Two Reasons to Run Page 2

  Dex’s brows winged up. “Is he the bloke who wrangled you an invitation?”

  “No, I did that all by myself, but I was hoping to see Keith. He’s from Pelican Harbor too.”

  “He’s missin’, guv’nor. Coast Guard is searchin’ for ’im now, but odds are poor they’ll find ’im. Once a man goes overboard in these seas, ’is chances ’ave gone pear shaped. The whole rig is gutted about it. He was a good bloke.”

  “Overboard? Are you sure?”

  Dex shrugged his large shoulders. “He’s nowhere aboard, and he never showed for ’is flight off the rig. It happens. A guy gets cheesed off about somethin’ and acts daft. Or he messes around thinkin’ he’s immune to fallin’ off until he smacks into the waves. I’m sorry to say I think Keith is fish food by now.”

  Reid eyed him after his almost gleeful tone. Could Keith have been murdered? If so, it might mean his alarm was credible.

  * * *

  Jane eyed the oil platform rising in the blue sky. If Keith had fallen from that height, it wasn’t good. The vibration from the sound of machinery shuddered through her bones, and she hailed the Coast Guard response boat on her boat’s starboard side with a shout and a wave.

  The Coast Guard boat throttled back as one of the four sailors gave a wave in her direction.

  Her fifteen-year-old son, Will, cut the engine. “They’ve seen us.”

  She squinted in the brilliant May sunshine and squeezed around Parker to get as close to the railing as she could. “Chief Jane Hardy from Pelican Harbor,” she called. “You’re looking for a man overboard?” She counted three men and one woman aboard the other boat.

  The twentysomething blonde woman in uniform exited the cabin and went to the bow to grab hold of the railing of Jane’s boat. “What’s your business here, ma’am?” Her eyes were gray and just as steely in expression.

  “I’ve had a report of a missing person. Are you searching for Keith McDonald?”

  The woman’s quick blink answered before she spoke. “We are. What do you know about this?”

  A familiar set of shoulders on the oil platform distracted Jane, and she bit back a gasp. Parker whined and nudged her hand. “It’s okay, boy.”

  “There’s Dad,” Will said.

  What was Reid doing up there? She dragged her attention from his precarious position on a steel beam and glanced back at the Coastie. “His mother came to see me.” She launched into Ruby’s concerns, and worry crouched between the other woman’s eyes.

  “Have you reported this to Homeland Security?”

  “Not yet. I wanted to verify the report first.”

  “Do you have a copy of the email?”

  “Back at the office.”

  “Please contact Homeland Security with this concern. We’re part of the search-and-rescue operation, and it’s outside our mission for today.”

  “Any sign of Keith?”

  The woman shook her head. “Not yet. He’s been missing for forty-eight hours now, so it’s more likely to be a recovery than a rescue. If we even find his body. We’ve got a couple of choppers in the air and several cutters out looking.”

  “No divers?”

  “A diver isn’t typically part of an operation like this.”

  “Did anyone see him go overboard?”

  “No.” The woman released her grip on Jane’s boat. “We need to get back to work. Make sure you place that call.”

  Jane pushed away from the Coast Guard boat. “I’ll do it immediately.”

  Will shifted in his seat. “I know Keith, Mom. He shoots hoops with us when he’s ashore. He’s a good pitcher, and he’s helped me a lot. He worked with us on our swings too. I sure hope they find him.”

  “Me too, honey.”

  Her attention went back to the big platform blocking out the sun, and she had her hand half raised to wave at Reid before she caught herself and lowered it back to her side. The wind blew her hair into her eyes, and she couldn’t tell if he’d seen her furtive movement.

  She turned her boat around and headed back up Mobile Bay.

  Will waved. “Hey, Dad! He saw us, Mom. Turn around.”

  Her fingers tightened on the wheel, but what could she say? She and Will were just getting to know each other, and the last thing she wanted was to appear bitter and mean. “I doubt he can hear us.”

