie heaved a sigh.

“Who knows and who cares? We are not getting anywhere standing about jabbering about things that don’t matter right now. Let’s marry the poor man off later. Right now, we need to focus. Get them both home safe and sound. You all sound like a bunch of pick-a-little, talk-a-littles.”

The crowd of women stared back at her.

“What in the world are you talking about, Gracie? Pick-a-little-whats?”

Mary Lou rolled her eyes.

“Music Man,”

she said.

“You know, the town’s gossiping women?”

“Well, I’ll be…”

“Never saw that movie.”

“What?”

“Let’s just figure out how to find those two!”

“I wonder if anyone has contacted the police department.”

“I’ll check.”

“Goodness y’all.”

Gracie motioned toward the church.

“Let’s stop the pick-a-littling and get inside, get warm, and make a plan.”

“Excellent idea.”

Geraldine Weissmuller reached for the door pull on the big wooden church door. She turned back.

“Does anyone know when the last time was either of them were seen?”

Lucki snapped her fingers.

“Good thinking, Geraldine. We need to track down their activities for the past few hours and we may need help with that.”

She paused, glancing back toward the street.

“Well, I’ll be. Isn’t that Chris Marks pulling into his driveway across over there? I guess he’s just getting off his shift. We could use someone official to help us.”

“It is. I’ll go grab him,”

Sydney said. And off she went.

The rest of them headed into the church.

Several minutes later, with the tea kettle screaming on the stove and half a dozen women pouring over a table strategizing, Sydney jogged down the stairs and into the church basement with Harbor Falls Police Officer Chris Marks in tow.

“I see you ladies are doing some organizing here,”

he commented.

Six heads jerked up at the sound of his voice.

“Yes, we are,”

Gracie said.

“Can you help us, Chris?”

He nodded.

“I can. In fact, I have information.”

He crowded in between Lucki and Geraldine and then reached for some paper.

“May I use that pencil?”

He pointed to a short one lying on the table in front of Gracie.

“Of course.”

She pushed it closer to him.

Chris started drawing on the large preschool-sized writing paper. “Okay,”

he began.

“Here is Harbor Falls and over there is Dalton Springs. In the middle are two things—the Sweet Hart Inn and Falls Mountain.”

He drew all of the landmarks.

“Don’t forget the lake,”

Lucki told him.

A gasp went up from the women.

Lucki stared.

“I don’t think she’s in the lake! I was just making an observation!

“Well, good Lord. Let’s keep that thought out of our heads!”

Chris cleared his throat.

“Pretty sure no one is in the lake,”

he said.

“Would be impossible to slide off the road that far.”

The group sighed.

Chris continued sketching.

“Now, we know Nora took off from Suzie’s about six o’clock this evening.”

He put the point of the pencil on the box that represented Sweet Hart Inn.

“Her father was expecting her here, at the family farm outside Dalton Springs,”

—he made an X for the farm.

“at seven o’clock for dinner. Normally the drive would take about forty minutes. By eight o’clock, Nora still had not showed up.”

They all stared at the makeshift map.

“She would have taken this route, right?”

Gracie leaned over and traced from Suzie’s house, around the lake and through the foothills of the mountain, to end up at the farm.

“It’s the only direct route. Yes. If she took the long way she would have to go through Asheville and backtrack and that would have taken several hours. No, it’s very likely she took this route.”

“Then we know what road she’s on. We just search that road.”

Chris nodded.

“Probably. But there are cars stranded all along that road, according to police reports, and it will take a while to get through. But there is also more.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. We also know that Reverend Peters was on his way home from Dalton Springs at about the same time.”

“So, he would have come from the opposite direction.”

“More than likely, and is also probably stranded somewhere along the way,”

Chris told them.

“And, I also learned that the Dalton Springs police department sent a few men out too, heading toward Harbor Falls. They know to keep an eye out for both.”

“Good.”

Geraldine cleared her throat.

“Is there anyone coming from this direction?”

Chris nodded.

“About thirty minutes ago, Matt Branson, Brad Matthews, and Sam and Jack Ackerman set off from the Inn. I’d say they will all meet up in the middle within the hour, weather conditions and stalled traffic permitting.”

Lucki exhaled and tapped the wooden tabletop.

“Good. I feel better. Do you all think Nora and Reverend Peters met in the middle too?”

All the women thought about that, glancing at each other. Sydney grinned.

Lucki added then.

“Is there anything actually in the middle other than trees and rocks and country road?”

“Not a damn thing,”

Geraldine said.

Then Chris smiled.

“Except for old man Carter’s hunting cabin.”

****

Brad Matthews stared at the tangle of snow-covered automobile parts partially illuminated by the headlights of Matt’s Dodge pickup truck. He flashed his light over the car and around its vicinity. Shadows filtered by a snow-ice mist interrupted the beams of the truck lights as Sam and Jack crossed the front of the vehicle and joined him. Matt brought up the rear, heading toward them from the second truck.

Brad squinted at this watch. Quarter to ten.

“Sure looks like Nora’s car.”

He sidled up to the open door of the red Camaro and peeked inside. There was no sign of her or the person who was in the other vehicle.

“Yes. And that SUV looks a lot like Reverend Peters’ truck.”

Brad looked at Sam, then back to the small four-wheel-drive vehicle.

“You’re right. It does.”

He lifted his gaze and glanced about.

“I wonder where in the heck they wandered off to?”

“Can’t be far.”

Matt stepped closer. A two-way radio crackled on his belt.

