just told you, I’m here for a vaca—”
“Don’t even bother,” he said, then yanked his jacket on and went outside.
Chapter Two
People were often surprised when they found out what Rachel did for a living. There were dozens of successful crime writers in the world, but, with a few notable exceptions, most of them were men.
Rachel was one of those exceptions.
She had begun her career fresh out of college, after realizing that she was no longer interested in following in her father’s footsteps. Despite all the courses she’d taken in criminology and forensics, working for the LAPD didn’t really appeal to her.
Her passion lay in writing about crime. She was fascinated by the motives that lay behind the violence, the emotional histories, the family stories, the sometimes petty insecurities that led people to strike out against their fellow human beings.
All of these things factored into any good homicide investigation, but in the end, the work her father did came down to a simple who-did-what-to-whom, and Rachel knew that filing a few police reports would not lead her to a fulfilling life. Neither would walking a beat for several years just to get her detective’s shield.
So, much to her father’s disappointment, she worked as a crime reporter for a small daily newspaper in the Valley. Thanks to her college coursework and her father’s willingness to teach her the ins and outs of homicide investigation, she had adapted to the job quickly, soon moving on to the Los Angeles Tribune, then to the world of true crime books.
Her stories of murder and mayhem and family connections gone wrong now lined the shelves of libraries and bookstores around the world.
The only drawback was immersing herself in the darkest side of human nature. She heard stories told by cold, heartless men and women that would send chills up the spines of most people, and had been forced to find a way to distance herself from the horror. In the process she’d become desensitized to the violence. She was sure that this had contributed to her failures with Dan.
How could it not?
But Rachel hadn’t come to Waterford Point in search of a story. In fact, it was just the opposite; she had too many things weighing on her brain right now to be concerned with a couple of small-town murders.
After Chavaree left, she stewed for a moment, thinking she’d like to chase after him and give him a piece of her mind for being so rudely presumptuous. But when she thought about it, she really couldn’t blame him. She probably wouldn’t have believed her, either.
Instead, she spent the next several minutes trying to convince Maddie to give her a room.
“I paid a deposit,” she said. “I made a reservation. In my world that’s a contract.”
Maddie took the book from the countertop and looked it over. “In your world, huh? Out there in Hollywood?”
“And right here in Waterford Point, too. Murders or no murders.”
Maddie squinted at her. “Were you telling Nick the truth? Are you really here for a vacation or are you trying to pull a sly one on him, get close to his investigation?”
“I couldn’t care less about his investigation. I have my own problems to work out.” She gestured toward the stairs. “I’ve had a long trip and I’m tired. Are you going to give me a room or not?”
Maddie studied her a moment. “You’re a stubborn one, I’ll give you that. You sure you aren’t worried about the ghost?”
This threw Rachel for a loop. “Ghost?”
Her utter perplexity must have shown, because Maddie softened and said, “Child, you really don’t know anything, do you?”
“Haven’t I been saying that all along?”
RACHEL WASN’T SURE when exactly she’d made the breakthrough, but Maddie started searching again and brought out a key.
Relieved, Rachel reached for her suitcase, but the woman quickly came around the counter and grabbed it.
“Someone in your condition shouldn’t be lifting,” she said.
Rachel was only four months pregnant and while she’d certainly grown thicker around the middle, she had no idea she was showing. “Is it that obvious?”
“To the trained eye, it is. I used to work for an obstetrician over in Rockland. Only came back here to Waterford after my folks passed away.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Did they own this place?”
“They did, indeed. In fact, the room you’ll be sleeping in used to be theirs.”
They climbed the stairs. Maddie struggled slightly with the suitcase, and Rachel felt a twinge of guilt. She was perfectly capable of carrying the thing herself, but she knew Maddie was not the kind of woman to be trifled with, and let her have her way.
“Breakfast every morning at 8:00 a.m.,” Maddie said. “No stragglers. Nothing I hate worse than serving cold eggs.”
“Okay. No straggling.”
“Nick’s the only other guest we have right now, and you’ll have to share a bathroom with him. He’s a man, and men are messy, but he does his best and I do what I can to clean up after him.”
Rachel’s own bathroom back home had clothes piled on the floor and a counter that looked like a beauty salon after a hurricane. Messy wasn’t something she was particularly concerned with.
When they reached the top of the stairs, Maddie turned to her.
“You sure you want go through with this? What with the murders and all, Waterford Point isn’t exactly the world’s number one vacation spot. You might be better off in Rockland or Searsport.”
“I’ll be fine,” Rachel told her.
Maddie shrugged. “Suit yourself. Just be thankful I’m not putting you up down the hall.” She pointed toward a closed door some distance from the stairs.
“Why?”
“Because that was Caroline’s room.”
“Caroline?”
Maddie nodded. “Came here from out of town, just like you. Little less than a month ago. Wasn’t here two days when it happened.”
“When what happened?”
“They found her in the woods out back,” Maddie said. “She was Weeping Willow’s first victim.”
This was the second reference Maddie had made to Weeping Willow and Rachel once again stifled the urge to ask for details. She could see that Maddie was deeply affected by this death, her eyes filled with the kind of fear usually reserved for very late, very dark nights.
This woman Caroline’s murder had obviously been the start of something
