Bryce Johnson stood at the back of the church and searched through the pews for any sign of Evie St. Marie. When he did not see her, he breathed a sigh of relief. Sliding into the last row on the far right side of the church, he nodded back to the other congregants who turned and smiled. Then he tried to relax. Being a state trooper kept him on hyper-alert all the time, but once a week in church he struggled to let his guard down. It used to help him let God in, though lately God seemed more distant than ever and focusing on faith became almost impossible. He blamed much of it on Evie St. Marie. One month ago, she claimed her husband Jack vanished after taking a walk on the beach at night--and Bryce did not believe her.
He watched the colored rays of light streaming through the stained glass windows. The cool air inside felt like a blessing as the heat of the June day outside in the small bayside town of Shucker's Point, New Jersey, had become unbearable. Closing his eyes, he thought of offering up a brief prayer, but he knew it would do no good. He needed answers about the disappearance of Jack St. Marie and he knew he wouldn't get any from the Lord. The scientist could have drowned. He could have walked out into the bay and gone under, but that wasn't likely.
Bryce rubbed his forehead as a dull ache wove through it. Up until now, there had never been a murder in Shucker's Point, but he feared the small town�s perfect record had come to an end. Two months before Jack St. Marie's disappearance, Bryce answered a call and found Evie holding a gun aimed at her husband.
The gun in her hands was registered to Jack St. Marie, but there had been no ammunition in it. Jack St. Marie had taken the whole episode lightly, refusing to press charges against his wife. Still, the incident stuck in Bryce's mind--especially since his natural impulse had been to draw his own gun. He could have shot Evie that day--the girl he had wanted to marry in high school. The pain in his head intensified.
Opening his eyes, he shrugged his shoulders and loosened up some of the tight nerves in his neck. That's when he saw Evie St. Marie slip in the side door and all his efforts to unwind vanished.
What was she doing here? Evie did not belong in church. Back in high school her behavior had been wild--she seemed determined to break every rule just for the fun of it, but now he wondered how dark her soul had become.
A sudden spark of anger flared up when he remember how he had tried to stop her from driving around the flag pole in front of the school in one of her friend's cars. She had nearly run him over.
Sure, she had apologized to him later and he had stared into her blue eyes and nearly melted on the spot. He drew his hands into fists and tried to control the emotions surging through him. Yes, once Evie St. Marie had him tied around her little finger. True, he had kept her secret all these years, but lately it weighed on his conscience. He held his jaw tightly clenched. He would never let his heart rule his head again. Especially since he had seen the blind fury in her eyes when she held the gun level with her husband's heart.
The hymn started and everyone stood up. Bryce fumbled with the hymnbook. Evie's presence had him so rattled he could not find the page, though he knew the hymn by heart. It was an old one--and he enjoyed those the most. The hymns sung in church stayed with him all week long. He would catch himself humming the melodies of the songs at odd moments--and though he did not pray anymore, the hymns still comforted him.
...though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see...
Sinful! Evie could be the worst of sinners. The service continued but Bryce did not hear a word of it. His thoughts kept circling around Evie. She sat seven rows ahead of him but all he could see of her was her brown hair. She had caught it up in a clasp that kept her curly tresses anchored at the base of her neck, though Bryce knew each strand would be fighting to break free of the control--just as Evie herself could never be restrained.
Maybe she thought showing up in church would help to remove any doubt from her, but she would be wrong on that account. The data that Bryce had already gathered should be enough to convince the grand jury that this case needed a trial despite the absence of a body.
The last hymn--one of the newer praise songs--jubilantly welcomed everyone in the church. Bryce disagreed with that idea. He could feel himself seething inside.
The service ended and Bryce opted to skip the doughnuts and coffee in the basement. He hurried out the side door, knowing that the majority of the parishioners would be rushing downstairs to see if they could grab the jelly doughnuts before they vanished.
