Nighttime Guardian. Amanda Stevens

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СКАЧАТЬ shouted up to her. After a moment, a policeman scurried up the slope toward her.

      “Get back in your car, Miss, and move along. This is police business.”

      “But I live here.” She waved her hand toward the house.

      “Annabel Westmoreland owns this place, ma’am. I happen to know she’s in the hospital.”

      “I’m her granddaughter,” Shelby said a bit defensively. “I’m going to be staying here for a while.”

      The deputy cocked his head. “Shelby?” He shone the flashlight in her face, and she flinched. “Sorry.” He doused the light. “You are Shelby, aren’t you?”

      “Yes.” She still didn’t know who he was.

      He chuckled ruefully. “Guess you don’t recognize me in the uniform. No one ever expected a Millsap to be on this side of the law.”

      “Millsap?” she said incredulously. “Dewayne?”

      He nodded and grinned. “Been with the county sheriff’s department almost ten years now.”

      The Millsaps, along with their cousins, the Bufords, had once terrorized all of Cross County and half of Graves County. No one had ever expected any of them to amount to a hill of beans, as her grandmother would say.

      “What happened, Dewayne?” Shelby asked uneasily. “Why are the police here?”

      His expression sobered. “My cousins found a body tangled in one of their trot lines.”

      Shelby caught her breath. “Oh, no. Who was it?”

      He hesitated, then shrugged. “Guess it won’t matter if I tell you, seeing as how we’ve already notified his next of kin. His name was Danny Weathers. He was a local diver.”

      “How did he…die?”

      “Looks like a boating accident. The coroner’s down there now.” Dewayne nodded toward her grandmother’s house. “Look, maybe you best go on inside. This isn’t something you want to see.”

      “But—”

      “Hey, Dewayne!”

      He turned at the sound of his name, then muttered a curse as a tall figure topped the bank and headed across the yard toward them. “Pardon my French, but I sure as hell don’t need this tonight,” he muttered to Shelby. He called to the newcomer, “Look, you got questions, you need to talk to the sheriff, Nathan.”

      Shelby’s mouth fell open in astonishment. Nathan? Nathan Dallas? The boy who had once gotten her into so much trouble? Was it possible?

      She’d heard Nathan had left this part of the country years ago. Like her, he’d migrated to a big city. Her grandmother had told her once that he was some hotshot reporter in Washington, just as he’d always said he would be. What in the world was he doing back in Arcadia?

      “McCaid won’t talk to me, you know that. Come on, Dewayne, cut me some slack here, okay?” Nathan strode over to the deputy, his back to Shelby. “I want to know what the coroner found when he examined the body.”

      Dewayne sighed. “And have my words splashed across the Argus? No thanks. Been there, done that.”

      “You got burned once by my uncle,” Nathan said. “But you’re dealing with me now. If you say something is off the record, it’s off the record.”

      “Yeah, right.”

      Nathan ignored the sarcasm. “You don’t really think this was a boating accident, do you? Come on.”

      “What else would cut a man up like that?” Dewayne said grimly. “He got caught in a boat propeller.”

      …cut a man up?

      Shelby shivered uncontrollably. She’d forgotten how dangerous the river could be, how unpredictable. She’d come here seeking solace from the violence of her past only to find more death, more horror. But surely this was an accident. A terrible, tragic mishap.

      “It’s how he got caught in a prop that makes me curious,” Nathan persisted. “Why was he out there diving alone?”

      “His wife said he liked to go night-diving.”

      “Night-diving? In that river?” Nathan’s tone was clearly incredulous.

      Dewayne shrugged. “He got too close to the surface and a boat ran him over. Probably thought they hit a log or something.”

      “So that’s going to be the party line, is it?” Contempt crept into Nathan’s voice. “Are you even going to question Takamura?”

      “That’s none of your damn business,” Dewayne countered. “You let the police handle the investigation.”

      “Which means you’re not.” Nathan shook his head in disgust. “Takamura’s got an iron clamp on this town’s throat, that’s for damn sure.”

      The deputy’s voice hardened with anger. “I don’t think I like what you’re implying, Nathan.”

      “No,” Nathan said quietly. “I don’t imagine you do.”

      Shelby had stood silently during this exchange, but Dewayne glanced at her now. “Look, I don’t have time for this. I have to get back down there. It was nice seeing you again, Shelby.”

      “You, too, Dewayne.”

      Nathan spun, peering at her in the moonlight. As Dewayne walked away, Nathan took a few steps toward her. “Did I hear him right? Shelby? Shelby Westmoreland?”

      “It’s August now. It’s been a long time, Nathan.”

      “At least you remember me,” he said.

      “Oh, I remember you all right.” She wasn’t likely to forget the kid who had dared her to meet him down by the river at midnight so they could watch for the Pearl River Monster together. Nor would she forget that he’d stood her up that night. If he’d been there to corroborate her story, Shelby never would have become such an object of ridicule.

      At least that was the way she’d felt back then. But time had put that night in perspective. It hadn’t been Nathan’s fault that her imagination had conjured up a monster, or that, after the initial terror, she’d enjoyed the rush of attention. It hadn’t been his fault that maybe, just maybe, she’d embellished her memory of that night because the spotlight had somehow made her abandonment more bearable. She’d been dropped on her grandmother’s doorstep that summer by parents who didn’t want her. Didn’t love her. But for a while, everyone in Arcadia had adored her.

      Then, of course, they’d turned on her.

      But Nathan hadn’t. He’d broken his word to her that night, but he’d stood by her in the humiliating days afterward.

      Hey, Shelby, seen any monsters lately?

      Where’s your monster, Shelby?

      You СКАЧАТЬ