  She spun the wheel, and the boat swept in a large circle back toward the oil platform. With the sun in her eyes, she could only see Reid’s outline. He was at the platform’s railing, waving. He shouted something, but the wind snatched his words away.

  Waves lapped at the platform’s massive under girders, and she slowed the boat so the motion didn’t carry her against the steel. Closer to the beast, the sound grew more deafening.

  “We can’t talk to him here.”

  Will replied, but she couldn’t make out what he’d said. It was a good excuse to accelerate away from the massive structure and pull away from Reid’s gaze. As her boat left the vicinity, she heard Will shouting at his father and Reid’s faint answer, but the wind snatched more than a syllable or two.

  Will joined her at the helm. “How about we get pizza for dinner? We can invite Dad.”

  She swallowed and searched for the right words. It was the first time Will had flat out asked for the three of them to be together. For the past four weeks, he’d respected her aversion to being around his father, but she’d seen the longing in his eyes before he climbed out of her SUV to go inside the house with his dad. She’d known this day was coming, and she should have had an answer prepared.

  “I-I don’t think so, Will. Your dad may be on the oil platform awhile.”

  “I got a text from him. He’s coming back to Pelican Harbor at six.”

  She shot a sidelong glance at him. “Did he put you up to this?”

  Wind whipped his shaggy black hair around his earnest face. “We don’t talk about you, Mom.”

  She frowned. Wasn’t Reid interested in what she did with their son? When she was with Will, she’d managed to frame several unobtrusive questions and discovered they’d gone for beignets every Saturday morning and that after church on Sunday they’d gone to Jesse’s Restaurant in Magnolia Springs. They both had shrimp and grits followed by Dutch apple pie cheesecake. It shamed her that she’d eagerly mined for every tidbit she could find out but discovered nothing other than a man who dearly loved his son.

  Just like she did.

  But he’d kept Will from her all these years, and she found it hard to forgive something like that. Maybe she never would.

  Three

  Overboard. The warning might have been real.

  Reid’s ears still rang from the deafening noise. He parked on Oyster Bay Road in front of Pelican Pizza and flipped down the visor mirror to stare at his reflection. A five o’clock shadow smudged his jaw, and his tanned face was somber under his clean-shaven head. He seemed as scared as he felt. Would Jane even speak to him? What had possessed Will to ask them to share a pizza for dinner?

  He’d nearly texted back a no when he got Will’s message. Jane was liable to think he was behind this idea and was pushing to get past her defenses. He wanted to give her time to get over what he’d done, and she might not appreciate being crowded. But when push came to shove, he couldn’t resist the idea of sitting across the table from her and searching her hazel eyes for some sign of forgiveness.

  He flipped the visor back up so he didn’t see the ridiculous hope in his eyes. Even allowing a glimmer of optimism would set him up for a crash of disappointment.

  He exited into the aroma of garlic and cheese wafting from the building and turned toward the entrance. He caught a glimpse of Jane’s face as she stared intently at Will, who was talking with both his hands and his mouth. They sat beside each other at a window booth. Reid’s heart warmed when Will slipped his arm around his mother and gave her a quick hug at something she said. Whatever happened from here, at least he’d made sure Will knew his mom loved him. That would go a long way
with his boy.

  He opened the glass door into Pelican’s, and the yeasty scent of homemade pizza dough drifted his way. He hesitated, squaring his shoulders and turning toward Jane and Will. His stride ate up the distance along the wide plank floors from the door to the booth by the window.

  Will caught sight of him first, and his gaze raked over Reid’s face. “You got sunburned.”

  “Windburned.” Reid stooped and rubbed Parker’s ears. “You guys order already?” He hadn’t dared look at Jane’s face, not after he saw her shoulders stiffen from the back. This had been a monumental mistake.

  Will took a sip of his soda. “Yeah, one with lots of pineapple just for you.” His grin told Reid he was kidding.

  Jane shuddered. “Pineapple belongs on ice cream, not pizza.”

  Reid slid into the booth across from Jane and Will. “My sentiments exactly. Will’s French teacher liked pineapple on pizza, and I promised Will I’d never make him eat it again after that one time.”

