exposed (Twisted Cedar Mysteries Book 3) Read online

  exposed

  (a twisted cedars mystery)

  by

  C. J. Carmichael

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  other twisted cedars mysteries

  families of twisted cedars

  Twisted Cedars Map

  chapter one

  chapter two

  chapter three

  chapter four

  chapter five

  chapter six

  chapter seven

  chapter eight

  chapter nine

  chapter ten

  chapter eleven

  chapter twelve

  chapter thirteen

  chapter fourteen

  chapter fifteen

  chapter sixteen

  chapter seventeen

  chapter eighteen

  chapter nineteen

  chapter twenty

  chapter twenty-one

  chapter twenty-two

  chapter twenty-three

  chapter twenty-four

  chapter twenty-five

  chapter twenty-six

  chapter twenty-seven

  chapter twenty-eight

  chapter twenty-nine

  note from the author

  about the author

  Copyright © 2016 by Carla Daum

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  The author holds exclusive rights to this work. No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Formatting by Anessa Books

  other twisted cedars mysteries

  buried (book 1)

  forgotten (book 2)

  exposed (book 3)

  families of twisted cedars

  The Lachlans

  Katie: Married Ed Lachlan and had two children, Dougal and Jamie. After her divorce she supported her kids by working as a cleaning woman with her partner and friend, Stella Ward. At the age of 55 Katie died of cancer.

  Edward (Ed): Former husband of Katie, and father of Dougal and Jamie. Remarried to Crystal Halloway and had daughter, Emma. Killed Crystal during a domestic dispute and served time in Oregon penitentiary. Upon release six months ago, he skipped parole and his official whereabouts is unknown.

  Dougal: 34-year-old son of Katie and Ed, brother to Jamie. He played high school football with Wade McKay and Kyle Quinpool. At 18 he moved to New York City and began a career writing true crime novels.

  Jamie: 28-year-old daughter of Katie and Ed, sister to Dougal. She is a CPA and works for a local accounting firm. She recently married Kyle Quinpool who has two children from a previous marriage.

  * * *

  The Hammonds

  Jonathan: Former town mayor died two years ago in car crash with his wife. Daughters: Daisy and Charlotte.

  Patricia: Jonathan’s wife, mother of Daisy and Charlotte. Killed with her husband in a car crash.

  Shirley: Jonathan’s sister was the local town librarian before she was found hanged to death in the basement of the library when she was 41-years-old. Her death was ruled suicide. Never married, she lived in a cottage in the forest, five miles from town, which came to be known locally as the Librarian Cottage.

  Daisy: Daughter of Jonathan and Patricia, Kyle Quinpool’s first wife and mother to twins, Cory and Chester. She disappeared shortly after her divorce and hasn’t been heard from since.

  Charlotte: 28-year-old adopted daughter of Jonathan and Patricia. She works as head librarian in Twisted Cedars.

  * * *

  The MacKays

  Grant: Father to Wade and husband of Allison, he was the Sheriff of Curry County for over thirty years.

  Allison: Mother to Wade and wife of Grant. She was a piano teacher until she and her husband retired to Arizona.

  Wade: 34-year-old son of Grant and Allison, he was high school buddies with Dougal Lachlan, Kyle Quinpool, and Daisy Hammond. Worked as deputy in Umatilla County before returning to Twisted Cedars and being elected as Sheriff of Curry County.

  * * *

  The Quinpools

  Jim: Wealthiest man in town. He owns the local real estate business, Quinpool Realty. He and his wife Muriel had one son, Kyle. He and Muriel recently divorced.

  Muriel: Wife of Jim and mother to Kyle, she and her husband moved in with Kyle after he divorced his wife, Daisy. Muriel became the twins’ primary caregiver. A year ago she divorced Jim and moved away from Twisted Cedars.

  Kyle: Son of Jim and Muriel, he works with his father at Quinpool Realty. He had twins, Cory and Chester with his first wife, Daisy, and subsequently married Jamie Lachlan.

  Cory: 9-year-old daughter of Kyle and Daisy and twin sister to Chester.

  Chester: 9-year-old son of Kyle and Daisy and twin brother to Cory.

  chapter one

  Charlotte Hammond had been legal guardian of her dead sister’s children, nine-year-old twins Chester and Cory Quinpool, for less than two months when her worst nightmare came true.

  It happened in September, the first week of the new school term. The twins had started fourth grade, time was marching on, and they’d be turning ten this November.

  No doubt the past year would be one they’d happily put behind them. Only that summer they’d found out their mentally disturbed mother—Charlotte’s sister Daisy—hadn’t deserted them as originally thought but instead had been killed and illegally buried near an old family cottage.

  Less than a month after that shocker, their father, Kyle Quinpool, had been arrested on charges of fraud and criminally negligent homicide. Rather than put his children through the stress of a trial—or so he’d claimed—he’d chosen to plead guilty and serve his sentence.

  So...it had been a tough summer.