“At least the wind has let up. The snow too. Maybe we can track them.”

Jack shook his head.

“Maybe, but I doubt it. Even though things have eased up, the earlier blowing snow pretty much covered up any tracks.”

Retrieving his Maglite from his belt, Matt flashed it over the trees beyond the cars and over the ground in front of them.

“You’re right. No tracks. They left here a while ago and who knows what direction.”

“Maybe another car picked them up.”

Matt flashed the light up the road toward the direction of Harbor Falls.

“Hard to tell.”

He shined the light in the opposite direction.

“Nothing there either.”

His radio crackled again.

“I hear something.”

“Just static from my two-way.”

Brad shook his head.

“No, something else.”

All four of the men stood and listened.

“I think it’s another vehicle,”

said Jack.

Before long, lights shone around the curve in the Harbor Falls direction, and briefly flashed into their eyes. Each of the men stepped backward toward the shoulder. A Harbor Falls PD four-wheel drive vehicle slowly made its way toward the crew. In a flash, all four doors flung open and out came Matt’s fellow officer Chris Marks, followed by Mary Lou Nash, Lucki Stevenson, and Gracie Hart. Suzie Matthews exited last.

Brad cleared his throat, stepped toward the newcomers, and looked at his wife.

“I thought you were staying home. You and Becca were command central. What happened to that plan?”

****

Suzie braced her hands on her hips and smiled wickedly at her husband.

“You know I don’t always do what I’m told, Brad Matthews.”

If there was one thing that her husband should know by now, it was that she rarely did what was expected.

His gaze narrowed, and he cocked his head in an unapproving way, but behind that fa?ade, she knew that her husband was still intrigued and amused by her unconventional ways.

“True. Who is with Petey?”

“Sydney.”

Suzie shoved her hands into her coat pockets. She nodded toward Chris and the others.

“They stopped by the Inn before heading out of town. Sydney wasn’t feeling well, so I told her to stay in with Petey—who was still asleep by the way—and that I would come in her place. She’s in touch with Becca so all is good there. Besides, I feel responsible for Nora. I should have made her spend the night.”

Matt’s radio interrupted, crackly loudly, and he pulled it from his belt, listening. Everyone else paused and listened too. A voice came though, barely, and Matt squinted, holding the thing to his ear, while he listened. He punched a button.

“Roger that. We’re near Carter’s Bend, about ten miles out of Dalton Springs.”

More crackle and listening. “10-4,”

Matt said, and looked back to the crowd.

“Bad reception but Dalton Springs should be here momentarily, with an EMT.”

“Good.”

Brad continued.

“More eyes and ears and hands the better. Let’s hope we don’t need that EMT.”

Turning back to Suzie, he said.

“Look. Nora made her own decision. There is nothing for you to feel responsible for.”

“Well, but there is more.”

“More?”

“Of course! When I learned that Reverend Peters was also missing, I felt in my heart-of-hearts my help would be needed.”

Brad glanced at the men briefly and shook his head.

“Your help? In what way?”

Suzie sighed and rolled her eyes.

“I smell a potential matchmaking event that may or may not require my support. Either way, I need to be here.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

Suzie shook her head.

“Not really. Both Rock and Nora have sought out my matchmaking expertise on previous occasions, so I think it’s fitting. I may need to be here for moral support, if anything.”

Mary Lou squealed and jumped up and down a little standing behind her.

“No Suzie. This is not the time or place.”

She sidled up to her husband, grasped the front of his jacket, reached up on her tiptoes as to make herself as tall as she could, and whispered to Brad.

“Every time and every place is the right time and place for matchmaking, Brad Matthews. Now stand back and let me do my work.”

Sam Ackerman snickered on the sidelines.

“Don’t mess with her when she’s determined, man. I can tell you from experience.”

“You’re talking to the master, here.”

Brad snorted.

“First objective, though, is to find the missing pair.”

“Of course.”

She nodded.

“And we will find them soon. I know it.”

She glanced to Brad’s right.

“Is that her car?”

“We think so.”

“And Reverend Peters’?”

Lucki asked.

“We think so too,”

Sam echoed.

“Then where are they?”

Brad shrugged.

“We don’t know.”

Suzie stepped back.

“We do. At least, we think we know where could be.”

“Where?”

Suzie rolled her eyes.

“Goodness. I can’t believe you haven’t figured it out yet. Matt just said it a second ago. We’re at Carter’s Bend. Hence…”

Brad held up a hand.

“Suzie, we just got here ourselves. You’re speculating. Besides, we need a plan.”

Chris stepped forward.

“We already have a plan, Brad. In fact,”

he glanced about, then pointed his light down the road about twelve feed.

“I’d start in the vicinity of that fallen-over mailbox. I’m pretty sure if we follow that path, we’ll find old man Carter’s cabin.”

“Hell, I nearly forgot about that place,”

Matt said.

“I used to hunt this area years ago.”

“You know where it is?”

His head dipped in a nod.

“Pretty much, yes.”

At that moment, car lights flashed onto the scene from both directions. From the south, arrived the Dalton Springs PD. From the north and Harbor Falls, came a second SUV. Both vehicles stopped, doors flung open, and the crowd grew.

“There’s the rest of the posse,”

Lucki exclaimed.

“The pick-a-littles,”

Gracie added.

“Who?”

Suzie grabbed her husband’s coat sleeve.

“Never mind. Reinforcements.”

She squared herself, as if taking command of the throng, and then pointed to Matt.

“Show us the way.”