  Jane’s tentative smile vanished. “Your old girlfriend.”

  Will shifted and glanced from his mother to Reid. “Well, not really a girlfriend.”

  Reid sent his son a thankful smile.

  Troy Boulter, the owner of the pizza place, came their way with the food. “Here you go, Jane.” His brown eyes were warm with affection.

  “Have you been to see your brother?”

  Brian Boulter was up on murder charges after a plot to frame and take down her father. He’d harbored a grudge after Charles had arrested his dad years ago.

  “I’m glad you asked. His rage has only gotten worse. He seems to be trying to figure out how to punish your dad from jail. I warned Charles already—did he tell you?”

  “No, he didn’t. Thanks for telling me.”

  Troy patted her on the shoulder and left them alone.

  “What were you two doing out by the oil platform today?”

  Jane’s lips flattened, and she swiped her foggy glass. “Police business.”

  Reid studied her closed expression. “So it had nothing to do with a missing man?”

  Her gaze locked with his for the first time. “You know about the missing guy?”

  “If it’s Keith McDonald, the answer is yes.” Should he tell her about the emails from Keith? With the guy’s disappearance, what he’d said took on ominous tones. “I was supposed to meet up with him so he could tell me about his suspicion that something ‘big’ was about to happen to the oil platform. Though he didn’t say, I assumed he meant sabotage.”

  “He told you that too?”

  “Who else did he tell?”

  “His mother. He said if he came up missing, she should come see me. So she did. Do you have his emails?”

  “Yeah.” He pulled out his phone and forwarded the emails to her. “They should be in your in-box.”

  “You think the threat is credible? I called Homeland Security as soon as I got back to the dock. They promised to investigate, but I’m not sure they believed it was serious. All I have is a vague email to his mother. Why did Keith contact you?”

  “He’d seen some of my documentaries but wasn’t sure it was a credible threat because he had no proof. He wanted to talk to someone who could blow the story wide open and maybe prevent another Deepwater Horizon. I got the first email a couple of weeks ago and arranged to do a documentary to check it out.”

  She winced at the mention of the disaster from 2010 and picked up her iced tea. “Did anyone else on the platform mention a terrorist plot?”

  “I didn’t want to tip my hand so I didn’t ask. I wanted to talk to his bunkmate and friends, but I couldn’t find out who they were without showing undue interest. You think you could get that information from his mother?”

  She surveyed him over the rim of her glass. “This isn’t your investigation, Reid.”

  “No, but I can get into places and ask questions you can’t. People will be more apt to talk to me than to the law or Homeland Security. You know it’s true, Jane. Let me help.”

  She set her drink back on the table. “I don’t want you asking questions on your own. It might be dangerous.”

  He eyed her. Did she really care if he got hurt or even killed? With him out of the way, she’d have Will all to herself. It was an unworthy thought. Though he believed he knew her better than she realized, he wasn’t sure how the events of the past few weeks had changed her.

  He desperately wanted to reach across the table and take her hand, but it wasn’t the right time. Maybe it never would be. He might have burned his bridges for all time.

  * * *

  Well, that went better than she’d anticipated.

  Jane brushed her lips across her son’s cheek, then waved good-bye as Reid accelerated away from the curb. It was still light out at seven thirty, and she didn’t want to go home and obsess over the day. She tugged Parker’s lead, and they walked along Magnolia Street with its French Quarter brick buildings and black iron railings, then turned down the alley toward Olivia’s house on Dauphin Street.

  The crape myrtle tree in her front yard was about to bloom beside the oyster-shell driveway, and Olivia must have replenished the pine mulch recently because the crisp aroma of it lingered in the air.

  Two figures sat on Olivia’s tiny porch in a swing. Olivia Davis waved as Jane and Parker neared. Olivia had taken Jane under her wing as soon as Jane started working at the police station. Olivia had sat at the dispatcher desk for over twenty-five years—ever since her police officer husband had been killed in the line of duty—and her dark-blue eyes missed nothing. The shapely legs under her white shorts seemed thinner, and she was pale.