  And now Chester had gone missing somewhere between school and the babysitter’s house. The disappearance began with only a mildly concerning phone call from Nola Thompson, the woman who was supposed to be minding the twins for the hour-and-a-half between school and the closing of the public library where Charlotte worked.

  “All the kids have been home for fifteen minutes,” Nola said without preamble. “Still no sign of Chester.”

  Charlotte began closing windows on her computer. Her nephew had ridden his bike today, so if anything, he should have made it to the Thompson house first. “Does Cory know where he is?”

  “Nope. Anyway, if he made plans to go to one of his friend’s houses, I’m the one who needs to be told. I have enough on my hands without worrying about him.” Nola sounded more annoyed than worried.

  “He didn’t say anything about his plans to me, either,” Charlotte admitted, getting up from her desk and moving down the mystery aisle so Zoey, shelving books just a few feet from Charlotte’s desk, wouldn’t hear.

  Zoey made a perfectly fine librarian assistant, but since Charlotte had taken custody of the twins, the married mother of three made a point of second-guessing every parenting decision Charlotte made. Given her experience, Zoey probably felt entitled. But Charlotte had seen Zoey with her children, and her hardline approach was not one Charlotte wanted to emulate.

  “He’s getting to be a real handful,” Nola continued, and Charlotte knew it was true.

  Earlier that summer she’d sent the kids back to summer camp so they could avoid the local gossip about their parents. But now that school was in session, sh
e couldn’t protect them anymore. Cory reacted to the teasing and bullying by being super-sweet and accommodating—as if she had to apologize and atone for every one of her parents’ sins.

  Chester, on the other hand, retaliated with his fists.

  Complicating the situation, Nola’s oldest child, Bruce, was among the worst of the bullies, so he and Chester were always at odds.

  “I’ll go looking for him,” Charlotte said. “Meanwhile if he does show up please call me right away.”

  “Fine. But this is the last straw. I’m not going to be able to provide after school care for Chester anymore. Cory, yes. She’s an angel. But that brother of hers...”

  “Got it.” If she sounded short, Charlotte didn’t care. It was past time she made alternate arrangements for the twins. Nola Thompson had never been intended to be more than a stop gap solution.

  Charlotte grabbed her purse from the bottom drawer of her desk, aware of Zoey hovering nearby.

  “I have to leave early. Do you mind locking up?” Charlotte hated to ask the favor, as she knew Zoey would take this as yet another sign of her parental incompetency.

  “Sure. Is it Chester, again? If you ask me, that boy is going to turn out just like his father unless you take a firm hand.”

  Charlotte didn’t answer, just made her way outside.

  She didn’t believe Zoey had the answer for how to deal with Chester. But neither did she. Single and twenty-eight-years-old, Charlotte was learning how to parent on the fly.

  If the twins had been younger, she might have been more equipped. She had no trouble connecting with the three and four-year-olds who attended her preschool reading circle every week.

  But she had less experience with older children. Her boyfriend, true-crime writer Dougal Lachlan, was even more hopeless.

  Not that she’d seen much of him lately. Since the twins had moved in, he’d become increasingly reclusive. Given the issues he had with his own father, she guessed he wasn’t keen on stepping into any sort of parental role himself.

  Or maybe he was just getting tired of her.

  Outside Charlotte slipped on her sunglasses. September was often one of the nicest weather months for coastal Oregon and today was a perfect example. Sunny, hot, almost no wind. Since she lived only a few blocks from the library she never drove to work, which meant she had to walk home to get her car. She hurried along the Ocean Way walking path, barely managing a smile as she passed by the mother of one of her favorite teenaged patrons.

  When she reached the gracious three-story home where she’d grown up, her first instinct was to check the garage for Chester’s bike. It wasn’t there. She went through the mudroom into the house.

  “Chester? Are you home?” She ran through the entire house, checking every room, including the bedroom that had once been Daisy’s and was now the twins’. She suspected Chester had agreed to share the room with his sister, because he knew she was afraid to be alone.

  What would Cory do if they didn’t find her brother? If he—?

  No. She couldn’t let herself think that way.

  After she’d searched the house, Charlotte checked the yard, then the beach that stretched out on either side of her property. It was deserted.

  Where else would he go? He hadn’t been keen on hanging out with his friends lately. Maybe the park by the school? Or the public beach?

  Surely he wouldn’t dare go near the bluffs…?

  Fear slammed into her, causing her to freeze in one instant, then start running to her car the next.

  Charlotte backed out of the driveway, shifted gears, then hit the gas a little too hard, throwing up bits of gravel and causing her body to lurch forward, then abruptly back. She gripped the steering wheel like it was a throw line and she was a drowning swimmer, and pushed her speed beyond the town limit.

  In less than thirty seconds she was at the park. The manicured green space led to a public beach on the other side of the sand dunes. Closer to the main road, screened off by shrubbery and a chain-link fence from the danger of traffic, the ocean, and the bluffs was a playground. The children clambering on the monkey bars and swings were all much younger than Chester, but Charlotte approached one of the mothers sitting on a nearby bench, who was scrolling on her mobile phone.

