A Timely Vision

I didn’t have time to question why he’d chosen to go with me instead of the groups of officers. I focused on finding Miss Elizabeth and tried not to think about him walking alongside me. The fact that I had to try to ignore him made me even more aware of him.

Once we got past the protected area between the businesses and the houses that made up downtown, the wind was stronger and louder. It battered us with gale force, making talking impossible. I hated to think of frail Miss Elizabeth out in this storm. I hoped she was somewhere with a friend the chief had missed in his initial search. The sisters didn’t have any relatives that I knew of. Neither of them had children.

I glanced over the dunes covered with various plants and prickly shrubs. Mary Lou Harcourt’s little group was down by the turtle nesting area. The tide was rushing in with a fierce vengeance to reach the shore. Already the water was crashing close to where the turtle eggs were hidden in the sand.

Mary Lou waved to me, the relieved smile on her face telling me she thought we’d come to help her save the eggs. With the wind and the surf banging between us, there was no way to make myself understood. I yelled, but she kept beckoning to me. I couldn’t walk off without telling her why I couldn’t help.

“I have to go down there.” Kevin leaned closer to hear what I’d said, and I yelled it again. “I have to tell her about Miss Elizabeth.”

I could see by the look on his face that he didn’t understand. I tried yelling again and this time, he yelled back. “Why?”

“I can’t just walk away. I have to explain.”

He shrugged and followed me down the well-worn path between the sea oats. The town had planted them there years ago to prevent beach erosion. The huge plants whipped at us in the wind. I could see the sand shifting from the rough water. Each year the town had to work to keep Duck’s shoreline intact. It was a never-ending task. Someday, people said, Duck would be gone, lost under the gray Atlantic and Currituck Sound. But not on my watch.

Mary Lou had two other older ladies with her. I thought they were members of the Ladies’ Sewing Circle who made the quilts that were auctioned off at Christmas. They were all throwing themselves across the area where the turtles had laid their eggs in the moonlight a month past.

“Thank goodness you’re here!” Mary Lou hugged me. She was soaked despite her poncho and vinyl pants. “We can’t protect them. The sea is going to wash them away.”

“We can’t stay,” I told her. “I’m sorry, but we’re looking for Miss Elizabeth. You haven’t seen her, have you?”

“No, I haven’t. But the eggs . . .”

“Everyone is out searching for her.” I felt bad about having to desert Mary Lou. I wanted to help the turtles too, but Miss Elizabeth needed my help more. “We’ll come back if we find her.”

I could see she wasn’t happy with my decision, but it was the only thing to do. I smiled again and turned to walk back up the path the way we’d come. Kevin had moved to the right of me, and I took a step forward. The rain and wind had shifted the usually solid sand into a gooey mess that caught at my foot and tugged hard.

I pitched forward, face-first, into the sea oats. A few of the sharp leaves scratched my cheek and chin. I guess I must’ve closed my eyes as I fell because when I opened them, it wasn’t sea oats that I saw. It was Miss Elizabeth’s fragile wrist, with her mother’s watch on it, half buried in the sand.

Chapter 3

I scrambled out of the sand and sea oats, breathing hard. I didn’t need my psychic sense or the police to tell me that Miss Elizabeth was dead. I looked around at Mary Lou and her friends trying to save the turtle eggs from the incoming surf, which was already lapping at my feet. If the tide rose much higher, it would wash Miss Elizabeth’s body out to sea. I had to stop that from happening.

I glanced at Kevin. He was trying to help me up. How would he react if I asked him to help me move the body? I had no doubt Mary Lou and the turtle savers would lose it if I asked for their help. I was going to have to take my chances with Kevin. Maybe if he had some kind of police training, as I’d considered earlier, he’d be okay.

“I need your help,” I yelled at him against the mind-numbing crash of the waves and shriek of the wind.

“What?” he yelled back at me.

I moved closer to him and cupped my hands. “I found Miss Elizabeth. I need your help to move her.”

I could tell by the expression on his lean face that he understood me that time. I tried to smile encouragingly, tried to stay calm. I was a public official, after all. People expected it of me. Inside, my heart was jumping up and down while a terrible pain squeezed my chest. I was already crying. It was hard not to panic and run screaming up the hill back to town.

He leaned closer, gray eyes serious. “Where is she?”

I pointed to the sea oats. “I saw her when I fell. I’m afraid the water will take her if we don’t do something. I don’t want to think what would happen if I tell the others.”