  Megan, her fourteen-year-old daughter, was a carbon copy of her mother, though her curly brown hair was longer and often in a ponytail.

  Megan patted her knee to call Parker to her. “Mom just said she was hoping you might stop by tonight.”

  Jane dropped onto an antique metal chair beside the swing. “I wanted to see what the doctor had to say today. Did you ask him to run the Lyme tests?”

  “I asked, but I didn’t get very far,” Olivia said. “He seemed offended that I even considered he might have made a wrong diagnosis. I actually walked out. I kind of burned my bridges today, I think.”

  Jane winced. “Good grief, Olivia, I didn’t want you to put all your eggs in the Lyme basket. What will you do?”

  This felt like her fault. Olivia had recently been diagnosed with ALS, but Jane had urged her to get a second opinion and to check for Lyme disease as well. Jane believed in taking charge of everything, including health, and never settling for the easy answer.

  “I still have that Lyme-literate doctor’s name you gave me. I left a message for her asking for an appointment.” Olivia studied Jane’s face. “Rough day? What’s going on?”

  “Do I look that haggard?” Jane managed a chuckle and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

  “Stressed might be a better word, but it comes with the territory.”

  “You know Ruby McDonald, don’t you?”

  “Sure.” Olivia nodded.

  Megan looked up at the mention of the school principal’s name. “She wasn’t in most of the day.”

  Her mother lifted a brow. “And how do you know that, young lady? Did you get in trouble today?”

  “Sheesh, Mom, no. I’m on the student council, and our after-school meeting was canceled.” Parker nudged Megan’s hand, and she went back to petting him. “I heard her son is missing.”

  Jane shook her head. “Small-town life. It’s harder to keep a secret here than to fight off a gator.”

  “He works on the oil platform,” Olivia said. “Was he the one the Coast Guard was searching for today?”

  “He was.” Jane told them about the terrorist threat and what Reid had learned as well.

  A smile brightened Olivia’s wan face, framed by her curly brown hair in its familiar bob. “You had dinner with Reid? That’s the real reason for the shadow in your eyes, isn’t it
? How’d that go?”

  “I don’t think my nonexistent love life is more important than a missing man!”

  “Oh, lighten up, Jane. You need to forgive the guy and see what the future holds.”

  Megan’s smile was wide. “And Will is so cute!”

  Had Jane ever been that perky and naive? She was much too cautious with her heart to be as receptive to romance as Megan.

  She lifted a brow in Megan’s direction. “You’ve been hanging out with him?”

  “I wish. I’ve seen him around, though.” She held up her phone. “We’re friends on Snapchat, but I don’t think he’s even smiled at me in real life.”

  Jane was still trying to navigate the unfamiliar road of motherhood and wasn’t sure how much she should be prying into Will’s private life, but she couldn’t hold back her curiosity. “Is he interested in someone else?”

  “Baseball practice is his only steady date. I swear, he’s totally obsessed with breaking the strikeout record for the school. And pitching speed. I know all about his pitching speed.”

  Jane knew that much. Will talked about baseball constantly, and he practiced pitching every day. “If you’re not friends, how do you know that?”

  “He always posts his times with pictures on Snapchat.” Megan looked at her phone and her face paled. She tapped on it, then shuddered and put it down.

  Her mother reached over and grabbed the phone. “Is it Tyler again?” She frowned. “You need to block him, Megan.”

  “I was afraid it would make things worse if he thought I was dissing him.”

  Jane furrowed her brow. “What’s going on with Tyler? I thought you guys broke up two months ago.”

  Megan’s hand stilled on Parker’s head. “He’s the one who broke up with me, but he got hit in the head with a baseball in practice two weeks ago. It affected his short-term memory for now, and he thinks we’re still going out. He calls and stops by all the time. Every time I think he gets it, he forgets and the pattern begins all over again. It’s starting to give me the creeps.”

  “Poor kid. Have you tried talking to his dad?”