  “Hi! I’m looking for my nephew. He’s nine-years-old, sandy-colored hair and wearing a dark green T-shirt and jeans. Have you seen anyone like that?”

  The woman, who was cute and looked twenty, if that, gave her a blank stare. Then she shook her head. “Sorry. I haven’t.”

  “Right. Thanks anyway.” Charlotte dashed through a gate to the dunes, to check the beach next. Though going near the ocean without adult supervision was strictly forbidden, at this point she would have been relieved to spot Chester on the expansive sandy shoreline.

  Quickly she scanned the scattering of people out enjoying the beautiful day. No children close to Chester’s age here either. She stopped to ask a mother of toddlers if she’d seen anyone who looked like her nephew.

  “We’ve been here for over an hour and there’s been no one like that,” the young mom said.

  God. Where was he?

  Her gaze flashed up to the bluffs. All she could see were trees. Knowing it was possible Chester was purposefully hiding, she attacked the steep incline, taking longer than she wanted to finally gain the summit.

  But Chester wasn’t here either.

  Terrible possibilities swamped her mind. Had he been hurt or worse in a terrible accident? Been approached by a sick child molester?

  No. Please no.

  Charlotte skidded and slid her way down from the bluffs.

  There were still other places to look.

  She’d start at the school. It seemed doubtful he was still there, but she ought to check. Plus she needed a list of his classmates. Perhaps Nola was right and he’d gone home with one of the other kids.

  Since the school was only a short walk from the park, Charlotte didn’t bother with her car. She ran across the road, her pulse a loud, rapid-fire beat above the rasping of her breathing. She grasped and tugged at the main doors, only to find they were locked.

  She left the paved sidewalk and jogged across the freshly mown lawn that ran down the side of the three-story brick structure, hoping for an open window and someone nearby to hear her call out.

  Within seconds she heard the faint sound of a woman speaking, her tone lecturing, though no words were distinguishable. Charlotte traced the sound to an open window, which she guessed—having spent a lot of time in the school the past two weeks—was the staff room.

  “Hello!” She was tall, and had no trouble looking in the window. About eight women, and a couple of men, were seated throughout a room furnished with two round tables, a sofa and several arm chairs. “I’m sorry to interrupt but my nephew Chester Quinpool didn’t come home from school today.”

  As she spoke, she focused one by one on the teachers’ faces. Most were familiar to her. The school lacked funding for a proper library and so often made use of the public one which was, after all, only a ten minute walk away.

  “Charlotte?” Olivia Young, the twins’ teacher, came to the window. “Weren’t Cory and Chester supposed to go to the Thompsons’ after school today?”

  Olivia was in her early thirties, newly married, and if Charlotte wasn’t mistaken, newly pregnant, as well. They’d had several meetings already to discuss the twins and how to best help them transition into the new school year after the trauma of having their father imprisoned for their mother’s homicide.

  “Cory did. But Chester still hasn’t shown up.” Charlotte glanced at her phone to make sure she hadn’t missed an update from Nola. “I’ve looked for him at home, at the park and the beach. I even climbed up the bluffs, but I’ve seen no sign of him.”

  The school principal, Gabrielle Hodges, an athletic, somewhat masculine looking woman in her late fifties stepped closer to the window. Gabrielle had been Charlotte’s fourth grade teacher way back when, and s
he had a comforting aura of authority as she weighed in.

  “I’m sure we’ll find him, Charlotte. We’ll search the school thoroughly, and call all his classmates. There’s a good chance he went home to play with one of them.”

  “Maybe.” But Chester hadn’t seemed to be on good terms with any of the other children these days. This past week he’d been spending most of his free time alone in his bedroom.

  “Why don’t you come inside?” Gabrielle invited. “I’ll go unlock the front door for you.”

  “I have to keep looking for Chester.”

  “Okay. You do that. We’ll make sure he isn’t hiding somewhere on school property.”

  “And I’ll call everyone on the class list,” Olivia promised.

  “Thank you.” Focusing on Olivia, she added, “Can you think of any incident that came up today, something involving Chester, that might help explain where he’s gone?”

  Olivia’s brow furrowed. “He did seem troubled. But I’m afraid that’s not unusual.”

  No, sadly, it was not.

  “I don’t want to alarm you,” Gabrielle said. “He’s probably gone to a friend’s house or something. But I’m going to call 911.”

  Adrenaline jolted through Charlotte’s system, tightening every muscle, while turning her stomach—and her world—upside down. Alerting the authorities elevated the situation from worrisome to catastrophic. Possibilities that had seemed remote at first, possibilities like an accident, or a kidnapping, could no longer be pushed to the back of her mind.

  She glanced at her watch. Chester had now been missing for forty minutes.

  “Yes. Call 911.”

  Charlotte left her cell phone number with them, then jogged back to the sidewalk, trying to push through her panic and think rationally.

  Though it was a possibility that had to be crossed off the list, she didn’t think they’d find Chester hiding on school property, or at one of his classmates’ homes. Where else could she look?