The bright sunlight nearly blinded him as he stepped out of the church. He stopped and reached into his pocket for his sunglasses. Thanks to his job, he could count on getting cataracts before he hit forty, even so he had been very satisfied with his work--until Evie�s husband had vanished.
"Bryce!"
He heard her coming up behind him and he stiffened. She was the last person he wanted to see, but he could hardly avoid her--especially since a few other church members had also decided to skip the calories in the basement and were strolling out to their cars.
He turned around, but he was not prepared for the shock of seeing her up close. It hit him like a blow to the gut. He barely caught himself before he sucked in his breath with surprise.
"I'm glad I caught up with you." Her voice still had the same warmth mingled with a touch of honey--that had not changed. However, by the looks of her, she just might have a conscience. He would have hardly believed it, but there was no denying that she had changed drastically in a short period of time.
"I don't have time." He barked out the words.
"I won't take a minute. I just--I need some extra help at the lighthouse. I only have the two volunteers, but this is the beginning of the busiest time of the year and I know you have contacts with whoever is in charge of some of those kids who are required to do community service, so I was wondering if it would be okay for one of them to serve out their sentence at the lighthouse."
He scrutinized her from head to toe as she talked. He could not prevent a touch of concern mixing into his whirling emotions. From his estimation, she had lost maybe fifteen or twenty pounds. Her dress hung loosely about her shoulders. While she still appeared tan, the hollowed-out cheekbones and the dark smudges beneath her eyes gave her a sickly appearance. She barely looked like the same woman. She looked tortured.
A sudden wave of regret washed over him and for a moment he didn't see her as she was but as she used to be. The memory flashed through his mind, sparkling with more brilliance than the noontime sun over the waves on Delaware Bay. Irrepressible, she used to make him laugh until his sides ached. He thought about the way her hair had felt when he had touched it so many years ago. And how he wanted to touch it now.
Shocked at where his mind had wandered, he crossed his arms over his chest and shoved that wayward idea away. Narrowing his eyes, he told her, "There's one local teenager. Seventeen. The judge isn't going to give him a second chance and he knows it."
"That's good. He won't want to make any more mistakes." Her smile reminded him of a rainbow he had seen appearing in the sky after a shower and spanning the bay from one end to the other. It was awesome--and terrible, and the sight of it sent a fine steel blade twisting through his heart. Why did she still have that effect on him? It made him both furious and depressed at the same time.
"He has no respect for authority." He warned and caught a glint of neon in her blue eyes.
The seventeen-year-old boy stood as tall as her, and while he had not yet filled out, the wiry, gangly kid could easily overpower her--especially since Evie looked as if a small squall on the water could easily blow her away. "And he comes from a dysfunctional family."
Her smile faded as a wistful expression stole across her features. "We�re all traumatized in one way or another." She cast her gaze downward.
Immediately, Bryce could feel his fury threatening to erupt. She put on such a perfect act, as if she was the one wronged by Jack's disappearance! Traumatized! He wanted to shout at her. How did you kill him?
Instead, he glowered at her, barely reining in his contempt. "I can't make any promises about getting him to work for you."
"I understand." She reached out to touch him but he dodged her outstretched hand and turned away quickly.
With a few long strides, he reached his car. Getting in, he turned on the air conditioning full-blast, but as he pulled out of the church lot, he saw her winding her way through the graveyard in the back of the church and again he felt that punch in his gut because he knew exactly which graves she would be seeking out. Her mother and father had died when she was only fourteen.
An ache wound its way to his heart and settled in like a solid lump of stone. He knew far too much about Evie St. Marie. In fact, he knew too much about everyone in Shucker's Point. Never live where you work, some cops said. Until now, that maxim had not mattered at all to Bryce, but lately he understood the reasoning behind it. In their small town, gossip flew about like the salty brine in the wind, but there were secrets--and most people would rather die than reveal them. He had kept Evie's secret all these years. How long could she hide the truth about her husband's death? Would he be able to uncover enough evidence to have a jury convict her?
Would he get over the pain after that?
